Politeness in refusing invitation in English by students of the English Department of Widya Mandala Catholic University

To achieve the purposes of the study as stated in the problem statements, the writer collected the data by participating in the conversation between the writer and the ten subjects which are divided in two categories; females and males and then recording it. Having collected the data, the writer played the recording and then transcribed the conversation. Next, after transcribing all the conversation, the writer classified the transcription based on the gender; female and male. The data were analyzed using Beebe et al's theory of refusal (1985) and Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness strategy (1987). The writer used both direct and indirect refusal strategies in analyzing the data. Since there are four types of politeness strategies developed by Brown and Levinson, the writer only used two types which are positive and negative politeness strategy to analyze the data. The results of the analysis show that most subjects use indirect refusal and positive politeness strategy to refuse the invitations. The results also show that: (1) female subjects tend to use more refusal and politeness strategies than male subjects, and (2) male subjects tend to apologize and give reason more often than female subjects. The writer expects that the English Department students can gain more knowledge related to refusal and politeness strategies. The writer suggests that the next study will not be related to refuse an invitation only but also to refuse an offer/request/suggestion. Also, the writer suggests that the Sociolinguistic lecturers do not only teach politeness in general but also explain the kinds and example of it. The writer hopes that refusal and politeness can be taught during the speaking class