A study on the politeness strategies in refusals between English native speaker and Indonesian speaker based on status

Contact between American and Indonesian become more and more intensified despite the current situation when Indonesia experiences national disintegration and international mistrust politically, economically, and humanity. One of the product of cultural contacts is exchanging means of refusal in a polite manner. In other words learning a foreign language is not apart from learning the culture of the language users. This is to help them avoid making non language mistakes, and to give them a knowledge to understand the native speakers of the language. Therefore this thesis investigated a comparative study on refusal between English native speaker and Indonesian speaker. It was reflected in the thesis problem what refusing strategies are used by English native speaker and Indonesian speaker in the case of equal and unequal status. To answer the thesis problem, the writer employed a qualitative research, which uses structured-questionnaires, supported by a quantitative calculation. From the analysis, this study found out 7 ways from all respondents (16 English Native Speaker respondents and 20 Indonesian respondents) refuse to an offer, an invitation, a request and a suggestion. They are:(l) using 'No' or its equivalents. (2) using an Expression of Positive Opinion. (3)using an Excuse. Reason and Explanation. (4) using an Expression of Regret or Apologizing. (5) using a wish to be able to comply with the statement. (6) using Claim Common Ground. (7) using a statement to convey that Speaker and Hearer are cooperators. The findings also show that there are two important reasons that Indonesians and English Native Speakers rarely used Direct Refuse. they are (1) adaptation factor. (2) status. At last. it is hoped that this study can give contribution to the teaching of sociolinguistics where teachers should teach their students to use refuse strategies appropriately