A comparative study of gender differences in refusal strategies from english majors

Abstract

Based on Geoffrey Leech's politeness principle (1975), Brown and Levinson's face saving and face threatening theory (1987), this paper is a comparative study of the gender differences in the refusal strategies employed by the English majors. The DCT (Discourse Completing Test) from Tanck Sharyl (2004) is modified in this study. The results of this study show that both male and female students of the English majors use the refusal strategies in a speech act. The differences of refusal strategies between male and female lie in the direct refusal and the indirect refusal. Most of the female students tend to use an indirect refusal politeness strategy to save the others’ face in the communication, avoiding the face threatening, while most of the male students seem to use direct refusal. The achievements of this study make some contribution to the relevant study and provide some indications to English teaching and learning in China. It is of some significance to improve the English pragmatic competence of English majors.