Teaching Second Language Learners How to Make Invitations and Refusals Using Preference Organization
Keywords:
Conversation Analysis, refusals, invitations, preference organization, pragmatics.Abstract
This study investigated the effects on instruction on second language learner ability to perform invitations and refusals. For invitations, the instructional targets were formulaic sequences for pre-invitations and invitations. For refusals, the instructional target was preference organization, specifically, markers to show dispreference. Novice Japanese learners of English (n = 42) received four 20-minute treatments and data were collected on a pretest, midterm test, and posttest. The data collection instrument consisted of four elicited role plays, two invitation-acceptance sequences and two invitation-refusal sequences, between pairs of participants. The results showed that instruction had a positive effect on pre-invitation usage and a negative effect on the usage of direct negation (uttering “no” or saying that one dislikes the stated activity) during refusals. However, both explicit and implicit instruction had little to no effect on dispreference marker usage. The results indicated that preference organization might lack saliency for learners, and therefore require longer, more explicit instruction to increase interactional competence.
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