| 英文摘要 |
This pilot study documents a project that used films to familiarize students with cross-cultural differences in the realization of speech acts of refusal. This small scale project involved a group of seven Taiwanese English majors from an Institute of Technology in Northern Taiwan. The participating students were required to compare and contrast refusal strategies adopted by two local Taiwanese films and two popular Hollywood movies in a variety of contexts. Specifically, comparisons were made on how refusal strategies varied cross-culturally in accordance with the different initiating speech acts and with different power variations. The refusal strategies identified from the films were analyzed by semantic formulas developed by Beebe et al. (1990). From the comparative analysis of the films, students reported that most initiating speech acts of request were identified in all the chosen films. In addition, it was found that refusal strategies adopted in Hollywood movies tended to be more direct toward the interlocutor of equal status, with adjunct expressions to mitigate their illocutionary force. As for local Taiwanese films, indirect refusal strategies appeared most often, accompanied by reasons and excuses to mitigate the impact of refusals. Additionally, adjuncts occurred very rarely in the local films since their usages were not common in Chinese language. Apparently, participating students benefited greatly in learning cross-cultural differences in the speech act of refusal through this project. Suggestions for pedagogical intervention will also be discussed, particularly in the use of films to teach pragmatics. |
