Refusal strategy in English used by the English department students of UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya

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Maula, Djabal (2021) Refusal strategy in English used by the English department students of UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Undergraduate thesis, UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya.

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Abstract

This study aims to identify cases of refusal strategies used by students of the English Department at UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Employing a qualitative approach in conducting the study, refusal strategies outlined by Beebe, Takahashi, and Ulil-Weltz (1990), and Scollon and Scollon’s (1995) power and distance theory, this thesis seeks to answer two research questions; (i) What types of refusal strategies are used by students of UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya and (ii) How is students’ awareness of power and distance in the applying of refusal strategy cases. In this study, the researcher assigned himself as the main instrument in collecting and analyzing the data. The researcher provided a stimulus of invitation act to get the data in the form of refusal responses. The invitation was sent to three different social levels (eleven junior, eleven classmates/ equal, and three senior students) using WhatsApp messenger. The invitation was also supplemented with stimulation, which is different for each group of social status (junior, equal/classmates, and senior) in order to investigate the participants’ awareness of power and distance when performing refusal strategies. After that, the data which were included in refusal strategies were coded and analyzed following Beebe et al.’s (1990) refusal strategies and Scollon and Scollon’s (1995) power and distance. The study found that indirect refusal, especially statements of excuse, reason, explanation is the most commonly used strategy used by the participants, followed by a statement of regret. This suggests that the participants respect their interlocutors despite performing refusal. In addition, all groups of students (junior, equal/classmates, and senior) tend to perform indirect refusal. They avoid directly refusing because they want to save the face-threatening act. So that communication can run smoothly without feeling offended.