Proficiency and Preference Organization in Second Language Mandarin Chinese Refusals

Abstract

This study investigates second language (L2) interactional competence in Mandarin Chinese, with a specific focus on dispreference organization in refusals. Twenty-eight L2 Chinese learners at 3 proficiency levels (A2, B1, and B2) and 10 native speakers each participated in 3 role plays. We found that learners at different levels clearly differed in their ability to organize refusals as dispreferred and to fine tune their refusal to the initiating action. Lower intermediate (A2) learners either fronted negative responses or adopted a single dispreference marker (e.g., apologies, pauses, prefatory particles, etc.), whereas upper intermediate (B1) learners overwhelming delayed their refusals an..