Refusal Strategies of Undergraduates in Formal and Informal Situations in an Academic Content

The research paper reports a study on the use of refusal strategies to requests by a group of Malaysian undergraduate students. The study aims to investigate the type of refusal strategies used by Malaysian undergraduate students and the patterns that form their refusal statements in formal and informal situations. A DCT questionnaire comprising four critical situations was distributed to obtain their written responses about their refusal strategies. The results show that Malaysian undergraduate students prefer using the indirect approach to refusing in both formal and informal situations. The patterns of refusals in the study show that refusals in formal situations were lengthy and extensive encompassing more than three semantic formulas compared to refusals in informal situations which were brief and concise comprising less than three semantic formulas. Overall, the study shows that the students prefer indirect refusals displaying a priority for preserving face and maintaining good, social relationships with others.