Saying “No” Across Cultures: Refusal Strategies of Saudi EFL Learners and American English Speakers

Abstract

Speech act theory conceptualizes language use as a form of action in which utterances perform communicative functions beyond their propositional content. Within this framework, refusals are defined as negative responses to requests, invitations, offers, and suggestions. Unlike simple acceptances, refusals are interactionally complex because they require speakers to reject an interlocutor’s expectations while maintaining social harmony. Such strategies often involve indirectness, explanations, apologies, expressions of regret, or alternative suggestions, and their selection is influenced by social variables such as relative power, social distance, and the imposition level of the initiating act. In second language contexts, learners’ ability to manage refusals effectively reflects their developing pragmatic competence rather than purely linguistic accuracy. Moreover, indirect refusals should not be viewed as a communicative weakness, but as pragmatically motivated choices shaped by sociocultural norms. This study investigates the refusal strategies employed by Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners and American English speakers across varying social contexts, with particular attention to differences in directness and mitigation. The findings indicate that refusal strategies are shaped by the interaction of cultural norms, politeness conventions, and contextual social variables. While both groups tend to avoid direct refusals in higher-status contexts highlighting the universal importance of face concerns—differences emerge in the use and degree of mitigation, reflecting culture-specific interpretations of politeness. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that Saudi EFL learners’ refusal behavior does not represent pragmatic failure but a combination of cultural transfer and strategic adaptation to English pragmatic norms. These findings emphasize the importance of incorporating pragmatic instruction into EFL pedagogy, particularly for speech acts involving high face threat, such as refusals.