A comparative study of English refusals by native speakers of American English and by English majors of Ubon Ratchathani Ratjabhat University

The purpose of the study is to investigate the content and ordering of semantic formulas in refusals made by English major students of UBRU. The researcher examines what the students would do when refusing a request, an offer, a suggestion, and an invitation in different situations as compared with that of native speakers of American English. The study examined 15 Ameticans and 15 Thai students by using the open-ended of Discourse Completion Test questionnaire. Data analysis that is used in this study is Mode. The results of this indicated that the order and contents of refusal formats between American native speakers and UBRU students, on the basis of Mode statistic, are quite different. Thai students tend to be affected by L1 transfer.