A Study on the Realization of Refusal Speech Acts by Beginning-Level Japanese Learners of Korean

This study investigates differences in refusal speech act patterns between Korean and Japanese learners of Korean and identifies considerations for teaching refusal strategies to beginning-level learners. Although many beginning-level Korean textbooks present refusal speech acts primarily at the morphological and syntactic levels, there remains a need for pragmatic instruction even at the novice stage. Data were collected via a “Discourse Completion Task” to analyze refusal strategies used by learners and native speakers in selected situations. The results indicated that while differences between Korean and Japanese learners of Korean were minimal, beginning-level learners primarily relied on direct refusal strategies. Although this tendency may reflect the influence of their native language, learners also expressed refusals directly, confirming the need for providing suitable refusal strategies and expressions that allow for softer refusals. This study emphasizes the importance of integrating strategies that mitigate the intensity of refusals into beginning-level Korean language instruction.