The potential of sitcoms to present refusals in extended discourse

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of teaching the speech act of refusals in classroom settings since their face-threatening nature complicates their attainment (Fernández-Guerra, 2013). In this vein, it has been proposed the employment of audiovisual input to overcome this difficulty as it closely imitates authentic language (Martínez-Flor & Usó-Juan, 2010). Within this type of input, sitcoms are the TV genre most widely accepted because they illustrate real-life situations (Washburn, 2001). In fact, they can be an appropriate source of pragmatic input where speech acts, for instance, appear in real and contextualised environments. Instances of authentic pragmatic norms are fundamental, particularly in foreign language settings, since researchers have not taken into account the fact that the majority of the times the speech acts do not occur in adjoining turns but that they are constructed across multiple turns (Félix-Brasdefer, 2019). Therefore, this study aims to test the feasibility of sitcoms as a potential input to show refusals in extended discourse by means of Conversational Analysis tools. To this end, we have compared, on the one hand, the frequency of the type of interaction (adjacency pairs versus across turns) and the type of negotiation (request-refusal; suggestion-refusal; offer-refusal; invitation-refusal). On the other hand, we have examined the refusal sequences that were performed across turns with the five Conversational Analysis tools provided by Pomerantz and Fehr (1997). Findings reveal that approximately 75% of the refusals are realised across turns, being the most common type of negotiation request-refusal. Moreover, we also corroborate the benefits of using these tools to study interaction, particularly of the speech act of refusing, in sitcoms. Finally, we conclude the project by providing directions for further research.