A Study on Gender Differences in Speech Act of Refusal of Chinese College Students

摘要

In our daily life, gender difference usually causes problems and conflicts in the conversations between male and female, therefore, in the intercultural communication, inter-gender communication is a topic that experts and scholars pay much attention to. Through exploring the gender differences of Chinese college students' speech act of refusal, the paper aims to help people know more about themselves and others' communication styles, and to make the cross-gender communication proceeds more smoothly and effectively. This paper adopts methods of questionnaire and interview, analyzing the differences between male and female college students in the selection of refusal strategy in different situations, while involving some external factors' influence on male and female students' refusal strategy. The research finds that both of male and female students tend to use indirect refusal strategies, and different refusal strategies are used when students faces different initiating acts, but female students are more indirect and polite generally.