Pragmatics in the EL

Classroom: Refusals
BY NATALIA, CONOR AND STEFANIA
 Activity 1: Oral Romantic Refusals
An example of a very impolite
Learning objectives: refusal

“I think you’re boring

By the end of this activity, students will be able to: and ugly. Goodbye
forever.”
 identify refusal reasons which are (im)polite in
the UK
 perform romantic refusals and decide if they
want to use a polite or impolite refusal based on
context

"rather than being taught to be polite, learners

should be given the possibility of choosing to
be either polite or impolite.“ (Davies, 1986:
121)
 Activity 1: Oral Romantic Refusals

Context:
In the session prior to this one, students will have completed
activities related to Kondo’s (2003) first three stages:

 Feeling: Students watch refusals from First Dates and

discuss if they were successful
 Doing: In a brief roleplay, students practise their own
refusals
 Thinking: Students compare their own refusals with
target-like refusals from example videos. They are given
a Romantic Refusals Speech Act Set and homework to
write 10 examples
 Activity 1: Oral Romantic Refusals

Phase 1 (Understanding):
This stage can be considered a pre-task activity as it will
highlight a feature of key importance in the main task (Ellis,
2009), the sociopragmatic understanding of which refusal
reasons are considered impolite in British culture.

To begin the phase, students will watch the following video:

 Activity 1: Oral Romantic Refusals

“Why did the refusal • Students discuss in pairs

in the final video go for 1 minute then feed
badly?” back to class

“What are some • Students create a list in

impolite reasons to pairs for 2 minutes then
refuse a romantic the whole class creates a
invitation?” shared list.

“What are some

polite reasons to • Repeat the
refuse a romantic above with
invitation?” polite reasons
 Activity 1: Oral Romantic Refusals
Phase 2: Using (25 minutes)
The using phase give students the opportunity to use the knowledge gained in previous
stages (Kondo, 2003)

Students act out After 10 roleplays, students

Students sit in pairs around refusals using a Date return to audience position
the horseshoe and are given Card. The roleplay will and pairs perform. Students
Date Cards. last 1 minute, then B offer feedback on the
students move. performances.

1) Reason for refusal

You went on a Tinder date

and your partner looks
nothing like their profile
pictures.