華語與韓語拒絕策略之對比分析──以職場溝通為例

Abstract

拒絕雖具造成雙方心理負擔的特質，但其為與他人互動中常見的行為，在職場情境也無法避免。而不同文化背景的人於拒絕策略的選用上皆有所異同，臺灣及韓國雖同屬集體主義國家，文化背景相似，但在職場溝通中使用的拒絕策略卻也不盡相同。過去雖有許多拒絕言語行為研究，卻少有聚焦於職場溝通中的研究，故本研究從職場情境中，選出請求、提供、建議及邀請四種常見的言語行為，請受試者以線上問卷進行語篇補全測試，受試者需要在上述四種情境中，分別拒絕兩種對象，共八個情境題。受試者首要拒絕不熟但社會地位相當的對象，如：同事；受試者接著要拒絕不熟但社會地位比自己高的對象，如：主管、老闆。研究對象包含臺灣地區的華語母語者以及韓國地區的韓語母語者。研究結果顯示，兩者差異最大的為華語母語者以直接說不作為拒絕策略的頻率高於韓語受試者，而相較於華語母語者，韓語母語者較少使用輔助策略，但兩者皆高度仰賴主體策略中的間接策略完成拒絕言語行為。其中，兩者使用最多的為外在阻因策略，即傾向以因他人產生的事由、客觀事實或模糊未詳述的理由作為拒絕理由。於輔助策略的選用上，兩者皆偏好心理緩和策略，即傾向藉由表達自身歉意或感謝來緩解拒絕行為帶來的心理負擔。而最令兩國母語者難以拒絕的情境為請求加班情境，且當對方社會地位較高時，兩國母語者選擇不拒絕對方的比例皆提升，揭示社會權勢對兩國受試者行使拒絕言語行為皆帶來難度。最後，本研究根據研究結果提出教學設計及建議，欲使華語學習者藉由任務性教學活動，提升根據情境與對象靈活的辨別並使用拒絕策略的能力。Although refusal appears to be a mental burden, it is common and inevitable in the process of interacting with others, including workplace communication. People from various cultural backgrounds use refusal strategies in different ways. Taiwanese and Koreans have similar cultural backgrounds, but their refusal strategies differ. To date, research has focused on contrastive analysis of refusal speech acts, or more specifically on interlanguage analysis of Chinese and Korean. However, few studies have been conducted on the contrastive analysis of Chinese and Korean Refusal Strategies in the workplace. As a result, the contexts for the Discourse Completion Test were chosen from four common workplace speech acts: requests, offers, suggestions, and invitations. Participants were asked to complete DCT in the form of an online questionnaire and were required to refuse two types of targets, people with equal social status or people with higher social status, in the four contexts listed above. Participants must be native Chinese speakers in Taiwan or Korean speakers in South Korea.The study's findings indicate that Chinese native speakers use "direct refusal" as a refusal strategy more frequently than Korean participants, and Korean native speakers use fewer "auxiliary strategies" than Chinese native speakers. Both, however, rely heavily on the "indirect strategy" to complete the refusal speech acts. External impending factors are commonly used as refusal excuses in all indirect strategies. People tend to use reasons caused by others, objective facts, or vague and unspecified reasons as an external impending factor. Both Chinese and Korean native speakers prefer mental mitigation strategies in the selection of auxiliary strategies, that is, people tend to ease the mental burden by expressing their apologies or gratitude during the refusal. The most difficult work situation is the request for overtime. According to the data, both Chinese and Korean native speakers use fewer refusal strategies but are more accepting in this context. Furthermore, when faced with a request, suggestion, offer, or invitation from someone of higher social status, both Chinese and Korean native speakers use refusal strategies less than when faced with someone of equal social status. This revealed social status does matter in Chinese and Korean refusal studies.Based on the findings of the study, some refusal-related teaching plans and tasks were proposed in order to improve Chinese learners' ability to use and be flexible in their awareness of the various refusal strategies.