Disagreement by Chinese speakers of English: evidence of pragmatic transfer

Little research on pragmatic transfer has examined disagreement by Chinese speakers of English using naturally occurring conversations. This study uncovers the patterns and frequencies of disagreement in L2 English, L1 English, and L1 Chinese, and the evidence of pragmatic transfer, by analyzing naturalistic conversations. R is employed to compute frequencies, calculate proportions, and perform Chi-square tests and one-sample Z-tests. Results show a significant difference in the use of disagreement between L1 English and L2 English but no significant difference between L2 English and L1 Chinese, indicating negative pragmatic transfer. Strong disagreement significantly outnumbers weak disagreement in non-L1 English data, suggesting that strong disagreement may be normative in mundane conversations in some regions of China. This study can inform teaching and learning L2 English.