Abstract
This research analyzes role exchanges in topics between speaker and listener, and clarifies the discourse development styles of refusal to requests seen in native Japanese and Chinese speakers. As a result, compared to Japanese people, the exchange of listening and speaking roles is frequent in Chinese people. A participant who had taken the listener role often makes an utterance appropriate for the speaker role. Japanese native speakers are predominant in the styles of discourse development of regression for detecting cooperative or competitive role type, in which consideration is given to the maintaining the relationship of “other-oriented perspectives”. In contrast, Chinese native speakers are predominant in the discourse development style where the speaker role is a competitive type role, and consideration is needed in order to make communication with the “self-oriented intention”. The above results suggest that psychological motives toward our-self and those toward others of “self- and other-oriented perspectives” have a great influence on the discourse development style, and the differences need to be conveyed in learners’ education as an important point.
