Regarding pragmatic transfer, many empirical studies have been conducted to investigate the concept of pragmatic transfer from L1 to L2 in the production of speech act of refusals. Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of research on this concept considering third language learners. The current study aims to provide a possible answer to the question whether pragmatic transfer among third language learners occurs from L1 and L2 to L3, L1 to L2 and then to L3, or from L1 and L1 (if there are more than one first language) to L2. Accordingly, this paper is based on a study which attempts to recast the issue of production of refusals among third language learners of English. To this end, 250 participants in 5 different groups were asked to fill out a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) consisting of 12 situations on 4 types of speech acts of refusals. The collected data were coded and analyzed in terms of semantic formula sequences categorised according to the taxonomy of refusals developed by Beebe, Takahashi, and Uliss-Weltz (1990). The collected data from Kurdish learners of English who were also fluent in Persian were compared with the following groups: 1. Native English speakers; 2. Monolingual Persian speakers; 3. Monolingual Kurdish speakers; and 4. Persian learners of English. The results revealed that pragmatic transfer exists in choice and content of semantic formulae—with the availability of the similar range of refusals—among bilingual and third language learners of English. This research suggests that transfer occurs from L1, and not from L2, to L3 in the case of third language learners of English.
