Teachers’ and Students’ Attitudes Toward the Implementation of the Politeness Principle in Classroom Interaction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25079/ukhjss.v4n2y2020.pp42-60Keywords:
Politeness principle, Leech’s politeness maxims, Classroom interactionAbstract
Politeness is considered to promote effective interaction between people. In the process of language teaching and learning, it is believed to enhance learning by providing a lively and friendly atmosphere in the classroom (Jiang, 2010). During classroom periods, including class policy, activities, and techniques, a teacher’s language plays a critical role; it also plays an important role while giving academic instructions, motivating the class, and during the evaluation of a student’s performance and participation. This paper approaches classroom interaction from a pragmatic perspective by adopting Leech’s politeness principle and maxims. It aims to answer the following 2 questions: first, “what are the teachers’ attitudes toward the implementation of the politeness principle during classroom interactions?” and second, “what are the students’ attitudes toward the implementation of the politeness principle during classroom interactions?” To achieve the aims of this study by finding answers to the questions, the researcher prepared 2 sets of questionnaires: 1 for the teachers in the English Department and 1 for the fourth year students in the same department at the College of Basic Education, Salahaddin University-Erbil, Erbil, Iraq, for the academic year of 2018 to 2019. By analyzing the data collected, it was found that both the teachers and students have positive attitudes toward the politeness maxims and the implementation thereof during classroom interactions; furthermore, there was agreement between the teachers’ and students’ responses to the questionnaires for most of the politeness maxims except in 3 cases, which were for the maxims of sympathy, obligation (S to O), and feeling reticence.
Downloads
References
Archer, D., Aijmer, K. & Wichmann, A. (2012). Pragmatics: an advanced resource book for students. London: Routledge.
Brown, D. (2007). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (3rd ed.). New York: Pearson.
Consolo, D.A. (2006). Classroom oral interaction in foreign language lessons and implications for teacher development. Linguagem and Ensino, 9(2), 33-55.
Foley, W. (1997). Anthropological Linguistics: An Introduction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Jiang X. (2010). A Case Study of Teacher’s Politeness in EFL Class. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 1(5), 651–655.
Johnson, K. and Johnson, H. (ed.). (1999). Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics: A Handbook for Language Teaching. Massachusetts: Blackwell.
Leech, G. (2014). The Pragmatics of politeness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Leech, G. (1983). Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.
LoCastro, V. (2012). Pragmatics for Language Educators: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. New York: Routledge.
Locher, M.A. (2004). Power and Politeness in Action: Disagreements in Oral Communication. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Mugford, G. 2011. That’s Not Very Polite! Discursive Struggle and Situated Politeness in the Mexican English language Classroom. In B. L Davies, M. Haugh & A. J. Morrison (Eds), Situated Politeness(pp.53-72). London: Continuum International.
Šubertova, A. (2013). Aspects of Politeness in a Classroom of English as a Second Language. Unpublished Diploma thesis. Charles University, Prague.
Sȕlȕ, A.(2015). Teacher’s Politeness in EFL Class. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET), 2(4). 216–221.
Wanli, Zh and Aihong, DU. (2000). An Investigation and Analysis of Politeness Strategies Employed in College English Teacher’s Classroom Feedback. Journal of Foreign Languages.
Watts, R.J. (2003). Politeness: Key Topics in Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Yule, G. (2006). The Study of Language (3rd ed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics: Oxford Introduction to Language Study. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).