scholarly journals Changes in the Classroom Discourse: Negative Politeness and Impoliteness

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-54
Author(s):  
Mihaela Beschieru
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Classroom Discourse ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Traditional Classroom ◽  
Free Communication ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
And Control ◽  
History Classes

Abstract The paper focuses on changes identified in the classroom discourse in terms of the teacher–student relations. While traditional classroom relations relied on teacher’s authority and control in the classroom, the current situation indicates a shift in the power relations existing in the class. The paper aims to analyse some of these changes by studying politeness and ways of expressing negative politeness and impoliteness. It starts by defining politeness as conflict-free communication, and then moves to negative politeness and impoliteness, applying these two concepts in the interpretation of the classroom discourse. The data used for the analysis were collected during English and history classes in a high school in Romania. The paper draws on Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson’s (1987 [1978]) concept of negative politeness and on Derek Bousfield’s (2008) impoliteness theory. The data reveal that the most common negative politeness strategies in the classroom discourse use indirect speech acts, questions and hedges, minimizing the imposition and impersonalizing. I argue that while teachers use mainly politeness strategies, students use impoliteness strategies as a way of claiming power. Thus, they can be disruptive and show lack of interest; they interrupt or take the floor at a wrong time; they sometimes dismiss, contest, or refuse the teacher’s indications and often challenge the teacher’s authority; at times, they are also rude towards their own peers in trying to demonstrate their superiority.

scholarly journals Politeness Strategies in Biblical Hebrew and West African Languages

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-71
Author(s):  
Andy Warren-Rothlin
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
West African ◽  
Rhetorical Question ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Modal Particles ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Leave Taking ◽  
Kinship Terminology

Most languages have a wide variety of strategies for communicating politeness, however these are always highly culture-specific and relate closely to broader cultural norms that affect the application of Grice’s maxims, for example. Focus strategies include the use of greetings, modal particles, and various forms of participant reference. Typical initial greetings may take the form of wishes or blessings in biblical Hebrew but questions in West African languages (which reserve wishes and blessings for leave-taking and thanking); therefore, more literal translations may invite misunderstanding. Pragmatic particles in biblical Hebrew are often misunderstood. West African languages may lack these altogether, and so they have to resort to longer idiomatic expressions. Participant reference in biblical Hebrew may involve metaphors from service or kinship terminology; these may combine with special uses of grammatical person in honorific addressee-reference and deprecating self-reference. Some of these observations may shed light on features of the Psalms which have traditionally been read more as poetics than as pragmatics. Indirection strategies may be employed in the form of euphemisms or Indirect Speech Acts, the most common form of which in biblical Hebrew is the rhetorical question, which may have a range of pragmatically-defined functions, though the forms may differ from those of West African languages. The two primary biblical Hebrew verbal conjugations also have special pragmatically-defined functions, including the restriction of deontic use of qāṭal (the ‘precative perfect’) to human address of God, restriction of deontic use of yiqṭōl (the ‘preceptive imperfect’) to divine address of humans, and the use of yiqṭōl in questions. West African languages may need to resort to a wide variety of strategies to express such modal nuances. These notes raise questions as to the extent to which translators may “Africanize” the speech of actants in biblical narratives.

Politeness Strategies and Gender Differences in Javanese Indirect Speech Acts

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Putri Ramadhani ◽  
Busmin Gurning ◽  
Berlin Sibarani
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Doing Business ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Indirect Speech Act ◽  
Recorded Observation

The objectives of this study were to identify types of politeness strategies, to examine the differences of  politeness patterns used by different gender and to see how the politeness strategies imply in the culture of “indirectness” a culture of Javanese who avoid being direct to utter something which were reflected in Javanese indirect speech acts in request. The approach used in this study are based on politeness theory of Brown & Levinson (1987); Bald-on record, Positive, Negative, and Off Record. This study employed descriptive qualitative design. The data were the transcription of recorded observation and interview using audiovisual recorder in Javanese social interaction in doing business transaction  at “PasarRebo”, a traditional market in Deli Serdang, North Sumatera. The politeness strategies used were bald-on record strategy, positive politeness strategy and negative politeness strategy. Different strategies were performed by different gender; male dominantly used bald-on record strategy while female dominantly used positive politeness strategy. The realization of Javanese indirect speech acts used by female established an indirect correlation to politeness strategies and the culture of “indirectness” in Javanese. The realization of these politeness strategies by the speakers were aimed to minimize Face Threatening Acts to endeavor a harmony in social interaction. Keywords: Gender; Indirect speech act; Politeness strategiesement if they were taught by using TBL model.

scholarly journals Sign-like Pragmatic Devices: pro et contra

2020 ◽  
pp. 70-84
Author(s):  
Author ◽  
Olena Zhykharieva
Keyword(s):  
Structural Properties ◽  
Structural Design ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Inference Process ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
Conversational Implicatures ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Politeness Strategies

 The paper introduces a new concept of sign-like pragmatic devices as the pragmatic phenomena reg­ularly associated with the connotative signified of certain situations. Drawing on Barthes’ conception of three levels of signification, denotative concept of utterance and data evidencing the isomorphism of particular pragmatic phenomena to the situational connotatum of awkwardness/non-preferentiali­ty (dispreferred acts), the research identified, explained and interpreted sign-like pragmatic devices in the aggregate of their significative, pragmatic and formal-structural properties. The study reached four major findings. First, identified devices are marked by certain features of indexicality as they signify the same connotated attribute of the situation, and bear certain traits of iconicity since the awkwardness/ complicity of the situation is reflected by equally complicated pragmatic means. The latter are mani­fested by quantitative accumulation of pragmatic devices and complication of the inference process. Second, the identified groups of devices, similar in their signifying properties in regard to the situational connotatum, encompass negative politeness strategies, cooperative maxims flouting, conversational implicatures, and illocution of indirect speech acts. Third, in their formal-structural properties, sign-like pragmatic devices (SLPDs) are arranged by the similar linguistic markers: hesitation pauses, pre-se­quencing, apologising, self-corrections, pseudo-consents before disagreement, means of indirectness, hedging, mitigation, etc. Fourth, the same signifying functions and structural design explain different relationships between sign-like pragmatic devices: interchangeability when designating the same con­notative property of a situation and relations of sequential (linear) actualisation of some units by others.

scholarly journals Taxonomy of Mitigation Devices in English Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-40
Author(s):  
Aso I. Ali ◽  
Salah M. Salih
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Main Type ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Interpersonal Goals ◽  
Parenthetical Verbs ◽  
The Impact

Language mitigation refers to strategies that people adopt to avoid face-threatening situations in conversation and thereby to linguistically repair the damage done to someone’s face by what one says or does. Previously, several studies investigating mitigation have been carried out from different perspectives, depending on the point of view adopted by each scholar. Some studies thus far have linked mitigation with politeness, whereas other studies have dealt with mitigation as an independent subject. Literature on mitigation abounds with reference to politeness strategies, euphemisms, hedges and other devices, yet there sounds to be no clear attempt to establish what substantiates mitigation. On this point, Caffi (2007, p.48) maintains that in politeness research, the notion of mitigation has so far mainly been used with reference to the set of strategies interlocutors employ to attenuate the impact of what Brown and Levinson (1987) call ‘face-threatening acts’ (FTAs). The present study is designed to develop a taxonomy of mitigation types, devices, functions and strategies adopted by English language users as interpersonal goals. It also provides additional evidence with respect to the use of mitigating devices to soften illocutionary force of speech acts which are unwelcome to addresses. As for mitigation devices, there are seven major devices: Indirect Speech Acts, Tag Questions, Parenthetical Verbs, Disclaimers, Impersonal Constructions, Hedges, and Euphemism, though this last type is not referred to as a main type in previous studies. The latter two types (Hedges and Euphemism) are the backbone of mitigation devices as they subsume a variety of forms and functions. Semantic procedures are the most effective ones as they result in less direct or understated meanings.  

THE EFFECT OF APPLYING DEMONSTRATION METHOD ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN SPEAKING SKILL AT THE THIRD GRADE OF SMK PAB 3 MEDAN ESTATE

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meryanti Napitupulu And Anni Holila Pulungan
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Vocational High School ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Speaking Test ◽  
The Third ◽  
Speaking Skill ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Control ◽  
Experimental Group

This study was conducted as an attempt to discover the effect of applying Demonstration Method on students’ achievement in speaking skill. It was an experimental research. The subject was students of Grade XII, Vocational High School (Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan: SMK), which consisted of 79 students. The research was divided into two groups: experimental and control groups. The instrument used to collect the data was speaking test. To obtain the reliability of the test, the writer applied Kuder Richardson 21 formula. The result of the reliability was 0.7, and it was found that the test was reliable. The data were analyzed by using t-test formula. The analysis showed that the scores of the students in the experimental group were significantly higher than the scores of the students in the control group at the level of significant m = 0.05 with the degree of freedom (df) 77, t-observed value 8.9 > t-table value 1.99. The findings indicate that using Demonstration Method significantly affected the students’ achievement in speaking skill. So, English teachers are suggested to use Demonstration Method in order to improve students’ achievement in speaking skill.

EFEKTIVITAS METODE DEMONSTRASI DALAM MENINGKATKAN HASIL BELAJAR SISWA SEKOLAH MENENGAH KEJURUAN PADA PENGAJARAN SISTEM KOLOID

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Hamda Situmorang ◽  
Manihar Situmorang
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Vocational High School ◽  
School Students ◽  
Lecture Method ◽  
Colloid System ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Control

Abstract Implementation of demonstration method in the teaching of chemistry is assigned as the right strategy to improve students’ achievement as it is proved that the method can bring an abstract concept to reality in the class. The study is conducted to vocational high school students in SMKN1 Pargetteng getteng Sengkut Pakfak Barat at accademic year 2013. The teaching has been carried out three cycles on the teaching of chemistry topic of colloid system. In the study, the class is divided into two class, experiment class and control class. The demontration method is used to teach students in experimental class while the teaching in control class is conducted with lecture method. Both are evaluated by using multiple choise tests before and after the teaching procedures, and the ability of students to answer the problems are assigned as students’ achievements. The results showed that demonstration method improved students’ achievement in chemistry. The students in experimental class who are taughed with demonstration method (M=19.08±0.74) have higher achievements compare with control class (M=12.91±2.52), and both are significantly different (tcalculation 22.85 > ttable 1.66). The effectivity of demostration method in experimental class (97%) is found higer compare to conventional method in control class (91%).

Implementing Context-Based Learning in Science Instruction: A Study on Science Literacy Improvement within Topics of Earthquake and Flood

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Farhiya Ulfah
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
Science Literacy ◽  
Junior High ◽  
Science Instruction ◽  
T Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Treatment Research ◽  
And Control

The goal of this research is gaining description on science literacy improvement of junior high school students regarding the topics of earthquake and flood as an effect of Contextual Based Learning (CBL) implementation during science instruction. Quasi-experiment serves as the method of this study with non-equivalent control group pre-test post-test design. Jigsaw cooperative learning method functions as the control treatment. Research subjects involve 52 students of grade VII in a state junior high school in Bandung Regency, West Java. Those research subjects are divided into two classes namely experiment class and control class. The instrument used to collect relevant data is science literacy test covering aspects of science content, science competence, and attitude towards science. Two independent sample t-test is applied to analyze the comparison of science literacy improvement reached between experiment and control class. The result of statistical calculation for two independent sample t-test N-gain using version 23 SPSS software shows a significant value of 0.00 < α. 0.05 for all aspects. The findings indicate that CBL implementation during science instruction within topics of earthquake and flood is proven to be valid to improve students’ science literacy compared to jigsaw cooperative model.

Jordanian graduate students’ complaints on Facebook: Semantic formulas and politeness

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-165
Author(s):  
Fathi Migdadi ◽  
Muhammad A. Badarneh ◽  
Laila Khwaylih
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Student Union ◽  
Closed Group ◽  
Indirect Speech Acts ◽  
Face Saving

Abstract This study examines Jordanian graduate students' complaints posted on a Facebook closed group and directed to the representatives of Student Union at Jordan University of Science and Technology to be transferred to the officials concerned. In line with Boxer (1993b), the study considers the students' complaints to be indirect speech acts, as the addressee(s) are not the source of the offense. Using a sample of 60 institutional complaining posts, the researchers have analysed the complaints in terms of their semantic formulas, politeness functions and correlations with the gender of the complainers. The students’ complaints are classified into six semantic formulas of which the act statement element is indispensable as the complaint is stated in it. The other five formulas, ordered according to their frequency, are opener, remedy, appreciative closing, justification and others. Despite the negative affect typically involved in the complaining act, the semantic formulas identified in this study are found to signal politeness and fit into Brown and Levinson’s (1987) pool of face-saving strategies rather than face-threatening acts. Specifically, when the graduate students direct their Facebook complaints to the students' representatives, they tend to offer camaraderie with them to be encouraged to pursue the problems specified in the complainers’ posts.

Politeness in power-asymmetrical e-mail requests of Korean and American corporate employees

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Hee Kim ◽  
Hikyoung Lee
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Intercultural Experience ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Employee Groups ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge ◽  
American Employees ◽  
Pragmatic Strategies ◽  
E Mail

AbstractPrevious research on politeness tends to examine the inadequacy of non-native speakers’ pragmatic knowledge. In this study, we broaden our focus to the influence of different lingua-cultural values on politeness in simulated workplace e-mail requests of Korean and American corporate employees. By exploring differential perceptions towards power-asymmetry, this study investigates how and why politeness strategies are realized similarly and/or differently in and around the speech acts of requests in English. By quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing the elicited data, the study suggests that lingua-cultural values influenced perception and production in power-asymmetrical situations. Findings reveal that power is a more prominent factor than familiarity for Korean employees, but to a lesser extent for American employees when doing politeness in e-mail requests. Results showed that the underlying reasons for formulating requests differed not only between Korean and American employees but also between two Korean employee groups that differed according to depth of intercultural experience. This study contributes to recent research strands in intercultural pragmatics and communication by arguing that pragmatic strategies to express politeness in relation to power are culture specific with existing and newly reconstructed lingua-cultural values coming into play.

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