On Teacher Politeness Principles in EFL Classroom

黃帆

【Abstract】It is proved that teachers politeness behavior can highly motivate students learning impulse and improve teaching process. Politeness phenomenon in classroom has been broadly discussed and studied； however， there are still no systematic politeness principles that can be reasonably applied into the teaching process. On the basis of the politeness theories and a case study， this paper tries to seek a more reasonable and more efficient politeness principle in EFL classroom.

【Key words】politeness principles； teacher politeness studies； a case study

As we all known， politeness plays a big role in human interaction， which helps to keep the public order and promote the interpersonal relationship. Therefore， politeness phenomenon in different contexts has been broadly discussed and studied. For the past decades， a great number of studies on teachers politeness have been carried out， which have proved that teachers politeness behavior can highly motivate students learning impulse and improve teaching process. Many scholars have certainly made great efforts on seeking the appropriate politeness strategies for English teachers， but there are still many inadequacies and limitations. On the basis of the related previous studies and an analysis of a demonstration English class， this paper tries to explore more reasonable and efficient politeness principles in EFL classroom under the framework of Leechs and Gu Yueguos politeness principles and Brown and Levinsons politeness theories.

1. Brief Introduction of Politeness Theories

1.1 Leechs Politeness Principles and Gu Yueguos Chinese Politeness Principles

Based on the cases that people occasionally do not observe the Grices Cooperative Principle（CP）， Leech puts forward the Politeness Principle （PP） as made up of six maxims as follows： l） Tact Maxim， 2） Generosity Maxim， 3） Approbation Maxim， 4） Modesty Maxim， 5） Agreement Maxim， and 6） Sympathy Maxim[1]. He distinguishes “self” and “other” in his politeness principles， and claims that their relationship is the concern of politeness. “Self” refers to the speaker， and “other”， the hearer. He suggests that the politeness is always a matter of degree and sets up three pragmatic scales： 1） the cost and benefit scale， 2） the optionality scale， 3） the indirectness scale； and two dimensional scales， termed as the power and solidarity scale， or the social-distance scale.

Inspired by Leech s politeness principles，Gu formulates his own principles， which is believed to be more adequate and suitable to account for Chinese culture. He concludes that there are basically four essential notions underlying the traditional Chinese conception of Limao： respectfulness， modesty， attitudinal warmth and refinement， which are considered to manifest in many Chinese speech events[2]. Gu further revises his politeness principle and put forwards five politeness maxims： l） The self-denigration and other elevation maxim： denigrate self and elevate others， 2） The address term maxim： address your interlocutor with an appropriate address term， 3） The refinement maxim： selfs behavior to other should meet certain standards， 4） The agreement maxim： efforts made by both participants to maximize agreement and harmony and minimize disagreement， 5） The virtues-words-deeds maxim： minimize cost and maximize benefit to other at the motivational level， and maximize benefit received and minimize cost to self at the conversational level[3].

The two politeness principles share many similarities， but there are also many differences between them. Professor Gus politeness theory shows remarkable Chinese characteristics， for he has integrated universal features of politeness and Chinese speech feature together， like the address term maxim. Chinese people pay great attention on using vocatives in communicating， which is regarded as one of the most important way to show our politeness； however， in western countries， using vocatives seems little importance， for they usually address each other with their first name regardless of age， gender or classes etc.

1.2 Brown and Levinsons Politeness Theories

Brown and Levinsons framework rests upon three basic notions： face， face threatening acts （FTAs） and politeness strategies. They define “face” as “the public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself”， and the wants related to politeness are the wants of face[4]. Besides， They argue that face is composed of two basic and paradoxical desires： negative face and positive face. The negative face is the want to be independent， to have freedom of action， and to be unimpeded by others， while positive face is the want to be appreciated and approved of by at least some others[4]. Both the positive and negative face wants should be accounted for in order to be polite in communication.

However， in real communication， there are some acts that speaker must do， yet， by their very nature， to threaten another individuals wants. Brown& Levinson maintain that many of the acts which people want to perform are intrinsically face-threatening， so called as face-threatening acts （FTAs） [4]. In the process of communication， any rational person will try to avoid those face-threatening acts （FTAs） or will at least minimize the threat through employing face-saving strategies， namely politeness strategies. According to the model suggested by Brown &Levinson;，there are five strategies that can be chosen from to deal with a face-threatening-act： 1） “Bald on record”， the most direct approach， which usually happen with people who are very familiar with each other and are very comfortable in their environment， for instance close friends or family members. “Redressive action” is necessary in most cases to reduce the potential face damage of the FTA， including two types： 2） positive politeness strategy and 3） negative politeness strategy. The former is oriented toward the hearers positive face wants， while the latter is oriented toward the hearers negative face， namely his basic want to claim for his territory and self-determination. 4） “Off-record” is considered as the more polite strategy. The speaker usually hints his needs or expresses his needs equivocally and generally instead of asking for something directly. As the most polite strategy among those five，5） “dont do the FTA” is to avoid all the possible threat to hearer s face. It is a rational choice when the potential FTA is extremely serious， that is， the social distance between participants is too great or the rank of imposition on the recipient is too great [4].

2. The Significance of Teachers Politeness in EFL Classroom

Classroom is a very special setting of politeness context where all activities serve for knowledge transformation. As teachers are generally regarded as controlling most of the structure and content of classroom interaction， their verbal and non-verbal behaviors can have a great influence on the learning taking place in EFL classroom. Many researches on teacher politeness， at home and abroad， show that the application of teachers politeness principles directly affects students effective learning and can improve teaching quality simultaneously. K. Poraska-Pomasta and H. Pain suggest that cognitive and affective support， which closely related to interpersonal behaviors of the teacher， plays a significant role in students successful learning [5]. With the analysis of data collected from some teacher participants， they demonstrate how face could be related to students cognitive and affective outcomes in EFL classroom context. Li Chunjing suggests that teachers should take politeness strategies into consideration in order to establish and remain good interpersonal relationship with students and create a favorable classroom atmosphere based on a case study[6]. Fan Chaoqiu and Zhang Xuan examine the effectiveness of the pragmatic application of politeness principles to English language teaching and point out that teachers application of politeness strategies could motivate and facilitate the teaching process[7].

Based on the previous studies we can easily get the conclusion that the observation of politeness strategies could stimulate learners motivation and create an enjoyable and harmonious atmosphere in class， and hence achieve more effective teaching. Most teachers in the new century have already realized the importance of teachers politeness in EFL classroom， as Zhao Wanlis study proved [8]. She investigates the application of politeness theory to verify the findings about teachers feedback in college classroom teaching， which chooses both teachers and students as her subjects and finally concludes that the majority of the teachers （close to87.8%） have certain politeness awareness in their feedback. Consequently， the study about politeness strategies in EFL classroom is very necessary for teachers to understand the significance of their politeness behaviors， which can help us select more reasonable and efficient communicative strategies accurately.

3. On Politeness Principles with a Case Study

Followed by Leechs politeness principles， there are a few scholars who have analyzed some politeness strategies in Chinese college EFL classroom based on their teaching experience. Xiang Yangbo and Li Guifang summarize four politeness principles， that is， to avoid disagreement， to praise adequately and to refine teaching language， etc. [9] Wu Hongling and Liu Hongyu put up four politeness principles applied to feedback phase and the classroom teaching management phase： the maxim of tact， the maxim of approbation， the maxim of agreement and the maxim of sympathy[10]. Their research results are of great significance to the further study， while there are still certain limits to some extent. Therefore， this paper tries to search for more detailed and effective politeness principles with a case study of a college demonstration English class in Lishui University. Politeness principles which can be precisely applied into teaching process would be discussed and explored in five different phases of English classroom teaching.

3.1 Greeting

As the saying goes， “Well begun is half done，” almost every English teacher knows that a good beginning of a class counts a lot to the whole teaching process. If students interests can be aroused at the very beginning， it would be much easier to achieve an effective teaching result. In EFL classroom， “good morning/ afternoon everyone”， or “hello everyone” are most frequently used， for most teachers treats greeting as just a cliché. The lecturer here begins his class with “everybody， how are you？” and gets the positive feedback from students instantly. From my point of view， a good greeting can easily shorten the distance between teachers and students and at the same time set up a closer relationship. As we all know， EFL classroom highly requires students participation rather than just listening to teachers speech； therefore， how to make students relax and be willingly to take part in the discussion seems much more important to improve students effective learning. Besides the formal ways of greeting， I think English teachers can choose more casual ones， such as “whats up！”“whats going on？”“how are you doing？” or “how are you？” etc. On the one hand， informal greeting can form a friendly atmosphere， which help students feel free to begin with the class； on the other hand， different kinds of greeting can also be regarded as a part of teaching. It becomes easier for students to keep in mind of various ways of starting a conversation with different people. In addition， I think that teachers can do some small talk with students in order to help them get ready for discussion in English， for instance， we can say， “hows your weekends？” to share some interesting things together； after a holiday， we may say， “ long time on see！ How have you been？”， to exchange different experiences. We can talk about recent news， exercises， TV programs， favorite things and so on. Several minutes of free talk can definitely become an important and efficient aspect of warm up tasks.