On Teacher Politeness Principles in EFL Classroom

黄 帆/丽水学院



On Teacher Politeness Principles in EFL Classroom

黄 帆/丽水学院

【Abstract】It is proved that teachers’ politeness behavior can highly motivate students’ learning impulse and improve teaching process.Politeness phenomenon in classr oom has been br oadly discussed and studied； however，ther e ar e 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，poli teness pl ays a big role i n human interaction，which helps t o keep the public order and promote the interpersonal relationship.Therefore，politeness phenomenon in different contexts has been broadly dis cussed and s tudied.For the pas t decades，a gr eat number of studies on teachers’ politeness have been carried out，which have proved that teachers’ politeness behavior can highly m otivate 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 Leech’s and Gu Yueguo’s politeness pri nciples a nd Brown and Levinson’s politeness theories.

1.Brief Introduction of Politeness Theories

1.1 Leech’s Politeness Principles and Gu Yueguo’s Chinese Politeness Principles

Based on the cas es that people occasionally do not observe the Grice’s Cooperative Principle（CP），Lee ch puts forward the Politeness Principle（PP）as made up of s ix 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 claim s that their relationship is the concern of politeness.“Se lf” refers to the speaker，and “other”，the hearer.H e s uggests that the politenes s 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，term ed as the power and s olidarity scale，or the social-distance scale.

Inspired by L eech’ 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 war mth and refinement，which ar e 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 m axim: denigrate s elf and elevate others，2）The address term maxim: address your interlocutor with an appropriate address term，3）The refinement maxim: self’s 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 Gu’s politeness theory shows remarkable Chinese characteristics，for he has integrated universal features of politenes s and Chinese s peech feature together，like the addres s 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 Levinson’s Politeness Theories

Brown and Levinson’s 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 t wo basic and paradoxical desires: negative face and pos itive face.T he 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 leas t some others［4］.Both the positive and negative face wants should be accounted for in order to be polite in communication.

However，in real com munication，there are s ome acts that s peaker must do，yet，by their very nature，to threaten another individual’s 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 em ploying face-s aving s trategies，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 neces sary in most cas es to reduce the potential face damage of the FTA，including two types: 2）positive politeness st rategy and 3）negative politeness st rategy.The former is oriented toward the hearer’s positive face wants，while the latter is oriented toward the hearer’s negative face，nam ely 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 equivoca lly and generally instead of asking for something directly.As t he most polite strategy among those five，5）“don’t do the FTA” i s 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 speci al set ting of politeness context where all activities serve for knowledge transformation.As teachers are generally regarded as controlling most of the s tructure and content of clas sroom interaction，their verbal and non-verbal behaviors can have a great influence on the learning taking place in EF L 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 s uggest that cognitive and affective s upport，which closely related to interpersonal behaviors of the teacher，plays a significant r ole in s tudents’ successful lear ning［5］.With the analys is of data collected from some teacher participants，they demonstrate how face could be related to s tudents’ cognitive and affective outcom es inEFL clas sroom context.Li Chunjing sugges ts that teachers should take politeness strategies into consideration in order to establish and remain good interpersonal relationship with students a nd create a favorable classroom atmosphere bas ed on a cas e study［6］.Fan Chaoqiu and Zhang Xuan examine the effectiveness of the pragmatic application of politeness principles to Englis h language teaching and point out that teacher’s application of politeness st rategies c ould motivate and facilitate the teaching process［7］.

Based on the previous studies we can eas ily get the conclusion that the observation of politeness st rategies could stimulate learners’motivation and create an enjoyable and harmonious atmosphere in class，and hence achieve more effective teaching.Mos t teachers in the new century have already realized the importance of teachers’ politeness in EFL clas sroom，as Zhao Wanli’s study proved［8］.She inves tigates the application of politenes s theory to verify the findings about teachers’feedback in college clas sroom teaching，which chooses both teacher s and students as her s ubjects and finally concludes that the m ajority of the teachers（close to87.8%）have certain politenes s 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 beh aviors，which can help us select more reasonable and efficient communicative strategies accurately.

3.On Politeness Principles with a Case Study

Followed by Le ech’s politeness pri nciples，t here are a few scholars who have analyzed some politeness strategies in Chinese college EFL clas sroom based on their teaching experience.Xiang Yangbo and Li Guifang summarize four politeness pri nciples，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: t he 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 s tudy，while there are s till certain lim its to s ome extent.Therefore，this paper tries to s earch for more detailed and effective politeness principles with a case study of a college demonstration English class in L ishui University.Politeness principles which can b e precisely applied into teaching proces s would be dis cussed 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 c ounts a lot to the whole teaching process.If students’ interests can be aroused at the very beginning，it would be much easi er 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 clic hé.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 s tudents and at the s ame time set up a clos er relationship.As we all know，EFL classroom highly requires students’ participation rather than jus t lis tening 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 lear ning.Bes ides the formal ways of greeting，I think English teachers can choose more casual ones，suc h as “what’s up！”“what’s going on？”“how are you doing？” or “how are you？” etc.On the one han d，informal greeting can form a friendly atmosphere，which he lp students feel free to be gin 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 t hink that teachers can do some small talk with students i n order to help them get ready for dis cussion in Englis h，for ins tance，we can say，“how’s 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 ca n definitely become an important and efficient aspect of warm up tasks.

In a word，I think teachers should set up a harm onious and clos e relationship with students at the beginning of the class，which can help us to control the flow of the lessons fluently.At this aspect，we can employ the agreement maxim，trying our bes t to maximize agreement between teachers and students.

3.2 Making orders

As Brown and Levinso n’s “face” t heory claims，“making order” is one kind of acts threatening to the hearer’s negative face，and all the participants have to maintain other’s face so as to keep a smooth communication.But in EFL classroom，“making order” is an essential part of teaching process，which especially needs teachers to pay attention to the expressive ski lls.In t his demonstration class，t he lecturer uses several ways to make requests，such as “let’s have a short interview”，“I’d like you to discuss with your groups”，“would you please turn to the first part？” etc.Obviously，he chooses indirect ways to express his opinion so that the students are much more willingly to accept the order without feeling uncomfortable.During teaching process，teachers need to avoid making orders directly，instead，we can choose suggestive words or some modal verbs to ease the mood，like “would you like to read the first paragraph？”，“if you finish it，why don’t you move on to next part？”etc.Furthermore，teachers can also use “we” and “us” instead of “you”to improve the equal relations hip with s tudents.J ust like the lecturer in this lesson，“let’s….” is frequently used to show his agreement with students.Under such situations，students are impressed upon that teacher is one part of them in learning activities rather than an authoritative image.Therefore，they can carry out teachers’ orders on a ba sis of voluntary，which certainly help keep the classroom teaching smoothly.

At this phase，teachers are encouraged to use the refinement maxim，as Gu summarized in his Chinese politeness principle，which here means that usi ng indirect ways to make orders so t hat can sa ve students’negative face at the same time

3.3 Asking questions

Asking questions is one of the most efficient ways to check teaching results in every teaching period，which helps teachers to make sure whether students get the m ain idea of the clas s and unders tand the teaching material appropriately.But as st udents，i f teacher ask them questions，they would easily feel nervous and even can not find suitable words to express themselves，es pecially for s ome students who is not so confident with their spoken English.Thus，how t o ask questi ons with politeness is really a big is sue for English teachers.The lecturer here uses modal expressions to raise his questions，for instance，“would you please explain this for us？”“which pair would like to report your interview？”“could you possibly translat e this into English？” and so on.The teacher acts very polite which made students feel that they have the power to make decisions instead of accept these questions passively.Under such circumstances，students who have alr eady got the answers would stand up voluntarily to p resent their opinions.But sometimes，teachers have to name a particular student to answer this question.Generally s peaking，most teachers would call the s tudent his/her full name，but a s Engl ish teachers，I think，we can call them t heir first name to show intimacy as western people usually do.In addition，to show our respect and encouragement，those expressions can be applied，for example，“Let me ask a gentlemen/lady here.XX，what’s your opinion？”，or “I’d like the hands ome boy in the back to tell us something.” We can realize our goal and at the same time protect students’ positive faces.

The refinement maxim can also be applied into the aspect of asking questions，which means to raise questions i ndirectly； furthermore，according to the s pecial characteris tics of EF L clas sroom，teachers can employ the addres s term maxim combining the Chines e and wes ternfeatures of using vocatives together.

3.4 Making evaluations

Evaluation constitutes one of the es sential as pects of teaching process，which can be divided into two different kinds: positive evaluation and negative evaluation.As Leech’s politeness principles concentrate，the speaker needs to maximize praise of other and minimize dispraise of other.Gu also believes that we need to elevate others，just like he notes in his self-denigration and other elevation maxim.As a result，in classroom setting，positive evaluation should be extensively applied.It is not only an approval for students，but also a big encouragement that make them feel confident and thus promote their learning enthusiasm.The lecturer，in this case，frequently praise his st udents a fter they present their own opinions，like“Right！”，“Good！”，“Good job！”，“Well done！”，“Excellent！”etc.Students would feel great satisfied after offering answers，which would encourage them to t ake part in the interaction actively.Bes ides，some non-verbal behaviors can als o be us ed to s how appreciation，like nodding，smiling，thumbing up and so on.However，as English teachers，we cannot always prevent making negative evaluation.Zhao Duanyang carries out her study on the current situation of politeness strategies’ application in EF L clas srooms［11］.She does questionnaire surveys a nd interviews among 240 st udents in 6 di fferent majors，and finds that more than 60% s tudents agree that if teachers criticize them，their faces are threatened，and the majority of the them（close to 90%）expect that teachers would apply some politeness st rategies when making negative evaluation.In order to protect s tudents’ faces and avoid conflicts，teachers need to be much more cautions with the using of negative words.We’d better not use such expressions l ike “no”，“it’s wrong”，“that’s bad” and so on.Instead，we can appreciate their ideas and then point out its inadequacy.For instance，if the students cannot offer the right answers，teachers can say，“it sounds reasonable，but if you are more careful，you can find something else”，or “I appreciate your answer，but it can be more perfect if you add more details”.St udents would be much easier to accept those kinds of evaluation and at the sa me time，they would feel respected and trusted，and thus stimulate their learning impulse.

To sum up，when doing positive evaluation，teachers should employ the approbation maxim to maximize praise of students that help them set up self-confidence with this subj ect.While making negative evaluation，teachers need to employ the sympathy maxim to show certain acceptance of students’ opinion first and then put forward his/her inadequacies in order to avoid frustrating students’ learning interests.

3.5.Making corrections

It has l ong been a controversial issue that whether teachers should correct the st udents’ mistakes，a nd when and how should they be corrected.Krashen points out that teachers’ correction is not conducive to students’ acquisition of second language［12］，while Schmidt and Frota argue that teachers should correct students’ mistakes in ti me［13］.But Van Lier claims that the learners’ self- correction is more beneficial to language lear ning than correction by teacher s［14］.I think，it’s very important for students to learn to correct themselves in English learning，and teachers should provide much more room for them instead of making correction all the time.The lecturer here always uses “and….” to remind students that there are still something else he/she haven’t covered.Besides，when students made some mistakes，he uses “pardon？”and “again” to ask f or repetition.Through these indirect ways，the teacher helps students get aware of their mistakes and inadequacies，and make corrections by themselves.These politeness behaviors are positive applications of the tact maxim，which maximize benefit to students a nd at the same time minimize cost to students.Furthermore，we can usually find some s tudents are ignorant of teachers’ speeches，like talking with classmates excitedly or reading their own stuff.As teachers，we’d better not prevent their actins directly by saying，“stop discussing”，or “attention！” etc.On the contrary，s ome non-verbal behaviors can be used to help us keep the flow of lessons，for instance，keeping silence for several se conds and keeping eye contacts with particular students can remind them that it’s unsuitable to do such irrelevant things but need to focus on our classes.By employing the tact maxim，teachers can maintain good discipline and also protect students’ face.

All in al l，in EFL classroom，there are six politeness maxims that can be employed by teachers: the agreement m axim，the refinement maxim，the address term maxim，the approbation maxim，the sympathy maxim，and the t act maxim.The appropriate appli cation of these politeness principles can help teachers create an easier learning situation and facilitate a harmonious rel ationship between teachers and students and thus improve teaching quality.

4.Conclusions

It is believed that politeness theory can help teachers understand the effectiveness of communication pattern in the classroom interaction，which provides a comprehensive approach to teachers’ language us e.With the framework of Leech’s and Gu Yueguo’s politeness principles and Brown and L evinson’s politeness theories，this paper tries to explore a reasonable and effective politeness principle in EFL classroom in China with the help of an analysis of a demonstration English class.However，there are still many problems and inadequacies i n this paper，where many other aspects of classroom teaching are worthy of further discussing and exploring.This study is only a preliminary research on teachers’ politeness principles，and teachers are s uggested to be m ore aware of the need to use appropriate language and are encouraged to perform suitable politeness strategies in order to fulfill their teaching aim.

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作者简介：黄帆（1983-），女，浙江温州人，浙江大学英语语言文学硕士，大学英语教师，丽水学院，助教，主要研究方向为语言与文化、英语教学研究。