engleski

Politeness strategies employed by the teacher in the EFL classroom

This thesis deals with teacher’s linguistic politeness in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. More precisely, its aim is to investigate Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies in four EFL lessons that were held by two Croatian EFL teachers. In the last couple of years, EFL teachers’ politeness has been researched in various cultural contexts. Existing studies on the subject have shown that teachers use a variety of politeness strategies throughout their lessons. Furthermore, suggestions have been made that politeness strategies positively influence the overall teaching and learning process and that because of it, teachers should learn about politeness theory and become aware of its usage. Since this particular subject has not yet been explored in the Croatian context, we decided to investigate it and see whether or not Croatian EFL teachers also use politeness strategies and whether or not they are aware of it. This was achieved through classroom observation and audio recording of four EFL lessons, followed by a semi-structured interview with each teacher. The results showed that teachers use a variety of politeness strategies ; however, both of them mostly use positive politeness. Furthermore, teachers’ interview answers suggest that they are aware of some of the strategies they use. In order to fully benefit from them, teachers should learn about politeness theory and become completely aware of its application in the classroom.

politeness theory, politeness strategies, EFL, EFL teacher

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