Politeness in Pedagogy: Investigating Female Teachers’ Use of Politeness Strategies in Classroom Interaction

Abstract

The study explores politeness strategies used by female teachers in classroom interaction from a socio-linguistic and pragmatic point of view. The research is based upon the concepts of Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage by Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson, which focus on positive politeness, negative politeness, bald-on-record, and off-record strategies in managing communication in the classroom and establishing a good relationship between teacher and student. The study is of a qualitative design, which is a synthesis of the existing classroom discourse studies and previous empirical studies related to teacher interaction. Results show that female teachers mostly employ indirect demands, hedging, inclusive language, compliments, supportive expressions, and so on to reduce the face-threatening acts and establish a cooperative learning atmosphere. These are the ways to create a balance between institutional authority and interpersonal closeness, which fosters student participation, motivation, and rapport in the classroom. The analysis, on the other hand, also indicates that politeness is a relevant pragmatic resource in educational discourse, facilitating interaction and classroom management. In summary, the study underscores the importance of linguistic politeness in the classroom and its role in fostering respectful, interactive, and cooperative learning spaces in educational institutions.

Keywords: Politeness, Gender, Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics, Interaction, Classroom discourse, Rapport