(Im)politeness in English Language Teaching for Pre-service Teachers

Abstract

Impoliteness is a communicative phenomenon characterized by behaviors that deviate from established norms of politeness, potentially causing discomfort or offense. Even though it has only recently started being researched in comparison to Politeness studies, there is a crucial importance of addressing it in language instruction, as it reflects real-world linguistic encounters, fostering learners' pragmatic competence and intercultural communicative skills. Therefore, this current study aims to shed light on this theory as a tool for enhancing pedagogical learning processes. The focus here is to illustrate, based on studies from Spencer-Oatey (2005), Culpeper (2011), Culpeper & Terkourafi (2017), and Culpeper & Hardaker (2017) et al., how individuals evaluate linguistic behaviors and make judgments about social appropriateness in many different situations and how exploring the social-cultural and linguistic elements that are related to the perception of Impoliteness can help students enhance their proficiency level in the English language, especially considering the difficulty foreign language learners tend to face when it comes to navigating social adequacy rules and understanding underlying meanings in different settings. To achieve such a comprehensive understanding, the Action Research Method, which ensures the active involvement of participants and promotes the development of teaching strategies that cater to learners' needs and expectations, was employed. Also, a few aims were outlined: firstly, to investigate the prior knowledge regarding (im)politeness in the English language of students participating in the workshop. Also, to identify the linguistic, discursive, and cultural knowledge that were harnessed for the development of the workshop, as well as to propose didactic activities tailored to the same purpose, aiming to equip students with the skills to identify, analyze, and respond to (im)politeness in authentic communication scenarios. Finally, to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the didactic procedures developed by the research. In conclusion, this research endeavored to bridge the gap between Impoliteness Studies and English language teaching. By exploring the details of (im)politeness, proposing effective didactic activities, and critically analyzing the workshop's outcomes, it as possible to offer a valuable contribution to pedagogical practices and highlight the vital role of impoliteness in fostering pragmatic competence and intercultural communicative skills among English language learners.