Impoliteness in Personal Narratives of University Students

Abstract

This article explores how impolite situations in educational contexts can cause negative emotions and affect the learning process. This research aims to understand how students evaluate offensive situations through narratives, analyzing in which context they happened and which linguistic and nonlinguistic elements contributed to the perception of that interaction as impolite. The objectives of this research involve the construction of a narrative corpus and verifying how the relationship between impoliteness and emotions can negatively affect learning at the university level. The methodology used to develop this project involves data collection through digital forms and the analysis based on the components from Spencer-Oatey’s rapport management (2002; 2005). As a result of impolite situations experienced in classrooms, students’ relationships with professors were significantly damaged, and the consequences were seen in the impacts it had on their reported performance throughout the course.