An Investigation And Study Of Teachers’ Use Of Politeness Strategies In College English Classroom Teaching

The politeness theory developed based on politeness principle by Leechand the Face theory by Brown&Levinson. Many scholars at home andabroad have done a large amount of research on the application of thepoliteness principle and politeness strategies in all fields. The author will doresearch on the application of politeness in teacher talk to college Englishclassroom based on politeness theory.Politeness in teacher talk reflects the combination of the politeness theoryand English classroom teaching. The correct use of politeness in teacher talkwill promote the classroom interaction. In English teaching process, teacherspass on professional knowledge in the meantime they should pay specialattention to the application of politeness in teacher talk. The correct use ofpoliteness in teacher talk can make the relation between teachers and studentsmore harmonious and increase the teaching quality. It also has a positiveeffect on students. That is---advancing them to obey politeness principle andapply politeness strategies. Therefore, their English communicative abilitywill be increased．The author，beginning with pragmatics, based on politeness principle byLeech and the Face theory by Brown&Levinson, researches and analyzes theapplication of politeness in teacher talk to college English classroom. Thethesis does research about:1) whether teachers notice students’ face need andapply politeness strategies in their talk to advance the classroom interaction.2)what politeness strategies teachers mainly use in teacher talk and howteachers advance classroom interaction by means of these strategies.3)whether politeness in teacher talk is related to students’ learning effect and theclassroom interaction.The research adopts observation. The author goes into classrooms,carefully observes and notes the oral communication between teachers andstudents. Then the collected materials will be analyzed and classified. The accurate proportion will be worked out and the original data obtained. Twodifferent questionnaires designed for teachers and students are adopted tosummarize the application situation of politeness strategies.The thesis researches and analyzes the application of politeness in teachertalk to college English classroom. Teachers mainly use politeness strategiesfrom the following aspects: shifting to the whole class，motivating collectiveanswer, simplifying and paraphrasing, shifting to another student, repetition,thanks, encouraging students, praise, agreement, apologizing beforecorrection and so on. In a word, different teachers apply different strategiesduring teaching process. But no matter which politeness strategy is adopted,teachers can more or less satisfy students’ face need. These strategies canpromote classroom interaction and improve the teaching efficiency.Through observation and analysis of the questionnaires，the author findsout that in college English classroom teachers almost notice students’ facewants．They can effectively apply politeness strategies to teacher talk topromote classroom interaction. Teachers properly apply politeness strategiesso that they can create a harmonious teaching environment and improve theteaching quality. The author hopes this research has a certain reference valueto the combination of politeness strategies and teacher talk in college Englishclassroom.