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Politeness Strategies and Second Language Acquisition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Shigenori Tanaka and
Saiki Kawade
Shigenori Tanaka
Affiliation:
Columbia University
Saiki Kawade
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Abstract

The two studies reported here investigated the notion of politeness as perceived by native speakers of English and advanced learners of English. The questions which concerned us included: (1) Are native speakers of English really aware of the varying degree of politeness conveyed by a given English sentence?; (2) Is there a high correlation between native speakers of English and advanced learners of English in their politeness judgements?; (3) Do native speakers of English really use different politeness strategies in different situations?; (4) Is there a high correlation between native and nonnative speakers of English in the use of politeness strategies? From a theoretical point of view, Study I was concerned with Lakoff's (1973b) claim that politeness increases with decreasing imposition; Study II was concerned with the distance-politeness hypothesis which predicts that one will use polite strategies in situations where he perceives himself as psychological and/or socially distant from his addresee. From a pedagogical point of view, the comparison of the two studies here suggested that the learner's ability of judging politeness in the target language does not necessarily mean that he can use politeness strategies appropriately in actual communication situations.

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Articles
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Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Fall 1982, pp. 18 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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