Politeness Strategies Of Teacher Talk In Chinese Middle School EFL Classroom

In classroom interaction, teacher talk is the major medium and the most important means of knowledge and information transfer. Many scholars have emphasized the vital role of teacher talk in classroom teaching and learning. The ultimate goal and function of politeness is to make the speech tone peaceful and moderate, give participants mutual respect, and hence achieve an effective communication. This is true of EFL classroom interaction. Brown and Levinson put forward the politeness strategy as a direct communication strategy aiming at communication effect. In light of teacher talk and politeness strategy, this thesis aims to find out and analyze the politeness strategies used in Chinese middle school EFL classroom and their positive effects in teacher talk.Research materials and data are collected by observing and recording classroom interaction of four middle school English teachers and doing questionnaires to their 100 students. The analysis of these materials and data produces the following findings. First, most students care about their face, and teachers are aware of their face wants to some extent and able to employ some politeness strategies to save students' face. Second, teachers use various politeness strategies in classroom interaction, and in most cases they are used collaboratively and repeatedly. Generally speaking, when questioning, teachers tend to use more negative and off record strategies to minimize the imposition on students so that they can express their own ideas freely. In the procedure of feedback, when students give a correct answer, teachers are likely to use positive politeness strategies such as approval and praise. When students give a wrong or inadequate answer, teachers intend to use off record strategies such as repetition, recast and elicitation to help students to correct errors without hurting their face and self-esteem. Third, in other teaching procedures, teachers also use politeness strategies such as code switching, pragmatic empathy and humor. Besides, the direct strategy is frequently used throughout classroom interaction due to the particularities of Chinese EFL classroom. Last but not the least, according to the results of the questionnaires, the application of various politeness strategies in teacher talk exerts great influence on students' motivation, learning ability, and even their courtesy.The thesis discusses the features and causes of politeness strategies used in Chinese EFL classroom from the perspective of Chinese culture, classroom environment and students, and offers some practical strategies and implications for teachers. The thesis also points out its limitations and offers several suggestions for further research.