Date of Award

6-2010

Thesis Type

Masters

Document Type

Dissertation

Divisions

Faculty of Languages and Linguistics

Department

Department of English Language

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

The present study investigates teachers’ and students’ use of directives and politeness strategies in realising directives in Malaysian ESL classrooms. Using Bach and Harnish’s (1979) classification of directives and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness strategies as a theoretical framework, audio recordings of three ESL lessons were analysed to examine the types of directives used by teachers and students in Malaysian ESL classrooms and the types of politeness strategies used to realise these directives. Audio recordings of interviews with participants of the current study were then examined to discover the factors that affect teachers’ and students’ use of directives and politeness strategies in the classroom. Analysis of the data revealed that the teachers’ use of directives was more frequent and more varied in type than the students’. Directives were generally utilised by the teachers to organise classroom activities while they were mostly utilised by the students to request for information. Although a variety of politeness strategies was employed by both the teachers and the students in producing directives, positive politeness was employed more frequently than bald on record and negative politeness. The use of in-group identity indicators was both the teachers’ and the students’ most preferred positive politeness strategy. The use of the bald on record strategy was most common in both the teachers’ and the students’ questions. Hedging was the teachers’ most frequently used negative politeness strategy whereas giving deference was the students’. In addition to Brown and Levinson’s (1987) factors of power, social distance and imposition, the type of directive being realised, the intrinsic advantages of each politeness strategy and personal communicative styles were found to be influential in determining the teachers’ and the students’ choice of politeness strategies. The study concludes with the suggestion that formal instruction on directives and politeness be made available to teachers and students for the purpose of enhancing the teaching-learning process.

Initial

khm

Additional Information

Dissertation (M.A.) – Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, 2010.

Download

Share

COinS