THE POLITENESS STRATEGIES USED IN ENGLISH IN FOCUS COURSEBOOK FOR THE SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS

Abstract

This research aims to (1) find out the types of politeness strategies and their realization in English in Focus dialogues, and (2) reveal the social factors influencing the characters to choose a certain politeness strategy in the book. The research used a descriptive qualitative method with the pragmatic approach. In addition, a quantitative method was used to measure the frequency of the data occurrences. The data were in the forms of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences in the context of the dialogues taken from the coursebook. The main instrument of this research was the researcher himself, with the data sheet as the supporting instrument. The results of the research are as follows. (1) All types of politeness strategies are found in the book. They are bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record, with negative politeness being the most frequently used strategy. Out of 48 realizations, 19 are applied in the coursebook. Four realizations are found in bald on record strategy, namely “metaphorical entreaties”, “task-oriented interaction”, “no fear of retaliation”, and “sympathetic advice or warning”. Five realizations are found in positive politeness strategy, namely “notice and attend to hearer”, “use in-group identity marker”, “seek agreement”, “avoid disagreement”, and “include both speaker and hearer in the activity”. The negative politeness strategy has six realizations, namely “be conventionally indirect”, “question and hedge”, “minimize the imposition”, “give deference”, “apologize”, and “state the FTA as a general rule”. Off record is realized by three sub strategies, namely “give hints”, “use rhetorical questions”, and “be incomplete, use ellipsis”. (2) All three sociological factors, including social distance, relative power and rank of imposition affect the choices of the politeness strategy by the characters in the book, with rank of imposition as the most frequent factor with 15 occurrences.

Keywords: pragmatics, politeness strategy, sociological factors, English in Focus