A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES PERFORMED BY MALE AND FEMALE TEACHERS IN EFL CLASSROOM CONTEXT AT SMAN 1 TELADAN YOGYAKARTA

Abstract

This research aims at identifying the types of politeness strategies, describing how politeness strategies are realized, and identifying the sociological factors that initiate the use of politeness strategies performed by male and female teachers in EFL classroom context. This research was descriptive qualitative research. This study used Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies (1978). The results revealed three findings. First, the bald-on record strategy was more widely found in the teachers’ classroom English. The positive politeness strategy was widely found in male teacher’s politeness strategies, while the off-record strategy was widely found in female teacher’s politeness strategies. Second, the male teacher realized politeness strategies by showing that he did not fear non-cooperative acts from the students in giving instructions. He also realized the strategies by including him and the students in the activity to gain students’ cooperativeness. Meanwhile, the female teacher often realized the strategies by giving hints in responding to students’ answers. Third, the sociological factor that initiated teachers’ politeness strategies was the ranking of imposition. This research shows that the male teacher mostly used politeness strategies to demand students’ obedience and to invite cooperativeness with the students in the learning activities, while the female teacher used them to avoid discouraging the students in learning English. It also shows that the teachers used politeness strategies to soften the instructions. In addition, this research revealed that gender stereotypes did influence the politeness strategies between male and female teachers.

Keywords:  EFL classroom, gender, politeness strategies, pragmatics, teacher