Uzbekistan Republic Navoi State Pedagogical Institute Faculty of Foreign Languages Course work Subject : language and culture in english classrooms

Politeness in Online Communication.
Materials and Methods
Showing politeness and knowing appropriate, polite behavior is trendy. Browsing through a book store, one can find a large number of current publications dealing with the topic of “politeness”. Those practical guides, however, show an understanding of “politeness” that is rather facile: Often, polite behavior is reduced to a kind of “rules of thumb” giving the reader advice on how to act in certain social situations, such as a party or a business meeting. But this form of “ready-to-use politeness” is by no means what politeness in an academic notion is about. Nevertheless, the rising number of publications in the non-scholarly field is a good indicator of the recently increased interest in the subject of politeness (cf. Ehrhardt,Neuland 2009:7).
As there is an increase in the number of the academic essays published on the topic of politeness as well, the academic interest in the subject is obvious, too (cf. Spyridoula et al. 2015:23). Accordingly, current curricula for English foreign language teaching in German schools list the knowledge of “politeness” as one of the goals of teaching English. In the curricula, a knowledge of pragmatics (which includes politeness) is part of the so-called “communicative competence”, a term which describes the ability of the student to use language fluently in written and spoken form and with such a proficiency that he or she can take part in a foreign language discourse autonomously, react to the utterances of an interlocutor properly and get his or her own line of argumentation across. In order to be able to display proficient communicative competence, it seems obvious that a student needs advanced abilities regarding language use (practical linguistic competence in the fields of syntax, morphology and phonology). However, communicative competence in the understanding of the curricula is not solely about fluency, good pronunciation and grammatical correctness in foreign language speaking, it is actually quite the reverse: Communicative competence postulates the maxim “fluency before accuracy”. Hence it is evident that apart from linguistic correctness there are other “things to be learned” in the English foreign language classroom in order to develop a true form of communicative competence in the student, which actually means a knowledge of pragmatics – for example politeness - and the development of a sociolinguistic competence in general.
Apart from the communicative competence, there is another competence dealt with in the curricula that has to be taken into consideration when discussing the role of politeness in German foreign language teaching: The “intercultural competence” which forms a major aspect in the curricula for years 3/4, for years 5 - 10 and for years 11/12 and is considered to be an important condition for successful communication. Under the headline “intercultural competence” the curriculum of Lower Saxony for years 3/4 (elementary school) explains that this competence means more than mere knowledge or technique but that it describes general attitudes that are expressed in a student’s way of thinking, feeling and acting and that are rooted in corresponding experiences and ethical principles:
Interkulturelle Kompetenz umfasst mehr als Wissen und mehr als eine Technik. Sie beinhaltet auch und vor allem Haltungen, die ihren Ausdruck im Denken, Fühlen, Handeln und ihre Verankerung in entsprechenden Lebenserfahrungen und ethischen Prinzipien haben. (Niedersächsisches Kerncurriculum Englisch für die Grundschule Schuljahrgänge 3-4 2006:15)
The curriculum of Lower Saxony for years 5 – 10 says:
Der Erwerb kommunikativer und interkultureller Kompetenzen in anderen Sprachen ist eine wichtige Voraussetzung für erfolgreiche Verständigung. [...] Für den schulischen Fremdsprachenunterricht bedeutet dies einen erhöhten Anwendungsbezug, die Ausrichtung auf interkulturelle Handlungsfähigkeit [...]. (Niedersächsisches Kerncurriculum Englisch für das Gymnasium Schuljahrgänge 5 – 10 2006:5)
Later on intercultural competence is defined as:
-“Orientierungswissen”
- “praktische Bewältigung von Begegnungssituationen” (ibd.)
Correspondingly, as competences of speaking to be developed in years 5/6 the curriculum lists:
Auf einfache Sprechanlässe reagieren und einfache Sprechsituationen bewältigen (z. B. Begrüßungs-, Höflichkeits- und Abschiedsformeln verwenden, jemanden einladen und auf Einladungen reagieren, Verabredungen treffen, um Entschuldigung bitten und auf Entschuldigungen reagieren, Zustimmung oder Ablehnung ausdrücken und sagen, was sie gern haben und was nicht. (ibd.)
So, according to the curriculum, their orientational knowledge, their ability to deal with cultural differences and their ability to practically handle intercultural situations make up the intercultural competence of younger language learners. In their foreign language lessons ten/eleven-year-olds are supposed to acquire the competence to deal with simple, everyday conversational situations like greeting someone, inviting someone or using expressions of politeness.
The curriculum for years 11/12 lists the following competences:
So, according to the passages quoted from the curriculum for years 11/12 (sixteen and seventeen-year-olds), intercultural competence is the ability of a language learner to appropriately communicate with a native speaker from a foreign culture in the foreign language. Therefore, it is necessary for the student to know elementary rules of communication and interaction in the foreign culture (“elementare Kommunikations- und Interaktionsregeln”), it is necessary for the student to be able to “feel his way into” the interlocutor and his foreign cultural background, thereby interpreting his speech in the intercultural context (“sich in Bezug auf die Befindlichkeiten und Denkweisen in den Partner aus der anderen Kultur hineinversetzen”), and, finally, it is necessary for the student to know about common stereotypes, ways of behavior and typical intercultural misunderstandings (“kennen gängige Sicht- und Wahrnehmungsweisen, Vorurteile und Steoreotype”, “können kulturelle Differenzen, Missverständnisse und Konfliktsituationen bewusst wahrnehmen”).
Thus, it could be argued that intercultural competence is a form of communicative competence – but on an intercultural level. Since both competences demand the ability of the speaker to engage in fluent discourse with an interlocutor, realizing speech acts in a socially acceptable manner, it is obvious that the two competencies – communicative competence and intercultural competence - are interlinked. It has, however, to be noted that intercultural competence in the way it is described in the curriculum is a step beyond “simple” communicative competence. To display intercultural competence the language learner must, firstly, be able to use the foreign language with such a proficiency that he or she can communicate with an interlocutor fluently and in a socially acceptable manner (communicative competence) in order to, secondly, use the language in the intercultural sphere, speaking to an interlocutor from a foreign culture, knowing and reflecting on foreign cultural behavior and conversational standards (intercultural competence). Therefore, intercultural competence is also referred to as “intercultural communicative competence”, a term that is more fitting regarding the importance of the communicative skills that are necessary to develop intercultural competence. The outlined concept of intercultural competence also incorporates the curricula´s general understanding of politeness in English foreign language usage. It is evident that this notion of politeness, for example the demand to “feel your way into” the interlocutor and his foreign cultural background, thereby interpreting his speech in the intercultural context, goes beyond what was mentioned as “ready-to-use politeness” - the understanding of politeness as a catalogue of basic “rules of thumb” for social gatherings - at the beginning of this chapter.
The “Common European Framework of References for Languages” (CEFR), a transnational guideline published 2001 and used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages, whose six reference levels are becoming widely accepted as the European standard for grading an individual's language proficiency, also conceptualizes politeness. In the CEFR, politeness is broadly understood as an aspect of linguistic behavior with consequences for a social self and for social relations. The descriptive categories of the CEFR for general competences and for communicative language competences - including politeness – are summarized as follows:
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
In principle, the CEFR subdivides (intercultural) communicative competence into general competences and communicative language competences. The general competences span from declarative, sociocultural knowledge of the world to practical intercultural skills, know-how and existential competences (attitudes, values, beliefs, etc.) and to the ability to learn. The communicative language competences are subdivided into linguistic competences (“ability to use language correctly”), sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences (politeness conventions, register differences, discourse competence, etc.). It is obvious that with this conceptualization the CEFR gives a very genuine and profound overview of which qualifications and partial competences are needed for true intercultural communicative competence. This is why the given framework should act as a guideline for what should be part of the teaching of intercultural communicative competence, also in this essay. However, the emphasis will be placed on the teaching of sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences, mainly since the declarative knowledge of culture, practical skills and know-how (general competences) as well as linguistic competences are what is taught already, whereas the teaching of the pragmatic and sociolinguistic aspects of language only plays a minor role in the EFL-classroom. This is evident in language classes or in foreign language teaching textbooks, which rarely address the field of politeness as a form of discourse competence distinctly (cf. Scialdone 2009:283). Additionally, there has been relatively little research on the teaching of politeness (cf. Spyridoula et al. 2015:23).
It is the aim of this research paper to analyze how politeness currently is - and how politeness potentially could be - taught in foreign language classrooms. One focus will be on how foreign language students are - or could be - instructed to perform speech acts that accomplish action through language and therefore usually require forms of politeness. Teaching politeness will not be reduced to the introduction of cultural stereotypes and basic rules of behavior in language teaching, it will rather be understood as all forms of pragmatic knowledge that are necessary to develop true intercultural communicative competence in the foreign language student. In this essay, it is argued that currently teaching pragmatics only plays a minor role in foreign language teaching. To prove this thesis, four current textbooks for teaching English as a foreign language will be examined with regard to teaching activities that include aspects of foreign language pragmatics or politeness. In a subsequent chapter, the didactics and methodology of instructional pragmatics will be discussed on the basis of literature from the field of pedagogy.
The view will not be limited to teaching English as a foreign language, but examples from teaching German, French or Italian as a foreign language will be considered, too. All the considerations made in this essay can also be applied to foreign language teaching in general, not only to teaching foreign languages at German schools.