THE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN ENGLISH CLASSROOMS; GREETINGS AND THE WAYS OF EXPRESSING POLITENESS

Abstract

Annotation: 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. The focus will be on how foreign language students are - or could be -
instructed to perform speech acts that 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 the
pragmatic knowledge required to develop true intercultural communicative
competence in the foreign language student. It is argued that currently teaching
pragmatics only plays a minor role in foreign language teaching, but that this
knowledge is crucial to build up intercultural communicative competence as it is
demanded by the CEFR and foreign language curricula. To prove this thesis, current
textbooks for teaching English as a foreign language will be examined for teaching
activities that include aspects of foreign language pragmatics or politeness.