Exploring Saudi Female EFL Learners’ Use of Politeness Strategies: A Linguistic-Pragmatic Analysis of Student Writing-Based Evidences

This research investigates the types and frequency of politeness strategies employed by English Education students during online academic interactions via WhatsApp, with a particular emphasis on how students uphold politeness and demonstrate respect toward lecturers within a virtual learning environment. Utilizing a descriptive qualitative approach, the study analyzed 200 utterances derived from constructed chat transcripts. The data were examined through the lens of Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory, encompassing positive politeness, negative politeness, bald on record, and off record strategies. Findings indicate that positive politeness strategies predominated (57.5%), followed by negative politeness strategies (30%), with bald on record and off record approaches appearing less frequently. This distribution highlights the students’ pragmatic awareness and the influence of cultural norms in sustaining courteous academic discourse. The study contributes to the fields of linguistics, pragmatics, and English language education by offering insights into students’ digital communicative behavior. It also informs educators and teacher preparation programs about the pragmatic competencies necessary for professional interaction in online academic spaces. The novelty of the study lies in its focus on the simulated digital exchanges of English Education students, bridging theoretical pragmatics with pedagogical application, and enriching the discourse on digital pragmatics within the Indonesian higher education landscape.

This study highlights the importance of politeness strategies in making requests, particularly for learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). While numerous studies have examined politeness strategies in teacher-student interactions within EFL classrooms, few have focused on EFL learners’ own perceptions and attitudes toward these strategies in making requests. This study aims to investigate how EFL learners perceive and apply politeness strategies in request speech acts in relation to their communication strategies and pragmatic awareness. Employing a quantitative descriptive design, the study involved nine students from the English Education study program who had completed the Semantics and Pragmatics course. Data were collected using a closed-ended questionnaire based on a Likert scale, developed in reference to Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory. Responses were gathered via Google Forms and analyzed using descriptive statistical methods to determine the frequency and percentage of politeness strategy preferences. The findings indicate that participants predominantly preferred positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record strategies, while bald on-record strategies were generally avoided due to their perceived impoliteness. The study concludes that EFL learners demonstrate a solid level of pragmatic competence and tend to select politeness strategies that promote respectful and harmonious communication. These findings suggest the need for more explicit instruction on pragmatic aspects of language use in EFL curricula to further enhance learners’ communicative effectiveness.

The research discussed about politeness strategy used by male and female students in requesting on WhatsApp message. The aims of this study were: to find out the types of politeness strategy used by male and female students by using Brown and Levinson (1987) politeness theory, to find out the differences and reason of politeness strategy used by male and female students in requesting on WhatsApp. The descriptive qualitative method were used in this research, and the data were derived from the WhatsApp message script. The findings of the study showed that male students applied 3 politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987): bald-on record (21 sentences), positive politeness (8 sentences), negative politeness (3 sentences). The researcher also found that female students applied 4 politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987): bald-on record strategy (5 sentences), positive politeness (7 sentences), negative politeness (17 sentences), and off record (5 sentences). The significant difference in politeness strategies used by male and female students are that there is no off record strategy used by male students, they apply the bald-on record strategy more often, while female students are more varied in using of politeness strategies and mostly applied the negative politeness. The difference of male and female students politeness strategy in requesting on WhatsApp because each gender has own way in conveying their want. Male students were more direct when requesting to others, while female students were more indirect when requesting to others.

This study examines the politeness strategies employed by male and female undergraduate students in online interactions, focusing on conversation initiation and termination. A pragmatic analysis was conducted using House and Kasper's (1981) linguistic politeness theory alongside Miles and Huberman's model for data interpretation. The findings indicate that male students predominantly used committers, consultative devices, and downtoners to initiate conversations, while employing downtoners, understaters, and politeness markers for termination. In contrast, female students utilized committers, consultative devices, politeness markers, and playdowns for initiation, and committers, playdowns, and politeness markers for termination. Applying Brown and Levinson's (1987) politeness theory, male students mainly favored positive politeness, negative politeness, and bald-on-record strategies during initiation, while employing both positive and negative strategies for termination. Female students exhibited a preference for positive and negative politeness strategies, along with off-record strategies for initiation, relying solely on positive politeness for termination. These findings highlight distinct gender-specific communication patterns in online environments, providing valuable insights for linguistics, communication studies, and gender studies. The results can guide educators, policymakers, and practitioners in developing inclusive and effective communication strategies tailored to digital learning contexts.

Requests and refusals are well-acknowledged as challenging speech acts even when realized in native interactions owing to their intrinsic nature of being facethreatening. It is therefore conceivable that producing such social responses would be an arduous task for foreign language learners. Against this background, the present study set out with an aim to examine the politeness in the production of and perception of requests and refusals by six secondary-level EFL learners in Hong Kong under different degrees of social distance and social status, with prospective English teachers and native speakers as the control group. A discourse-completion task and a survey served as the instruments to elicit quantitative data. Results were analyzed with reference to Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory, which proposes four types of politeness strategies, namely bald on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness and off-record strategy. Findings suggested that intermediate learners had an overuse of direct strategy to threaten both positive and negative face of interlocutors, while advanced learners were reported to be too conventionally indirect in general. Plausible explanation was the insufficient coverage of certain topics at schools. The paper hence demands educational adjustment in relevant aspects to improve learners’ pragmatic performance.

This study analyzes politeness and rudeness strategies in Turkish primary and secondary school textbooks, identifying their use in social settings. Social norms are learned through family and school, with language playing a key role. In Turkish culture, politeness strategies, such as respecting elders, reflect social hierarchy. Understanding these strategies helps individuals grasp cultural codes and communicate effectively. Using Brown and Levinson's (1987) Politeness Theory, 18 textbooks (Life Science 1-3, Social Studies 4-7, and Turkish 1-8) were examined, identifying 730 actions. Positive politeness (355) was most frequent, followed by negative politeness (231), bald-on-record (92), and off-record (52). The limited emphasis on politeness and rudeness strategies in textbooks highlights their role in social integration and interpersonal skills. Expanding real-life examples in textbooks and providing teachers with additional materials can enhance students' understanding of pragmatic language use.

This study deals with Politeness Strategies Used in Javanese Wedding Ceremony. The objectives of the study were to identify types of Politeness strategies and the pattern of strategies used in Javanese wedding ceremony. The approach used in this study are based on Politeness theory by Brown and Levinson (1987); Bald on record, Positive politeness, Negative politeness and Off-record strategy. This study employed descriptive qualitative design. The data were the transcriptions of recorded observation and interview. The data were taken from observation using audio visual recorder in Javanese wedding ceremony of Dina Wagiani and Oman Syahputra especially in some events which were Peningsetan (17th March 2012), Midodaremi (14th April 2012), Panggih (15th April 2012) dan Sungkeman (15th April 2012) that are held in Medan located at Jl. Marelan II Pasar IV, Kelurahan Rengas Pulau, Kecamatan Medan Marelan. The finding showed that all the types of Politeness strategies were applied in Javanese wedding ceremony. The percentage of positive politeness was 54.21%, bald- on record was 33.16%, negative politeness was 8.95% and off-record was 3.68%. The most dominant type of politeness strategies used was positive politeness strategy. It was used because Javanese people try to satisfy the hearer and avoid conflicts with other people. They also applied it to make both families get closer each other, so there was no distance between them. They endeavor to maintain social harmony and solidarity between bride‘s family and bridegroom‘s family during wedding ceremony.

This study explores politeness strategies in the political discourse of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., using Brown and Levinson's Politeness Theory (1987) as a framework. A descriptive-qualitative approach analyzed three speeches from February 2025, revealing a sophisticated blend of strategies. The findings demonstrate the strategic use of Bald On-Record, Negative Politeness, Positive Politeness, and Off-Record strategies, showcasing a calculated balance between assertiveness and respect to achieve various communicative goals (persuasion, rapport-building, and image management). The research highlights the importance of considering context in analyzing politeness strategies, extending existing literature by demonstrating the complex relationship of these strategies in contemporary political communication and offering avenues for future research into cross-cultural variations and audience reception.

This paper addresses the issue of linguistic realization of politeness strategies in the American talk-show: Piers Morgan Live. The analysis of the data has been carried out within the politeness framework suggested by Brown and Levinson. The corpus data analyzed includes fifteen interviews selected from Piers Morgan Live, CNN. The analysis involves chosen interview extracts which contain verbal exchanges in which positive and negative politeness strategies are deployed. On the basis of the analyzed interviews, the study strives to examine the communicative behavior of Piers Morgan as an interviewer. Having justified why a politeness framework is needed, we explore the notions of politeness, face and FTAs; in addition, we consider whether the politeness strategies identified in Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory can be found in another discourse type, namely the talk show discourse type. Firstly, we will offer an analysis of the linguistic realization of positive politeness and then an analysis of negative politeness strategies. Hence, the analysis reveals that politeness theory seems to be relevant for the study of communicative behavior of the interviewer in the discourse of television interviews. Although both the strategies of positive and negative politeness are deployed in Piers Morgan’s communicative behavior, positive politeness strategies seem to prevail in the communicative behavior of the interviewer. Consequently, it seems reasonable to assume that the strategies of positive politeness which are used contribute to (a) closing the social distance between interlocutors; (b) putting the interviewees at ease by creating a friendly atmosphere to allow them to ‘open up’. Moreover, more than one strategy is realized within each utterance. More importantly, we tend to believe that the strategies, deployed in the communicative behavior of the interviewer, are all strategic to Piers Morgan’s extralinguistic goal of having a good interview. Keywords: politeness theory; face; positive face; negative face; FTA; positive politeness; negative politeness; positive politeness strategies; negative politeness strategies.

ABSRACT
 Pragmatic competence forms a basic pillar in learning and teaching the communicative use of a foreign language (FL). Evaluating the FL pragmatic knowledge is a challenging and complex area of language testing. Far from the grammatical content of language, the current study aims to evaluate EFL learners' pragmatic competence in terms of communicating the linguistic expressions of negative politeness. Accordingly, it investigates EFL university learners’ ability to show social distance and realize power relations towards addressees. The study also presents the negative politeness strategies on the basis of Brown and Levinson's (1987) theory. 
 It is hypothesized that learners are pragmatically unaware of showing negative face towards addressees. It is further assumed that learners show tendency to go on record without redressive action, which often threatens addressees’ negative face. Added to that, learners are not aware of the appropriate use of politeness strategies followed according to the English culture. To investigate this, a Discourse Completion Test consisting of hypothetical situations that are familiar to learners' university life has been formulated.
 The study concludes that learners experience pragmatic failures while engaging in situations where there is a need to show negative face, and utter direct speech acts frequently. In addition, learners do not distinguish between the appropriate politeness strategies (positive, negative and off record) as far as the cultural orientation of the English language is concerned. They further disregard the appropriate use of address forms that constitute a paramount aspect of negative politeness.

This study investigates the politeness strategies employed by the main characters in The Garfield Movie from a pragmatic perspective, using Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory as the analytical framework. By analyzing selected dialogues, the research identifies four main types of politeness strategies: bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record strategies. The findings reveal that positive politeness strategies are predominantly used to maintain social harmony and express friendliness, while bald on record strategies reflect the characters’ directness and humor. Negative politeness strategies appear less frequently, mainly to mitigate impositions and show respect, and off-record strategies serve to convey subtlety and indirectness, often adding comedic effect. The study highlights how these strategies align with the characters’ personalities and relationships, contributing to effective communication and audience engagement. The implications of this research extend to pragmatic theory, language teaching, media scriptwriting, and intercultural communication, emphasizing the value of media texts as authentic sources for pragmatic learning and analysis.

The aim of this paper is to compare the politeness strategies in the English version of the animated cartoon Angelo Rules with those in the dubbed Arabic version, focusing on whether the different cultures have an effect on the politeness strategies used. The data for the analysis came from four episodes in English and four episodes in Arabic that were identical to the English episodes, and the analysis was based on Brown and Levinson’s framework. The study examined the use of positive politeness, negative politeness and bald on-record strategies by the characters. The findings revealed the existence of positive politeness, negative politeness and bald on-record strategies, which were found in nearly all the English and Arabic episodes analysed. Positive politeness (in particular, exaggerating interest and including both the speaker and hearer in the activity) and bald on-record strategies were the most commonly used in the selected data. Furthermore, no significant difference in politeness strategies used was found between the four English episodes and the same episodes dubbed into Arabic.

This study examines the use of syntactic and lexical downgraders by Japanese EFL learners in order to mitigate requests in high imposition situations to listeners of higher status. The relationships between learners' use of syntactic and lexical downgraders, and their grammatical competence and time spent in an English-speaking environment, were analyzed. Their request realizations were also compared with those of Native Speakers. In general the learners demonstrated the ability to use appropriate syntactical downgrading but an inability to use appropriate lexical downgrading. Reasons for this are discussed along with suggestions as to how instruction could have a more positive effect on the acquisition of forms of mitigation.

Politeness strategy is a technique used by someone to speak more courteously. Conversations in a daily life and arguments often use polite communication strategies. The 2024 presidential and vice-presidential debates are the debates that are interesting to investigate in this study. This study aims to characterize the politeness strategies employed by Ganjar Pranowo and Mahfud MD during the presidential and vice-presidential debates. This study employed the politeness strategies developed by Brown and Levinson (1978), which categorizes politeness strategies into four types: Off Record (OR), Bald-On Record (BOR), Positive Politeness (PP), and Negative Politeness (NP). The findings of this study show that in the presidential and vice-presidential debates, Ganjar Pranowo and Mahfud MD employ three different kinds of politeness strategies. The most prominent politeness strategy is Positive Politeness (56.5%). Other politeness strategies are Bald-On Record (30.4%) and Negative Politeness (13%). It can be concluded that Ganjar Pranowo and Mahfud MD mostly use Positive Politeness in delivering their speech for presidential and vice-presidential debates.

The present study investigated the effect of input enhancement on the acquisition of English politeness strategies by intermediate EFL learners. Two groups of freshman English majors were randomly assigned to the experimental (enhanced input) group and the control (mere exposure) group. Initially, a TOEFL test and a discourse completion test (DCT) ensured homogeneity of the groups in terms of general proficiency and pragmatic competence. Then, the participants received the instructional treatments on English politeness strategies (PSs). They read and listened to dialogues containing the intended PSs. The target PSs were in bold typeface in enhanced input group’s dialogue booklet and in regular font in mere exposure group’s booklet. Subsequently, the groups took the DCT posttest. The analysis of the pretest and posttest data revealed the following results: Iranian intermediate EFL learners differed from English native speakers in their use of PSs; there was a low relationship, an insignificant correlation (rxy = .25), between general proficiency and pragmatic competence (i.e. competence in English PSs) of Iranian intermediate EFL learners; and input enhancement had a significantly greater effect on the acquisition of English politeness strategies (both comprehension and use of PSs) than simple exposure to PSs. The study implies that EFL learners should be provided with a specific instruction on English PSs and PSs should be presented in a noticeable way (e.g. typographically enhanced).