How (not) to be rude: Facilitatingthe acquisition of L2 (im)politeness

Abstract

AbstractThis article argues for frequent targeted teaching of relational language use or (im)politeness in the L2 classroom. The approach presented here draws on authentic data in the target language and in the language of instruction, which are readily available online. It encourages the learner to make use of their multilingual resources and is exploratory in nature, allowing for a deep engagement with (im)politeness, viz., an extensive array of semiotic features invested in the co-construction of social relations in every social interaction. Working at the interface of (im)politeness studies, intercultural pragmatics, interlanguage pragmatics, and language pedagogy, and undertaken from the perspective of interpersonal pragmatics and relational work, the qualitative analysis focuses on the collaborative work products from participatory learning activities of intermediate to advanced learners of German at a large North-American university. Results show the learners’ raised awareness and broadened knowledge. In particular, learners became aware that what is judged as (im)polite is dependent on the relationship of the interactants, the gender of the interactants, the sociocultural background, norms, values, and believes of the interactants, the context of the interaction, the affiliations of the evaluator, the sociocultural background, norms, values, and believes of the evaluator, etc. Results also suggest that some of the learners need to develop their pragmalinguistic skills further to fully participate in the evaluation of pragmatically rich target language discourse. Additional studies are needed to explore the impact on the learners’ interactional competence.