LANGUAGE-BASED VIOLENCE AND TEACHER-STUDENTS CONFLICTS IN EFL CLASSES: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC APPRAISAL

Abstract

The present paper investigates linguistic violence and teacher-student conflicts in EFL classes. School violence has become a national concern in Cameroon and has recently led to tragedies. Aim: It is the main motivation of this paper. It sets out to analyse selected teacher-student class exchanges with the view to describing the speech acts performed by both class interactants, identifying the insults used as well as their pedagogic impact. The study revealed that teacher-student conflicts stem from the abusive use of language by both EFL class actors since they often flout politeness tenets in situations of conflict. The conclusion drawn is that: face-threatening acts performed during EFL class exchanges cause conflicts and destroy the teacher-learner relationship. In addition, verbal abuse has the potential to demotivate learners and reduce class participation. It is then a threat to education.