Politeness and pragmatic competence in foreign language education

Abstract

Anecdotal evidence indicates that some native speakers of English are uncomfortable with what they perceive to be the lack of linguistic politeness forms in the speech of some Japanese speakers of English. A common example is found in the expression of desires and wants, when a Japanese speaker will say 'I want you to do X', rather than 'I'd like you to do X'. As it is possible the learning materials Japanese students used in secondary school EFL had an influence on their ability to use politeness markers in their L2, this paper will report on an analysis of evidence of politeness in senior high school textbooks. First, in order to go beyond the anecdotal evidence, there is a review of some of the relevant literature on linguistic politeness. The analysis follows in which it will be seen that there is a noticeable absence of politeness. Finally, five speculations on explanations for the absence of linguistic politeness markers are suggested in an effort to raise the awareness of language educators about this component of pragmatic competence.