Politeness Strategies in Lecturers’ Written Corrective Feedback

The ease of online communication in the current era seems to still leave issue that really need to be considered. Politeness in communicating between educators and students in carrying out message activities is one of the essential issues to be discussed. The lack of politeness between teachers in communicating, the large possibility of free communication when carrying out online communication, and the low awareness of teachers in emphasizing the importance of politeness in communication are some of the main problems that need to be resolved. This study aims to analyze the use of politeness strategies in communication between educators and students in EFL and try to analyze deeper what types of strategies are used by teachers and students in communicating, the steps they take to online communication, and get to know deeper regarding to the importance of politeness in communication. This research uses library research method and case study method to analyze the data. In addition to obtaining data from previous research sources, the authors also obtained data from ELE Undiksha lecturers and students. The theory expressed by Brown and Levinson in 1987 is the theory that underlies the analysis of this data which is the analysis of politeness strategy in communicating. From the literature study and also the case study method used to analyze the findings, it was found that the politeness strategy was more widely used by students than teachers, this was related to social position and age. The strategies used are positive politeness and bald on-record which are mostly used by students. On the other hand, negative politeness and off-record strategies are mostly used by teachers. It was also found that students used politeness more than their teachers and from a cultural point of view, the social status that separates teachers and students in Indonesia demands being able to give respect to the educators.Keywords: Politeness strategies, online communication, EFL context

In conversations, people tend to speak politely to keep their interlocutors’ feelings so the conversation can be maintained in harmony. They follow several rules and principles that already exist in society. They apply politeness strategies so that the communication can run effectively. This study aims to discover the politeness strategies performed by the main characters of Pride and Prejudice movie and explain the pattern of different types of strategies used in the movie. The data were taken from the movie’s transcript as the primary source. A descriptive qualitative method was used to analyze politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson. Based on the analysis, the politeness strategies were used by the main characters of Pride and Prejudice movie. The types of politeness strategies employed are bald-on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record strategy. The most frequent strategy was positive politeness which occurred 98 times from 149 data. The patterns of politeness strategies applied are in declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences. All types of sentences contain bald-on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record strategies. By using politeness strategies, people appreciate their interlocutors so that the conversation will be well-maintained. Besides, this study contributes to English language teaching in comprehending cross-cultural understanding (CCU) through the movie, especially in western culture.

This study deals with the politeness strategies of directive utterance used by the host of Satu Jam Lebih Dekat Talk Show on TV One. This study employs qualitative design which aims at describing the politeness strategy of directive utterance used by the host. The strategy of politeness is related to those proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987); Bald on record strategy, Positive politeness, Negative politeness, and Off-record strategy. Directive utterance is related to those proposed by Vanderveken (1990); there are 56 types of directive utterances. The subject is the host as the interviewer in three episodes who participated in this research. The results show that the host expresses her directive utterances in request, questions, interrogates, urge, invite, and cautions. The host applied the four types of politeness strategies to relate directive utterances as politeness strategies stated by Brown and Levinson they are (1) bald on record, (2) positive politeness, (3) negative politeness, (4) off record. The most type is question (30%) as positive politeness. It is caused by the host wants to give questions respects the H’s negative face want and will not (or will only minimally) interfere with the H’s freedom of action. Keywords: politeness strategies, directive utterances

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 conversations about transgender perspectives, using Brown and Levinson's (1987) framework. The research employed a qualitative method, analyzing recorded conversations between male and female participants discussing transgender issues from social and religious perspectives. The analysis identifies four main strategies: positive politeness, negative politeness, bald-on record, and off-record. Positive politeness was the most frequently used strategy, with male speakers employing it 14 times and female speakers 7 times, primarily through agreement, repetition, and joking. Negative politeness strategies appeared 10 times, equally distributed between genders, using indirectness and questions. Bald-on record strategies were used 14 times, mostly by female speakers, indicating their tendency for direct communication. The off-record strategy was minimally used, occurring only once by a male speaker. The study finds that participants' close relationships and shared knowledge facilitated the frequent use of positive politeness and bald-on record strategies. Notably, male speakers were more polite, often using positive politeness, while female speakers were more direct and explicit, especially on sensitive topics. This research highlights the influence of social dynamics and cultural norms on politeness strategies in discussions about transgender issues.

This research focused on analysing the politeness strategies in online teachers' and students' virtual classroom interaction at SMPN 16 Cirebon. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to explain the use of positive politeness strategies, negative politeness strategies, bald-on-record strategies, and off-record strategies and the relationship among the politeness strategies in teacher-students virtual classroom interaction in the online teaching-learning process at SMPN 16 Cirebon. The data were collected by using observation with recording and note-taking. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis, Braun and Clarke's theory. The finding showed that positive politeness, negative politeness, bald-on-record, and off-record strategies exist in virtual classroom interaction. The teachers used positive politeness to engage students' attention and build a comfortable situation in the online virtual classroom. At the same time, students used it to respect the teacher before conveying their questions or answering their opinions. The students and teachers use bald-on-record to communicate their feelings in an emergency. Students used off-record to avoid the teacher's questions, while the teacher used it to build the student's thoughts in the beginning activities. All the strategies correlate and impact creating an atmosphere or situation in online virtual classroom interaction.

This research discusses the politeness strategies used by Ellen DeGeneres in interviewing children and adults on The Ellen Show. This research uses a descriptive qualitative method. This research aims to describe the politeness strategies and the differences in politeness strategies addressed by Ellen when interviewing children and adults. The theory applied to explain the analysis of politeness strategies is Brown and Levinson's theory (1987). The results showed that Ellen's talk show host delivered four politeness strategies with different breakdowns. The politeness strategy that tended to be used for children is the positive politeness strategy at (62,5%). The other most used are negative politeness (18,8%), off-record strategies with (12,2%), and bald of record (6,3%). Meanwhile, for adults, Ellen dominantly reckoned to Positive Politeness strategies (72,2%), followed by negative politeness (16,7%), bald of record, and Off Record strategies (5,6%). Positive politeness is the most common form used by Ellen in interviewing her guests, however, there were differences between the two. The differences between children and adults are there several points that researcher found one of them, the use of politeness that is not found in adults but used by children, namely the politeness of apologies, having an unconfident attitude, and avoiding conflict mean that Ellen applies this politeness so that children feel comfortable when talking and can familiarize themselves with children. In addition, this is also a form of attention and teaches children to know where they are wrong.

The realizations of politeness need to be implemented in the process of teaching and learning in the class, especially in English language classroom context. Applying appropriate politeness strategy in talking to the students is very important to create effective teaching and learning process. This study examines politeness strategies used by the native English teacher. It aims to identify the use of politeness strategies realized by the native English teacher in classroom interaction. This research was qualitative research method. The participant of the research was one native English teacher who taught EFL students in a university in Indonesia. The data were obtained through the class observation. Those data then were analyzed by using politeness theory proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987). The result revealed that all politeness strategies suggested by Brown and Levinson (1987) were applied by the teacher in delivering his speech to the students, such as bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record. Negative politeness became the most dominant politeness strategy performed by the native English teacher while the least one was off record. These four strategies were mostly employed by the teacher in order to remind the students, give them commands (task-oriented), praise the students, request the students to do something, make the class more interesting, and motivate the students.

This study conducts a discourse analysis of six speeches delivered by Vice President Sara Duterte concerning the MATATAG Curriculum, using AntConc software to examine lexical categories, specifically verbs, adverbs, and adjectives, along with their frequency patterns. Grounded in Goffman’s Politeness Theory, the research identifies the politeness strategies employed, including positive politeness, negative politeness, bald-on-record, and off-record strategies, to reveal how linguistic choices shape the public’s perception of educational reforms. The findings show that Duterte’s speeches strategically use language to emphasize urgency, inclusivity, and alignment with both national identity and international standards. Frequent verbs highlight foundational learning and reform initiatives, adverbs stress consistent and timely policy implementation, and adjectives underscore themes of inclusivity and regional cooperation. The analysis uncovers a balanced deployment of politeness strategies: positive politeness, negative politeness, bald-on-record politeness, and off-record politeness, that maintain rapport, assert authority, and engage diverse stakeholders effectively. This study fills a methodological gap, with this research utilizing AntConc software to analyze the linguistic elements and their frequency in Duterte’s speeches revealing her politeness strategies and the underlying ideologies reflected in the corpus. The implications extend to students, educators, political pundits, and future researchers, offering insights into effective communication in discourse and fostering critical engagement with political speech, as well as with the use of Antconc. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how politeness strategies, and lexical selection in political speeches can influence educational policy acceptance and public trust.

This study investigates the politeness strategies employed in interactions on Ganjar Pranowo's Instagram account, with particular attention to how linguistic choices shape digital political communication. It explores the strategies used by both followers and the politician to navigate social dynamics, express solidarity, and manage face-threatening acts within a public online setting. Utilizing a qualitative content analysis approach, the study examines 250 comments and responses, categorized according to Brown and Levinson’s four politeness strategies: bald-on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record. The findings reveal that positive politeness is the most commonly employed strategy among followers, reflecting a supportive and affiliative communicative style. Bald-on-record strategies are also frequently observed, indicating direct and unmitigated expressions. In contrast, Ganjar Pranowo primarily adopts bald-on-record strategies, suggesting a preference for clarity and communicative efficiency. Negative politeness and off-record strategies appear less frequently, underscoring the overall informal and inclusive nature of the digital interactions.

In every place have some unwritten rules depend on the countries, beside people use a language, they use a politeness also. Politeness is important thing that people must know when they communicate with other people and make a polite conversation. Politeness strategies are used to formulate messages in order to save hearer’s face when face-threatening acts are invitable or desire. Brown and Levinson stated four main types of politeness strategies: bald on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record (indirect). In this study is intended to analyze politeness strategies that used by characters in “The Big Wedding Movie”.  There is a problem that is discussed in this study (1) what politeness strategies are used on “The Big Wedding Movie”? (2) why do characters in “The Big Wedding Movie” use politeness strategies?  This analysis focus on the politeness strategies that used by characters in the conversation of “The Big Wedding Movie”. The researcher applied the qualitative research and used descriptive methods in this study because all data are in the form of words. Meanwhile, the type of the research is content analysis because it intended to analyze the content of the data which are in the form of movie script to find the politeness stretegies. When analyze the data, the researcher used the theory of Brown and Levinson about politeness strategies. Based on the result of the analysis, it is found that there are eighty six utterances that use four politeness strategies. They are bald on-record with twenty nine utterances, positive politeness with thirty eight utterances, negative politeness with ten utterances, and off-record with twelve utterances. The most frequently used politeness is positive politeness, bald on-record, off-record, and the less frequently used is negative politeness. For supporting the study, the researcher needed source of the theories related to politeness strategies such as : bald on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record (indirect). From the findings, the researcher expected that the result of this study will useful for English learners to get the information from politeness strategies found in the movie of “The Big Wedding Movie”.

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.

This research was conducted to examine the politeness strategies and power relations found in the “Actors on Actors” interview between Zendaya and Nicole Kidman on the Variety YouTube channel. The analysis was based on Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness strategies theory and Brown and Gilman’s (1960) power and solidarity theory. The objectives of the study were: (1) To identify the politeness strategies employed by Zendaya and Nicole Kidman in interviews on the Variety YouTube channel (2) To analyze how the power relations influenced politeness strategies in interviews with Zendaya and Nicole Kidman on the Variety YouTube channel. A qualitative method was applied, with data collected through purposive sampling. A total of 47 politeness strategies were identified in the interview between Nicole Kidman and Zendaya. Positive politeness appeared most frequently (34 times), followed by negative politeness (7), bald on-record (4), and off-record strategies (2), with no instances of don’t do the FTA. The dominance of positive politeness indicates that the interaction is primarily characterized by solidarity, warmth, and mutual respect. Despite differences in age and experience, both speakers maintained an equal and friendly atmosphere. Their shared identity as professional actors enabled them to connect through a mutual understanding of the industry, the artistic process, and the emotional demands of their work, which in turn strengthened the solidarity expressed throughout the interaction.

<em>In a classroom context, teachers are unavoidable to correct something that a student has said, done or written. Sometimes, the corrections are in the form of suggestions. However, giving suggestion can be challenging, as it can threaten the student’s negative face. To reduce this threat, politeness strategies are necessary. This study was conducted to (1) identify the types of politeness strategies employed by an EFL teacher in delivering suggestions, (2) examine students’ perception of their teacher’s politeness strategies. This research is a qualitative case study involving an English teacher and 34 eleventh-grade Senior High School students. Data were collected through observations and interviews, and then analyzed using Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory. The result revealed that the teacher employs a balanced combination of politeness strategies, with positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record strategies each used 26% of the time, and bald on record used 22%. These strategies are employed for various reasons, including ensuring clear communication, maintaining a supportive classroom environment, and fostering closer teacher-student relationships. Additionally, students’ perceptions revealed that the teacher’s use of polite and indirect language contributes to a positive learning atmosphere, enhancing student comfort and engagement. However, this study is limited by its focus on a single teacher and a specific group of students, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to broader contexts.</em>

The choice of words used by the lecturer such as politeness strategies in the classroom interaction is very important, not only for controlling the classroom but also for the process of acquiring the language itself. This study aimed to investigate lecturer’s politeness strategies in criticizing teaching performance of students with multicultural backgrounds in a microteaching class. This qualitative study was conducted with the students from multicultural backgrounds. The subject of this study was a lecturer who taught Microteaching. The findings of this study showed that there were four most frequent criticism strategies used by the lecturer: demand for change, indicating standard, advice about change and other hint. In addition, the highest proportion of politeness strategies applied by the lecturer was occupied by positive politeness, off-record strategy, bald on record, and negative politeness. It implied that the lecturer mostly applied positive politeness in criticizing the students, in order to save the students’ face, get closer and give more positive feedback to help students develop their teaching performance. The facts also proved that students’ multicultural background did not affect too much lecturer’s decision in applying politeness strategies, yet it needed to be very careful in delivering them. Keywords: politeness strategies, criticism, multicultural backgrounds