Socializing politeness routines: Action, other-orientation, and embodiment in a Japanese preschool

Abstract

This article explores children's socialization into politeness routines in a preschool in Japan. In particular, it analyzes the verbal and non-verbal strategies that teachers deploy in encouraging children to engage in politeness routines, and examines ways that children initiate and respond to these routines with peers and socialize peers into them. This account is based on a 1-year ethnographic and linguistic study, which draws upon 48 h of audio–visual recordings of 2–5-year-old native and non-native Japanese speaking children in the classroom and on the playground. The findings suggest that politeness routines as embodied social action are an important means through which children learn to use language to display kindness, empathy, and other-oriented behaviors toward others, which are central goals of preschool education in Japan. These findings will be discussed in relation to the socio-cultural organization of the strategies used in this socialization.