Teaching impoliteness in the second-language classroom.

How rude! Teaching impoliteness in the second-language classroom.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines polite as: “having or showing good manners or respect for other people; something socially correct or proper” (2015). Then, we can instantly imply that politeness -and the lack of it- is a social perception and, since language and society have such an intertwined relationship, it should be a topic of interest for language teachers around the world.

Gerrard Mugford presents some interesting statements regarding the topic of impoliteness and the importance of its study in a L2 classroom. I particularly coincide that SL students have the ‘communicative right’ to know about impoliteness, because one of the main goals of any language is to develop skills in students that would enable them to participate successfully in real life situations, and the real world is far from being Wonderland.

While reading the text, I could not help to compare the ideas presented by the author with the overly protected way some parents raise their children, and the criticisms it raises. I could hear my mother asking my aunts: “Do you want them to live in a plastic bubble? Because once you send them out there, it is going to explode with them in it.” She always stated that the role of a parent was to raise a human being able to stand on his own feet and to function adequately in society. It is my belief that Mugford presented a similar argument for SL teachers.

Furthermore, I agree with the fact that the problem with what constitutes impoliteness is ultimately a hearer perception and judgment; it is subjective. I side with Locher & Watts (1987) about politeness constituting a discursive concept, which is why, as teachers, we should focus on the discursive struggle in which interactants engage and try to replicate some of the situations where we could encounter them to help avoid awkward situations.

As a student, I was always too focused in acquiring the declarative knowledge; improving my data was my main goal. Then, years later, when I made an American friend, he used the phrase “textbook English” to describe the way I spoke and wrote the language. He stated that I was right, but it ‘felt’ weird. We used to have uncomfortable situations because he had a sarcastic and ironic sense of humor which I did not understand, despite that I am a sarcastic person using L1. This proves that the declarative knowledge is insufficient to communicate and stablish relationships without the procedural knowledge, just as Mugford suggested. AS L2 learners, we need to know what to say/hear and how to say/hear it.

Also, I found fascinating the four categories of impoliteness, predominantly the social and cultural ones, because I think that the examples showed a level of discrimination that is present in our L1 as well. What I mean is that, if even people sharing the same mother tongue and raised in the same society is unable to differentiate the ‘tone’ in the remarks made by their peers, then it is a complicated concept to explain. Mostly, because each culture has ‘socially acceptable’ things and our background tends to make harder to assimilate any changes.

As for the strategies people show for dealing with social impoliteness, I have discovered that I unconsciously do the ‘excessive politeness’. My tutor at the University in the US had to sat me down and explained to me that I overly thanked people, that he knew it was a cultural thing (he was married with a Mexican for 10 years) but that in the US it was not necessary, that I could imply it with my tone. It was eye opening, because he stated he had received some complaints; there were people that understood my thank you as an offensive remark, similar to sarcasm or an insult they could not figure out. I never knew!

Finally yet importantly, I find significant to state that while doing some research about

...