Browsing by Subject "Politeness"
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Item Being polite in your second life : a discourse analysis of students’ interchanges in an online collaborative learning environment(2010-12) Chiang, Yueh-Hui; Resta, Paul; Schallert, Diane L.; Maloch, Beth; Liu, Min; Hughes, JoanWith the improvement of computer technology and the prevalence of the Internet, learning activities taking place in cyberspace by means of computer-mediated communication have become more common and accessible than even a decade ago. Being interested in how politeness phenomena as universal principles in human interaction played a role in the process of online collaborative learning in a graduate-level course, I conducted a naturalistic inquiry to explore students’ interaction through the lens of Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987). I analyzed the exchanges of 18 students divided into four teams with a consideration for such contextual factors as concerns about netiquette, time, modes of online communication, discourse functions, and sense of community. Influenced by the tradition of interpretivist/constructivist research paradigm, I adopted diverse data collection methods and discourse analytical techniques. Data are reported as a case study of a purposefully selected focal team of five students with supporting evidence interweaving multiple data sources (online discussion, self-reflective blog entries, self-report portfolios, peer/self assessments, field notes, videotapes of voice chat sessions, audiotapes of interviews, and online survey responses). Given the context of students being required to work collaboratively as a team throughout the semester, the findings of this study suggested that the focal team used a variety of politeness strategies to establish cohesion among members and to moderate the force imposed by presupposing too much underlying solidarity. Five contextual factors also emerged as influencing the focal team’s use of politeness strategies: norms/convention, online communication medium, topics and content of discussion, social distance, and personal differences. Instructional technology is subject to innovation and is meant to facilitate learning. Incorporating new technology (e.g., Second Life) into instructional settings can create new opportunities for learning on which learners’ use of politeness strategies depends. Thus, this study about politeness in an online collaborative learning context not only contributes to enriching views of politeness theory, but also in being able to help prepare learners to collaborate effectively in new immersive learning environments with comfort in the ways of fostering awareness of face-saving concerns to avoid or redress face threat situations that may damage team collaboration and lead to a negative learning experience.Item Greeting and leave-taking in Texas : perception of politeness norms by Mexican-Americans across sociolinguistic divides(2014-05) Michno, Jeffrey Alan; Koike, Dale AprilThe present study sheds light on how 16 Mexican-Americans residing in Texas perceive and follow politeness norms (e.g., Brown & Levinson, 1987; Fraser, 1990; Terkourafi, 2005) related to greetings and leave-takings in different cultural and linguistic contexts. Data from online questionnaires identify a significant difference in perceived level of social expectation (i.e. politeness) for employing the speech acts with Spanish- versus non-Spanish speakers. The data support previous research in identifying a sense of solidarity among Mexican-American extended families, but go further in suggesting that this bond extends to other Spanish-speaking acquaintances. Better understanding of these norms should facilitate inter-cultural exchanges between linguistic in- and out-group members.Item Paper bullets of the brain(2010-12) Markarian, Sandra Suzanne; Beaver, David I., 1966-; Bannard, ColinUsing the social networking site Facebook as a corpus, I collected 1,500 random samples of interactions between friends. I tracked the use of jokes and disparaging humor between same- and opposite-gender pairs to discover that there is a strong correlation between the style of joke-making evoked by the speaker and the gender of both the speaker and the hearer. The men in the study were about eight times more likely to make insulting or degrading jokes with other men than the women were with each other. Following the study is a discussion where I address methods of politeness across genders, approaches to humor, and how sex, culture, and gender expectations influence our communicative choices. Though the discussion is based in our linguistic choices, the results of the study reflect trends that are present in countless aspects of society, and the issues that are raised go far beyond the spoken word.Item Protecting your interviewer's face : how job seekers perceive face threat in a job interview(2010-05) Howell, Catherine Ray, 1985-; Maxwell, Madeline M.; Dailey, ReneThe interview is an important component of the selection process for employment and is one of the initial presentations of self by the applicant to the interviewer. As an extension of a study by Wilson, Aleman, and Leatham (1998), this study used politeness theory to investigate perception of face threat in the context of a job interview, specifically, when making requests and giving advice. This study predicted that jobseekers perceive an act as a greater threat to an interviewer’s negative face (appealing to interviewer’s autonomy) when making a request than when giving advice. Secondly, the study predicted that job seekers would perceive an act as greater threat to the interviewer’s positive face (appealing to the interviewer’s desire for approval) when giving advice or recommendations than when making a request. Both hypotheses were supported and other related interests such as acceptability of the act and likelihood of getting the job were also investigated.