Different Politeness Strategies in Requests Affected by Experience of Studying Abroad

This study investigated the differences between English learners who have been lived in English-speaking country for over a year and English learners who have studied only in Korea in their awareness and production of politeness strategies under diverse situations and influenced by social and psychological variables. Thirty 6th grade elementary students were asked to respond to twelve situations in which they would like to carry out requests in polite ways, “Politeness Awareness” questionnaire. And they also participated to provide politeness production through Discourse Completion Test, “Politeness Production” test. The findings of the "Politeness Awareness" suggest that students of both groups selected more polite strategies in distant situations and less polite ones in close situations. However, the results of the “Politeness Production” reveal that two groups differ from each other in producing polite request strategies. It can be predicted that one of two groups does not know enough to use politeness strategies in diverse situations even though one has a general sense of the use of politeness. Nevertheless, students of both groups used the “Can you...?” strategy as the most polite one for the various requestees in most situations. Accordingly, the study concludes that learners of English need explicit instruction in politeness as well as in activities that involve raising pragmatic awareness.