Abstract:
This study aims to investigate teacher’s politeness in questioning and answering
strategies in EFL classroom interaction. It was conducted by applying
descriptive qualitative research. The research data, then, were English teacher’s
utterances in questioning and answering. Those were collected through
observation and interview techniques. The collected data were analyzed based
on Sugiyono’s analysis model (2017) including: (a) data collection, (b) data
reduction, (c) data display, and (d) conclusion. The findings of the research
reveal that all politeness strategies as proposed by were realized by the teacher,
namely: Bald on Record (2,5%) in questioning and 0% in answering, Positive
Politeness (37,5%) in questioning and 60% in answering, Negative Politeness
(10%) in questioning and 0% in answering, and Off Record Politeness (50%) in
questioning and 40% in answering. Subsequently, there were two politeness
processes applied by teacher in questioning and answering activities, namely;
direct and indirect politeness. In detail, polite direct questions and answers went
to 45% and 57.5% sequentially. Meanwhile, the polite indirect questions and
answers shared the same percentage at 50%. Regarding the reasons of using
politeness strategies, they were as follows: (a) Bald on Record was used to say
things without any minimization of the imposition toward the hearer since it did
not attempt to minimize the threat to the hearer’s face, (b) Positive Politeness
was realized to avoid giving offense by hightlighting friendliness, (c) Negative
Politeness was to address negative face like threatening the hearer’s negative
face which wanted to have freedom of action, and (d) Off Record was to show
that was not able to be blamed to have commited to a certain intention. So, it
was concluded that all politeness strategies and processes of questioning and
answering were applied by the English teacher in EFL classroom interaction.
