Spoken Discourse

2. Communicate more effectively by understanding politeness and face

          -Speakers adapt their talk in order to meet the needs and wants of the listener (Curzan & Adams 2012). 
          -Speakers use positive and negative face to operate politely 
                     Positive face: Listener desires to be approved, speaker uses compliments, shows equality when speaking
                     Negative face: Listener desires that their actions be unhindered, speaker uses apologies, indirect speech, requests

            -Every culture has different ideas of politeness. 
                     -Discover what is polite in your students' cultures. If they act in a way that is impolite in classroom culture, speaking
                                  out of turn, for example, use it as a discourse teaching moment. 
                     -Use specific and consistent directions to teach classroom culture. For example, guide students through cultural
                                 norms such as how to apologize, how to ask for more information, or how agree or disagree with a 
                                 classmate. 

               - A class discusses face-threatening acts, where a speaker or listening feels that their "face" is in jeopardy and they may need extra
                 politeness to have a smooth situation: http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/pragmatics/01/facethreatening.php

                -The same class discusses cultural differences and what might be considered rude in different cultures based on broken down
                  spoken discourse: http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/pragmatics/06/