Politeness plays an important role in the communication. In English class，teaching and learning can be realized by the communication between teachers and students. Therefore, how to reflect the phenomena of politeness and how to choose appropriate politeness strategies is significant for English teaching. By reviewing theories and studies concerning politeness strategies in teacher talk, this study is conducted in the framework of Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory. After observing, recording and interviewing 12 college English classroom teaching, the author of the study adopts qualitative analysis research method. From the data by observation, recording, the study revealed that 6 positive strategies such as “Notice and attend to H or hearer (his interests, wants, needs and goods)”, “Include both S and H in the activity” and “Give gifts to H (goods, sympathy, understanding and cooperation)” are employed in the college English classroom teaching. After transmitting recorded interview materials into written materials, the research found the reasons for college English teachers to employ positive politeness in English classroom teaching are: the dilemma of English learning, the change of teaching focus and the special characteristics of college students. As how positive politeness strategies help facilitate English classroom teaching, all the interviewed English teacher think that they help create harmonious atmosphere and encourage students’ learning motivation and confidence.

Zhang Qiongyan, Cao Simin. On Positive Politeness Strategies of Teacher Talk in English Classroom Teaching for Non-English Major Undergraduates. Frontiers in Educational Research (2021) Vol. 4, Issue 10: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.25236/FER.2021.041001.

[1] Allwright, D., Bailey, K. M. (1991). Focus on the language classroom: an introduction to classroom research for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge Universtity Press.

[2] Brown & Levinson. Universal in Language Use: Politeness Phenomena [J]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978. 

[3] Brown, P. and Levinson, S. 1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.

[4] Chaudron, C. (1988). Second Language Classrooms: Research on Teaching and Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

[5] Chen, R. (1986). Face, Saving face, Losing face: An introduction to Brown and Levenson’s politeness strategies. Foreign Languages, 4:17-21

[6] Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign language Education Press.

[7] Fraser, B.1990. Perspectives on Politeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 14,219-235

[8] Goffman. Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face to Face Behavior. [M]. New York: Anchor Books, 1967.

[9] Gorge Yule. Pragmatics [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000.

[10] Gu, Y. G (1992). Politeness, pragmatics and culture. Foreign language teaching and research, 4: 10-17.

[11] Lakoff, R. 1973. The logic of politeness: or Minding your p’s and q’s . Chicago linguistic society, 9:292-305

[12] He, Z.X. An overview of pragmatics [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai foreign language education press, 1989:165. 

[13] Johnson, W. L. & Rizzo, P. Politeness in the tutoring dialogs: “run the factory, that’s what I’ddo.”[J]. Lecture Notes in computer science, 2004.

[14] Leech, G. 1983. Principles of pragmatics. London: London Group Limited.

[15] Liu, J. (2009). An analysis on teacher talk’s pragmatic function from the perspective of face theory. Journal of Hubei university of Economics, 9:140-141

[16] Liu, R.Q. Critical review of Leech’s Politeness Principle, Foreign language teaching and research, 1987,(2),P42- 46.

[17] Liu Yan, A study on politeness strategies of teacher talk in senior high school English classroom. D.Harbin Normal University2018

[18] Richards, J.C., Rodgers, T (1986). Approaches and Methods in language teaching: A description and analysis. New York: Cambridge university press.

[19] Thomas, J.1995. Meaning in Interaction: An introduction to Pragmatics. London: Longman.

[20] Tarone, E., & Yule, G. Focus on the language learner [M]. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

[21] Watts, R. J. (2003). Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[22] Wang Cuicui. On Politeness Strategies of Teacher Talk in Classrooms of Postgraduate English Program. Hainan University,2014

[23] Xu. S.H. Studies of Politeness in China. Journal of foreign languages (journal of heilongjiang university) 2:1-7