Teaching Politeness Strategies

This paper deals with the politeness strategies potential in subject specific fields and highlights the role of learning politeness strategies as a powerful cognitive tool fundamental to further enhancing the second language learner’s ability to cope with this specialized verbal characteristic in hospitality industry discourse. The paper explores the close interplay between social (extra-linguistic) and structural (linguistic) factors shaping the linguistic idiosyncrasies of English and Macedonian politeness strategies in hospitality industry discourse. 
It has been argued that the awareness of cross-cultural differences concerning politeness strategies may be exploited as a valuable teaching resource for classroom interaction.


Introduction
Many hospitality training programs available nowadays to advanced students in ESP courses focus on culture and cross-cultural communication skills.The context of culture is an important frame within we interpret the reality and organize our experience.Katan (1999:17), emphasizes that culture maybe viewed as a commonly shared mental model or map of the world consisting of beliefs, values and cognitive environments which affect the behavior and identify individual persons.Cross-cultural understanding is of considerably great importance when ESP courses are taught.It has been widely recognized that moving across cultures actually means communicating not only with foreign visitors but also dealing with foreign social and cultural systems.Functioning successfully in academic, business or other professional settings always understands adjustment to cultural variations in social relationships.Wierzbicka (1985), these differences in the degree of directness ….would also apply to Russian, Serbian, Croatian, Spanish and many other languages.It is English which seems to have a particularly rich system of devices reflecting a characteristically Anglo-Saxon cultural tradition.

Teaching Politeness
Consequently the speech act Book a double room will need further 'softening'.While the possible context-bound variants of this request in Macedonian would be Ќе ве молам да резервирате една двокреветна соба, Можам ли да ве замолам да резервирате една двокреветна соба, the English language offers a wide range of lexical and grammatical options depending on the learner's awareness of the degree of indirectness required:  The mechanisms the English use to express their feelings, opinions or ideas is acquired at very early age.Therefore, students of English should learn how to deal effectively with this typically English rich system of devices reflecting their cultural tradition which tolerates individual idiosyncrasies and peculiarities, which respects everyone's privacy.Goodale (1987)  According to Wierzbicka (in Katan, 1999:215), the English indirectness seems to be "related to core English values of freedom, respect for privacy, principles of negative politeness and not wishing to impose."Thus, EFL students should be strongly advised to avoid direct contradictions and learn to split direct disagreement into stages, although this might not be the way they map the various options when using their mother tongue: This is especially the case in restaurants where it is not uncommon to hear people asking for or offering сиренце (cheese.dim),винце (wine.dim),пржени компирчиња (fried potatoes. dim) etc. Speakers may freely decide whether to use diminutives or not and use them only in relatively informal contexts.(Terkourafi, 2004:266).It seems as if the diminutive strategies in hospitality discourse were developed for the purposes of expressing informal, positive politeness.

Teaching Politeness Strategies to Advanced Students in ESP Courses by Irina Petrovska Intercultural Communicative Competence
So far, in the analysis of the speech acts in the hospitality discourse the stress was put basically on the Anglo-American cultural values, which are reflected through the English language.This should not lead to a conclusion that the speech acts in L1 reflect certain cultural values, whereas the speech acts realized in the L2 reflect only the absence of these values.It is completely understood that the speech acts completely reflect those values that are a characteristic of the L2.For instance, the speakers of English may think that the speakers of Macedonian through the way they communicate reflect dogmatism, insufficient interest for their interlocutors in the speech interactions, inflexibility even a tendency to be too indiscrete, curious, etc.On the other hand, having in mind the speech acts of the speakers of English, the speech acts used by the speakers of Macedonian can be defined of missing cordiality, spontaneity, and directness.
As for the differences in the speech acts in both compared cultures the analysis show that even though there exist literature on speech acts where English communicative strategies are often interpreted as manifestation of universal natural logic, or a universal logic of conversation (Gordon and Lakoff, 1975) the analysis have shown that such certifications are too ethnocentric.The specific speech acts in English which are pointed out to universal principles in expressing politeness, have shown to be linguistically and culturally specific.In the English language there are no universal rules of politeness, nor specific rules of politeness when communicating with a guest, but rather there is a difference between communicative strategies in the English language and the reflected cultural values in it.
The hospitality industry with its specific services is an arena of cultural clichés and cultural misunderstandings.It is of great importance to know the cultural norms and the language used by the hospitality personnel when communicating with foreign guest.communicator.The same speaker may be defined as uncooperative and insufficiently intelligent when not being able to offer a reply to a well elaborated indirect addressing by the speakers of English.On the other hand, too loud expression of emotions for instance, when a customer is complaining or the use of direct forms of address, for the speakers of English can be considered as insulting and irritating.
It is obvious that future challenges in hospitality education are calling for re-examining the methodology of teaching intercultural communication.According to Hymes, (1964) the ability to understand the speakers who come from different national cultures does not rely only on communicative competence but on the consciousness that the cultural meanings and values incorporated in the foreign language are specific for each national culture.
Hospitality students who learn foreign languages should become aware of learning how to understand the cultural differences and cultural relativity.Learning foreign language begins with a change towards applying the intercultural communicative competence.The cultural mirrors of the source culture and culturetarget which are incorporated in the speech acts can offer great contribution not only in the methodology of foreign language learning but for the participants themselves in the hospitality industry.Globally, this is a reflection of the Anglo-Saxon social matrix in contrast to the Byzantine social matrix.On the one hand, the English language and culture come from a long-time existing capitalist society, in comparison to the Macedonian language and culture upon which the long years of socialist system of existing left traces.The differences in the speech acts in the hospitality discourse in English and Macedonian are due to the fact that the cultural systems of both languages are organized differently which means there are differences in the cultural norms and cultural assumptions, and the social mechanisms of competence appear to be culturally specific.

Teaching Politeness
Speakers of a given culture very often and much more are exposed to the influence of a foreign culture and ever since before, as a result of the demand of their profession or as a result of the socio-economic makes which contribute towards the ethic profile of a country being quite picturesque.In that colourful field of different cultures, traditions, languages and dialects, insufficiently informed person can very often experience a cultural shock, thus confronting diverse influences on a daily basis.Therefore, the systematic study of the cultural phenomenon in general and specially studying the specific a nation's cultural conventions the guests encounter becomes an integral part of the modern educational system.The information offered through this approach offers better penetration in one's own culture.The importance of multiculturalism is seen in overcoming the ethnocentrism which is a needed precondition for living in a multinational and multicultural society.

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In the area of cross-cultural encounters misinterpretation of politeness strategies may occur if cultural variables are not respected.EFL learners, especially those pursuing advanced courses should be taught to develop 'sensitivity' when using English as a means of communication.
In the light of these cross-cultural considerations, there is a pressure on the ESP teachers to include cultural information in their courses so that students can have proper functioning in professional settings.
the realization in the speech acts in the category of polite requests reflect the connection with the different ways of evaluation cultural values in both cultures such as cordiality, hospitality, spontaneity, directness, intimacy and affection in contrast to indirectness, distance, tolerance and antidogmatism, individualism, which as such are reflected in the hospitality discourse.

Strategies to Advanced Students in ESP Courses by Irina Petrovska Teaching Politeness Strategies to Advanced Students in ESP Courses by Irina Petrovska 129
Macedonian politeness strategies are not alone among European languages in differing fromEnglish in this sense.According to

Politeness Strategies to Advanced Students in ESP Courses by Irina Petrovska 131
One of the often used communicative mechanism in hospitality industry are requests.Requests can be realized with a variety of constructions.In Macedonian three moods can be distinguished: indicative, subjunctive and imperative.Depending on the context all three moods can be used in expressing requests.As morphologically rich and at the same time being functionally flexible, imperative mood is very often used for everyday requests in Macedonian, for instance: резервирајте ми за четири особи една маса до прозорец; (Make a reservation for four by the window).Subjunctive interrogatives are also used for requests as they make it easier for the addressee to provide a negative response.For example, Кога би I'd like to book an all inclusive tour.Why don't you have a look at our promotional brochure first?OfferingWe could offer much better arrangement Teaching можеле да не сместите во поубавиот хотел; (If you could possibly accommodated us in the more beautiful hotel?).Within hospitality discourse, subjunctive interrogatives occur in both formal and informal contexts when there is high level of cooperation.A common everyday conversational means of requesting in Macedonian is the present indicative interrogative as in Ќе одиме на разгледување на градот; (Do [can] we go city sightseeing?A possible explanation for this use is that the present indicative interrogative expresses a degree of certainty and present reality, whereas subjunctive and modals express uncertainty and distance.For contrast, in English, imperatives are considered the least polite constructions when compared to declaratives and interrogatives.(Leech, 1983:119).One of the most common mitigating devices used with requests in Macedonian hospitality discourse is the use of diminutives.Diminutives are formed by adding special suffixes (e.g.енце, -ичко,-елценце, --уле) to nouns and adjectives (e.g.хотел [hotel] / хотел-че [hotel.dim].Multiple suffixation is also possible (e.g.кафуле [café] / кафуленце [café.dim+dim]).Even though their prototypical function is to indicate smallness, diminutives in hospitality settings are used extensively to indicate affection, endearment and informality.

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However, if the attitudes in the speech acts of the native speakers of English reflect what is 'normal', natural', are widely accepted, a successful intercultural communication among the speakers of different cultures cannot be realized.If a speaker of Macedonian tries to use simple imperative constructions in the English language will be marked as impolite and rough Teaching