Teachers and Students Politeness Strategies Observed in Inclusive Elementary Classrooms

Minding and assisting students in inclusive classrooms requires several types of competencies since those classes consist of students with different characteristics, abilities and even backgrounds. No exaggeration to say that the teachers’ usage of speech acts and politeness strategies play an important role in helping the students in inclusive classes to understand and accept each other and also improve their own self-esteem. Adopting Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies, Yule’ politeness and interaction, and Searle’s Speech Act, this paper explores how the teachers and students apply their knowledge on politeness strategies and speech act during the teaching and learning activities. This study applies quantitative and qualitative data. The subject investigated were four upper-middle inclusive classrooms consisting 10-15 students in SD Tumbuh 3 Yogyakarta and four teachers. Directive speech acts and bald-on strategy are regarded as the most dominant speech and politeness strategies. Another finding also shows that the students have certain knowledge regarding politeness strategies yet they fail to apply them in communication through their peers and teachers. Therefore, it is concluded that basically the teachers have implemented the suitable strategies but they need to cultivate the students’ communicative competence and attempt to give the students opportunities to practice more English speech acts than they do today.