TEACHERS’ POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO LEARN ENGLISH

This study explores politeness strategies used by English teachers in motivating
students to learn English in the classroom based on Brown and Levinson’s theory
of Politeness strategies. The objectives of this study were (1) to describe how the
teachers’ politeness strategies are realized in motivating students to learn English
(2) to explain the reasons of the teachers’ politeness strategies are realized the
ways they are. The action was applied at Junior High School. The data of this
study were sentences which consists of the teachers’ polite utterances in
motivating students to learn English, and the data source were three English
teachers of SMPN 4 Langsa, Aceh. The researcher randomly chose three English
teachers in three classes. The data were collected through descriptive qualitative
data, and used instrument observation, video recorded, and interview. The
findings showed that the teachers employed all types of politeness strategies. The
realizations of bald on record strategy used by the teachers in (1) one way,
positive politeness strategy in (10) ten ways, negative politeness strategy in (5)
five ways, and off record in (2) two ways. The reasons of the teachers used
politeness strategies were to motivate the students to give attention, fell good
about their efforts, and more active in getting the reward of their efforts in
learning English.