Discovering EFL Students’ Politeness Strategies in Google Classroom Interaction During Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Politeness is an important aspect that cannot be separated in the interaction both in formal and informal situation. There are many previous studies have investigated about politeness strategies which focus on face-to-face interaction. Since in pandemic covid-19 the teaching and learning process was conducted by online learning platforms where the students and lecturer do the interaction. Thus, this study aims to discover about EFL students’ politeness strategies in google classroom interaction during pandemic covid-19. This research is qualitative research method by involving case study in one of the English Literature Department in one of University in Lampung. The subjects of the research were the fourth semester students who take Advance Reading Class. In teaching and learning process, google classroom is one of the platforms used for doing the interaction. The researcher will investigate the EFL students and lecturer interaction based on the politeness theory asserted by Brown and Levinson. There are five politeness strategies will be investigated, such as; the methods of positive politeness (such as welcome, appreciation, and address term), the strategies of negative politeness (such as apologies), and common language. The phrase "Thank you, Mam" conveys gratitude and is frequently used by students to decrease threat when providing feedback on a lecturer's instructions. The study's findings revealed that while students limit their text-based interactions to brief salutations like "Hi, ma'am" or "Yes, ma'am," they also employ politeness methods to ensure the success of online learning. This study points the way for future research on politeness in various contexts and sheds light on the feature of politeness in online interaction in Google Classroom.