Off-Record Politeness Strategies in Teacher Talk: A Comparative Study of Bachelor's and Master's Level Classes

Abstract

The absence of appropriate politeness strategies can often be a source of communication failure, especially in teacher-student interaction in the classroom. While the politeness strategies used by both teachers and learners in educational contexts have been well documented, there remains a lack of comparative study on the off-record politeness strategies used by teachers of bachelor's and master's level classes. To address this gap, the present study applies a qualitative methodology grounded in Brown and Levinson's (1987) Politeness Theory and Politeness Strategy Model to comparatively investigate the off-record politeness strategies adopted by teachers of bachelor's and master's level classes. The results indicate that teachers at both levels employ off-record sub-strategies, but with markedly different sophistication and effectiveness. Bachelor's level teachers favor accessible off-record strategies such as hints and metaphors that simplify concepts and manage classroom behavior, while master's level teachers favor more sophisticated strategies such as irony and presupposition that respect students' disciplinary expertise and foster in-group scholarly solidarity. The most noticeable difference between the two levels lies in the use of irony: bachelor's teachers use corrective irony aimed at behavior management, while master's teachers use culturally and intellectually grounded irony that fosters shared understanding and disciplinary belonging.