Investigation of the Effectiveness of Gender on the Use of Politeness Requests in Communication in Teaching

Abstract

During communication in the formal teaching and learning time in the classroom, teachers and students often make polite requests. However, the use of politeness in requests among the students and students’ reactions to teachers’ polite requests could be influenced by gender. This study attempted to explore the difference between male and female students in using politeness in request, an element of the politeness theory, and reaction towards the polite ones from teachers at the English language teaching ̣(ELT) context at the Asian International School (AIS). The participants in the current study are 100 first-year students from four classes of the English language teaching ̣department in the third semester of 2023. The data research was collected by the questionnaires. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyze the collected data and find out the results. The result showed that the use of politeness in requests among the students and their reaction towards teachers’ polite requests in the classroom between male and female students are quite different. Specifically, the result of the study revealed that female students use politeness in requests more regularly than males’ and they tend to need teachers’ polite requests more than boys.