English Language Improvement Program

Below is a short passage

A classroom is a place of the interaction process which happens between a teacher and students. It must be effective and polite. If the classroom interaction runs well, the knowledge that will be delivered by the teacher will be received by students well. Teacher professional role endows them with the right to evaluate students’ behaviors, constrain their freedom of actions, control resources, and give critical feedback, which unavoidably poses a threat to students’ positive and negative face. In addition, a teacher is a model in the class and the students will imitate the way the teacher teaches them. Therefore, in creating good interaction in the classroom, teachers, and students should make good interaction. Based on this phenomenon of teacher’s speech acts to students’ compliance in the context of politeness, it is believed that a teacher’s politeness has an indirect effect on student compliance intention so as to enhance desired outcomes in the classroom. As it is found in some researches the speaker’s politeness relates to the hearer’s compliance. Teacher’s high politeness was found to be more likely to elicit positive emotions such as happiness and lead to compliance and vice versa to the low politeness that evoked negative emotions and caused resistance.

There are four stages in the development of children as learners. They are sensory-motor stage (from birth to two years of age), preoperational stage (from two to seven-year of age), concrete operational stage (from seven to eleven years of age), and formal operational stage (from seven-year onwards). There are different competencies of language for each stage. The understanding of the students in elementary school to the teacher’s politeness cannot be the same as the student understands at the undergraduate level.

Answer the following comprehension questions

1.      Why does the writer see teachers as models?

2.      The writer says a teacher's professional role may provoke student negative behavior. Say True or     False

3.      If your response to question number 2 is True, answer why?

4.      Teacher politeness is directly related to student compliance. Say True or False

5.      Do you agree with the idea that the understanding of a teacher’s politeness is affected by when age and educational maturity? Why?

6.      What would you suggest to be a topic for the passage?