Investigating the effect of teaching politeness strategies using activities on EFL students’ use of polite requests

Abstract

This research aims to find out the significance of teaching politeness strategies through using activities to develop English as a Foreign Language students' use of polite requests. Therefore, it is hypothesized that teaching politeness strategies using activities has a positive effect on EFL students' use of polite requests. To fulfill the aim of this study, a quasi-experimental research was conducted, and master one students of Didactique des Langues Etrangères at Larbi Ben M'hidi University were chosen to be the target population. The sample of this work consisted of thirty-eight students out of sixty-eight which was, in turn, the control and the experimental groups. Both groups passed through three phases, the first was the pre-test which is in a form of discourse completion task. The second was the treatment phase in which participants were taught politeness strategies; however, the experimental group was reinforced by several activities. Finally, a post-test, having the same form as the pre-test, was administered. To check whether there was an improvement, an independent samples t-test and a paired samples t-test were used. At the end of the study, the findings proved that the treatment received by the experimental group was effective in developing the students' use of polite requests. So, the research hypothesis was confirmed.