Intercultural Politeness

Abstract

It is increasingly important in our globalised world for people to successfully manage interpersonal relationships. This is the first book to tackle this vital topic, by taking an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the process of relating across cultures. Drawing together key concepts from politeness theory, intercultural communication, and cross-cultural/intercultural psychology, it provides a robust framework for analysing and understanding intercultural encounters. It explores the ways in which individuals make judgements about others, deal with offence and conflict, maintain smooth relations, and build new relationships. These processes are explained conceptually and illustrated extensively with authentic intercultural examples and empirical data. With accessible explanations and follow-up activities, it will appeal not only to academics working in the areas of intercultural communication, pragmatic theory, conflict research and other related academic disciplines, but also to students of these topics, as well as professionals such as intercultural trainers and those working in the third sector.

Intercultural competence development during the adjustment period of Indonesian students in the UK

“…This can be accomplished by discussing the components of various values, beliefs, and behavioral standards. Group identities, cultural traditions, and individual personality qualities may all have an impact on the dynamics of relationships, as depicted in the image below (Spencer-Oatey & Kádár, 2021).…”

“…Overview of the influence of culture on interaction (Spencer-Oatey & Kádár, 2021) Participants in this study should be mindful of the many levels of context depicted in the picture above when creating intercultural contacts. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to take into account the factors that contribute to the expression of distinct norms, values, and beliefs in social behavior.…”

“…To achieve this goal, it is necessary to take into account the factors that contribute to the expression of distinct norms, values, and beliefs in social behavior. Group identities, cultural patterns, and individual personality features can all have an impact on the dynamics of our relationships with others, as depicted in the image above (Spencer-Oatey & Kádár, 2021). Following a brief explanation of what we mean by "intercultural contacts," the next part will move on to a discussion of the concept of "intercultural competence" as it applies to this research.…”

The Effect of Instructed Intercultural Pragmatics on the Metapragmatic Awareness and Interactional Competence of Tertiary Indonesian EAL Learners

“…This view contrasts the conception of language awareness as knowledge of simplistic pragmatic rules (e.g., using would you instead of can you to show politeness) (Liddicoat & McConachy, 2019). One reason for avoiding teaching politeness as a set of rules is that, as Spencer-Oatey and Kádár (2021) argue, politeness conventions in utterances or behaviour can significantly vary and mean differently depending on individual interpretations. As such, the emphasis of interculturally-oriented pragmatics instruction is on helping learners recognise different ways of understanding social concepts such as politeness, formality, and appropriateness.…”

“…This way of prescribing linguistic forms as polite or not indicates a binary and restricted view of appropriateness(Liddicoat & McConachy, 2019). Moreover, language is rarely inherently polite in itself because its use and interpretation are influenced by individual, contextual, and cultural factors(Spencer-Oatey & Kádár, 2021). Previous studies also found that textbooks present inventories of decontextualized phrases ordered from formal/polite, to informal but do not define what these concepts mean (e.g.,McConachy, 2013a;…”