The effects of teaching negative politeness strategies on oral communication skills of prospective EFL teachers

This study investigates the effects of teaching negative politeness strategies in Oral Communication Skills course for the development of oral communication skills of prospective EFL teachers. The randomized pre-test post-test control group design as an experimental research design was used in this study. The study was carried out in the Spring Semester of 2012-2013 academic year and the treatment process took ten weeks to complete. The study group of the research comprises two groups of freshmen pre-service teachers at Gazi University, English Language Teaching Program. The quantitative data were gathered through a discourse completion test applied as pre and post-tests and through a written interview form conducted at the end of the treatment process. The analysis and comparison of pre- and post-test results indicated that the pre-service teachers improved their oral communication skills after the treatment process. The written interview form results showed that they had positive opinions towards learning negative politeness strategies. They also emphasized the necessity of teaching these strategies in one of the courses at ELT curriculum. Therefore, it was concluded that teaching negative politeness strategies in Oral Communication Skills course is effective for developing oral communication skills of prospective EFL teachers. According to the findings, suggestions are made for further studies.