Politeness and style differences in the Turkish language: the case of pre-service English language teachers

Being polite or perceived as a polite person is a difficult task when learning different languages andexperiencing different cultures because learning grammar or vocabulary of a language is not enoughto be perceived as a polite person since one should learn social and cultural values of thecommunity as well. Moreover, politeness strategies and styles utilized while one is speaking his orher mother tongue can vary in a contextual manner. This study aims at examining politenessstrategies and style differences the Turkish language. In accordance with this aim, a discoursecompletion test with four cases was prepared and administered to 32 pre-service English languageteachers. The findings indicated that the participants, to a large extent, used positive politenessstrategies while using the intimate style whereas they generally preferred negative politenessstrategies while using the consultative and the formal styles. Additionally, it was found out that thefamily background of the participants has no meaningful influence on the way they use politenessstrategies in different styles. However, it is concluded that gender and age of the participants affecttheir choice of the address forms.