POLITENESS IN THE SFL CLASSROOM: SOME THEORETICAL KEY CONCEPTS FOR RUSSOPHONE CONTEXTS

The aim of this article is to provide a summary of some of the most important ideas about linguistic politeness that can be useful for teachers of Spanish as a foreign language –SFL– who work in russophone contexts and who are not familiar with this field of pragmatics. It is shown the existing discussion on the terms polite and politeness since the first works of Lakoff until Watts‟ accounts. Although there is certain consensus about what politeness means, it is also true that its connotations vary in different languages and cultures. The paper explains why it is important not to neglect politeness in second language learning in reference to Thomas‟ ideas and in relation to pragmatic failure and negative pragmatic transfer concepts. A brief overview of the most relevant theoretical systems of politeness is given, focusing interest in Brown and Levinson‟s theory, due to its major influence. Its key ideas, like face, face threatening act or the distinction between positive and negative politeness are described. Finally, the paper discusses some of the main similarities and differences between Spanish and Russian politeness. Although both are often described as politeness systems oriented towards positive politeness, with a high degree of directness, the values related to their understanding of affiliation differ to a considerable extent.