Jessemar J.

Wao
ELT 201 (Introductory Linguistics for Teachers)
Midterm Exam

A Critic Paper On The Study

Politeness Strategies in Electronic Communication: The Speech Act of request by Indra
Karapetjana and Gunta Rozina

The speedy development of technology nowadays cannot be ignored. The transmission

of messages to anybody around the world is very simple this time and that is through our
fingertips thanks to technology. However, with the advancement of the technology nowadays
it should also level the normal ways in which people interact each other. The way we talk to
someone we do not know defines what kind of person we are. The way we deliver messages
through writing or speaking reflects what kind of behavior we have or it even gives a simple
hint to the kind of education we have, though not all the time.

The prevalent issues concerning social media networking sites, internet and all online
communication have been one of the subjects of numerous studies locally and abroad. At
school, the integration of computer and technology is called computer mediated
communication (CMC). There are also theories and methods of teaching in which technology
was integrated like Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching with Technology (TBLT). The
concept of TBLT in an electronic literacy framework that considers how people use computers
to interpret and express meaning (Shetzer & Waschauer, 2000, p. 173).

Electronic communication have been widely used in business, academe, and many other
aspects of social activities, thus, proper care should be made. In the linguistics facets, which
speaking and writing involves, electronic communication should be properly dealt. English in
the Philippines is considered the L2 this means that Filipinos must consider various rules of
grammar and syntax. The ability of every Filipino student in learning English must be
strengthened along with the use of technology specifically on electronic communication.
Because it greatly affects their manner of writing. Politeness is one of the basic requirements
for the students, especially in the academic context.

The study of Karapetjana and Rozina (2012) described the politeness strategies in
electronic communication specifically on the speech act of request. Their theoretical
foundations and belief were the research of Brown & Levinson, 1987; Thomas, 1995; Yule
1996 & Scahuer, 2009. For the methods of the study, the research question posed at the
beginning of the research wherein the researcher analyzed the stored email account of the
students as part of their study. Their study conducted ran for a year. They conducted an
analysis of a corpus of the 45 emails written by the first year undergraduate students majoring
English. They use Shauers taxonomy of requests strategies (2009) and Brown and Levison
(1987) linguistic strategies of negative politeness. They also integrated the framework of Biber
and Conrad (2009) for analyzing the situational characteristics of the corpus of emails.