摘 要

课堂教学是以教师话语为主导的一种特殊的社会交往形式，教师的语言表达方式往往对学生的学习效率以及课堂气氛有着至关重要的影响。本文以佩内洛普·布朗和史蒂芬·列文森的面子保全论为基础，来探讨面子理论在大学英语教学课堂中的应用。大学英语教师与已经成年的高校学生的言语交际过程中，难免会出现一些威胁面子的行为，本文着重讨论了如何直接和间接地维护学生的面子。

关键词：积极面子；消极面子；大学英语课堂

Contents

1. Introduction...............................................................................................................1
2. Demonstration...........................................................................................................2

2.1 Protecting positive face ...........................................................................................2

2.1.1 Protecting positive face directly............................................................................2

2.1.1.1 Stating agreements with students.......................................................................3

2.1.1.2 Stating cooperation with students......................................................................3

2.1.1.3 Showing attention and appreciation for students...............................................3

2.1.2 Protecting positive face indirectly.........................................................................4

2.1.2.1 Praise coming before criticism...........................................................................4

2.1.2.2 Implying what students should do......................................................................4

2.1.2.3 Empathizing with students.................................................................................5

2.2 Protecting negative face...........................................................................................5

2.2.1 Protecting negative face directly...........................................................................6

2.2.1.1 Giving choices to students..................................................................................6

2.2.1.2 Apologizing to students......................................................................................7

2.2.1.3 Avoiding asking a specific student when necessary...........................................7

2.2.2 Protecting negative face indirectly........................................................................7

2.2.2.1 Using deixis .......................................................................................................8

2.2.2.2 Using ambiguous expressions............................................................................8

2.2.2.3 Announcing a general rule..................................................................................9

1. Conclusion.................................................................................................................9

Work cited ....................................................................................................................11

Bibliography.................................................................................................................12

On Application of Face Theory in College English Classes

1. Introduction

Erving Goffman firstly raised his view on “face” in 1967, who pointed out that “face” is the positive social value which people have won efficiently during social association, and this kind of “face wants” is mutual, that is to say , if you want others to protect your face , you also have to protect others’ face. Based on Goffman’s theory, Brown and Levinson had a systematic research on the Face Theory in1978, which is well known to most people. They defined “face” as a public self-image, and further divided face into positive face and negative face. Everyone hope their faces can be protected instead of being hurt.

The positive face means that people hope to receive agreements and appreciation from others. The negative face means that people don’t want others to force them to do something, hoping that their freedom can be assured. ¹ While in the real world, all kinds of face threatening acts exist. When people are performing some actions that might threaten others’ positive or negative faces, they will adopt appropriate politeness strategies to relive some threat from their words.

Face Theory is an important politeness principle when people communicate with others. In college English class, teachers often take Face Theory as a principle, for college students are adults already, and teachers must care about their pride and feelings carefully. It is a difficult and skillful task for teachers to communicate with students. Teachers can receive a better response by changing the improper way they speak.

Face Theory has been studied by more and more people in the past few years. Fu Lingfang pointed out that the two aspects that composed “face” are contradictory. People often cooperate with each other to protect their own faces or others’ faces, but when the face of one side is threatened, they will choose to save their own faces, thus the other side’s face will be hurt. Zhang Yunyan expressed her view in 2009 that negative face is the need of autonomy, and the positive face is the need of approval.