Politeness and verbal language education: reflections on racing comunicativa, interpersonal game and normativity

Abstract

From a practical perspective, this chapter seeks to reflect on the need to incorporate verbal politeness in the teaching of the Portuguese language, both oral and written modes, considering how the interpersonal interaction in various social contexts is established. Clearly a discussion on social factors involved in politeness expression is needed, as well the ability to convey and interpret the communicative functions and knowledge of the rules. This paper examines the politeness in oral and written interactions (formal/semiformal register), taking into account texts from the twentieth century as object of analysis, namely, television interviews, interviews printed later on as well as personal letters (exchanged between friends or family members) and published in collections of literary studies. This chapter also brings a brief reflection on how oral communication and writing are dealt in teaching of the Portuguese language. Our aim is to propose to elementary, secondary and high school teachers ways to work with verbal politeness in daily activities (conversations, interviews, letters, notes). Such tasks will hopefully aid students to perform their social role accordingly through various discursive practices.