David is a sociolinguist at the University of Lleida, and this talk was a critical evaluation of the concept of "English", including the way the language has become commodified.
'Say please!', children are often told, after saying something like 'Give me a biscuit'. If they ask why, they may receive the explanation, 'Because it's polite'. We English teachers sometimes do the same.
In this workshop, we will look at how politeness works in English. We will see that there is more than one kind of politeness, and it varies according to the relationship of speaker to listener. We will consider the problems this may present for learners and try out some classroom activities for raising awareness of this aspect of language.
