Pragmatic perception of politeness in requests by Korean learners of English as a second language

The focus in this paper has been on determining the differences between the English native speakers and the ESL Korean learners in the use of politeness strategies under a variety of situations where social and psychological factors are variables. The findings suggest that in spite of much similarities between two groups, the Korean learners were not always able to use politeness strategies in a manner similar to the native speakers of English. The study has some implications for the teaching of politeness strategies in requests in EFL classrooms in Korea. As the results of the study show, though in most situations the Korean learners did not differ from the native speakers of English in the use of politeness strategies, in some situations where a requester-requestee relationship is both socially and psychologically close, i.e., in an intimate friendship, they were not able to use politeness strategies in a way similar to the native speakers of English. I suppose that this difference results from a cultural difference between the two languages.