A STUDY ON POLITENESS AND GENDER AMONG
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN TAIWAN
高中生台灣地區禮貌與性別之研究
教
授: 鍾 榮 富 老師
研究生: 蘇 聖 翔
學
號: NA1C0023
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Background and Motivation
 According
Digest
 Females
Introduction
to a global courtesy test conducted by Hemelryk(2006) in Reader’s
more polite than males?
 Will
a gender difference in politeness be found among senior high school
students in Taiwan?
 Is
the gender of the teacher a contributing factor to politeness in teacherstudent interactions?

Add your second bullet point here

Add your third bullet point here
The purposes of the study
1.
To investigate the relationship between senior high
school students’ genders and their performance of
politeness.
2.
To compare the relationship between the teacher’s
gender and students’ performance of politeness.
3.
To probe the effects of significant others’ discipline on
students’ performance of politeness.
4.To examine the differences between male and
female students, motives for their performance
of politeness.
5.To explore the relationship between the teacher
expectations and students’ performance of
politeness.
Research Questions
1.Do students’ genders show significant effects on their
performance of politeness?
2.Does the teacher’s gender have a significant influence on
students’ their performance of politeness?
3.Does significant others’ discipline of politeness show
significant effects on students’ performance of
politeness?
4.What are the differences between male and female
students’ motives for their performance of politeness?
5.Are there any gaps between teacher expectations
and students’ performance of politeness?
Literature Review
•Lakoff (1975) suggests that “politeness is
developed by societies in order to reduce friction in
personal interaction.
•According to Fraser’s(1990) research , there are
four different perspectives on politeness: the facesaving view, the conversational-maxim view, the
social-norm view, and the conversational-contract
view.
The primary uses of nonverbal behavior are
(1)expressing emotion,(2)conveying
attitudes,(3)communicating one's personality traits,
and (4)facilitating verbal communication
(Argyle,1975)
According to Eagly's(1987) social role theory, a
theory of sex differences, most societies have a
division of labor based on gender.
The general flow can be conceptualized as follows:
Methodology
Subject
•The subjects used as participants in this study included
two groups.
•One group of the subjects included 600 third-year
students from three senior three senior high schools in
Pingtung (298 males and 302 females).
•All these students were composed of 120 males and
120 females from six classes at Chauchou Senior High
School 178 males from four classes at Pingting Senior
High School , and 182 females from four classes at
Pingtung Girl’s Senior High School Respectively.
Instruments
•The instruments employed in the study included an
observation list and two questionnaires.
•An observation list for students’ performance of
politeness.
•Questionnaires.
•A questionnaire on students’ performance of
politeness.
•A questionnaire on teacher expectations for students’
performance of politeness.
Procedures
Data Analysis
•First ,the data from the OLSPP and the
questionnaires was computed and calculated by
the descriptive statistics.
•The results were displayed in frequency and
percentage to examine students, actual
performance of politeness and the responses to
politeness on QSPP and QTESPP.
•Second, an independent samples t-test was conducted
to compare the gender differences in students’ actual
performance of politeness and the responses to
politeness on QSPP and QTESPP.
•Third, the Pearson product-moment correlation was
used to explore the relationship between students’
performance of politencess and the effects of significant
others’ discipline.
•At last, students’ responses and teachers’ responses
to the open-ended questions on QSPP and QTESPP
were categorized and analyzed qualitatively to explore
students’ motives for the performance of politeness.
Conclusions
•On the basis of the quantitative and qualitative data
analyses, the major findings of the study are summarized
as follows.
Suggestions
•The findings in the study can help teacher, parents and
students to better understand male and female students’
performance of politeness, attitudes and motive.
•Besides, it is hoped that multiple politeness should be
provided by family and school education to help them live
up to the social expectations in advance and fit in with the
society in the future.
•Furthermore, teachers should improve the teacherstudent relationship and actively realize students’
motives and thoughts to shorten the gap between
teacher expectations and students’ performance of
politeness.
Thank you!