POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF STUDIES PUBLISHED FROM 2021 TO 2023

Abstrak

This study presents a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) examining research on politeness strategies in English Language Teaching (ELT) published between 2021 and 2023. The review aims to identify publication trends, dominant theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, major research findings, and pedagogical implications in the field of politeness studies. The review followed the PRISMA 2020 guidelines and analyzed peer-reviewed journal articles retrieved from Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. Eligible studies were selected based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria and were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate a substantial increase in research on politeness in ELT, with Brown and Levinson's Politeness Theory remaining the dominant analytical framework. Positive politeness emerged as the most frequently employed strategy in classroom interaction, particularly in teacher feedback, classroom management, and learner engagement. Most studies adopted qualitative research designs, relying on classroom observation, discourse analysis, and interviews, while quantitative and mixed-methods studies remained relatively limited. Geographically, the literature was concentrated in Asian EFL contexts, particularly Indonesia, China, Iran, Malaysia, and Japan. The review also reveals a shift from conceptual discussions of pragmatic competence toward empirical investigations of classroom discourse, online learning, and teacher–student interaction. The study concludes that politeness should be regarded as an essential pedagogical resource for developing learners' pragmatic and intercultural communicative competence. Future research should incorporate broader geographical contexts, longitudinal designs, and mixed-method approaches to provide more comprehensive evidence regarding the effectiveness of politeness instruction in English language teaching.