O uso da polidez linguística em chats educacionais: um estudo comparativo com chats de entretenimento

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the interaction between tutor and students. This research aims to qualify the politeness strategies used in educational and entertainment chats, in terms of the categories proposed by Brown and Levinson (1978; 1987). We decide to conduct an ethnographic research, taking as corpus three virtual chats proposed by a tutor in three different contexts. These chats were accomplished in two different courses, taught between 2008 and 2010. These virtual chats took place on the context of blended learning, an approach that combines face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction. The virtual courses were proposed by the Federal University of Ceará, which developed a virtual learning environment, named SOLAR. Our results suggest that during the chat, students try to include their colleagues in their virtual interaction. On the contexts where there are a imposition of the threaten act, they tried to mitigate their clauses, particularly if these clauses were addressed to the tutor. We also observed that the tutor behavior is directed to maintain a formal interaction with the students, establishing a hierarchical position in all analyzed virtual chats.