The speech act of advising in teacher-teacher interaction

Abstract

The current study aimed to examine how university teachers advise their fellow teachers with a focus on solicited advice. To this end, 60 university teachers who use English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) as the medium of their everyday communication completed 8 role-plays in which newly hired teachers sought the advice of their colleagues regarding work issues. The role-plays were recorded and transcribed in preparation for coding, which was conducted with the use of Martínez-Flor’s (2003) taxonomy of advising and Trosborg’s (1995) taxonomy of internal modifiers. External modifiers were also examined as they emerged in the data. The results showed that the participants mainly preferred the use of direct advising strategies while simultaneously attempting to cater for the interlocutors’ negative face. While the advising strategies were situation dependent, the effect of the social variables of the advisor’s gender/teaching experience and the advisee’s academic rank was minimal. The results are interpreted in light of the theoretical model of politeness and the literature on the speech act of advising and the use of ELF.