A Dissertation by GRACE HUI-CHIN LIN Submitted to the Office of ...

(1992) notion of politeness. They believed that the form of politeness might not need
to be very formal. Watts, Ide, and Ehlih (1992) asserted there were countless polite
expressions in different cultures around the world. They conceived that politeness
could be expressed by both verbal and non-verbal communications. Sometimes, a tap
on the shoulder would mean more than a thousand words. Likewise, to look your
interlocutor in the eyes, or to smile at him/her could show various types of politeness.
Similarly, in Leech’s (1983) pragmatic principle of politeness, the indirect way of
requesting was recommended as a better pattern than a direct request.
Intentionality
Students’ perceptions related to the replacement strategy and the
interlanguage strategy had responded to Faerch and Kasper’s (1983c) theory of
“intentionality” in using the communication strategy. Faerch and Kasper (1983c)
explained that intentionality was, “the speaker has control over the strategy that is
selected, and the choice is responsive to the perceived problem” (p. 5). Additionally,
in the theory of “intentionality,” Faerch and Kasper (1983c) emphasized, “The
implication of communication strategies being intentional is that there would be
systematic relations between the use of specific communication strategies and
specific conditions of the communicative situation” (p. 5).
In this study, some students had talked about their problems of
“comprehension,” “face-saving,” “struggling process,” and “time-saving,” which
were the major factors that influenced the students, use or non-use of a certain
strategy. The students provided reasons to explain their intentionality in choosing
strategies. The students’ reasons associated with their methods of comprehension
check, automatic reaction when talking to people from the similar language
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