FOSTERING POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH COMMUNICATION : A TRAINING PROGRAM FOR HIGH SCHOOLERS

Abstract

This community service program aims to foster pragmatic competence and linguistic ethics by training senior high school students in English politeness strategies. Preliminary observations at SMA Rancaekek revealed that students frequently encountered communication barriers, relying on overly direct linguistic forms due to a lack of situational awareness and explicit pragmatic instruction. To address this issue, the program implemented a participatory and applicative approach through the three-tiered Identify, Illuminate, and Integrate (3I) framework, combining the Genre-Based Approach (GBA) and Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL). The training actively engaged 50 eleventh-grade students in interactive lecturing, case analysis, and contextual role-playing simulations, while collaborating with local English teachers to ensure instructional sustainability. The empirical results demonstrated a significant increase in the students’ communicative competence, evidenced by the mean score rising from 54.20 in the pre-test to 81.50 in the post-test. Qualitatively, students exhibited heightened pragmatic flexibility and reduced communication anxiety, successfully transitioning from blunt, face-threatening expressions to sophisticated positive and negative politeness strategies. Ultimately, this initiative establishes a sustainable learning ecology that enhances students' real-world socio-pragmatic preparedness for future academic and professional interactions.