ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

Impoliteness is not merely the opposite of politeness, but a complex and dynamic interactional phenomenon shaped by cultural norms, individual cognition, and discourse context. While previous research has examined impoliteness in monolingual and intercultural contexts, limited attention has been paid to how EFL learners from high-context cultures interpret and enact impoliteness within intra-cultural settings. This study investigates how Korean and Japanese EFL learners produce, respond, and negotiate impoliteness in English through culturally parallel group discussion tasks conducted in Korea and Japan. Drawing on Conversational Analysis and Sociocognitive Approach, the study analyzed 76 impoliteness acts, 92 recipient responses, and 49 witness responses. The findings reveal distinct cultural patterns in how mock impoliteness, criticism, and pragmatic ambiguity are managed. While Korean learners tended to adopt more direct or assertive styles, Japanese learners showed greater reliance on indirectness and contextual softening. Witness responses further highlighted group-level negotiation strategies, such as seeking compromise or clarification. The study contributes to cross-cultural pragmatics by demonstrating that impoliteness is co-constructed in discourse, mediated by cultural scripts and individual salience. Pedagogical implications are discussed for raising learners’ metapragmatic awareness and developing their sensitivity to culturally variable norms of appropriateness in L2 communication.

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