Humor as a Politeness Strategy in Informal Interactions among Master One EFL Learners at Echahid Cheikh Laarbi Tebessi University

Abstract

According to Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory, politeness manages face-threatening acts to maintain social harmony, while humor, according to Martin’s Humor Styles Questionnaire, fosters connection through positive styles like affiliative and self-enhancing humor. This study investigates how humor functions as a politeness strategy in informal interactions among Master One EFL learners at Laarbi Tebessi University. It is grounded in Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory (1987) and Martin’s Humor Style Questionnaire (2003), which together provide the theoretical foundation for analyzing politeness and humor strategies. It addresses the research problem of how learners use humor as a politeness strategy. To investigate the two main research questions, the first question aims to explore the types and functions of humor used, while the second question focuses on how humor is strategically employed as a politeness strategy. Adopting a qualitative approach, this study employs Conversation Analysis to examine spontaneous interactions collected through phone-recorded informal conversations. The population consists of Master One students specializing in Language Sciences, from which a sample of 13 participants was drawn to take part in three sessions, two group-specific and one joint session. The findings underscore humor’s instrumental role in fostering smooth interaction. These insights demonstrate that humor effectively supports politeness by fostering rapport and reinforcing a sense of in-group identity, and advance the understanding of its pragmatic functions.