Conflict prevention and management through linguistic politeness

Developing digital resources for Portuguese as non-native language learners

Abstract

Inherently articulated with specific social rituals in each community, expressive acts are instruments at the service of linguistic politeness, playing a crucial role in regulating interpersonal relationships and, therefore, in avoiding conflicts.

This study presents the rationale behind the design of a didactic unit of a distance learning course, focused on the development of sociopragmatic competence in European Portuguese (EP) and aimed at migrants and refugees with an intermediate proficiency level. This unit, focused on linguistic politeness, addresses a set of expressive speech acts with clear implications for the prevention of conflicts that may arise in the interaction between native speakers and late learners of EP.