Language Choice and Politeness Strategies in Junior High School Students' Argumentative Texts: A Sociopragmatic Study

Abstract

This study examines language politeness in junior high school students’ argumentative texts in Indonesian language learning from a sociopragmatic perspective. The focus of the study is on language choice and politeness strategies employed by students when expressing agreement or disagreement with various social issues and school policies. The research adopted a descriptive qualitative approach, with data sourced from argumentative texts written by ninth-grade students of SMP Negeri 4 Tawangsari, selected purposively. The research data consisted of linguistic units in students’ argumentative texts that represented forms of politeness strategies. Data were collected through document analysis. Data validity was ensured through methodological and theoretical triangulation, as well as persistent observation during the analysis process. Data analysis was conducted based on Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory and the sociopragmatic framework in education through the stages of data reduction, classification of politeness strategies, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The findings reveal that students’ argumentative practices are characterized by the dominant use of positive and negative politeness strategies through neutral diction, mitigating expressions, and non-confrontational declarative sentence structures. These linguistic strategies reflect students’ awareness of social norms, institutional relationships within the school environment, and the need to maintain readers’ social acceptance. The findings confirm that students’ argumentative texts constitute a social practice that integrates argumentative rationality with communication ethics. Therefore, argumentative writing instruction plays an important role in developing students’ pragmatic competence and language politeness.