Abstract

The acquisition of language as well as the acquisition of social consideration, or politeness, are two sets of separate skills. However, the lack of language knowledge by an English language learner can result in social mistakes that can be perceived as impolite by native speakers. The present study aimed to explore the relationship between English language proficiency and politeness in making requests at retail shops, specifically focusing on Saudi students in the United States. There were five participants in this study: two Saudi ESL students with low English proficiency; two Saudi Ph. D. students with advanced English proficiency, and an American waiter who speaks English as a native language. The study was conducted by using a qualitative research method in two phases. The first phase included observing all participants during interaction, and the second phase included interviewing a server at one of the restaurants where the students visited. The main findings revealed that there was no strong correlation between politeness and English language proficiency in making requests. However, there were some factors found in this study that contributed to politeness level, such as intonations and the use of politeness markers.

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