The Use of Criticizing Strategies in English and Javanese Languages by Javanese EFL Learners: A Comparative Study

Abstract

In communication, sometimes people give negative evaluation as a criticism to others in several kinds of conditions. In order to convey their critiques, the speakers will try to find the best words in a best way so the listeners would not feel threaten. Here, the use of politeness strategy is regarded as the best way in order to fulfill the purpose in criticizing. The study on criticism is worth to be done as the act of criticizing is one of the act that highly potential to threaten the face of the hearers. Various strategies are expected and recommended to be used by the speakers in order to alleviate the threats. A criticism can be realized by either direct or indirect strategies. Following Blum-Kulka (1987), the directness level of a criticism in the present study was determined by the degree of illocutionary transparency, and thus the amount of effort needed to interpret the illocutionary point of this criticism. That is, it assumes that ‘‘the more indirect the mode of realization, the higher will be the interpretive demands’’ (Blum-Kulka, 1987: 133).