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Introduction
Politeness is a universal phenomenon in human society.People regard politeness as an important element of communicating with others.Communication will not be processed without respecting each other.One of the most direct ways to express politeness is through language.However，there are a variety of languages that are owned by a plenty of communities.In this case，people always encounter misunderstandings when they speak to a person who has a different culture background.As an international student in UK，I have noticed that some students are confused about how to show politeness when communicate with both students and teachers，then misunderstandings are caused.Some of this confusion leads to that these students give up showing politeness and adopt a more direct way of expressing themselves.Finally，they may leave an impolite，even a rude impression to their teachers.Kramsch（1998，3）maintained，language is a tool which is used to express，embody and symbolize cultural reality.Exploring the differences of civilizations behind languages which using among students and teachers，and how these differences generated are more significant while promoting intercultural communication.
This essay is going to analyse the differences between English and Chinese when students and teachers show politeness in their conversation，and find out implications of these differences.The whole essay is divided into six parts，including an introduction and conclusion.In part one，it displays the context of expressing politeness and the purpose of this essay.Then，I will sum up and analyse the previous findings on politeness.In part three，I will identify the differences in Chinese and English in university of how they show politeness.The causes of these differences will be discussed in part four.The implications of previous findings will be evaluated in the part five.At last，I will summarise the main idea of the whole paper.
Literature review
There have been some linguists and scholars who do a lot of researches on politeness in Chinese and English.They found that there are some principles can be defined to describe some aspects of politeness in communication.
The earliest research on politeness may derive from the findings by Brown and Levinson（1978，61）.They maintained that face is the most important factor that improves politeness while communicating and they have stressed the position of individual freedom and autonomy in politeness. Leech（1983，54）also proposed that face is holy and inviolable for each person，and it is the basic element which cannot be ignored in communication.Leech，Brown and Levinson have all emphasize the crucial position of face in communication.On the other hand，Brown and Levinson（1978，101）have separated the face into two aspects：negative face that people are free to act as oneself without considering others’ attitude；and positive face that people are willing to obtain the approval from others.With the appearance of these two kinds of face，people began to analyse politeness in both positive and negative sides.Then Leech（1983，104）has reclassified and rearranged the politeness in pragmatics，and came up with six rules of expressing politeness.He proposed six politeness rules：tact，generosity，modesty，praise，consistency，and sympathy maxims.These rules are more universal and suitable for the nature of communication. The findings of linguists of western countries draw attention of Chinese linguists.China is a country that placed an emphasis on politeness from ancient times.Politeness is even the essential component of social morality.However，Brown and Levinson’s face theory has been doubted in terms of China.As Gu（1998，13）said，the consideration of autonomy and imposition is not exist in eastern culture.The politeness rules of western countries are not consistent with Chinese culture.Chinese Linguists such as Chen Rong（1986），Liu Runqing（1989），Gu Yueguo（1988）have investigated Leech’s politeness rules.Moreover，Gu Yueguo combined western theories with Chinese culture so as to come up with a series of new politeness rules which is suitable for Chinese.He（1992，75）proposed five rules as well.They are respect；appellation；elegant；moral，speech and behaviours；seek common ground.
From the rules in both English and Chinese，we can see that there are still some similarities，such as consistency maxim and the rule of seeking common ground.They all focus on reaching an agreement and avoiding divergence.It indicates that people need to be approved when they engaged in a conversation and the agreement can ensure the conversation processed continually.However，there is one obvious difference in English and Chinese.In Chinese，people stress on modesty.Either the rule of respect or the appellation，they all start with modesty which speaker put himself（herself）in a relative lower place to give expression to politeness to hearer.Nevertheless，Leech highlights the maxim of tact which means fairness in English.He（1983，104）mentioned that the tact maxim is probably the most important kind of politeness in English society.The speaker and hearer are in an equal position in conversation.Different from Chinese，English users usually show politeness through words which can benefit others，but they don’t need to cost themselves to reach this goal.
Politeness phenomena between students and teachers
We can also identify the differences in politeness in the communication between student and teachers in university.There are more and more Chinese students choose to study aboard due to the good education quality，a different study environment，and even more opportunities of communicating with people from all over the world.For example，in UK，there are an increasing number of foreign students who come here to continue their study in university.These international students，especially the students from other continent，confront a quite different culture background in both daily life and academic life.If they are willing to get on well with the students and teachers in this country，the basic factor they should pay attention to is to be polite to everyone.However，as Wierzbricka（1991，2）maintained，the mode of interaction is depend on individual，particular social，cultural，and ethnic groups.Therefore，students from different countries exactly have different judgement of politeness.This is the reason why some students confused the way of showing politeness and leave a rude impression to the teachers.As following，I am going to look at some different between teachers and students in China and UK. Teachers’ speech in classroom
Teacher always gives instructions or response to student during the lesson to make sure that student follows the lesson and guides them to complete the activities.In China，the words teacher uses are different from British teacher，even in an English language class.For instance，when teacher response to student’s answer，Chinese teacher usually judge the answer directly，like ‘it’s correct；I’m afraid this is wrong.’ But in English，teacher often gives some good points from the answer at first，then check whether it is correct or not.Such as ‘your answer is interesting，try to think about it more deeply.’ On the other hand，when teacher gives instructions，Chinese teachers often says directly and concisely，such as ‘ be quiet’，‘turn to page 43’，‘I will give you five minutes to read the dialogue again’.Sometimes these instructions seem like order，and they are mandatory to be obeyed.However，in UK，teacher always say ‘can you turn to page 43？’ or ‘you have five minutes to read the dialogue’.Although Chinese teachers judge the answer in a direct way，it is not regard as impolite behaviour.As students，they should be modest when they are in front of teacher.Because teacher has a wider range of knowledge，they have the academic authority in that field to give comments.English speakers may think that the Chinese students loss face in the class since they are disapproved and ordered by teachers.But Matsumoto（1988，13）refers to the importance of society identity in Japanese and Chinese society.Spencer-Oatey（2008，15）also said people concern that they have a range of sociality rights and obligations to others，and their behaviours are based on these factors.As a teacher，he（she）regards himself（herself）as having the right to give the correct answer and instruct students.
In UK，we can notice that teachers usually instruct students by question sentences.It entails that the freedom and individual are stressed in English.Students and teachers are so equal in society that they both free to express themselves.Their ideas will be regard as convincing when there are good reasons to support them.Additionally，the sentences in English class reflect the tact maxim and the approbation maxim which are proposed by Leech（1983）.In the interaction，British teacher’s instructions are more indirectly and try to protect others’ face.Leech（1983，108）said in the tact maxim，‘indirect illocutions tend to be more polite because they increase the degree of optionality.’ In the case of approbation maxim，it is said to avoid unpleasant things about others，especially the hearer.Thus，the approval or compliment that teacher use to response to student’s answers is necessary for showing politeness in English. Interaction between students and teachers after class
Interaction of students and teachers are also different after class in China and UK.They are mainly different in four aspects：goal of interaction，content，way of interaction，place of communication.
In UK，the communication between students and teacher is not only for academic purpose，but also for providing students emotional and mental guidance.Meanwhile，it is also an opportunity for teacher to improve themselves by absorbing some different perspectives from students.So the relationship between them is mutual benefit.In China，the principal goal of interaction is to guide，educate and manage students.The right of teacher is overwhelming.As Spencer-Oatey（2008，15）mentioned，people always have specific purpose during communication activities.These different purposes lead to different content of interaction.In UK，the interaction includes not only knowledge，but emotions and feelings.In China，student usually communicates academic issues with teacher，and teacher knows little about their daily life.In terms of way of interaction，British teacher and student both have the right to express their own idea and comment on others’，while in China，student believes that teacher represent the authority of a certain field of knowledge，and they rarely query teacher.The place where interaction comes across is different as well.In UK，student can talk to teacher any place depending on situations，such as office，home，coffer bar.Both student and teacher expect the conversation to be pleasant and relaxing.In China，teacher and student seldom meet outside school.Therefore，they have limited time to communicate with each other.
From the four aspects above，they reflect some politeness rules in interaction between student and teacher. For UK student and teacher，they have an equal position in both daily life and academic life.They respect each other’s opinion and believe that they can benefit from each other.Therefore，interaction between UK’s student and teacher is more casual and relaxed.Querying teacher or drinking with teacher is treated as appropriate behaviour.Nevertheless，in China，teacher has a higher statue than student in society.So the behaviour of UK students is regarded as inappropriate in China.
Causes of Difference
1.Value of Differences
As Chen and Starosta（1998，28）stated，values is the essential element that influence human behaviour and guide forces of human behaviour.In Chinese culture，the most significant characteristic is collective values.People hold the view that the values of society and group is more important than individual.So，in this kind of society，people need group rather than personality or individualism.For this reason，in order to reach politeness，Chinese students always keep silent in the class，because it is better to keep quiet than to give the incorrect answer.Conversely，keeping quiet or just smile to a question is regarded as an impolite behaviour in UK since individualism is the crucial aspect of its values.The response to the question shows that you have heard the lecture or followed the lesson carefully. 2.Different social statues of teachers
In China，interaction between teacher and student is confined to certain contents and ways.There are still some areas that students are not allowed talking with teachers.It can be explained by the social statue of teacher in Chinese culture.From ancient China，teacher has relative higher social statues Teacher has been respected by all classes of people in society.As Lin（1993，224）mentioned，‘teachers as a professional group were praised as the engineer of the human soul and the gardeners taking care of the flowers of the country’.Therefore，in Chinese classroom，student and teacher are not equal，so is the interaction between them.Because of the inequality，students do not dare to express themselves according to their wishes.It causes some barriers in communication.In western countries，although teachers are also respected by people，it is considered to be a normal job like official or worker.Furthermore，individualism is advocated，so that students’ opinion cannot be ignored.It creates an equal atmosphere of interacting between student and teacher.
3.Differences in thinking patterns
Another cause of these differences is the thinking patterns.A person’s thinking patterns depend on their culture background.The thought of people in western countries seems like a straight line.They show their opinions directly in the front of the essay or lecture.So，they also convey their feelings directly.In the student-teacher interaction，British teacher focus more on emotional communication due to emotion will stimulate students to think more deeply and thoroughly.On the contrary，the thinking patterns of Chinese focus on relations between things.Moreover，there are some ambiguities and implication in Chinese.It makes the thoughts of Chinese people develop spirally（Qiao，2008）.For these three reasons，English speakers always find that Chinese is too difficult to understand.It is a complex job for them to anatomize the implications in Chinese.Similarly，British and Americans’ boldness in expressing emotion is hard to be accepted by Chinese.
Implications of the differences
Chen and Starosta（1998，28）stated，‘the study of intercultural communication aims to understand the influence of culture on our attitudes，beliefs，and behaviours in order to reduce misunderstandings that result from cultural variation’.They also pointed out that our language and behaviour are decided by culture.Therefore，exploring intercultural communication provides us the opportunity to improve ourselves by learning from other’s culture.In the previous part of this essay，some differences between student and teacher in English and Chinese have been identified.Although they vary from culture to culture and no one can judge whether the culture is good or not，some of them are still better than the others.In the view of communication，we can learn the better aspects from other culture.For example，in Chinese university，the conservative relationship between student and teacher is not good for promoting academic discussion.Students will not produce ideas by simply listening to teacher，and the teacher will not acquire new perspectives by teaching.Few communication leads to no progress.Developing the relationship between student and teacher to a more fair and democratic direction will generate academic breakthroughs. Conclusion
Politeness is what people of different cultural backgrounds all try to learn and maintain.This thesis makes a comparative study of politeness behaviors in Chinese and English through student and teacher’s communication and based on various rules proposed by linguists both from China and UK.Although these rules are different according to their language background，there are some similarities as well.It makes a great effect on intercultural communication by people from China and English speaking countries.
As a whole，the differences between teacher and student in politeness in university of China and Britain are mainly in two aspects：the interaction in the class and after class.Chinese teacher adopts a more powerful and direct way to communicate with students in the class，and lack of communicating after class.On the other hand，the British teacher adopts a more indirect and equal way to interact with students，and communicate positively with students after class.These differences are chiefly result from diversity of values，thinking patterns and the social statues of teachers.Intercultural communication attempts to achieve mutual development. These findings help us to improve the education system in China.The urgent need of Chinese university students is to transform their thinking to a more open and equal area，so as to encourage the communication with teacher.
Reference：
Brown，P.& Levinson，S.（1978）.Politeness：Some Universals in Language Usage.Cambridge：Cambridge University Press.
Chen，G.M.& Starosta，W.J.（1998）.Foundations of Intercultural Communication.the United States：A Viacom Company.
Chen，R.（1986）. Face，Loss Face and Keep Face.Newspaper of Shanghai Foreign Language University.04.
Gu，Y.（1998）.Politeness and Chinese face.Lecture given in the Department of Linguistics，University of Luton，Summer.
Jing，L.（1993）.Chinese Teacher’s Social Statues and Authority in the Classroom.McGill loumalof Education，Vol.28 No.2.
Kramsch，C.（1998）.Language and Culture.Oxford：Oxford University Press.
Leech，G.N.（1983）.Principles of Pragmatics.London：Longman Linguistics Library.
Liu，R.Q.（1989）.Language and Culture.Shanghai：Foreign Language Education Press.
Matsumoto，Y.（1988）.Reexamination of the Unversity of Face：Politeness Phenomena in Japanese.Journal of Pragmatics，12：403-26.
Spencer-Oatey，H.（2008）.Culturally Speaking.London：Continuum International Publishing Group.
Wierzbicka，A.（1991）.Cross-Cultural Pragmatics：the Semantics of Human Interaction.New York：Mouton de Gruyter.
Politeness is a universal phenomenon in human society.People regard politeness as an important element of communicating with others.Communication will not be processed without respecting each other.One of the most direct ways to express politeness is through language.However，there are a variety of languages that are owned by a plenty of communities.In this case，people always encounter misunderstandings when they speak to a person who has a different culture background.As an international student in UK，I have noticed that some students are confused about how to show politeness when communicate with both students and teachers，then misunderstandings are caused.Some of this confusion leads to that these students give up showing politeness and adopt a more direct way of expressing themselves.Finally，they may leave an impolite，even a rude impression to their teachers.Kramsch（1998，3）maintained，language is a tool which is used to express，embody and symbolize cultural reality.Exploring the differences of civilizations behind languages which using among students and teachers，and how these differences generated are more significant while promoting intercultural communication.
This essay is going to analyse the differences between English and Chinese when students and teachers show politeness in their conversation，and find out implications of these differences.The whole essay is divided into six parts，including an introduction and conclusion.In part one，it displays the context of expressing politeness and the purpose of this essay.Then，I will sum up and analyse the previous findings on politeness.In part three，I will identify the differences in Chinese and English in university of how they show politeness.The causes of these differences will be discussed in part four.The implications of previous findings will be evaluated in the part five.At last，I will summarise the main idea of the whole paper.
Literature review
There have been some linguists and scholars who do a lot of researches on politeness in Chinese and English.They found that there are some principles can be defined to describe some aspects of politeness in communication.
The earliest research on politeness may derive from the findings by Brown and Levinson（1978，61）.They maintained that face is the most important factor that improves politeness while communicating and they have stressed the position of individual freedom and autonomy in politeness. Leech（1983，54）also proposed that face is holy and inviolable for each person，and it is the basic element which cannot be ignored in communication.Leech，Brown and Levinson have all emphasize the crucial position of face in communication.On the other hand，Brown and Levinson（1978，101）have separated the face into two aspects：negative face that people are free to act as oneself without considering others’ attitude；and positive face that people are willing to obtain the approval from others.With the appearance of these two kinds of face，people began to analyse politeness in both positive and negative sides.Then Leech（1983，104）has reclassified and rearranged the politeness in pragmatics，and came up with six rules of expressing politeness.He proposed six politeness rules：tact，generosity，modesty，praise，consistency，and sympathy maxims.These rules are more universal and suitable for the nature of communication. The findings of linguists of western countries draw attention of Chinese linguists.China is a country that placed an emphasis on politeness from ancient times.Politeness is even the essential component of social morality.However，Brown and Levinson’s face theory has been doubted in terms of China.As Gu（1998，13）said，the consideration of autonomy and imposition is not exist in eastern culture.The politeness rules of western countries are not consistent with Chinese culture.Chinese Linguists such as Chen Rong（1986），Liu Runqing（1989），Gu Yueguo（1988）have investigated Leech’s politeness rules.Moreover，Gu Yueguo combined western theories with Chinese culture so as to come up with a series of new politeness rules which is suitable for Chinese.He（1992，75）proposed five rules as well.They are respect；appellation；elegant；moral，speech and behaviours；seek common ground.
From the rules in both English and Chinese，we can see that there are still some similarities，such as consistency maxim and the rule of seeking common ground.They all focus on reaching an agreement and avoiding divergence.It indicates that people need to be approved when they engaged in a conversation and the agreement can ensure the conversation processed continually.However，there is one obvious difference in English and Chinese.In Chinese，people stress on modesty.Either the rule of respect or the appellation，they all start with modesty which speaker put himself（herself）in a relative lower place to give expression to politeness to hearer.Nevertheless，Leech highlights the maxim of tact which means fairness in English.He（1983，104）mentioned that the tact maxim is probably the most important kind of politeness in English society.The speaker and hearer are in an equal position in conversation.Different from Chinese，English users usually show politeness through words which can benefit others，but they don’t need to cost themselves to reach this goal.
Politeness phenomena between students and teachers
We can also identify the differences in politeness in the communication between student and teachers in university.There are more and more Chinese students choose to study aboard due to the good education quality，a different study environment，and even more opportunities of communicating with people from all over the world.For example，in UK，there are an increasing number of foreign students who come here to continue their study in university.These international students，especially the students from other continent，confront a quite different culture background in both daily life and academic life.If they are willing to get on well with the students and teachers in this country，the basic factor they should pay attention to is to be polite to everyone.However，as Wierzbricka（1991，2）maintained，the mode of interaction is depend on individual，particular social，cultural，and ethnic groups.Therefore，students from different countries exactly have different judgement of politeness.This is the reason why some students confused the way of showing politeness and leave a rude impression to the teachers.As following，I am going to look at some different between teachers and students in China and UK. Teachers’ speech in classroom
Teacher always gives instructions or response to student during the lesson to make sure that student follows the lesson and guides them to complete the activities.In China，the words teacher uses are different from British teacher，even in an English language class.For instance，when teacher response to student’s answer，Chinese teacher usually judge the answer directly，like ‘it’s correct；I’m afraid this is wrong.’ But in English，teacher often gives some good points from the answer at first，then check whether it is correct or not.Such as ‘your answer is interesting，try to think about it more deeply.’ On the other hand，when teacher gives instructions，Chinese teachers often says directly and concisely，such as ‘ be quiet’，‘turn to page 43’，‘I will give you five minutes to read the dialogue again’.Sometimes these instructions seem like order，and they are mandatory to be obeyed.However，in UK，teacher always say ‘can you turn to page 43？’ or ‘you have five minutes to read the dialogue’.Although Chinese teachers judge the answer in a direct way，it is not regard as impolite behaviour.As students，they should be modest when they are in front of teacher.Because teacher has a wider range of knowledge，they have the academic authority in that field to give comments.English speakers may think that the Chinese students loss face in the class since they are disapproved and ordered by teachers.But Matsumoto（1988，13）refers to the importance of society identity in Japanese and Chinese society.Spencer-Oatey（2008，15）also said people concern that they have a range of sociality rights and obligations to others，and their behaviours are based on these factors.As a teacher，he（she）regards himself（herself）as having the right to give the correct answer and instruct students.
In UK，we can notice that teachers usually instruct students by question sentences.It entails that the freedom and individual are stressed in English.Students and teachers are so equal in society that they both free to express themselves.Their ideas will be regard as convincing when there are good reasons to support them.Additionally，the sentences in English class reflect the tact maxim and the approbation maxim which are proposed by Leech（1983）.In the interaction，British teacher’s instructions are more indirectly and try to protect others’ face.Leech（1983，108）said in the tact maxim，‘indirect illocutions tend to be more polite because they increase the degree of optionality.’ In the case of approbation maxim，it is said to avoid unpleasant things about others，especially the hearer.Thus，the approval or compliment that teacher use to response to student’s answers is necessary for showing politeness in English. Interaction between students and teachers after class
Interaction of students and teachers are also different after class in China and UK.They are mainly different in four aspects：goal of interaction，content，way of interaction，place of communication.
In UK，the communication between students and teacher is not only for academic purpose，but also for providing students emotional and mental guidance.Meanwhile，it is also an opportunity for teacher to improve themselves by absorbing some different perspectives from students.So the relationship between them is mutual benefit.In China，the principal goal of interaction is to guide，educate and manage students.The right of teacher is overwhelming.As Spencer-Oatey（2008，15）mentioned，people always have specific purpose during communication activities.These different purposes lead to different content of interaction.In UK，the interaction includes not only knowledge，but emotions and feelings.In China，student usually communicates academic issues with teacher，and teacher knows little about their daily life.In terms of way of interaction，British teacher and student both have the right to express their own idea and comment on others’，while in China，student believes that teacher represent the authority of a certain field of knowledge，and they rarely query teacher.The place where interaction comes across is different as well.In UK，student can talk to teacher any place depending on situations，such as office，home，coffer bar.Both student and teacher expect the conversation to be pleasant and relaxing.In China，teacher and student seldom meet outside school.Therefore，they have limited time to communicate with each other.
From the four aspects above，they reflect some politeness rules in interaction between student and teacher. For UK student and teacher，they have an equal position in both daily life and academic life.They respect each other’s opinion and believe that they can benefit from each other.Therefore，interaction between UK’s student and teacher is more casual and relaxed.Querying teacher or drinking with teacher is treated as appropriate behaviour.Nevertheless，in China，teacher has a higher statue than student in society.So the behaviour of UK students is regarded as inappropriate in China.
Causes of Difference
1.Value of Differences
As Chen and Starosta（1998，28）stated，values is the essential element that influence human behaviour and guide forces of human behaviour.In Chinese culture，the most significant characteristic is collective values.People hold the view that the values of society and group is more important than individual.So，in this kind of society，people need group rather than personality or individualism.For this reason，in order to reach politeness，Chinese students always keep silent in the class，because it is better to keep quiet than to give the incorrect answer.Conversely，keeping quiet or just smile to a question is regarded as an impolite behaviour in UK since individualism is the crucial aspect of its values.The response to the question shows that you have heard the lecture or followed the lesson carefully. 2.Different social statues of teachers
In China，interaction between teacher and student is confined to certain contents and ways.There are still some areas that students are not allowed talking with teachers.It can be explained by the social statue of teacher in Chinese culture.From ancient China，teacher has relative higher social statues Teacher has been respected by all classes of people in society.As Lin（1993，224）mentioned，‘teachers as a professional group were praised as the engineer of the human soul and the gardeners taking care of the flowers of the country’.Therefore，in Chinese classroom，student and teacher are not equal，so is the interaction between them.Because of the inequality，students do not dare to express themselves according to their wishes.It causes some barriers in communication.In western countries，although teachers are also respected by people，it is considered to be a normal job like official or worker.Furthermore，individualism is advocated，so that students’ opinion cannot be ignored.It creates an equal atmosphere of interacting between student and teacher.
3.Differences in thinking patterns
Another cause of these differences is the thinking patterns.A person’s thinking patterns depend on their culture background.The thought of people in western countries seems like a straight line.They show their opinions directly in the front of the essay or lecture.So，they also convey their feelings directly.In the student-teacher interaction，British teacher focus more on emotional communication due to emotion will stimulate students to think more deeply and thoroughly.On the contrary，the thinking patterns of Chinese focus on relations between things.Moreover，there are some ambiguities and implication in Chinese.It makes the thoughts of Chinese people develop spirally（Qiao，2008）.For these three reasons，English speakers always find that Chinese is too difficult to understand.It is a complex job for them to anatomize the implications in Chinese.Similarly，British and Americans’ boldness in expressing emotion is hard to be accepted by Chinese.
Implications of the differences
Chen and Starosta（1998，28）stated，‘the study of intercultural communication aims to understand the influence of culture on our attitudes，beliefs，and behaviours in order to reduce misunderstandings that result from cultural variation’.They also pointed out that our language and behaviour are decided by culture.Therefore，exploring intercultural communication provides us the opportunity to improve ourselves by learning from other’s culture.In the previous part of this essay，some differences between student and teacher in English and Chinese have been identified.Although they vary from culture to culture and no one can judge whether the culture is good or not，some of them are still better than the others.In the view of communication，we can learn the better aspects from other culture.For example，in Chinese university，the conservative relationship between student and teacher is not good for promoting academic discussion.Students will not produce ideas by simply listening to teacher，and the teacher will not acquire new perspectives by teaching.Few communication leads to no progress.Developing the relationship between student and teacher to a more fair and democratic direction will generate academic breakthroughs. Conclusion
Politeness is what people of different cultural backgrounds all try to learn and maintain.This thesis makes a comparative study of politeness behaviors in Chinese and English through student and teacher’s communication and based on various rules proposed by linguists both from China and UK.Although these rules are different according to their language background，there are some similarities as well.It makes a great effect on intercultural communication by people from China and English speaking countries.
As a whole，the differences between teacher and student in politeness in university of China and Britain are mainly in two aspects：the interaction in the class and after class.Chinese teacher adopts a more powerful and direct way to communicate with students in the class，and lack of communicating after class.On the other hand，the British teacher adopts a more indirect and equal way to interact with students，and communicate positively with students after class.These differences are chiefly result from diversity of values，thinking patterns and the social statues of teachers.Intercultural communication attempts to achieve mutual development. These findings help us to improve the education system in China.The urgent need of Chinese university students is to transform their thinking to a more open and equal area，so as to encourage the communication with teacher.
Reference：
Brown，P.& Levinson，S.（1978）.Politeness：Some Universals in Language Usage.Cambridge：Cambridge University Press.
Chen，G.M.& Starosta，W.J.（1998）.Foundations of Intercultural Communication.the United States：A Viacom Company.
Chen，R.（1986）. Face，Loss Face and Keep Face.Newspaper of Shanghai Foreign Language University.04.
Gu，Y.（1998）.Politeness and Chinese face.Lecture given in the Department of Linguistics，University of Luton，Summer.
Jing，L.（1993）.Chinese Teacher’s Social Statues and Authority in the Classroom.McGill loumalof Education，Vol.28 No.2.
Kramsch，C.（1998）.Language and Culture.Oxford：Oxford University Press.
Leech，G.N.（1983）.Principles of Pragmatics.London：Longman Linguistics Library.
Liu，R.Q.（1989）.Language and Culture.Shanghai：Foreign Language Education Press.
Matsumoto，Y.（1988）.Reexamination of the Unversity of Face：Politeness Phenomena in Japanese.Journal of Pragmatics，12：403-26.
Spencer-Oatey，H.（2008）.Culturally Speaking.London：Continuum International Publishing Group.
Wierzbicka，A.（1991）.Cross-Cultural Pragmatics：the Semantics of Human Interaction.New York：Mouton de Gruyter.