A STUDY ON POLITENESS STRATEGIES USED IN DISAGREEMENTS BY INDONESIAN LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

The aim of this paper is to classify the types of disagreement strategies used by Indonesian learners of English based on Graham hierarchies and to classify the types of politeness strategies in disagreement used by Indonesian learners of English based on Brown and Levinson’s theory. The researcher did this study by usingWDCT (Written Discourse Completion Test) techniques which consists of three situations (unfamiliar – equal, unfamiliar – lower, and unfamiliar – higher). The data were obtained from 30 respondents of English learners in Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta. The findings of the this research show that Indonesian learners used three strategies in showing disagreement and four politeness strategies in disagreement. Majority of Indonesian learners likes to show their disagreement by countering their argument and giving some evidences or opinions to support their ways. Then, some of them also used contradiction strategiy and responding to the tone, and refuting the topic strategy to express their disagreement. While, in politeness strategies, the writers found some of politeness strategies in each WDCT or situation. They are Negative Politeness (be conventionally indirect, do not assume willingness to comply, question hedge (hedging), be pessimistic about ability or willingness to comply, give deference, apologize, and impersonalise the speaker and the hearer), positive politeness (notice, attend to the hearer, and be optimistic), bald on record amd off record strategy. The results were influenced by the level of social status and the closeness level or degree in relationship between each othe