Strategic Criticism in Second Language Class

Criticism is one of the important speech acts in class. Some teachers' criticism may threaten students‟ face and lower their self-confidence and motivation in L2 learning. “Green Criticism”, which is indirect and friendly, is suggested to establish a harmonious relationship between teachers and students as well as improving teaching efficiency. It can be presented in two forms: verbal criticism and non-verbal criticism: As to verbal criticism, appropriate words like appropriate person deixis, hedges and positive words should be carefully selected to protect students‟ self-esteem. Besides, empathetic mood such as passive voice, subjunctive, rising tone and stroking can be utilized to lessen face-threatening acts. Other pragmatic skills including application of request and humor as well as violation of CP are also effective in solving problems occurring in class. As for non-verbal criticism, keeping silent, using eye contact, walking around, changing facial expression and employing gestures are techniques to solve problems in class effectively. Different problems occurring in an English class of 7 th grade in a training school in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province of China are used as examples to illustrate the strategies of criticism.


Introduction
Criticism is the practice of judging the merits and faults of something or someone in a negative, intelligible or articulate way. It is often presented as something unpleasant, but it could be friendly. If the criticism is clearly directed only to "what people actually do" that is wrong instead of "who they are", it creates possibilities for doing something different and better. When people criticize, it can have a fruitful and constructive effect because new ideas are generated in trying to solve a problem. However, people will be hurt by criticism when they experience it as a personal attack.
Western linguists had done a systematical study on speech acts. Based on these studies, many Chinese experts did researches on speech acts in teaching. Although both western and Chinese scholars have done a lot of studies on speech acts and their strategies, few of them International Journal of English Language Education ISSN 2325-0887 2021 researched on the strategies of criticism in second language class. As an effective way to improve the relationship between teachers and students, the strategies of criticism play an important role in improving foreign language teaching.

Speech Acts
Speech act theory is an essential part in pragmatics. John Austin (1962;as cited in Seal 1975) first expressed the idea that language can be used to perform actions through the speaker"s distinction between constative and performative utterances. Later in hisIndirect Speech Acts, Searle (1975) figured out that the speaker utters a sentence which contains an illocutionary force, meaning not only what he says, but something more with hints, insinuation, irony and metaphor. Following them, other western linguists conducted researches on different speech acts in a more specific aspect, such as Wolfson(1980) and Olshtain& Blum-Kulka (1984). In them, three speech acts including compliment, request and apology were discussed from a cross-cultural perspective.
In China, some scholars like ZHAO (2004), WU& FAN(2004), ZHU& ZHOU (2004) and ZHANG & WANG (2004) studied the similarities and differences between Chinese and English in criticism and its strategies. In ZHAO (2004) and WU & FAN (2004), different strategies of criticism based on face theory and indirect speech act theory were introduced from a pragmatic angle. In ZHU& ZHOU (2004), a survey was conducted to research how foreign students use Chinese to criticize others from four aspects --concept, strategies, psychology as well as the words and phrases they use. In ZHANG & WANG (2004), "the hidden strategy"and "the mitigated strategy" were mentioned to show the similarities between Chinese and Western cultures, while using instructing, warning and prefaces were thought to show the differences.
However, up to now, few studies have been done onthe strategies of criticism in second language class.

Face and Politeness
In his theory of conversational implicature, Grice(1975) proposed a system of "conversational logic" based on a number of maxims of conversation, which are supposed to guide conversational interaction in keeping with a general "cooperative principle". Leech (1983) introduced politeness principle, mentioning that it might minimize the expression of impolite beliefs and maximize the expression of polite beliefs in conversation. Later, Brown &Levinson (1987) put forward face theory, stating that politeness should be taken into consideration in communication to avoid face threatening acts (FTA in the following).
In China, lots of scholars, such as HE Zhaoxiong(1999), HE & CHEN(2002), HE Ziran& RAN (2009) and others also conducted researches on face and politeness. HE Zhaoxiong (1999) focused on the factors which cause face threatening acts in International Journal of English Language Education ISSN 2325-0887 2021 conversationsocial distance, relative power and absolute ranking of imposition.Also, he figured out the shortcomings of the five types of politeness strategies introduced by Brown & Levinson. Actually, a certain kind of speech act can threaten both the positive and negative face at the same time. Besides, these three factors do not play the same roles in face threatening acts. HE Ziran & CHEN (2002) studied politeness from a cultural perspective, figuring out that Chinese values respect, tolerance and enthusiasm when showing their politeness to others, which is quite different from the western culture that favors straightness.
InHE Ziran & RAN (2009), three features of politeness principle including graduation, conflicts and appropriateness were studied from a communicative aspect.Also, three strategies were introduced to avoid face threatening acts, which includes employing appropriate person deixis, hedges and request.
Although there were many scholars studying face and politeness from a pragmatic angle, few experts have studied them from a teaching one.

Affective Filter
Dulay & Burt (1977; as cited in Krashen 1981) first proposed the affective filter hypothesis, capturing the concept that the acquirer must understand the input and be "open to it" by positing the presence of a "socio-affective filter" and "attitudinal factors relating to language acquisition that will contribute to alow affective filter. Based on this hypothesis, Krashen (1981) embodied his view that various affective factors, including motivation, self-confidence and anxiety, play a facilitative but non-causal role in second language acquisition (SLA in the following). In his hypothesis, Krashen mentioned: With high motivation, high self-confidence and a low level of anxiety, learners are better equipped for success in SLA. Otherwise, they will suffer from the raising of the affective filter and the mental block that prevents comprehensible input from being used for acquisition.
Many Chinese experts like LI Guifang & XIANG (2010), SHI (2011), HUANG (2012 and LIYuan (2012) conducted researches on the application of affective filter hypothesis in foreign language teaching. They believed that increasing learning motivation, building up confidence and lessening the anxiety of students are three effective ways to improve the efficiency of foreign language learning. Nevertheless, until now, few researches have been done on the application of affective filter hypothesis in the criticism of second language class. This thesis will analyze problems occurring in second language class and discuss the concept of "green criticism" and its positive effects, and then probe into two strategies for "green criticism" in second language class: verbal criticism and non-verbal criticism. It is designed to conduct a research on criticism in one English class of seventh grade in a training school in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province of China, and summarize some effective strategies of criticism to improve teaching efficiency and students" performance in English learning.

Problems in the Criticism of Second Language Class
Criticism is common in second language class because students may cause many troubles such as being late for class, sleeping in class, not handing in their homework on time, etc. Usually, teachers believe that criticizing is an effective way to solve these problems, but some of them lack strategies. Due to teachers" inappropriate ways of criticizing students, many problems occur in class, among which are "black criticism" and "white criticism". As cited in HUANG (2005), "black criticism" refers to the irony and insults from teachers that harm students" self-esteem; and "white criticism" means the shouting and strict punishment from teachers that frighten students.Specifically, LIU(2012) thoughtthat there are three forms for these two kinds of criticism: shouting, threatening and satirizing.
In a traditional class, shouting is applied by many teachers to criticize students. When students make noises in class, teachers try to shout as loudly as they can to stop the noises. It is useful at the beginning, but soon students are tired of it and keep on making noises to against their teacher, which will disturb the order of class. Shouting is believed to be an effective way to stop students from making noises, however, it turns out that it goes into the opposite direction.
Another way teachers use to criticize students is threatening. If students do not hand in their homework on time, teachers will warn these students that they will be punished to do more homework than others or their parents will be informed of this. In fact, teachers do not tend to do thattheir purpose is to make sure that next time these students will hand in their homework on time. But what they say will increase students" anxiety. This kind of criticism will lead to a gap between teachers and students.
Satirizing is also one kind of criticism in class. As second language learners, many students are not confident in themselves and afraid of making mistakes, worrying about losing face. Sometimes teachers lose their temper and say, "Why are you so stupid?" or something like that. What is worse,if it is not the first time students make the mistake, some teachers even scold, "I haven"t seen anyone stupider than you!" This kind of criticism will hurt students" feelings deeply, which will lower their motivation in learning a foreign language. "Black criticism" and "white criticism" cannot help students realize their mistakes, instead, it will break up the harmonious relationship between teachers and students. Therefore, teachers will fail to manage the class and improve the efficiency of teaching, which is bad for both the teachers and the students.

Two Strategies for "Green Criticism"
In recent years, "black criticism" and "white criticism" have been concerned by many educators in China. Withthe inspiration of "green food", the food that is environmental and harmless to people"s health, some educators came up with the idea of "green criticism". With the similar concept of "green food", it is a more friendly way to solve problems in class.
As LIU (2010) suggested, there are many positive effects of "green criticism", which are as International Journal of English Language Education ISSN 2325-0887 2021 follows: First, it is easier for students to accept teachers" criticism frankly and be more willing to correct their mistakes. Besides, it protects students" self-esteem. Moreover, it is a good way to encourage students and help them build up confidence and trust in both their teachers and themselves. Lastly, it plays a critical part in establishing a good relationship between teachers and students.
"Green criticism" is suggested as a friendly and harmless way to deal with problems occurring in class. As two forms of "green criticism", verbal criticism and non-verbal criticism are combined into creating a harmonious atmosphere in class and improving teaching efficiency.

Verbal Criticism
Verbal criticism is exercised by selecting appropriate words, utilizing empathetic mood and applying other pragmatic skills -Appropriate words such as appropriate person deixis, hedges and positive words should be carefully used to protect students" faces. In addition, empathetic mood like passive voice, subjunctive, rising tone and stroking are utilized to lessen students" anxiety. Other pragmatic skills including applying request and humor as well as violating CP are mentioned below to solve problems in class as well.

Selecting Appropriate Words
A. Appropriate person deixis According to HE& CHEN(2002: 126): "Person deixis is the certain word used to refer to the role of the participant in speech acts. It is exemplified by the pronouns for first person deixis ("I" & "we"), second person deixis ("you") and the third person deixis ("he", "she"). The first person deixis "we" is uncertain, depending on the context to decide whether it is "we-inclusive-of-addressee" or "we-exclusive-of-addressee", while the second person deixis is certain and it refers to the addressee".
Generally speaking, in the communication between teachers and students, teachers are put in a dominant position while students are in a subject one. With respect and shyness, students may experience nervousness even inferiority in front of their teacher (LU 2011). So it is better to use the first person deixis "we" ("we-inclusive-of-addressee") to balance their positions and shortening the distance between them. Leech (1983: 109) argued in terms of politeness, "There are two sides to the tact maxim -minimizing the cost to others and maximizing the benefit to others". To realize the tact maxim, one of the effective strategies is "the hidden strategy" which is "using hints, implicatures, euphemisms, joking, irony and hedges to criticize rather than mentioning the person directly" (JIE 2012). When the addressee"s face is threatened, using the appropriate person deixis, one form of the hidden strategy can increase politeness of the addresser and achieve the aim of criticizing. Two examples are as follows: 1) One student is looking out of the window and isn't listening to what the teacher says. The teacher can pretend not to observe it and says, "We should listen carefully and take notes in class." Hearing this, the student will turn his face back quickly and pretend to be making notes as other students.
2) The other is that some students do not hand in their homework on time. Instead of telling the whole class their names, the teacher can say, "Those students who haven't handed in their homework yet should hand it in after class." In the first example, the first person deixis "we" instead of the second person deixis "you" is used to remind the student about his distraction in class. As other students do not know whom the teacher is referring to, the student"s face is protected. In the second one, the indefinite pronoun "some" is used to criticize the students for they fail to hand in their homework on time. It seems that students do not know whom their teacher is referring to, but actually those students who haven"t handed in their homework are aware of it and try to hand it in after class. What can be seen from this is that using appropriate person deixis can figure out what the students have done wrong without threatening their faces.

B. Hedges
Politeness strategies are used to formulate messages in order to save the hearer"s face when face-threatening acts are inevitable or desired. On Record and off record are two types of politeness strategies. "On Record means utterances directly addressed to another" while "off record means utterances not directly addressed to another" (George Yule 2000:132). By means of on record, the addresser points out the addressee"s mistakes directly, sometimes threatening the addressee"s face, though. There are two strategies of on record: "the mitigated strategy" and "the unmitigated strategy" (Katz 1987; as cited in ZHAO 2004). Hedges ("perhaps", "maybe", etc.) are used as one of the mitigated strategies to soften the FTA. According to HE(2003: 178, 179), "Hedges can be classified into two types: 1) hedges used to revise the degree of true value or to alter the related scope of an utterance, such as sort of, kind of, somewhat, really, almost, quite, a little bit, etc; and 2) hedges used by the speaker to judge subjectively what is said or to access indirectly what is said according to some objective evidence, such as I think (wonder, believe, assume, suppose), I'm afraid, as far as I can tell, according to one's estimates, etc".
For one reason or another, many students often fail to keep concentrating on their classes. To grasp students" attention, the teacher may say, "Perhaps I don't make my requirement clear enough to you. Now I would like to explain it again, please listen carefully." This will be a good way to remind the students of focusing on what the teacher says and soften the threatening of their faces. Another case is that some students seem so confident that they always want to show off in front of the class, but often they don"t make enough preparation. Just take reciting for an example, some students believe they can make it easily. However, lack of fluency and pronunciation mistakes can inadvertently appear in their reciting. In criticizing this kind of students, we should make an comment and evaluation that is neither too high nor too low --it can be "It is quite satisfying." or "You could do much better, perhaps."Then they will be aware of their teacher"s dissatisfaction and attempt to perform better next time. Hedges like "perhaps" and "quite" are used to express the teacher"s vague comment on students" distraction and overconfidence. The teacher"s negative intention seems not evident to the students, but actually they will get the idea and do something to make up for it. This is because they know their teacher tries to respect them, and they want to do the same thing in return.

C. Positive words
George Yule (2000: 60-62) pointed out: "Face means the public self-image of a person. It refers to that emotional sense of social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone else to recognize. When we attempt to save another"s face, we can pay attention to their negative face wants or positive face wants. A person"s positive face is the need to be accepted, even liked, by that his or her wants are shared by others. If a speaker says something that represents a threat to another individual"s expectations regarding self-image, it is described as a face threatening act." "Most of the speech acts speakers perform are potentially face-threatening: expressions of criticism are threatening the positive face" (K. M. Jaszczolt 2004: 318, 319). In order to save students" faces, English teachers can select positive words, one kind of euphemisms --"an indirect word or phrase that people frequently use to refer to something embarrassing or unpleasant, sometimes to make it seem more acceptable than it really is(Oxford Advanced Learner"s English-Chinese Dictionary, 7 th edition: 681)" in class criticism. For example, when a student is late for class, if the teacher says, "Don't you think it is better for you to come earlier next time?" or "I am glad to see you come earlier next time." or "I believe you can come earlier next time." instead of "If you don't come earlier next time, I will punish you!" the student will be more willing to accept this kind of response and come earlier next time.
In the above situations, some positive words like "better", "glad", "believe" and "can" are used strategically to comment the students" behaviors, for instance, even in the case that they are late for class. In this way, the student"s self-image is kept in public.

A. Application of passive voice
Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action and it is not important or unknown who is performing the action. It can be used to show one"s negative politeness -"showing deference, emphasizing the importance of others" time or concerns, and even include an apology for the imposition or interruption" (George Yule 2000: 62).
One of the suggestions Ur (1996; as cited in WANG 2006: 81) gave is that "The teacher should try to address the problem rather than take the student as the object. Besides, the teacher should relate to the problem impersonally even if the criticism is meant to target a student". ZHAO (2011) mentioned: "By using passive voice, the speaker avoids making a direct apology. It seems that he/she is stating a fact. In this way, the speaker saves his/her negative face." For example, if some students are making noises in class, the teacher may remind them this way: "Your thinking will be interfered by the noises" or "Noises should be avoided in class so that you can listen to what the teacher says clearly". In this case, some passive words like "be interfered" and "be avoided" are used to inform the students of the negative effect that their noises have on their study, which is a good way to protect their

B. Application of subjunctive
Subjunctive means "a verb form or a set of verbal forms in grammar, used in some languages to express doubt, wishes, etc" (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 4 th edition: 2309). In second language acquisition, one of the effective factors preventing the comprehensible input from being used for acquisition is anxiety. "There appears to be a consistent relationship between various forms of anxiety and language proficiency in all situations, formal and informal. Anxiety level may thus be a very potent influence on the affective filter" (Krashen 1982: 18). To lessen learners" anxiety in SLA, using subjunctive to express the teacher"s wish for their success is of great significance.
In a foreign language class, sometimes students are so nervous that they cannot answer the teacher"s question immediately. They may be anxious about being blamed by their teacher. If the teacher says, "Given more time, you would be able to answer this question", the students will be less worried about their performance and be grateful to their teacher"s tolerance. In addition, it is common for students to make grammar mistakes in class. For instance, some Chinese students mistaken the usage of "is" and "are", and some of them even make the same mistake again and again. Confronted with this kind of problems, some teachers may get annoyed and can"t help criticizing them, which, however, is not an effective way to correct students" mistakes. Instead, encouragement like "If you spent more time doing this type of exercises, you would be clear about the difference between their usages and get the correct answer." is more effective in mistake correction. Given a comment like this, students will not get so nervous and feel their teacher"s kindness and patience in helping them.
Negative evaluation, one of the most important factors causing anxiety in second language acquisition, should be avoided in class (SHI 2011). Unlike direct criticism, subjunctive which expresses the teacher"s wish in strengthening students" comprehensible input in SLA lessens the student"s anxiety and promotes their second language learning.

C. Application of rising tone
Error is an inevitable part of the learning process. It is through learners" errors that we can see what they are struggling to master, what concepts they have misunderstood and what extra they might need (Lavery 2001:26;as cited in WANG 2006: 86). Generally, it is better not to interrupt students during fluency work. Indirect correction is encouraged to avoid harming students" self-esteem (WANG 2006: 87). As WU (2010) noted, "Error correction is one kind of negative evaluation that may threaten students" positive face". Thus, teachers should be careful with the way they use to correct errors and they are supposed to repeat the problem sentence with an emphasis on the problem word with a rising tone. From this, students will be able to find out the error. Compared with direct correction in routine intonation, resorting to rising tones is a more convincing way to correct the spoken errors for students are relieved by their teacher.

D. Application of stroking
International Journal of English Language Education ISSN 2325-0887 2021 As Krashen (1981: 14) argued, it is hypothesized that the self-confident or secure learners will be more inclined to intake and will also have a lower filter. Traits relating to self-confidence are thus predicted to relate to second language acquisition.
LI & XIANG (2010) figured out: For students who learn a second language, self-confidence is the psychological basis of success, without which foreign language learners cannot study well. To help students achieve the optimal input by reducing the mental block, teachers are under the responsibility of cultivating the learners" self-confidence. In order to achieve this goal, what teachers can do is to give more encouragement and compliment. Take a case for example: One student who is not interested in English and poor in it is drawing pictures which he is interested in and good at. To deal with this kind of students, if we can give a comment on his painting, like "What a nice picture!" Hearing this, the student will get a sense of achievement. And then we should try to encourage him --"I"m sure that you can learn English as well as painting through your own efforts." Finally we can figure out the problem in a soft way, "But it is not a drawing class. You"d better finish it after class." With the teacher"s compliment and encouragement, the student will feel more motivated in English learning and try his best to reach the teacher"s expectation for him.
The method the teacher applies in the above case is stroking, that is, giving compliment before criticizing someone. It can strengthen students" confidence and motivation, which is an effective way to improve the efficiency of teaching.

A. Application of request
In his indirect speech act theory, Seale (1975: 59-60) deemed: "There are cases in which the speaker may utter a sentence and mean what he says and also mean another illocution with a different propositional content. In such cases it is important to emphasis that the utterance is meant as a request; that is, the speaker intends to produce in the hearer the knowledge that a request has been made to him, and he intends to produce the knowledge by means of getting the hearer to recognize his intention to produce it." Imagine two students are talking about something that has nothing to do with the lesson: If we criticize them using direct speech acts like "Be quiet! You have made too much noise" or "Don"t talk in class. You will disturb other students!" these two students will feel embarrassed for loosing face. However, if we make a request like "Could you please lower your voice?" it"s more polite and these two students will stop talking. Another case is that the voice of a student who answers a question is too low for the rest of the class to hear: We had better request "Would you mind speaking louder so that the students in the back can hear you?" rather than comment on it directly --"Your voice is too low and we can"t hear you." "Indirect speech acts are generally associated with greater politeness in English than direct speech acts" (George Yule 2000: 56).Faced with our request, students can feel that we are showing respect for them, and then they will accept it willingly.  ZHAN (2012) mentioned that one of the important methods to excite students" English learning motivation is creating a harmonious classroom atmosphere. Humor, the ability or tendency to think that things are funny, or what funny things you say that you have this ability (Longman Dictionary: 1115), which can be applied to interest students and loosen their nerves as well as promoting the communication between teachers and students (SHI 2011).

B. Application of humor
Suppose a student falls asleep in class, what the teacher needs to do first is to wake him up. Shouting is not suggested because it may frighten him. It is wiser for teachers to deal with this kind of problem with their humor. Using it as a context, the teacher might explain the word "sleeping" to other students: If you do not know what "sleeping" means, please look at Tom (the student who is sleeping in class), then you will get the answer. Hearing this kind of explanation, other students cannot help laughing, and their laughter will wake him up. By using humor, the teacher wakes the student up successfully without giving any criticism directly and create a relaxing and pleasant atmosphere.
Another example is that the teacher asks a question in a reading class, "How does the man go to work?" A student answers, "He walks to work on foot." Then the teacher writes down his answer for other students to analyze. After the analysis, she adds, "Be more careful next time. As we know, when we draw a snake, we do not have to draw any feet" (ZHENG 2008). In this case, the teacher tries her best to figure out the student"s mistake in a humorous way in order not to hurt his (her) self-esteem.
C. Violation of CP Grice (1975: 45) pointed out that "Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose and direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged." But people actually do not follow the cooperative principle all the time. "Whether following or violating the maxims in CP, the maxims make conversational implicatures possible and let people deliver meaning beyond what is literally expressed" (Fasold 2000; as cited in YUAN& YANG 2011).
In a language class, students sometimes make some silly mistakes. For instance, "London is the capital of America." It is not because they don"t know the correct answer but because of their carelessness. To remind them of the mistake they have made, the teacher may say, "What? Shanghai is the capital of China?" Not figuring out the students" mistakes directly, the teacher makes a similar mistake as them deliberately. This kind of speech act violates the quality maxim -"Don"t say what you believe to be false" (Grice 1975: 46). The purpose of the teacher is to aid students in realizing their mistake. Usually, most students will be aware of this and give the correct answer immediately. By violating the cooperative principle, both the teacher"s negative face and students" positive faces are saved.

Non-verbal Criticism
Apart from verbal criticism, the other type of criticism covering an important part in "green criticism" is non-verbal criticism, in which wordless (mostly visual) cues are sent and received, such as gestures, body language, facial expression and eye contact. To have a more International Journal of English Language Education ISSN 2325-0887 2021 effective communication between teachers and students, non-verbal criticism like keeping silent, using eye contact, walking around, changing facial expression and using gestures are to be taken into practice in class.

Keeping Silent
Many middle school students, especially those lack of self-control can"t help so often talking with their classmates during class. Many teachers believe that shouting is a good way to stop students from the malapropos talking. At first it may be valid, but soon the students will ignore it and become capricious. In fact, by continuing making noises, the students may just want to catch the eye of their teacher. As teenagers, they are treasonous but eager to be respected. If teachers shout at them, they feel they are not respected and will do something against their teacher on purpose, which, in the long run, break the harmony of the relationship between teachers and students.
Nevertheless, if teachers keep silent instead of shouting at the students, the result may be quite different: The silence will cause the students" worry that their teacher is picking out who are making noises and the fear of punishment after class. They will get quiet as soon as possible. By keeping silent, the teacher actually tries to show negative politeness to arouse the students" awareness of what they have done wrong without threatening their faces.

Using Eye Contact
In a language classroom, students" indiscipline acts could be numerous, such as refusing to cooperate with peers, cheating in the exam, etc (WANG 2006: 79). Discipline is necessary in dealing with these indiscipline acts, which "does not mean a series of punishment of meted out to badly-behaved students --it refers to a code of conduct that determines the behavior of a class is as necessary for the teacher as it is for the students" (Harmer 1983;as cited in WANG 2006: 78).
Making dialogues with a partner is one of the most important activities in foreign language class. It is easy for teachers to find out that some students refuse to work with their partners and look around the classroom from time to time. To remind these students, the teacher can just look straight at them for several minutes, making them realize they are under the supervision of the teacher and begin to engage in what they are required to do. Also, eye contact is extremely useful in dealing with cheating in the exam. The student who is trying to copy others" answers must be worried about being discovered by the teacher even though he (she) is very scrupulous. If the teacher stares at the student who shows the sign of cheating, he (she) will become too nervous to do that. From the eye contact of their teacher, the student knows that he (she) is given one more chance to behave honestly. By using eye contact rather than direct criticism, the teacher is trying to give a warning without hurting the student"s self-esteem.

Walking Around
It is likely that sometimes there are some naughty students making troubles in class, but "problem-making students are not bad students, and sometimes they are not aware of their indiscipline acts. So when the teacher is trying to deal with these indiscipline behaviors, he should be more careful not to hurt the students (WANG 2006: 81). If the problem involves only one student, the teacher should try to avoid other students" attention. For instance, if a student hasn"t opened the book in response to the instruction, it is better for the teacher to go up to him and open the book than draw the attention of the whole class by a loud or repeated instruction (Ur 1996;as cited in WANG 2006: 81). If the problem involves more than one student, the teacher can walk to their seats and stand beside them for a while. With their teacher standing beside them, they will get alerted and concentrated. By walking around the classroom, the teacher can take all the students" behaviors into supervision, and the students will mind their behaviors carefully so that direct criticism can be avoided.

Changing facial expression
"Facial expression is a visible manifestation of the affective state, cognitive activity, intention, personality, and psychopathology of a person; it plays a communicative role in interpersonal relations" (Tanvi Srivastava & Naveeta Kant 2012). In classroom, students can judge their teacher"s feelings from his (her) facial expressions and give different responses to them. If their teacher wears a smile on his (her) face, they know that their teacher is happy and satisfied with their performance, and they will feel relaxed. But if their teacher frowns and looks grave, they can guess that there may be something wrong in the class.
Imagine in a listening class, when the teacher finds most students are listening carefully, he (she) will smile with satisfaction, but when he (she) happens to discover some students are discussing something that has nothing to do with the listening, he (she) will frown and appears to be serious. Seeing their teacher"s facial expression change a great deal, many students will gaze at the students who are talking, which makes these students become aware of what they have done wrong and stop talking immediately. Compared with figuring out the problem directly, facial expression is a much better way to remind the students of their problems.

Using Gestures
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages in place of speech. It allows individuals to convey various feelings and thoughts. It is a good means for a teacher to give students instructions in class. When teachers are assigning a task, some students may be talking or making noises. Confronted with this kind of situation, it is a good way for teachers to place their left palms down with their forefingers of right hands pointing to the center. On seeing this gesture, students can realize that their teachers would like them to keep quiet. If one student doesn"t concentrate on the lesson, the teacher can go to him and tap his desk to let him focus on the lesson. Knowing the teacher is not going to criticize him in front of his classmates, this student will make an effort to pay an attention to what the teacher says. Unlike speaking out students" problems, using gestures is an effective way to show teachers" dissatisfaction towards their behaviors and prevent them from making troubles.

Conclusion
This thesis has discussed three problems in the criticism of second language class: shouting, threats and sarcasm. To build up a harmonious relationship between teachers and students and improve teaching efficiency, green criticism is suggested in class. Verbal criticism and non-verbal criticism are included in green criticism: As to verbal criticism, selecting appropriate words like appropriate person deixis, hedges, and positive words are of great significance in protecting students" self-esteem. Also, utilizing empathetic mood such as passive voice, subjunctives, rising tone and stroking are effective to avoid face-threatening acts. Other pragmatic skills including application of request and humor as well as violation of CP are applied to solve problems in class effectively. As for non-verbal criticism, keeping silent, using eye contact, walking around, changing facial expression and employing gestures are mentioned to solve problems in class effectively. Looking ahead, further study on the positive effects of green criticism and other types of nonverbal criticism needs to be conducted to make the criticism of second language more effective.