From a social constructionist perspective and using Positioning Theory, this study examined the interactional strategies that interactants use in establishing their social positions in interactions in a registration office. Linguistic ethnographic methods were deployed where naturally occurring interactions of 30 participants in a registration office in a Nigerian university located in North-Central Nigeria were collected through audio-recordings, which added up to 177 minutes in total. Stimulated recall interviews were also conducted with some of the interactants to refute or validate the results of preliminary analyses of their interactional strategies. Micro-discourse analysis was adopted for the analysis of both the ethnographic and discourse data in order to account for the influence of context and other nonverbal behaviours on the interactants’ choices and the discourse data. The study revealed that sociocultural expectations, knowledge and perceptions significantly influenced the choice of the interactional strategies used for the negotiation and construction of social positions by both the teachers and the students in their interactions. The study also showed the discursive variables of power relations and ages of the interactants as impacting on their use of face acts as deliberate social positioning strategies in the interactions. The study concludes that interactants’ pragmatic awareness of context is crucial in establishing their negotiated positions in meaningful and cordial interactions.

This article examined salutation as a valued and nuanced socio-cultural practice that serves the purpose of socially positioning interactants and impacting on face negotiations in interaction in Nigeria. This was done with the aim of demonstrating its significance in the shaping and ordering of naturally occurring interaction. The data for the study comprise naturally occurring interaction of 30 participants whose interactions were collected using linguistic ethnographic tools of recording, note taking, and observation while micro discourse analysis, with emphasis on notions of face negotiations as interaction strategies was used for the analysis of the data. The study revealed that students who failed to salute the teachers were offered varying face negotiations based on their gender differences. The study also found that both the office context and the power position of the teachers impacted variously on face negotiations. From the Nigerian sociolinguistic context and interpersonal pragmatics, salutation is viewed as a social solidarity and social positioning strategy especially in contexts where age, gender, and power are sensitive components of the context as such its observation or failure to observe it could easily affect the outcome of the entire interaction.

This article focuses on face negotiation as an interaction management strategy in teacher-student interactions. The article viewed both linguistic and non-linguistic items as crucial components of face construction and meaning in interaction. The research was designed as a linguistic ethnographic study where the recording of naturally occurring interactions of 30 participants (28 students and two lecturers) in a Nigerian university was performed and analysed using micro discourse analysis. The interactional data was further supported by participant observation and stimulated recall sessions in order to account for the actual intentions of the interactants. The results of our analysis showed that face is the interactional architecture through which various social and interactional variables are manifested, accounted for and negotiated in talk. The study found the asymmetrical nature of the relationship between the teacher and the students as signifi cant variables in the nature of the face negotiations that take place in the school setting. Ethnographic resources have also revealed face consideration as a relational and omnipresent entity in interaction.