The article deals with situations requiring the fulfillment of a speech ritual (apology) from the participants of communication whose social and speech roles are pupil/student and teacher/teacher. The most effective tactics of conflict mitigation, from the author's point of view, are: - explaining the inevitability of speech ritual; - etymological analysis of the concepts of "guilt", "error"; - reference to the opinion of an authoritative scholar, which leads to the effect of "impartial judging"; - rhetorical trainings. The key to constructive solution of a conflict situation is the teacher's rhetorical culture.
