MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING DUONG HUU PHUOC HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ DUONG HUU PHUOC * MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY AN INVESTIGATION INTO PRAGMATIC FAILURE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN SPOKEN DISCOURSE MADE BY THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING * HUE - 2014 HUE, 2014 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ DUONG HUU PHUOC AN INVESTIGATION INTO PRAGMATIC FAILURE IN SPOKEN DISCOURSE MADE BY THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60. PHAN VAN HOA HUE, 2014 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------ DƯƠNG HỮU PHƯỚC KHẢO SÁT THẤT BẠI NGỮ NGHĨA TRONG PHÁT NGÔN CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SỸ: LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. PHAN VĂN HÒA HUE, 2014 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not been published elsewhere.
Author Duong Huu Phuoc i ABSTRACT In order to communicate effectively in the target language, the learner needs to acquire both linguistic competence and pragmatic competence. In present English language classrooms, teachers often overlook pragmatics, due to the difficulty of its teaching, and instead of focusing on the grammatical aspects. Learners' lack of pragmatic knowledge can lead to pragmatic failure. Pragmatic failure is a problematic issue that tends to cause misunderstanding, embarrassment and even insult between native speakers and language learners.
Finding out and minimizing pragmatic failure is an essential prerequisite for a successful communication. Therefore, it is crucial that researchers should carry out a detailed investigation on the nature of pragmatic failure so as to gain a deeper insight into the cross-cultural pragmatic differences and enhance learners‟communicative competence. This research aims to investigate the root cause of pragmatic failure that college English learners tend to produce in cross-cultural communication by focusing specifically on the speech acts of refusals, compliment responses and apology-making through questionnaires, discourse completion tests and interviews. Additionally, to identify the pragmatic competence of learners of English at Hue College of Foreign Languages and to provide constructive suggestions about how to improve their pragmatic competence.
Then, building on the analysis of the collected data, it provided suggestions for college English teaching. Hopefully, these suggestions can help to develop students‟communicative competence. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would have been unsuccessful without the support, help and suggestions of my supervisor, friends, colleagues and family. I would like to sincerely thank them who helped me to achieve this study.
First of all, no one has been more influential than my supervisor Assoc. Phan Van Hoa during the thesis writing process. I would like to express my deep gratitude to him for his whole-hearted assistance and expert instruction. Secondly, I am very grateful to the staff of Hue University College of Foreign Languages, who facilitate our training process and assist us in the course of writing and conducting the thesis.
Thirdly, I also wish to thank all the teachers of MA class 2012-2014. They imparted valuable knowledge of English to me and offered me opportunities to improve language teaching skills. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, especially my parents who always encourage me to study and give me useful support. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iv LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION. Structure of the thesis .3 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Introduction to pragmatics. Definitions of pragmatics. Features of pragmatics. Pragmatics and Foreign/Second Language Teaching.
Speech act theory. Austin's speech act theory. Searle's speech act theory. Speech act of refusals.
Previous studies on the speech act of refusals. Speech act of compliment responses. Previous studies on the speech act of compliment responses. Speech act of apologies.
Previous studies on the speech act of apologies. Definitions of Pragmatic Failure. Jenny Thomas's Definition. He Ziran‟s Definition.
Qian Guanlian‟s Definition. Classification of Pragmatic Failure. He Ziran‟s Classification .24 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD. Discourse Completion Test .29 CHAPTER IV: FINDING AND DISCUSSION.
Findings from the discourse completion test. Discussion on data of the discourse completion test. The Use of Direct Strategies. The Use of Indirect Strategies.
Findings from the questionnaire. Findings from responses to compliments. Findings from apology-making. Discussion on compliment response data.
Discussion on apology-making data. Findings and discussion of the interview .42 v CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION. Potential causes of pragmatic failure. Inadequate pragmatic competence.
Teaching-induced errors. Constructive suggestions for English learning and teaching. Recommendations for students and teachers. Recommendation for English course design.
Recommendation for teaching activities. Recommendation for more authentic teaching material development. Limitation and suggestion for further research. Limitation of the study.
Suggestion for further research .61 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 4.2: Refusal 1- made to a boss's request .3: Refusal 2- made to a classmate's request .4: Refusal 3- made to an employee's request .5: Refusal 4- made to a friend's invitation.6: Refusal 5- made to a student's suggestion .7: Herbert‟s Taxonomy of Compliment responses (Herbert, 1986, p.8: Compliment response 1 - made to someone's compliment .9: Compliment response 2 - made to a friend's compliment .10: Compliment response 3 - made to a teacher's compliment .11: Compliment response 4 - made to a student's compliment .12: Apology 1-made to a friend .13: Apology 2-made to an older person .14: Apology 3-made to a librarian .15: Apology 4-made to a secretary.1: Interchange 2 (Richards, Hull & Proctor, 1991, p.49 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DCT: Discourse Completion Test EFL: English as Foreign Language ESL: English as Second Language FLT: Foreign Language Teaching HUCFL: Hue University College of Foreign Languages ILP: Interlanguage Pragmatics L1: First Language L2: Second Language NNSs: Non-Native Speakers NSs: Native Speakers SLA: Second Language Acquisition SLT: Second Language Teaching WDCT: Written Discourse Completion Test viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale English language teaching methodologies have shifted considerably. Each method has its advantages and drawbacks. More importantly, the main purpose of language learning and teaching is communication, which requires both mastery of linguistic competence and communicative competence.
In the current ESL /EFL teaching, teachers are concerned too much about teaching language knowledge and language structures while neglecting to cultivate learners to use language properly. This is partly the requirements of most of the present exams as they only lay emphasis on linguistic competence. Consequently, after having mastered abundant knowledge and structures of the language, students may still encounter many difficulties and conflicts in communication. They tend to say some tactless words and sentences, although these words and sentences are of correct forms and right structures.
Such an inappropriate way of using language would definitely result in the failure of communication activities, which is called Pragmatic Failure. Pragmatic failure closely relates to English learners‟ lack of pragmatic knowledge and understanding of the culture of the target country. Pragmatic failure is a problematic issue since it tends to cause misunderstanding between native speakers and foreign language learners. Undeniably, identifying and minimizing pragmatic failure is one of the prerequisites for a successful communication on the part of language learners.
Therefore, it is urgent and absolutely indispensable for learners to carry out a comprehensive investigation on the nature of pragmatic failure so as to gain a deeper insight into the cross-cultural pragmatic differences and benefit the cultivation of learners‟ cross-cultural communicative competence. As we have known, communicating with speakers of other languages is a complex behaviour that requires both linguistic and pragmatic competence. Whether we speak in a first or second language, we are influenced by sociocultural norms and constraints that affect the way we communicate. Rizk (2003) points out that what is considered appropriate in one language might not be so in another.
For 1 instance in Vietnam, the greeting 'where are you going ?' is considered as a common and friendly one while in an American context it is perceived as intrusion into privacy. Most of the problems that EFL learners face in intercultural communication are mainly pragmatic. Teachers of EFL often choose not to stress pragmatic knowledge in their classrooms, focusing on linguistic knowledge instead. The only way to minimize pragmatic failure between NSs and non-native speakers (NNSs) is by acquiring pragmatic competence, that is, “the ability to use language effectively in order to understand language in context” (El Samaty, 2005, p.
Vietnamese Learners are not exposed to the target community and culture and they find it extremely difficult to produce or sometimes understand a speech act. From my own experience and observation, I find that most of the students in Vietnam in general and at Hue College of Foreign Languages in particular are inclined to transfer sociolinguistic rules of speaking from the mother tongue to the target language. Sociolinguistic rules of speaking are the norms and values that inform what is appropriate to say to whom and under what conditions (Wolfson, 1989). Wolfson termed these sociolinguistic rules, the “social rules of speaking”, which can vary greatly cross-culturally.
Improper performance of utterances might lead to serious consequences including misunderstanding, embarrassment, and even rudeness while interacting with English native speakers. As a teacher of English, I would like to conduct a research entitled "An investigation into pragmatic failure in spoken discourse made by the first-year students at Hue University College of Foreign Languages" to provide constructive suggestions to help them have an effective communication. The proposed study is aiming to investigate how students perceive and produce pragmatic failure. Based on the findings, possible solutions will be suggested to help students overcome their limitations.
Research Aims - To examine students' rules of language uses in the speech acts of refusals, compliment responses and apologies. - To make students aware of appropriate responses to compliment, refusals and apology-making. - To help teachers have suitable teaching methods to overcome students' pragmatic failure 1. Are students likely to produce pragmatic failure in refusals, compliment responses and apology-making? 2.
What causes these problems? 3. What are the solutions to these problems in terms of English teaching and learning ? 1. Research Scope The research examined the pattern of pragmatic failure in the speech acts of refusals, compliment responses and apology-making by the first-year students at Hue College of Foreign Languages. As mentioned in research aims, The project's goal was to provide suggestions with a view to improving students' communicative effectiveness.
By doing this research, I can enhance my knowledge as well as teaching skills. Hopefully, The suggestions can be useful for students, teachers and educators. Structure of the thesis The thesis is organized into five chapters. Chapter I: Introduction This chapter presents the background of research, research questions and scope of research.
3 Chapter II: Literature Review This chapter offers a fundamental overview of theoretical concepts relating to the research. Chapter III: Research Methods This chapter gives methods used to collect data and information of participants. Questionnaires, discourse completion test and interviews are described in more detail. Chapter IV: Findings and Discussion In the chapter, collected data are calculated and analyzed to draw some conclusions about the root of pragmatic failure to help students get over them and have a successful communication.
Chapter V: Conclusion and Implication This chapter summarizes the research findings, limitations of the study and makes suggestions for classroom practice and further research. 4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Introduction to pragmatics Communication in society occurs mainly through the medium of language.