VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Faculty OF Post-graduate STUDIES --------------o0o--------------- NGUYEN THI OANH A STUDY OF DISPREFERRED SECOND TURNS USED IN PART A – LISTENING SECTION OF TOEFL PBT (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÂU ĐÁP KHÔNG ĐƯỢC ƯU TIÊN TRONG PHẦN A – NGHE HIỂU TOEFL PBT) Field: MA in English Linguistics Code: 60.01 Training Program: Type 1 Hanoi – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Faculty OF Post-graduate STUDIES --------------o0o--------------- NGUYỄN THỊ OANH A STUDY OF DISPREFERRED SECOND TURNS USED IN PART A – LISTENING SECTION OF TOEFL PBT (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÂU ĐÁP KHÔNG ĐƯỢC ƯU TIÊN TRONG PHẦN A – NGHE HIỂU TOEFL PBT) Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.01 Training Program: Type 1 Supervisor: Dr. Kiều Thị Thu Hương Hanoi – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby, certify the thesis entitled “A study of Dispreferred Second Turns used in part A – Listening Section of TOEFL PBT”is the result of my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts in English Linguistics at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions. I agree that the origin of my thesis deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan and reproduction of the paper.
Hanoi, October 1st, 2013 Signature Nguyen Thi Oanh I LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my special thanks to Dr. Kieu Thi Thu Huong, my supervisor, for her exciting lectures on Pragmatics, her valuable advice and continual supports without which I could not have finished my thesis. Le Hung Tien my deep debt of gratitude for his useful and interesting course in Research Methodology, which provides me with indispensable techniques to complete this thesis. My heartfelt thanks go to all the staff, teachers and members at Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies - University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their work and services.
Especially, I would like to show my profound gratitude to all the librarians at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies during my searching for reference books. Their enthusiastic cooperation is really precious towards the results of my study. I would like to express my warmest thanks to my family for their support and encouragement during the completion of this research. Finally, I am also grateful to all the authors whose books, newspapers and magazines I have referred to.
II LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The main objective of this thesis is discovering the general patterns of dispreferred second turns and the common linguistic features indicating them in part A – Listening Comprehesion Section of TOEFL PBT based on the theoretical frameworks of pragmatics and conversation analysis. The corpus of the study consists of 50 dialogs containing dispreferreds in Part A. Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used to find out the answers to the research questions. There are some findings in the research.
In the first place, the five patterns of dispreferreds, namely assessment-disagreement, invitation-refusal, proposal- disagreement, offer-declination and request-refusal, are all used in Part A and the pattern assessment-disagreement is the most common one. Also, there are eight common linguistic elements indicating dispreferreds among which ‗give an account‟ ranks the most. The data analysis also points out that each linguistic feature is priorly used in one or some certain patterns of dispreferreds. III LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
III TABLE OF CONTENTS .IV LISTS OF TABLES & FIGURES.VI ABBREVIATIONS & CONVENTIONS. VII PART I - INTRODUCTION. Statement of the Problem. Objectives of the study.
Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Design of the study .4 PART II - DEVELOPMENT.5 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. General patterns of preference structure.
Dispreferred second turns. Dispreferreds in Part A - Listening Comprehension of TOEFL PBT .17 CHAPTER II: THE STUDY .19 IV LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.4 Findings and discussion. General patterns of dispreferreds. Common linguistic features of dispreferreds .22 PART III - CONCLUSION.
The common patterns of dispreferreds. The linguistic features signaling dispreferreds. Suggested tips for TOEFL PBT learners or potential test-takers. Implications for English language learning and test taking.
Limitations of the research. Suggestions for further research…….…………………………………………40 REFERENCES V LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF TABLES & FIGURES CONTENTS PAGE Table 1 - Correlations of content and format in adjacency pair seconds 10 Table 2 - The general patterns of preferred and dispreferred structures 11 Table 3 - Linguistic elements indicating dispreferred second turns 12 Table 4 - Listening Comprehension Format in Standard Form 14 Figure 1 - Common patterns of dispreferred second turns 21 Figure 2 - Linguistic features indicating dispreferreds 22 VI LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABBREVIATIONS & CONVENTIONS ETS Educational Testing Service ASEAN The Association of South East Asian Nations AFTA ASEAN Free Trade Area APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ASEM Asia-Europe Meeting WTO World Trade Organization TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language TOEFL PBT Test of English as a Foreign Language Paper-Based Test TOEFL CBT Test of English as a Foreign Language Computer-Based test TOEFL IBT Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test IELTS International English Language Testing System TOEIC Test of English for International Communication M Male F Female F1 Female 1 F2 Female 2 M1 Male 1 M2 Male 2 CA Conversation Analysis SA Speech Act // Point at which the current utterance is overlapped by that transcribed below Q1 Question 1 & And VII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com (( )) ―some phenomenon that the transcriber does not want to wrestle with‖ or some non-vocal action, etc. hh an audible out-breath, .hh an in-breath S Speaker H Hearer VIII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of the Problem Since 1986, after having launched its open-door policy ―Doi Moi‖, Vietnam has gone through remarkable changes to be a market economy and set up relations with more than 200 countries and regions in the world.
It also became a member of many important organizations such as ASEAN, AFTA, APEC, ASEM, WTO and so on. In this converging trend, Vietnam is becoming more and more involved in international trade and investment. To keep track of this globalization trend, the Vietnamese government has encouraged its citizens to learn English. As a result, English has become the most popular foreign language studied in schools and colleges.
Also, some international certificates like TOEIC, TOEFL and IELTS have gradually become a requirement for college graduates and employees who need to achieve academic success as well as effective communication. As a matter of fact, learners of English often find these tests quite challenging, especially the listening part as mentioned by Brown (2006:1), ―Listening in another language is a hard job‖. To take TOEFL PBT Listening Part as an example, its materials often include dialogs, academic lectures and long conversations that require test-takers to have to infer the speakers‘ implicit ideas, attitudes or purposes. Thus, besides the language competence, test-takers need pragmatic knowledge to do the tests.
However, up to now, few studies on the barriers TOEFL PBT test-takers have encountered have been carried out. Therefore, this study is conducted to investigate a small aspect of pragmatics and conversation analysis - common patterns of 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com dispreferred second turns and linguistic units to signal them in Part A - Listening Comprehension Section of TOEFL PBT tests in order to work out some tips that help test-takers to cope with these kinds of questions. In short, the crucial role of TOEFL tests, the difficulties facing TOEFL test-takers, the lack of attention of the previous papers and self-interest in Pragmatics are the motivation for the author to conduct the study on ―Dispreferred second turns used in Part A – Listening Section of TOEFL PBT”. Research Question The research seeks the answer to the following question: What are the general patterns of dispreferred structures and the common linguistic features indicating them in Part A - Listening Comprehension Section of TOEFL PBT? 3.
Objectives of the study More obviously, to solve the research question, the study is conducted to: Provide readers with basic knowledge of speech acts, conversation analysis, adjacency pairs and preference structure. Find out the general patterns of dispreferred structures used in Part A - Listening Section of TOEFL PBT. Examine the linguistic features signaling dispreferred responses in Part A - Listening Comprehension of TOEFL PBT. Provide potential test-takers with practical knowledge to deal with TOEFL PBT questions containing dispreferred-second-turn questions.
2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Significance of the study First and foremost, this paper can be used as a useful reference source for teachers as well as learners who have been teaching and studying TOEFL PBT. It enables them to understand conversation analysis, adjacency pairs, preference structure, dispreferreds, their general patterns and the linguistic units signaling them more deeply. Good understanding and full consciousness can help them deal with listening questions in Part A - TOEFL PBT more easily.
At the same time, deep knowledge can let them communicate in English in a more natural and effective way, particularly when giving an indirect decline, refusal or disagreement. Secondly, teachers and learners of TOEFL PBT can use the paper as a handbook to seek some tips to cope with questions that contain dispreferred-second-turn responses in Listening Comprehension Section. Last but not least, researchers of related fields can also use the paper for reference and suggestions for deeper studies. Scope of the study Due to time constraints and within the framework of a minor thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Linguistics, the present study only investigates the small aspects of preference structure: the common patterns of dispreferred-second acts and the frequently used linguistic features to indicate them in Part A - TOEFL PBT Listening Section.
The research focuses on the analysis of the transcripts of 50 out of 300 dialogs that contain the utterances of dispreferreds in Part A - Listening Comprehension taken from 10 Complete Practice Tests of three books including TOEFL Success 2000 by Bruce Rogers, The Heinle & Heinle TOEFL Test Assistant Listening by Milada Broukal and TOEFL Practice Tests Volume 3 by ETS. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Design of the study The study includes three parts: Part I is the Introduction of the study which states the problem, the research question, objectives, scope, significance and design of the entire paper. Part II is the Development which consists of two chapters.
Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background related to the topic. Chapter 2 includes database of the study, methodology, data analysis procedure, and discussion of data analysis. Part III is the Conclusion which summarizes major findings of the investigation and provides implications for teaching and learning TOEFL PBT. This part also points out some limitations of the research & makes suggestions for further studies.
4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Definition It goes a broad consensus that of all the issues in the general theory of language usage, the speech act (SA) theory has probably aroused the widest interest.