VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRAN HOANG ANH A STUDY ON TEACHER’S POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE EFL CLASSROOM (Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch sự của giáo viên trong lớp học tiếng Anh) MA MAJOR THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01 Hanoi, 2019 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRAN HOANG ANH A STUDY ON TEACHER’S POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE EFL CLASSROOM (Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch sự của giáo viên trong lớp học tiếng Anh) MA MAJOR THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 8220201. Nguyen Hoa Hanoi, 2019 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby state that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material that has been accepted or submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma. I also declare that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Prof.
Nguyen Hoa, for his precious support and helpful instructions on the construction of my study, which have always been the decisive factors in the completion of this paper. The door to Prof. Nguyen Hoa’s office was always open whenever I ran into a trouble spot or had a question about my research or writing. He consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me in the right the direction whenever he thought I needed it.
My sincere gratitude is also addressed to Dr. Huynh Anh Tuan, Dean of Faculty of Post-graduate studies, and Dr. Hoang Thi Hanh, lecturer in Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of English speaking countries, ULIS, VNU, for their sharing expertise, and critical comments for my thesis proposal. Thirdly, I would like to send our heartfelt thanks to the teacher and the students at FELTE, ULIS for their participation in the study.
Without their cooperation and input, the study could not have been successfully conducted. Furthermore, I would also like to express my appreciation to my friend, Huy Hoang, for his spending time helping me proofread my thesis. Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my family and my friends for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This interpretive-qualitative research aimed at investigating a teacher’s politeness strategies used in the classroom, how they were recognized linguistically through her utterances, and her students’ perception of such language. The data were collected through non-participatory observations and semi-structured interviews. The data analysis was based on Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987). The results revealed that the teacher employed certain types of politeness in her teaching English, namely, bald-on record strategy, positive politeness and negative politeness.
As such, the teacher created a positive teacher-student interaction and supportive learning atmosphere. Furthermore, the findings showed that most students found their teacher’s utterances appropriate and effective for their learning process. Nevertheless, it came to the researcher’s realization that Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory could not capture all aspects of Vietnamese people’s politeness. Cross-cultural communication was taken into consideration during the data analysis, accordingly, for better interpretation of the occurrence emerging in the classroom.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. Background to the study.
Rationale to the study. Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Organization of the thesis.
Overview of Politeness. Root of Linguistic Politeness. Robin Lakoff and Politeness. Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies.
Bald-on-Record. Positive Politeness Strategy. Negative Politeness Strategy. Off-Record Strategy.
Critique of Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies. Teacher’s language in EFL classroom. Concept of perception. Related studies on Teacher’s politeness strategies in EFL classroom.
29 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Data collection instruments. Addressing research question 1. Addressing research question 2.
Conclusion drawing and verification. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Teacher’s politeness strategy in EFL classroom. Students’ perception on teacher’s utterances in the EFL classroom.
Summary of the findings. Implications of the findings. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further study .XXII v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CEFR Common European Framework of Reference D Social distance EFL English as Foreign Language FTAs Face-threatening acts H Hearer IELTS International English Language Testing System L2 Second language P Relative power Rx absolute rating of imposition S Speaker vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 2.
Strategies for performing FTAs (Brown & Levinson, 1987). Summary of Brown and Levinson’ politeness strategies (1987). Error! Bookmark not defined. Coding scheme for the types of politeness strategies.
Coding scheme for the types of sub-politeness strategies. Unit of data analysis. Number of teacher’s politeness strategies used in the classroom. 44 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces the research area and outlines the background and the rationale for the current study. It briefly review teacher’s language in EFL classroom and politeness strategy applied in such context. The chapter subsequently describes the aims, scopes and significance of the present study, followed by the organization of the research. Background to the study During the last six years teaching English for freshmen and sophomores, my colleagues and I have witnessed a rather disturbing phenomenon in which intermediate and upper-intermediate L2 students were often reluctant to raise their voice in English in the classroom.
In retrospect, I found myself in the same situation as my students. Were it not for the teacher’s encouragement or acknowledgement of my ideas, I would not have had the willingness to raise my voice in class. “Teacher’s encouragements would probably be the solution for my students”, I thought. I then took into consideration this experience when planning the lessons.
I spent much time thinking about the language I would use in class, so that through my saying, I could encourage and motivate my students to speak more. Still, I felt quite puzzled. Much as I planned the language used beforehand, I failed to stir up the class atmosphere sometimes. Why the students show little interest in learning English in class? Is there anything a teacher can do, besides giving encouragements, to stimulate the student’s interest? It comes to my realization that in a specific language learning environment, classroom activities hosted (not controlled, but guided) by teacher helps shape a special interpersonal relationship.
This is similar to any 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com other social relationship. To promote the effective communication as well as to develop good relationship or togetherness, being polite could be seen as the one of the core elements in social interactions. The teachers, hence, probably should take into consideration “how to speak” and “what to speak” so that they could sound more polite in the classroom. For instance, utterances such as please, would you and thank you are regarded as polite in teacher-students interaction.
Being aware of how politeness strategies are employed in the teacher’s utterances, accordingly, is also of significance. Rationale to the study Teacher’s language in EFL classroom has widely been considered the most important factor affecting the teaching-learning process. It is because the teacher’s language is not only for classroom management but also for the process of students’ knowledge acquisition (Nunan, 1991). There are several activities universally conducted by the teacher in the classroom, such as giving the student’s instructions, motivating the class, and evaluating the students.
More importantly, teacher’s language in the classroom is also the major medium for L2 learners to understand the knowledge. That is to say, in EFL classroom, English is not only the target for students to learn but also the medium for the teaching-learning process. English used in L2 classroom is not only the goal of the lesson but also how this goal is achieved, in other words (Richards & Lockhart, 1996). ELF teachers, thus, play the role as the models for their students to imitate.
Krashen (1995) asserts that if the teacher’s language is used properly in EFL classroom, it would pave the way for the best input for the learner’s language learning process. The appropriateness of the teacher’s language in classroom context could be defined as “how the teacher speaks” to make students feel comfortable, i. they do not feel offended by the teacher’s utterances. As such, the teacher’s way of speaking should not cause a 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com threat to the student’s face.
According to Brown and Levinson (1987) to mitigate face-threat, further, create good teacher-students interaction, the teacher is supposed to be polite in the classroom. Politeness is a common social phenomenon and a classroom is one society in which communication occurs between teachers and students. Thus, politeness should also be a moral code in the teaching-learning process. In respect to language, politeness corresponds to the use of indirect speech acts or using certain lexical items such as “please”, “sorry”, and “thank you” (Watts, 2003).
That is to say, teachers’ politeness in the EFL classroom can be recognized linguistically through the structural form and communication function of the utterances, especially in the event of teacher-student interaction. A previous study by Jiang (2010) on Teacher’s politeness in EFL class (a case study of Chinese EFL learners) concluded that politeness does exist in EFL classroom. Furthermore, it was alos concluded that teacher’s politeness strategies did contribute to both teaching and learning. Jiang, through his analysis, claimed that politeness in the classroom contributed to the effective relationship, created a friendly and lively atmosphere and will affect the mutual understanding and the relationship between student and teacher.
A similar conclusion was reached by the study conducted by Peng, Cai, and Xie (2014) on college teacher’s politeness strategies in EFL classroom. The authors asserted that teachers in EFL classroom are highly aware of politeness strategies and often used negative politeness and positive politeness as their strategies in the classroom. Teachers preferred to use positive politeness as it helped the students to develop their self-image. In Vietnam, there has been little research investigating on teacher’s utterances in EFL classroom, let alone teacher’s politeness strategies in asking for student’s clarification.
That is to say, teacher’s use of politeness strategies as well as its influence on the teaching-learning process has not been dealt with 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com in-depth in Vietnam, especially in the university context. Furthermore, to my observation, freshmen and sophomores in my faculty tend to show more interest and enthusiasm in learning English with young teachers. Such a phenomenon has posed a question of how young teachers employ politeness strategies, thus, they could establish a close relationship with students in the EFL class. Aims of the study With a view to addressing the aforementioned gaps, this study aims at investigating how politeness strategies employed by one Vietnamese teacher can be a variable that enhances teacher-student interaction, further, improves L2 students’ learning in EFL classroom.
Considering the objectives of the research, the research would seek the answer for these three following research questions: Question 1: What politeness strategies are used by the teacher in the EFL classroom? Question 2: What are the students’ perceptions of the effectiveness and appropriateness of their teacher’s utterances in EFL classroom? 1.