VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ******************** NGUYỄN THỊ HƯỜNG A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE CONVERSATION ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSE BOOK NEW HEADWAY – ELEMENTARY (NGHIÊN CỨU CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ TRONG HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP CỦA GIÁO TRÌNH NEW HEADWAY - ELEMENTARY) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HA NOI - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ******************** NGUYỄN THỊ HƯỜNG A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE CONVERSATION ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSE BOOK NEW HEADWAY – ELEMENTARY (NGHIÊN CỨU CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ TRONG HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP CỦA GIÁO TRÌNH NEW HEADWAY - ELEMENTARY) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Prof. Nguyễn Quang HA NOI - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I here y st te th t I: Nguy n Thi Hường, from QH2015.E3, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (MA), accept the requirements of the university rel ting to the retention nd use of M ster‘s Gr du tion P per deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should 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. October, 1st 2017 N ễ H i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is an honor for me to express my deep and sincere thanks to those who have made this thesis possible. First of all, I would like to pay my great gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Nguy n Quang, for his continuous support, careful guidance and valuable advice throughout my thesis-writing period.
With his comprehensive instruction, his inspiration, enthusiasm and immense knowledge, he helped me step by step write up my thesis to the best of my ability and opened my knowledge of literature. It was very lucky for me to be under his guidance. My heartfelt thanks and blessings also go to my family, especially my parents who are always by my side and support me during the time I did my thesis. Their well-being is of great spiritual motivation for me all the time.
Last but not least, I want to offer special thanks to all of my friends who always supported and stood by me during the completion of the graduation paper. To them all I dedicate this thesis. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT English has been an indepensible means of communnication in daily life. However, in fact, a large number of English learners find it hard to communicate fluently and confidently.
Therefore, it is essential to find out ways to interact well in daily communication which are partly presented in the politeness strategies used during the process of interaction. As a result, this study is carried to find out politeness strategies and how they work in communication. All converational ctivities in the course ook ―New He dw y – Element ry‖ are examined. Then the data is analyzed according to two types of strategies, the positive and negative ones.
The research results reveal that positive politeness strategies are used much more than negative politeness strategies found in most of conversations in the book. Furthermore, twelve positive politeness strategies and six nagative posliteness strategies are used in the book. Finally, implications are offered for teaching and learning English with consideration to politeness strategies in communication. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ……………………………………………………….
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………. iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ……………………………………. vi LIST OF APPENDICES. vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of research problem and the rationale for the study. Aim and significance of the study. Objectives of study.
Scope of study. Design of the study.3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Culture and Communication. Definition of culture.
Definition of communication. The relationship between culture and communication. What is politeness?. Previous studies on politeness.
Positive politeness and positive politeness strategies. Negative politeness and negative politeness strategies.14 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3. Techniques for data collection. Techniques for data analysis.
Process of data analysis .19 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4. Frequency of positive and negative politeness strategies in the conversational activities. Positive politeness strategies in the conversational activities. Negative politeness strategies in the conversational.
Summary of the findings. Implications to English teaching and learning. Limitation of the study and Reccomendations for further research .I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Circumstances determining choice of strategy (Brown and Levinson, 1978, 60) Figure 2: Strategies to minimize risk of losing face (Nguyen Quang, 2001) Figure 3: The frequency of positive politeness strategies Figure 4: The frequency of negative politeness strategies LIST OF TABLES Table 1. The statistics of positive and negative politeness strategies Table 2.
The statistics of positive politeness strategies Table 3. The statistics of negative politeness strategies LIST OF APPENDICES APPENDIX: Summary of positive and negative politeness strategies in the course ook ―new he dw y – element ry‖ vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS S: Speaker H: Hearer FTA: Face Threatening Act PPS: Positive Politeness Strategies NPS: Negative Politeness Strategies T: Track P: Page vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of research problem and rationale for the study People are probably unable to communicate well in their daily life, without language which is regarded as the most popular means of communication to exchange information among people at work or in study. Although there have been over 10,000 languages available in the world, some of them have been used as the common languages and only few have been spoken widely around the world.
English is a language which many countries use as a first language and many have considered it as the common language for teaching in schools and universities. People have studied English for different purposes such as getting job, studying abroard, promotion or travelling. In Vietnam, English has been taught as a foreign language for serveral decades and recently, English has become a compulsory subject in most schools, colleges and universities. Although teaching speaking skill as well as other skills have been put in all the textbooks from primary school to high school for several years, most Vietnamese teachers have still focused on teaching grammar like structural rules and forms of tenses rather than speaking skill.
This accidentally makes a large number of students learning English but unable able to make everyday conversations well when they meet foreigners who speak English. Besides, many Vietnamese are afraid of talking in English because they do not know how to appear polite in English. Therefore, this study is conducted with the hope to point out how positive and negative politeness strategies are used in the conversational activities under investigation, thus helping to improve the teaching nd le rning of ―Everyd y English‖ in the course book New Headway – Elementary, by Liz & John Soars. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Aim and significance of the study This research aims to r ise Vietn mese le rner‘s w reness of how to use politeness strategies appropriately in order to achieve successful communication. Moreover, the study expects to put forward some suggestions for the teaching of positive and negative polite strategies to language teachers. Hence, as this thesis completed, it can be beneficial for both theoretical and practical contributions. In terms of theoretical significance, this study contributes to making explicit the important role of politeness strategies in verbal communication, especially in cross- cultural communication.
For practical significance: This study helps gain an insight into the method employable for teaching politeness strategies in the course book ―New He dw y - Element ry‖ s well s in djustment nd pplic tion of te ching techniques. Objectives of the study This thesis is conducted with two main objectives. Firstly, the author comes to investigate positive and negative politeness in most typical contextual environments in ―Everyd y English‖ of the course ook New He dw y – Elementary. In addition, the second purpose is to collect and analyze the extent to what politeness strategies are recruited and distributed in the coursebook.
In brief, these objectives can be achieved through finding tentative answers to the following research questions: 1. How are positive politeness strategies used in the “Everyday English activities”of the course book “ New Headway – Elementary”? 2. How are negative politeness strategies used in the “Everyday English activities”of the course book “ New Headway – Elementary”? 1. Scope of the study The study investigates the use of positive and negative politeness strategies only in the conversational activities of ―Everyd y English‖ in 14 units presented in the course book New Headway – Elementary written by Liz & John Soars.
2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Design of the study The study consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 (Introduction) presents the rationale, the objectives, significance and the scope of the study. Literature of culture, communication, politeness and politeness strategies are reviewed in chapter 2.
Chapter 3 disscusses methodology of the study with research questions, the participants, the method for data collection and data analysis. In chapter 4, data are analyzed and findings are discussed towards research questions 2 and 3. Finally, chapter 5 summarizes the main finding of the study, pointing out some limitations of the research, offering implications for English teaching and learning, and giving recommemdations for further research. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.
Culture and Communication 2. Definition of culture Levine nd Adelm n (cited in Nguy n Qu ng, 2002: 30-31) hold that ―culture is a share background (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes, and values‖. ―Culture‖ in this study does not refer to art, music, literature, food, clothing styles, and so on. It refers to the informal and often hidden patterns of human interactions, expressions, and viewpoints that people in one culture share.
The hidden nature of culture has been compared to an iceberg, most of which is hidden underwater! Like the iceberg most of the influence of the culture on an individual cannot be seen. The part of culture that is exposed is not always that which creates cross-cultural difficulties; the hidden aspects of the culture have significant effects on behaviour and on interactions with others. According to Phillip K. Bock (cited in Nguyen Thi Tuyet, 2005: 3), culture is considered ―in its broadest sense, as what makes you a stranger when you are away from home.
It includes all those beliefs and expectations about how people should speak and act, which have become a kind of second nature to one as a result of social learning. When you are with members of a group who share your culture, you do not have think about it, for you are all viewing the world in pretty muach the same way and you all know, in general terms, what to expect of one another‖. Banks (1989: 8) also shares a very remarkable notion of culture in which he claims that “the essence of culture is not its artifacts, tools or other tangible culture elements but how the members of the group interpret, use and perceive. Definition of communication The term ―communic tion‖ h s lre dy included many definitions with emphasis on various factors.