VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LÀ A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSE BOOK “MARKET LEADER, INTERMEDIATE (NEW EDITION) Nghiên cứu các chiến lược lịch sự được sử dụng trong các bài hội thoại của giáo trình tiếng Anh thương mại “MARKET LEADER, INTERMEDIATE” (Tái bản) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.01 Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LÀ A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSE BOOK “MARKET LEADER, INTERMEDIATE (NEW EDITION) Nghiên cứu các chiến lược lịch sự được sử dụng trong các bài hội thoại của giáo trình tiếng Anh thương mại “MARKET LEADER, INTERMEDIATE” (Tái bản) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60. Kiều Thị Thu Hương Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby, certify the thesis named “A study of politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate” (New edition)” is the result of my own work for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
The research 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. February, 2014 Nguyễn Thị Là i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOLEDGEMENT I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this thesis. First of all, I’m thankful to the Post-graduate Department of ULIS, VNUH for giving me permission to carry out and complete this M.
thesis and to use the Department’s data. Secondly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Kiều Thị Thu Hương, Vice-Dean of the English Faculty – Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam for her valuable comments, endless encouragement, kind guidance and correction. I also wish to acknowledge all the lecturers at the Post Graduate Department, University of Languages and International Studies whose lectures have enriched my knowledge in many fields of linguistics as well as of daily life.
They are Prof. Hoàng Văn Vân, Prof. Lê Hùng Tiến, Asoc. Võ Đại Quang, Dr.
Lê Văn Canh, Dr. Nguyễn Huy Kỷ, Dr. Ngô Hữu Hoàng, Dr. Hà Cẩm Tâm, Dr.
Huỳnh Anh Tuấn. My sincere thanks go to my colleagues and friends at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, who have constantly assisted me in completing the research. Finally, I would not have been able to complete this work without the whole-hearted support and endless encouragement from my husband, our parents and our son. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT When people from different cultures using different languages communicate to each other, there exists the possibility of miscommunication.
In order to avoid misunderstanding and culture shock, learners of foreign languages especially of English should know how to behave properly in each certain situation. Being considered one of the key factors of successful cross-culture communication, politeness strategies are commonly used in daily social interactions. Therefore, the author conducts this study with the aims of investigating politeness strategies in conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate” (New edition). Her attempt is to help students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology achieve success in communication in their future work.
In the coursebook “Market Leader, Intermediate” most of conversational activities are discussed and analysed mainly on politeness theories of Brown & Levinson and Nguyen Quang. The research shows that the frequencies of politeness strategies occurance in conversational activities of the material are not always the same. The findings show that negative politeness strategies are employed more frequently than positive politeness, bald- on-record and off-record strategy. Most politeness strategies are used in such conversational activities as making disagreements, agreements and requests.
In addition, the author also suggests some recommendations that might work in the Vietnamese context to improve the teaching and learning of verbal communication for students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES. vii ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS.
viii PART I – INTRODUCTION 1. Objectives of the study. Scope of the study. Design of the study.
2 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. Speech Acts and Speech Events. Classification of Speech Acts. Function-based Approach.
Structural-function Based Approach. Notions of politeness theory. Conversational-maxim View on Politeness. Face-management View on Politeness.
13 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The Concept of Face. Strategies for FSAs. 23 CHAPTER II: POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSEBOOK “MARKET LEADER, INTERMEDIATE”.
Techniques for data collection. Techniques for data analysis. Steps for Data Analysis. Frequency of Occurrence of Politeness Strategies in the Coursebook “Market Leader, Intermediate”.
Bald-on-record Strategy in Conversational Activities of “Market Leader, Intermediate”. Positive Politeness Strategies in Conversational Activities of “Market Leader, Intermediate”. Negative Politeness Strategies in Conversational Activities of “Market Leader, Intermediate”. Off-record Strategy in Conversational Activities of “Market Leader, Intermediate”.
39 CHAPTER 3: IMPLICATIONS FOR POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY. 40 PART III: CONCLUSION 3. Summary of the study. Limitations of the study.
42 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Suggestions for further study. 44 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………I vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES Table 1: The five general functions of speech acts .7 Table 2: The frequency of occurrence of politeness strategies in conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate”. 27 Table 3: The frequency of politeness strategies in terms of functions of utterance.
28 Table 4: Frequency of occurrence of positive politeness strategies in conversations of“Market Leader, Intermediate”. 32 Table 5: Frequency of occurrence of negative politeness strategies in conversations of“Market Leader, Intermediate”. 36 FIGURES Figure 1: Circumstances determining choice of strategies. 15 Figure 2: Strategies to minimize risk of losing face.
15 Figure 3: The frequency of occurrence of politeness strategies in conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate”. 27 Figure 4: The frequency of bald-on-request strategy in terms of functions of utterances. 29 Figure 5: The frequency of positive politeness strategies in terms of functions of utterances. 31 Figure 6: Frequency of occurrence of positive politeness strategies in conversations of “Market Leader, Intermediate”.
32 Figure 7: The frequency of negative politeness strategies in terms of functions of utterances. 35 Figure 8: Frequency of occurrence of negative politeness strategies in conversations of “Market Leader, Intermediate”. 36 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS CP Cooperative Principle PP Politeness Principle FTA Face Threatening Act FSA Face Saving Act S Speaker H Hearer viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale In the age of international communication, more and more people from different cultures and backgrounds have teamed up to exchange all kinds of information.
Therefore, there is a great demand for a complete mutual understanding among parties. Interlocutors must have not only a good language competence but also proper communication competence. In such a situation, English has been chosen as the main foreign language in the syllabuses of most schools, colleges, universities and educational institutes throughout Vietnam. And the number of people learning English for various purposes such as jobs, business, travelling is continually increasing every day.
However, the traditional teaching method with emphasis on teaching grammar rules and structures cannot offer students much help in acquiring successful cross-cultural communication skills. This is completely true for those whose major is English for business. The reason is that students may confront with difficulties in achieving contextual, situational and cultural appropriateness in communication. As a result, cultural shock and communication breakdown might happen in communication even though the students are very good at grammar.
For that reason, it is necessary for them to learn not only linguistic knowledge and interactional skills but also knowledge of the target culture. They must be aware of their own culture and English speaking cultures as well, especially the hidden parts of culture including face, facework and politeness because politeness is really a vital part of all social interactions. For those reasons, the author of this study aims at investigating and emphasizing the important role of politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate” by David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent so as to improve the teaching and learning of verbal communication in English for the second – year students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology. Objectives of the study: The objectives of the study are: - To study bald-on-record politeness strategies, on-record strategies and off-record strategies in most typical contextual environments in the conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate”.
- To put forward some suggestions for efficient ways of teaching the course book. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Research questions 1) What politeness strategies are used in the conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate”? 2) Which politeness strategy is the most commonly used? 4. Scope of the study Although there are a lot of important issues in pragmatics, this thesis only focuses on politeness strategies particularly expressed in conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate”.
The investigation is based mainly on the theoretical framework suggested by Brown and Levinson [(1978)1987]. Methodology: The major methods that the author has employed are quantitative and qualitative. That is to say, all the considerations and conclusions are based on the analysis of the data from the book within the theoretical politeness framework by Brown and Levinson. In addition, the following sources are also used: - Reference to publication, - Discussion with the supervisor, - Discussion with the colleagues, - Personal observations.
Design of the study The study is divided into three parts: Part I: Introduction This part includes the rationale, objectives, research questions, scope, methodology and design of the study. Part II: Development This part covers three chapters: Chapter I: Literature review which focuses on the theoretical background of speech acts, classification of speech acts, politeness theory. Chapter II: Politeness strategies in conversational activities of the coursebook “Market leader, Intermediate”. This chapter analyses four types of politeness strategies found in the conversational activities in fourteen units of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate”.
The strategies are expressed in three most common types of speech acts: disagreement, agreement and request. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chapter III: Implications for politeness strategies in teaching English as a foreign language at Hanoi University of Business and Technology. This chapter presents some advice for teachers to teach the coursebook effectively. Part III: Conclusion which summarizes the main findings, mentions the limitations of the study and give some suggestions for further study.
3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter provides the theoretical framework in which the study is carried out. It includes three main sections. Section 1 reviews the notions of speech act theory in which the author mentions some types of classifications of speech acts. In section 2, she demonstrates politeness theory with view points of some famous linguists such as: Grice, Lakoff, Leech, Brown and Levinson.
However, the study mainly bases on the politeness theory proposed by Brown and Levinson and Nguyen Quang. The last section reviews some recent studies related to politeness strategies.