MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY PHẠM KIM NGA CONVERSATION ANALYSIS OF THE CONVERSATIONS IN THE CURRENT HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS IN VIETNAM MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH BINH DINH – 2021 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY PHẠM KIM NGA CONVERSATION ANALYSIS OF THE CONVERSATIONS IN THE CURRENT HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS IN VIETNAM FIELD: English Linguistics CODE: 8220201 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH SUPERVISOR: Assoc. NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN BINH DINH – 2021 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN PHẠM KIM NGA PHÂN TÍCH HỘI THOẠI TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH PHỔ THÔNG TRUNG HỌC HIỆN NAY Ở VIỆT NAM Chuyên ngành : Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số : 8220201 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ TIẾNG ANH Người hướng dẫn: PGS. NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN BÌNH ĐỊNH – 2021 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the thesis “Conversations Analysis of the Conversations in the Current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam” is my own work except where reference is made in the text of the thesis. No other person‟s work has been used without acknowledgement in this thesis.
I certify that this thesis has been submitted for completion for the degree of Master in English linguistics and has not been submitted for the award of any degree or qualification Binh Dinh, 2021 Phạm Kim Nga ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Nguyen Quang Ngoan for his support and guidance in my completion of the thesis. I am also thankful to all the lectures at the Department of Foreign Languages, Quy Nhon University for their profound knowledge and endless support during my study at Quy Nhon University. Second, I would like to thank my classmates who were always willing to help me and give their best suggestions and encouragement to me during my process of conducting the study.
In addition, I would also like to thank all my colleagues at Trung Vuong High School for helping me with my job in order that I can have time to take part in this course and complete my research. Last but not least, I owe the completion of this paper to all my beloved family, who have been encouraging me with their best wishes as well as cheering me up and standing by me on my road to success. iii ABSTRACT This is a study of adjacency pairs, back channels, and discourse markers in the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam. The study aim is to examine the types of adjacency pairs, back channels, and discourse markers in the conversations investigated.
Descriptive is considered as the main method with the combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches in this study. Besides, contrastive, analytic and synthetic methods are also used to help to work out the best possible findings. The data include a total of 372 adjacency pairs, 57 back channels, and 136 discourse markers in 100 conversations. The frameworks of adjacency pairs are based on Yule‟s (1996) and Levinson‟s (1983) theories, back channels on Iwasaki„s (1997) theory and discourse markers on Fraser‟s (2005) theory.
The results of the thesis make it possible for learners to have a general view on the types of adjacency pairs, back channels, and discourse markers in the conversations for their effective communication with the English language. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF CONVENTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS.
vii LIST OF TABLES. viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY. SCOPE OF THE STUDY.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS. ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS .5 CHAPTER 2: LITURATURE REVIEW. THEORY OF CONVERSATION.
Notion of Conversation. Notion of Conversational Analysis. THEORY OF ADJACENCY PAIRS .1 Notion of Adjacency pairs .2 Adjacency pairs and Preference Structure. THEORY OF BACK CHANNELS.
Notion of Back channels. Types of back channels. THEORY OF DISCOURSE MARKERS. Notion of Discourse markers.
Types of discourse markers. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS, RELEVANT STUDIES .25 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. DATA SOURCES AND SAMPLES. VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY .32 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
TYPES OF AJACENCY PAIRS IN THE EXAMINED CONVERSATIONS IN THE CURRENT HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXT BOOKS. Leave - Leave-taking. TYPES OF BACKCHANNELS IN THE EXAMINED CONVERSATIONS vi IN THE CURRENT HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXT BOOKS. Non-lexical backchannels .TYPES OF DISCOURSE MARKERS IN THE EXAMINED CONVERSATIONS IN THE CURRENT HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXT BOOKS.
THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG THE THREE TYPES OF ADJACENCY PAIRS, BACK CHANNELS AND DISCOURSE MARKERS IN THE CONVERSATIONS. APPLYING THESIS TO HELP THE TEACHER IN TEACHING CONVERSATIONS FOR ENGLISH STUDENTS. Conclusions concerning the types of adjacency pairs in the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam. Conclusions concerning the types of backchannels in theconversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam.
Conclusions concerning the types of discourse markers in the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY .68 vii LIST OF CONVENTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS Greeting - Greeting [G-G] Question - Answer [Q-A] Assessment - Agreement [A-A] Assessment - Disagreement ( Dispreferred) [A-D] Invitation - Acceptance [I-A] Invitation- Refusal ( Dispreferred) [I-R] Offer - Acceptance [O-A] Offer - Decline ( Dispreferred) [O-D] Proposal - Agreement [P-A] Proposal - Disagreement [P-D] ( Dispreferred) Request - Acceptance [R-A] Request - Refusal ( Dispreferred) [R-R] Leave-taking - Leave-taking [L-L] Instruction - Response [In-Re] Problem - Advice [Pr-Ad] Announcement - Response [An-Re] Contrastive Markers CDMs Elaborative Markers EDMs Inferential Markers IDMs Temporal Markers TDMs viii LIST OF TABLES Table Tittles Paper Numbers numbers 2.1 The general patterns of preferred and dispreferred structures 12 ( Adapted from Levinson, 1983 ) Framework for Adjacency pairs based on Levinson‟s 3.2 Framework for the analysis of types of Backchannels 31 based on Iwasaki‟s (1997) 3.3 Framework for the analysis of types of Discourse 32 markers based on Fraser‟s (2005) 4.1 The types of adjacency pairs in the Current High 34 School English Textbooks 4.2 Types of backchannels in the Conversations in the 49 Current High School English Textbooks Types of discourse markers in the Conversations 54 4.3 in the Current High School English Textbooks 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the preliminaries of the thesis. It starts with the rationale, followed by the aim and objectives of the study, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, and definition of terms.
It finally deals with the organization of the study. RATIONALE Communication is the way people send a message, information and news easily through a spoken language that is understood by each other of people in society. Communication has a variety of ways, and one of them is through oral communication or conversation. A conversation refers two or more individuals talking with one another just for the sake of talking.
It is a form of sociability and reflects an individual‟s ability and willingness to interact with others. At a basic level, conversation analysis is viewed as the study of talk. In a broad sense, conversation analysis could refer to the study of people talking together, oral communication or even study of language use. Conversation analysis is a systematic analysis of talk that is produced as a result of normal everyday interactions.
This talk is referred to as „talk-in- interaction‟. Conversation analysis refers to the study of orders of talk-in- interaction that takes place with any individual and in any setting. Conversation analysis is to determine how participants in a natural conversation understand and respond to one another when they turn to talk. The focus is on how these sequences of action are generated.
These settings can be the most ordinary and the most routine everyday situations. According to this approach, social actions hold some sort of significance to those who initiate them. They are naturally organized and this can be discovered through 2 careful examination. Conversation analysis, therefore, tries to understand the hidden rules, meanings or structures that create such an order in a conversation.
English Textbooks have played a vital role in the teaching-learning process at High School. They provide the basic framework within which much of the classroom activities and also give students the best possible opportunities for learning. Textbooks are tools in the hands of teachers, and teachers must know how to use them, and how useful they can be for students. Students can learn their lessons in the English Textbooks and use English as a communicative tool in their classes and real situations.
Conversation analysis concerns the ways in which members organize their talk and conversations of social practices. Researching conversation analysis is actually helpful in teaching and learning English language at High School because we can understand social interaction in the conversations and recognize the ways speakers and listeners response to each other. Moreover, we can understand about behavior in speakers‟ interaction in a conversation as well as know how participants in a natural conversation understand and respond to one another when it is their turn to talk. The current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam have been applied as well as taught in High Schools since 2018, and this thesis has been the first to do conversation analysis in the present High School English Textbooks.
Therefore, I would like to conduct my research on “Conversation analysis of the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam” to help students understand more about Adjacency pairs, Back channels and Discourse markers of conversation analysis in English Textbooks in Vietnam and improve their language competence for effective communication. AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. Aim This study is carried out to examine the types of adjacency pairs, back channels, and discourse markers in the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam. Objectives This research deals with the following objectives: - To identify and examine the types of adjacency pairs in the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam.
- To identify and examine the types of back channels in the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam. - To identify and examine the types of discourse markers in the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam. RESEARCH QUESTIONS In order to achieve the above aim and objectives, the researcher tries to answer to the following questions: 1. What are the types of adjacency pairs in the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam? 2.
What are the types of back channels in the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam? 3. What are the types of discourse markers in the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam? 1. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The data of this study includes 100 conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam. The examination and comparison focus on features and characteristics of adjacency pairs, back channels and discourse markers in 4 the conversations in the current High School English Textbooks in Vietnam.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY I would like to choose “Conversation analysis of the conversations in the current high school English Textbooks in Vietnam” as my study with the hope that the findings of the study will contribute the specific analysis and examples to the aspects of Adjacency pairs, Back channels and Discourse markers in the conversations. Besides, this study is expected to be of great significance to the practical concern of teaching and learning the conversations in English Textbooks. To teachers, it will improve their awareness of the application of adjacency pairs, back channels and discourse markers used in the conversations to analyze and use them in their teaching activities. To learners of English, the findings will provide them with knowledge of conversations.