VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES o0o PHẠM THÙY GIANG STUDENTS’ PRAGMATIC AWARENESS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ENGLISH CLA[.]
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES o0o PHẠM THÙY GIANG STUDENTS’ PRAGMATIC AWARENESS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ENGLISH CLASSROOM TEACHING AT VIETNAM UNIVERSITY OF COMMERCE (Nhận thức ngữ dụng học sinh viên gợi ý cho việc giảng dạy Tiếng Anh Trường Đại học Thương mại) Summary of M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 HANOI – 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES o0o PHẠM THÙY GIANG STUDENTS’ PRAGMATIC AWARENESS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ENGLISH CLASSROOM TEACHING AT VIETNAM UNIVERSITY OF COMMERCE (Nhận thức ngữ dụng học sinh viên gợi ý cho việc giảng dạy Tiếng Anh Trường Đại học Thương mại) Summary of M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Nguyen Bach Thao, M.A HANOI – 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration of originality i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents .iv Lists of abbreviations .vii List of tables viii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Pragmatics 1.1.1 Definitions 1.1.2 Aspects of Pragmatics 1.1.2.1 Speech acts 1.1.2.1.1 Definitions 1.1.2.1.2 Categories of speech acts 1.1.2.2 Pragmalinguistics 1.1.2.2.1 Definitions and aspects of pragmalinguistics 1.1.2.2.2 Directness v.s indirectness 1.1.2.3 Sociopragmatics 1.1.2.3.1 Definitions 1.1.2.3.2 Aspects of sociopragmatics 1.1.2.3.2.1 Politeness iv 1.1.2.3.2.2 Cultural norms 1.2 Pragmatic awareness 1.2.1 Definitions 1.2.2 Difference between awareness of pragmalinguistics and sociopragmatics 10 1.2.3 Previous studies 11 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 14 2.1 Situation analysis 14 2.2 Methods of the study 14 2.3 Research design 15 2.3.1 Sample and sampling 15 2.3.2 Instruments 15 2.3.3 Data collection 17 2.3.4 Data analysis 17 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 18 3.1 Awareness of greeting 19 3.2 Awareness of addressing 20 3.3 Awareness of introducing 22 3.4 Awareness of requesting and responding 23 3.5 Awareness of inviting and responding 27 3.6 Awareness of parting 28 3.7 Awareness of thanking and responding 30 3.8 Awareness of conversation topics 32 3.9 Summary of the findings 34 CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS 35 4.1 Raising students’ pragmalinguistic awareness 35 4.2 Raising students’ awareness of politeness 36 4.3 Raising students’ awareness of cultural norms .36 4.3.1 Integrating culture into language teaching 36 4.3.1.1 Enforcing the teaching of British and American cultural background 36 4.3.1.2 Creating culture-rich learning environment 36 4.3.2 Designing a cultural syllabus .37 v 4.3.3 Providing more authentic teaching materials 38 4.4 Improving the pragmatic teaching in the way of holding tests and exams 39 4.5 Developing teachers’ competence 39 PART C: CONCLUSION 41 Summary of the study 41 Limitations of the study 41 Suggestions for further studies 42 REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VUC Vietnam University of Commerce ESL English as a second language EFL English as a foreign language vii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Average percentage of appropriate responses by speech acts Table 3.2: Students‘ awareness of greeting Table 3.3: Students‘ awareness of addressing Table 3.4: Students‘ awareness of introducing Table 3.5: Students‘ awareness of requests and responses Table 3.6: Students‘ awareness of inviting Table 3.7: Students‘ awareness of parting Table 3.8: Students‘ awareness of thanks and responses Table 3.9: Students‘ awareness of conversation topics viii PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale English, as an international communication tool, is the most widely used all over the world As a result, it is absolutely vital for many Vietnamese learners to have a good command of English so that they can communicate effectively with foreigners However, many Vietnamese learners even those who are good at reading and writing with sufficient knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary still fail in communicating with foreigners Although they may have little difficulty in understanding the literal meaning of the target language in authentic communication situations, they cannot interpret the utterances correctly, or express themselves appropriately One of the reasons is that they lack necessary pragmatic knowledge; that is, they are not aware of the social, cultural, and discourse conventions that have to be followed in various situations like many other proficient speakers of English (Bardovi-Harlig, 1999) This is understandable because according to Bachman (1990), in order to be successful in communication, it is essential for foreign language learners like Vietnamese students to know not just grammar and text organization but also pragmatic aspects of the target language Once they are not aware of English pragmatic aspects, they may be incapable of using the target language effectively in intercultural communication In other words, low pragmatic awareness results in many communication breakdowns As a teacher of English at Vietnam University of Commerce, from her own observations and experience, the researcher has noticed that VUC students often get difficulties in communicating in English when involving in different communication situations in classrooms as well as in real-life encounters Many of them not employ appropriate strategies and not use relevant linguistic forms to perform a speech act They engage in communication activities without paying attention to factors that influence the communication such as the relationship with the other interlocutor The situation is worse when they interact with native speakers As they are not exposed much to real-life situations, they often feel stuck They may not understand what native speakers mean or are unable to make appropriate utterances in different situations Especially, they often violate politeness or cultural norms, thus leading to their difficulty or even failure in intercultural communication This maybe due to the fact that they are not really aware of pragmatic aspects or not put great emphasis on them Such a situation has inspired the author to carry out a research paper into “ Students’ pragmatic awareness and implications for English classroom teaching at Vietnam University of Commerce.” with a focus on VUC 1st year non-English major students‘ pragmatic awareness Some pedagogical implications are also given to help raise the students‘ pragmatic awareness and increase English teaching effectiveness Aims of the study The purpose of this research is to explore 1st year non-English major students‘ pragmatic awareness at the university where the researcher is serving Basing on the research results, the researcher then goes further to figure out teaching techniques to raise the students‘ pragmatic awareness It is specifically important because these freshmen should be properly primed for directing their own learning process, setting as a good foothold for the next coming school years and in the long run for their life-long study When they are aware of pragmatic aspects and put much emphasis on these right from their initial time studying at university, they will have a right orientation in studying English, thus increasing the effectiveness of their English study It is also hoped that the study will be a contribution to improve the teaching quality at this university Research questions The study is aimed at answering two research questions: How much are VUC 1st year non-English major students aware of English pragmatic aspects? What should be done to improve the students‘ pragmatic awareness? Scope of the study The study focuses on investigating pragmatic awareness of VUC 1st year nonEnglish major students who are not taught pragmatics explicitly That of English major students or 2nd, 3rd or 4th year students, therefore, is left for future research Also, due to the time constraints, this study involves a small number of students Moreover, the participants targeted in the survey questionnaire for native speakers are all American; therefore, only American social and cultural norms are used to form a data basis for analysing and evaluating the appropriateness of the students‘ responses Significance of the study The study is hoped to be valuable to not only VUC teachers and students but Vietnamese education policy makers as well First, the study should be able to help teachers at VUC improve their theoretical understanding of pragmatics and its importance in language learning and teaching From this, they can find more suitable and effective teaching strategies and put more emphasis on teaching pragmatic aspects to help their students highly aware of pragmatics, thus they can use English more fruitfully in their professional and academic life Second, it is hoped that the research will enhance VUC students‘ pragmatic awareness so as to help them become more engaged in classroom activities Third, by presenting a wealth of relevant literature, the study is expected to propose some ideas to help educators and policy makers take steps along the path toward building pragmatically authentic materials and introducing pragmatic-oriented examinations into the curriculum Another significance of the study is to contribute obviously to the knowledge of pragmatic awareness which is still an alien linguistic area in Vietnam On the other hand, it suggests new aspects for further studies Design of the study The study consists of three main parts as follows: Part A: Introduction: This part presents the rationale, aims, methods, scope, significance and design of the study Part B: Development: There are four chapters to this part Chapter I: Literature Review: This chapter reviews the literature to provide a basic theoretical background on pragmatic awareness and a justification for conducting the study on the grounds of finding a gap left by previous studies on pragmatic awareness Chapter II: Methodology: This chapter deals with the overall picture of how the research was carried out from the first step of determining the study structure to the last one of collecting and analyzing data Chapter III: Data Analysis and Findings: This chapter interprets the answer to the posed research questions: How much are VUC 1st year non-English major students aware of English pragmatic aspects? What should be done to improve the students‘ pragmatic awareness? The findings end with conclusions and comments Chapter IV: Implications: This chapter recommends possible improvements for both teachers and students with an aim to raise the students‘ pragmatic awareness Part C: Conclusion: This part summarises the main contents and findings of the study, limitations of the present study and some suggestions for further studies of speech acts, some of which have not been illuminated yet such as greeting or parting and a pragmatic aspect, namely conversation topics In addition, learners‘ pragmatic awareness concerning pragmalinguisitcs and sociopragmatics has not been investigated in the aforementioned studies, which leaves a gap to be filled by this research Moreover, as the researcher learnt from the literature review, Vietnamese students‘ pragmatic awareness is out of concern of the previous studies and thus should be a focus in this study 13 ... into “ Students’ pragmatic awareness and implications for English classroom teaching at Vietnam University of Commerce.” with a focus on VUC 1st year non -English major students‘ pragmatic awareness. . .VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES o0o PHẠM THÙY GIANG STUDENTS’ PRAGMATIC AWARENESS AND IMPLICATIONS. .. relationship between grammatical and pragmatic awareness, Bardovi-Harlig and Dörnyei (1998) investigated the recognition and rating of grammatical and pragmatic infelicities of the ESL and EFL learners