Politeness strategies are preferably used in most Englishspeaking contexts. They are for expressing politeness towards the hearers. Therefore, they are essential in establishing and maintaining relationship between speakers. Research in second language suggests that specific politeness strategy is perhaps the most important part of negotiation process as it lays a foundation for the agreement which is to come. The objective of this study is to find out the frequency of politeness strategies and that of tactics within positive and negative strategies. The data was collected from reliable sources, namely books and trustful websites. 40 business negotiation conversations were chosen to analyze the politeness strategies in terms of their number of appearance and percentage by the quantitative method. Findings demonstrate the choice of politeness strategies depending on each specific context, with different relationship between speakers and hearers by the qualitative method. Overall, this paper is produced in the sincere hope to be considerably beneficial to negotiators with the positive recommendations to conduct business negotiations.
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER LANGUAGE USED IN BUSINESS NEGOTIATION CONVERSATIONS IN TERMS OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES Supervisor: Asso. Prof. Nguyen Xuan Thom Student: Dang Thuy Hang Course: QH2010 HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2014 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGÔN NGỮ SỬ DỤNG TRONG CÁC CUỘC HỘI THOẠI ĐÀM PHÁN KINH DOANH TRÊN PHƯƠNG DIỆN CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ Giáoviênhướngdẫn: PGS. TS. NguyễnXuânThơm Sinhviên: ĐặngThúyHằng Khoá: QH2010 HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, my heartfelt thanks go to my supervisor, Associated Professor Nguyen Xuan Thom for his clear guidance, endless patience, and steady encouragement. I truly appreciate his effort and commitment in making this study so illuminating to me. I am deeply indebted to his never-ending patience and understanding to give me unwavering support, provide me helpful feedback and encourage me to enjoy this experience, and be there for me when I needed him. I wish to express my gratitude to the lecturers of Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University (FELTE, ULIS, VNU) as well as the whole teachers at ULIS, VNU for their invaluable knowledge and precious lessons during my four academic years at this university. Without their support, the results of the study could not be accomplishedly achieved. A special note of appreciation goes to my classmates in QH2010.F1.E1 class for their encouragement, support and comment throughout my project. Last but not least, I want to express my gratitude to my family, relatives and friends for their spiritual and material supports and encouragements, which are important to give me confidence and optimism to complete this study. It is the first time I have carried out a study at the level of graduation paper. In spite of my great efforts, the limitations and shortcomings of the paper are unavoidable. I look forward to receiving helpful comments from the lecturers to further improve my paper. I sincerely thank you! Dang Thuy Hang i ABSTRACT Politeness strategies are preferably used in most English-speaking contexts. They are for expressing politeness towards the hearers. Therefore, they are essential in establishing and maintaining relationship between speakers. Research in second language suggests that specific politeness strategy is perhaps the most important part of negotiation process as it lays a foundation for the agreement which is to come. The objective of this study is to find out the frequency of politeness strategies and that of tactics within positive and negative strategies. The data was collected from reliable sources, namely books and trustful websites. 40 business negotiation conversations were chosen to analyze the politeness strategies in terms of their number of appearance and percentage by the quantitative method. Findings demonstrate the choice of politeness strategies depending on each specific context, with different relationship between speakers and hearers by the qualitative method. Overall, this paper is produced in the sincere hope to be considerably beneficial to negotiators with the positive recommendations to conduct business negotiations. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1.1. The possible strategies for doing FTAs 11 Table 1.1 Tactics of positive politeness 13 Table 1.2 Tactics of negative politeness 14 Table 3.1 The frequency of politeness strategies used in the business negotiation conversations 28 Table 3.2 The frequency of tactics in positive politeness strategies used in the business negotiation conversations 31 Table 3.3 The frequency of tactics in negative politeness strategies used in the business negotiation conversations 36 Figure 3.1 The frequency of politeness strategies used in the business negotiation conversations 28 Figure 3.2 The frequency of tactics in positive politeness strategies used in the business negotiation conversations by number of appearance 32 Figure 3.3 The frequency of tactics in negative politeness strategies used in the business negotiation conversations by number of appearance 37 iv PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Research title Language used in Business Negotiation Conversations in terms of Politeness Strategies 2. Statement of the problem For centuries, the trend toward global integration has developed on a large scale. This exerts powerful effects on social aspects such as the environment, culture, political systems, economic development and prosperity, and human physical well- being in societies around the world. Among these, economic development and politics are the central dimensions. Along with this trend, English is conceived by many to be “the universal symbol of globalization” (Sifakis, 2012, p.475). It has permeated all means of communication worldwide. It is the language of global economy and commerce, of modern technology and the Internet, the default language of science. English is also the preferred means of communication between nations around the world. Besides, together with the spread of globalization, economies experience rapid expansion, which fosters the unity among countries. Such development of international trade causes business transactions to proceed. The success of trade transactions strongly depends on negotiations between enterprises, hence agreements and important contracts are binding. Obviously, business negotiation is of immense significance. According to Ghauri and Usunier (2003, p.3), negotiation is “a basic human activity.” Nowadays, the process is regularly conducted in everyday life to handle relationships, between friends, a husband and wife, sellers and buyers, etc. In some cases, the nature of negotiations is not actually essential; however, a large number of negotiations on international scale, for example, are so serious that it requires careful preparation and grand plans. In such situations in general and in business in particular, 1 pre-plan plays such an influential role that it ensures the great success of business deals. The heart of negotiating table is negotiation conversations between parties. This is the chance for them to influence, persuade, argue with and find out about their partners before concluding a long-term contract, for instance. In both international and domestic business, the clever and skilful use of negotiating skills can help reach mutually satisfactory agreement, hence professional negotiators have to apply a wide range of strategies. They include listening attentively, asking follow-up questions, providing positive feedback, and so on. In different cases, necessary skills to be utilized are different. Because business negotiation is complicated and often formal, conversations must be held with well-prepared strategies and knowledge of related fields, including language and economics. It is said that skilled negotiators frequently follow politeness strategies as they determine the effectiveness of the communication purpose of negotiation conversations. These principles are essential in not only the daily conversations but also the formal ones. In Vietnam, there is a large number of studies in the area politeness strategies, such as “A study of language used in business correspondence in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies” by Thanh (2013), which mentions the types of speech acts and politeness strategies employed in business letters. Business negotiation conversations are also examined at a considerable level, for example, “A study on linguistic features of business negotiation conversations in English and Vietnamese” (Trung, 2013). However, very few studies investigating into business negotiation conversations in terms of strategies implemented, particularly politeness strategies. The impact of these strategies is also not carefully considered. All these conditions, henceforth, offer the researcher a chance to conduct a study on Language used in Business Negotiation Conversations in Terms of Politeness 2 Strategies in the hope of contribution to this area. Techniques of conventional politeness are explored in this research. Expectantly, its results may be effectively utilized for negotiators to gain some certain knowledge to establish and maintain relationships with their partners. 3. Research aims and research questions The research is aimed to present, describe and analyze business negotiation conversations in terms of politeness strategies. To be more specific, the most prevailing types of politeness strategies are revealed. In addition, the frequency of each tactic within positive and negative politeness strategies is also explored. Furthermore, the researcher hopefully suggests some general recommendations to better negotiating skills in commercial context, namely in business negotiation conversations. In brief, these objectives can be summarized into two research questions as follows: 1. What is the frequency of politeness strategies employed in business negotiation conversations? 2. What isthe frequency of each tactic within positive and negative politeness strategies employed in business negotiation conversations? 4. Significance of the study Once having been completed, the research would serve as one of the initial studies on techniques of politeness used in English business negotiation conversations as well as their effects on the success of business negotiations. Therefore, this paper might be particularly useful for negotiators and those develop an interest in this topic. Specifically, negotiators will benefit from the analysis of different politeness strategies and their impact which others employ to achieve the success of their 3 business negotiations. To whom it may concern, the topic can be dealt with later on a larger scale and ranges. 5. Scope of the study In this study, the researcher seeks to find out the frequency of politeness strategies in terms of politeness strategies in business negotiation conversations. Investigations into other types of conversation and fields of pragmatics such as speech acts are beyond the scope. 6. Organization of the research This paper includes three main parts, namely Introduction, Development and Conclusion. Part I introduces the research title, discusses the statement of problem, explains the purpose of the study, and states the research questions. Part II is divided into three chapters, including Literature review, which reviews relevant literature related to politeness, speech acts, negotiation and conversation. The conceptual background which guides this study is also presented. Chapter two, Methodology, discusses the research design, the instruments, and the methods of data collection and analysis. Chapter three, Findings and Discussion, presents the results of both qualitative and qualitative analyses that answer the two research questions of this study anddiscusses the research findings. The final partsummarizes the main findings and points out the implication, limitations and further research. 4 [...]... with this topic in terms of classification, strategies and some guidelines In the context of Vietnam, in 2001, Nguyen Xuan Thom published the book “International Business Negotiation Strategies” (Kỹthuậtđàmphánthươngmạiquốctế) discussing the concept of negotiation, strategies employed in business negotiation, business negotiation cultures in some countries in the world and in Vietnam before and after DoiMoi . CONVERSATIONS IN TERMS OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES Supervisor: Asso. Prof. Nguyen Xuan Thom Student: Dang Thuy Hang Course: QH2010 HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2014 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA. receiving helpful comments from the lecturers to further improve my paper. I sincerely thank you! Dang Thuy Hang i ABSTRACT Politeness strategies are preferably used in most English-speaking contexts. They. required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged”. Grice (1975) goes on to describe four categories of special of