A study on politeness strategies in negotiating conversations in market leader

A study on politeness strategies in negotiating conversations in market leader Nguyễn Thị Thanh Vân Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS.. Therefore, within this study I would like to

A study on politeness strategies in negotiating

conversations in market leader

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Vân

Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Assoc Prof Nguyễn Quang (PH.D)

Năm bảo vệ: 2009

Abstract: Although the nuances of politeness have been explored by many linguists for

decades, beginning with the pioneering works of Brown and Levinson (1987) and Leech (1983), there has been little research focusing on politeness strategies in only negotiating activities Most researches on politeness strategies involve communicational conversations in general Therefore, within this study I would like to carry out an investigation and draw out the importance of positive and negative politeness strategies in only the negotiating conversations of the course book " Market Leader – Pre intermediate " by David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent so as

to improve the teaching of communication in English to English as foreign language students, especially the second year students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology The study used the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods as this study is mainly about the practical aspects of cross-cultural communication All the considerations and conclusions are based

on the analysis and reference The study consists of the following parts: Part 1- the introduction presents the rationale, aims of study, scope of the study and methodology Part II- the development includes three chapters Chapter 1 is the theoretical background on speech act and politeness strategies Chapter 2 analyzes positive and negative politeness strategies found in the negotiating activities of the course book "Market Leader – Pre intermediate" Chapter 3 presents some implications for learning and teaching politeness strategies for the second year students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology Part III- the conclusion is the last part which summarizes the obtained results of the study, limitations of the research and suggestions for further study.I very much hope that this study would be of some help to improve teaching

politeness strategies to English as foreign language students

Keywords: Chiến lược lịch sự; Tiếng Anh; Bài hội thoại

Content:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

 Astract

 Acknowledgements

 Abbreviations

Part 1: Introduction

1 Rationale ……….……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 1

3.Scope of the study……… 2

4 Methodology……… 2

5 Design of the study……… 2

Part 2: Development Chapter1: Theoretical background……… 3

1.1 Speech Acts ……… 3

1.1.1 What speech acts? ……… 3

1.1.2 Direct speech acts……… 5

1.1.3 Indirect speech acts……… 6

1.2 What politeness? ……….… 7

1.2.1 Face and politeness……… ……… 7

1.2.2 Positive politeness……… 11

1.2.2.1 What positive politeness? 11

1.2.2.2 Positive politeness strategies……… 11

1.2.3 Negative politeness……… 15

1.2.3.1 What negative politeness? 15

1.2.3.2 Negative politeness strategies……… 15

Chapter 2: Politeness strategies in negotiating conversations in Market Leader (new edition) – Pre Intermediate Business English

2.1 Negotiating conversations in the coursebook……… 19

2.2 Politeness strategies in negotiating conversations ……… 19

2.2.1 The frequency of negative politeness and positive politeness strategies used in the negotiating conversations……… ……… 20

2.2.1.1 Sampling process ……….……… 20

2.2.1.2 Balance of positive and negative politeness strategies used in negotiating conversations……… 21

2.2.1 Positive politeness strategies in negotiating conversations ……….…… 22

2.2.2 Negative politeness strategies in negotiating conversations ……….… 26

Chapter 3: Implications for teaching politeness strategies to HUBT second-year students 3.1 Preparation for training politeness strategies……… 32

3.1.1 Preparation for students……… … 32

3.1.2 Making plans……… 32

3.2 Training politeness strategies for the HUBT second - year students……….…… 36

3.2.1 Politeness strategy-awareness training……… 36

3.2.2 One-time politeness strategy training……… 37

3.2.3 Long-term politeness strategy training……….… 37

Part 3: Conclusion 1 Summary……….……… 39

2.Limitations……… 40

3.Suggestions for futher study……… 40

References

- 1 -

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale:

It has been convincingly proved and widely accepted nowadays that an emphasis on language as a communication system is really necessary in the age of globalization Not only does it help to uncover principles underlying social interactions, but it also enables us to gain

an access to ways of thinking, belief systems, and world views of people from various cultural backgrounds Investigating issues concerning cross-cultural communication is especially momentous at present when national boundaries are becoming less visible, more and more people are engaged in intercultural communication Understanding social conventions and paying attention to such concepts as politeness and face will certainly enable us to better comprehend the different ways of speaking by people from different cultures, thus helping to eliminate ethnic stereotypes and misunderstandings

Knowledge of Anglophone cultures is obviously an important key for Vietnamese students to succeed in learning English because second language learning is second culture learning In order to acquire the second language - English, it is necessary to learn not only linguistic knowledge and interaction skills but also knowledge of the target culture Cultural factors are included in the course designs in universities and schools today When understanding the cultural factors, students have chances to expose themselves more comfortably and confidently to native speaking environments Normally, Vietnamese students tend to employ English based on their own cultural experience and thus, causing misinterpretations in communication Hence, to communicate well across cultures the students are well advised to be aware of their source culture as well as the target culture, especially hidden parts of the latter including preferences in behaviour in everyday conversations Politeness really plays an important part in all social interactions The author of this study takes

it as her goal to investigate positive and negative politeness strategies in negotiating conversations of the course book “Market Leader – Pre intermediate” by David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent so as to improve the teaching of communication in English to the second year students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT)

- 2 -

2 Aims of the study

The study aims at

- Identifying and analyzing positive and negative politeness strategies in the negotiating conversations of “Market Leader – Pre intermediate"

- Offering implications for teaching positive and negative politeness strategies in a more effective way with cross - cultural activities and exercises

3 Scope of the study

This study focuses on the positive and negative politeness strategies found in conversational negotiating activities of "Market Leader – Pre intermediate” It is only intended

for HUBT second year students

4 Methodology

The major method employed is quantitative with due reference to qualitative method as this study is mainly about the practical aspects of cross-cultural communication All the considerations and conclusions are based largely on analysis and reference The main approaches include:

- Reference to publications

- Discussion with supervisor

- Discussion with colleagues

- Discussion with students

- Personal observations

5 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts:

Part 1: Introduction presents the rationale, aims of the study, scope of the study,

methodology and design of the study

Part II: Development consists of three chapters Chapter 1 provides the theoretical

background on speech acts and politeness strategies Chapter 2 analyzes positive and negative politeness strategies found in the negotiating activities of "Market Leader – Pre intermediate"

in terms of the frequency of occurrences Chapter 3 offers some implications for learning and teaching politeness strategies to HUBT second year students

Part III: Conclusion summarizes the main findings, pointing out the limitations of the

research and giving suggestions for further study

References English

1 Austin, J.L (1962) How to do things with words, Oxford University Press: Oxford,

England

2 Brown, P & Levinson, S.C (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usages

CUP

3 Cottrill, L (1991) Face, politeness and Directness University of Canberra

4 Leech, G (1983) Principles of Pragmatics London and New York, Longman

5 Levinson, Stephen C 1983.Pragmatics Cambridge, England: Cambridge University

6 Searle, J R (1975) Speech Acts CUP

7 Gies, M.L (1995) Speech Acts and Conversational Interactions CUP

8 Thomas, J (1995) Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics Longman,

London and New York

9 Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics, Oxford University Press

10 Watt, R (2003) Politeness CUP

Vietnamese

11 Nguyen Quang, (1996) Một số phạm trù giao tiếp văn hoá Việt - Mỹ trong hoạt động

giao tiếp Tập san Ngoại Ngữ số 4

12 Nguyen Quang, (1996) Vài suy nghĩ về hình thức x-ng hô trong ngôn ngữ Nội san

Ngoại Ngữ số 2

13 Nguyen Quang, (1998) Trực tiếp và gián tiếp trong dụng học giao văn hoá Việt - Mỹ

Tập san Ngoại Ngữ số 4

14 Nguyen Quang, (1999) Các t-ơng tác trực tiếp, gián tiếp và lịch sử trong dụng học

giao thoa văn hoá Tập san Ngoại Ngữ số 4

15 Nguyen Quang, (2001) Sắc thái quyền lực trong giao tiếp ngôn ngữ Tập san Ngoại

Ngữ số 1

16 Nguyen Quang, (2002) Các chiến l-ợc lịch sử d-ơng tính trong giao tiếp Tạp Chí

Ngôn ngữ số 13

17 Nguyen Quang, (2002) Giao tiÕp vµ giao tiÕp v¨n ho¸ Nhµ xuÊt b¶n §¹i häc Quèc gia

Hµ Néi

18 Nguyen Quang (2003) Intracultural and Cross-culture Communication VNU Press

Internet

19 http://logos.uoregon.edu/explore/socioling/strat.html

20

http://www.slideworld.com/slideshows.aspx/Positive-and-negative-politeness-ppt-810001

21 Ardissono L., G Boella and L Lesmo “Politeness and Speech Acts” 10 January 2006

< http://www.di.unito.it/~guido/um-workshop/>