The use of politeness in making suggestion in English and Vietnamese Bùi Thị Tuyết Mai Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English liguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15 Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Đỗ Mai Thanh Năm bảo vệ: 2012 Abstract. This thesis focuses on the use of politeness strategies in making suggestion in English and Vietnamese. This study investigates similarities and differences in making suggestion between Vietnamese people and British people. Politeness strategies for making suggestion are analyzed with data taken from the questionnaires for the Vietnamese and British informants. Chapter I: “ theoretical background” deals with the notion of culture, cross – culture, speech act, politeness strategies. Chapter II: “ Data analysis and findings”: Questionnaires are used to collect data for the study. Making suggestions which resorts to various strategies of politeness is a flexibly and effectively communicative act in both Vietnamese and English cultures. Chapter III: Some applications of politeness in English teaching and learning Keywords. Tiếng Anh; Tiếng Việt; Giao tiếp; Lời gợi ý Content I. Rationale To our understanding, language is a great heaven prize and treasure for human in order to fulfill our vital needs as the social beings: communication. Language appeared, remains and flourishes along with human history. With the seen development of language and language studies at the moment, there is no need in proving the crucial and irreplaceable position of language in human life. Language is not only for communication but also for cultural exchange among nations. It is difficult to imagine what our lives would be like without language. Cross – cultural communication is an interesting and attractive field for us to find out the similar and different language when studying speech acts such as: greeting, advising, promising, and suggesting… among countries in the world. There are many ways to make suggestion in Vietnamese and English. But to make suggestion in an effective way is by no mean easy. People often have difficulties in making appropriate suggesting in another language. This leads the author to the research into “ The use of politeness strategies in making suggestion in English and Vietnamese” to find out the similarities and differences in making suggestion in Vietnamese and English II. Aims of the study. The aims of the study are: - To investigate ways of suggesting in Vietnamese and English - To compare and contrast the use of politeness strategies in suggesting in given Vietnamese and English suggesting situations. - To contribute to raising language teachers’ and students’ awareness of cross – cultural differences in the speech act of suggesting. III. Scope of the study In all aspects of politeness, the study only deals with verbal aspects, in the light of the politeness theory by Brown and Levinson. The paper is aimed to investigate the English – Vietnamese cross – cultural interaction in making suggestion in both languages English and Vietnamese. The data analysis is mainly taken in to account of interviews with informants to examine politeness strategies based on collected situations of the act of suggestions. The data were collected by conducting surveys with questionnaires. In addition, the data from the informants are also utilized in the study. IV. Research question 1. How are politeness strategies manifested in suggestion in English and Vietnamese? 2. What are the implications for teaching and applying the speech act suggesting in cross cultural communication in Hai Phong private university. V. Method of the study The following methods are resorted to: - Conducting survey (with questionnaires as a data collection instrument) - Consulting the supervisor - Reading relevant publications - Conducting personal observations VI. Organization of the study The study will be organized into the following structure:: Part I: INTRODUCTION outlines the rationale, the methodology, the aims, the scope, the significance and the organization of the study. Part II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1 LITERATURE REVIEW reviews the theoretical issues. It briefly present and discusses the theory of cross – cultural communication and summaries of politeness strategies, summaries of works on suggestion. Chapter 2 DATA ANALYSIS presents and discusses similarities and differences in using politeness strategies in making suggestion in English and Vietnamese. Chapter 3 Some applications politeness strategies in teaching English Part III: CONCLUSION Summary of major findings and suggestion for further study Suggestion for further study References In English Austin,J.L. (1962). How to do things with words. New York: Oxford University Press. Bach, K. and Harnish, R. (1984). Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts. England: The MIT Press. 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Giao tip và giao tip giao vn hoá, Nhà xut bn i hc Quc gia Hà Ni Nguyn Quang (2004). Mt s vn giao tip ni vn hoá văn giao vn hoá Nhà xut bn i hc quc gia Hà Ni. Nguyn Quang (2004). Cú điển dụng học Anh - Việt. Nhà xut bn Từ Điển Bách Khoa Hà Ni. Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (2002). Dụng học Việt ngữ. Nhà xuất bản Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội. . This thesis focuses on the use of politeness strategies in making suggestion in English and Vietnamese. This study investigates similarities and differences in making suggestion between Vietnamese. People often have difficulties in making appropriate suggesting in another language. This leads the author to the research into “ The use of politeness strategies in making suggestion in English. English and Vietnamese to find out the similarities and differences in making suggestion in Vietnamese and English II. Aims of the study. The aims of the study are: - To investigate ways of suggesting