A study of Politness Strategies in the Conversational Activities of the course book “Market Leader – Intermediate: . M.A Thesis

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LÀ A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSE BOOK “MARKET LEADER, INTERMEDIATE (NEW EDITION) Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch sử dụng hội thoại giáo trình tiếng Anh thương mại “MARKET LEADER, INTERMEDIATE” (Tái bản) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.02.01 Hanoi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LÀ A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSE BOOK “MARKET LEADER, INTERMEDIATE (NEW EDITION) Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch sử dụng hội thoại giáo trình tiếng Anh thương mại “MARKET LEADER, INTERMEDIATE” (Tái bản) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.02.01 Supervisor: Dr Kiều Thị Thu Hương Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION I hereby, certify the thesis named “A study of politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate” (New edition)” is the result of my own work for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi The research has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions I agree that the origin of my thesis deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and research February, 2014 Nguyễn Thị Là i ACKNOLEDGEMENT I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this thesis First of all, I’m thankful to the Post-graduate Department of ULIS, VNUH for giving me permission to carry out and complete this M.A thesis and to use the Department’s data Secondly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Kiều Thị Thu Hương, Vice-Dean of the English Faculty – Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam for her valuable comments, endless encouragement, kind guidance and correction I also wish to acknowledge all the lecturers at the Post Graduate Department, University of Languages and International Studies whose lectures have enriched my knowledge in many fields of linguistics as well as of daily life They are Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân, Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến, Asoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang, Dr Lê Văn Canh, Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ, Dr Ngơ Hữu Hồng, Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm, Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn My sincere thanks go to my colleagues and friends at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, who have constantly assisted me in completing the research Finally, I would not have been able to complete this work without the whole-hearted support and endless encouragement from my husband, our parents and our son ii ABSTRACT When people from different cultures using different languages communicate to each other, there exists the possibility of miscommunication In order to avoid misunderstanding and culture shock, learners of foreign languages especially of English should know how to behave properly in each certain situation Being considered one of the key factors of successful cross-culture communication, politeness strategies are commonly used in daily social interactions Therefore, the author conducts this study with the aims of investigating politeness strategies in conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate” (New edition) Her attempt is to help students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology achieve success in communication in their future work In the coursebook “Market Leader, Intermediate” most of conversational activities are discussed and analysed mainly on politeness theories of Brown & Levinson and Nguyen Quang The research shows that the frequencies of politeness strategies occurance in conversational activities of the material are not always the same The findings show that negative politeness strategies are employed more frequently than positive politeness, baldon-record and off-record strategy Most politeness strategies are used in such conversational activities as making disagreements, agreements and requests In addition, the author also suggests some recommendations that might work in the Vietnamese context to improve the teaching and learning of verbal communication for students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vii ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS viii PART I – INTRODUCTION Rationale Objectives of the study Research question Scope of the study Methodology: Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Speech Acts 1.1.1 Speech Acts and Speech Events 1.1.2 Classification of Speech Acts 1.1.2.1 Function-based Approach 1.1.2.2 Structural-function Based Approach Politeness theory Notions of politeness theory 1.2.2 Conversational-maxim View on Politeness 1.2.2.1 Grice’s Principle 1.2.2.2 Lakoff’s rules 10 1.2.2.3 Leech’s Maxims 11 1.2.3 Face-management View on Politeness 13 iv 1.2.3.1 The Concept of Face 13 1.2.3.2 Strategies for FSAs 14 1.3 Previous study 23 CHAPTER II: POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSEBOOK “MARKET LEADER, INTERMEDIATE” 25 2.1 Methodology 25 2.1.1 Data source 25 2.1.2 Research techniques 25 2.1.2.1 Techniques for data collection 25 2.1.2.2 Techniques for data analysis 25 2.1.2.3 Steps for Data Analysis 26 2.2 Data Analysis 26 2.2.1 Frequency of Occurrence of Politeness Strategies in the Coursebook “Market Leader, Intermediate” 26 2.2.2 Bald-on-record Strategy in Conversational Activities of “Market Leader, Intermediate” 28 2.2.3 Positive Politeness Strategies in Conversational Activities of “Market Leader, Intermediate” 31 2.2.4 Negative Politeness Strategies in Conversational Activities of “Market Leader, Intermediate” 34 2.2.5 Off-record Strategy in Conversational Activities of “Market Leader, Intermediate” 38 2.3 Concluding remarks 39 CHAPTER 3: IMPLICATIONS FOR POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY 40 PART III: CONCLUSION 3.1 Summary of the study 42 3.2 Limitations of the study 42 v 3.3 Suggestions for further study 43 REFERENCES 44 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………I vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES Table 1: The five general functions of speech acts Table 2: The frequency of occurrence of politeness strategies in conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate” 27 Table 3: The frequency of politeness strategies in terms of functions of utterance 28 Table 4: Frequency of occurrence of positive politeness strategies in conversations of“Market Leader, Intermediate” 32 Table 5: Frequency of occurrence of negative politeness strategies in conversations of“Market Leader, Intermediate” 36 FIGURES Figure 1: Circumstances determining choice of strategies 15 Figure 2: Strategies to minimize risk of losing face 15 Figure 3: The frequency of occurrence of politeness strategies in conversational activities of the course book “Market Leader, Intermediate” 27 Figure 4: The frequency of bald-on-request strategy in terms of functions of utterances 29 Figure 5: The frequency of positive politeness strategies in terms of functions of utterances 31 Figure 6: Frequency of occurrence of positive politeness strategies in conversations of “Market Leader, Intermediate” 32 Figure 7: The frequency of negative politeness strategies in terms of functions of utterances 35 Figure 8: Frequency of occurrence of negative politeness strategies in conversations of “Market Leader, Intermediate” 36 vii ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS CP Cooperative Principle PP Politeness Principle FTA Face Threatening Act FSA Face Saving Act S Speaker H Hearer viii PART III: CONCLUSION 3.1 Conclusion of the study There is no doubt that politeness is crucial in communication, especially in cross-cultural communication Politeness is interpreted as “a genuine desire to be pleasant to others, or as the underlying motivation for an individual‟s linguistic behavior” (Thomas, 1995:150) Thus, in order to be successful intercultural and cross–cultural communicators, learners of English ought to know how native speakers of English employ politeness strategies The study aims at identifying the importance of politeness in communication It investigates four types of politeness strategies: bald-on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness and off-record strategy and examines their frequency of occurrence in 14 unit of the coursebook “Market Leader, Intermediate (New Edition)” within the theoretical framework of politeness proposed by Brown & Levinson (1987) and Nguyen Quang (2002) Among the four types of politeness strategies, negative politeness strategies are the most preferred ones with 57.7% of occurrence Positive politeness strategies rank the second position with 29.5% Bald-on-record strategy and off-record strategy hold very little percentage with 9% and 4% respectively Most positive and negative politeness strategies are used in such conversational activities as making disagreements, agreements and requests Obviously, the data analysis of politeness strategies highlight the importance of applying positive and negative politeness in communication, especially in cross-cultural communication for teachers and students of English In order to teach and study English efficiently, they are well advised to employ politeness strategies appropriately in given situations The author hopes that this thesis would help teachers and students at HUBT teach and learn English more effectively through the coursebook “Market Leader, Intermediate” 3.2 Limitations of the study Although the study has offered some insightful findings, like many other studies, it still has some limitations In the scale of a minor thesis, the research only deals with politeness strategies performed in three most common speech acts of the coursebook: disagreement, agreement and request It cannot cover other types of speech acts such as making suggestions, responding, social behaviors, etc Moreover, the study only focuses on one 42 book in its series of three books Therefore, all utterances picked out are restricted; this clearly affects the validity of the research results 3.3 Suggestions for further study It is hereby suggested that a further study be carried out in other types of speech acts appeared in this book as well as the other books in this series 43 REFERENCES IN ENGLISH Austin, J L (1962) How to things with words New York: Oxford University Press, Oxford Blum-Kulka, S (1987) Indirectness and politeness in request: same or different? Journal of Pragmatics, 11, 145-160 Brown, P., & Levinson, S (1987) Politeness: some Universal in Language Usage Cambridge University Press Grice, H P (1975) Logic and conversation in P Cole & J L Morgan (Eds) Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts (41-58) New York: Academic Press Hien, T T T (2010) A politeness strategy in expressing sympathy by American and Vietnamese speakers Luận văn thạc sĩ, Đại học Ngoại ngữ, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội Hoat, N D (1995) Politness markers in Vietnamese requests Unpublished Ph D thesis, Monash University Hobb, P (2003) The medium is the message: Politeness Strategies in Men‟s and Women‟s voice mail and message Journal of Pragmatics, 35, 243-262 Lakoff, R (1973) The logic of Politeness: Or, minding your p‟s and q‟s Paper from the Ninth Regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society (p.292-305) Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society Leech, G N (1980) Explorations in Semantics and Pragmatics Agency University of Trier, Series A University of Trier 10 Leech, G N (1983) Principles of Pragmatics London: Longman 11 Lien, P T H (2012) A Study on Politeness Strategies in the Conversational Activities of the Coursebook “ New English file” (Intermediate) Luận văn thạc sĩ, Đại học Ngoại ngữ, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội 12 Maginnis, J (2011) Texting in the presence of others: the use of politeness strategies in conversation University of Kentucky Doctoral Diserrtations 13 Quang, N (2003) Intercultural and Cross-culture Communication VNU Press 44 14 Searl, J R (1976) A classification of Illocutionary Acts Language in Society 5, 1-23 15 Thomas, J (1995) Meaning in interaction: An introduction to Pragmatics London and New York: Longman 16 Watt R J (2003) Politeness CUP 17 Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics Oxford: Oxford University Press 18 Yule, G (2006) The study of language Cambridge University Press 45 IN VIETNAMESE Vũ Thị Thanh Hương (2000) Gián tiếp lịch lời cầu khiến tiếng Việt, ngơn từ, giới nhóm xã hội từ thực tiễn tiếng Việt (135-178) NXB KHXH, Hà Nội Nguyễn Quang (2001) Sắc thái quyền lực giao tiếp ngôn ngữ Tập san ngoại ngữ số Nguyễn Quang (2002) Giao tiếp giao tiếp văn hóa NXB Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội 46 APPENDIX POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN CONVERSATIONS OF THE COURSE BOOK “MARKET LEADER, INTERMEDIATE” (NEW EDITION) Politeness strategies Unit Conversational activity Kind of speech act On-record strategies Baldon- Positive Negative record - Do you buy brands? Disagreement  - No I don’t want to give free advertising to companies I hate all the advertising hype around brands - Ok, we all agree we Agreeement want to increase our revenue by licensing our “Luc Fontaine” product Unit range - Is she the right person Agreeement for us? - Definitely In my opinion, she’s ideal - Valerie, what you Agreeement think? - I agree because she’s very good at marketing - Barbara, what’s your Disagreement opinion? - I’m afraid I can’t agree I don’t think she’s I Offrecord suitable at all - Pietro, can I have a Request word with you? - What I really don’t like Disagreement  is the way airlines treat people on the plane - I like flying but I really Disagreement  don’t enjoy being at the airports I don’t like the attitude of the airlines - Good morning, CPT How may I help you? - Could you put me Request through to extension 281, please? - With new Unit Agreement communications technology , business people need to travel so much? - Yes, I think they probably - Could you make it Request then? Agreement - Oh yes, that’d be no problem at all What about o’clock? - Perfect It’ll be great to see you again - We’ll have plenty to Agreement talk about - That’s for sure II - Could she call me back Request here at the hotel, please? - Can you e-mail these Request sales figures through to head offices as soon as possible? Unit - Hold on a minute,  please - Can you give example of business changed me Request how a its organisation and why? Unit - Can we move on the Request next point, the open-plan office? - I like the idea It’s good Agreement for communication, people see each other at the office - I’m not sure I agree Disagreement with you there With open-plan offices, there’s a problem of privacy - Stefan, what you Agreement think? - I agree with Max about privacy - I suggest meeting we rooms use Agreement for private conversations or calls - Meeting rooms? Yes, III that’s true, I suppose - Could I just say Disagreement something? I don’t think it works - Let Stefan finish, please Request  Max - Well, I’m not happy Disagreement about it I don’t think we should have a vote about it now I mean, I think we need a report or an extra survey done about this - Is everyone agreed? Agreement - Yes, right, agree - Right, can we move to Request the next item on the agenda, “hot-desking”, Max? - Frankly, I was shocked Disagreement to see the proposal about hot-desking I don’t think hot-desking works in close offices - OK, how you feel about it, Nancy? - I’m pretty sure hotdesking won’t work Disagreement unless we have an openplan office I don’t think hot-desking works in closed offices Unit - Can you give us an Request IV example of a really good business proposal? - Can you talk us through Request the typical planning and launch stages of a campaign? Unit - If you have any Request 10 questions, please don’t hesitate to interrupt me - If there’s anything you Request 10 you’re not clear about, go ahead and ask any questions you want - And can you give us Request Unit examples of typical cultural mistakes made by people doing business internationally? - Not for me, thanks I’m Disagreement 13 not keen on fish - Can we start, please? Request - How you feel about offering him a full-time contract? - I’m not sure we should Disagreement Unit it really - I don’t think that’s too Disagreement important - I’m not sure that Disagreement relevant - Mmm, may be - What about his actual Agreement V work? In my opinion, it’s fine - Could you tell me why Request you want to leave your present job, Mr Passerelli? Agreement - Certainly I’m glad you asked me that - Could you sumarize Request why we should offer you this job? - I think I can offer you a Agreement 10 lot - Could you please tell Request me why you want to leave your present job? - Could you please tell Request me why you want to leave your present job? - Right I suppose, Agreement basically, I need a new motivation - Could you sumarize Request why we should offer you this job? - How about having some lunch Unit continuing now later and this afternoon? Agreement 12 - Yes, let’s continnue after lunch - Could you give me Request VI some tips for negotiating? - Right, let’s try to get ten Agreement percent off their list prices - Agree - Can you tell us a little Request about your customer’s needs and their buying habits? - How about if we send the first consignment by air to make sure the goods arrive on time? - Mmm, sounds like a Agreement good idea to me Good, we agree on price, Agreement quantity, discounts and method of transport - OK, I think we've Agreement covered everything - Great That was a good meeting - Could you give me Request some details, please? - Well, the eject mechanism’s not reliable - Can you bring it in? Request Unit 10 Then we can look into the matter probably machine and we’ll send the back to the VII manufacturer Disagreement Disagreement Disagreement - I’m sorry but I’d prefer to exchange it - I’m afraid it’s not our policy to replace items - Well, that’s not really good enough - Can successful Agreement businesses always behave ethically? - We believe they can - On average staff took Agreement fourteen days off sick – that’s far too many - Absolutely, it’s really damaging for us - Of course, we’d explain Agreement why the present policy Unit 11 isn’t working - Good idea - Could you have a draft Request questionnaire ready by next Monday? - Yes, I think we can Agreement manage that - I thought you might like to know that Someone saw them together at a cinema last Saturday It looked as if they - Thanks, Bob I’ve heard Disagreement enough VIII  - I can’t believe what you Disagreement are saying, Carl I’m really shocked - Why on earth you want us to break up? - It’s well, we’ve had Disagreement some good times together, I know, but - I think we talk too much about work sometimes And that’s not good Disagreement - I don’t know I think we talk about all kinds of things - Yes, but I still feel I  talked too much about work in the past - Are you accusing me of using that information to help us designing our can opener? - I’m not accusing you of Disagreement anything, but some of my colleagues are sure I leaked information to you - I think we need to separate for a while; at least until people have forgotten about the DC01 can opener IX 13 - I see I’m disappointed Disagreement  with you - Can you give us the Request background, Michel? - Yes - As I see it, it’s going to Agreement be very difficult to get a return on our investment - I agree We should never have entered the Disagreement market – it was a  mistake We should sell Unit 12 out as soon as possible - I don’t agree with that all - We need more information about where we are going wrong - I totally agree with you Agreement - I don’t think it will be Disagreement too difficult to improve the store’s performance To be honest, I just don’t think it will ever make much money X 