A study of politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the coursebook “New Headway” - intermediate as seen by teachers of University of Economic - Technical Industries

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************ LƯU THI ̣PHƯƠNG THUÝ A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSEBOOK “NEW HEADWAY” -INTERMEDIATE AS SEEN BY TEACHERS OF UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC-TECHNICAL INDUSTRIES Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch sử dụng hội thoại giáo trình giao tiếp NEW HEADWAY trình độ intermediate nhìn giáo viên trường Đại học Kinh tế -Kỹ thuật Công nghiệp M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Linguistics Code : 60220201 HANOI – 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************ LƯU THI ̣PHƯƠNG THUÝ A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSEBOOK “NEW HEADWAY” -INTERMEDIATE AS SEEN BY TEACHERS OF UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC-TECHNICAL INDUSTRIES Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch sử dụng hội thoại giáo trình giao tiếp NEW HEADWAY trình độ intermediate nhìn giáo viên trường Đại học Kinh tế -Kỹ thuật Công nghiệp M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code : 60220201 Supervisor : Prof Nguyễn Quang HANOI - 2016 DECLARATION I hereby certify that this thesis is my own work I confirm that this work is for the requirement of the M.A, and this thesis has not been submitted for elsewhere in any other form for the fulfilment of any other degree or tertiary institution Hanoi, November 2016 Luu Thi Phuong Thuy i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS At the completion of this thesis, I would like to show my sincerest gratitude and appreciation to a number of people for their encouragement and support To begin with, I would like to express my greatest and deepest thankfulness to Prof Nguyen Quang, my supervisor, for his valuable guidance, and advice during the procedure of my thesis Without his supervision, this M.A thesis could not have been accomplished In addition, I would like to give my thanks to Mrs Le Ngoc Hanh, dean of English Faculty as well as all UNETI teachers who participated in my study, for their wholehearted facilitation Without their ideas, their support and their contribution, I cannot complete my thesis Last but not least, I wish to send my special thanks to my family particularly my mother, my father and my husband for their help on the completion of this thesis They have always supplied the best conditions form me to fulfil the thesis ii ABSTRACT This paper is carried out at endeavour of exploring UNETI teachers‟ perception in the linguistics politeness strategies under the influence of role relationships in the conversational activities in New Headway On the basis of quantitative method, survey questionnaire with multiple choice questions and discourse completion task are employed to collect data from fifteen UNETI teachers of English The research shows that the frequencies of politeness strategy occurrence in conversational activities of the material are not always the same The result reveals that positive politeness strategies are preferred more than negative politeness strategies in almost all kinds of conversational activities Moreover, the role relationships relating to relative power, social distance and ranking of impositions make considerable impact on the choice of politeness strategies The study reveals that all the UNETI consume politeness in both utterances in NHW and the significant role relationships in the selection of the types of politeness strategies In addition, they classified them into positive and negative politeness strategies iii ABBREVIATIONS NHW : New Headway (Intermediate- The Third Edition) E.g : For example FTA : Face Threatening Act H : The hearer S : The speaker NPS : Negative politeness strategies PPS : Positive politeness strategies P : Relative Power D : Social Distance R : Rate of imposition UNETI : University of Economic and Technical Industries iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1: Possible Strategies for Doing FTAs (Brown /Levinson, 1987: 60) Figure 2: Frequency of negative and positive politeness strategies found in the conversations Figure 3: Frequency of positive politeness strategies used in the conversations Figure 4: Frequency of negative politeness strategies used in the conversations Table 1: The statistics of the appearance of positive and negative politeness strategies based on the roles of participants Table 2: The statistics of the choice of the appearance of positive or negative politeness strategies based on the roles relationships under UNETI teachers‟ perception v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale .1 Aims of the study Scope of the study Significance of the study Research methodology 5.1 Research questions .2 5.2 Research method 5.2.1 Instrument 5.2.2 Data analysis .3 Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .6 1.Theory of Speech Acts .6 2.Theory of politeness and politeness strategies 2.1.Theory of politeness 2.2.Politeness strategies 2.2.1.Positive politeness 10 2.2.2.Negative politeness 14 3.Role relationships affecting politeness strategies 16 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 19 Research questions 19 vi Instruments 19 2.1.Multiple choice questionnaires 19 2.2 Discourse completion task 20 Participants 20 Data collection procedure .20 4.1 Politeness strategies under the inference of role relationships in NHW 20 4.2 Politeness strategies under the inference of role relationships in NHW as seen by UNETI teachers of English 21 Data analysis method 21 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 22 Positive and negative politeness in conversational activities in the course book “NEW HEADWAY, INTERMEDIATE” 22 1.1 Overview of politeness strategies in “New Headway” intermediate (NHW) 22 1.2.Frequency of occurrence of positive and negative politeness strategies in conversational activities in the course book “New Headway, Intermediate” 23 1.2.2.Negative Politeness strategies in conversational activities .29 2.Politeness Strategies in terms of role- relationship 33 3.Politeness in terms of role - relationship in NHW as seen by UNETI teachers of English .36 PART C: CONCLUSION .38 Summary of main findings 38 Limitation 39 Suggestions for further study 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDIXES I vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Language has always been an indispensable part not only in communication among people who share or not share the same nationality, social or ethnic background but also in recording and understanding culture Among languages all over the world, English is considered the most powerful language The number of people learning English has sharply increased and a variety of learning and teaching materials are available to meet their learning demands In Vietnam, English has developed with an unprecedented speed and become a compulsory subject in schools, colleges and universities Although a lot of Vietnamese learners of English master grammar rules and accumulate as much vocabulary as possible, they often experience communication breakdown when participating in a real daily conversations In order to communicate successfully across cultures, learners need to be provided with cultural knowledge and the relationship between language and culture Additionally, learners must be aware of the hidden parts of culture including politeness strategies in daily social interaction In communication, people use the politeness strategies to save hearers‟ face and avoid making other people feel uncomfortable This research paper entitled “A study of politeness strategies and role relationships in the conversational activities of the course book “New Headway” (intermediate) as seen by teachers of English at University of Economic-Technical Industries” is motivated by the above reasons Hopefully, the research would supply teachers with an insight into the politeness strategies under the influential role relationships in the conversational activities of the course book “New Headway” (intermediate) Aims of the study The study is carried out to achieve the following objectives: - To identify and classify positive and negative politeness employed in the Really? I don‟t know what she sees in him! - Ok, Ok that‟s good, but Responding the problem is that Grandpa- granddaughter people use them too much for every little thing Father-daughter - All right, all right Kelly Requesting Daughter-father you can stop that - And teachers go Responding Friends absolutely mad if we forget to turn them off -What would you like to Responding 10 16 Friends tonight? - Cheer up! You‟ve got Social me I‟m always here for behaviour you VI U2 - What you do? Social Colleagues 11 I‟m an interior designer behaviour I decorate people‟s homes 10 - On the twenty-fourth Promises Friends I‟ll give a ring when we get home - Thank you for calling Social Receptionist- the Blackpool Concert behaviour Hall This is 10 customer Matt speaking How can I 2,1 help you? - Great I‟d like two Requesting Receptionist- tickets, please customer - Can I reserve them by Requesting phone? `1 Receptionistcustomer tickets are $35 each Requesting Receptionist- 1,2 Could I have your name, customer Yes, that‟s fine Erm- please? Requesting - Can I pay by visa? Receptionist- customer Yes, that‟s fine Erm – Requesting What‟s your card number please? 16 Suggesting - Let me read that back Responding - That‟s right Compliment - Hey, I really like your Social behavior shoes Where did you buy them? VII Friends Friends Friends - How much were they, if Social you don‟t mind Friends 7, 11 my behaviour asking? - Hello? Hi, Jim How‟re things? - And we were Inviting Friends wondering if you‟d like to come It‟s our tenth 9,4 2 wedding anniversary Congratulation! When Responding is it? - Excuse me! You‟re Social behavior Strangers sitting in my seat - A present! For me? Social Friends You‟re so kind! You behaviour really didn‟t have to U3 - You‟re joking! That is Responding Friends Friends Friends Friends Friends amazing! - Really? I thought you‟d Social behavior met them before - Really? I didn‟t know Social behavior he‟d been married before - It was excellent Have Compliment you seen it yet? - What did you think of Responding the play? - Did you like Responding your Responding pizzas? Friends VIII There were delicious - Responding Friends 1, the weather wasn‟t very Responding Friends - What was your holiday like? It was a nice break but good - What did you think of Sally Cotter? She‟s usually very good but I don‟t think Social Friends Friends Friends Friends 6, she was right for this behaviour part - What was the match Social like? behaviour It was really exciting - Oh no, no, please! Not Captain Corelli‟s Social Mandolin on DVD behaviour - It‟s Dracula! Dracula! You‟re Social kidding! -I know behaviour everybody‟s Friends heard of Dracula and seen Dracula film, but I 11 bet not many people have read the book Friends 2, Social - Well, actually I think behaviour Frankenstein‟s a much better horror movie IX Friends 11 - You feel really sorry for Social that poor monster - It‟s all Friends Grandma- 10 behaviour about Hemingway‟s travels Social through France, isn‟t it? behaviour - Yeah, Hemingway drank Social a lot, didn‟t he? U4 behaviour - You must look after your Promises money granddaughter Yes, Grandma! I will - Great When can I start? You start at Requesting 4.00 Manager- Employee tomorrow afternoon - Could you bring us the Requesting bill, please? Assist- customers Yes, sir I‟ll bring it right Promises 10 away - Would you give me you Requesting Colleagues work numbers, please? Of course, Oh, shall I Promises Colleagues 10 give you my mobile numbers, too - Can I help you? Just looking, thanks Social Shop behaviour customer - Can you tell me the code for Paris, please? assistant- 5,10 Colleagues Requesting One moment I‟ll look it Promises up 10 Friends X 10 - I‟ll give you a lift if you Promises like That would be great! Requesting Could you drop me off at the library? - Would Friends you mind Requesting opening the window? No problem It‟s stuffy in here - Sorry to Husband-wife 2, Asist-customer interrupt, Requesting darling, but I think the baby‟s crying Could you go and check? Requesting - Can I change them for a 5,10 new pair? Of course, Let me see if we have another pair in Friends 7,11,1 Friends your size - Hi, Bob Where are you Social going? behaviour - Could you me a favour? Would you mind Requesting asking the programmer to call me? U5 - Good ideas! I‟ll get a Promises loaf Responding Husband-wife 10 Husband-wife 16, 10 Friends 12 - Don‟t worry I won‟t Suggesting forget I‟ll be back XI before - Right Let‟s get these Suggesting Friends 13 Friends 12 Friends 5,4 Friends 10 - That‟s a pretty name! Responding Student visitors What‟s she like? Student visitors cases closed - Why don‟t we meet at the Internet Café at Inviting about o‟clock? - Yes, I‟m going out for dinner with a couple of friends Do you want to join us? - That would be great! I‟d Responding love too - Ok, so we‟ll meet Promises tomorrow at o‟clock at the Internet Café U6 - Oh, she‟s really pretty - Why don‟t we Responding Student visitors Suggesting 1,2 13 something with Soonhee? Friends - I‟ll ask her tonight Promises 10 16 - Oh, that‟s good I can‟t Responding wait to meet her - What‟s Carrie‟s Social boyfriend like? behaviour Well, he‟s tall, dark and Friends handsome, but he‟s not XII very polite In fact, he‟s even ruder than Carrie Interviewer- - Mmm, these tomatoes Responding interviewee are really delicious - It‟s a really exciting city - I Responding think it‟s just wonderful - Generally speaking, I Responding think that they live Interviewer- up to their reputation interviewee - I think we have one of the best right here on our street - Oh, I don‟t know Maybe five more years Maybe forever U7 - I see And how long Social Interviewer- have interviewee you worked for behaviour them? Interviewer- - Well, in fact I was born Social interviewee in Argentina Interviewer- behaviour - That‟s interesting Have 1 interviewee you travelled a lot? Social Interviewer- - Oh, yes, yes, absolutely behaviour interviewee Responding Grandpa- - I suppose I‟m used to it after all this time - But you know, I worked Responding for Courtauld‟s for over XIII granddaughter forty years Social Grandpa- - I‟ve just taken up golf, behaviour you know special holidays, granddaughter behaviour you you Social know - Don‟t granddaughter Grandpa- - I‟ve been on all sorts of want a companion? Grandpa- 13 granddaughter Requesting 13 - Don‟t wish your life away Requesting - Can I come with you? Receptionist- 1, Customer - Hello Could I speak to Promises Receptionist- Sam Jackson, please? Customer - Can I take a message? ReceptionistSocial 1 Customer - Yes, please Could you behaviour Receptionist- ask him to phone? Customer Promises 1, - Can I have extension 2173, please? - Could I speak to Alison Receptionist- Short? Customer - Can I speak to Terence Receptionist- Cameron, please? Customer 1,2 10 - I think he‟s got my number, but I‟ll give it to Receptionist- you again just in case Customer - Thank you ReceptionistPromises XIV Customer 16, 10 - No don‟t worry I‟ll phone back later U8 - You are both mad I Responding Friends think you‟ll regret it - We know that, but we Responding Friends won‟t need a lot of money to live there - Will you keep in touch Responding Friends Friends with friends? - You‟ll be our first guest Inviting when we move into our new home - Excellent I‟ll look Responding Friends 1,10 forward to that - By, my darling! Good Social luck with the interview Husband-wife behaviour - Thanks! I‟ll need it Husband-wife 5,10 - Just stay calm Call me Husband-wife 16, 10 Husband-wife Husband-wife 4,7 Husband-wife 16,10 Friends 1,13 Friends 12 when you can - You know that, don‟t you? - Of course But we‟ll worry about that later - Don‟t worry, I won‟t Responding forget - Well, it‟s a beautiful Social day Why don‟t we go behaviour for a walk? - You need to get out XV Let‟s go shopping Suggesting - Oh no! I‟d rather anything but that Friends Friends - Ok, shall we see what‟s on television? Suggesting - That‟s a good idea Friends 13 Responding Friends 13 Suggesting Friends could lend you some Suggesting Friends Friends Friends 5, Friends Friends - Thanks Mike That‟s a Responding big help - Why don‟t you ask your parents? - Oh, well I suppose I money - Good idea, but I‟ve tried Responding that and it didn‟t work - Really! That would be Responding great! Thanks Mike You‟re a real mate - Yeah, yeah I know You Responding are right U9 - Hi! Carl? It‟s Andy Social How are you? behaviour - Really? Still on crutches, eh? 2,11 Responding - Anyway? How are you? Friends - Thanks Send her my Social Friends Behaviour Friends Social Friends love - Yes, I know I‟m sorry - All in all I suppose it Behaviour XVI 2, 11 was a pretty good two Responding weeks Friends Friends 10 Friends 5, Friends Responding - Absolutely, it was a great holiday Responding - I‟ll call again soon, Carl - Take care! Responding Interviewer- - Great! It‟s a date Responding guest - Well, you know what it‟s Responding like being a teenager Responding Interviewer- guest - Yes, but I think it has its negative side as well as Responding Interviewer- positive side guest - It was hard to find Responding myself and my place in the world, I suppose Interviewer- guest - Yes, definitely U10 Responding - Your hands are dirty Social Friends What have you been behaviour doing? -I think Interviewermaybe three Responding hundred sort of … crazy - Thanks guest Interviewer- - You know he thinks I‟m Responding 5,7 guest Interviewer- Responding 2,3 guest - Really! Responding XVII - I suppose they should be Responding under glass - Do you mind talking Requesting about your Star War collection? Responding - I‟m sure you are right - Thank you very much Responding - I think I was four years Responding old Responding - I think I saw it ten times - You sure did love Star Responding Wars - I started collecting the action figures Responding Action figures? 10 - You know, I still have Responding Friends that Han Solo action Suggesting figure - I think I might sell it - Do you take milk in your tea? Just a little U11 - I wonder if you could Requesting help me Receptionist- customer - Can you tell me if there Requesting are any good restaurants Receptionistcustomer nearby? XVIII - Sounds wonderful Responding Receptionist- customer - Thank you very much Responding Receptionist- customer - I‟m sorry but I can‟t Responding remember which Receptionist- customer restaurant you suggested - Thanks for your help Responding Receptionist- 13 customer - Can I have a biscuit Requesting now, Mummy? - I‟ve got Motherdaughter ten fingers, Social haven‟t I? Mother- behaviour - Yes, of course How much did it cost? daughter Fiends 1,2 Responding - Thanks a lot Friends 13 - I think we‟re lost Responding Friends - Let‟s look at the map Responding Friends 12 Interviewer- - I can see the problem Suggesting - Great idea We can grab Responding guest Friends Friends a sandwich at the deli - You‟re such a couch Responding potato - Give me a break - You string know! It‟s Responding like Requesting - What you mean, Uh- Responding oh? You didn‟t forget to Responding XIX Friends Friends Friends bring the map, didn‟t Friends you? - I‟m a silly person, aren‟t Responding I? No, you‟re Everybody not makes mistakes U12 - Moira! Hello there! How Social are you? John! I‟m Lovers Lovers 10 2,11 behaviour just fine, thanks - I‟ll never forget it as Promises long as I live Lovers - Can we go back there Suggesting next spring? - Are you married? Strangers 17 Responding Yes, I am Strangers - Can we meet there later Suggesting for a drink? Husband-wife - I just met this really nice Responding guy Strangers 1, Strangers 5,6 Strangers 5,6 - Excuse me, can you tell Social me where the post office behaviour s? - I‟m sorry I‟m a stranger Responding here myself XX