A study of politness strategies in the conversational activities of the course book market leader – intermediate

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE 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 POSTGRADUATE 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 II - Could she call me back here at the hotel, please? - Can you e-mail these sales figures head offices as soon as possible? Unit - Hold on a minute, please - Can you give me Request example business organisation and why? Unit - Can we next point, the open- plan office? - I like the idea It’s good for people see each other at the office - I’m not sure I agree with open-plan offices, there’s a problem of privacy - Stefan, what you think? - I agree with Max about privacy - I suggest we meeting private calls - Meeting rooms? Yes, III that’s true, I suppose - Could I just say something? I don’t think it works - Let Stefan finish, please Max - Well, I’m not happy 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? - Yes, right, agree - Right, can we move to the next item on the agenda, Max? - Frankly, I was shocked 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 desking unless we have an openplan office I don’t think hot-desking works in closed offices Unit - Can IV example of a really good business proposal? - Can you talk us through the typical launch campaign? Unit - If questions, hesitate to interrupt me - If there’s anything you you’re not clear about, go ahead questions you want - And can you give us Unit examples cultural by people doing business internationally? - Not for me, thanks I’m not keen on fish - Can we start, please? - How you feel about offering him a full-time contract? - I’m not sure we should Unit it really - I don’t think that’s too important - I’m not sure that relevant - Mmm, may be - What V work? In my opinion, it’s fine - Could you tell me why you want to leave your present Passerelli? - Certainly I’m glad you asked me that - Could why we should offer you this job? - I think I can offer you a lot - Could you please tell me why you want to leave your - Could you please tell me why you want to leave your - Right basically, I need a new motivation - Could why we should offer you this job? - How about having some lunch continuing Unit afternoon? - Yes, let’s after lunch - Could VI some negotiating? - Right, let’s try to get ten percent prices - Agree - Can you tell us a little about needs habits? - How about if we send the first air to make sure the goods arrive on time? - Mmm, good idea to me Good, we agree on price, quantity, method of transport - OK, covered everything - Great That was a good meeting - Could some details, please? - Well, mechanism’s not reliable - Can you bring it Then we can look into Unit 10 the probably machine matter VII manufacturer - 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 businesses behave ethically? - We believe they can - On average staff took fourteen days off sick – that’s far too many - Absolutely, it’s really damaging for us - Of course, we’d explain why the present policy isn’t working Unit - Good idea 11 - Could you have a draft questionnaire next Monday? - Yes, I think we can manage that - I thought you might like to know that Someone saw them together at a cinema last looked as if they - Thanks, Bob I’ve heard enough Can - I can’t believe what you are sayin really shocked - Why on earth you want us to break up? - It’s well, we’ve had some g together, I know, but - I think we talk too muchaboutwork sometimes not good - I don’t know I think we talk about all kinds of things - Yes, but I still talked too m 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 pe forgotten about the DC01 can opener IX - I see I’m disappointed with you - Can you give us the background, Michel? - Yes - As I see it, it’s going to be very difficult to get a return on our investment - I agree We should never market – it was a mistake We should sell out as soon as possible Unit 12 - I don’t agree with that all information about we are going wrong - I totally agree with you - I don’t think it will be too the store’s performance To be honest, I just don’t think much money We X ... role of politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the course book ? ?Market Leader, Intermediate? ?? by David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent so as to improve the teaching and learning... on politeness strategies particularly expressed in conversational activities of the course book ? ?Market Leader, Intermediate? ?? The investigation is based mainly on the theoretical framework suggested... 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