A study of politness strategies in the conversational activities of the course book new english file – intermediate

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI University of languages and international studies Faculty of post-graduate studies PHẠM THỊ HỒNG LIÊN A Study on Politeness Strategies in the Conversational Activities of the Coursebook “ New English file” (Intermediate) Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch hội thoại giáo trình giao tiếp “New English File” (Intermediate) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 noi – 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI University of languages and international studies Faculty of post-graduate studies PHẠM THỊ HỒNG LIÊN A Study on Politeness Strategies in the Conversational Activities of the Coursebook “ New English file” (Intermediate) Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch hội thoại giáo trình giao tiếp “New English File” (Intermediate) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Supervisor: Assoc Prof VÕ ĐẠI QUANG, Ph D noi – 2012 Table of Conten Contents * Acknowledgements * Abstract * List of Abbreviations * List of tables and figures Chapter I: Introduction Rationale Aims of the Study Objectives of the study Scope of the study Significance of the study Structure of the thesis Chapter II: Development I Literature Review 1.1 Theoretical Background 1.1.1 Culture and Communication 1.1.2 Communicative Competence 1.1.3 Politeness 1.1.3.1 Face 1.1.3.2 Positive Politeness and Positive Politeness iv 1.1.3.3 Negative Politeness and Negative Politeness Strategies 1.2 Previous Studies 1.3 Summary II Methodology 2.1 Research questions 2.2 Research methods 2.3 Data – related issues 2.3.1 Data sources 2.3.2 Data types to be collected 2.3.3 Data authenticity 2.4 Specific research techniques 2.4.1 Techniques for data collection 2.4.2 Techniques for data analysis 2.4.3 Steps for data analysis 2.5 Summary III Findings and Discussion 3.1 Occurrence frequency of positive, negative and mixed politene strategies 3.2 Positive politeness strategies in conversational activities in the seve units of the course book “New English File, Intermediate” 3.3 Negative politeness strategies in conversational activities in the sev units of the course book “New English File, Intermediate” v 3.4 Summary Chapter III Conclusion 3.1 Recapitulation 3.2 Concluding remarks 3.2.1 Concluding remarks on objective 3.2.2 Concluding remarks on objective 3.2.3 Concluding remarks on objective 3.3 Limitations 3.4 Suggestions for further research * References * Appendix vi List of Abbreviations S Speaker H Hearer/ Addressee FTA Face threatening act NP Negative politeness PP Positive Politeness T Track P Page vii List of tables and figures Figure 1: Ferrando’s diagram of culture Figure 2: Circumstances determining choice of strategy Figure 3: Strategies to minimize risk of losing face (Nguyen Quang, 2002) Figure 4: Frequency of positive, negative and mixed politeness strategies Figure 5: The frequency of positive politeness strategies Figure 6: The frequency of negative politeness strategies Table 1: The statistics of positive and negative and mixed politeness strategies Table 2: The statistics of positive politeness strategies viii Chapter I: Introduction Rationale At the great speed of developing and expanding, English has now become the most powerful language over the world and has been considered “a golden key to every door” Therefore, using English to communicate is a must for everybody As a matter of fact, to help learners attain the good command of communication, culture plays an indispensable role Nguyen Quang (1998:2) states that, “One cannot master a language without profound awareness of its cultural background and in both verbal and non-verbal communication, culture makes itself strongly felt” or Winstion Brembeck (1997:37) noted that, “To know another language and not his culture is a very good way to make a fluent fool of oneself” Learners will truly succeed in using English when they must be aware of the relationship between language and culture, especially the hidden part of target culture including politeness strategies used commonly in daily social interaction For these reasons, the author would like to carry out a small-scale study on investigating the positive and negative politeness strategies in conversational activities of the course book New English File (Intermediate) by Clive Oxenden and Christina Latham- Koeing with a view to improving the teaching and learning of politeness strategies in this course book Aims of the study The aims of the study are:  To raise Vietnamese learner’s awareness of how to use politeness strategies appropriately in order to achieve successful communication  To put forward some suggestions for the teaching of positive and negative polite strategies to language teachers Objectives of the study To achieve these aims, the following are set forth as objectives of the research: - positive strategies employed in the conversational activities in the specified course book - negative politeness strategies employed in the conversational activities in the specified course book - possible implications for effective teaching of politeness strategies in verbal communication via English Scope of the study This thesis is focused on positive and negative politeness strategies in conversational activities of the course book “New English File- Intermediate” The investigation is based mainly on the theoretical framework of Brown and Levinson (1987) and Nguyen Quang (2002) Off record politeness strategies, politeness rules and politeness principles are out of the scope of this thesis Significance of the study Theoretical significance: This study contributes to making explicit the important role of politeness strategies in verbal communication, especially in cross- cultural communication Practical significance: This study helps gain an insight into the method employable for teaching politeness strategies in the course book “New English FileIntermediate” as well as in adjustment and application of teaching techniques Structure of the thesis In addition to the “References” and “Appendix” parts, the thesis consists of three main parts: Chapter I: Introduction This part includes the rationale, aims, objectives, scopes, significance of the study and structure of the thesis Chapter II: Development This chapter is divided into three parts: I Literature Review II Methodology III Findings and discussions Chapter III: Conclusion REFERENCES In English: Bachman, L (1990a) Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing Oxford: Oxford University Press Brown, P., & Levinson, S (1987) Politeness: some Universal in Language Usage Cambridge University Press Blum- Kulka, J House & Kasper (eds) (1989) Cross- cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies Ablex Blum-Kulka, S and Levenson, E (1983) Universals of Lexical Simplification Longman: London & New York Brembeck, W (1977) Development and teaching of college course in intercultural communication Reading in intercultural communication Pittsburgh: SIETAR Publications, Universty of Pittsburgh Banks, JA & McGee, C A (1989) Multicultural Education Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon Chen, R (2001) Self Politeness; a Proposal Journal of Pragmatics No.33.p.87-106 Fraser, B (1990) Perspective on Politeness Journal of Pragmatics 14: 219-235 Kodyat, H (2001) A Study on Politeness Strategies Used by the Interviewers in a Foreign Exchange Company Universitas Kristen Petra 10 Hymes, D (1996) Language in Culture and Society Harper International Editon 11 Hybels, S & Waver, P L (2001) Communicating Effectively Mc GrawHill, Inc 12 Lakoff, R (1977) What you can with words: Politeness, Pragmatics, and Performatives 39 13 Leech, Geofrey (1983) Principle Pragmatics London Longman 14 Lindenfeld, J (1990) Speech and sociability at French urban marketplaces Amsterdam: Benjamins 15 Meliana, F (1995) The Study of Politeness Expression in Love Match by Barbara Steiner Universitas Kristen Petra 16 Parks, M R (1985) Interpersonal Communication and the Quest for Personal Competence Beverly Hills, CA: Sage 17 Samovar, L.A (2007) Communication between Cultures Belmont: Thomson Wardsworth 18 Saville- Troike, M (1982) The Ethnography of Communication: An introduction New York: Basil Blackwell 19 Thomas, J (1995) Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics London and New York: Longman 20 Wiemann, J M & Backlund, P (1980) Current Theory and Research in Communication Competence Review of Education Research, 50, 185199 21 Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics Oxford: Oxford University Press In Vietnamese: 22 Đỗ Thị Thúy Mai (2000) A study on politeness strategies in the business converstioan of the course book “Interchange” Luận văn thac sỹ, Đại học Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội 23 Nguyễn Thị Tuyết (2005) A study on politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the course book “Lifeline” Luận văn thac sỹ, Đại học Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội 24 Nguyễn Thị Hoa (2010) A study on politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the course book “Inside out- Preintermediate” Luận văn thac sỹ, Đại học Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội 40 25 Nguyễn Quang (1998) Intercultural Communication Vietnam National University, CFL 26 Nguyễn Quang (2001) Sắc thái quyền lực giao tiếp ngôn ngữ Tập san ngoại ngữ số 27 Nguyễn Quang (2002) Giao tiếp giao tiếp văn hóa NXB Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội 41 APPENDIX SUMMARY OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE COURSE BOOK “NEW ENGLISH FILE- INTERMEDIATE” Politeness Strategies Conversational Activities Units -Yes, definitely, I love eating -Oh, probably worse -Oh, yes dear, that’d be lovely -Really? All good, I hope -Oh, there are many ways, but for me the worst thing in football today is what we call “simulation” -Yes, one, but the rest are all men In fact, I think that’s typical over the world -It’s difficult to say who was the best but there’s one player who stands out…that was Mauro Silva -Not at all I think fair play does exist -Well, I like cooking, but I work very late everyday and my kitchen’s too small -So what are you going to next year, dear? Are you going to university? -Oh, all right dear, you don’t need to shout -Shall I make you a cup of tea? Oh, yes dear, that’d be lovely -Can I use your car tonight? -I won’t I’ll be careful I’ll drive slowly I promise -You know us Our relationship I don’t want I people in the office to know we’re together -What a lovely view! The river’s beautiful, isn’t it? -Three years I’m sure we bought it last year -Oh, nothing Well, Ok…Kenny and I have been arguing -Would you mind sending me those concert dates? -Could you help me? I can’t open this document -Could you sign these, please? -Is it ok if I take tomorrow off? -Do you think you could send me the reques by email? -Er, yes, of course -Could you hold a moment, Mark? -Can you come and see me when you have a moment? -Yeah- it’s a big city -Where exactly is it? I’m sorry I didn’t catch that -If you can wait till six, I’ll give you a lift -Ok, ladies, now can you describe the man in the bank? -Ladies, ladies, please So no moustache then -No, curly I’d say Wouldn’t you say, Doris? -Are you going to take it? I think so, yeah… -I can’t wait to see it? Yeah… II -I suppose I’ll another year at school and take the exam again -Charlotte, I can see from your face that the result, er, weren’t exactly what you wantedam I right? -Perhaps they’ll still accept me- but I don’t think they will, so… I’ll probably take my A levels again next year -What was the worst thing for them? The food, definitely! -Hey I like this dish Where can I order it? -If I won the lottery, which of course I won’t I’d buy a big penthouse flat near the river with a great view, a really hi-tech flat, you know, with one of those intelligent fridges which orders food from the supermarket all by itself when you’re running out and a huge TV and music, you know, but all very stylish and minimalist -I don’t agree at all I think it’s much easier -Aren’t you hungry? Sure But this food is really horrible -The sea food looks good Hey, fish have feeling, too -What about the mushroom risotto? Mushroom? No way Didn’t they tell you guys about my allergies? I’m allergic to mushrooms -Shall we go some place else? Whatever I’m going to the restroom -It’s pity we didn’t just take her shooping -Do you think you could possibly me a favors? III -Yes, of course, sir What would you like? -I wouldn’t wear that hat if I were you -You’ve met Scarlett Scarpino, haven’t you, Ben -What’s she like? Let’s say she’s a bit … difficult -I have agreat idea Why don’t you show her around Pares? -Ok, why don’t we take her to Notre Dame? I mean, it’s her first time in Paris, isn’t it? -Sorry, Allie I’m really busy But I’m sure you’ll have an unforgettable meal -Actually, I don’t agree with Mark Scarlet isn’t commercial in that way -Ok Well, I think Scarlet should visit music stores -Well, I think Scarlet should tour clubs -I think that’s a better idea -How long is this one? One hour 40 minutes -Oh you’re joking? That’s too long -Too long It’ll be heaven See you later -Well, I must admit my face feels different -Wow! -That was definitely worth the time and money -It’s great to be on our own again Yeah So could you tell us what the Labour party are going to about….sorry, I mean the Conservative party IV -Yeah, well we knew it wouldn’t be easy -Working together, I mean -I know, I know you the boss -It’s not a big deal, Alice I’m fine, really -Well, as you probably know, a lot film Schindler’s List was shot in Krakow -I didn’t think I would ever meet Spielberg or any of the actors -Not at all I mean he was very demanding -What about you, Mark? Oh, I spent most of the time at home…just being domestic, you know The apartment’s looking pretty now, you know You must come round for a meal one evening -Oh sure I went to Louvre on Saturday -Yeah I kind of prefer going to museums and galleries on my own -Really? I didn’t see you -Mark, can I come in -Sure -I think there’s something more important to talk about right now -Oh no You’re joking Oh, Mark I’m sorry I did it without thinking -I just want to say that I’m terribly sorry -It’s incredible, isn’t it -But I don’t think she’s right, you -So you don’t think we’ll ever solve the mystery? -No, I wouldn’t say that V ... politeness strategies are used in conversational activities of the course book ? ?New English File- Intermediate? ??? What types of negative politeness strategies are used in conversational activities of the. .. Christina Latham- Koeing with a view to improving the teaching and learning of politeness strategies in this course book Aims of the study The aims of the study are:  To raise Vietnamese learner’s... interpersonal goals during an encounter while maintaining the face and line of his (sic) fellow interactants within the constraints of the situation.” Other applied linguists, notably, Bachman (1990) and