A study of politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the coursebook new headway intermediate as seen by teachers of university of economic

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ************************ LƯU THI P ̣ HƯƠNG THUY 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 POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ************************ LƯU THI P ̣ HƯƠNG THUY 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 NHW E.g FTA H S NPS PPS P D R UNETI 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 Aims of the study Scope of the study Significance of the study Research methodology 5.1 Research questions 5.2 Research method 5.2.1 Instrument 5.2.2 Data analysis Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.Theory of Speech Acts 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! the problem people much thing you can stop that - And absolutely forget to turn them off tonight? me I‟m always here for you VI U2 - What you do? I homes I‟ll give a ring when we get home the Hall speaking How help you? tickets, please phone? tickets are $35 each Could I have your name, please? - Can I pay by visa? Yes, that‟s fine Erm – What‟s number please? - Let me read that back - That‟s right shoes buy them? you asking? - Hello? Hi, Jim things? - And we wondering if you‟d like to come It‟s our tenth wedding anniversary Congratulation! is it? - Excuse me! You‟re Social behavior Strangers sitting in my seat - A present! For me? You‟re so kind! You really didn‟t have to U3 - You‟re joking! That is amazing! - Really? I thought you‟d met them before - Really? I didn‟t know he‟d been married before - It was excellent Have you seen it yet? - What did you think of the play? - Did you like your pizzas? VIII There were delicious - What was your holiday like? It was a nice break but the good - What did you think of Sally Cotter? She‟s good but I don‟t think she was right for this part - What was the match like? It was really exciting - Oh no, no, please! Not Captain Mandolin on DVD - It‟s Dracula! Dracula! kidding! -I heard of seen Dracula film, but I bet have read the book - Well, actually I think Frankenstein‟s better horror movie - You feel really sorry for that poor monster - It‟s Hemingway‟s through France, isn‟t it? - Yeah, Hemingway drank a lot, didn‟t he? U4 - You must look after your money - Great When can I start? You tomorrow afternoon - Could you bring us the bill, please? Yes, sir I‟ll bring it right away - Would you give me you work numbers, please? Of course, Oh, shall I give numbers, too - Can I help you? Just looking, thanks - Can you tell me the code for Paris, please? One moment I‟ll look it up X - I‟ll give you a lift if you Promises like That would be Could you drop me off at the library? - Would you opening the window? No problem It‟s in here - Sorry to darling, but I think the baby‟s crying Could and check? new pair? we have another pair in your size going? - Could you me a favour? Would you mind Requesting asking the programmer to call me? U5 - Good loaf - Don‟t forget XI before - Right Let‟s get these cases closed - Why don‟t we meet at the Internet 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 love too - Ok, so we‟ll meet tomorrow at o‟clock at the Internet Café U6 - That‟s a What‟s she like? - Oh, she‟s really pretty - Why don‟t we something hee? - I‟ll ask her tonight - Oh, that‟s good I can‟t wait to meet her - What‟s boyfriend like? Well, he‟s tall, dark and handsome, XII very polite In fact, he‟s even ruder than Carrie - Mmm, these are really delicious - It‟s a really exciting city - Ithink wonderful - Generally speaking, I Responding think that they live up to their reputation our street Maybe forever U7 them? in Argentina you travelled a lot? - Oh, yes, yes, absolutely after all this time forty years - I‟ve just taken up golf, you know - I‟ve been on all sorts of special holidays, you know - Don‟t you want a companion? - Don‟t wish your life away - Can I come with you? - Hello Could I speak to Sam Jackson, please? - Can I take a message? - Yes, please Could you ask him to phone? - Can I have extension 2173, please? - Could I speak to Alison Short? - Can I speak to Terence Cameron, please? - I think he‟s got my number, but I‟ll give it to you again just in case - Thank you XIV - No don‟t worry I‟ll phone back later U8 - You are think you‟ll regret it - We know that, but we won‟t need a lot of money to live there - Will you keep in touch with friends? - You‟ll be our first guest when we move into our new home - Excellent forward to that - By, my darling! Good luck with the interview - Thanks! I‟ll need it - Just stay calm Call me 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 - Oh no! I‟d rather anything but that - Ok, shall we see what‟s on television? - That‟s a good idea big help parents? could money that and it didn‟t work great! You‟re a real mate - Yeah, yeah I know You Responding are right U9 - Hi! Carl? How are you? - Really? Still on crutches, eh? - Anyway? How are you? - Thanks Send her my love - Yes, I know I‟m sorry - All in all XVI was a pretty good two weeks - Absolutely, it was a great holiday - I‟ll call again soon, Carl - Take care! - Great! It‟s a date - Well, you know what it‟s like being a teenager - Yes, but I think it has its negative side as well as positive side - It was hard to find Responding myself and my place in the world, I suppose - Yes, definitely U10 - Your What doing? - I think maybe three hundred - You know he thinks I‟m sort of … crazy - Thanks - Really! XVII - I suppose they should be under glass - Do you mind talking about your Star War collection? - I‟m sure you are right - Thank you very much - I think I was four years old - I think I saw it ten times - You sure did love Star Responding Wars - I started collecting the action figures Action figures? - You know, I still have that Han Solo action Suggesting figure - I think I might sell it - Do you take milk in your tea? Just a little help me nearby? - Sounds wonderful - Thank you very much - I‟m sorry but I can‟t remember restaurant you suggested - Thanks for your help - Can I have a biscuit now, Mummy? - I‟ve got ten fingers, haven‟t I? - Yes, of course How much did it cost? - Thanks a lot - I think we‟re lost - Let‟s look at the map - I can see the problem - Great idea We can grab a sandwich at the deli - You‟re such a couch potato - Give me a break - You know! It‟s like string - What you mean, Uh- Responding oh? You didn‟t forget to Responding XIX bring you? I? No, Everybody mistakes U12 are you? John! thanks long as I live next spring? - Are you married? Yes, I am for a drink? guy me where the post office s? here myself XX ... 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. .. conversational activities of the course book ? ?New Headway? ?? 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