A study on teacher’s politeness in the EFL classroom

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRAN HOANG ANH A STUDY ON TEACHER’S POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE EFL CLASSROOM (Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch giáo viên lớp học tiếng Anh) MA MAJOR THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01 Hanoi, 2019 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRAN HOANG ANH A STUDY ON TEACHER’S POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE EFL CLASSROOM (Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch giáo viên lớp học tiếng Anh) MA MAJOR THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01 Supervisor: Prof Dr Nguyen Hoa Hanoi, 2019 DECLARATION I hereby state that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material that has been accepted or submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma I also declare that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Prof Nguyen Hoa, for his precious support and helpful instructions on the construction of my study, which have always been the decisive factors in the completion of this paper The door to Prof Nguyen Hoa’s office was always open whenever I ran into a trouble spot or had a question about my research or writing He consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me in the right the direction whenever he thought I needed it My sincere gratitude is also addressed to Dr Huynh Anh Tuan, Dean of Faculty of Post-graduate studies, and Dr Hoang Thi Hanh, lecturer in Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of English speaking countries, ULIS, VNU, for their sharing expertise, and critical comments for my thesis proposal Thirdly, I would like to send our heartfelt thanks to the teacher and the students at FELTE, ULIS for their participation in the study Without their cooperation and input, the study could not have been successfully conducted Furthermore, I would also like to express my appreciation to my friend, Huy Hoang, for his spending time helping me proofread my thesis Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my family and my friends for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis This accomplishment would not have been possible without them ii ABSTRACT This interpretive-qualitative research aimed at investigating a teacher’s politeness strategies used in the classroom, how they were recognized linguistically through her utterances, and her students’ perception of such language The data were collected through non-participatory observations and semi-structured interviews The data analysis was based on Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987) The results revealed that the teacher employed certain types of politeness in her teaching English, namely, bald-on record strategy, positive politeness and negative politeness As such, the teacher created a positive teacher-student interaction and supportive learning atmosphere Furthermore, the findings showed that most students found their teacher’s utterances appropriate and effective for their learning process Nevertheless, it came to the researcher’s realization that Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory could not capture all aspects of Vietnamese people’s politeness Cross-cultural communication was taken into consideration during the data analysis, accordingly, for better interpretation of the occurrence emerging in the classroom iii TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Rationale to the study 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of Politeness 2.2 Root of Linguistic Politeness 2.3 Robin Lakoff and Politeness 12 2.4 Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies .13 2.4.1 Bald-on-Record 15 2.4.2 Positive Politeness Strategy 16 2.4.3 Negative Politeness Strategy .18 2.4.4 Off-Record Strategy 20 2.4 Critique of Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies 24 2.5 Teacher’s language in EFL classroom 26 2.6 Concept of perception 27 2.7 Related studies on Teacher’s politeness strategies in EFL classroom 29 iv CHAPTER METHODOLGY 33 3.1 Research design 33 3.2 Participants 34 3.3 Data collection instruments 34 3.3.1 Addressing research question 34 3.3.2 Addressing research question 37 3.4 Data analysis 38 3.4.1 Data Reduction 41 3.4.2 Data display 41 3.4.4 Conclusion drawing and verification 42 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 42 4.1 Findings 44 4.1.1 Teacher’s politeness strategy in EFL classroom 44 4.1.2 Students’ perception on teacher’s utterances in the EFL classroom 61 4.1.3 Other findings 63 4.2 Discussion 67 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 73 5.1 Summary of the findings 73 5.2 Implications of the findings 75 5.3 Limitations of the study .77 5.4 Suggestions for further study 77 REFERENCES 78 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I APPENDIX XXII v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CEFR Common European Framework of Reference D Social distance EFL English as Foreign Language FTAs Face-threatening acts H Hearer IELTS International English Language Testing System L2 Second language P Relative power Rx absolute rating of imposition S Speaker vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 2.1 Strategies for performing FTAs (Brown & Levinson, 1987) .15 Table 2.1 Summary of Brown and Levinson’ politeness strategies (1987) Error! Bookmark not defined Table 3.1 Observation timeline 35 Table 3.2 Coding scheme for the types of politeness strategies 36 Table 3.3 Coding scheme for the types of sub-politeness strategies 36 Table 3.4 Unit of data analysis .41 Figure 4.1 Number of teacher’s politeness strategies used in the classroom 44 vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces the research area and outlines the background and the rationale for the current study It briefly review teacher’s language in EFL classroom and politeness strategy applied in such context The chapter subsequently describes the aims, scopes and significance of the present study, followed by the organization of the research 1.1 Background to the study During the last six years teaching English for freshmen and sophomores, my colleagues and I have witnessed a rather disturbing phenomenon in which intermediate and upper-intermediate L2 students were often reluctant to raise their voice in English in the classroom In retrospect, I found myself in the same situation as my students Were it not for the teacher’s encouragement or acknowledgement of my ideas, I would not have had the willingness to raise my voice in class “Teacher’s encouragements would probably be the solution for my students”, I thought I then took into consideration this experience when planning the lessons I spent much time thinking about the language I would use in class, so that through my saying, I could encourage and motivate my students to speak more Still, I felt quite puzzled Much as I planned the language used beforehand, I failed to stir up the class atmosphere sometimes Why the students show little interest in learning English in class? Is there anything a teacher can do, besides giving encouragements, to stimulate the student’s interest? It comes to my realization that in a specific language learning environment, classroom activities hosted (not controlled, but guided) by teacher helps shape a special interpersonal relationship This is similar to any APPENDIX Interview question for students Do utterances generated by your teacher determine the class’ atmosphere? Why? Do utterances generated by your teacher determine the smoothness of teaching and learning process? Do utterances generated by your teacher influence your esteem while learning 4A? Why? Do feel uncomfortable when your teacher ask you to something in the classroom? Why? Did she use many utterances as “Finish your task!” in your class? How you feel about it? Do you think your teacher’s explicit (very clear) instructions are necessary in 4A class? Why? Do you you feel appreciated when she asks you to something in the classroom using the word “Please”? Did she frequently use polite language such as using “Please” and “Sorry” Do you think she built a positive relationship with your class? Why and how? 10 Do you obey your lecturers’ instructions because of her role as teacher in the classroom? Or is there any other reason? (i.e.: she’s the most competent and knowledgeable, persons in the classroom; she will reward you with good scores; you want to please her; you are afraid of punishment if disobeying her, etc) Thanks so much for your cooperation