(Luận văn thạc sĩ) english telephone reservation conversation from a conversation analysis perspective

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -*** - NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY ENGLISH TELEPHONE RESERVATION CONVERSATION FROM A CONVERSATION ANALYSIS PERSPECTIVE (ĐẶT PHÒNG QUA ĐIỆN THOẠI BẰNG TIẾNG ANH TỪ GĨC ĐỘ PHÂN TÍCH HỘI THOẠI) Minor thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 HANOI - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -*** - NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY ENGLISH TELEPHONE RESERVATION CONVERSATION FROM A CONVERSATION ANALYSIS PERSPECTIVE (ĐẶT PHÒNG QUA ĐIỆN THOẠI BẰNG TIẾNG ANH TỪ GĨC ĐỘ PHÂN TÍCH HỘI THOẠI) Minor thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Prof Nguyễn Hòa HANOI - 2010 TABLE OF CONTENT OF “ENGLISH TELEPHONE RESERVATION CONVERSATION FROM A CONVERSATION ANALYSIS PERSPECTIVE” Page Retention and use of the paper i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of tables vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Objectives and research questions of the study Scope of the study Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Conversation Analysis 1.1.1 Definition of Conversation 1.1.2 Conversation Analysis versus Discourse Analysis 1.2 Telephone conversation 1.2.1 Openings 1.2.2 Topic talk 1.2.3 Closings 10 1.3 Speech acts 12 1.3.1 Illocutionary act 13 1.3.2 Direct and indirect speech act 14 Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 15 2.1 Research questions 15 2.2 Data collection methods 15 2.3 Participants 16 2.4 Data analysis framework 17 Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 20 3.1 Findings 20 3.1.1 Openings 20 3.1.2 Topic-talk 23 3.1.3 Closings 28 3.2 Discussions 30 3.2.1 Typical procedure of opening a telephone reservation conversation by receptionists 30 3.2.2 Speech acts used by hotel receptionists in collecting guest‟s information for reservation 32 3.2.3 Ways used by hotel receptionists in closing telephone reservation conversation 35 PART C: CONCLUSION 37 Conclusion 37 Suggestions for further study 38 REFERENCES 39 APPENDIX 40 LIST OF TABLES Table Detailed information included in self-identification by the called Table International Phonetic Alphabet Table Specified needs of customer PART A: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the following aspects are covered: - Rationale – reasons for choosing the research topic - Aims and significance of the study - Scope of the study, and - Organization of the study Rationale Nowadays, telephone is considered an effective tool to connect people around the world In the business world, telephone also serves a significant function for trading, sales, marketing and keeping traces of customers for it has prominent and outstanding features such as instant, convenient and cheap However, to communicate successfully through telephone is not a simple task for participants when the caller cannot see the called and their non-verbal gestures Apart from linguistic competence, telephone etiquette is also important in business It seems that much has been said and done about telephone conversation within pragmatics and conversation analysis field and such names as Levinson, Marknee, Sacks, Schegloff Jefferson, have become familiar in the researcher circle Although the structure of telephone conversation has been studied and used to explain and organize a wide variety of circumstances, it is limitedly and inconclusively used to explain cases of telephone conversations in hotel while hotel is one business field that mainly lives on telephone system and almost all matters in this kind of business are dealt with via telephone With high interest in this area, I decided to a research in order to have a more insightful view of this interactional behavior Apart from personal interest, I have received ideas and suggestions from my colleagues and friends about their confusion in not yielding a satisfactory reservation conversation I am working in an international relations department and the work requires a lot of hotel reservation via telephone However, many hotel receptionists who speak English as a foreign language face some problems and need to improve for a better image of the hotel as well as providing a higher service quality 10 In order to reduce the bad feelings of customers and help non-native receptionists of English (refer to as non-native receptionists) achieve better communication results, the ways of handling telephone reservation conversations should be observed and studied Given this need, the questions then become: what are the procedures that receptionists often adopt to make a telephone reservation conversation? What are some reasonable implications that would help promote the development of consciousness of telephone skills, and lead to the improvement of interactional or communicative competence for successful reservation conversations? To work out the answers to the questions above, I decided to an analysis of telephone reservation conversation in the light of conversation analysis Objectives and research questions of the study Learners of a foreign language may find it troublesome to perform a professional conversation naturally and properly in other tongues For a smooth reservation, the knowledge of both linguistic rules and the service itself is required The objectives of this study are to: (1) explore the reservation procedures expressed in formal reservation conversation through telephone between a customer and a receptionist to characterize the speech acts performed in the opening, topic talk and closings, (2) discover good ways employed and detect common mistakes reflected in conversations, thereafter to (3) help non-native customers and receptionists get a better understanding of reservation conversation and improve their communicative competence To serve the above-mentioned objectives, the research questions come out as how non-native customers and receptionists behave in their reservation conversations with regard to such skills utilized in opening, topic talk and closing parts Specifically, the following questions will be dealt with: (1) How the receptionists often open a reservation conversation through telephone? (2) What are significant speech acts in collecting guest‟s information used by receptionists? (3) How the receptionists preferably close a telephone reservation conversation? 11 This study should be of potential interest to those who work in or have passion for Conversation Analysis, to customers who want to make a telephone reservation for room and hotel receptionists who desire to achieve more satisfactory reservation, and generally to those who want to have successful and smooth conversations through telephone In short, from a CA perspective, the turn level of analysis clarifies how speakers routinely implement the collaborative and orderly achievement of reservation conversation Scope of the study This study is proposed to work with reservation conversations via telephone between speakers with equal power, one is guest (the caller) and one is hotel receptionist (the called) who speaks English as a foreign language, in formal setting The research targets at the written scripts, not the audio or sound of conversations Features that will be under study are opening, topic talk and closing of conversation Finally, due to the limitations of technology, nonverbal gestures and expressions are excluded Organization of the study This M.A thesis discusses the detection of some structure features of conversations between guests and receptionists, namely opening, topic talk and closing The paper is divided into main chapters as follows: Introduction, introducing the research topic, its rationale and research questions, scope of the research and the organization of the paper Chapter 1: Literature review, discussing the theoretical background in thesis, of which the research matters will be discussed Chapter 2: Methodology, describing the nuclear methodology to investigate the research matters Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions, showing the results of the study, providing answers to the research questions, and Conclusion, summarizing the overall study and proposition implications as well as suggestions for other related studies or work 12 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter discusses the theoretical background of the study which explores the following concepts: - Conversation analysis - Basic concepts of Conversation, and - Basic concepts of telephone reservation conversation 1.1 Conversation Analysis 1.1.1 Definition of Conversation When discussing conversation from a linguistic perspective, one has to know how this term is defined in this context In everyday language use, conversation often is understood as some kind of “civilized art of talk” or “cultured interchange” (Schegloff 1968: 1075) This is not the understanding Conversation Analysis has of conversation, although this definition - like Conversation Analysis - excludes one kind of talk This excluded kind is the one of organized talk as is to be found in classrooms, churches and many other institutions (Levinson 1983: 284) Conversation Analysis defines conversation in a different way First of all it is stated to be a “familiar predominant kind of talk in which two or more participants freely alternate in speaking” (Levinson 1983:282) and the “central or most basic kind of language use” (Levinson 1983:283) This means, that in a conversation several persons speak in the way we it ourselves everyday, without a special set of rules according to which the participants are to act, like in a courtroom The conversation meant here can be a conversation between old friends, a short talk between strangers, a call to a business-partner and so on We converse in this way almost everyday and more than we in any other way 1.1.2 Conversation Analysis versus Discourse Analysis Two different main methodologies exist for analysing and examining conversation – conversation in general, or telephone conversation in special – from a linguistic perspective: 13 Conversation Analysis and Discourse Analysis To understand my decision to focus on the discipline of Conversation Analysis, I will shortly point out the main differences and parallels of these methodologies Of course, both disciplines examine conversation But the methods used for this, the thereby resulting findings and the main understanding of conversation differ immensely A common aim of Conversation Analysis and Discourse Analysis is to be able to give “an account of how coherence and sequential organization is produced and understood” (Levinson 1983: 286) According Nguyen Hoa (2000), Discourse Analysis uses primitive and basic concepts of linguistics for this It attempts to extend the rules applying to sentences over the boundaries of sentences The main method of the discipline is the isolation of sets of units of discourse, followed by a formulation of rules according to these units and finally the division of units into well-formed and ill-formed sequences The conversations are then analysed according to the rules which have been formulated before This makes the methods of Discourse Analysis an “immediate categorization of restricted data” (Levinson 1983: 287), which means that not the motivation for the form of the data is searched for, but that some parts of data are isolated from their context which could explain their occurrence and give insight into the real intentions and meanings of utterances This missing insight is also attributable to the field of Discourse Analysis that is used for the analysis of conversation: the speech act theory (Levinson 1983: 286) Speech act theory is in the field of the analysis of conversation mainly concerned with the view that “the level of coherence and order in conversation is to be found [ ] at the level of speech acts” (Levinson 1983: 288) For this, a syntax which shall explain what kinds of utterances fit together and which utterances require each other is added to normal speech act theory One of the main difficulties of this view is that - as we will see - utterances are able to fulfill more than one speech act at a time (Levinson 1983: 290) Conversation Analysis, in contrast, is a more “empirical approach which avoids premature theory construction” (Levinson 1983: 286) Naturally occurring conversations build the set of data in which recurring patterns of utterances are searched for In contrast to discourse analysis no rules are formulated according to these patterns, but it is attempted to find out why 30 B: July 25th A: How many nights will you be staying? B: nights… If there is no vacancy left, the topic needs more discussion for room availability (10) A: Thanks for calling Quality Inn Morine speaking B: Hello I'm interested in booking a room for the September long weekend A: I'm afraid we're totally booked for that weekend There's a convention in town and we're the closest hotel to the convention centre B: Oh, I didn't realize Well, what about the weekend after that? A: So Friday the seventeenth? B: Yes Friday and Saturday A: It looks like we have a few vacancies left We recommend that you make a reservation right now It's still considered peak season then It is not difficult to see an illocutionary force in the last italic sentences in the above extract In her second turn, the receptionist apologized with a wisdom advertisement in the shape of a reason for room unavailability When the customer asked about room availability of two days - Friday and Saturday – the receptionist put emphasize on the small number of rooms left with phrase “a few” and expression “It‟s still considered peak season then” which was considered a tactful reminder of a precious opportunity to reserve a room, that we recommend that you make a reservation right now; otherwise, you will lose the chance to have a room in our hotel It is actually a skill to appeal customers Moreover, it is also noteworthy to notice that the way of giving suggestion with “recommend”, “right now” showed strong illocutionary force and a great deal of enthusiasm The next information which is often required by the caller is hotel rate In investigated conversations, the researcher found that with the question of room price from the caller, almost all the receptionists started with higher category (11) A: From the period you prefer to stay I would recommend our Deluxe room which is 32 sq meters, located between the 9th and 15th floor, with Sea View and Over Mattress If you were to book with us now, it is only at $35 per room per night (before 10% VAT tax) After taxes, it will be $ 38.5 per room per night 31 B: Actually, I just want a quiet place with decent furniture at a competitive price A: That‟s fine, madam We have dozens of such rooms for you to choose There are corner rooms between 4th to 7th floor and range from $25-30 accordingly B: OK, I will take one on the 5th floor The illocutionary point hidden in this speech act is the high appreciation that the receptionist gave to the listener By suggesting the best room, he meant that “you are a special guest, you deserve the best room and you should indulge yourself by taking this one” and so on In above extract, the receptionist offered the best room of her hotel with the highest rate but her customer did not want to take such a luxurious room and wished to find a more economic one with specific requirements At the second time, she focused on what her client was looking for Normally, the rate is fixed in certain time and no bargain could be made successfully In spite of that, a skillful and experienced receptionist is fully able to give the customer good advice on suitable type of room with a reasonable rate Nearly 90% of studied conversations are considered successful thanks to the fact that the callers finally reach what they want under the support of the called However, specific room requirements of guests are various and not always match the supply of hotels For example, (12) A: Westin Reservations, can I help you? B: Yes, hi, I'm getting married in October, and I already have a block of rooms set aside for guests at the Sheraton Palo Alto Now I'd like to see about reserving a room for me and the groom for the wedding night at the Westin Palo next door A: When will you be traveling? B: We're not traveling It's our WEDDING NIGHT We're getting married on October A: For how many nights? B: Just the WEDDING NIGHT A: And how many people will be in the room? B: Uh, since it's our WEDDING NIGHT, it'll be just the two of us A: Would you like a king or two double beds? B: It being our WEDDING NIGHT and all, I was thinking one bed would be sufficient A: And are you traveling with any conventions or groups? 32 B: You mean outside of the wedding party? A: OK, I guess that would be no Do you need a suite? B: Well, a honeymoon suite would be nice, yes A: Our standard suites are $439 per night B: OK, and the HONEYMOON SUITE? A: Our regular room rate is $299 per night B: So are there no wedding night specials or honeymoon suites? A: There are no romance packages available B: You're telling me! The above conversation reveals the mismatch between the guest and hotel The guest wanted to find a romantic room for his bridal night after the wedding party and tried to explain his expectation through a series of speech acts meanwhile the receptionist did not fully understand what “wedding night” was In addition, she only sought for an equivalent room for such requirement and finally failed to achieve one, which led to a failure in reservation Among the scope of limited conversation collected by the researcher, there were 10% of conversation coming to an end without any reservation to be made Some of them were due to the requirement mismatch and the rest was not successful because the room price was beyond the guest‟s expectation or financial budget This may be caused by the incomprehensive understanding of receptionists on hotel services, which leads to unreasonable advice for customers The most remarkable point found in analyzing process is information repairing It is mostly in cases of name or address spelling and writing More than half of studied conversations need repairs for confirmation (13) A: Could you give me the name of the guest, please? B: Jack Kordell A: C-o-r-d-e-l B: It's Kordell with a “K” and two “l's”: “K-o-r-d-e-l-l” Or A: What is your email, please? B: Yea, leah.brown@mfat.govt.nz 33 A: Could you spell it, Ms Lia? B: Well, L-E… A: E or I, please? B: E for Egg A: Yes, thanks B: L-E-A for Alfa, H – dot – B – R… A: L-E-A-H dot B or P please? B: B for Bravo, R for Romeo–O-W-N-@-M for Money, F-T-dot-government, that‟s govt – dot-N-Z A: Well, pardon? B: NZ for New Zealand A: Ah, OK I got it, thank you very much In the extract above, the called had to make several questions to reach the correct spelling The gestures and facial expressions in the recording clearly showed the hearer‟s embarrassment and confusion From interactional competence viewpoint, it is the receptionist‟s lack of linguistic competence that led to the guest‟s repair After getting all necessary information from the guest, the last step receptionists are expected to is giving and/or repeating the reservation number to the guest (14) A: Let me give you your confirmation number It‟s: 7576385 I‟ll repeat that: 7576385 Thank you for choosing San Felice Hotel and have a nice day Goodbye B: Goodbye The speech act of recalling customer‟s reservation number is categorized into Propositional content conditions according to Searle (1979) The receptionist predicates that when checking in hotel, their customer will be asked to give this number as a kind of administration necessity and this can help avoid many troubles that may be caused if the customer does not know his/her number In spite of its importance, only 12,5% of studied conversations performed this action and amazingly, all of them were of American hotels This may result from the advanced operation procedure that international hotels in Vietnam should take into consideration and learn 34 3.1.3 Closings By promising the forthcoming arrival of the guest, receptionists prepare for a conversation closing, for example: (15) A: We look forward to your visit B: Thank you and good-bye A: Good-bye Or (16) A: Okay, Mr Maexner, we look forward to seeing you on March 20th B: Okay Goodbye They might also combine with the confirmation that the reservation procedure has been completed like: (17) A: OK, You're all set We'll see you on the 25th B: See you Goodbye Thanking the customer for calling the hotel is another way to finish the reservation: (18) A: Thank you for choosing Melia Hanoi Hotel and have a nice day Goodbye B: Thank you, good bye The questionnaire results showed that about 80% of the customers wished to receive a thank you expression from the called whereas only 15% of researched conversation included this thank - you Therefore, this matter turned out an important notice for receptionists to keep good impression in guests‟ eye One distinguishing point harvested among authentic reservation dialogues was that receptionists often took this occasion to further advertise image and service of the hotel to the customer by re-opening sentences (19) A: By the way, our Hotel Complimentary Shuttle Bus Services is ready 24/24h for your transportation to and from the airport We are very happy to serve you B: Thank you Bye And (20) A: Okay Oh, and just to let you know our outdoor pool will be closed, but our indoor pool is open 35 B: OK, thanks a lot Or (21) A: That‟s fine… and please be advised that the time of check-out will last till 12am, from 12am to 6pm you will be charged a half and after 6pm you will have to pay the fee for an extra day B: OK, I got it, thanks This kind of re-opening technique is seen as the last opportunity to impress hotel‟s remarkable characteristics to the customer The final and noticed signal was the action of putting down the phone There are only two options: customer or receptionist puts first The data showed that 67,5% of studied conversations were ended by receptionists More than half of the called laid the phone down prior to the caller while the nearly same percent of customers, in questionnaire‟s result, wished to be the first person to hang up Some customers when being asked said that if they heard the signal of tit tit tit of hanging up, they would often feel that they had been cut off This raised a conflict between the expectation of customers and the real situation in ending reservation conversations 3.2 Discussion 3.2.1 Typical procedure of opening a telephone reservation conversation by receptionists The first signal judging whether a telephone reservation conversation is professional or not is the answer to summons made by the called The findings reveal that the action of picking up the phone when it rings turned out very important and could pose huge affection on the caller Early picking up implied the readiness and a warm welcome of receptionists to the customers Only half of total studied conversations were started within three rings and helped maintain the customer‟s eagerness and enthusiasm towards the call whereas nearly all customers when being asked said that they absolutely want to catch the voice of receptionist right after one or two rings Late pick-up might cause some annoyance and displeasure from the callers, which partly broke the image of the hotel and led to some losses when the customers were not patient enough to wait for the answer It gives a very bad impression if the call rings out 36 before someone picks it up Therefore, hotel staff should modify their behaviour in several ways If receptionists are busy, they should answer the phone, ask them if they would not mind holding and then place them on hold Never place anyone on hold for an extended period of time If the guest has been waiting for a period of time, take their name and phone number and call them back This first impression a guest receives will determine whether they will stay to check in or just hang up Secondly, it is recommended that hotel organization and operation should be improved and arranged more reasonably Reservation Division should be separated and operated independently with front desk staffs who deal with direct clients Moreover, reservation failure conversations should be recorded and the moment of picking up the phone after it rings needs to be considered as one of possible factors From that, there would be proper personnel arrangement and regulations The second step taken by receptionists in opening a telephone reservation is identification and recognition The findings disclose that the identification of division name is more used than other details Apart from the function as an introduction, the illocutionary act of this speech act is a kind of reminder that “this is the place of advanced reservation of hotel room, not other divisions If you want to ask for mini-bar services or need technical help or want to call a taxi, then you should dial another extension number and so on” This identification totally matched the expectation of customers who wanted to recognize the Reservation Division Receptionists also often introduced their name in the first utterance and this was highly appreciated by responded customers However, not many of them were well aware of saying thank you to the callers while the results of questionnaires help reveal that quite a lot of customers wished to get appreciation from the receptionist This gap could be filled if the staffs become more flexible in their communication For instance, they should combine these two properly like “Thank you for calling Melia Hanoi hotel What can I help you?” which both introduces the name of hotel and sends a thank you to the customer Obviously, the greeting will become more friendly and pleasant with more positive feelings from the caller Receptionists should bear in their mind that appropriate greetings could help build a good rapport and avoid misunderstanding as well as wasting time The third move taken in reservation by the called is the way of greeting As explained in literature section, “hello” or “good morning” is not actually a kind of greeting; instead, it 37 provides an answer to the summons of ringing tone caused by the caller and may be understood as “I‟m hearing, I‟m ready to talk with you…” Therefore, it should be replaced with an alternative expression like aforementioned structure to avoid lengthy and wordy greeting 3.2.2 Speech acts used by hotel receptionists in collecting guest’s information for reservation Research question looks into the speech acts applied by receptionists to gather necessary information from the customers in topic talk which deals with features including coming and leaving date, room price, specific room requirements and reservation number The first information that receptionists must face with is the arrival and departure date which can be conveyed by initial utterance of the customer or gasped via a couple of adjacency pairs The main responsibility of the receptionist in this step is to check room availability during the stay requested In many cases, if the room is not available on requested day due to full vacation or reservation, the receptionist should advise their guest to change the date or avoid the peak season for matching room provision This task requires the flexible, tactful as well as skillful negotiation strategy from receptionists Receptionists should thoroughly consider room availability, hotel obligation and regulation to make negotiation with customers Sometimes, they should raise customer‟s awareness of difficulty in reserving rooms in the peak season Guest‟s name and identification information therewith were the next thing that receptionist took into consideration The findings exposed that not all receptionists were excellent at English to make sure a smooth conversation without any mistakes concerning language competence The evident was that many reservation conversations needed repairing, mostly in terms of spelling However, some receptionists were quite tactful and professional in applying International Phonetic Alphabet to avoid spelling mistakes as followings: Letter A Sample Alfa 38 B Bravo C Charlie D Delta E Echo F Foxtrot G Golf H Hotel I India J Juliet K Kilo L Lima M Mike N November O Oscar P Papa Q Quebec R Romeo S Sierra T Tango U Uniform V Victor W Whiskey X X-ray Y Yankee Z Zulu 39 Table International Phonetic Alphabet Regarding room rate, receptionists often introduced from higher class of room to lower ones so that they could show the customers their best service and boost the highest business revenue possibility The flexibility of receptionists was shown in the way they arrange suitable room with requirements of limited finance and time Specific requirements are optional part in reservation conversations However, this is a very important and seen as the decisive factor for a successful reservation Receptionists all fully understood that if the hotel could not provide customers with their special type of room or facilities, then they would lose a guest and the reservation would break Speech acts that they often used in supplying this kind of information aimed at finding suitable rooms for particular types of guests They usually made guesses to meet the expectations of identified customer types Followings are the summary of general expectations in accordance with customer types Customer type Examples of needs/expectations Business person Prompt service and availability of data connectivity in their room Honeymooners Discreet service and privacy Family group Child minding and value for money Young single person Entertainment and sporting activities Overseas tourist Local and tourist attractions, currency/travellers cheque exchange and language interpreter Aged person Possible disability access and/or special meals Table Specified needs of customers Another skill in receiving telephone calls is the way to listen properly Passive listening is simply allowing the caller to talk and not taking any actions to ensure we have the right message Actively listening means first indicating to the caller that receptionists are listening by interrupting in an encouraging manner - interruptions could be “yes”, “I see,” “Okay”, “right,” “I know what you mean”, or they could be prompts to encourage the caller to say more: “is that true?”, “are you sure?”, etc And secondly active listening means asking 40 questions or using prompts to ensure that the caller gives precise information so that the message received is accurate and adequate Last but not least, the number of reservation should be repeated to the customers so that they can get check-in arrangement quickly and easily This speech act will be really meaningful and helpful if, due to computer errors or other accidents, the hotel might not save the room which has been already reserved in advance by a customer In this case, the reservation number that receptionists have provided to that customer will become an important evidence for handling 3.2.3 Ways used by hotel receptionists in closing telephone reservation conversation Research question investigates the closing ways taken by receptionists Firstly, before closing the call receptionists must make sure that the caller has no more queries Pre-closing turns applied by receptionists were often in the shape of the confirmation of a complete reservation procedure with full information needed such as OK, You're all set or We look forward to your visit or Okay, Mr Maexner, we look forward to seeing you on March 20th This kind of speech acts could literally tell the caller that he/she has fulfilled the reservation After that, a real good-bye was performed and thanking the caller was followed then The normal routine consists of a re-thank you and the willingness to see the customers on arrival day As seen in the findings, most of customer expected to receive the acknowledgement from the called and this is considered an important point that receptionists should pay attention to Besides, one more popular way employed by receptionist to leave the last impression on the caller was that they often added some more attractive information which may be an advantage or noticeable service of hotel guests should know or a friendly reminder of the time for a proper check-out This re-opening showed a tactful skill of professional service and marketing Lastly, regarding the action of hanging up, the findings suggested that receptionists should wait for the hanging up signal from the caller before putting the receiver down to save psychological feelings 41 PART C: CONCLUSION In this final chapter, the research results are summarized and implications as well as suggestions for further study are also included Conclusion The objectives of this study are to figure out the most popular procedure of reservation through the speech acts employed in conversation by hotel receptionists in formal setting, thereafter to find out the ways to achieve better successful reservation Through analysis of researched conversations and questionnaires, the results of this study indicate that: (1) When opening a reservation conversation via telephone, receptionists should promptly answer the summons within rings to maintain guest‟s interest Appropriate greetings including the name of division and speakers should be said to the guest together with an appreciation, which can replace a normal greeting in person conversations (2) In information collecting, a skillful receptionist should be flexible in arranging rooms in suitable time with appropriate reasons Spelling confirmation through International Phonetic Alphabet was another way in avoiding mistakes during information gathering Customer types and general expectations and needs along were identified to direct the receptionists towards the right track when giving customer room advice Listening skills were always necessary for any communication transaction, but they were especially important in getting information from customer through telephone Finally, reservation identification was delivered to customer for administration and management (3) A complete closing often consisted of a pre-closing signal followed by a real good-bye expression and sometimes ended with a re-opening Re-opening was considered a tactful skill employed by receptionists There was also some meaningful message in the action of hanging up the phone Under any circumstances, receptionists should hang up later as a respectful sign to their 42 customer Lastly, the wish to hear an acknowledgment of a great proportion of customers should be paid attention to and responded The results lead to the implications that in order to become a successful receptionist in particular and a good communicator in general, learners of English should be well aware of linguistic competence and professional knowledge of hotel services Suggestions for further study The focus of this study is mainly on the procedures used by receptionists in English telephone reservation conversation in formal setting Despite the effort to analyze in detail the collected data, there are still limitations and unexpected shortcomings due to the shortage of time and the small scope of the study The results would be more exact and convincing if there were more participants involved in the research and more dialogues were collected Therefore, a similar research on a larger scale with more detailed analysis is advisable to achieve more valid conclusion Furthermore, it would be more complete if the study could cover strategies imported by the caller or customers themselves in reservation and if the researched conversations were studied from various directions such as between speakers of different social statuses, background and culture or in combination with non-verbal gestures To discuss the topic to the full, studies on other factors affecting telephone reservation conversations are also recommended Last but not least, any critical comments and further contributions to the paper will be highly appreciated 43 REFERENCES Austin, J.L (1975), How to things with words, Oxford: Clarendon Press Coulthard, M (1985), An Introduction to Discourse Analysis, 2nd ed., London - New York Levinson, S.C (1983), Pragmatics, Cambridge U.P Markee, N (2000), Conversation Analysis, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers Nguyen Hoa (2000), An Introduction to Discourse Analysis, Ha Noi: VNU Press Nguyen Hoa (2008), Discourse Analysis: Some Theoretical and Practical Issues, Ha Noi: VNU Press Nunan, D (1992), Research Methods in Language Learning, Cambridge U.P Sacks H & E.A Schegloff (1973), “Opening up Closings”, Semiotica 7/4, 289-327 Schegloff, E.A (1968), “Sequencing in Conversational Openings”, American Anthropologist LXX:6, 1075-1095 10 Schegloff, E.A (2002), “Beginnings in the telephone”, in KATZ & AAKHUS , 284- 300 11 Searle, J.R (1969), Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language, England: Cambridge University 12 Searle, J.R (1975), Indirect Speech Acts, Syntax and Semantics, vol 3, Academic Press, New York 13 Kehe, D & P.D Kehe (2004), Conversation Strategies, 2nd ed., Pro Lingua Associates 14 Wisker, G (2001), The Postgraduate Research Handbook, Palgrave 15 http://freeonlinesurveys.com/ 44 APPENDIX: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES Hello, I am carrying out an MA thesis paper on room reservation conversation via telephone and I need your help for its data First, please fill in some general information: i Your age:………… ii How many times of room reservation have you ever made? Now, please image that you are calling to a hotel for room reservation You are kindly requested to answer following questions by choosing the most preferred option Your information will be committed to be kept secret and only published under your approval Thank you very much for your kindest co-operation When will be the best time you want the called to pick up the phone? A within three rings B after three rings C after more than three rings How you feel when the called pick up the phone after three rings or more? A Positive feelings such as happy, interested, amazed… B Negative feelings such as annoyed, uncomfortable, disappointed, angry… C No difference What you want to hear from the receptionist in the first utterance? You can choose more than one option A Hotel name (E.g Daewoo Hotel, Sofitel Plaza…) B Division name (E.g Reservation Division, Business Division, Customer Care ) C Receptionist‟s name (E.g Marine speaking, I‟m Lan Anh…) D Thank you (E.g Thank you for calling Melia Hanoi hotel…) What behaviour you prefer? A The receptionist hangs up prior to you B You put down the phone first C I don‟t care who hangs up first Thank you for your co-operation! ... understanding of conversation than Discourse Analysis has, as a conversation has to be seen rather as an interactional product - as claimed by Conversation Analysis – than as a structural product... Conversation Analysis perspective as the examination of the organization of conversation and not of conversation as a kind of sentence, is the aim of this paper Also, Conversation Analysis certainly has... that much has been said and done about telephone conversation within pragmatics and conversation analysis field and such names as Levinson, Marknee, Sacks, Schegloff Jefferson, have become familiar