English funny stories a discourse analysis = (phân tích diễn ngôn truyện cười tiếng anh)

VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT ********** ENGLISH FUNNY STORIES - A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS (Phân tích diễn ngơn truyện cười tiếng Anh ) GRADUATION THESIS Field: English linguistics Student : Trần Thị Nguyệt Supervisor : Võ Thị Hồng Minh, M.A VINH - 2012 VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT ********** TRẦN THỊ NGUYỆT ENGLISH FUNNY STORIES - A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS (Phân tích diễn ngôn truyện cười tiếng Anh) GRADUATION THESIS Field: English linguistics VINH - 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT For the completion of this study, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Mrs Vo Hong Minh, my supervisor, for her excelllent suggestions, valuable materials, unflagging encouragement, and detailed correction that help me to fulfill this study I am also grateful to my teachers in the Department of Foreign Languages for their helpful suggestions and encouragement which help me overcome difficulties in the process of my study My warmest thanks go to my family and my good friends who are willing to help me and always by my side, encourage me to complete my work ABSTRACT The importance of English funny stories as a useful means of language teaching and learning has stimulated the author in the study In this thesis, the author discusses the different notions of two elements of discourse analysis: thematic structure and cohesion first and then the use of these elements in English funny stories In addition, the study is concerned with the application of discourse analysis as well as English funny stories in teaching and learning English LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Examples of theme and rheme in the structure of clauses…………………… Table : General statistics of selected materials……………………………………… 21 Table : The statistic of theme in English funny stories……………………………… 22 Table : The first example for theme and rheme in complex sentences……………… 26 Table 5: The second example for theme and rheme in complex sentences…………….26 Table : The analysis of grammatical cohesive devices in English funny stories…… 27 Table : The statistic of three types of reference………………………………… .27 Table 8: The analysis of types of conjunction in English funny stories……………… 31 Table : The statistic of reiteration in English funny stories………………………… 33 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF TABLES iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv PART A : INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and objectives of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART B : DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theory of discourse 1.1.1 Concept of discourse 1.1.2 Discourse and text 1.1.3 Discourse context 1.2 Discouse analysis 1.3 Thematic structure 1.3.1 Theme and rheme 1.3.2 Types of theme 1.4 Cohesion 10 1.4.1 Concept of cohesion 10 1.4.2 Cohesion and coherence 11 1.4.3 Types of cohesion 11 1.4.3.1 Grammatical cohesion 12 1.4.3.1.1 Reference 12 1.4.3.1.2.Substitution 14 1.4.3.1.3 Ellipsis 15 1.4.3.1.4 Conjunction 16 1.4.3.2 Lexical cohesion 18 1.4.3.2.1 Reiteration 18 1.4.3.2.2 Collocation 20 CHAPTER TWO: AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH FUNNY STORIES 21 2.1 Some gerneral features of English funny stories 21 2.1.1 Characters in English funny stories 21 2.1.2 Language in English funny stories 21 2.2 General statistic of selected materials 21 2.3 Thematicsation 22 2.3.1 Unmarked theme 22 2.3.2 Marked theme 23 2.3.3 Theme in different mood of a clause 24 2.3.3.1 Theme in declarative clauses 24 2.3.3.2 Theme in interrogatice clauses 25 2.3.3.3 Theme in imperative clauses 25 2.3.4 Theme in the complex sentences 26 2.4 Cohesion 26 2.4.1 Grammatical cohesion 27 2.4.1.1 Reference 27 2.4.1.2 Substitution 29 2.4.1.3 Ellipsis 30 2.4.1.4 Conjunction 30 2.4.2 Lexical cohesion 33 2.4.2.1 Reiteration 33 2.4.2.1.1 Repetition 34 2.4.2.1.2 Synonym & near synonym 35 2.4.2.1.3 Superordinate and general word 36 2.4.2.2 Collocation 36 CHAPTER THREE : FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 37 3.1 The findings 37 3.1.1 The thematic structure 37 3.1.2 Cohesive devices 37 3.1.2.1 Grammatical cohesion 37 3.1.2.2 Lexical cohesion 38 3.2 Implications for teaching and learning 38 PART C : CONCLUSION 42 Recapitulation 42 Limitations and some suggestions for further research 42 REFERENCES APPENDIX PART A : INTRODUCTION Rationale In traditional linguistic research there are many works on text analysis, which focus only on the formal properties of language divorced from their communicative functions Modern linguistic tendency of research focuses on discourse analysis, which is functional analysis of discourse involving the analysis of language in use It can be said that language in the works of discourse analysis has been studied in both form and meaning in distinctive situations and contexts Emphasizing as above, it is to be noted that discourse analysis, although a challenge to researchers and learners, has attracted much of their attention Funny stories play an important role in social interaction A humorous story can break the tension in an awkward conversation Public speakers frequently begin their speeches with a funny story to put their audience at ease Laughter may also relieve stress and distract people from pain Moreover, funny stories can be also seen as a means of teaching and learning English we read them not only to entertain but also learn some grammatical features as well as vocabulary However, there is still little study on this kind of stories For all reasons above, we have decided to choose " English funny stories - a discourse analysis " to be the title of the thesis Aims and objectives of the study The object of the thesis is to study the structure and style as well as some grammatical and lexical categories of english funny stories The study aims at: Firstly, having an analysis of the usage of theme and rheme in funny stories Secondly, finding out cohesive devices used in funny stories Lastly, suggesting some practical applications of discourse analysis in teaching and learning English To realize these aims, the author poses the following research questions: What types of theme are used and how the writers use thematic structure in English funny stories? What types of cohesive devices are used in English funny stories and their functions? Scope of the study Our research deals with some aspects of discourse analysis including theme and rheme, cohesive devices including grammatical and lexical cohesion mainly provided by Halliday and Hasan (1976) The data analyzed in this thesis are 10 English funny stories available in the book “ Nu cuoi nuoc anh”( 2007) which are very popular with the Vietnamese reader, especially, the students Methods of the study To meet the aims and objectives of the study: First of all, 10 English funny stories are carefully collected They are popular, especially, easy for everybody to understand Second, these stories will be described and analysed in terms of dicourse analysis Third, the data obtained will be dealt with in order to reach some conclusions on the usage of some linguistic features in discourse Moreover, in this thesis we use the quantitative method and inductive approach based on a collection of sample stories Design of the study The thesis is comprised of three part: introduction, development and conclusion Part A : Introduction Like other thesises, this part provides some information about the purposes and reasons of choosing the topic ; aims and objectives; scope; methods and design of the study Part B: Development This part consists of three chapter Chapter one: Theoretical background Also, by repeating important words, we are able to give a summary of what is the main information that the text carries For instance: (77) One of Nasreddin’s friends loved money very much, and never gave anything to anybody Soon, he became very rich One day, he was walking near the river with his friends when he slipped and fell in his friend ran to help him and one of them knelt on the ground, held out his hand and said, “ Give me your hand, and I will pull you out!” The rich man’s head went under the water and then came up again, but he did not gave his friend his hand Again, another of his friends tried, but again the same happened Then Nasreddin said, “ Take my hand and I will pull you out!” The rich man took his hand, and nasreddin pulled him out of the water “ You don’t know our friend very well”, he said to the others “ when you say, “ Give” to him, he does nothing, but when you say “Take”, he takes (3:88) Look at the example, we can see that the three most important words in the story are “ give”, “take”, and “pull out” are repeated to make the “stingy” nature of the man in the story more impressive in the reader’s mind 2.4.2.1.2 Synonym & near synonym Tran Ngoc Them (31.1:137) defines synonymy as a cohesive device realized by different words or phrases conveying the same meaning Synonyms can be nouns, adverbs or adjectives as both members of the pair are the same part of speech Throughout the survey of English funny stories, it can be easy to notice that though there are not many ( 11.04% on the whole lexical reiteration) , synonyms are used here to make the text coherent The aim is to avoid overusing a word or a phrase Examine the following example: (78) Tom saw an advertisement in a newspaper for a beautiful, mordern which cost 54.99 pounds So, he went to the shop which had put the advertisement in and asked to see one of their wonderful bicycles (9:179) The two underlined adjectives in the example are synonymous And it is rather understandable for the fact that, by means of synonym, the writers want to avoid repetition and monotony in word choice However, the coherence, precision and clarity are not affected and not making the readers boring to read Here are some other pairs of synonym used in English funny stories: wearing and put on (2:68) son and boy (4:116) arrive and came (6:142) 2.4.2.1.3 Superordinate and general word Superordinate and general word mean, of any pair of lexical terms belonging to the two types of reiteration, the meaning of one (superordinate / general word) is involved in that of the other In English funny stories, these types appear less than other lexical cohesive devices, only superordinates and general words are found Here are examples: Superordinate (79) The young man got up, took his coat and went to the door, but before he left the house, he turned and said to Elizabeth,” It isn’t a man you’re lokking for It’s a television set” (1:44) General word (80) Then I went home and came back in these clothes, and you gave me the best food and drink So you gave me these things for my clothes, not for myself 2.4.2.2 Collocation As stated before, collocation occurs when a pair of words is not necessarily dependent upon the same semantic relationship but rather they tend to occur within the same lexical environment ( Halliday and Hasan, 1976:286) It is the common phenomenon in literature as well as funny story For example, these are collocational pairs or chains in the story and the story 4: (1) Elizabeth… pretty girl…….parents….rich Young men…marry… satisfied Handsomest … men….wife Young man….coat door….house man…looking for (4) Mrs Williamson …… sons Doing…….washing Sweets…….bad… teeth One… oranges… bigger……other The small boy…….kept….himself….his brother….the smaller one CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 3.1 The findings 3.1.1 The thematic structure To understand the thematic structure of the text, we have examined two elements: theme and rheme, especially the choice of theme plays a very important part as theme makes a significant contribution to coherence of a text In fact, what kinds of theme are used in an English clause contributes significantly to the communicative effect of the message that is very important to the writer/speaker In English funny stories, the attraction to the readers plays a vital factor so it becomes more important The result of the investigation shows that the occurrence of marked theme in English funny stories nearly doubles unmarked theme ( 120 comparing with 62 times of appearance) Moreover, in this thesis, we have considered theme - rheme structure in three types of clause and the complex sentences used in English funny stories In declarative clauses, theme may be the subject or the others like a preposition phrases or adverbs… In interrogative clauses, if the clause is a yes/no question, the combination of finite operator and subject is called unmarked theme, or else the clause is a wh- question, unmarked theme is the wh- question words The last type of clause used is imperative clauses, in which the verbs are found as theme Also, one of the most concerns is in English funny stories, there are a large number of complex sentences and how to identify theme It can be said that the subordinate clause in complex sentences is regarded as the marked theme Besides, in complex sentences a sepate themetic organization will be assigned to each clause 3.1.2 Cohesive devices 3.1.2.1 Grammatical cohesion Grammatical cohesion is found to be a multitype concept From a structural view, it involves a number of cohesive devices governing the organization of the text in terms of the devices used from the sentence level to the discourse level Grammatical cohesion is used to produce a comprehensive discourse concerning both the writer and the reader In addition, English funny stories are supposed to use the necessary connectors as grammatical cohesion to have a cohesive discourse and to help the reader understand as much as possible According to the results shown in the tables in previous chapter, it is noticed that in every type of grammatical cohesive devices is used, however, the use of grammatical cohesive devices differs from one type to another The writers’ use of reference is larger than the use of the other grammatical cohesive devices In three subtypes of reference, personal reference is the most frequently used form, accounting for 87.23% It includes both plural personal references ( they, them, their, we ) and singular personal ones ( I, my, he, she, it, you,her,him, your…) In contrast, the use of demonstrative and comparative references are less preferred by the writers of English funny stories Other device greatly contrinutes to the cohesion of the message is conjunction which is divided into four suptypes, including additive, adversative, causal and temporal In which additive is the most preferably seen here with 54.05% These devices are very important to creating a complete and cohesive text In contrast, substitution and ellipsis are found here with far less proportion, only 3.1% and 9.86% respectively 3.1.2.2 Lexical cohesion Our study also deals with lexical cohesion in English funny stories that is carried out mainly based on theoretical framework of Halliday and Hasan (1976) According to them, lexical cohesion is classified into two main types: reiteration and collocation Regarding to the semantic tie, reiteration is considered the main kind of lexical cohesion The highest proportion (84.05%) of repetition in English funny stories normally contributes to the coherent and cohesive texts The writters repeat important words and sometimes the name of characters aiming at giving the reader an attractive situation and more comprehensive understanding of the main information With low frequency of occurrence synonym, super-ordinate and general word also make a valuable contribution to the coherence and cohesion of English funny stories In addition, collocation is an essential cohesive device to create coherence for funny stories 3.2 Implications for teaching and learning With regards to the nature of language, discourse analysis and communicative language teaching share a consensus about the importance of communication From this perspective, describing language in use in naturally occurring contexts has been applied to the different levels of linguistic analysis and this has helped to identify the linguistic content of communicative language teaching There are a number of questions proposed by discourse analysts with reference to grammar and grammar teaching In particular, they are interested in its significance for producing comprehensible communicative products, realization of grammar items in different languages, their frequency of occurrence in speech and writing which is to enable teaching more natural usage of the target language, as well as learners' native tongue (McCarthy 1991:47) In fact, discourse analysts have analysed grammar from various perspectives relevant to language teaching Thus, several studies have examined the notion of cohesion and coherence and have illustrated the grammatical connections between clauses and utterances, segments of discourse, and how information is selected and presented in discourse The analysis of grammar as an aspect of discourse has influenced some current approaches to the teaching of grammar Taking into account the view of grammar as a set of discourse choices, learners are provided with activities which focus on either awareness of the grammatical system of the language used, or on the production of language choices in particular contexts Among subtypes of grammatical cohesive device, anaphoric reference, which is frequent in many oral and written texts, deserves attention due to problems that it may cause to learners at various levels It is especially important at an early stage of learning a foreign language when learners fail to follow overall meaning turning much attention to decoding information in a given clause or sentence Discourse analysts have analyzed schematically occurring items of texts and how learners from different backgrounds acquire them and later on produce Teachers, being aware of possible difficulties in teaching some aspects of grammar, should pay particular attention to them during the introduction of the new material to prevent making mistakes and errors (McCarthy 1991: 36) Moreover, the most prominent role in producing sophisticated discourse, and therefore one that requires much attention on the part of teachers and learners is that of words and phrases which signal internal relation of sections of discourse, namely conjunctions McCarthy (1991) claims that there are more than forty conjunctive words and phrases, which might be difficult to teach Moreover, when it comes to the spoken form of language, where and, but, so, then are most frequent, they may take more than one meaning, which is particularly true for and Additionally, they not only contribute to the cohesion of the text, but are also used when a participant of a conversation takes his turn to speak to link his utterance to what has been said before (McCarthy 1991:48) Besides, the study of language use in particular contexts has also focused on the analysis of vocabulary above the sentence level and has shed light on the nature of vocabulary; more specifically, it has shown the relationship between context, grammar and vocabulary This is explicitly stated by Halliday (1978: 43): The lexical system is not something that is fitted in afterwards to a set of slots defined by thegrammar The lexicon is simply the most delicate grammar as things become more and more specific, they tend more and more to be realised by the choice of a lexical item rather than the choice of a grammatical structure The analysis of lexical cohesion, the research on the role of vocabulary in signalling textual patterns in discourse, and on the relationship between lexical selection and register have offered the teaching profession insights into the teaching of vocabulary Scholars have conducted in-depth research into techniques employed by foreign language learners concerning vocabulary memorization to make it easier for students to improve their management of lexis The conclusion was drawn that it is most profitable to teach new terminology paying close attention to context and co-text that new vocabulary appears in which is especially helpful in teaching and learning aspects such as formality and register Discourse analysts describe co-text as the phrases that surround a given word, whereas, context is understood as the place in which the communicative product was formed (McCarthy 1991:64) Therefore, the teachers can provide a semantic context which is useful for understanding or inferring the meaning of words, notions sentences when they teach a new word and According to Mc.Carthy (1991:71), discourse analysts maintain that knowledge of vocabulary-connected discourse devices supports language learning in diverse manners Firstly, it ought to bring students to organize new items of vocabulary into groups with common context of use to make them realize how the meaning of a certain word might change with circumstances of its use or co-text Moreover, it should also improve learners' abilities to choose the appropriate synonym, collocation or hyponym In sum, teachers can use discourse analysis not only as a research method for investigating their own teaching practices but also as a tool for studying interactions among language learners Learners can benefit from using discourse analysis to explore what language is and how it is used to achieve communicative goals in different contexts Thus discourse analysis can help to create a second language learning environment that more accurately reflects how language is used and encourages learners toward their goal of proficiency in another language PART C : CONCLUSION Recapitulation As we know, discourse analysis is really a new method to investigate how texts are structured beyond the sentence level This thesis is the study of English funny stories in terms of thematic structure, cohesion including grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion so as to get a full understanding of the typical features of this kind of short story On carrying out this research, I hope this thesis will make some contribution to the field of teaching English, learning English Firstly, the findings of the study will probably be a useful reference resource for anyone who is keen on studying English, especially English funny stories In fact, English is an International Language Millions of people try to find the good ways to learn English today Analyzing the grammatical and lexical feature of funny stories can help learners enjoy reading and learning English, the learners can acquire grammar and vocabulary for themselves effectively Furthermore, English funny stories contain practical English expressions in daily spoken English that are most useful for learning to speak English Limitations of the study and some suggestions for further research As far as I know, dicourse analysis itself is a broad field comprising a large number of subfields, including speech act theory, conversation analysis, pragmatics, etc However, this study only focuses on some discourse features in terms of the thematic features and cohesive devices in English funny stories Due to the lack of time, reference material as well as limited linguistic knowledge, the study has got certain restrictions Firstly the samples selected for analysis are only taken from the book “ nu cuoi nuoc Anh” Seconly, the researcher does not explain more deeply the discourse features of English funny stories Thus, for the sake of further investigation into funny stories, I would like to offer some suggestions for further research:  An investigation into grammatical cohesion in English and Vietnamese funny stories  A study on lexical cohesion in English and Vietnamese funny stories REFERENCES Allen, J.P.B & Corder, S.Pit (1974) Papers in Applied Linguistics (Volume 2) Oxford University Press Brown, G & Yule, G (1983) Discourse Analysis Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cook, G (1989) Discourse Oxford: Oxford University Press Crystal, D (1992) Introducing Linguistics London: Penguin Fine, J (ed) (1988) The Place of Discourse in Second language study, in Second Language Discourse: A text book of current research v.xxv in the series, Advances in Discourse Halliday, M.A.K & Hassan, R (1976) Cohesion in English Longman Halliday, M A K (1985) An Introduction to Functional Grammar London: Edward Arnold Halliday, M.A.K & Hasan, R (1994) Cohesion in English Longman, London and New York Harmer, J (2004) How to Teach Writing Pearson Educated Limited 10 Kennedy, G (2003) Structure and Meaning in English Pearson Educated Limited 11 Mc.Carthy, M (1991) Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers Cambridge University Press 12 Nguyễn Quốc Khánh & Trịnh Thị Phượng ( tuyển chọn) (2006) Nụ cười nước anh NXB Từ điển Bách khoa 13 Nunan, D (1993) Introducing Discourse Analysis London: Penguim 14 Randolph Quirk & Sidney Green Baum ( 1973), A University Grammar of English, Longman 15 Trần Ngọc Thêm (1999), Hệ thống liên kết văn Tiếng Việt, NXB Giáo dục 16 Widdowson, H.G (1978) Teaching Language as Communiction.Oxford: OUP Websites: www.lib.uoi.gr/online/mathrev/mrindex/autc.pdf www.data.ulis.vnu.edu.vn/jspui/handle/123456789/1858 www.tainguyenso.vnu.edu.vn/xmlui/handle/123456789/3023 APPENDIX It’s a television set Elizabeth was a very pretty girl, and her parents were rich Quite a lot of the young men in the town wanted to marry her, but she was not satisfied with any of them One evening, one of the handsomest of the young men who wanted to marry Elizabeth came to visit her in her parents’ house and asked her to become his wife She answered, “ No, William, I won’t marry you I want to marry a man who is famous, who can play music, sing, dance very well, who can tell really interesting stories, who does not smoke or drink, who stays at home in the evenings and who stops talking when I’m tired of listening” The young man got up, took his coat and went to the door, but before he left the house, he turned and said to Elizabeth, “ It isn’t a man you’re looking for It’s a television set” (Nụ cười nước anh,2007: 44) Eat, coat ? One day, Nasreddin went to a big dinner party He was wearing old clothes When he came in, nobody looked at him and nobody gave him a seat at a table So, Nasreddin went home, put on his best clothes, and then went back to the party The host at once got up and came to meet him He took him the best table, gave him a good seat, and offered him the best dishes Nasreddin put on his coat in the food and said, “ Eat, coat?” The other guests were very surprised and said, “What are you doing?” Nasreddin answered, “ I was inviting my coat to eat When I was wearing my old clothes, nobody looked at me or offered me food or drink Then I went home and came back in these clothes, and you gave me these things for my clothes not for myself” nước anh,2007: 68) ( Nụ cười A stingy man One of Nasreddin’s friends loved money very much, and never gave anything to anybody Soon he became rich One day, he was walking near the river with his friends when he slipped and fell in His friends ran to help him and one of them knelt on the ground, held out his hand and said, “ Give me your hand, and I will pull you out!” The rich man’s head went under the water and then came up again, but he did not give his friend his hand Again, another of his friends tried, but again the same happened Then Nasreddin said, “ Take my hand and I will pull you out!” The rich man took his hand, and Nasreddin pulled him out of the water “ You don’t know our friend very well”, he said to the others “ when you say, “Give” to him, he does nothing, but when you say, “ Take”, he takes!” (Nụ cười nước anh,2007: 88) A cunning boy Mrs Williamson had two sons One morning during the hollidays, when she was doing the washing for the family, her younger son came and asked her for some money for sweets “Sweets are bad for your teeth”, Mrs William said “ Take these two oranges instead, and give one to your old brother” One of the oranges was quite a lot bigger than the other As the small boy liked oranges, he kept that one for himself, and gave his brother the smaller one When the older boy saw that his brother had a much larger orand than his own, he said to him, “It’s selfish to take the bigger one for yourself If the mother had given me the oranges, I’d given you the bigger one” “ I know you would”, answered his brother “ That’s why I took it” (Nụ cười nước anh,2007: 116) Giant Guards King Frederick, the great of Prussia had a very fine army, and none of the soldiers in it were finer than Giant Guards who were all extremely tall men It was difficult to find enough soldiers for these Guards, as there were not many men who were tall enough Frederick had made a rule that no soldiers who did not speak German could be admitted to the Giant Guards, and this made the work of the officers who had to find men for them even more difficult When they had to choose between accepting or refusing a really tall man who knew no German, the officers used to accept him, and then teach him enough German to be able to answer if the King questioned him Frederick, sometimes, used to visit the men who were on guard around his castle at night to see that they were doing their job properly, and it was his habit to ask each new one that he saw three questions: “ How old are you?” How long have you been in my army?” and “ Are you satisfied with your food and your conditions?” The officers of the Giant Guards therefore used to teach new soldiers who did no German the answers to these three questions One day, however, the King asked a new soldier the questions in a different order He began with, “ How long have you been in my army?” The young soldier immediately answered, “ Twenty-two year, Your Majesty” Frederick was very surprised “ How old are you?”, he asked the soldier “ Six months, Your Majesty”, came the answer, “ Am I a fool or are you one?”, he asked “ Both, Your Majesty”, the soldier answered politely (Nụ cười nước anh,2007: 125) What is the hobby? The class teacher thought that hobbies were very important for every child She encouraged all her pupils to have one, and sometimes arranged for their parents to come and see the work they had done as a result One Friday morning, the teacher told the class that those of them who had a hobby could have a holliday in that afternoon to get the things thay had made as parts of their hobbies ready for their parents to see the following afternoon So, on Friday afternoon, while those of the pupils who had nothing to show did their usual lessons The lucky ones who had made something were allowed to go home, on condition that they returned to before five o’clock to bring what they were going to show and to arrange it When the afternoon lessons began, the teacher was surprised to see that Tommy was no there He was the laziest boy in the class, and the teacher found it difficult to believe that had a hobby However, at a quarter to five, Tommy arrived with a beautiful collection of butterflies in glass cases After his teacher had admired them and helped him to arrange them on a table in the classroom, she was surprised to see Tommy pick them up again and begin to leave “ What are you doing Tommy?”, she asked “ Those things must remain here until tomorrow afternoon That’s when the parents are coming to see them” “ I know they are coning then”, answered Tommy “ and I will bring them back tomorrow; but my big brother doesn’t want them to be out out of our house at night in case thay are stolen” “But what has it got to with your big brother?”, asked the teacher “ Aren’t the butterflies yours?” “ No”, answered Tommy, “ They belong to him” “But Tommy, you are supposed to show yopur own hobby here, not somebody else’s!”, said the teacher “I know that”, answered Tommy “ My hobby is watching my brother collecting butterflies” (Nụ cười nước anh,2007: 141) Money is everything During the Second World War, Winston Churchill was the British Prime Minister One day, he had to go to the British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) to make an important speech to the nation An hour before the time of this speech, he stopped a taxi in the street and asked the driver to take him to the BBC; but the taxi-driver, who did not recognize him, said he could not take him anywhere just then, because he wanted to go back to his home at the other end of London to hear Churchill make a speech on the radio Churchill was so pleased when he heard this answer that he gave the man a pound, which was worth quite a lot in those days “ All right, get in”, said the driver happily, opening the door of the taxi “ I’ll take you, and to hell with Churchill and his speech!” (Nụ cười nước anh,2007: 155) A “ good” neighbour Mr and Mrs Jone’s flat was full of suitcases, trunks and packedup furniture The two of them were busy with pencils and paper, checking their lists of luggage, when there was a ring at the door Mrs Jone went to open it, and saw a well-dressed middle-aged lady outside The lady said she liveed in the flat beside theirs, and that she had come to welcome them to their new home The Jones invited her in, after apologizing for the state of the flat “ Oh, please don’t stand on ceremony with me”, she answered “ Do you know, in some parts of this town neighbours are not at all friendly There are some streets and even some blocks where people don’t know their neighbours, not even their nextdoor ones But in this block of l\flats, everybody is friends with everybody else We are one big family I am sure that you will be very happy here” The well-dressed lay got a shock when she came to visit the flat the next time, because she found a quite different man and woman in it Mr and Mrs Jones had not had the courage to tell her that they were not the new owners of the flat, who were due to move in the next day, but the old owners who had lives beside her for two years without her ever having visited them or even noticed their existence (Nụ cười nước anh,2007: 162) An advertisement Tom saw an advertisement in a newspaper for a beautiful, modern bicycle which cost 54.99 pounds So he went to the shop which had put the advertisement and asked to see one of their wonderful bicycles The shopkeeper was very happy to show one to Tom, who examined it carefully and turned to the shopkeeper, saying, “ there isn’t a lamp on this bicycle but there was one on the bicycle in your advertisement” “Yes, sir” answered the shopkeeper, “ but the lamp isn’t included in the price of the bicycle It’s an extra” “ Not included in the price of the bicycle””, Tom said angrily “ But that’s not honest If the lamp’s in the advertisement, it should have been included in the prise you gave there” “Well, sir” answered the shopkeeper calmly, “ there’s also a girl on the bicycle in our advertisement, but we don’t supply one of them with the bicycle either” (Nụ cười nước anh,2007: 179) 10 A mistake For a long time Dr jackson had wanted to get a permanent job in a certain big modern hospital, and at last he was sucessful He was appointed to the particular position which he wanted, and he ans his wife moved to the house which they were now to live in the next day some beautiful flowers were delivered to them, with a note which said, “ Deepest sympathy” Naturally, Dr Jackson was annoyed to receive such an extraordinary note, and telephoneed the shop which had sent the flowers to find out what the note meant When the owner of the shop heard what happened, he apologized to Dr Jackson for having made the mistake “But what really worries me much more”, he added, “ is that the flowers which ought to have gone to you were sent to a funeral, with a card which said congratulations on your new position” (Nụ cười nước anh,2007: 202) ... that discourse analysis, although a challenge to researchers and learners, has attracted much of their attention Funny stories play an important role in social interaction A humorous story can... from pain Moreover, funny stories can be also seen as a means of teaching and learning English we read them not only to entertain but also learn some grammatical features as well as vocabulary... problems and processes of language use and language learning, and is therefore of great importance to language teachers Traditionally, language teaching has concentrated on pronunciation, grammar, and