Luận văn 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

This roscarch paper entitled “4 study of politeness strategies and role relationships in the conversational activities of the course book “New Headway” intermediate as seen by teachers o

VIETNAM NATIONAT, UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LƯU THỊ PHƯƠNG THUÝ

A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSEBOOK

“NEW HEADWAY” -INTERMEDIATE AS SEEN BY TEACHERS OF

UNLVERSITY OF ECONOMIC-TECHNICAL LNDUSTRLES

Nghiên cứu các chiến lược lịch sự được sử dựng trong các bài hội thoại của

giáo trình giao tiếp NEW IIEADWA Y trình độ intermediafe dưới cái nhìn của

giáo viên trường Đại học Kinh tế -Kỹ thuật Công nghiệp

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Linguistics Code : 60220201

HANOT - 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAT, UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

KẾ TT NNNNM

LƯU TII PHƯƠNG TIUÝ

A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSEBOOK

“NEW HEADWAY” -INTERMEDIATE AS SEEN BY TEACHERS OF

UNLVERSITY OF ECONOMIC-TECHNICAL LNDUSTRLES

Nghiên cứu các chiến lược lịch sự được sử dựng trong các bài hội thoại của

giáo trình giao tiếp NEW IIEADWA Y trình độ intermediafe dưới cái nhìn của

giáo viên trường Đại học Kinh tế -Kỹ thuật Công nghiệp

(OR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code : 60220201

Supervisor : Prof Nguyễn Quang

HANOI - 2016

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

At the completion of this thesis, 1 would like to show my sincerest gratitude and appreciation to a number of people for their encouragement and support

To bogin with, T would like to express my greaiest 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, | would like to give my thanks to Mrs Le Ngoc Llanh, dean of English Faculty as well as all UNETI teachers who participated in my study, for

thei wholchearted facililalion Without thei 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

any 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.

ABSTRACT

This paper is carried out at ondeavour of exploring UNRTT teachers’ perception in the linguistics politeness strategies under the influence of role

relationships in the conversational activities in New Ileadway On the basis of

quantitalive method, survey questionnaire with multiple choice questions and discourse completion task are employed to collect data from fifteen UNETL teachers

of Inglish The research shows that the frequencies of politeness siratepy

occurence i conversational aclivities of the material are nol 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

(he significant role relationships in the selection of the lypes of politeness stralogies

An addition, they classified them into positive and negative politeness strategies

in

The hearer

‘The speaker Negative politeness strategies Positive politeness slalegies

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1: Possible Strategics 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 polileness strategies used in the canversations

Figure 4: Frequency of negative politeness strategies used in the conversations

Table 1: The statistics of the appearance of positive and negative politeness

stralegies based on the roles of participatits

‘Table 2: The statistics of the choice of the appearance of positive or negative politeness strategies based on the roles relationships under UNBTI teachers’ perception

2 Aims of the study .cccssssssnetsnstssaeneseniueses

3 Scope of the study

4, Significance of the study cc:scssesietseseisietseieeusiaeiiae see

Chapter T: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1 Theory of Speech Acts

2 Theory of pohteness and politeness siralegies

2.1.Mialtiple choice quastionnaires ooeoororee — -

4.1 Polileness siralegies uiđer the inferenee of role relntionshigs ii NHW 20

4.2 Politeness strategies under the inference of role relationships in NHW as seen

1 Positive and negative politeness in conversational activities in the course book

Sew Headway” intermediate (NEIW) 22

1.1 Overview of politeness strategies in

1.2 Frequency of occurrence of positive and negative politeness strategies in

conversational activilies in Lhe course book “New Headway, InlorrneciaLe” 23 1.2.2.Negative Politeness strategies in conversational activities 0.0 2D

2.Polileness Strategies in terms of role- relationship 33 3.Politcness in terms of role - relationslup in NHW as scen by UNETI teachers of

REFERENCES 0 0ccccec cessive sntssmsneneeseeseneessensesenetn M

PART A: INTRODUCTION,

1 Rationale

Language has always been an indispensable part not only im communication among people who share or do not share the same nationality, social or ethnic

background but also in reoording and underslanding cullure Among languages all

over the world, English is considered the most powerful language Ihe number of people learning English has sharply increased and a variety of learning and teaching

tnalenials are available 1o meel their leaning demands

In Vietnam, linglish has developed with an unprecedented speed and become a compulsory subject in schools, colleges and universities Although a lot of

Vietnamese learners of English mastor grammar rules and aecurmulale as much

vocabulary as possible, they offen experience communication breakdown when

participating in a real daily conversations In order to communicate successfully

across cuHures, Icarners necd to be provided with culural knowledge and the selationship between language and culture Additionally, leamers must be aware of

the tidden parls of culture including politeness strategies in daily social mleraction

In commuuucation, people use the politeness strategics to save hearers’ face and

avoid making other people feel uncomfortable

This roscarch paper entitled “4 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 swategies under the influential role

relationships in the conversational activities of the course book “New Ileadway” (intermediate)

2 Aims of the study

The study is carried out to achieve the following objectives:

- To identify and classily posilive end negative politeness ommployed in the

conversations of the course book “New Headway” (intermediate)

- To investigate how positive and negative politeness strategies are realized

wilh reference to role relaliouships in the conversations

- To find out how UNEUI teachers identify politeness under the influence of role relationships in conversations in NIIW,

3 Scope of the study

‘The study focuses on analyzing politeness strategies used under the inference

of role relationships in the conversational activities of the course book “New Headway” (inlermediate) as seen by leachers of English at University of Rconomic-

‘Technical Industries

4 Significance of the study

The study deals wilh giving a theoretical background on politeness strategies

in verbal communication As stated in the study, politeness strategies play an

integral role in daily communication Hence, the study is carried out to show the yeaders how the politencss strategies utilized in eross-cullural communication 1o

avoid cultural conflicts

Tn addition, this study is expecled to make contribulions to raising the awareness of the mnportance of politeness strategies im real life situations for

leamers Practically, the study also supplies the readers with the analysis of the

poliloncss strategies in conversations of the course book “New Headway”

(intermediate) as seen by teachers of Hnglish at University of Heonomic-Iechnical

Industries

5, Research methodology

5.1 Research questions

The thesis aims to address the following research questions:

- Whal are positive and negative politeness stralegies used im the

conversational activities in NUW?

- How do role relationships influence the use of positive and negative poliloness strategies in the conversations of ihe course book “Now Headway”

tỳ

(intermediate)?

- [low do UNL! teachers realize positive and negative politeness strategies

under the mflucrce of role relationships?

5.2 Research method

This paper applies qualitative method and quantitative method because

these methods are supposed io describe fhe way politeness stralegics are used,

provides the answers to the questions of what types of something happened and

seeks to how teachers realize politeness under the influence of role relationships in

the course book All the consideralions, remarks, interpretations, comments and

assumptions given in this study will be based largely on the analysis of statistic data Furthermore, survey research is the method of gathering data from respondents In a

survey, the resoarcher sdlcels a population Since population can be quite large, the

author directly questions only a number of samples of the population That is why

survey research is a suitable choice for a cross-cultural study All the considerable

comments are based on the author’s description and analysis of the dala and

questioimaires,

424 Instrument

The instrument used in this thesis is questionnaires which consists of 8 real-life situations, which are aimed at eliciting positive and negative strategies that are

recognized in the conversational activities of the course book “New Headway” (Ihe

third edition) (intermediate) In these situations, various variables are reflected such

as role relationships and positive/negative strategies

$

Data analysis

« Types of data

Data used im this thesis are collected from the course book “New Headway” (ihe

third edition) (imermediate) ‘the book was designed to develop the communicative

alnlity in daily interaction for learners The thesis is only Lo focus on one course

‘book All units in these textbooks are divided into four teaching sections such as:

reading, listening, speaking and writing furthermore, in order to answer the third

rescarch question, the rescarcher employs questionnaire

© Data collection

‘The data of the study are all utterances in conversations in every unit in the

textbook, mainly in listening sections In order to collect the data, the author

observed all conversational activities in the course book “New Headway”

(intermediate) to find out all utterances including politeness strategies Additionally,

‘the author gives and collects questionnaires for UNETI teachers

« Dato analysis

Step 1: All the data in this thesis are intended to be analyzed accarding the

following steps

- The researcher would study the course book carefully All utterances

appearing in the unils would be picked up

- ‘The researcher would find out and discuss with colleagues and supervisor

to identify which utterances consist of politeness strategies

- The researcher would classily the politenes

stralegies in these ullerances

- ‘the researcher would consult with supervisor and colleagues

- The researcher would interpret the data

Step 2:

- ‘The researcher would deliver and gather questionnaires

- The researcher would analyve questiormaires

5 Design of the study

‘The study consists of three main parts: introduction, development and

conclusion

Part A: Introduction

This part includes rationale, aims, scope, significance of the study, and design

of the study, which would make readers have an overall view of what is going to be

presented in the thesis

Part B: Development

This part is divided into three chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

‘This chapter deals with key terms related to the paper such as language and cullure, speech act and politeness slralegics

Chapter 2: Methodology

This chapter includes the methods which are exploited in the study The readers would be provided with detail of type of data, dala collection, data analysis participants, research method and procedure

Chapter 3: Findings and discussion

Tn tis chapter, the writer would give analysis of posilive and negalive

politeness strategies and role relationships found in the conversational activities in one course book “New Headway” (intermediate) as seen by teachers of English at

University of Economic-Techinical Tndustries

Part C: Conclusion

This part presents a summary of the study as well as further research in the

fulure

ta

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1 Theory of Speech Acts

One of the significant notions which have impressed a great number of linguists and scientists in the sludy of interlanguage pragmatics is the application of spooch acts Throughout its developments, specch acts has been central to the works

of several philosophers and linguists, such as Austin (1962), Searle (1969), Thomas (1995), and so on According to Austin (1962), producing utterances is a part of, performing, actions: in saying something, the speaker does something Beside Yule,

in a pronouncemont raised in his very in{lucutial book, Pragmatics im 1996, declares

that “Actions performed via ullerances are generally called speech acts.” (p 67)

In the initial distinction in speech acts made by Austin (1962, p 94-108), he

introduces three facets among the acts one simultaneously performs when saying something, as illustrated as following:

(1) The locutionary acl refers lo an ullerance simply constructed by a

grammatical siruclure and a linguistic meaning A loculionary act consists of three

selated sub-acts: (i) a phonic act of producmg an utterance in the phonic medrum of sound: (ii) a phatic act of constructing a particular linguistic expression in a particular language; and (iii) a rhetic act of contextualizing a sentence

(2) The illecutionary acl mentions to the real aclion accomphshed in speaking,

Fxample of illoculionary acls include giving permission, making suggestion, swearing and so on

(3) ‘the perlocutionary act concerns the effect of the utterance upon the feelings, thoughts, or actions of listener

Tel us consider the following ullerance: “Don't talk” The speaker do nol

merely say (he words “don!” and “alk”, which subsume the loculionary acl, bul you also perform the act of asking listenters nol to talk

It is noteworthy that in Austin’s points, illocutionary act is considered as the most important of the three acts because it is really what the speaker wants to achieve through the action of uttering the sentences There have been many

alicmpls fo systemalize, strengthen, and develop Austin’s thoory OF alll these

investigations, Scarl’s scheme remains the most influcntial Scarle (1976) states that all illocutionary acts are universally grouped into five types:

© Representatives are those kinds of speech acts which tell people how things are The speaker represents the world as he or she believes it is, which make the world fit the world of belief (e.g complaints, accusations)

© Dircolives are those kinds of specch act that express altompis by the speaker to got the hearer to do something (e.g orders, advice, commands, etc.)

© Comissives are those kinds of speech acta tha commil the speaker Timself 1o do things (c.g promises, refusals, threats, ele.)

«© Fxpressive are those kinds of speech ac

express speakers’ feelings and altitudes (c.g thanking, congratulaling, apologizing, clo.)

« Declarations or declaratives are those kinds of speech acts that bring

about changes in the institutional state of affairs (e.g pronouncing someone guilty

or pronouncing someone husband and wife)

2 Theory of politeness and politeness strategies

2.1 Theory of politeness

Besides theory of speech aots, politeness is considered as one important

aspect of pragmatic competence as well as the most fundamental backgrounds of this paper It is said that politeness is prmecipal ingredient for sucecss in

interpersonal conununication, In spite of the fact that politeness is popular in all cultures, it is expressed differently in different cultures In everyday life, politeness

is perceived as the use of relatively formal and deferential behaviour In language

study, Watt (2003, p.39) contends that “politeness is the ability ta please others

through one’s external actions”, According lo Thomas (1995, p.157), politeness is defined as a strategy for scrics of strategies) is used by speaker in order to attain plenty of purposes, such as maintaining friendly, peaceful relations

Regarding this important social role of politeness, a number of studies have

also attempted to investigate this area in divergent paths Pragmatic approaches to

the study of politeness began from Robin Layol?s work (1973) to Grice’s

Cooperative Principle (1975), Leech’s principle of politeness (1983) and the recent approach from Brown & Levison (1987) During the vast development of

linguistics, a multitude of different approaches to politeness have been proposed in the past thirty five years, and Nguyen Quang (2005, p 10) confirms that there are three main important approaches to politeness :

- Setting the ideal standard for polite acts to refer such as Grice

- Proposing the principles of politeness in communication in the form of

do's and don’ts like Layoff, Leech

- Specifying the necessary strategies to encounter Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) in communication as in Brown and Levinson, 1987

However, amongst outstanding linguists, most of the researches on politeness aight be related {o the leary suggested by Brown & Levison (1987) Tn spite of the fact that different aspoots of this theory have beon criticized by many researchers, iL has been the preferred model focusing on the notion of politeness Consequently, the theory adopted in the present study is the model of politeness strategy offered by Brown and Levinson (1987)

Brown and Levinson’s politeness madel is founded on the notions of “face” - a tem adapted from the work of Gollan Goflinan (1967, p.5) states that ‘‘positve

social value a person effectively claims for himself by his or her self-presontation’”

Tace mentions to the respect that an individual has for himself or herself, and

maintaining that "self-esteem" in public or in private circumstances Furthermore,

Yule (1996, p.60) claimed thal “the means employed lo show awarcness of another

person’s face” Respecting the main poinls ol’ Yule and Goffman, Brown and Levinson (1987, p.61) propose Lor puople’s Lace including two basic types of face needs or wants: positive face and negative face

« Positive face: the posilive consistent sell-image or personality (crucially including the desire that this self-image be appreciated and approved of)

« Negative face: the basic claim to termories, personal preserves,

sights to non-distraction, Le to freedom of action and freedom from imposition

In other words, positive face is the need to be connected and negative face

is the need to be independent In some circumstances, the speaker says something

that threats another individual's expectations of self-image (their “face™), though both speaker and hearer in conversation are made more aware of the preservation of

their partner’s face Positive face is threatened when an individual đơcs nof coitccrrL about their interlocutor’s feelings, wants, or does not want what the other wants It is

suggested that positive face is face needs, or the need to be accepted, liked, and admired, and to maintain a positive self-image Negative face is threatened when the

speaker or hearer docs ol avoid or mend to avoid the blockage of thew interactor’s

freedom of action Hence, negative face is face needs or the need not to be imposed upon In their theory, Brown and Levinson (1987) provide the definition of a face threatening act (henceforth FTA) When confronted with the need to perform an

FTA, the speaker needs to decide how it should be uttered According to Brown

&Levinsont (1987, p.65) iis admitted Lhat:

An FTA is any verbal act a speaker (S) addresses lo any hearer (H) with a specific intention which $ intends H to recognize, this recognition being the communicative point of S’s doing the communicative act Any utterance is always

to some extent an imposition on II and S$; any utterance is intrinsically face- threatening Some FTAs are more threatening (hart others

Tn gencral, during inleraction, face can he lost, maintained or erthanwed, and aust be constantly attended, with the result that $ and H cooperate in maintaining face in interaction, such cooperation being based on the mutual vulnerability of face 2.2 Politeness strategies

Along with the mindel revolves around the notion of face, politenass slralegics

have been expressed by a varicty of linguists such as Politeness Principles- Maxims

of Lecch (1983) and Policness Strategics of Brown & Levinson (1987)

Nevertheless, the author would like to represent Brown and Levinson theory since it

is one of the most prevalent theories and adopted by this research

According to Brown & TLevinson’s Paliteness Strategies, the concept of

“face” plays an important role A scl of five slralogics lo mitimize tisk of losing face is suggested by these two authors The choice of strategies will be made on Ihe basic of the speaker's assessment of the size of the face threatening acts (I’I'As) These strategies are illustrated in the following figure:

i Without redressive action, baldly

There is no doubl that politeness strategies are really important in

communication When speaker employs politeness strategies, especially positive and

negative politeness strategies appropriately, he/she may get success in interculrural

and cross-cultural conmmunication Therefore, positive and negative politeness

strategies are highlighted in this section, in particular and in the whole research

2.21 Positive politeness

Brown and Levinson (1987, p.70} state that “posiuve politeness is oriented

toward the positive face of LI, the positive self-image that he claims for himself”

Nguyen Quang (2005, p.27) also considers the comvepl of positive politeness, as

“any communicative act (verbal and/ or nonverbal) which is appropriately intended

to show the speaker’s concern to the addressee, thus, enhancing the sense of

solidarity between them” This can be achieved by adapting by positive politeness

strategies ‘[herefore, Brown and Levinson (1987, p.102) sketch 15 positive

politeness strategies applied by speakers in communication as follows

Strategy 1: Notice, attend to heaver’s interest, wants, needs, and goods

‘This generally means that speaker should pay attention to hearer’s noticeable change remarkable possessions, and other things that hearer wants speaker to notice and approved of,

Eg You must be hungry, it’s a long time since breakfast How about some

lunch?

Strategy 2: Exaggerate interest, approval, sympathy with hearer

This strategy often occws with many aspects of presodies, identifying modifiers, and exaggerated intonation, stress, and usually occurs with such

adjaclives as marvellous incredible, devastating, famtastic, extraordinary and with

such adverbs (plus adjectives) as really, absolutely, exactly truly

Lg, What a fantastic garden you havet

Strategy 3: Intensify interest to hearer

Speaker wants hearer to share some interest with him/her ‘This strategy seems

to be a good way of communicating

Fig There were a million peuple in the Co-op lonight

Strategy 4: Use in-group identity marker

Using address form which include the use of second person plural pronoun

(you), or such gonoric names and terms of address as, honey, darling, babe, mom

dad, brother, sister, aunt, sweetheart, etc hese forms are used to soften the FTAs

These can occur in the fortns of questions, of requests, of iaperalives:

E.g Come here, mate (honey/buddy)

Strategy 5: Seek agreement

The mising of safe lopic allows $ to stress hisé her agreement with H, and

therefore to satisfy H’s desire to be right or to be corroborated in his opinion, One of

the best ways to apply this strategy is “repetition” Agreement may also be

stressed by repeating part ar all of what the preceding speaker has said, in a

conversation In addition to demoustrating that one has heard correctly what was said, repeating is used to stress emotional agreement with the utterance (or to stress

interes and surprise)

Another way that helps speaker claim the common ground with hearer is to seek the agreement between speaker and hearer

E.g A: John went lo London this weekend

11

B: To Landon!

Strategy 6: Avoid Disagreement

There are different ways to avoid disagreement between speaker and hearer

while communicating, ie., using token agreement, pseudo-agreement, white lies, and hedging opinion

Rig A: Can you hear me?

B: Barely

Strategy 7: Presuppose/ Raise’ Assert Common Ground

This strategy is realized Gwough gossip, small talk, personal centre switch,

time switch, place switch, avoidance of adjustment of reports to hearer’s point of view, presupposition, manipulations, presupposition of knowledge of hearer’s wants

and alfitudes, presupposilion of hesrer’s relationship, presupposition of hearor’s

imowledge A good illustration of this strategy is use of “You know ”

Eg [hada really hard time leaming to drive, you know

T had a really hard lime learmng to drive, didi’ 1?

Strategy 8: Jokes

“Jokes” seems Lo be a very effective stralegy Cor communicating if il is used in the right place, with the right people Typically, this strategy occurs between people

who know each other well

F.g How about lending me this old heap of junk? (Ihe hearor’s new Cadillac) Strategy 9: Assert or presuppose speaker's knowledge of and concern for

hearer’s wants

This strategy is the way to help speaker communicate with hearer by indicating

that speaker and hearer ave co-operators and potentially force hearer to cooperate with speaker This commonly occurs with the use of “I know” from speaker

This

also a very imeresting strategy which makes hearer [eel comfortable

11g 1 know you can’t bear parties, but this one will really be good-do comet Strategy 10: Offers and promises

Speaker wanls lo show thal he/she will help hearer obtam hearcr’s desire or

12

wants by giving offers and promises which are natural outcome of choosing this strategy Also speaker wants to show his/her good intentions towards hearer’s

Eg I'll drop by sometime next week

Strategy 11: Be optimistic

Speaker wants to show his/her good intentions ol helping hearer obtain his/her

wants by asking hearer to cooperate with speaker m carrying out a tacit commitment This means that speaker not only wants to show his/ her intention but

also wants bearer and speaker himself/herself do an action to carry oul this

commitment

Eg I've come to borrow a cup of flour

Strategy 12: Include bath speaker and hearer in the activity

By using we, us, let’s in the process of communication, speaker shows that

speaker and hearer are co-operators, and speaker wants hearer to cooperate with

him/her in doing something

Hg, Let’s have a cookie, then

Strategy 13: Give for ask for reasons}

In Britain, giving or asking for rcasen scems to be very common and polite,

‘This strategy often ocours with such phrases as why not, why don’t, why shouldn’t

Fig Why don’t we go lo the seashore?

Strategy 14: Assume or assert reciprocity

Giving evidence of reciprocal rights or obligations obtaining between speaker

and hearer may claim the existence of cooperation between speaker and hearer

ig I did X for you last week so you do Y for me this week

Strategy 13: Give gifis to hearer (goods, sympathy, understanding,

cooperation)

Gifts here are not only the material gifts but also are the spiritual gifts

Eg, I’ve just been out shopping Here’s hot dog for you Like it?

Nguyên Quang (2003, p.78-85) adds two more strategies, namely:

13

Strategy 16: Comfort und encourage

Lg: You have my whole-hearted support

Strategy 17: Ask personal questions

Bg: Are you married or single?

222 Negative politeness

Yule (1996, p66) indivales thai negative politeness slralagy is strongly

connected with “a deference strategy” In his views, it might be the typical strategy for the whole group on a particular occasion On the other hand, this strategy is

concemed with what is called formal politeness Negative polileness, according to Brown & Levinson (1987, p 129), is “redressive action addressed to the addressee’s

negative face: his want to have his freedom of action unhindered and his attention

unimpeded” Nogative politeness stralogics are oriented towards the hearer’s

negative face and emphasize avoidance of imposition on the hearer These strategies

presume that the speaker will be imposing on the listener and there is a higher polential for awkwarduess or ombarrassment thar im bald on record stralogics and

positive politeness strategies Sharing with Brown & Levinson ou the definition of

uegalive politeness, Nguyen Quang (2003) emphasizes that “negalive politeness ts any communicative act which is appropriately intended to show that the speaker

does not want to impinge on the addressee’s privacy, thus maintaining the sense of

distance botwecn them” Nguyen Quang suggests cleven uegalive politeness

strategies, of which the initial ten ones are adopted originally by Brown & Levinson, they are as follows:

Strategy 1 — Be conventionally indirect

Opposing tensions: desire to give H an “out” by being indirect, and the desire

to go on record and solved by the compromise of conventional indireciness, the use

of phrases and sentences thal have coulextually unambiguous meanmgs which are

different from their literal meaning

E.g.: Could you close the door, please?

Strategy 2— Question, hedge

Expressing the want not to presume or coerce H In literature, a “hedge” is a particle, word or phrase that modifies the degree of membership of a predicate or

noun phrase in a scl Tt says of thal membership that il is partial or uc only in

certain respects, or that it is more true and complete than perhaps might be expected

L.g.: 1 wonder whether I could just sort of ask you a question

Strategy 4 — Minimize the imposition

Delusing the FTA by indicating that R (rank between S$ and H), the intrinsic

seriousness of the imposition, is not itself great Leaving only D (social distance

between S and H) and F (relative power of H over S) as possible weighty factors, so

indireotly this may pay H deference

H.g.: Could | talk to you for just a minute?

Strategy 3— Give deference

Two different possibilitics to realize the deference: S humbles and abases

himself; and S raises LJ (pays him positive face of a particular namely that which

satisfies H's wart lo be treated superior

H.g Excuse me, sir, but would you mind if 1 closed the window?

Strategy 6 — Apologize

By apologizing for doing an FTA, the speaker can indicate his reluctance to

impinge on H's negative face and partially redress the impingement

L.g.: ’'m sorry to bother you

Strategy 7 — Impersonalize the S and II, avoid the pronouns I and you

Phrase the ITA as if the agent were other than S$ and the addressee were other than H

F.g.: Turn thal wretched music down

Strategy 8 — State the FTA as an instance of a general rule

‘Yo dissociate $ and 11 from the particular imposition in the I''A (S doesn't want to impinge on H, but is merely forced to by vircumstances}, iL can be generalized as a social rule/regulation/obligation

I.g.: Parking on the double yellow lines is illegal

Strategy 9 — Nominalize to distance the actor and add farmiality

‘The more the speaker nomalizes an expression, the more he dissociates from

Fig: Your good performance on the examinations impressed us favourably

Strategy 10 — Go on record as incurring a debt, or as not indebting H

S can redress an FTA by explicitly claiming his indebtedness to H, or by disclaiming any indebtedness of IT

Fig J could easily do it for you

Strategy 11 - Avoid asking personal questions

Instead of using questions which can cause an F'I'A to the hearer like “Are you married? Llow much money do you eam a week?”, communicators employ small talks in the first meeting,

E.g ILis a mice day, isn’t it?

3 Role relatianships affecting politeness strategies

Regarding this important social role of politeness, researchers have tried to investigate social variables affecting politeness ased on studies done early in the century, they concluded that role relationships are regarded as significant in

choosing politeness stralegies Tis clatrmed thal role relationships are associaled

wilh three dimensions inchiding telalive power (P) of hearer over speaker, social distance (D) between speaker and hearer, and ranking of impositions (R) involving

in doing the lA Brown and Levinson (1987, p.76-77) indicate that there are three

social variables (P, D & R) which make decision on the choice of the felicitous level

of politeness which a speaker (8) will use to an addressee (H) Lakoff (1977),

Goimshaw (1980), aud Leech (1983) tend lo have an agreement in this pơil with,

Brow T.cyimsor (1987)

Besides Brown and Levinson (1987, p.15) consider the relative power

16

relationship (P) as “an asymmetric social dimension.” They emphasize that it is the degree to which II can “impose his own plans and his own self-evaluation (face) at the expense of $’s plans and self-evaluation.” Generally, there are two sources which determine the relative power relationships between $ and H, particularly material and metaphysical couul The material control is related to coonomic distribution and physical strength, whereas the metaphysical control concerns individual role which is accepted in society The social distance between $ and II (D) is defined as “a symmetric social dimension of similarity/difference within which S and H stand for the purposes of this act” It is recommended that D is based

on an ass ssmenl of the frequency of interaction and the kinds of material or nommatcrial goods (including face) exchanged between S and H (or parties or yopresenting, $ or H, or for whom $ and H are representative) According to Nguyen Quang (2004), in generally, the closer social distance, the less polite strategies (both negative and positive strategies) are employed and thus, direct illocutions are usually used On the contrary, the farther social distance, commmumnicalors lend to use amore “redresses” which belong to positive or negative politeness strategies in order

to reduce FTA An important part of the assessment of D will usually be measures

of social distance based on stable social attributes The reflex of social closeness is,

generally, the reciprocal giving and receiving of positive face In effect, it is the

degree of familiarity, solidarily or social closeness between § and H as represented

through in-group and oul-group membership The ranking of impositions (R) closely links to “Ihe degree to which they are considered to interfere with an agent's wanls

of self-determination or of approval (his negative-and positive-face wants).” In addition, personal rankings can be explained why some people object to

celam kinds of FTAs and some do nol In bref, P, 1D, and R are comlexi-

dependent and culure-rlaled parameters There are probably twa such scales or yanks thal are identifiable for nogalive-face FTAs: a ranking of impositions in proportion to the expenditure of services (including the time provision) and good (including non-material goods such as information, regard expression and other face payments) As for positive-face FTA, the ranking of imposition

embraces an asscasment of the ammount of “pain” given lo H’s face based on the

differences between H's desired self-image and that presented in FTA However,

it is noteworthy that all three social variables affecting politeness are different from different countries as well as different cultures

‘As it can be seen obviously, all three dimensions P D, and R have a preat contribution to the seriousness of the FTA which will determine the appropriate type

of strategy to be used.

gives description of insirumonts and participants The last consists in the procedure

for data collection and the explanation of data analysis

1 Research questions

The overarching questions addressed in this study have been formulated as:

+ What are positive and negative politeness strategies in the conversational

aclivilies in the course book “New Headway” (intermediate)?

«How are positive and negative politeness strategies used in terms of role selationships in the conversations of the cowse book “New Headway” (intermediate)?

*How do UNLTI teachers realize politeness under the mference of role relationships?

Thus, the first objective of the study is to find out politeness strategies under the mnference of social factors employed in conversational activities in the course

‘book In a broad sense, this research aims at constructing knowledge about UNETI

teachers’ identity of politeness strategies and role relationships in the conversations

of the course book “New Headway” (mlenuediale)

2 Instruments

‘The instrument used to gather data is questionnaires The questionnaire in this thesis will be composed of multiple choice questionnaire (MCQ) and discourse completion task (DCT)

241 Multiple choice questionnaires

With the aim of data collection the questionnaire is designed The first is a

multiple-choice questionnaire (MCQ) which is plotted separately The MCQ

consists of four suggested ilems which cover the conversations in the course book —

New Headway-intermediate (NHW) In the procedure of collecting data, the author

recognizes there are a variety of conversational activities in NHW, with the result

19

that twenty conversations are picked up randomly Eight conversations employed

both positive paliteness and negative politeness strategies are chosen for the aim of

finding out politeness strategies in NLIW ‘he questionnaire is adapted to deliver to

UNEFTI teachers of Enghsh

2.2 Discourse comp!ction task

Within the last one decade, there have been a lot of good methods for cross-

cultural and intor-language researchers One of them is discourse completion task

(DCT) The researchers investigate that DCT tends to bring more advantages than ethnographic method and role-play mothed Firstly, it doesn’t consume large

amounts of time Nevertheless, the role-play approach is suggested to be concemed

-with time-consuming on tape records Secondly, it is unnecessary to use contextual variables in comparison with the ethnographic method DCT contains two different types: Oral Completion Task and Written Completion Task The first one is anodelled as a closed role-play and in this closed role-play ‘Ihe second one consists

of written interactions Consequently, DCT along with MCQ are chosen in the questionnaire in this study Although the researcher is pamfully aware of the limited

pom of this method consisling non-aulhentic collected dala and non-verbal features,

it

is the first choice thanks to the following reasons First of all, it is considered as an

effective tool of collecting data quickly and casily Secondly, it helps researchers

control intemal context variables With this mstrument, the author hopes that the

collecting data from the survey questionnaire are natural, typical and reliable for consideration and evaluation

3 Participants

For the concem of the present study, 15 teachers of English at university of

economic and Lechnical industries (UNETI) were selected The English Faculty al

UNETI divides into two sub-groups These teachers of English belong to the second sub-group They are in charge of teaching New Headway — Intermediate for second-

year students All the participants were female aged from 30 to 40 Both

participants have at least six-year experiences in teaching with this course book

4 Data collection procedure

4.1 Politeness strategies under the inference of role relationships in NIIW

In the process of collecting data, we first pick up all sentences in conversations

20

in NHW Then, we set up context, take roles of participants into consideration and

discuss with our colleagues and my supervisor to find out whether these sentences

are “natural”, All sentences/ utterances which are mostly approved to be “natural”

gai a deopor treatment Nexl we consult, specialists and native speakers with the

same procedure After the two procedures, we have 261 utterances which are

considered “natural” and to some extent, “polite” in two types: positive and negative polileness All slatisties in the study are calculated on the basis of total 261

utterances

4.2 Politeness strategies under Lhe inference of role relationships in NHW

as seen by UNETI teachers of English

‘The survey questionnaire will be distributed to all participants directly The

goal of this questionnaire is to investigate identily of UNRTI teachers of English in

specific situations or contexts in which politeness strategies are used After that, the analysis of the result is based on tables and figures

5, Data analysis method

‘The process of analysing data consists of four steps Firstly, 216 utterances

found in NHW belongs two categories of politeness strategies employed: positive

and negative politeness After that the author based on certain positive and negative strategies which are introduced by Brown & Levinson(1987) and Nguycn Quang

(2002) in order to make detail analysis about these strategies and role relationships

in 216 utterances Secondly, all contexts with S-IL relationships are considered

in order (o sce how S-H relationship alTects the choice of politeness strategies

Thirdly, all the statistics needed for the study are calculated carefully and

presented in the following tables as well as figures Finally, the author will try to

find out how UNETI teachers realize the politeuess strategies iu the conversational

activities by analysing figures from data.

CHAPTER HIE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

1 Positive and negative politeness in conversational activities in the course hook “NEW HEADWAY, INTERMEDIATE”

1.1 Overview of politeness stratcgit

in “New Headway” intermediate (NHW)

“New Headway - Intermediate” is writlen by John and Liz Soars and pubhshed

by Oxford University Press in 2007 ‘This book is considered as an ideal for shidents

to work in an international environment It is the third level the five-level series It provides a highly authentic and flexible range of materials forFinglish learners worldwide ‘Ihe couse book includes 12 main units, with a Grammar

reference, Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking skills Thus, it is chosen as a iain malerial for second- yoars students al UNRTI, who have gained background imowledge of international communication and language skills necessary for a

wide range of daily/business situations such as participating in meetings,

{clephouing, negotiating, and socialiving Furthermore, this book has besn taught al

UNETI for four years

Beside much of what we say and communicale is determined by our social relationships and politeness as a moany for creating, sustaiming, changing and

realizing social relations Be aware of the important role of politeness in cross- cultural communication, the author focuses on analysing politeness stralogies in the conversational activities of the course book, And in order to gain that aim, the study and analysis are based on Brown & Levinson’s and Nguyen Quang’s politeness

theoretical framework In the procedure of carrying on this field, we do not make

any slight judgment of how good or bad an action is Instead, the researcher gets a detailed insight into politeness strategies which are used by native speakers and the

frequency of each strategy

In the first part of this chapter, the author pays much attention to analyse the frequency of occurrence of positive and negative politeness strategies used in the conversalional activities of the course book “New Headway, Intermediate.”

22

1.2 Frequency of occurrence of positive and negative politeness strategies in

conversational activities in the course book “New Headway, Intermediate”

As mentioned in chapter II Methodology, in collecting data, utterances in the conversations in the course book are picked up Finally, 261 utterances found in

conversational activities in the course book “New Headway, Intermediate” fall into

two categories of politeness strategies: positive strategies and negative strategies The balance of positive and negative politeness strategies used in NHW is shown in the following figure:

They always want to show their attention or concerns to co-interact ants as well as to

23

narrow the distance between S and H

1.2.1 Positive Politeness strategies in conversational activities

There are totally 15 positive politeness strategies according to Brown &

Levinson, (1987) and more 2 positive politeness strategies added by Nguyen Quang

(2004) Based on this, the author categorizes the utterances into 17 categories The

statistics of the frequency of positive politeness strategies which come from study will be converted into Figure 3 as follows:

PPSl PPS? PPS4 PPSS FPSS PPS7 PSY PPS? PPSIO PPSI2 FPSI3 PPSI6 PPSIT

Figure 3: Frequency of positive politeness strategies used in the conversations

The chart shows that there are 13 positive politeness strategies employed in NHW We can come up with suggestion that S and H might feel secure in using these strategies The chart above reveals that positive politeness strategies 1, 2, 5, 10

are employed quite often Positive politeness strategy 5: seek agreements has the most usage frequency with 17.3% The use of this strategy (include both S and H in

the activity) in daily conversation seems to make the relationship between S and H

closer and friendlier by employing safe topics, repetition or minimal encouragers such as: Definitely!/ Can’t be better./ You're kidding and so on

24

Let’s take the followings for example:

i.g.: “A: Let’s go for a runin the park?

B: Me? Run? You mus! be joking!”

(New Headway, Inter., unit 1)

Tig: “A: My grandfather had two sons from his first marriage

B: Really? T didn’t know he'd been marred before *

(New Headway, Inter., unit 3)

In these conversations, the interactors express a want of reaching agreement

by using minimal encouragers, particularly, “Fou must be joking!”- showing that H

wants to seek sympathy with S on his inability of rnmning , “Really? ”- registering H's surprise

The sccond highest percentage is sbralegy 10 (offer, promise) with 15 1%

Speakers wants to show their satisfaction at helping hearers gain their desire or

needs by giving offers and promises which are natural outcome of choosing

this strategy Tn addition, S wants lo make intentions towards a hearer’s posilive face

needs In conversation S employ this strategy for the purpose of conveying the sense

of solidarity or (riendship between commuricators They would like to maintain and develop ther relationship by extending invitation offer im order to satisfy the Hs” need For instance:

Rg “A: Pitgive youa lit il'you like

B: That would be great!”

(New Headway, Inter, unit 4)

In some circumstance, this strategy can be used to convince your partners as

well as release their worries by giving promises, Let’s consider the conversation

below:

F.g.: “Grandmother: You must look after your money

Antony: Yes, Grandma | will”

(New Headway, Inter., unit 4) Before Antony — grandson bavels around Asia His grandmother is worried

2s

about the boys? trip Thus, she reminds him to lok after his money In order to make his grandmother less worried, he promises to lock after his money carefully

As can be scon (rum the chart, ranking the third is strategy 1 (Notice, attend

to hearer’s interest, wants, needs, and goods) and strategy 2 (Hxaggerate interest, approval, sympathy with hearer) with same percentage of 10.7% Communicators

use [hese stratogics with the hope thal speaker should pay atlerition to hearer’s

noticeable change remarkable possessions, and other things that hearer wants speaker to notice and approved of For example:

Fig: “A: Treally like your shoes! Where did you buy them?

13: At that new shop in town

(New Headway, Inter unit 2)

Posilive politeness slmtegy 4: use i-group identity marker is used about 0.9%

By employing this strategy, S can claim common ground with IZ, which implies that

there are more agreement between 5 and H It also creates an intimate atmosphere

and decrease probabilities of communication breakdown Consequently, il makes

both S and H reach the comfort and satisfactions in communication Let us take an example

E.g.: Thank you for calling the Blackpool Concert Hall This is Matt speaking How

can help you?

(New Headway, Inter unit 2)

Another example:

Tig.: A: Bye, Mum I’m off to school now

B: Take care, my love Have a nice trip

(New Headway, Inter., unit 1)

Appearing at the average percentages is strategy 6 (Avoid Disagreement),

strategy 12 (Include both speaker and hearer in the activily) and stralegy 16

(Uncourage) with 0.6%, 0.43% and 0.5 % respectively ‘I'he following examples can

‘be taken into consideration:

Tg: Gumddanghlcr Thai kind of thủng or i Pm going to be home lai, or Hike

3%