A study of politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the coursebook - New Headway, Intermediate

A study of politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the coursebook - New Headway, Intermediate Triệu Thị Trang Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: Englis

A study of politeness strategies in the

conversational activities of the coursebook -

New Headway, Intermediate

Triệu Thị Trang

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Dr Nguyễn Quang

Năm bảo vệ: 2009

Abstract When people from different cultures and with different languages

communicate with each other, there exists the possibility of miscommunication In order to avoid culture shock or misunderstanding and misbehaviour in communication, learners of English should know how politeness strategies are used in the language as politeness is one of the key factors of a successful cross-cultural communication This work is an attempt to study positive and negative politeness strategies in the coursebook “New Headway, Intermediate” so that the learners of English at the University of Labour and Social Affairs can get appropriateness in communication In addition, the author also suggests some recommendations that might work in the Vietnamese context, some sample exercises and activities to improve the teaching and learning of verbal communication for the third-year students of the University of Labour and Social Affairs

Keywords Tiếng Anh; Hội thoại; Chiến lược lịch sự; Giao tiếp

Content

1 Rationale

The English language seems to take over the world in the course of the twenty – first century and become the global language Nowadays, English has played an important role in our daily life and made a considerable contribution to education, culture, business, science and technology The number of people learning English for various purposes such as job, business, traveling is continually on the increase everyday Therefore, variety kinds of English teaching and learning materials are available all over the world, especially in Vietnam

In Vietnam, English has been regarded as the most important foreign language nowadays, especially since the Vietnamese Government carried out the open – door policy English then becomes a compulsory subject in most schools, colleges and universities throughout the country However, the emphasis on transmission of structural rules and forms often serves as the principle method of teaching English in Vietnam Therefore, most Vietnamese teachers tend to focus more on grammar rather than on communication But this method, in fact, can not do much help for students to assure a successful cross- cultural communication in daily life The students may get difficulty in achieving contextual, situational and cultural appropriateness in communication As a consequence, culture shock and communication

breakdown might happen in communication even though students are good at English grammar

Obviously, cultural knowledge is an important key to success in learning English because second language learning is second culture learning In order to acquire the second foreign language – English, it is necessary to learn not only linguistic knowledge and interaction skills but also knowledge of the target culture Cultural factors are included in the course designs in many schools and universities today Understanding cultural factors gives students chances to expose themselves to the target environment Vietnamese students normally tend

to employ English based on their native culture and thus, it easily causes misinterpretation, misunderstanding and misbehavior in cross-cultural communication They sometimes appear impolite, unfriendly or even rude, in spite of themselves

Therefore, for successful international communication, learners of English must be aware

of not only their own culture but English speaking cultures as well, especially the hidden parts of culture including face, facework and politeness Politeness is really a vital part of all social interactions

The author of this study aims to investigate and highlight the important role of positive and negative politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the course book “New – Headway, Intermediate” by Liz & John Soars so as to improve the teaching and learning of verbal communication in English for the third – year students of the University of Labour and Social Affairs

2 Aims of the study:

The aims of the study are:

- To study positive and negative politeness strategies in most typical contextual environments in the conversational activities of the course book “New – Headway, Intermediate”

- To collect and design sample cross – cultural activities and exercises to raise students’ cross- cultural awareness

- To suggest effective and efficient ways of teaching the course book “New Headway”

3 Scope of the study:

This study focuses on the realization of positive and negative politeness strategies found in the conversational activities (twelve units) of the course book “New – Headway, Intermediate”

4 Methodology:

The major method that the author has employed is quantitative with due reference to qualitative method since this study focuses on the practical aspects of cross – cultural communication All the considerations and conclusions are based on analysis and reference The main approaches are:

- Reference to publication;

- Discussion with supervisor;

- Discussion with colleagues;

- Personal observations

5 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts:

Part I: Introduction which includes Rationale, Aims of the study, Scope of the study and

Methodology

Part II Development

Which covers three chapters, the first chapter focuses on the theoretical background of speech acts, politeness and politeness strategies; the second chapter analyses the positive and negative politeness strategies in the conversational activities in the course book – New Headway, Intermediate through the frequency of its occurrences The last chapter offers some implications for learning and teaching politeness strategies for the third- year students

of ULSA

Part III Conclusion which summarizes the main findings and giving suggestions for further

study

References

1 Austin, J.L 1962 How to do things with words, Cambridge University Press, London – Oxford – new York

2 Bach, K and Harnish, R 1984 Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts The MIT Press

3 Blum-Kulka, S 1987 Indirectness and Politeness in requests: same or different? Journal

of Pragmatics 11(1): 131 – 146

4 Brown, P.& Levinson, S.C 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usages

5 Brown, G & Yule, G 1983 Discourse Analysis CUP

6 Cottrill, L 1991 Face, Politeness and Directness University of Canberra

7 Gee, J P 1999 An Introduction to Discourse Analysis, Theory and Method London & New York

8 Gies, M.L 1995 Speech Acts and Conversational Interactions CUP

9 John & Soars 2000 New Headway, Intermediate Oxford University Press

10 Kramsch, C 1998 Language and Culture Oxford University Press

11 Leech, G 1983 Principles of Pragmatics London& New York Longman

12 Levine, D.R., Baxter, J and McNulty, P 1987 The Culture Puzzle Cross-Cultural

Communication for English as a Second Language Prentice Hall Regents

13 Levinson, S.C 1983 Pragmatics Cambridge CUP

14 Little Wood, W 1981 Communicative Language Teaching Cambridge CUP

15 Nguyen Quang 2003 Intercultural and Cross-culture Communication VNU Press

16 Nguyen Quang 1998 Trực tiếp và gián tiếp trong dụng học giao văn hoá Việt-Mỹ Tập san ngoại ngữ số 4

17 Nguyen Quang 1999 Các tương tác trực tiếp, gián tiếp và lịch sự trong dụng học giao

thoa văn hoá Tập san ngoại ngữ số 4

18 Nguyen Quang 2002 Các chiến lược lịch sự dương tính trong giao tiếp Tạp chí số 13

19 Nguyen Quang 2002 Giao tiếp và giao tiếp văn hoá Nhà xuất bản Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội

20 Richards, J.C 1985 The Language of Context Teaching CUP

21 Risager, K 2006 Language and Culture The Cromwell Press

22 Searle, J R 1969 Speech Acts CUP

23 Thomas, J 1995 Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics Longman, London and New York

24 Valdes, J.M 1995 Culture Bound Cambridge CUP

25 Yule, G 1996 Pragmatics CUP

26 Yule, G 1996 The Study of Language CUP

27 Watts, Richarch J 2003 Politeness CUP

28 Wardhaugh, R 1985 How conversation works Oxford University Press

29 Widdowson, H 1978 Teaching Language as Communication Oxford Oxford University Press

30 Wolfson, N 1985 Rules of Speaking In Richards and Schmidt (eds.) Language and Communication Longman

31 Wolfson, N and Judd, E (eds.) 1983 Sociolinguistics and Language Acquisition Newberry House Publishers

32 Wright, A 1987 How to communicate successfully CUP

33 Website: www.wikipedia.com