Politeness phenomena in English and Vietnamese through using imperative mood within Thang Long University education environment

Politeness phenomena in English and Vietnamese through using imperative mood within Thang Long University education environment Nguyễn Vân Khánh Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS..

Politeness phenomena in English and

Vietnamese through using imperative mood within Thang Long University education

environment Nguyễn Vân Khánh

Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ

Năm bảo vệ: 2010

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Tiếng Việt; Giao tiếp; Hiện tượng lịch sự

Content:

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

English is one of the most important languages in communication It plays a very important role in many aspects of everyday life such as: Education, culture, technology, science, etc… What is noticeable is that learning English becomes an increasing need for many people in society They study English for various purposes: for job, for promotion, for going abroad… In Vietnam, English is very popular and is being taught widely

In Vietnam, with the open-door policy of Vietnamese government, English, day by day, affirms its dominated role for international communication English is taught compulsory in many schools in Vietnam Also, it becomes a compulsory subject in many universities and schools, for example, Thang Long University Although English has been taught in Vietnam for several years but only, grammatical correctness seem to be highly appreciated in teaching This

way of teaching and learning is not effective enough to provide cultural factors to make cross-cultural communication successful Therefore, learners do not know what to say in order to have

a contextual, situational and cultural appropriateness in communication Even today many Vietnamese teachers of English still appreciate grammatical correctness over appropriateness in communication They still enjoy grammar translation method As a result, students cannot communicate orally in an appropriate way despite their rather good linguistic competence

It is obvious that learning a second language means learning a second culture To study the second language, one needs to be provided not only linguistic knowledge and interaction skills but also cultural knowledge Nowadays, cultural factors are included in the course design However, they are often treated as optional supplement to stimulate interest or improve background knowledge Understanding cultural factors is an important key to succeed in learning English Although teachers have created more opportunities for them to use English effectively, Vietnamese students may face with many difficulties in communication because they tend to use English based on their native culture – Oriental culture As a result, sometimes, when they communicate with foreigners, they may make unfriendly or impolite or even rude social expressions unnoticeablely So as to communicate well across culture, firstly, learners must understand deeply about their own culture Then, they must be aware of the English speaking culture They must ensure the hidden parts of culture including politeness Politeness is a very important part of social interaction In order to facilitate students at Thang Long University in improving their oral communication, the author of this thesis wants to study the politeness phenomena in English and Vietnamese through using Imperative Mood to make requests

2 Aims of the study

The study aims to find out:

 Do English native speakers use Imperative Mood to make polite requests in the Educational Environment?

 How do Vietnamese teachers and students at Thang Long University use Imperative Mood to show their politeness when making a request in the Educational Environment?

 How do the English native speakers and the Vietnamese native speakers differ in using linguistic structures to make requests in the social situations studied?

3 Scope of the study

The study focuses on politeness phenomena shown by both English and Vietnamese speakers who are Vietnamese students and teachers at Thang Long University when using Imperative Mood to make requests

4 Structure of the study

This thesis is structured in three parts: Part A – Introduction, Part B – Development and Part

C – Conclusions Part B is composed of three chapters as follows:

The purpose of Chapter one (Theoretical background) is to introduce the key theoretical

concepts that the study is based on

Chapter two (A study within ThangLong University Educational Environment) introduces

the questions the present study attempts to answer It also describes the procedures and instruments used to collect the data, the participants in the study, as well as the way the data were analyzed Besides, a tentative analytical framework is also presented

Chapter three (Findings and discussions) presents the results of the study and discusses the

differences and similarities politeness phenomena in English and Vietnamese through using Imperative Mood to make requests

Finally, part C – Conclusions will summarize the most important findings of the study as

well as present all the limitations, the implications of the study and recommendations for further studies

REFERENCES

In English:

1 Beebe, L.M., & Cummings, M.C (1996), Natural speech act data versus written questionnaire data: How data collection method affects speech act performance

2 Bright W (1992), International encyclopedia of linguistics (edited), Vol 4, Oxford

University Press

3 Brown, H D (1986), Learning a second culture, In J.M Valdes (Ed.), Culture Bound:

Bridging the Cultural gap in Language Teaching (pp 33-48), Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press

4 Brown, P and Levinson, S.C (1987), Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage,

Cambridge University Press

5 Eisenstein, M., & Bodman, J (1993), Expressing gratitude in American English, In G

Kasper & S Blum-Kulka (Ed.), Interlanguage pragmatics (pp 64-81), New York:

Oxford University Press

6 Finch G (2000), Linguistic terms and concepts, Macmillan Press Ltd, London

7 FitzGerald, H (1999), Adult ESL: What culture do we teach? In J Lo Bianco, A.J

Liddicoat, & C Crozet (Ed.), Striving for the Third Place: Intercultural Competence

through Language Education (pp.127-142), Melbourne: Language Australia

8 Halliday, M.A.K (1994), An introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edition), Erward Arnold, London

9 Huddleston, R (1984), Introduction to the grammar of English London: Cambridge

University Press

10 Nguyễn Văn Độ (1999), Cultural Differences in English Language Training, Teacher’s

Edition, English Language Institute

11 Lyons, J (1977:747), Semantics Vol 2 London: Cambridge University Press

12 Palmer, F.R (1994), Grammar (2nd Ed) London: Penguin

13 Palmer, F R (1986), Mood and modality, Cambridge University Press

14 Palmer, F.R (1990), Modality and the English Modals, Longman, London and New

York

15 Quirk R and Greenbaum S (1973), A university grammar of English, Longman

16 Quirk R et al (1985), A comprehensive grammar of the English language, Longman

17 Raines, C.M (1999), Designing Curriculum to teach American Culture in the ESL

Classroom, PhD diss., The University of Mississippi

18 Schumacher, S & McMillan, J (1993), Research in Education: a Conceptual

Introduction, New York: Harper and Collins

In Vietnamese

1 Diệp Quang Ban (2005), Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt, NXB Giáo dục, Hà Nội

2 Nguyễn Tài Cẩn (1999), Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt (Tiếng – Từ ghép – Đoản ngữ), Nhà xuất

bản Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội

3 Đỗ Hữu Châu, Bùi Minh Toán (2003), Đại cương ngôn ngữ học, Tập 1, NXB Giáo dục,

Hà Nội

4 Diệp Quang Ban (2005), Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt, NXB Giáo dục, Hà Nội

5 Nguyễn Văn Độ (2000), Các phương tiện ngôn ngữ biểu hiện hành động thỉnh cầu trong

Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt, Luận án tiến sĩ ngữ văn ĐHKH XHNV – ĐHQG Hà Nội

6 Nguyễn Văn Độ, Về việc nghiên cứu lịch sự trong giao tiếp, Ngôn ngữ, số 1, 1995

7 Nguyễn Văn Độ, Vấn đề văn hóa trong giảng dạy ngoại ngữ ở Việt Nam, Ngữ học trẻ, Hà

Nội, 1996

8 Đinh Văn Đức (1993), Một vài cảm nhận về ngữ phá chức năng và cách nhìn về ngữ

pháp tiếng Việt, Ngôn ngữ số 3

9 Cao Xuân Hạo (2001), Ngữ pháp chức năng tiếng Việt: Câu trong tiếng Việt, Quyển 1,

NXB Khoa học xã hội, Hà Nội

10 Ngô Đình Phương (2005), Thành tố nghĩa liên nhân thông qua các phương tiện từ ngữ

biểu hiện nó trong phát ngôn – câu, Luận văn tiến sĩ ngữ văn, Đại học Vinh

11 Nguyễn Quang (1999), Một số khác biệt giao tiếp lời nói Việt Mỹ trong cách thức khen

và tiếp nhận lời khen, Luận án tiến sĩ ngữ văn ĐHKH XHNV – ĐHQG Hà nội

12 Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977), Động từ trong Tiếng Việt, Nhà xuất bản Khoa học Xã hội, Hà

Nội