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1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION ------ GRADUATION PAPER THE INFLUENCE OF SOME

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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

- -

GRADUATION PAPER

THE INFLUENCE OF SOME VIETNAMESE

CULTURAL FACTORS ON PEER COMMENTS

IN WRITING BY FRESHMEN AT ULIS-VNU

Student : Do Tuan Long

Course : QH2008F1E5

HANOI-2012

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ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: Do Tuan Long in group 08.1.E5, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelors Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

May 2nd 2012

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I could not complete this graduation paper without very valuable help of many

people who I am deeply indebted to

Firstly, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Dao Thi Thu Trang, M.A for her enormous help, encouragement and constructive criticisms in the completion of the thesis

Furthermore, my sincere thanks also go to Ms Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh, PhD, who sent me very precious materials which helped me write the thesis and Mr Do Tuan Minh, PhD, who introduced me to my supervisor

Last but not least, I also would like to thank all lecturers in Division 1, the Faculty

of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS-VNU and students from class 4-5-19-20 who took interviews and gave comments on essays provided Without their help, I could not complete the graduation paper

Finally, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my family, my friends in group 08.1.E5, especially P M Phuong, 09.1.E2, who always encouraged me to complete my graduation paper

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ABSTRACT

This study was conducted with the participation of 50 freshmen and 10 lecturers from FELTE, ULIS-VNU We have tried to find out Vietnamese cultural factors that have influence on peer comments given by Vietnamese freshmen and their typical ways of commenting in the 2011 - 2012 academic school-year It was found that Vietnamese freshmen used more indirect ways of expressing their attitudes, feeling rather than direct ones, and this result is the same with many results of other previous qualitative and quantitative studies However, it was proven in this case study that if other researchers showed Vietnamese exploited more positive politeness rather than negative politeness, this study represented the opposite thing, i.e negative politeness was used more often than positive politeness It was concluded that the influence of Vietnamese culture could be seen through comments by freshmen Additionally, the researcher also found that Vietnamese freshmen used same ways of commenting like English natives, which signified that they first identified problem(s) and then suggested hints for improvements Last but not least, problems, i.e words choice and sentence structures that freshmen had when giving comments were also found Basing on those problems, the researcher suggested a three-period teaching schedule which lecturers could use to teach freshmen how to give comments like what English natives actually did to avoid potential offense

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

Chapter 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

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Chapter 04: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.2 Discussion

4.2.1 Second culture acquisition in L2 teaching and learning 34 4.2.1.1 The importance of teaching and learning target culture 34 4.2.1.2 The role of teacher in teaching target culture in class 35 4.2.2 Suggested teaching schedule for peer commenting 37

Chapter 05: CONCLUSION

5.3 Suggestions for future research 40

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LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES

Figure 1: Culture and Nature

Figure 2: Levine and Adelma‟s iceberg of culture

Figure 3: UNESCO‟s definition of culture

Figure 4: Kaplan “cultural thought patterns”

Figure 5: An indirect pattern in communication

Figure 6: A direct pattern in communication

Figure 7: The percentage of direct comments and indirect comments

Figure 8: The percentage of positive politeness and negative politeness

Table 1: Comparing and contrasting Vietnamese freshmen and English natives‟ comments

Table 2: The percentage of each direct and indirect strategy

Table 3: The percentage of some positive politeness strategies

Table 4: The percentage of three negative politeness strategies used by freshmen

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

FELTE: The Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

ULIS-VNU: The University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam

National University, Hanoi UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

English is nowadays spoken and learnt by people of all ages, classes, nationalities, etc with different purposes and of course, English writing is part of their learning However, previous studies by Nguyen and Helen (2010) found out that non-native speakers‟ (NNS) criticisms were influenced by their own cultures and Nguyen (2006) even statistically proved that less competent learners were more heavily influenced by their cultures than higher competent ones This is because higher competent learners of English paid more attention to the cultural differences and they were taught as well Thanks to the development of technology and changes in the attitudes towards teaching and learning method, communicative language teaching (CLT) is now widely used in teaching English in general and writing in particular and CLT includes giving peer comments (or constructive criticisms) Giving peer comments in writing is quite similar to giving advice on personal objects which is not friendly welcome in most

English-speaking cultures (Houck, 2010 as cited in Nguyen et al, 2010) This signifies

that NNS may encounter difficulties in giving peer comments because the way of giving comments in this culture (especially Asia) is not always appropriate in others and even peer comments are often tricky with native speakers (NS) (Houck, 2010 as

cited in Nguyen et al, 2010) Nevertheless, it seems that some teachers ask their

students to mainly find out the errors of their peers and then suggest improvements rather than teach the students ways to give comments like what native speakers do, which will possibly cause cultural shocks for natives in societies of English-speaking countries Therefore, a nearly-Standard English style in giving comments (or constructive criticisms) should be the model for learners to avoid possible offences in communications It should be noticed that a Standard English style is very hard to be found

The above analysis of the relationship between native culture and giving comments in English has inspired the researcher to spend time and efforts to observe

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the peer comments in writing skill of freshmen at ULIS-VNU It can be said that freshmen‟s peer comments are still influenced by native culture and to some extent peer comments are not appropriate in the English-speaking cultures In this thesis, the researcher will discuss the influence of some Vietnamese cultural factors on peer comments of freshmen and basing on this, the pedagogical implications in teaching students to give comments will be suggested to help teachers raise their students‟ awareness

1.2 Aims of the study

The study was undertaken in order to evaluate the influence of Vietnamese culture

on the peer comments of freshmen The specific objectives of the study are:

- to evaluate the influence of Vietnamese culture on peer comments of freshmen

- to suggest some ways that lecturers can use to help their students deal with this language transference

In addition, the aims of the study are also specified in the research questions

1.3 The research questions

The research questions that the study addressed are:

Research question 1: What are typical ways of giving peer comments of freshmen at

VNU-ULIS?

Research question 2: What are typical ways of giving comments of English native

speakers?

Research question 3: What are similarities and differences of commenting between

freshmen and English native speakers?

Research question 4: What are the Vietnamese cultural factors which have influence

on peer comments of freshmen at VNU-ULIS?

1.4 Significance of the study

The significance of the study is evaluated by its practicality because the study contributes partial help for both lecturers and students at Division 1, the FELTE, ULIS-VNU

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As for students, they may adapt their ways of giving comments on their peers‟ assignments, which helps their comments sound more polite, avoid potential offence and encourage their peers to better their assignments In addition, after graduating from university, if students have the chance to work with English native speakers, the suggested ways of giving comments may be useful for them in their working environment

As for lecturers, they may reconsider the degree of the influence of some Vietnamese cultural factors on peer comments of their students The researcher hopes that the lecturers will pay attention to teach their students to give comments like what native speakers actually do in writing In fact, freshmen are not taught the detailed way

to give comments with appropriate choice of words and expressions, which may make their comments less effective

1.5 Scope of the study

Due to limitation of time, knowledge and materials, the researcher only focused on some Vietnamese cultural factors having influence on peer comments by freshmen and suggesting some ways to help lecturers deal with this negative language transfer The researcher will analyze comments by freshmen on their peers‟ essays and exploit interviews with both students and lecturers

1.6 Organization of the study

As can be seen, apart from chapter 1 which gives readers an overview of the study,

there are four other main parts

Chapter 2 is the theoretical background which reviews some concepts used in the present study: culture and language and their relation, peer comments and some key categorical dimensions having influence on freshmen‟s comments

The methodology exploited will be presented in chapter 3 and information about subjects, procedure of data collection and analysis will be given clearly as well

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Chapter 4 shows findings of the study by answering research questions Moreover, the researcher will also discuss the pedagogical implications which can help lecturers teach their students how to give comments

The summary and limitation of the study will be shown in chapter 5, the last part of the study

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CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter sheds light on some background concepts such as “language”,

“culture”, “peer comments” and the relationship between language and culture, and then some Anglo-American and Vietnamese Cross-cultural key categorical dimensions that had influence on freshmen‟s comments

2.1 Language and Culture

“Language” comes from Latin Lingua tongue meaning an utterance or expression,

or a dialect, idioms or mode of speech As being defined in the Oxford Advanced

Learner‟s Dictionary (2005:862), “language is the system of communication in speech and writing that is used by people of a particular country or area” Sharing this point of

view, Crystal (1992:212) suggested that language is the “the systematic, conventional

use of sounds, signs, or written symbols in a human society for communication and self-expression” This signifies that language is only used by human beings and this

can serve to distinguish between animals (or any other creatures) and humans

Culture is derived from Latin “cultura” which means growing or cultivation It

seems that in the past, most people were farmers and the systems of beliefs and values were strongly related to farming Possibly, culture has a close relation with farming (It

can be seen that the word “agriculture” means farming) In fact, it is extremely hard to

say for sure how many definitions of culture there are because each researcher sets his/her own definition to orient or guide to the target of his/her research Among these definitions of culture, Nguyen Quang‟s definition of culture separate between the

“being” and “human” part which associate with “nature” and “culture” respectively This can be exemplified as follow:

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Figure 1: Culture and Nature However, Levine and Adelman (1993) had different point of view They supposed culture was similar to an iceberg, which means that people can only see some visible parts of culture This is adopted from their book:

… Culture is like an iceberg, much of the influence of culture on an individual can

hardly be seen but strongly be felt The visible part of culture does not always create cross-cultural difficulties The hidden aspects of culture exercise a strong influence on behaviour and interactions with others

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Figure 3: UNESCO‟s definition of culture

In terms of the relationship between language and culture, Kramsch (1983)

supposed that language is “the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives”

As can be seen, language is now the mirror reflecting the culture Saville-Troike (1982;

35) also shared this viewpoint in their book titled “The Ethnography of

Communication: An Introduction”: “there is a correlation between the norm and content of a language and the beliefs, values and needs present in the culture of its speaker”

In addition, two terms “language” and “culture” are used interchangeably When saying about one culture, people will immediately say about its language and vice versa Language was once used to indicate the social status involving culture of the speaker In ancient Greece, language was used to distinguish between civilized people and “barbatos” those who spoke unintelligible languages Even, in modern England, dialect (a subcomponent of language) is still used to indicate the social classes of the speaker

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somebody or something” Actually, giving peer comments is also considered as part of

the process approach to writing In this part, a student will give his/her opinion about his friend‟s writing One question arisen is whether two terms “peer comments” and

“criticisms” are similar Criticizing as supposed by Nguyen (2008) is an act of giving negative evaluation of one‟s work and then stimulating hears/recipients to change Peer commenting is often understood by learners of English as evaluating writings of their peers on the basis of ideas, grammar and word choice

In the present study, the researcher supposes that giving peer comments is an act of giving one‟s opinion about one‟s work, i.e writing of one‟s classmate It should be noted that peer commenting is used to influence those who are given comments by first giving negative (and even positive) evaluation of their work and then suggesting ways for improvements Hence, “criticism” and “peer comments” are similar in terms of giving negative evaluation, a face threatening act Actually, it will be proved in this study that giving negative evaluation is the link between “criticism” and “peer comments”

2.3 Overview of some Anglo-American and Vietnamese Cross-cultural key categorical dimensions

Nguyen Quang (1998) supposes that there are fourteen Anglo-American and

Vietnamese Cross-cultural categories as follows:

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10 Deduction - Induction

11 Group Orientation - Individual Orientation

12 High context - Low context

13 Redundancy - Economically

14 Statically - Dynamically

Actually, these categories exist in every language However, it is not true to say that one culture only uses this category and refuses the other There is a preference in one culture to each category For example, English native speakers prefer direct style

of speaking whereas Asian people, i.e Chinese, Vietnamese or Japanese prefer indirect style

While giving comments, students will evaluate the work of one‟s of their peers, as

a result, it can be predicted that subjectivity will be used most of the time, which makes

it nonsense to overview Subjectivity-Objectivity

After analyzing data from subjects of the study, the researcher found that there were two categories which had influence on peer comments They are: Directness-Indirectness and Positive politeness - Negative politeness

2.3.1 Directness - Indirectness

Kaplan (1972) observed hundreds of essays of students studying in the United States and concluded that there were differences in expressing ideas among people of different cultures He found out what he called “cultural thought patterns” illustrated as

follow:

Figure 4: Kaplan “cultural thought patterns”

As can be seen, in Anglicist direct expressions are preferred and there are some famous expressions to illustrate this such as “Don‟t go round the bush”, or “Get to the

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point” However, Oriental languages prefer indirect style of expressions, which can be clearly seen in the following letter of refusal

…Unfortunately, much as I‟d like to be at the wedding, especially a Dutch

wedding (!), it simply isn‟t possible for me to take that weekend off; I have to work fairly late on Friday night, and friends are coming down to stay from Saturday lunchtime so there would be no way in which I could squeeze a wedding in Holland in between…

(As cited from Vu et al, 2006:48)

Do et al (2006) analyzed the following Vietnamese dialogue to prove that

Vietnamese people prefer indirect style in communication This is taken from their work

Let‟s see the dialogue:

- Host: Chả mấy khi bác đến nhà chơi, mời bác ở lại dung bữa với chúng em

(You rarely come to visit us, we invite you to stay and have dinner with us.)

- Guest: Ô, thôi, cám ơn cô chú Tôi chỉ ghé thăm cô chú và gia đình chút thôi

(Oh, no, thank you I only pay a short visit to you and your family.)

- Host: Bác cứ nói thế, chả mấy khi…

(You say so, rarely…)

- Guest: Phiền cô chú quá, cứ mỗi lần đến chơi cô chú lại bày vẽ…

(I trouble you, whenever I visit you; you go to unnecessary lengths to …)

(Finally, the guest agreed to stay and have dinner with the host

refusing more inviting

inviting accepting expressing that

they feel making troubles

Figure 5: An indirect pattern in communication

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However, an English conversation has different style of expressing Here is an example

- Host: Would you like to have more dessert?

- Guest: No, thanks It‟s delicious but I‟ve really had enough

- Host: OK Why don‟t we leave in the table and sit in the living room?

(cited in Do et al)

In this example, it can be seen that the host only offers once and when the guest refuses for the very first time, he/she no longer asks more but suggests going to the living room The pattern of the conversation can be illustrated as follow:

In addition, one more thing that needs to be taken into consideration is the location

of information It can be said that Vietnamese people will give “small talk” first and then lead to “the main purpose” because of their being indirect but NSs do the opposite, which can be exemplified as follow:

- In Vietnamese:

- In English

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However, as in this study the students give written comments on their peer‟s work so

it is essential to judge which evaluation belongs to direct style or indirect style according to the words used by students This is adapted from Blum-Kulka (1987:133)

actions/ work/ products, etc

Usually expressed via evaluative adjectives with negative meaning or evaluative adjective with positive meaning plus negation

Describing S‟s attitude towards writer‟s choice, etc

Usually realized by means of negation word „„No‟‟ or performative „„I don‟t agree‟‟

or „„I disagree‟‟ (with or without modal) or via arguments against writer

Stating errors or problems found with writer‟s choice, etc

- „„I think it‟s not a good way to support to one‟s idea (L), „„That‟s not really a good sentence.‟‟ (NS)

- „„I don‟t like the way you write that (L)

- „„I don‟t quite agree with you with some points (.) about the conclusion‟‟ (L),

„„I don‟t really agree with you as you put it here‟‟ (NS)

- „„And there are some

(L),„„You had a few spelling mistakes‟‟ (NS)

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e Statement of

difficulty

f Consequences

Usually expressed by means of

such structures as “I find it

difficult to understand…”, “It‟s difficult to understand…”

Warning about negative consequences or negative effects of writer‟s choice, etc for writer himself or herself or for the public

- “I can‟t understand” (L),

“I find it difficult to understand your idea” (L)”

- “Someone who doesn‟t

straight away read that and turn off” (NS)

Including all utterances which have the purposes of fixing errors by asserting specific

comparison (L), and you put “their” I think t-h-e-r-e

Usually expressed via such structures as “you have to”,

“you must”, “it is obligatory that” or “you are required”,

“you need”, “it‟s necessary that”, etc

Usually expressed via the performative “I advise you …”

or structures with “should”

with or without modality

Usually expressed via structures such as “you can”,

“you could”, “it would be better if”, “why don‟t you?”, etc

Rhetorical questions to raise writer‟s awareness of the inappropriateness of writer‟s choice, etc

Including other kinds of hints that did not belong to (h) and (i) May include sarcasm

- “I am not sure if you wrote three paragraphs as they looked.” (L)

- “Did you read your writing again after you finish it?” (L)

- “I prefer a writing style which is not too personal.” (L)

2.3.2 Positive politeness - Negative politeness

As written above, after analyzing peer comments by freshmen, the researcher found

that they exploited both positive politeness and negative politeness In fact, Nguyen Quang (2005:25) supposed that there were 17 positive politeness strategies and 11 negative politeness strategies used by users of the English language However, there were only 3 positive politeness strategies and 3 negative politeness strategies used by freshmen at ULIS-VNU, which was found by the researcher

In this part, the researcher will review the theories of both positive politeness and negative politeness, which will shed light on the analysis of freshmen‟s comments in the finding section There will be examples written by freshmen in the strategies exploited by them

It is first and foremost to understand what is meant by “politeness”? In terms of

cultural aspect, Yule (1996) defined politeness as ““a fixed concept, as in the idea of

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„polite social behavior‟, or etiquette, within a culture” Another definition of

politeness was given by Richards in 1985 which emphasized “the attempt to establish,

maintain, and save face during conversation” As can be seen politeness is used to

save the face of the H

2.3.2.1 Positive politeness

According to Brown and Levinson (1990:70), positive politeness “is oriented

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

Another way to understand suggested by Nguyen Quang (2005:25) based on “the

concern of the solidarity” is that positive politeness is “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” Here are 15

positive politeness strategies, which are adapted from Nguyen Quang (2004), used by participants in communication and comments as follow:

Strategy 1: Notice, attend to writer (his interests, wants, needs, goods)

Student‟s comment: I think your essay also has advantages

Strategy 2: Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with H)

My God! Your work? It‟s absolutely incredible!

Strategy 3: Intensify interest to H ( by (i) „making a good story‟, (ii) involving

switching back and forth between past and present tenses, (iii) using directly quoted speech rather than indirect reported speech, (iv) using tag question, expressions of cajolers, appealers or (v) exaggerating facts)

Black I like I used to wear it more than I do now; I very rarely wear it now I wore a black jumper, and when I wear it my Mum says „Ah, she said But Len likes it,

he thinks it looks ever so nice and quite a few people do But when my Mum sees it she said, „Oh, it‟s not your color, you‟re more for pinks and blues.‟

Strategy 4: Use in-group identity markers (usages (i) of address forms, (ii) of language

or dialect, (iii) of jargon or slang, and (iv) of ellipsis.)

Come over here, honey

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Strategy 5: Seek for agreement (by the safe topics, repetition or minimal encouragers)

A: Này, Lan nó lấy chồng rồi đấy.(Hey! Lan‟s got married.)

B: Úi giời ơi! Cái Lan nó đã lấy chồng rồi cơ đấy (Oh my God! Lan‟s got married.)

Strategy 6: Avoid disagreement (instances of „token agreement‟, of

„pseudo-agreement‟, of „white lies‟, of „hedging opinions‟)

A: Em ghét anh lắm phải không?(You hate me so much?)

B: Thỉnh thoảng (Sometimes)

Student‟s comment: The sentence underlined is rather short, not long certainly

Strategy 7: Presuppose/ raise/ assert common ground (with (i) gossip, small talk; (ii)

point-of-view operations of personal-centre switch, of time switch, of place switch; (iii) presupposition manipulations.)

B: Honey, it‟s terribly hot, I know

Strategy 8: Joke

How about lending me this old heap of junk? (H‟s new Cadillac)

Strategy 9: Assert or presuppose S‟s knowledge of and concern for H‟s wants

I know you can‟t bear parties, but this one will really be good- do come!

Strategy 10: Offer, promise

Này, hôm nào ra Hải Xồm lai rai đi (We will have a drink at Hai Xom

someday.)

Strategy 11: Be optimistic

I‟m borrowing your bike for a sec, OK?

Strategy 12: Include both S and H in the activity

Let‟s stop for dinner?

Strategy 13: Give (or ask for) reasons

Why don‟t we go to the sea-shore?

Strategy 14: Assume or assert reciprocity

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I‟ve done the cooking; you make the table, OK?

Strategy 15: Give gifts to H (goods, sympathy, understanding, cooperation)

Nguyen Quang (2003: 78-85), adds two more strategies, namely:

Strategy 16: Comfort and encourage

It‟ll all turn out OK

Strategy 17: Ask personal questions

Anh chị được mấy cháu rồi ạ? (How many children do you have?)

2.3.2.2 Negative politeness

Brown and Levinson (1990: 70) suppose that “Negative politeness, is oriented

mainly toward partially satisfying (redressing) H‟s negative face, his basic want to maintain claims of territory and self-determination Negative politeness, thus, is essentially avoidance-based, and realizations of negative-politeness strategies consist

in assurances that the speaker recognizes and respects the addressee‟s negative- face wants and will not (or will only minimally) interfere with the addressee‟s freedom of action”

Nguyen Quang considers negative politeness as “any communicative act (verbal or

nonverbal) which is appropriately intended to show that speaker does not want to impinge on the addressee‟s privacy, thus enhancing the sense of distance between them.” (2005:30) Generally speaking, negative politeness avoids imposing on the

addressees and remains the distance between interlocutors Here are 10 negative

politeness strategies presented by Brown and Levinson, and the 11th strategy is presented by Nguyen Quang

Strategy 1: Be conventionally indirect

I wonder if you could lend me the book

Student‟s comment: A logical order in time would help your essay clearer and

easy to make out

Strategy 2: Question/ Hedge

I’d like to borrow your car, if you don’t mind

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Student‟s comment: “

Strategy 3: Be pessimistic

It might be an idea to stay out of the game

Strategy 4: Minimize the imposition

I just want to ask you if I could borrow some reference books

Student‟s comments: I just think you had some grammar mistakes

Strategy 5: Give deference

I must be stupid I should have asked you

Strategy 6: Apologize

I’m sorry for the late delivery

I beg your indulgence

Strategy 7: Impersonalize S and H

Student‟s comment: It is worth noting that the essay contains some errors

Strategy 8: State the Face Threatening Act (FTA) as a general rule (S doesn‟t want to

impinge but is merely forced to by circumstances, is to state the FTA as an instance of some general social rule, regulation, or obligation)

You are requested to fasten your seat belts while seated

Strategy 9: Nominalize (the facts of syntax suggest a „continuum‟ from verb

through adjective to noun (Ross, 1972) Degrees of negative politeness run hand in hand with degrees of nounness.)

Sự có mặt của anh trong bữa tiệc làm chúng tôi thấy rất vinh dự

(Your appearance at the party gives us a sense of pride.)

Strategy 10: Say explicitly as if S is thankful to H or H is not thankful to S

I’d very grateful if you put it in a good word for me

Strategy 11: Avoid asking personal questions

This strategy proves to be effective in the positive politeness strategy- oriented communities, because it shows concern to H However, it also interferes with H‟s

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privacy to some extent Therefore, avoiding asking such private questions as: “How

much do you earn a month?”, etc is another negative politeness strategy

17 positive politeness strategies and 11 negative politeness strategies, which are mainly used in communication, have been mentioned However, it should be noted that making a clear distinction in use between them is very difficult In fact, in real-life communication, one can see both strategies being used at the same time For example:

Honey, wait for me for just a second? („positive politeness‟: in group identity

marker- honey- and „negative politeness‟: minimizing the imposition- just a second-)

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CHAPTER 03: METHODOLOGY

After the theoretical background was presented, the researcher continues mentioning the methodology used in the study In this chapter, the participants, research instruments, data collection procedures and analysis will be clearly presented

3.1 Selection of subjects

As mentioned in the title of the study, the subjects of the study are first-year students at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi In fact, freshmen are those who have just graduated from high school and their English especially their writing may still be influenced by Vietnamese language It should be noted that up to 90% of the students at ULIS are female so it is difficult to balance between male and female subjects in the study Students from class 11E2-3-4-5-19-20 were randomly chosen to ensure the reliability and the validity of the study In fact, course books that freshmen are studying are “Market Leader” and “Inside Out” written for learners of pre-intermediate proficiency level Hence, it can be said that the proficiency level of freshmen is A2 (4.0 - 4.5 IELTS) according to the European Council

3.2 Research instruments

Peer comments for writing were used to analyze and based on this, the researcher

found out the Vietnamese cultural factors having influence on them In addition, in order to answer the first research question, interview with students and teachers is essential to confirm the findings from analysis of freshmen‟s comments Ten students and three lecturers were invited to have interviews and moreover, fifty writings with

comments were collected to analyze the cultural factors having influence on them (See

Appendix 5 for more details in questions used for interview)

3.3 Procedures of data collection

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Firstly, the researcher prepared an essay containing errors about its organization, ideas, grammar and vocabulary Freshmen were asked to give their comments on the essay and thirteen questions about peer commenting were given to them to facilitate the

process (See Appendix 4)

In addition, 50 commented essays were collected from different class and fortunately, students of different majors also gave comments on the essay Moreover, the interview with teachers and students was also carried out to answer the first research question just after the researcher collected commented essays

3.4 Procedures of data analysis

The study has to answer four research questions In terms of the first question, the interview with students and teachers at Division 1 and comments analysis were exploited to answer and the cultural differences will be analyzed deeply in the third research question

Furthermore, all comments from students were analyzed to find out the Vietnamese cultural factors having influence on them In addition, basing on the results of the study, the researcher will suggest some ways that teachers can teach their students to give comments on their peers‟ essays like what English native speakers use