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Learning styles of ESL students have been approached in different aspects with implication on match and mismatch between students’ learning styles and teachers’ teaching styles. Employed from theory of previous researchers, this study focuses mainly on finding out learning style preferences of first year Fast track students and teachers’ perception about their students’ preferences. Questionnaire survey, interview and observation reveal descriptive statistics and indepth responses for analysis. Results show that first year Fast-track students at ULIS belong to sensory groups, who prefer external information from visual, sounds and experience. Not all teachers have full understanding about their students’ learning style preference. Their use of activities, correction and instruction without awareness about students’ preferences results in different reaction of students. The activities implemented in class produce more effects if they match with students’ preference. In constrast, activities with less favorable attitude receive less attention. Instruction experiences a similar trend. Suggestions for facilitating students’ learning style preferences are given by teachers of first year Fast-track students. Those include types of activity, use of media and suitable time to employ.
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER POLITENESS STRATEGIES USED IN BUSINESS COMPLAINT LETTERS Supervisor:Asso.Prof. Nguyen Xuan Thom Student:Nguyen Thu Nguyet Course: 2010 Hanoi, 2014 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ SỬ DỤNG TRONG THƯ PHÀN NÀN TRONG THƯƠNG MẠI Giáo viên hướng dẫn: PGS.TS Nguyễn Xuân Thơm Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thu Nguyệt Khóa: QH2010 Hà Nội - 2014 2 ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I: Nguyen Thu Nguyet, QH2010.F1.E1, being a candidate for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library. I agree that my paper deposited in the library would be accessible for the use of further study and research in accordance with conditions set by the library. 3 DECLARATION I certify that this study is my own work. I have included fully references to the materials that I used as literature review. This research has not been submitted for any formal assessment as well as published in any kind of press. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Asso.Pro. Nguen Xuan Thom for his guidedance, motivation and perserverence in the helping me finishing this thesis. His particular directions, feedbacks and suggestions for improvement in every stage allow me to obtain the complete results of this study. I would also like to express my appreciation with the lecturers in Fast-Track division for their advice in designing questionnaire and interview criteria in pilot study phase, for their willingness to be observed during my observation period. Finally, I would also like to thank first year Fast-track students for their cooperation in this research and especially their performance which inspired me with the idea of conducting a study on students’ learning style preference from the beginning. The researcher, Nguyen Thu Nguyet 5 ABSTRACT Learning styles of ESL students have been approached in different aspects with implication on match and mismatch between students’ learning styles and teachers’ teaching styles. Employed from theory of previous researchers, this study focuses mainly on finding out learning style preferences of first year Fast track students and teachers’ perception about their students’ preferences. Questionnaire survey, interview and observation reveal descriptive statistics and indepth responses for analysis. Results show that first year Fast-track students at ULIS belong to sensory groups, who prefer external information from visual, sounds and experience. Not all teachers have full understanding about their students’ learning style preference. Their use of activities, correction and instruction without awareness about students’ preferences results in different reaction of students. The activities implemented in class produce more effects if they match with students’ preference. In constrast, activities with less favorable attitude receive less attention. Instruction experiences a similar trend. Suggestions for facilitating students’ learning style preferences are given by teachers of first year Fast-track students. Those include types of activity, use of media and suitable time to employ. RESEARCH OUTLINE 6 PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of research problem and rationale for the study 2. Aims and objectives of the study 3. Significance of the study 4. Scope of the study 5. Methods of the study 6. Design of the study PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Speech act 2. Politeness 2.1. The concept of face and face threatening act (FTA) 2.2. Politeness strategies 2.2.1. Positive politeness strategies 2.2.2. Negative politeness strategies 2.3. Weightiness of FTA 3. Business complaint letters 3.1. Business letters 3.1.1. Essential Qualities of a Good Business Letter 3.1.2. Parts of a Business Letter 3.1.3. Format of a Business Letter 3.2. Complaint 3.2.1. Definition of Complaint 3.2.2. Classifications of complaints 3.2.2.1. Classifications of complaints in terms of pragmatics 3.2.2.2. Classifications of complaints in terms of fact CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 1. Selection of subject 2. Data collection instruments 3. Data collection method and procedure 7 4. Expected outcome CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION PART 3: CONCLUSION 1. Summary of the main findings 2. Contributions of the study 3. Limitations of the study 4. Suggestions for further studies REFERENCES APPENDICES PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of research problem and rationale for the study The technological developments in every area of business and commerce have imposed many alternatives to such a traditional method of communication like 8 letters. Contrary to popular belief, letter writing is not a lost art, but a viable tool in today's corporate society (Lisa, 2011). Letters show you care, that you thought about the recipient individually, that they deserve more than an automated response, and that you are actually communicating your thoughts with each other (Garret, 2012). Besides, letters may be defined as a means through which views are expressed and ideas or information is communicated in writing in the process of business activities. Companies write business letters as a way of persuading the customers or clients to accept the contract or proposal or enter into an agreement. A well- written and formatted letter represents the business identity as well as conveys the professionalism of a company. In reverse, the customers or clients can write letters to the companies seeking information about products; complaining about unsatisfactory goods, bad service, and inaccurate shipment or suggesting some changes that should be made to the company. In regard of different purposes, there are different types of business letters: inquiry letters, sale letters, claim letters, etc. Among these types of business letters, complaint letter is one of the most difficult types to write. There are two main reasons for this. The first is the writers may be in a bad mood when writing a complaint letter; therefore, they may use abusive language or allow themselves to get sidetracked from their specific problem into generalized criticism of the company or its products or services. Second, writing complaint letters does not only mean the writers want to convey a complaint message to the company but also persuade the company to take a certain course of action to compensate for their dissatisfaction. Therefore, expressing goodwill towards the recipient should be an underlying goal of any business letter (Nguyen, 1992), especially in a letter of complaint. One of the strategies to create goodwill in business correspondence is politeness. 9 Politeness contributes to respectful interaction by showing consideration and deference towards others (Watts, 2003). Politeness also generates social connections among interlocutors and permits a particular form of social cooperation (Benjamins, 2004). Both Watts (2003) and Benjamins (2004) state that politeness cultivates a comfortable atmosphere in communication and makes interaction more effective. With the hope of finding out how English writers use politeness strategies to write complaint letters, the researcher hopes that her findings will be very useful for everyone who cares about English business complaint letters in the research paper entitled: “Politeness strategies used in English business complaint letters”. 2. Aims and objectives of the study The aim of this study is to find out the politeness strategies used in English business complaint letters as it comes out from works on pragmatics and illustrates different aspects, especially the language choices for making polite complaints. To achieve those above aims, this study tries to answer these two following questions: 1. What are the politeness strategies used in studied English business complaint letters? 2. What are the effects of those politeness strategies in conveying the complaint? 3. Significance of the study The study is believed to bring an overview of language used in business complaint letters in terms of politeness strategies. Accordingly, people who are interested in the field, especially ones who want to propose complaints through letters can take this study a reliable reference source. Furthermore, findings of the study are expected to contribute to related literature. 4. Scope of the study 10 . USED IN BUSINESS COMPLAINT LETTERS Supervisor:Asso.Prof. Nguyen Xuan Thom Student:Nguyen Thu Nguyet Course: 2010 Hanoi, 2014 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG. viên: Nguyễn Thu Nguyệt Khóa: QH2010 Hà Nội - 2014 2 ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I: Nguyen Thu Nguyet, QH2010.F1.E1, being a candidate for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements. study on students’ learning style preference from the beginning. The researcher, Nguyen Thu Nguyet 5 ABSTRACT Learning styles of ESL students have been approached in different aspects with