A Study on Politeness Strategies in the Conversations of the Course Book “Topnotch 2” Pre-intermediate (the First Edition) Vũ Thị Thanh Huyền Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15 Người hướng dẫn: Dr. Đỗ Thị Thanh Hà Năm bảo vệ: 2013 Keywords: Hội thoại; Giao tiếp; Tiếng Anh Content PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Language, generally speaking, is created as a necessary demand of human life with the crucial aim of communication. Since different people from different cultural and social backgrounds may have different ways to exchange information and express their attitudes and opinions, the question of how to successfully communicate in certain contexts, especially in cross-cultural communication has attracted great attention from linguists and has been widely discussed so far. It is commonly believed that understanding social conventions and paying attention to such concepts as politeness and face will definitely allow us to have better comprehension of a variety of speaking ways by people from different cultures, thus helping eliminate ethnic stereotypes and misunderstandings. As claimed by Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000), “when learning a second language, one needs to acquire the new culture politeness framework, which is very different from that of one‟s own culture”. Obviously, students‟ master of the cultural knowledge in general and strategies to choose the language politely in particular is supposed to make a valuable contribution to their ability to well communicate with confidence in any English speaking environment. With such great importance to language competence and communication skill, politeness strategies are strongly recommended to be included in the course designs for teaching and learning English as a second language in universities and schools. Among popular course books for English learners, Top Notch series (with Summit), as claimed by Pearson Longman, is an award-winning six-level communicative course for adults and young adults. This course book series have also been used and evaluated by a number of ESL institutes and teachers in the world. Eslami, Esmaeli, Ghavaminia, and Rajabi (2010) chosed to evaluate the four mostly instructed courses in Iran English language institutes namelyTop Notch, Interchange, Headway, and On Your Markbased on Mcdounough and Shaw‟s (2003) division of course book evaluation into internal and external evaluation. After a thorough examination, the researchers came to the conclusion that“Top Notch best meets Mcdounough and Shaw‟s (2003) evaluation criteria”.According to the result of the study by Alemi and Mesbah (2013), the Top Notch series offered certain benefits to language learners such as “encouraging thestudents to communicate successfully by giving them lots of opportunities for interaction, and demonstrating cultural-based aspects not only through lively and authentic visual images but also without cultural bias” (Alemi&Mesbah, 2013-162).Frommy and my colleagues ‟personal experiences as English lecturers who have been making use of these books as text books in the official English teaching program for students at FPT university for nearly four years, we has got deeply interested in their effective communicative approach with the main focus on natural and authentic communication, the promotion of integrated language- skills practice as well as the inclusion of topical themes in interactive conversations. In order to make better and more effective use of this course book series in teaching, the author of the present study has had strong desire for chances of conducting anin-depth study on these books‟ communicative approach. All the aforementioned reasons have encouraged the researcher to work on this study with the objectives of gaining insights into the positive and negative politeness strategies in the conversations of the course book “Top Notch 2” by Joan M. Saslow and Allen Ascher -the third book in the Top Notch and Summit series introduced above. 2. Aims of the study Firstly, the study is aimed to investigate the politeness strategies utilized in the conversations of the course book selected. The second aim the study expected to achieve is to provide teachers with some suggestions for the effective teaching of polite strategies in the book “Top Notch 2” (the first edition). 3. Objectives of the study In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the objectives are specified as follows: - Identifying and analyzing positive strategies employed in the conversations of “Top Notch 2” (the first edition). - Identifying and analyzing negative politeness strategies employed in the conversations of “Top Notch 2” (the first edition). - Offering possible implications for teaching positive and negative strategies in an effective and efficient way with specific exercises related to the content of the course book. 4. Scope of the study Politeness strategies which can be presented through verbal and nonverbal behaviors also can be expressed in different ways by different linguists. The research is conducted with no ambition to study politeness strategies with various approaches but it is mainly based on Brown and Levinson‟s theoretical framework. The focus of this study is limited to investigating only the positive and negative politeness strategies in the conversation of “Top Notch 2” (the first condition) without paying much attention to the nonverbal ones. 5. Significance of the study Once having been completed, this study would give decent benefits. With respect to English communication teaching, the study is supposed to serve as noteworthy reference for creating the suitable methods for teaching politeness strategies in the course book “Top Notch 2”.As for English learner of this course book, the research hopefully help not only raise the students‟ awareness of the importance of politeness strategies in cross-cultural communication in general but also provide them with specific knowledge of politesse strategies accompanied with their typical words and expressions used in the course book‟s conversation as well as related exercises and activities for their learning and practising in particular. 6. Design of the study report Part A: Introduction- presents the rationale, aims, objectives, scope, methods,significance and design of the study. Part B: Development- consists of three chapters as follows: Chapter 1: Theoretical background- lays the theoretical foundation for the research. Chapter 2: Methodology-details the methods that have been used and the procedures that have been followed by the researcher. Chapter 3: Findings and discussion – reports the study‟s finding on which further discussion is offered Part C: Conclusion: ends the study by summarizing its main points as well as finding out the limitation and suggestions for the further studies The following parts are references and appendix . REFERENCES 1) Alemi, Minoo. &Mesbah, Zahra. (2013). “Textbook evaluation based on the ACTFL standards: The case of Top Notch series”. Iranian EFL Journal, 9(1), 162-171. 2) Behm, J. (2008). A contrastive analysis of politeness: requests and refusals in German and English. GRIN Publishing GmbH. 3) Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1987 [1978]). Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 4) Canale, M. & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1, 1-47. 5) Eelen, G. (2001). A critique of politeness theories. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. 6) Eslami, R, A. Esmaeli, S. Ghavamnia, M. &Rajabi, S. (2010). Don‟t judge a book by its cover: Textbook evaluation in the EFL setting. Journal of international social research, 3(14), 448-461. 7) Kitamura, N. (2000). Adapting Brown and Levinson‟s „politeness‟ theory to the analysis of casual conversation. School of European, Asian & Middle Eastern Languages & Studies. University of Sydney: Australia. 8) Kodyat, H. (2001). A Study on Politeness Strategies Used by the Interviewers in a Foreign Exchange Company. Universitas Kristen Petra. Retrieved from the World Wide Web at http://dewey.petra.ac.id/jiunkpe_dg_266.html. 9) Finch, G. (2000). Linguistic terms and concepts.Houndmills, Basingstone, Hamsphire RG 216 XS and London: Macmillan Press LTD. 10) Goffman, E. (1955). On face-work: An analysis of ritual elements of social Interaction. Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes,18(3), 213-231. Reprinted in Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: essays in face-to-face behavior. Random House. (2nd ed. with Joel Best, 2005). Aldine Transaction. 11) Gu, Y. (1990) Politeness phenomena in modern Chinese. Journal of Pragmatics 14, 237– 257. 12) Hatims, B. & Mason, I. (1990). Discourse and the Translator. New York: Longman. 13) Holmes, J. (2006). Politeness strategies as linguistic variables. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 9. 14) Hymes, D. (1962). The ethnography of speaking. In T. Gladwin and W. Sturtevant (eds.), Anthropology and human behavior. Washington, D.C: Anthropological Society of Washington. 15) Hymes, D. (1964). Language in culture and society. Harper and Row: New York. 16) Lakoff, R. (1990). Talking power: the politics of language in our lives. Glasgow: Harper 17) Leech, Geofrey. (1983). Principle Pragmatics. London. Longman. 18) Levinson, S. C. (1997). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 19) Maier, P. (1992). Politeness strategies in business letters by native and non-native English speakers. English for Specific Purposes, 11(3), 189-205. 20) Meliana, F. (1995). The Study of Politeness Expression in Love Match by Barbara Steiner. Universitas Kristen Petra 21) Mao, L. R. (1994). Beyond politeness theory: „face‟ revisited and renewed. Journal ofPragmatics21(5), 451–486. 22) Nickerson, C. (1999). The use of politeness strategies in business letters written by native speakers of English. In Geluyken, R. &Pelsmarkers, K. (eds) Discourse in Professional Contexts. Lincom, 127-142. 23) Nguyen, T. P. T. (2010). Politeness strategies in requests in "The Thorn Birds". M.A Thesis. Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU. 24) Nguyen, Q. (2003). Intercultural and cross-cultural communication. VNU Press. 25) Nguyen, T. H. (2010). A study on politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the course book “Inside out- Pre-intermediate”. M.A Thesis. Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU. 26) Nguyen, T. T. V. (2009). A study on politeness strategies in negotiating conversations in “Market Leader”. M.A Thesis. Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU. 27) Paarlahti, S. (1998). Politeness strategies in business letters written by non-native and native speakers of English. 28) Pariera, K. (2006). The use of politeness strategies in email discussions about taboo topics. McNair Online Journal, 2. 29) Pham, T. H. L. (2012). A Study on Politeness Strategies in the Conversational Activities of the Coursebook“ New English file” (Intermediate). M.A Thesis. Faculty of Post- graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU. 30) Sari, A. W. (2012). Politeness strategies in conversational closing displayed on a vocational school‟s English text book entitled "English for SMK 1”. Final project. English Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts. Semarang State University. 31) Savignon, S. J. (1972). Communicative competence: an experiment in foreign language teaching. Philadelphia: The Centre for Curriculum Development, Inc. 32) Savignon, Sandra (1997). Communicative competence: theory and classroom practice: texts and contexts in second language learning (2nd Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. 33) Savira, M. (2004). A study of politeness strategies used by the three main female characters in Friends to identify their personality traits. Universitas Kristen Petra. Retrieved from the World Wide Web at http://dewey.petra.ac.id/jiunkpe_dg_884.html. 34) Schmidt, R. & Richards, J. C. (1980). Speech acts and second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 1, 129-157. 35) Searle, J. 1969. Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 36) Searle, J. (1976). Speech acts. London: Syndics of the Cambridge University Press. 37) Shigemitsu, Y. (2003). Politeness strategies in the context of argument in Japanese debate show. The academic reports, the Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Polytechnic. Retrieved from the World Wide Web at http://www.t-kougei.ac.jp/research/pdf/vol2-26- 03.pdf. 38) Spitzberg, B. H. (1988). Progress and pitfalls in conceptualizing and researching intercultural communication competence. Paper presented at the Speech Communication Association Conference, New Orleans, LA. 39) Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in Interaction. New York: Longman. 40) Tran, T. P.(2011). A study of politeness strategies in the conversational activities of the coursebook “New Headway” Pre-intermediate. M.A Thesis. Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU. 41) Yuka, A. (2009). Positive politeness strategies in oral communication I textbooks - Focusing on terms of address.The economic journal of Takasaki city university of economics, 52 (1), 59-70. 42) Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 43) Zierhofer, W. (2002). Speech acts and space(s): language pragmatics and the discursive constitution of the social. Environment and Planning A, 34(8), 1355-1372. 44) Vinagre, M. (2008). Politeness strategies in collaborative e-mail exchanges. Computers & Education, 50(3), 1022–1036. 45) Vilkki, L. (2006). Politeness, face and facework: current issues. SKY Journal of Linguistics 19, 322-332. Retrieved from the World Wide Web at http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/julkaisut/SKY2006_1/1.4.7.%20VILKKI.pdf SKY journal. 46) Warhaugh, R. (1988). Introduction to Sociolinguistics. UK: Basil Blackwell. 47) Watts, R. J. (2003) Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . communicative approach with the main focus on natural and authentic communication, the promotion of integrated language- skills practice as well as the inclusion of topical themes in interactive conversations. . Interchange, Headway, and On Your Markbased on Mcdounough and Shaw‟s (2003) division of course book evaluation into internal and external evaluation. After a thorough examination, the researchers came. 2. Aims of the study Firstly, the study is aimed to investigate the politeness strategies utilized in the conversations of the course book selected. The second aim the study expected to achieve