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. 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.
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