A discourse analysis of news reports on climate change in english and vietnamese

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

LÊ THỊ ANH

A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF NEWS
REPORTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE IN
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

MASTER THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES
AND HUMANITIES

Danang, 2015


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

LE THI ANH

A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF NEWS
REPORTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE IN
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

Field: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Code: 60.22.02.01

MASTER THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES
AND HUMANITIES

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. LUU QUY PHUONG

Danang, 2015


i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis
contains no material published elsewhere of extracted in a whole, or in part
from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or
diploma.
No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in
the thesis.
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or
diploma in any other tertiary institution.
Danang, May 2015
Signature

Lê Thị Anh


ii

ABSTRACT
There is growing concern over climate change all over the world,
especially, when climate change currently causes a lot of disasters such as
floods, drought… Therefore, how to write articles effectively, especially
articles on climate change should be paid considerable attention to. The study
aims at analyzing the typical discourse features of news reports on climate

change in English and Vietnamese as well as discovering similarities and
differences between the two languages in terms of layout, syntactic features,
lexical choice and cohesive devices.
There were five methods used in this thesis: Qualitative and quantitative
methods, statistic and descriptive methods, analytic and synthetic methods,
comparative and contrastive methods, inductive method.
There were 60 samples of news reports on climate change (30 in
English and 30 in Vietnamese), collected from the internet for analysis.
The findings show that news reports on climate change in English and
Vietnamese employ a variety of syntactic features such as simple sentences,
compound sentences, a complex sentence, a compound-complex sentence,
comparative construction. Besides, reference, ellipsis, conjunction and
repetition in both English and Vietnamese news reports were also exploited in
cohesive devices.
The research result is hoped to be of some contribution to the writers,
especially journalists and help them be more aware of the mission of news
reports in the attempt to protect the environment and raise people’s
awareness.


iii

TABLES OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................ i
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................... iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................... vi
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................ vii
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 1
1.1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ......................................................... 1

1.2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ....................................................................... 2
1.2.1. Aims of the Study ......................................................................... 2
1.2.2. Objectives of the Study ................................................................. 2
1.3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY .......................................................................... 2
1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS........................................................................ 3
1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ........................................................... 3
1.6. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY ........................................................ 3
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL
BACKGROUND ............................................................................................. 5
2.1. PREVIOUS RESEARCHES RELATED TO THE STUDY ..................... 5
2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................... 7
2.2.1. Theory of Discourse Analysis ...................................................... 7
2.2.2. Fundamental Syntactic Features of Discourse............................ 11
2.2.3. News Reports and Climate Change ............................................ 14
2.2.4. Cohesive Features ...................................................................... 17
CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURES ................... 30
3.1. RESEARCH METHODS ........................................................................ 30
3.2. SAMPLES AND POPULATION ............................................................ 31


iv

3.3. DATA ANALYSIS .................................................................................. 32
3.4. RESEARCH PROCEDURES .................................................................. 32
CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ......................................... 34
4.1. LAYOUT OF NEWS REPORTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE IN
ENGLISH AND NEWS REPORTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE IN
VIETNAMESE ............................................................................................... 34
4.1.1. Layout of NRCCE ...................................................................... 34
4.1.2. Layout of NRCCV ...................................................................... 47

4.1.3. Comparison of NRCCE and NRCCV in Terms of Layout ........ 55
4.2. SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF NRCCE AND NRCCV ......................... 56
4.2.1. Syntactic Features of NRCCE .................................................... 56
4.2.2. Syntactic Features of NRCCV .................................................... 63
4.2.3. Comparison of NRCCE and NRCCV in Terms of Syntactic
Features ........................................................................................................... 69
4.3. LEXICAL FEATURES OF NRCCE AND NRCCV .............................. 70
4.3.1. Lexical Features of NRCCE ....................................................... 70
4.3.2. Lexical Features of NRCCE ....................................................... 73
4.3.3. Comparison of NRCCE and NRCCV in Terms of Lexical
Features ........................................................................................................... 76
4.4. COHESIVE DEVICES OF NRCCE AND NRCCV ............................... 77
4.4.1. Cohesive Devices of NRCCE ..................................................... 77
4.4.2. Cohesive Devices of NRCCV .................................................... 82
4.4.3. Comparison of NRCCE and NRCCV in Terms of Cohesive
Devices ............................................................................................................ 86
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .......................... 88
5.1. A SUMMARY OF RESULTS ................................................................. 88
5.2. IMPLICATIONS...................................................................................... 90


v

5.3. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ........................................................... 92
5.4. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH .................................... 93
REFERENCES
QUYẾT ĐỊNH GIAO ĐỀ TÀI LUẬN VĂN (bản sao)
APPENDIX

vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
NRCC

: News reports on climate change

NRCCE

: News reports on climate change in English

NRCCV

: News reports on climate change in Vietnamese


vii

LIST OF TABLES

Number

Name of Tables

of Tables

Page

4.1.

Layout of NRCCE

47

4.2.

Distribution of Sentence Types in NRCCE

59

4.3.

Distribution of Comparison Constructions in NRCCE

60

4.4.

Distribution of Voice in NRCCE

63

4.5.

Distribution of Sentence Types in NRCCV

65

4.6.

Distribution of Comparison Constructions in NRCCV

67

4.7.

Distribution of Voice in NRCCV

68

4.8.

Summary of Lexical Features of NRCCE

73

4.9.

Summary of Lexical Features of NRCCV

76

4.10.

Distribution of Cohesive Devices of NRCCE

82

4.11.

Distribution of Cohesive Devices of NRCCV

86


1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Climate change and global warming refer to an increase in average
global temperatures. Natural events and human activities are believed to be
contributing to an increase in average global temperatures. A warming planet
thus leads to a change in climate which can affect weather in various ways.
This is caused primarily by increases in “greenhouse” gases such as carbon
dioxide (CO2), and so on.
Many scientists, governments, companies, international institutions,
and other organizations agree that climate change may be one of the greatest
threats facing the planet. Climate change taking place in many countries all
over the world influences human’s life. Meanwhile, Vietnam is one of the ten
countries which gets the worst effect from climate change. Many major
conferences in recent years are have made people aware of the problem and
find out the solution for this issue. The speeches on climate change were
given by many famous people in different countries, different cultures, from
the leaders of the governments, scientists to the actors and event young
people. Mass media also gave reports on the climate change to call for the
global action to improve the situation.
The US and Vietnamese presses have an important role in reporting
the information on climate change at the major conferences in their countries.

They help us to know how the weather change in the world, particularly in the
USA and in Vietnam and how to protect the global environment.
Recognizing the importance of climate change problem as well as the
way of writing news reports of the US presses and Vietnamese presses, I have


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decided to choose the topic "A Discourse Analysis of News Reports on Climate
Change in English and Vietnamese." to study as the topic of my M.A thesis.
1.2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1.2.1. Aims of the Study
This study aims at examining the layout, syntactic features, lexical
choice and cohesive devices used in news reports on climate change in
English and Vietnamese and from the sources including the websites,
newspapers relating to climate change. The findings of the study can help
Vietnamese teachers and learners to know about the layout, the syntactic
features, lexical choice and cohesive devices used in news reports on climate
change in English and Vietnamese.
1.2.2. Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this research are:
- To find out discourse features in terms of layout, syntactic features,
lexical choice and cohesive devices in news reports on climate change in
English and Vietnamese.
- To find out the similarities and differences of discourse features in
terms of layout, lexical choice and cohesive devices in News Reports on
climate change in English and Vietnamese.
- To suggest some implications of the study for Vietnamese teachers
and learners in applying the layout, syntactic features, lexical choice and
cohesive devices of News Reports in learning and teaching English

1.3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study mainly focused on discourse analysis of news reports on
climate change in English and Vietnamese in terms of layout, syntactic
features, lexical choice and cohesive devices. There is no attention to focus on
other linguistic features such as pragmatic features, etc.


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1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research attempted to answer the following questions:
1. What are discourse features of news reports on climate change in
English in terms of layout, syntactic features, lexical choice and
cohesive devices?
2. What are discourse features of news reports on climate change in
Vietnamese in terms of layout, syntactic features, lexical choice and
cohesive devices?
3. What are similarities and differences between English and
Vietnamese news reports on climate change in terms of layout,
syntactic features, lexical choice and cohesive devices?
1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The analysis of layout, syntactic features, lexical choice and cohesive
devices of news reports on climate change in English and Vietnamese can
help Vietnamese teachers and learners in applying the above linguistic
features to teaching and learning. The implications of the study are certainly
helpful for Vietnamese teachers and learners to get knowledge of a news
discourse, especially news reports on climate change.
1.6. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
The research consists of five chapters as follows:
Chapter 1, Introduction, includes the introduction, the aims and

objectives, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study
and the organization of the study.
Chapter 2, Literature Review and Theoretical Background
reviewed some previous studies related to the topic of discourse analysis of
news reports on climate change in English and Vietnamese. Also, this chapter
presented the theoretical background for the analysis of problems in the next
chapters.


4

Chapter 3, Research Design and Methodology described the research
methods,

description

of

samples,

data

collection,

data

analysis,

instrumentation, research procedures, reliability and validity of the research.
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion analysed the collected data in

terms of layout, syntactic features, lexical choice and cohesive devices. Also
it found out the similarities and differences between news reports on climate
change in English and Vietnamese.
Chapter 5, Conclusions and Implications, summarized the main
points discussed throughout the study and the major findings of the
investigation. The implications of the study were suggested for Vietnamese
teachers and learners in applying the research result to learning and teaching
English.


5

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This chapter offered the background for the study which was divided into
two parts, the previous studies and the theoretical background. The former gave
a brief review of the previous researches related to both discourse analysis and
news reports. The latter focused on discussing and clarifying some essential and
dominant concepts definitely repeated again and again in this paper. As for
discourse, some linguistic terms needed interpreting such as discourse, discourse
analysis, cohesion and coherence. In addition, an overview of news reports on
climate change was also taken into consideration in this chapter.
2.1. PREVIOUS RESEARCHES RELATED TO THE STUDY
With regard to discourse, there have been some outstanding publications
contributing to the understanding of this term as well as putting its theory into
practice of discourse analysis. Cook [6] illustrated the term of discourse as well
as discourse analysis and recommended its practical relevance to the language
learning and teaching. Johnstone [19] investigated the relationship between

discourse and various aspects of context, such as linguistic structures,
participants and prior discourse. In addition, Chimombo and Roseberry [4]
explained the concepts of language and discourse by giving several empirical
examples and practice exercises that focus on different fields such as education,
medicine, law, media and literature. Halliday [13] focused on the application of
systemic functional grammar to the analysis of texts in both written and spoken
forms as well as the register factors in discourse.McCarthy [21] did not stop at
theory and description of discourse analysis with real data in both spoken and
written forms, but tried to show many ways of adapting new findings in


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description to the everyday business of teaching which are really useful for
teachers.
Diệp Quang Ban [38] paid much attention to cohesive devices in
Vietnamese texts. Remarkably, Nguyễn Hòa [46] gave a systematic description
of discourse and discourse analysis both theoretically and practically with
specific evidences.
As far as the investigation into news is concerned, a number of writers
have discussed some aspects of language in journalism. Typically, Crystal [7]
took into consideration the language of newspaper reporting through chosen
extracts of journalist writing. Thorne [32] synthesized all key features of
newspaper language and supplied many necessary skills as well as knowledge
for learners to study language effectively. Remarkably, Van Dijk [36] on the one
hand, presented a series of examples to interpret the structures used in the
national and international news in the press. On the other hand, he contributed to
summarizing the discourse analysis theory in terms of the processes and
structures of news reports.
At the University of Danang, there have been some graduation theses

which give an insight into the characteristics of news and brief news. Trương
Văn Lành [34] paid much attention to the newspaper headlines in terms of
syntactic structures and made a comparison between English newspaper
headlines and Vietnamese ones. Nguyễn Thị Phước Đa [24] investigated the
lexical characteristics of brief news and showed the way of choosing words that
can bring propaganda effects to this kind of news. Also researching on brief
news, Nguyễn Phỉ Đính [23] attempted to find out and analyze all forms of
substitutions used to make the cohesion in English and Vietnamese brief news.
As to news transcript, Võ Thị Kim Thoa [35] found out the prominent
linguistic features commonly used in Macrostructure and Microstructure of
English Radio News Transcripts and Vietnamese ones.


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Trần Thị Mỹ Tín [33] investigated the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic
features of speech act verbs in English and Vietnamese TV news transcript and
on the basis of what she found out, some implications for teaching and learning
English and Vietnamese were suggested.
However, to the best of my knowledge, there has been no evidence
showing that someone has studied the discourse features of the news reports on
climate change before. Hence, A Discourse Analysis of News Reports on
Climate Change in English and Vietnamese was conducted with the aim of
supplementing more information to the background knowledge of the discourse
of news reports.
2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.2.1. Theory of Discourse Analysis
a. Notion of Discourse and Discourse Analysis
So far linguists have made great efforts to reach a unified definition of
discourse.

Giving the definition of discourse on the basis of its form and syntax,
some scholars have shared the same idea that discourse is a stretch of language
including more than one sentence; however, the term “discourse” is still defined
in different ways. Typically, Cook [6; p.156] regarded “discourse as a stretch of
language perceived to be meaningful, unified and purposive”. To assert the
coherence of discourse, Crystal [7; p.25] added: “Discourse is a continuous
stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting
a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative”. Still focusing
on the coherence but expressing in another way, Nunan [26; p.5] maintained:
“Discourse can be defined as a stretch of language consisting of several
sentences which are perceived as being related in some way”. Later on, Salkie
[30; p.ix] defined discourse succinctly as “a stretch of language that may be
longer than one sentence”.


8

Some other linguists considered discourse in terms of its function as
language in use. Brown and Yule [2; p.1; 1983] stated very clearly that
“…discourse… is language in use…”. Additionally, Widdowson [37; p.100]
viewed discourse as “a communicative process. Its situation outcome is a change
in a state of affairs: information is conveyed, intentions made clear, its linguistic
product is Text”.
Based on the above-mentioned definitions, it is clear that the term
discourse can be understood in various ways depending on various schools;
however, this concept in this paper is regarded as follows:
- Discourse can be constituted by the combination of many sentences.
- Discourse is a language unit which has meaning, unity and purpose.
- Discourse is language in use, for communication.
Discourse analysis has become one of the most far-reaching fields in

linguistics for the past decades. It studies how stretches of language become
meaningful and unified for their users. Therefore, discourse analysts are
committed to extended texts, beyond sentences or utterances. According to
Stubbs [37, p.1], discourse analysis “is concerned with not only language use
beyond the boundaries of a sentence/utterance, but also interrelationships
between language and society, and the interactive or dialogic properties of
everyday communication”.
b. Cohesion and Coherence
b1. Cohesion
Basically, cohesion can be understood as the glue that holds a piece of
writing together. It refers to the formal relationship that causes texts to cohere or
stick together. According to Cook [6; p.14], “formal links between sentences and
between clauses are known as cohesive devices”. These cohesive devices are
usually in a close connection with verb form, parallelism, referring expressions,


9

repetition, lexical chains, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction.
Cohesion may be crudely defined as “the way certain words or
grammatical features of a sentence can connect that sentence to its predecessors
(and successors) in a text” Hoey [15; p.3]. Based on this definition, the setting of
each sentence in a text is created in connection with others sentences
surrounding it. This connection is well handled by sentence-bound grammars,
such as pronominalization, ellipsis, sentence conjunction and so on that require
the reader to consider the surroundings for their interpretation.
Similarly, Halliday and Hasan [11] defined that “cohesion is how words
and expressions are connected using cohesive devices” which could be divided
into five groups: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical
cohesion. Additionally, these two authors have asserted that cohesion occurs

“where the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that
of another. The one presupposes the other, in the sense that it cannot be
effectively decoded except by recourse to it” [11; p.4]. When this happens, a
cohesive relation is established, and the two elements, the presupposing and the
presupposed, are thereby at least potentially integrated into text. In other words,
this definition suggests that cohesion is as a tie between two linguistic forms that
assists a text with its sense of wholeness.
In sum, cohesion can be understood as all linguistic forms which on the
one hand link one part of the text to another grammatically and lexically. On the
other hand, based on these linguistic forms, the semantic relations between these
elements in a text can be shown for interpretation.
b2. Coherence
Cohesion definitely plays an important role in interpreting the meaning
of a discourse. However, it would be a mistake to think that meaning can be
or is only achieved by syntactic structures and lexical items or cohesive


10

devices used in a linguistic message. Sometimes we can recognize a discourse
in form but cannot claim to have understood, simply because we need more
information. This can be clarified by Brown and Yule [2] with a series of
examples shown below:
[2.1]“Within five minutes, or ten minutes, no more than that, three of the
others had called her on the phone to ask her if she had heard that
something had happened out there”

[2; p.223]

[2.2] Epistemics Seminar: Thursday 3rd June, 2.00 p.m

Steve Harlow (Department of Linguistics, University York)
Welsh and Generalised Phrase Structure Grammar’
(From an Edinburgh University notice board)
[2.3] Find the Ball. Win a house. Page 4

[2; p.223]
[1; p.224]

It is clear to realize that the first example with perfect grammatical
sentence seems to be unintelligible. Conversely, the other examples are
presented in sentences, thus without syntactically well-formedness, yet no one
would find it easy to understand. To account for this, these authors have listed
several factors, except cohesion, supporting us in interpreting the meaning which
eventually leads to the assumption of coherence. Concretely, this assumption
allows readers or hearers to make sense of the message in which the elements are
seen to be connected with or without overt linguistic connections between those
elements [1; p.224].
Sharing the same opinions with two authors above, Cook [6; p.4] viewed
coherence as the quality of being meaningful and unified “which is clearly
necessary for communication and for foreign language learning, but which
cannot be explained by concentrating on the internal grammar of sentences”.
That is the reason why people do not always speak or write in complete
sentences, yet they still succeed in communication.


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In conclusion, coherence and cohesion are two interrelated aspects mostly
occurring in discourse analysis. Concretely, cohesion embraces all grammatical
and lexical links which aims at achieving the coherence in discourse, yet

cohesion alone sometimes cannot fully account for coherence. Therefore, it is
plausible to say that coherence can be seen as a broad concept in which cohesion
is one of its manifestations.
2.2.2. Fundamental Syntactic Features of Discourse
a. Sentence Types
According to Downing and Locke [9; p.272], "The term 'sentence' is
widely used to refer to quite different types of units. Grammatically, it is the
highest unit and consists of one independent clause, or two or more related
clauses. Orthographically and rhetorically, it is that unit which starts with a
capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark."
Sentences can be classified into four types: simple sentence, compound
sentence, complex sentence and compound-complex sentence.
 A simple sentence basically consists of one independent clause.
 A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses
usually connected by a coordinator, a colon, a comma or a semicolon.
 A complex sentence contains one independent clause and one (or
more) dependent clause.
 A compound-complex sentence contains two or more independent
clauses and one or more dependent clauses.
Additionally, with respect to styling sentences, Dietsch [8; p.92]
claimed: “Effective sentences can be plain or ornate, simple or complex,
short or long, depending on the purpose. The design and strength of sentences
depend on the topic, the needs of the audience, the occasion for writing, and
the voice of the writer.”


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As regards sentences in Vietnamese, Diệp Quang Ban [40], divided
them into three groups: simple sentences, compound and complex sentences

as shown below with some examples:
 A simple sentence consists of one main clause
[2.4] Anh ấy đá quả bóng.

[39; p.141]

 A compound sentence consists of at least two clauses of which each
clause is relatively independent or it is not embedded. Among these
clauses, there are certain relationships expressed in certain ways.
[2.5] Trời mưa, đường trơn

[40; p.291]

[2.6] Vì anh mách bố nó, nó bị mắng.

[39; p.202]

 A complex sentence contains one independent clause lying outside
and one (or more than one) embedded and dependent clause serving
as one (or more than one) constituent of the clause lying outside.
[2.7] Chuột chạy làm vỡ đèn.

[40; p.291]

Apart from these sentences types, Diệp Quang Ban [39; p.153] also
mentions another kind of sentence: special simple sentence which can be
defined as follows:
 A special simple sentence is constituted of one word or phrase.
Besides, this kind of sentence can be divided into two groups: special
simple sentence – noun and special simple sentence – predicate.

[2.8] Một thứ im lặng ghê người.

[39; p.153]

[2.9] Có lọ hoa trên bàn.

[39; p.158]

[2.10] Ra sân bay đón đoàn có các ông….

[39; p.154]

The scalar comparison is relevant to the relative position of objects on a
scale whereas the non-scalar comparison is used to refer to the same or
difference [18; p.1100]. Here are some examples in English and Vietnamese
to demonstrate the above diagram:


13
 Comparison of equality:
[2.11] John is as stupid as Bob (is). (scalar)
[2.12] I took the same bus as last time. (non-scalar)

[30; p.13]
[18; p.1099]

 Comparison of inequality:
[2.13] I took a different bus from last time. (non-scalar)

[18; p.1099]

[2.14] Ed is more tolerant than he used to be. (superiority) [18; p.1101]
[2.15] Ed khoan dung hơn trước đây. (superiority)

[50; p.44]

[2.16] Ed made the most mistakes of them all. (superlative)
[18; p.1101]
[2.17] Ed mắc nhiều lỗi nhất trong tất cả.(superlative)

[50; p.44]

b. Voice
According to Wikipedia [60], “in grammar, the voice of a verb
describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb
expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object,
etc.). When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the
active voice. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of the
action, it is said to be in the passive voice.”
The active voice can be considered as the dominant voice, however; the
passive is particularly useful in certain circumstances. As stated by Quirk
[29], the passive is more commonly used in informative than in imaginative
writing, and is notably frequent in the objective, impersonal style of scientific
article and news reporting. Additionally, Halliday [13] established the
construction of a passive sentence as follows:
Goal + V passive (be/get + P.P) + by + Actor/Agent
Actor/Agent: the one that does the deed
Goal: the one that suffers or undergoes the process

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With regard to passive voice in Vietnamese, there are many opposite
opinions on its existence. According to Diệp Quang Ban [40], some
Vietnamese linguists reject the existence of passive voice since in
Vietnamese; there are no verbs in passive voice to distinguish from verbs in
active voice. While the others take a firm stand that sentences in passive voice
are in existence in Vietnamese. Diệp Quang Ban and Nguyễn Thị Thuận [41]
Hoàng Trọng Phiến [50] and Lê Xuân Thại [51] believed that Vietnamese has
its own ways of expressing passive meanings, that is, by means of words
“bị”, “được” or “do” and the following word order:
Goal + bị/được/do + (Agent) + Vtransitive
2.2.3. News Reports and Climate Change
a. Notion of News Reports
According to Hornby [16; p856] news is reports of recent events that
appear in newspaper or on television or radio. With this definition it can be seen
that news and news reports can be used interchangeably.
According to Wikipedia [58], news report was defined as follows:
“News reports is the communication of selected information on current
events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a
third party or mass audience.”
To give a full description of news reports, Đinh Văn Hường [47] provided
some definitions of news reports as follows:
“News reports is something today different from yesterday, tomorrow is
different from today about anything and anywhere in daily life” or “News
reports is a piece of information around a remarkable event, has a general
attraction”, “News reports is what is reflected again” or finally “News Reports
is something a person wants to keep as a secret but other wants to reveal”

15

In brief, from the above definitions and from the criteria required for this
thesis, news reports can be understood as the information about “current events
which is presented by print or the Internet to a third party or mass audience”.
b. Layout of News Reports
According to Hornby [16], layout is defined as “the way in which the
parts of something such as the paper of a book, a garden or a building are
arranged according to a plan”. With such a definition, we may define the
layout of discourse in general and discourse of news in particular as the way that
the writers arrange the sentences or ideas in the discourse.
In a discourse in general and the discourse of news report in particular, the
layout plays an important role in presenting ideas. If all ideas in a discourse are
arranged in a reasonable way, it will certainly be intelligible to readers.
Conversely, putting ideas in the wrong position may inevitably lead to the loss of
concentration on the main points at the readers and let their mind wander with
the unnecessary details.
Researching on the way to organize the ideas in discourse of news in
English, Nguyễn Hòa [46; p.213] viewed that the layout of the discourse of news
consisted of two main parts which were called the “summary” and the
“development”. These two parts were subdivided into six parts concretely shown
in the following diagram:
Discourse of news

Summary

Headline

Topic sentence

Development

Background

Elaboration

Comment

Result


16

c. Climate Change
According

to

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climate-change: Climate change is a change in global or regional climate
patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid tolate 20 th century
onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon
dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.
Climate change is a long-term change in the statistical distribution of
weather patterns over periods of time that range from decades to millions of
years. It may be a change in the average weather conditions or a change in the
distribution of weather events with respect to an average, for example, greater
or fewer extreme weather events. Climate change may be limited to a specific
region, or may occur across the whole earth. However, the planet's surface has
warmed by about 0.75° C on average since the start of the 20th century and by

about 0.4° C since the '70s.
In the context of river management, changes that bring about extremes
of drought, rainfall, and temperature present yet more challenges to the
ecological stability of Usk, Wye or in fact any river. In addition to the overall
need for everyone to ensure extreme care is taken in using resources such as
fossil fuels, water etc, WUF makes sure that our habitat restoration has
climate change features. Ideally, restored streams should feature:
c1. Language of Climate Change.
According to Hornby [16], climate change is the changing in the
earth’s weather, including changes in temperature, wind pattern and rain fall,
especially the increase in the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere that is
caused by the increase of particular gases, especially carbon dioxide.