VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
TRAN HOANG ANH
A STUDY ON TEACHER’S POLITENESS STRATEGIES
IN THE EFL CLASSROOM
(Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch sự của giáo viên
trong lớp học tiếng Anh)
MA MAJOR THESIS
Major: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201.01
Hanoi, 2019
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
TRAN HOANG ANH
A STUDY ON TEACHER’S POLITENESS STRATEGIES
IN THE EFL CLASSROOM
(Nghiên cứu chiến lược lịch sự của giáo viên
trong lớp học tiếng Anh)
MA MAJOR THESIS
Major: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201.01
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoa
Hanoi, 2019
i
DECLARATION
I hereby state that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, it contains no material that has been accepted or
submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma.
I also declare that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis
contains no material previously published or written by any other person except
where due reference is made in the text of the thesis.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would first like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor,
Prof. Nguyen Hoa, for his precious support and helpful instructions on the
construction of my study, which have always been the decisive factors in the
completion of this paper. The door to Prof. Nguyen Hoa’s office was always
open whenever I ran into a trouble spot or had a question about my research or
writing. He consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me
in the right the direction whenever he thought I needed it.
My sincere gratitude is also addressed to Dr. Huynh Anh Tuan, Dean of
Faculty of Post-graduate studies, and Dr. Hoang Thi Hanh, lecturer in Faculty
of Linguistics and Cultures of English speaking countries, ULIS, VNU, for
their sharing expertise, and critical comments for my thesis proposal.
Thirdly, I would like to send our heartfelt thanks to the teacher and the
students at FELTE, ULIS for their participation in the study. Without their
cooperation and input, the study could not have been successfully conducted.
Furthermore, I would also like to express my appreciation to my friend,
Huy Hoang, for his spending time helping me proofread my thesis.
Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my family and my
friends for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement
throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and
writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without
them.
iii
ABSTRACT
This interpretive-qualitative research aimed at investigating a teacher’s
politeness strategies used in the classroom, how they were recognized
linguistically through her utterances, and her students’ perception of such
language. The data were collected through non-participatory observations and
semi-structured interviews. The data analysis was based on Brown and
Levinson’s politeness theory (1987). The results revealed that the teacher
employed certain types of politeness in her teaching English, namely, bald-on
record strategy, positive politeness and negative politeness. As such, the
teacher created a positive teacher-student interaction and supportive learning
atmosphere. Furthermore, the findings showed that most students found their
teacher’s utterances appropriate and effective for their learning process.
Nevertheless, it came to the researcher’s realization that Brown and Levinson’s
politeness theory could not capture all aspects of Vietnamese people’s
politeness. Cross-cultural communication was taken into consideration during
the data analysis, accordingly, for better interpretation of the occurrence
emerging in the classroom.