Politeness and Consciousness of Learners
Graduation Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of
English Language and Literature
Notre Dame Seishin University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts
by
Ayaka Horie
2015
Contents
Abstract1
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction3
1.2 Introduction to politeness3
1.2.1 Definition4
1.2.2 Politeness and register5
1.2.3 Politeness in English6
1.2.4 Politeness in Japanese6
1.2.5 Comparing politeness in Japanese and English7
1.3 The role of politeness in foreign language learning8
1.3.1 A misunderstanding or unpleasantness which verbal behaviors cause8
1.3.2 The effectiveness of the guidance about politeness strategy8
1.4 Research Questions9
1.5 Conclusion10
Chapter 2: The Experiment
2.1 Introduction11
2.2 The Questionnaire11
2.2.1 Introduction to the questionnaire11
2.2.2 Method11
1) Subjects11
2) Test design12
2) Procedure12
2.2.3 Results12
2.3 Summary51
Chapter 3: Discussion
3.1 Introduction53
3.2 Summary of the results53
3.3 Discussion of the results54
3.3.1 The consciousness of learners54
3.3.2 What is being polite for learners?55
3.3.3 English education in junior high or high school56
3.4 Research questions57
3.5 Implications58
3.6 Limitation of the questionnaire58
3.7 Further research58
3.8 Conclusion59
References60
Appendices61
Abstract
Language is the one of many communication tools. We usually change our manner of expressions to suit the occasion in order to communicate smoothly. Also, we consider the feelings of other people to establish and keep human relations. For establishing communication in English, we need to understand that English is not only for transmitting information but also for building and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, if there are differences of dealing with interpersonal relationships with each culture and language, we will not be able to communicate well without learning them.
In Chapter One, we looked at the definition of politeness. We should know what politeness is. Then, we compared the difference of politeness between Japanese and English. Also, we found out the role of politeness in language learning through a misunderstanding or unpleasantness, and the effectiveness of the guidance about politeness strategiesy.
In Chapter Two, this chapter explained the questionnaire, which was collected on the Web, at the beginning. After that, we analyzed the results of the questionnaire. 52 students at Notre Dame Seishin University answered the questions. There are were three sections in the questionnaire. The first section was about the consciousness of students about being polite and politeness expressionspolite expressions. The next section was about the students’ understanding of being polite. The last section was about the remarks of the students’ thoughts on learning politeness.
In Chapter Three, we discussed the results of the questionnaire in detail, and looked at the research questions. There was the a difference of in the students’ consciousness between Japanese and English. Although most students think that being polite in Japanese is important, the number of the students who think that being polite in English is important drasticallydecreasedlower.
1
Chapter 1Politeness
1.1 Introduction
Communication is the way of conveying information or expressing one’s thoughts, feelings and perception. We use expressions/looks, words and gestures to convey or interpret information. Language is the one of communication tools. We usually change our manner of expressions to suit the occasion, because we hope that communication goes smoothly and also, we consider the feelings of other people to establish and keep human relations.
In recent years, many people from different countries have visited Japan on business, for trips, or study. Japanese people also go abroad for various purposes, too. The Olympics will be held in Tokyo in 2020. The members of Olympic teams from every country and many spectators/tourists will come to Japan. Therefore, Japan needs Japanese people who can speak English will be needed. It is not only organizations which is related to the Olympics administration but also the service industries like hotels and restaurants. Those things might give the realistic necessity of English to school education.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology presented English education corresponded to globalization reform enforcement plan on December in 2013. Actions of improving students' ability in English as a communication tool would be promoted.
For establishing communication in English, we need to understand that English is not only for transmitting information but also building and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, if there are differences of dealing with interpersonal relationships each culture and language, we will not be able to communicate well without learning themabout each other. One way to do this is to learn how to be polite in another culture.
1.2 Introduction to politeness
In this section, we will look at the theory of politeness. Brown and Levinson published ‘Universals in language usage: politeness phenomena’ in 1978. Then, in 1987, they published the revised edition; ‘Politeness: some universals in language usage’. Their theoryare is mentioned inthe various kinds of fields of studyies.
1.2.1 Definition
Politeness is social verbal behavior to establish and keep smooth personal relations. There are various approaches to politeness, for instance, language expression, and pragmatics. The most comprehensive theory of politeness is offered by Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987). [RW1]According to Brown and Levinson, people have two desires. Politeness strategies are a necessity to satisfy the desires. The two desires are of positive face and negative face.
Positive face
Positive face is a desire that for people to want the interlocutor to think that their wish or desire is desirable[RW2].
Negative face
Negative face is a desire that for people think to do what they want, and want the interlocutor not to instruct them to do or oppress them[RW3].
Positive Politeness
There are positive politeness and negative politeness. Positive politeness is directed towards the addressee’s positive face. It means that the speaker makes sure to treat the hearer as a member of an in-group, and the speaker does not have to keep thea hearer at a distance, for instance, using first names, using peer language, and jokes. These are easy to approach mentally[RW4].
Negative politeness
Negative politeness is oriented toward the addressee’s negative face. This is achieved through the employment of linguistics, for instance, honorifics (honorific language, polite language, and humble language) in Japanese. People use these expressions when they have to keep a person at a distance[RW5].
1.2.2 Politeness and register
Register means a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. In other words, it is a variety of expressions which are occurs by a purpose of utterance, a content of utterance[RW6], a way of communication, social attribute of communication participants, relationship between communication participants and social occasions.
According to Hallidayan linguistics, register is classified as follows.
(1) Field of discourse: There are things about cognitive use and phatic use in the field. The latter is the language use to construct the psychological connection of a speaker and the listener. Formal platitudes and greetings are typical examples. The content words and various grammar points are affected mainly by the field. Common spoken languages, official announcements, lectures, narrations of ghost stories, scientific articles, legal documents, novels, and e-mails have appropriate expressions or grammar points for each. It is like a genre and a subject.
(2) Mode of discourse: This is divided into a spoken language and a written language. Both are often contraposed in language use. Practically, however, the relations of both are complicated.
(3) Style (tenor) of discourse: It correspondsto the degree of be ceremoninality and ous dependsing on the relations of a speaker and a listener. Style of discourse is not an either, or phenomenon, but It forms the a series of continuuam which is not able to sort definitely, for instance, frozen, formal, consultative (unmarked), casual, and intimate.
1.2.3 Politeness in English
In English, people tends to shorten their distance from others by using a first name or a nickname when calling people or in conversation, giving a back-channel feedback / an emphatic response, answering with additional information, making a compliment, asking questions about them, and watering down their language when they give a hearer negative feedback about the hearer’s opinion or thought. The communication in English places a great deal of weight on positive politeness.
1.2.4 Politeness in Japanese
The sense of values of personal relationships of the Japanese culture is reflected in being polite which Japanese people think. [RW7]The consideration to others is necessary is a principle of universal language use, but the ways of consideration are different by each language and culture. Politeness is universal in a meaning the consideration to others, but there is a difference between Japanese and English. The Japanese characteristic is not usually conscious of for native speakers (Japanese people).
Being polite and being courteous have an approximately similar meaning. However, polite attitudes in Japanese society does not include being familiar as positive politeness. To keep a distance and to emphasize that there is not a common ground is regarded as a polite attitude to strangers of acquaitances..
To express close friendshisp positively is regarded as too familiar, so it doesthey do not have a polite attitude meaning[RW8]. In Japan, people express close friendship to only really close people. If they take on a familiar attitude with strangers, others think that it is not polite[RW9].
The National Language Council (2000) proposed that a new framework of a wording as “deferential expressions” (Keii-hyougen) in the urbanization, internationalization and information society in the 21th century.
1.2.5 Comparing politeness in Japanese and English
The research by Ide and others (1986) [RW10]showed as the following things. The most different point between Japanese and (American) English is that people choose their words depending on how much they know others or situations. Japanese is the “discernment system” in politeness. Japanese people use linguistic representations which is are decided depending on the interlocutors to some extent socially. The behavior by the discernment system is passive, and it follows the customs and precepts of a society and a culture. For the discernment system, speakers and listeners are controlled by “places” where politeness occurs. People follow the behaviors of words which the places prescribe (Ide, 2005). On the other hand, American English is the a “volitional system”. American English speakers positively express their respect for listeners or adjust thea mental distance from others. In other words, a language form is not prescribed by human relations and formal places. It is a point what speakers say for what kind of intention[RW11].
1.3 The role of politeness in foreign language learning
When we use foreign languages in the field of practice, we need to know the verbal behaviors (linguistic habits) in a society or a community in which the language is used. Even if it is thea same language as “English”, the linguistic action depends on each society like the U.K., the U.S. and Australia. If English learners in Japanese study or work in the U.S., the knowledge which they need to know are is not only vocabulary and grammars.
1.3.1A misunderstanding or unpleasantness which verbal behaviors cause
Shigemitsu and otherset. al. (2006[RW12]) verified how the same verbal behaviors of Japanese and different languages (English) cause a misunderstanding or make people displeaseding in each cultural and social background from a viewpoint of politeness. The verbal behaviors of “do not answer clearly/ do not give definite answer” and “be noncommittal” which Japanese people caused a misunderstanding and made people displeased[RW13]ing. Those These things correspond to the main strategy of Brown and Levinson. Moreover, “do not say anything” gave a misunderstanding or a bad impression. [RW14]In Japan, when people try to maintain human relations to not to bring about a conflict of opinions or a trouble, so they refrain from giving their opinions which might be opposed in advance. A conflict of opinion is directly connected with human relations, and also connected with a denial of personality.
1.3.2. The effectiveness of the guidance about politeness strategy
Murata. K. and Otani (2002[RW15]). M. researched two points as follows in 2002:.
(1)If the beginner or intermediate-level English learners are taught about the positive politeness strategy, their conversation and consciousness of communication in English will change or not.
(2)Under the direction, it has any effect for the improvement of learners’ oral communication or not.
The six strategies were chosen to be taughteach. There were a) Address form, b) Back channeling, c) Answer with additional information, d) Compliment, e) Showing interest, and f) Softener. The learners got the handout with which was written about the explanations of each strategy in Japanese and example sentences. Then, they practiced conversation among them.
According to their questionnaire, about 80% subjects% of the subjects answered that the knowledge of positive politeness strategy was helpful in conversation. Moreover, Murata and Otani conducted a follow-up survey in 2003. they cCompared with learners who did not learn the strategies with , the learners who learned themdid whowere able to be considerate with partners in English conversation. Thus, politeness was can be made conscious by an explicit guidance, and the guidance was effective for the smooth conversations.
1.4 Research Questions
As we saw above, there are the differences between politeness in Japanese and English, and understanding politeness is important for a good communication. If Japanese people who learn / learned English communicate with people from different countries without knowledge about considerations in languages, there might be some problems like misunderstanding or unpleasantness, and then they will think that they will be wasting their study. Accordingly, the author wonders that the conscious guidance about personal relations in class is in demand. This thesis will research whether students remember and use what they learned about polite expressions, and will look at their consciousness about politeness.
Research Questions:
1. What do students think about the necessity to be polite in English?
2. How do Japanese people who learned polite expressions in English, remember them?
3. Do students think that they should study how to use polite expressions in class?
1.5 Conclusion
By Due to internationalization, nowadays, the number of chances for communicating with people from different countries hasve gradually increased. Therefore, English education in school will be regarded as still even more important in the future. However, when doing so wWe should choose our words carefully to avoid making people unpleasant for a good communication. In order to do that, to understand different communication styles isnecessary. This thesis will look for the consciousness of English learners for understanding about being polite in Japanese and English. We will look the results of the a questionnaire in Chapter Two.
Chapter 2: The Experiment
2.1 Introduction
In Chapter One we discussed the politeness in Japanese and English and the its importance of politeness and found t. There are differences in communication between Japanese and English. In other words, Japanese and English regard different strategies as important. In this chapter, we will find out the consciousness thoughts of students about politeness, and see whether the studentsknow how to use polite expressions, and whether they can use them.
2.2 The Questionnaire
2.2.1 Introduction to the questionnaire
The aims of the questionnaire were to know try to find out how what students think about polite expressions in Japanese and English, and being polite. Alsowe willfind out how what they think about learning politeness in English classes. This thesis focused on finding out whether the students know/understand the positive politeness.
2.2.2 Method
1) Subjects
The subjects were 52 students in English department in Notre Dame Seishin University. 39 students were senior. 10 students were juniors,. 3 students were sophomore. The students who took the questionnaire major in English.
2) Test design
The questionnaire had three sections. The first section number 1 to number 19 which were designed to find out about the learners’ consciousness about being polite in Japanese and English, and whether the learners usually can use polite expressions in English which they learned. The second section was consisted of questions from number 20 to number 24 which find tried to out how they think about being polite. The last section was about whether the subjects learned how to communicate in English in class, and how they think about learning politeness strategy.
3) Procedure
This questionnaire was collected on the Web and . It was made on Google Fforms. The subjects answered by choosing one answer (checking the radio button), checking the check boxes, or writing freely. The data which the subjects wrote freely were counted by hands, and translated from Japanese to English by the author.
The data was analyzed by using pie graphs, bar graphs and the tables. There were calculated automatically on Excel.
2.2.3 Results
In this section, we will look at the data from Questions 1 to 19 which asked about what year subjects are in, their consideration about polite expressions in Japanese and English, whether they remember that they studied polite expressions in Japanese, and whether they studied about polite expressions in English at school. Then Later, we will look at the data from Questions 20 to 24 which asked about what being polite is for subjects. At last, we will look at the data from Questions 25 to 37 which asked about whether the subjects learned how to use polite expressions in English at junior high or high school, whether they remember what they learned, and how they think about learning polite expressions in class.
Questions 1 to 19
Q1. What year are you in?
Figure 1: The percentage of subjects’ year in university
Figure 1 shows us that 75% of the subjects who answered the questionnaire were senior students in university. 19% were juniors, and 6% were sophomores.
Q2. Is being polite in Japanese important to you?
Figure 2: The percentage of the subjects’ thought about being polite in Japanese.
Figure 2 shows us that 90 % of the subjects think that being polite in Japanese is important. 6% of thesubjects think that being polite in Japanese is not important. The answer given as “Other” was “It depends.”