POLITENESS IN REQUESTS TO SUPERVISORS IN EMAILS ALI HALLAJIAN FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA KUALA LUMPUR 2014 POLITENESS IN REQUESTS TO SUPERVISORS IN EMAILS ALI HALLAJIAN DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA KUALA LUMPUR 2014 UNIVERSITI MALAYA ORIGINAL LITERARY WORK DECLARATION Name of Candidate: ALI HALLAJIAN (I.C/Passport No: P95424450 ) Registration/Matric No: TGB090048 Name of Degree: MASTER OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE Title of Project Paper/Research Report/Dissertation/Thesis (“this Work”): POLITENESS IN REQUESTS TO SUPERVISORS IN EMAILS Field of Study: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS I do solemnly and sincerely declare that: (1) I am the sole author/writer of this Work; (2) This Work is original; (3) Any use of any work in which copyright exists was done by way of fair dealing and for permitted purposes and any excerpt or extract from, or reference to or reproduction of any copyright work has been disclosed expressly and sufficiently and the title of the Work and its authorship have been acknowledged in this Work; (4) I do not have any actual knowledge nor do I ought reasonably to know that the making of this work constitutes an infringement of any copyright work; (5) I hereby assign all and every rights in the copyright to this Work to the University of Malaya (“UM”), who henceforth shall be owner of the copyright in this Work and that any reproduction or use in any form or by any means whatsoever is prohibited without the written consent of UM having been first had and obtained; (6) I am fully aware that if in the course of making this Work I have infringed any copyright whether intentionally or otherwise, I may be subject to legal action or any other action as may be determined by UM. Candidate’s Signature Date 4 August 2014 Ali Hallajian Subscribed and solemnly declared before, Witness’s Signature Date 4 August 2014 Name: Associate Professor Dr. Kamila Ghazali Designation: Supervisor ABSTRACT This study investigates the politeness/impoliteness of supervisees’ request e-mails to their supervisors at a research university in Malaysia. It aimed at determining how Iranian post-graduate students formulate requests when writing e-mails to their Malaysian supervisors. The research aimed to determine if these requests were direct or indirect and if internal/ external modification was used. These modifiers are used to mitigate or aggravate the imposition force of a request. The aim of the research was to determine how polite or impolite Malaysian supervisors perceived these requests. This data consists of 128 e- mails from 20 Iranian post-graduate students to their Malaysian supervisors. 20 supervisors were provided a questionnaire which was designed, pilot-tested. To achieve the objectives of the study, the move structures in request e-mails to their supervisors were first identified (Baugh, 2011). Next, Economidou-Kogetsidis’s (2011) framework which is based on Blum- Kulka et al. (1989) and Biesenbach-Lucas (2006, 2007) was used to determine the level of directness of requests and the internal and external modifications used. The results show that 14 types of generic elements might occur in the e-mails. The findings suggest that request e-mails usually composed of 4 moves which comprise of obligatory and optional steps within them. This result is in sharp contrast with the findings of Bough (2011). Iranian students mostly tend to use ‘Direct’ and ‘Conventionally Indirect’ requests in their e-mails. More specifically, the use of ‘Query Preparatory’ was very prevalent. However, the analysis of the questionnaire indicates that Malaysian supervisors perceive ‘Conventionally Indirect’ strategy as polite whereas ‘Direct’ strategy as an impolite one. ‘Politeness Marker ‘please’’, ‘Downtoners’ and ‘Time intensifier’ were iii the most used internal modification. In this case, supervisors confirm that if a student uses internal modifications (especially ‘Consultative devices’ and ‘Politeness Marker ‘please’’) in their e-mails they would be considered polite. Students employ ‘Salutation’, ‘Closing’ and ‘Pre-closing/ Thanks’ external modifications to a great extent which were in line with supervisors’ perception of politeness. iv ABSTRAK Kajian ini menyiasat tentang kesopanan/ketidaksopanan dalam e-mel pelajar yang berbentuk permintaan kepada penyelia mereka di sebuah universiti penyelidikan di Malaysia. Ia bertujuan untuk menentukan bagaimana penuntut ijazah lanjutan dari Iran membentuk cara permintaan apabila menulis e-mel kepada penyelia-penyelia mereka dari Malaysia. Penyelidikan ini menyasarkan untuk menentukan jika permintaan-permintaan ini adalah dibuat secara langsung atau tidak langsung dan jika modifikasi dalaman/luaran digunakan. Modifikasi-modifikasi ini digunakan untuk mengurangkan atau memambahkan daya pemaksaan sesuatu permintaan. Tujuan penyelidikan ialah untuk menentukan tanggapan penyelia-penyelia Malaysia tentang apa yang dianggap bersopan atau yang tidak sopan tentang permintaan-permintaan ini. Data ini mengandungi 128 e- mel dari 20 penuntut ijazah lanjutan Iran ke penyelia-penyelia Malaysia mereka. 20 penyelia telah disediakan satu soal selidik yang mana telah direka bentuk dan diuji dalam satu kajian perintis. Untuk mencapai objektif kajian itu, pertamanya struktur-struktur ‘move’ dalam e-mel permintaan mereka kepada penyelia mereka dikenalpasti (Baugh, 2011). Berikutnya, kerangka kerja Economidou-Kogetsidis (2011) yang berdasarkan kepada Blum-Kulka dll. (1989) dan Biesenbach-Lucas (2006, 2007) telah digunakan untuk menentukan tahap kelangsungan dalam permintaan dan modifikasi dalaman dan luaran yang digunakan. Dapatan menunjukkan bahawa 14 jenis elemen generik mungkin didapati dalam e-mel - e-mel tersebut. Penemuan mencadangkan e-mel permintaan itu biasanya terdiri dari 4 ‘moves’ yang terdiri daripada ‘move’ wajib dan pilihan. Dapatan ini adalah sangat berbeza dengan penemuan Bough (2011). v Pelajar-pelajar Iran lebih cenderung untuk menggunakan permintaan yang 'Langsung' dan 'Secara Konvensional Tidak Langsung' dalam e-mel mereka. Secara spesifik, penggunaan ‘Qeury Preparatory' adakah sangat meluas. Bagaimanapun, analisis soal selidik menunjukkan penyelia-penyelia Malaysia menganggap strategi 'Secara Konvensional Tidak Langsung' sebagai sopan manakala strategi 'Langsung' sebagai yang tidak sopan. Penanda Kesopanan 'Please'', 'Downtoners' dan ‘'Time intensifier’ adakah modifikasi dalaman yang banyak digunakan. Dalam kes ini, penyelia mengesahkan bahawa jika seorang pelajar menggunakan modifikasi dalaman (terutamanya 'Consultative devices’ dan ‘Politeness Marker ‘please’) dalam e-mel mereka, mereka dianggap sebagai bersopan. Pelajar menggunakan modifikasi luaran saperti ‘Salutation’, ‘Closing’ dan‘Pre-closing/ Thanks’ secara meluas dan ini sejajar dengan persepsi penyelia tentang kesopanan. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my former supervisor, Prof. Dr. Maya Khemlani David, whom I am profoundly indebted to, for her informative guidance, continuous support, and constructive feedback during every stage of my work on this study. Without her patience and assistance, this seemingly insurmountable task would not be fulfilled. I will always cherish and benefit from this invaluable experience. Invaluable thanks to Associate Prof. Dr. Kamila Binti Ghazali who became my supervisor after Prof. Dr. Maya Khemlani David’s retirement. Without her generous help this dissertation would have been impossible. My deepest appreciation as well goes to Prof. Vijay Bhatia who has provided me with his insightful suggestions for Genre analysis of my data. Many words of gratitude to Iranian students from the University of Malaya who kindly allowed their time to participate in this research and shared their e-mails. Many thanks are due, also to the participating supervisors, whose names could not be mentioned here, without whom this research would not be possible. I would also wish to express my heartfelt appreciation to my dearest friends, Saeed and Narcis, Mahdi and Zahra for their understanding and encouragements, care and friendship, and being always available for my joy and depression throughout my study. No words can convey my infinite gratitude to my family and my wife’s family for being my plentiful source of inspiration and support. Finally, I wish to express my deepest love and gratitude to my wife, Masoumeh. Had it not been for her unconditional love, tremendous support, and endless patience, it would have been impossible for me to complete this research. Most importantly, her confidence and belief that I could be successful in my study was a great motivation. She is my heart and my soul, and I love her more than life itself. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Title Page Original Literary Work Declaration Form ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements vii Table of Contents viii List of Figures xi List of Tables xii List of Appendices xiii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study 1 1.2 Statement of the problem 7 1.3 Objectives of the Study 9 1.4 Research Questions 10 1.5 Significance of the Study 10 1.6 Limitations of the study 11 1.7 Organization of the study 12 1.8 Conclusion 12 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 Introduction 13 2.2 Literature Review 13 2.2.1 Politeness/Impoliteness 13 2.2.2 Indirectness and politeness 18 2.2.3 Genre 21 2.2.4 Supervisee-supervisor Communication 25 2.2.5 Request 27 2.2.6 Interlanguage Request 28 2.2.7 E-mail 31 2.2.8 Requests in Student-Faculty E-mails Communication 33 viii 2.2.9 The Necessity of Research on Students’ E-mails 39 2.2.10 Malaysian Background 42 2.3 Theoretical Frameworks 44 2.3.1 Genre Analysis 44 2.3.2 Directness Level 49 2.3.3 Internal and External Modification 52 2.4 Conclusion 57 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction 58 3.2 Research Design 58 3.2.1 Focus Group Interview 59 3.2.2 Pilot Study 60 3.2.3 Supervisors’ Questionnaire 61 3.3 Subjects 62 3.4 Data 63 3.5 Data Collection 64 3.6 Data Analysis Procedure 66 3.6.1 Genre Analysis 66 3.6.2 Degree of Directness 67 3.6.3 Internal and External Modifications 68 CHAPTER 4 GENRE ANALYSIS OF DATA 4.1 Introduction 70 4.2 Generic Structure of Request E-mails 70 CHAPTER 5 REQUEST STRATEGIES ANALYSIS OF DATA 5.1 Introduction 86 5.2 Directness Level 86 5.3 Request Modification 102 5.3.1 Analysis of Internal Modifications 103 5.3.2 Analysis of External Modifications 109 5.3.3 Questionnaire Analysis 120 CHAPTER 6 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 6.1 Introduction 127 6.2 Discussion 128 6.3 Implications of the Study 136 6.4 Suggestions for Further Research 137 ix