DIRECTNESS AND INDIRECTNESS IN MAKING REQUESTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMSESE

Tóm tắt

Recently, it has been recognized that it is not possible to become
proficient in a foreign language without being aware of its socio-cultural factors and
comparing the language with the native language to avoid communication problems
and culture shock. It has also been observed that many English students impose their
culture when using this problem in real-life communication. Sometimes, non-native
English speakers wonder why the expressions and sentences they use in certain
situations offend British people. There are many research works on requests, but they
belong only to intra-linguistics or mono-linguistics. In this article, I refer to ways of
making requests that focus on some specific elements on the basis of politeness
theory, which are directness and indirectness and similarities and differences in
making a request between English and Vietnamese languages.