English and Vietnamese business complaint letters: a comparative study from systemic functional perspectives

The main aim of this research is to figure out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese business complaint letters, which is regarded as one of the most popular kinds of business correspondence, in terms of the four aspects of Systemic Functional Grammar namely transitivity, mood, theme and cohesion.
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English and Vietnamese business complaint letters: a comparative study from systemic functional perspectivesPhạm Như Cường và ĐtgTạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ109(09): 51 - 56ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE BUSINESS COMPLAINT LETTERS:A COMPARATIVE STUDY FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVESPham Nhu Cuong1, Nguyen Thi Tuyet2, Lai Thi Thanh2*1College of Economics and Business Administration - TNU2College of Sciences - TNUSUMMARYThe main aim of this research is to figure out the similarities and differences between English andVietnamese business complaint letters, which is regarded as one of the most popular kinds ofbusiness correspondence, in terms of the four aspects of Systemic Functional Grammar namelytransitivity, mood, theme and cohesion.To fulfill this objective, the authors conducted a survey with a sample of 30 complaint letters,including fifteen letters written in Vietnamese and fifteen letters written in English. The researchresults indicate that there are no significant differences in terms of the four aspects of SystemicFunctional Grammar used in English and Vietnamese business complaint letters. However, in termsof cohesion, the results show that while Vietnamese writers regard lexical devices as the most usefultools in their letters, English ones highly appreciate the effectiveness of reference.The findings of this study can be utilized as a referential material for Vietnamese learners andteachers in writing and teaching writing effective letters in English, especially business complaints.Key words: transitivity, mood, theme-rheme, cohesion, systemic functional grammar, Englishbusiness complaint letters, Vietnamese business complaint lettersINTRODUCTION*It is generally accepted that in the last fewdecades of the 20th century, there has been agreat source of research on language;however, their attentions were only paid tothe form of the language systems, which arestudied and explained apart from theirfunctions in relation to social situations.Besides, their concern was basically withstructural theories which show that smallunits were arranged and combined into largerones. The recent research, on the other hand,has fallen into the tendency toward discourseanalysis, which focuses on factors affectingthe communication and also the functioningof syntactic, pragmatic and social aspects.Unlike the former studies, these ones payattention to the meaning of not only thesentences but also utterances and discourses.The preference of the study is inspired fromthe fact that the theory of Systemic FunctionalGrammar has been widely accepted as anessential tool in language comprehension for*Tel: 0913.780.687; Email: thanhdhkh@gmail.comcommunication. According to Eggins (1994:1 cited in Thao, Phuong 2003: 2), ‘SystemicFunctional Linguistics is increasingly beingrecognized as providing a very usefuldescriptive and interpretive framework forviewing language as a strategic, meaningmaking resource’. Hallidayan linguists usedthe functional model of grammar to interprethow people use language and how language isstructured for use. This theory, in fact, hasbeen proved as a great model of language foranalysts when analyzing texts especially atdiscourse level.In Vietnam, there have been a great numberof studies in the area of discourse analysisthese days. However, the number of thoseworks based on Systemic FunctionalPerspectives does not seem to reflect thepotential variety. Especially in the last fewdecades, Vietnam has been seen its expandingrelationship with many other nations ineconomics, scientific and technical fields;English language as an internationallanguage, therefore, has been widely used ineveryfield,especiallyinbusinesscommunication in general and business51Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyênhttp://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vnPhạm Như Cường và ĐtgTạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆtransaction in particular. The issues ofbusiness communication as well as businesstransaction thus should be unsurprisingly arich source for linguists in analyzingdiscourse. An inspirational source that helpsme to prompt the choice of the analysis ofbusiness correspondence is the fact that thiskind of letter is truly suitable and essential inVietnamese background recently.It cannot be denied that businesscorrespondence plays an important role inbusiness communication. Besides, defectsseem to be unavoidable in carrying outbusiness transactions; even for the bestmanaged organizations, this seems to be inthe same case. Letters of complaint, therefore,can be made and understood as customers’inevitable reaction. In Vietnam, customershave gradually had the tendency to writecomplaint letters; however, this has notbecome their habit and a number ofcustomers, in fact, still hesitate to do thisalthough they know they have the right to do.In addition, knowing how to write aneffective business complaint letter is really achallenge for many people. My ownobservation shows that even the students ofbusiness have limited knowledge andexperience in writing complaint letters notonly in English but also in Vietnamese.In the hope of working out some solutions tohelp Vietnamese people as well asVietnamese students, to some extent,overcome their difficulties in writing businesscomplaint letters, the study is an attempt toanalyze some basic discourse features ofbusiness complaint letters from SystemicFunctional Perspectives namely transitivitypattern, mood, thematic pattern, andcohesion. Based on this, similarities anddifferences between English letters andVietnamese ones will be identified. After that,some suggestions will be drawn out toimprove the studying and teaching writingbusiness complaint letters in English.RESEARCH METHODSThe study is confined to the description,analysis and comparison in terms of transitivity,109(09): 51 - 56mood, thematic pattern and ...