0 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ MY A DISOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH SALES PRESENTATIONS: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGƠN BÀI THUYẾT TRÌNH BÁN HÀNG TIẾNG ANH: ỨNG DỤNG ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG TỔNG HỢP M.A Combined Programme Thesis Field : English Linguistics Code : 60.22.15 HANOI – 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ MY A DISOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH SALES PRESENTATIONS: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGƠN BÀI THUYẾT TRÌNH BÁN HÀNG TIẾNG ANH: ỨNG DỤNG ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG TỔNG HỢP M.A Combined Programme Thesis Field : English Linguistics Code : 60.22.15 Supervisor : Prof Nguyễn Hòa (PhD) HANOI – 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS DACLARATION .2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT .4 TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………5 LIST OF TABLES CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .10 1.1 Rationale of the study 10 1.2 Aims of the Study 10 1.3 Scope of the study 11 1.4 Methods of the study 11 CHAPTER 2: DEFINING THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .13 2.1 Discourse 13 2.1.1 The notion of discourse 13 2.1.2 Discourse and text 14 2.1.3 Spoken and written discourse 15 2.2 Genre 16 2.3 Register of discourse .17 2.3.1 The notion of register .17 2.3.2 The parameters of register 18 2.3.2.1 Field of discourse 18 2.3.2.2 Tenor of discourse .18 2.3.2.3 Mode of discourse 19 2.4 Coherence 31 2.4.1 Relevance 31 2.4.2 Discourse structure 33 2.5 English sales presentations 35 2.6 Conclusion .36 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .37 3.1 Literature review 37 3.2 Research methods 37 3.3 Subjects of the study .38 3.4 Data collection methods 38 3.4.1 Data 38 3.4.2 Discourse recordings 38 3.4.3 Samples selection and samples size 39 3.5 Analysis procedure 39 3.5.1 Transcription 39 3.5.2 Analysis process .40 CHAPTER 4: THE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH SALES PRESENTATIONS 41 4.1 Register 41 4.1.1 Field of discourse of English sales presentations .41 4.1.2 Tenor of discourse of English sales presentations 42 4.1.3 Mode of discourse of English sales presentations 43 4.1.3.1 Use of grammar in English sales presentations 44 4.1.3.2 Use of vocabulary in English sales presentations .51 4.2 Coherence 57 4.2.1 Relevance of discourse of English sales presentations 57 4.2.2 Discourse structure of English sales presentations 59 4.2.2.1 The beginning 59 4.2.2.2 The body 60 4.2.2.3The ending .67 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 74 5.1 Concluding remarks .74 5.2 Implications 75 5.2.1 Implication for business communication 75 5.2.2 Implications for the teaching and learning presentation skill 76 5.3 Limitations 77 5.4 Suggestions for further study 78 REFERENCES .79 APPENDIX 1: I APPENDIX 2: IX APPENDIX 3: XVII LIST OF TABLES Chart 1: The frequency of occurrence of modal verbs in English sales presentations Chart 2: The frequency of occurrence of active and passive voices in English sales presentations Chart 3: The frequency of occurrence of four kinds of sentences in English sales presentations Chart 4: The frequency of occurrence of subject and other parts of speech as first element of sentences in English sales presentations Chart 5: The frequency of occurrence of types of adjectives in English sales presentations Chart 6: The frequency of occurrence of types of adverbs in English sales presentations Figure 1: Mode of discourse Table 1: Register analysis of the article “A back door to war” Table 2: Permission/Possibility/Ability modalities Table 3: Obligation/Necessity modalities Table 4: Volition/Prediction modalities Table 5: Classification of Adjectives in English Table 6: Classification of Adverbs in English 10 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study In theory: Up to now, only few books and researches specialize in presentations, and most of them are guidance in making presentation in general, for example: Presentation Skills for Students (Emden, J & Becker, L., 2004) This thesis desires to investigate this new field and to be as a reliable source for a salesperson before making his sales presentation In practice: The rapid development of economy has created various challenges to Vietnamese companies; they are forced to act more effectively in the market One of their ways to compete with other companies is to make successful presentations to introduce new products, in which they can provide clients with full information about new products Making an effective sales presentation becomes a challenge for businesses and business training centers when there is mostly no study or research on this field Therefore, the investigation to famous sales presentations will be a good means for enterprises to attract more customers and to get more profits To make a persuasive sales presentation, it is undeniable to understand the discourse of sales presentation, especially register of discourse and coherence of discourse Register of discourse is investigated in terms of field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse Coherence of a discourse is created by cohesion, relevance and discourse structure With the limited time, this paper only looks at register of discourse of sales presentation and coherence of discourse of sales presentation in terms of relevance and discourse structure 1.2 Aims of the Study 11 Due to the constraints in time and knowledge in Business English, this thesis will not able to cover all aspects of sales presentations, this study aims at: - Investigate register of the discourse of English sales presentations with three aspects: field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse - Examine factors creating coherence of the discourse of English sales presentations: relevance and discourse structure These aims are to answer the research questions: - What is the register in terms of field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse, of English sales presentation? - How coherence of discourse of English sales presentations is created via relevance and discourse structure? 1.3 Scope of the study In business, there are various ways for a salesman to seek customers‟ needs including sales letters, advertisements, or sales presentations, etc Within the limit of a M.A thesis, this research can only deal with one aspect of this broad area, that is sales presentations made by Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple This study is confined to the register of sales presentations with three aspects: field, mode and tenor of the discourse Moreover, this thesis will focus on coherence of discourse of sales presentations with two factors: relevance and discourse structure 1.4 Methods of the study 12 This study adopts an integrated approach to discourse analysis, which looks into the concerned discourse in terms of register and coherence To this, descriptive method is used to describe data and characteristics of the population or phenomenon being studied The description is used for frequencies, averages and other statistical calculation of variables of register and coherence‟s relevant factors of discourse of sales presentations ... VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ MY A DISOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH SALES PRESENTATIONS: AN INTEGRATED. .. including sales letters, advertisements, or sales presentations, etc Within the limit of a M .A thesis, this research can only deal with one aspect of this broad area, that is sales presentations made... averages and other statistical calculation of variables of register and coherence‟s relevant factors of discourse of sales presentations 13 CHAPTER 2: DEFINING THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK This chapter