MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS A CONTRASTIVE STUDY ON INVITATIONS TO A HOUSEWARMING PARTY IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU LỜI MỜI DỰ TIỆC TÂN GIA TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT) PHẠM THỊ TUYẾT LAN Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Hanoi, 2017 CERTIFICATE OF ORGINALITY The undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A contractive study on invitations to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2017 Phạm Thị Tuyết Lan Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date:…………………… ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I must offer my profoundest gratitude to my thesis advisor, Assoc Prof Vo Dai Quang, PhD Form finding an appreciate subject in the beginning to the process of writing thesis, Assoc Prof Vo Dai Quang, PhD offers his unreserved help and guidance and lead me to finish my thesis step by step I’m thankful to Assoc Prof Hoang Tuyet Minh, PhD and Assoc Prof Ho Ngoc Trung, PhD who checked my thesis to help me finish it perfectly Without their kind and patient instruction, it is impossible for me to finish my thesis I am also indebted to my friends, who squeeze time from their busy schedule to help me finish my thesis, they are all busy with their own thesis but they are willing to give their helping hands as soon as I am in need Finally, I am grateful to my colleagues and family who always support me spiritually throughout my life and provide a carefree environment for me, so that I can concentrate on my study ABSTRACT Invitations play an important role in our communication They are used in daily life Making a suitable invitation for each situation is not simple, especially in a foreign language There are some researches about invitations but no research is studied on the cards and letters of invitations to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese This study is designed to aim at pointing out the syntactic, semantic and cultural features of invitations and the form of a card, a letter of invitation to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese then finding out the similarities and differences of those features and forms of a card and letter to a housewarming party between English and Vietnamese To reach the aim, some methods are used: Descriptive method, contrastive method and analytic method Data used for analysis, description and contrast in this study were mainly collected through existing invitations, thirty informal cards and letters of invitation to a housewarming party in English and the same amount of informal cards and letters of invitation to a housewarming party in Vietnamese After having contrasted, some similarities and differences of the syntactic, semantic and cultural features of invitations and the form of a card, a letter of invitation to a housewarming party between English and Vietnamese have been founded There are some implications on teaching and learning how to write a card, a letter of invitation to a housewarming party in English as a foreign language in Nam Duyen Ha high school are carried out LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS - CALP: cognitive academic language proficiency - D: Social distance - H: Hearer - EFL: English as First Language - ESL: English as Second Language - P: Relative power - R: Ranking of impositions - RSVP: Re’pondez s’il vous plait - S: Speaker - S: Subject - SCAR: Socio-Culture Anticipatory Recursive - X: Situation - V: Verb LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table Speech acts classification………………………………………………24 Table 2: The format of informal letters…………………………………………29 Table Summary of categories of invitations…………………………………39 Table 3: Summary of forms of an invitation card………………………………42 Table 4: Summary of forms of an invitation letter…………………………… 45 TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality Acknowledgements Abstract List of abbreviations List of tables and figures Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………… 1.1 Rationale for the study …………………………………………………………1 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study ………………………………………………2 1.3 Research questions…………………………………………………………… 1.4 Methods of the study……………………………………………………………2 1.5 Scope of the study………………………………………………………………3 1.6 Significance of the study ……………………………………………………… 1.7 Design of the study Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………5 2.1 Previous studies……………………………………………………………… 2.2 Theoretical background ……………………………………………………… 2.2.1 The syntax, semantics and culture………………………………………… 2.2.2 Pragmatics and cross-cultural pragmatics………………………………… 13 2.2.3 Categories of invitations in English and Vietnamese……………………….15 2.3.4 The theory of letter writing………………………………………………….16 2.3 Theoretical framework ……………………………………………………… 17 2.3.1 Politeness strategies…………………………………………………………17 2.3.2 Generalization of speech acts……………………………………………….20 2.3.3 Invitations as speech acts……………………………………………………24 2.3.4 Direct and indirect speech acts…………………………………………… 26 2.3.5 Informal letters and cards ………………………………………………… 26 2.4 Summary …………………………………………………………………… 30 Chapter 3: SYNTACTIC, SEMANTIC AND CULTURAL FEATURES OF AN INVITATION CARD AND LETTER TO A HOUSEWARMING PARTY IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE ………………………………………… 32 3.1 Syntactic, semantic and cultural features of invitation forms in card and letter to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese……………………………… 32 3.1.1 Direct invitations in English and Vietnamese………………………………32 3.1.2 Indirect invitations in English and Vietnamese…………………………… 37 3.2 Forms of invitation cards and letters to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese…………………………………………………………………………41 3.2.1 Forms of invitation cards to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese…………………………………………………………………………42 3.2.2 Forms of invitation letters to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese…………………………………………………………………………43 3.3 Similarities and differences in syntactic, semantic and cultural features of invitation cards and letters to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese…………………………………………………………………………47 3.3.1 The similarities and differences in syntactic, semantic and cultural features of invitations forms to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese ………………………………………………………………… 47 3.3.2.The similarities and differences in forms of invitation cards, letters to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese………………………………….49 3.4 Summary………………………………………………………………………51 Chapter 4: IMPLICATIONS FOR WRITING CARDS AND LETTERS OF INVITATION TO A HOUSEWARMING PARTY IN ENGLISH……………53 4.1 The invitation forms mainly used in invitation cards and letters to a housewarming party in English……………………………………………………54 4.2 Writing a letter of invitation………………………………………………… 55 4.3 Writing a card of invitation……………………………………………………59 4.4 Summary………………………………………………………………………59 4.5 Few ways that aims to help write perfect invitation letters regarding Housewarming…………………………………………………………………… 60 4.6 The series of housewarming invitation wording examples will help to inspire you to create a unique and fun invitation………………………………………… 61 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION …………………………………………………… 63 5.1 Concluding remarks ………………………………………………………… 63 5.2 Limitation of the study ……………………………………………………… 63 5.3 Recommendations/Suggestions for further study …………………………….63 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………65 APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………… 67 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study There is no doubt that today mastering a language is very necessary because it can give learners important opportunities to communicate to study and work effectively abroad It is very difficult to master a foreign language because the enormous vocabulary and profound understanding in grammar are not enough So it is necessary for learners to understand the culture of the language that they want to master The goal of learning a language, these days, is to be able to carry out effective communication Communication, however, may fail to achieve as there is lack of certain understandings of the country where that language is spoken There are “unwritten rules” are potentially confusing and create misunderstandings even for native speakers (Levine & Adelman, 1982) Wall (1987) indicated that many of our daily social interactions involve making invitations and responding to them Everyday people are usually invited to small things including going somewhere, drinking something, eating food or in special occasions such as weddings, birthday party, graduation So that making invitation is now very important in our daily life It is a speech act used very often in communication People can use it both in spoken and written forms in many ways It helps people to create, maintain and reinforce a good relationship with other people In teaching students to write a letter of invitation, It has been found that they have some difficulties such as they confuse formal and informal invitations; they cannot make other invitations themselves but for the forms or the invitations are not appropriated Mastering how to make appropriate invitations which are suitable to a particular culture should be taken in considerations so as not to cause hurts, shocks, misunderstandings, and misinterpretations Moreover, helping the pupils in Nam Duyen Ha high school uses invitations in writing a letter, a card of invitations and how to write an informal card and letter of invitation to a housewarming party in English effectively is a must For the above reasons, the study: “ A contrastive study on invitation to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese” is carried out to find out the similarities and the differences in syntactic, semantic and cultural features of invitation forms and the forms of cards and letters of invitation to housewarmings in English and Vietnamese 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study This study is designed to aim at pointing out the way to make invitations to a housewarming party and how to write a card, a letter of invitation to a housewarming party in English as a foreign language in Nam Duyen Ha high school This study is designed to aim at the following objectives: - To investigate syntactic, semantic and cultural features of invitation structures and forms of cards and letters of invitation to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese - To point out the similarities and differences of invitation structures and forms of cards and letters of invitation to a housewarming party between English and Vietnamese - To suggest some implications for teaching and learning a card, a letter of invitation writing in English as a foreign language in Nam Duyen Ha high school 1.3 Research questions What are the syntactic, semantic and main cultural features of invitation cards and letters to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese? What are the similarities and differences of invitation cards and letters to a housewarming party between English and Vietnamese? What are implications for invitation cards and letters writing to a housewarming party in English? 1.4 Methods of the study With the aim of achieving the set goal “ to find out the similarities and differences of invitation cards, letters to a housewarming in English and Vietnamese, several methods will be employed here: - Descriptive method is employed to describe syntactic, semantic and cultural features of invitation forms and the forms of invitation cards and letters to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese - Contrastive method is used to find out the similarities and differences of invitation cards and letters to a housewarming party between English and Vietnamese 10 4.3 Writing a card of invitations An invitation card is a written paper or electronic image that is sent to people for different occasions The message informs a receiver about an event to which he is invited Invitation cards can be customized (different sizes, colors, themes, materials, fonts and folding designs) and made out of multiple materials (paper, tissue, textile, plastic) There are three steps to write a card of invitations Step 1: Specify the guest of honor and the occasion One of the first things in any invitation is who and what the event is in honor of Step 2: State the date, time and location of the event Immediately following the information from Step 1, the invitation should indicate when and where the event will take place Include a map for those who may be unfamiliar with the area Step 3: Request a response At the bottom of the invitation, include an RSVP request for the attendees This allows the hosts to have an idea of how many people will attend Include a phone number and email address to which people can respond 4.4 Summary In this chapter some techniques to write an informal letter of invitation, techniques of writing invitation letters to a housewarming party were given Besides, the steps to write a card to a housewarming party was shown To write a card, a letter of invitation to a housewarming party in English effectively, teachers and learners of English should the following requirement: - Teachers should + instruct learners to use the right invitation forms + know well the techniques used to write a friendly letter and a card, a letter of invitation to a housewarming party + let learners practice writing a card and a letter of invitation to a housewarming party as much as possible - + Find the mistakes and help learners correct them Learners should: + Learn the invitation forms to a housewarming party in cards and in letters by heart and use them flexibly 67 +Write the cards and letters of invitation right following the techniques + Practice writing invitation cards and letters by doing the exercises given by the teachers + Correct the mistakes and find out the reasons Writing a card, a letter to a housewarming party is not easy for the student so few ways that aims to help write perfect invitation letters regarding Housewarming and the series of housewarming invitation wording examples help to inspire people to create a unique and fun invitation were given too According to those, student can write a card and a letter of invitation to a housewarming party correctly and effectively 4.5 Few ways that aims to help write perfect invitation letters regarding Housewarming * Start by announcing the completion of house building: I wish to inform you that my house which was under construction has now been completed I am pleased to inform you that the finishing touches have been given to our new bungalow How happy I am to inform you that we have been allotted a DDA (Delhi Development Authority) Flat under the Rohini Scheme! The construction work of the apartment is now over Only white-washing is left which will take hardly two or three days I am quite excited to inform you that finally we have been allotted a house under the Haryana Housing Scheme We are pleased to inform you that we have purchased a new house in Friends Colony last month * Thereafter, give details of time, date and place of shifting into the building: We plan to shift into it on November 7, 201* The address is 5, Bungalow Road Our family priest has fixed 8.00 a.m as the Murat time Since my son is coming down from Mumbai next Saturday, we plan to shift into it on Sunday itself, when we have a Muhurat at 8.00 a.m My newly wedded son has decided to move into it with his wife Muhurat takes place on April 8, 2001 68 According to our Purohit, December 7, 201* is the most auspicious date to shift into the new building, and the time fixed is 8.00 a.m The address is 17, Rajpath, New Delhi *Mention some programme/ activities of the occasion: We have planned to have a 'hawan' on this day in the morning There will also be recitation of Vedic hymns Satya Narain Katha will be narrated and fast will be observed on this day in the new flat before we start living in it We have decided to have a get-together on this occasion A 'kirtan' function is-being arranged to recite kirtan for two hours on this day * Request for participation on this occasion: Please come and grace this occasion I hope you will come and grace the function Needless to say that the functions won't be complete if you don't grace it We are quite keen to have you among the first entrants into our new house As you are quite fond of Bhajans, I hope you won't miss it 10 My wife joins me in soliciting your esteemed presence on this occasion 11 Please bring Anna and Peter also They were really keen to see our new house 12 Swami Videh has kindly consented to mark the occasion with his discourse 13 Our thanks in advance for your benign presence on this occasion 4.6 The series of housewarming invitation wording examples help to inspire people to create a unique and fun invitation 1.Come and go, come and stay, we’d love to see you either way I’ve got a brand new pad, so feel free to hop on over Our first home! We’ve finally settled down and found our perfect house Please join us to celebrate with housewarming Our flock has finally moved to our new nest Our new house has a pool, where you can dive and be cool The tables set and the house open We would definitely like to see you there Our welcome mat is out, just like before But now, we have a different door Please come to our housewarming It may be our only chance to socialize since we can’t afford to go out for the next twenty to thirty years Same bat family, Different bat cave 69 The [last name] have moved We are in a new house You can reach us at home by phone or by a click of the mouse! 10 The remodeling is done, the welcome mat is out It’s time to throw a party to thank you for helping us out 11 The scenery has changed, the address is new, But our door’s always open to friends and family like you! Please stop by and see our new home! 12 The things that make a house a home are the people that fill it up Join us for our a housewarming! 13 There’s no place like home, but home is where the heart is All our boxes are unpacked, now help us move the love of friends and family into our new place Join us for a housewarming celebration to remember 14 We finally moved into a nest of our own Please join us for a housewarming party 15 We have boxes of stuff that our house needs, but the only thing required to make it our home is, your smiling faces Do bring in your smiles and wishes for our housewarming party 16 We outgrew our house there wasn’t enough space We hope you’ll come and visit and see our new place! 17 We want the warmth of friends and the aroma of good food to fill up our new place Which is why we take pleasure in inviting you for our housewarming party 18 We’re heading in a new direction and we want you to come! Meet us at our brand new house for a grand housewarming celebration! 19 We’ve got a new fish bowl Please stop by for a visit! 20 We’re finally in our new place, and all the boxes are thrown away! 21 We’re finally moved, and boy – it was rough! We never knew we had so much stuff 22 We’ve found what makes a house a home, these ingredients are key Lots of love, plenty of laughter, and the presence of friends and family! 23 We’ve moved again, but we haven’t traveled far We’re inviting you to a party so you’ll know where we are! 24 We’ve packed up boxes, lamps, and chairs… now our home is somewhere new and we couldn’t leave and settle in without telling you! 25 We’ve pulled up stakes and hit the road, we’ve moved into a new abode 70 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Concluding remarks In conclusion, through this paper we can have an overview of invitations in cards and letters to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese - The syntactic, semantic and cultural features of invitation forms to a housewarming party in cards and in letters in English have some differences from Vietnamese Some forms of them are mainly used to invite to a housewarming party in card and in letter such as Performative sentence with a subject, invitations in forms of declarative sentences; invitations in forms of imperatives; invitations in the form of “Wh” questions But invitations in the form of “yes, no” questions is rarely used - To write a card and letter of an invitation is simple and easy, to some extents, but it’s not easy at all to write a card and letter of an invitation naturally, politely, cleverly and variously Writing invitations to a party is an art really so the inviters should use the invitations in right forms A card, a letter of invitations are the type of informal cards, letters Moreover, making an invitation play a very important role in our life The inviter and invited person can show not only the content of the invitation but also their feeling or their emotion in these speech acts An invitation can make a relationship better or worse It all depends on how the inviter extends it Lastly, There is a hope that both teachers and students can have benefit of this contrastive analysis for teaching and learning of writing a card, a letter of invitation to a housewarming party in English 5.2 Limitation of the study The study contains some limitations that should be noted: First, The invitations to a housewarming party was only studied in cards and letters The cards and letters were got from the internet so they limited in both quality and qualify Second, Implications for invitation cards and letters writing to a housewarming party for students in high school have some difficulties: The students can only write following the suggestions, they can’t write ones themselves because they have never held this kind of party 5.3 Recommendations/Suggestions for further study In my study, I have found some techniques to write an informal invitation card, letter and a card, a letter of invitations to a housewarming party The ways to 71 write a formal invitation letter and how to write a card, a letter of invitations to the other event are not mentioned The others can find how to write a formal letter and a letter, a card of invitations to the other events such as: Wedding invitations, birthday party invitations…or writing a congratulating card to the housewarming event, a thanking card/ letter for the attending the housewarming party Finding those will help the people who are teaching and learning English write a card, a letter to the other events effectively Although similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese invitations to a housewarming party in cards and letters in terms of syntactic, semantic and cultural features have been investigated so far in the thesis, it can not cover all the aspects relating to such broad cultural and linguistic convention like inviting and its related issues As a result, further researches can further find out more about this topic Here are some suggestions: A comparative study on accepting an invitation to housewarming party in cards and letters in English and Vietnamese in terms of cross-cultural perspective A comparative study on refusing an invitation to housewarming party in cards and letters in English and Vietnamese in terms of politeness strategies A comparative study on hedges in declining an invitation to housewarming party in cards and letters in English and Vietnamese in terms of syntactic and semantic features The thesis has been completed with greatest efforts However, during the making of the thesis, shortcomings and mistakes are inevitably unavoidable Therefore, sympathetic comments and suggestions are highly appreciated 72 REFERENCES English Anthony Burgess (1968), Ender by Outside Austin, J.L (1962), How to Do Things with Words Oxford: Oxford University Press Brow, P, & Levinson, S (1987), Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage.Cambridge University Press Cobuild, C (2001), English grammar (T.Y Nguyen, Trans.) Ho Chi Minh City: Ho Chi Minh City Publishing House Carolyne Lee (2009), Word Bytes: Writing in the Information Society Duong Hai Dang (n.d), Direct Invitations in English and Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh City: Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Press Đinh Phuong Thuy (2014), A comparative study on making invitation in English and Vietnamese in term of across - cultural perspective Hornby (2003), Oxford Advanced Leaner’s Dictionary Oxford University Press Jim Miller ( 2002), An Introduction to English Syntax Edinburgh University Press 10 Karlyn Kohrs Campbell et Al (2015), The Rhetorical Act 11 Leech, G (1983), Principles of Pragmatics New York: Longman 12 Le Thi Mai Hong (2008), Politeness strategies in requests and invitations: A comparative study between English and Vietnamese, Pragmatics essay 13 Le Thi Kim Ngoc (2013), An analysis of making and accepting an invitation in English and Vietnamese 14 Levine, D.R & Adelman, M.B (1982), Beyond Language-Intercultural Communication for English as a Second Language New Jersey: Prentice Hall 15 Luu Quy Khuong (2007), An investigation into spoken direct invitations in English and Vietnamese 16 Ngo Thi Bac Ha ( 2010), A study of pre – sequences in invitations in English and Vietnamese 17 Nguyen Thi Kim Quy (2004), A Cross-Cultural Study on Inviting and Responding to Invitations in Vietnamese and English 18 Nguyen Van Lap ( 2005), classified categories of invitations as speech etiquette in Vietnamese in terms of speech act theory 73 19 Nguyen Van Trọng (2012), A comparative study on making invitations in English and Vietnamese 20 Noam Chomsky (1971), Syntactic Structures 21 Richard J C, Platt J., Webber H (1992), Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics Oxford: Longman 22 Tillitt, B, & Bruder, N.B (1999), Speaking naturally USA: Cambridge University Press 23 Wall, A P (1987), Say it naturally New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers 24 Wierzbicka, A (1991), Cross-cultural Pragmatics: The Semantics of Human Interaction Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter 25.William Cobbett (1918), A Grammar of the English Language in a Series of Letters: 26 Yule, G (1996), Pragmatics Oxford: Oxford University Press Vietnamese Cao Xuân Hạo (1991), Tiếng Việt sơ khảo ngữ pháp chức Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Xã Hội Khải Hưng (1988), Nửa Chừng Xuân Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Văn Học Khải Hưng (1994), Tuyển tập truyện ngắn Hải Phòng: Nhà Xuất Bản Hải Phòng Le Huy Lam (2000), Đàm thoại tiếng Anh tình Ca Mau City: Ca Mau Publisher Nam Cao (nd), Lão Hạc Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Giáo Dục Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (2007), Dụng học Việt ngữ Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Đại Học Quốc Gia Hà Nội Websites http:// www.keydifferences.com http://www.letters – org.com http://www.letters.sample-invitationletter.infor http:// www.membertripod.com http://www.scholarworks, gvsu.edu http://www.skillyouneed.com/write/formal-or-inforomal-writing.html http://www.thoughtco.com http://www.word-mart.com/html/ write/formal-or-inforomal-writing.html http://www.zapeta.ms 74 APPENDICES Sample letters 68A, Lonron Satu, Taman Bahagla2, Melaka 14th June 2010 Dear Michael, How is everything going? I am delighted to tell you that I have moved to a new house As the previous tenancy contract has ended, I found a new house in North Sydney where is much closer to my office I moved in last Friday after finishing all the cleaning The new place that I rent is a two-storey house with a big yard at the back, so I can host a BBQ diner there My bedroom is much more spacious than the old one and it has a big window I always enjoy the beautiful city view in the morning In order to celebrate the moving, I am going to throw a house warming party and I would love you to come It will be on the 5th of July and starts at pm I will show you around my new house and we will have dinner together with my other friends Hope to see you on that day If you cannot make it, you are always welcomed to come another time Regards, Kate 75 2 West Road,Violetville,Cork 25th February 2008 Dear Mrs Bhanot, You will be glad to know that our new house Megha Villa is now complete and we are shifting tomorrow As you know, the house was the last wish my mother expressed Although the construction started when she was still alive, it could not be completed in her presence Perhaps, it may now give great solace to her soul The house is a beautiful double- storeyed one with bedrooms The sitting room is large and glassed on three sides for the sunlight to pour in throughout the day There is a garden we have to develop around it We are throwing a housewarming party on 28th May, 2009 and are inviting just our immediate circle of friends at 10 a.m Sunday Sorry for this short notice, but please put aside all other engagements for that day and come along with your family We are fixing a barbecue in the warm open Do write me a line to reassure me Yours Sincerely, Anita Thomas Nolan223 E, Concord Street, Orlando, FL 3280 24th April, 2017 Dear Joe, Greetings from Cork! Now that we have settled in our new house I am having a house-warming party to celebrate I am inviting some of the gang from Dublin and some of my new school friends from Cork The fun begins at 9pm on Saturday, 3rdMarch Why not come down on Friday night and stay for the weekend? I have asked Sandra and Brian to stay over also My dad will meet you at the station Let me know as soon as possible if you can come Love, Sally 76 Thái Bình, ngày tháng 12 năm 2012 Chị Nhung kính mến, Chúng em vui mừng báo tin chị nhà cuả chúng em hoàn thành Chúng em chuyển nhà vào ngày 15 /12/2012 Chúng em trân trọng kính mời chị gia đình đến dự bữa cơm thân mật gia đình chúng em vào 17h ngày 16 tháng 12 năm 2012 xóm thơn Đồng Phú, xã Độc Lập, huyện Hưng Hà, tỉnh Thái Bình Chị cố gắng thu xếp thời gian đến dự thăm nhà em Sự diện chị gia đình niềm vinh hạnh chúng em Gia đình hân hạnh đón tiếp Em Phạm Hồng Anh Hưng Hà, ngày 03 tháng năm 2015 Hải thân mến, Cơng trình kỷ gia đình tơi hồn thành Mọi công vệc chuẩn bị chuyển nơi ổn Vào 11h ngày mùng 10 tháng năm 2017, gia đình chúng tơi tổ chức bữa cơm thân mật nhà Trân trọng mời bạn gia đình đến dự chúng tơi xóm Hồng Thái, thơn Vị khê, xã Minh Hòa, huyện Hưng Hà Đây dịp để bạn bè gặp Cố gắng thu xếp công việc dự Rất mong gặp bạn Bạn Lê Thị Hoa 77 Sample cards We’ve moved & we’re having a HOUSEWARMING celebration party! Please join us on Saturday – September 20th at 3pm The Montgomery family’s new home 1234 celebration avenue – our town Beverages & appetizers will be served Regrets only at 123 456 7890 You are invited to a HOUSEWARMING PARTY At the new home of Marry Ann & James Robinson Friday – December 20th – 8.00pm The cottage house, 24 Crescent Sirffi London RSVP to Mary Ann (regrets only) at 012345 552 116 By December 10th You are invited to the Thompson Family’s Housewarming party Please join us to start filling our new house with wonderful friends, family and memories Saturday, November, 15th 5pm Thompson Home 123 Mulberry Lane Houseton, TX 12345 78 You are invited to the Hung Family’s Housewarming party There’s no place like home, but home is where the heart is All our boxes are unpacked Now help us move the love of friends and family into our new place Join us for a housewarming celebration to remember Sunday, October, 22nd 7am Thanh Lang - Minh Hoa – Hung Ha – Thai Binh Nhân dịp mừng Tân Gia gia đình chúng tơi Trân trọng kính mời anh Lê Hồng Phong Đến dự buổi tiệc han mật chung vui gia đình chúng tơi tư gia: Số 07 Cách mạng – TT Chư Sê – Chư Sê – Gia lai Vào 11h00 ngày 20 tháng năm 2016 Sự anh niềm vinh hạnh cho gia đình chúng tơi Rất hân hạnh đón tiếp/ Thuật + Lê kính mời TRÂN TRỌNG KÍNH MỜI Bác gia đình tới dự LỄ TÂN GIA MỪNG NHÀ MỚI Vào 17h, thứ Bảy, ngày 25 tháng năm 2010 Tại gia đình Thạo – Ngân Tổ – Đường Nguyễn Xuân – khu phố Phường Đông Sơn – Thị xã Bỉm Sơn Rất hân hạnh đón tiếp! 79 Practice: Writing a letter, a card of invitation to a housewarming party Task 1: Complete the letter below by filling each blank with a suitable phrase in the box: reply as soon as you can celebrate my new life request that everyone brings something be here invite you 89 Hang Bai street Hoan Kiem District Hanoi 24 March 2006 Hi everyone, In order to ……(1)…… in Hanoi I would like to …(2)… you to a special housewarming party When: Friday, 27 Match, 2006 at 8pm Where: 89 Hang Bai street I would like to ….(3)… for to people to eat and drink Please ….(4)… so that I can estimate how many people will …(5)… and what everyone will bring Looking forward to hearing from you Tran Lam Task 2: Complete each sentence of the following letter Dear Janet, As/ know/ we / buy / new house/ April// ……………………………………………………………………………………… It / be/ bad condition / and / it/ need/ a lot/ work// ……………………………………………………………………………………… We/ finish/ most/ it/ now/ and look/ very nice// ……………………………………………………………………………………… Mike/ I/ decide/ give/ house – warming/ party/ July 9th// ……………………………………………………………………………………… You/ think/ you/ able/ come? ……………………………………………………………………………………… Most/ our/ former classmates/ invite/ and/ they/ all/ agree/ come// ……………………………………………………………………………………… We/ organize/ barbecue/ garden/ new house// 80 ……………………………………………………………………………………… We/ dance/ sing/ play/ some games/ during/ after/ party// ……………………………………………………………………………………… Please/ me/ ring/ and/ let/ know/ you/ make/ it.// ……………………………………………………………………………………… 10 We/ really/ look forward/ see/ you/ again// ……………………………………………………………………………………… Love Margaret c Task 3: Write a letter of invitation to a housewarming party: ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… d Task 4: Study the sample cards carefully then write a card of invitation to a housewarming party: Sample card 1: You are invited to the Thompson Family’s Housewarming party Please join us to start filling our new house with wonderful friends, family and memories Saturday, November, 15th 5pm Thompson Home 123 Mulberry Lane Houseton, TX 12345 Sample card 2: You are invited to the Hung Family’s Housewarming party There’s no place like home, but home is where the heart is All our boxes are unpacked Now help us move the love of friends and family into our new place Join us for a housewarming celebration to remember Sunday, October, 22nd 7am Thanh Lang - Minh Hoa – Hung Ha – Thai Binh ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… 81 ... invitations, thirty informal cards and letters of invitation to a housewarming party in English and the same amount of informal cards and letters of invitation to a housewarming party in Vietnamese. .. invitation forms and the forms of invitation cards and letters to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese Data collection: the study was dealt with invitation cards and letters to a housewarming. .. syntactic, semantic and main cultural features of invitation cards and letters to a housewarming party in English and Vietnamese? What are the similarities and differences of invitation cards and