APTIS GENERAL WRITING TASK 4: AN EXPLORATION OF PRAGMATIC STRATEGIES EMPLOYED TO GAIN COMMUNICATIVE GOALS IN TRANSACTIONAL E-MAILS BY QUY NHON UNIVERSITY’S ENGLISH-MAJORED SENIORS / CÂU 4 ĐỀ THI VIẾT APTIS: TÌM HIỂU VỀ CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC NGỮ DỤNG HỌC NHẰM ĐẠT ĐƯỢC MỤC ĐÍCH GIAO TIẾP TRONG E-MAIL GIAO DỊCH ĐƯỢC SỬ DỤNG BỞI SINH VIÊN NĂM CUỐI CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN
Abstract
This study’s purpose is to explore the pragmatic strategies used by the English-majored seniors at Quy Nhon University (QNU) when they took Aptis General Writing Test (AGWT) Task 4. To fulfil this task, students are required to write two transactional e-mails in two different styles which are informal and formal in turn to convey a specific social function. Successful completion of this task requires from students not only an accurate construction of framing moves but also a flexible and precise usage of pragmatic strategies (e.g. ability to express intended thoughts appropriately in different social interaction contexts). The participants in this study were 30 fourth-year students whose major was English at QNU. The data were collected from their 30 trial-Aptis-writing-test papers. The findings revealed the pragmatic strategies they had utilized to attain the two e-mails’ communicative goals and simultaneously depicted how their usage of these strategies had influenced the epistolary writing. Hopefully, this study’s results will be useful for both test developers in the process of test validation and localisation and teachers in the process of preparing students for the AGWT Task 4.
Mục đích của nghiên cứu này là nhằm tìm hiểu các chiến lược ngữ dụng học được sử dụng bởi các sinh viên năm cuối chuyên ngành Ngôn ngữ Anh tại trường Đại học Quy Nhơn khi họ hoàn thành câu 4 đề thi Viết Aptis. Để hoàn thành câu này, các sinh viên phải viết hai thư điện tử với hai phong cách viết khác nhau trong đó một ở hình thức thông thường và một ở hình thức trang trọng. Việc hoàn thành thành câu hỏi này đòi hỏi các sinh viên không chỉ áp dụng chính xác hình thức đặc trưng của một thư điện tử mà còn phải biết sử dụng tốt các chiến lược ngữ dụng học cần thiết (ví dụ: là khả năng có thể diễn đạt suy nghĩ trong các ngữ cảnh giao tế xã hội khác nhau). Đối tượng nghiên cứu là 30 sinh viên năm cuối chuyên ngành Ngôn ngữ Anh tại trường Đại học Quy Nhơn. Dữ liệu được thu thập từ 30 bài thi Viết Aptis thử nghiệm. Kết quả cho thấy các sinh viên đã biết tận dụng một số chiến lược ngữ dụng học để đạt được mục đích giao tế trong hai thư điện tử giao dịch và đồng thời mô tả việc sử dụng các chiến lược này có ảnh hưởng như thế nào đến chất lượng các bức thư. Các kết quả thu được hi vọng sẽ hữu ích với những người làm thiết kế đề trong việc đánh giá hiệu quả kì thi cũng như các giáo viên làm công việc hướng dẫn thí sinh thi.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.2583
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