Greetings in English (with a focus on Chinese EFL)

PRACTICAL IDEAS AND RESOURCES

Resources in this section curated by: Elaine Sun, Lily Li

ACADEMIC RESOURCES ON GREETINGS IN ENGLISH

(with a focus on Chinese EFL)

Resources in this section curated by: Elaine Sun, Lily Li

Abbott, J. (1963). The Teaching Of Greetings. Journal of American Indian Education, 2(3), 25-29.

The greeting is the first thing that happens between two individuals if they are going to have interactions. Since teaching a non-native English speaker to speak English is to help that speaker to become a functioning member of the target culture, the greeting is a good topic to start with. In this journal, the author gives many examples of how to teach greeting in a class. Also, some example activities are given in this journal. It is helpful for teachers to read through when they are planning a lesson for ESL learners, especially for beginners.

In this journal, the author gives many examples of how to teach greeting in a class. Also, some example activities are given in this journal. It is helpful for teachers to read through when they are planning a lesson for ESL learners, especially for beginners. The teacher could use the practice questions in this article in class as in-class activities or practices.

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Burgucu-Tazegul, A., Han, T., & Engin, A. O. (2016). Pragmatic Failure of Turkish EFL Learners in Request Emails to Their Professors. International Education Studies, 9(10), 105. doi: 10.5539/ies.v9n10p105 

This article talks about how Turkish EFL learners did not have greetings in the email to professors to request something. Thirty-four Turkish EFL learners' emails are being observed. The results show that inappropriate greeting and closing statements occur. This reading gives us an idea of how we should tell students that it is important to greet the professor in the email.

After reading this article, I will guide students on how to write an appropriate email to the professor with greetings inside. It is known that Turkish students in the article did not greet the professor in the email and it is important to greet the professor in order to give respect to the professor. Therefore, I will give a small homework assignment to the students to write an appropriate email to the professor with an appropriate greeting inside. This reading is related to our topic since it talks about the greeting in the email, how greeting the professor is important even in the email and many people do not greet the professors in the email.

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Chamberlin, A., & Senior. (2015). In defense of the greeting 'y'all'. University Wire.

This short article talks about how some normal daily greeting phrases become offensive to some people for some reason. The author gives reasons like saying “hi guys” could be offensive when there is someone who doesn't identify him/herself as male. This article gives some points of view on how to greet appropriately with people due to some aspects. 

The teacher could use this article as an extra reading resource for students to understand the informal greeting and its cultural aspects on the back side of the greeting words. This word is an example and students could explore more words like this and try to find out the cultural aspects of greeting words.

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Duranti, A. (1997).  Universal and Culture-Specific Properties of Greetings.

There are many functions of greeting except just saying “hi” to people. In this journal, the author states that people also exchange stories, feelings and other kinds of information while greeting. This journal gives teachers ideas about how to inform students about the functions of greetings. Also, it brings the topic of small talks in greetings.

I will use the information in this article to teach students that greeting is not only limited to “hi” but also many ways other than “hi”. Students can tell the stories of themselves as one way of greeting. I will let students walk around the classroom to greet other classmates other than “hi”, they are required to give a story of what is going on in their life. This reading is related to our topic since it tells us that greeting can be other than “hi”, telling a person’s own story or own life is also a greeting and small talk is considered a greeting. 

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Dindia, K., Timmerman, L., Langan, E., Sahlstein, E. M., & Quandt, J. (2004). The function of holiday greetings in maintaining relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 21(5), 577-593.

Holiday greeting cards have become a tradition for people to keep their relationships. This “tradition” is totally different from Chinese people greeting each other. For Chinese EFL students, they might not have ideas and experiences of greeting cards and reasons why people write greeting cards on holiday. Now, we have many kinds of ways to greet and share happiness and loves. Why are people still using greeting cards?

The purpose of this study was to examine the function of holiday greeting cards in maintaining relationships.  From the results, researchers speculated that holiday greeting cards are hygiene factors; their presence does not positively affect relational maintenance, but their absence may have a negative effect on relational maintenance. For later pragmatic class, this article could be used as a really great resource to explain the reason for greeting cards.

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Kaur-Kasior, S. (1987). The treatment of culture in greeting cards: A content analysis. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I.

Greetings happen in written forms a lot. Greeting card is one traditional way of greeting through writing. According to the study, though greeting cards do not reflect every cultural aspect of American society, they provide people a chance to see some cultural changes, message themes and communicative functions. Also, greeting cards do develop relationships for people. Teachers could arrange a follow-up activity on making greeting cards so the students could learn something related to the greeting culture of Americans. 

In this article, one of the most interesting parts is the greeting cards chosen for the content analysis were of six periods,  from industrial period to information period. The changing of greeting cards could not reflect every aspect of American society, but it could show some cultural changes, message themes, and communicative functions. Although this article is old from now, it still has some interesting information that students could learn from it.

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Li. (2009). Different Communication Rules between the English and Chinese Greetings. Asian Culture and History, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.5539/ach.v1n2p72 

This article talked about communication rules in English and Chinese. It has several theoretical resources to explain the differences. As the author mentioned, “In communication, rules act as a system of expected behavior patterns that organize interaction between individuals’. Communication rules include both verbal and nonverbal components.”  In addition, at the end of the article, the author states that in this world with a diversity of cultures, no culture may necessarily be better or worse than another. No culture may necessarily be superior or inferior to another. It is true that there are real differences between groups and cultures. It can be learned to perceive those differences, appreciate them, and above all to respect, value and prize the personhood of every human being, and meanwhile achieve successful communication. 

Students will be able to see culture and communication from a more general perspective. It seems that this topic is far from greeting but it gives students ideas of differences in culture and the attitudes of facing the culture.

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Ma, J. S. (. (2000). On english and chinese greetings from cultural perspective (Order No. H004486). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I. (1027132507).

This book talks a lot about greeting, including functions, definitions, social meanings, etc. One of the chapters talks about the culture differences between Chinese and American, which make greetings different and sometimes misunderstandings may occur. In some cases, greetings which are normal for American people could be very rude for Chinese people. This book gives teachers and students some ideas of possible cultural shocks and how to avoid awkwards in the greeting process. 

In this book, the most useful part for students is chapter 4, greetings in different cultures. The west culture emphasizes more on individualism, freedom and independence; while the east  culture pays more attention to collectivism. Because of the differences in cultural values, greetings pose many problems for nonnative speakers. So I really encourage students to read this chapter and bring their thoughts to the class. The teacher could analyze the different situations with students.

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Shleykina, G. (2019). The Interlanguage Pragmatics of Greetings. Beyond Words, 7(1), 43–60. doi: 10.33508/bw.v7i1.1848 

This journal focuses on interlanguage and cross-cultural pragmatics. This study investigates the semantic formulas in the speech act of greeting between the non-native speakers and native speakers. Free Discourse Completion Test is used to compare the differences between them. The result showed that there are differences between them in the number and the frequency of greetings and the content of greeting strategies. Therefore, this reading is useful for us to see what we can do to help students who are learning English greeting pragmatics to master like a native speaker. 

I will use the information from this journal to help students learn English greeting pragmatics better. The article pointed out that explicit instruction of speech, cross-linguistic comparisons, cross-cultural awareness and the explicit strategic approach to the development of ILP are important in teaching English greeting pragmatics. Therefore, I will cover more information about comparing and contrasting the greeting culture between China and the US and the language used in greeting between Chinese and English. This article relates to our topic since it covers the differences between how non-native and native speakers greet. Also, the way that one greets someone has to do with the cultural background and non-native speakers learn the ways to greet from the textbook more.

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Sullivan, P. (1979). Conversation: Saying hello and goodbye. TESOL Newsletter, 13(1), 29.

      This journal gives data of frequencies of different ways of greeting. Also, it compares differences of greetings and farewells between English native speakers and ESL speakers. It is also a discussion of why people choose such different texts to greet and farewell, and how native speakers greet versus how ESL speakers do. Teachers could get ideas of how to clarify some points from this journal. 

There are some examples in this article saying the differences of greet and farewell between English native speakers and ESL speakers. Students will list their ways of giving greetings and farewells first in groups. Then they will look at those examples from the article and compare the examples to their notes. In groups, they will discuss and decide which ones are better to use. After the discussion, each group will present their results to the class.

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Valdes. (1990). The Inevitability of Teaching and Learning Culture in a Foreign Language Course. Culture and the Language Classroom. Modern English Publications and the British Council. p.p 20.

Learning the target culture is as important as learning the target language itself when people are learning a second or foreign language. Greetings reflect basic cultural aspects. There is no reason for teachers to ignore teaching greetings in an L2 classroom. The author states that learning greetings is important and there are many different ways of greeting depending on who, where, when, and situations.

Many examples of greeting to different people in different situations are given in this article. The teacher could design some role play practice based on the relationship. Students will pay attention to the phrases they choose to greet different people. Through role play, students will learn how to greet in some specific situations better.

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Vyas, M. A., & Patel, Y. L. (2015). Teaching English as a second language: a new pedagogy for a new century. Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited.

This chapter claims that greeting is important in communication. However, there is a lack of literature that covers the English greeting lesson. Therefore, this chapter focuses on discussing the contextual issues involved in English greeting. It stated that by learning an appropriate greeting in an appropriate context, it is important to not only know the grammar but also the culture because by not knowing the culture, the speakers might greet unnaturally. This article helps us to understand that other than grammar, culture is also one of the important elements that the learners need to know, so from there, we may introduce more cultural information when teaching English greetings. 

This reading chapter lets me keep in mind that it is important to also cover the culture of English greeting in the lesson because there is a lack of a culture of English greeting cover in the English greeting lesson. Therefore, I will give an introduction to the English greeting culture. This chapter in the book is related to our topic since it talks about how knowing the greeting culture is important in the greeting lesson, how greeting is important in the communication and there is a lack of English greeting lessons in the class.

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Wu, Y. (2015). Strategies of L1 and L2 greeting and small talk in Chinese. Available from Social Science Premium Collection.

This article talks about a study on the functions of small talks and greeting in a language. Target students are CFL (Chinese Foreign language Learning) students. The data shows that there are 12 major strategies in Chinese greeting. Small talks also show people’s feelings and proficiency. L1 and L2 speakers have different strategies in greeting due to their cultural background, language style, etc. This article could also be a reference for teachers to see what and how they could apply some methods and materials to their courses.

To use this article in our lesson, the teacher will go through the article with students and analyze those 12 Chinese greeting strategies. Also, the teacher will emphasize the importance and functions of small talk in greeting. After doing these, the teacher will introduce American greetings to the class. Students will compare and contrast between Chinese greeting and American greeting.

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Zayed, Mohammad N. (2014). Jordanian EFL Teachers’ and Students’ Practice of Speech Acts in the Classroom. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL),

In this article, one of the elements the study is trying to investigate in the practice of speech act is the greeting. In the experiment, thirty female EFL teachers and their students are being observed in the classroom setting. The result shows that there is not enough practice of speech act in greeting. Although the practice of greeting is done more than the other elements, still they need more practice on greeting. This reading is useful for us to read and let us know how we can create more practices on English greeting for students. 

This reading invites me to keep in mind that it is important to give a massive amount of proper practice to the students in greeting. It is known that there is a lack of proper practices since the teachers are often the ones that ask the greeting phrases and the students answer all the greeting phrases perhaps at the same time with the same phrase. Therefore, I create an activity where students need to walk around the classroom and greet each other. This article is related to our topic since greeting (our topic) is one of the speech acts stated in the article. Also, it demonstrated to what extent is greeting practiced by the teachers in the classroom setting and the way they practice greeting is improper (Teachers asking students and students only answer).

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Zeff, B. Bricklin, (2016). The Pragmatics of Greetings: Teaching Speech Acts in the EFL Classroom. English Teaching Forum, v54 n1 p2-11.

Greeting is an important speech act for us to learn. However, many teachers usually do not pay a lot of attention to teaching it. This article states why greeting is treated as a subordinate thing to learn in an ESL class and why greeting is important to learn. According to the author, cultural knowledge involves a lot in the greeting process as well. The article also discusses different tools that could be used for teaching greetings to ESL learners. It is a good reference for teachers to look at.

This article gives reasons for saying that greetings are important to learn. Before class, the teacher should read through this article to get some ideas of how to teach greeting and why it is important to teach greeting. At the beginning of the class, the teacher could have a quick discussion with the whole class on “What are some functions of greeting and why greeting is important to learn?”. Depending on students’ answers, the teacher could give some tips which he/she read in this article.