WHY AND HOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS APOLOGIZE TO THEIR LECTURERS: THE CASE OF UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES, VIETNAM

Apology plays an important role in maintaining social relationships. This paper aims to examine apology strategies employed by students of University of Foreign Language Studies, Vietnam when apologizing to their English language lecturers. A total of 300 students completed the questionnaires which seek to explore their engagement in apology. Among the 300 respondents who completed the questionnaires, 100 students admitted that they wrote apology emails in English to their lecturers at least once during the last three academic semesters. The emails were also analysed to closely examine the apology utterances. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were employed to analyze the apology utterances and questionnaire data, focusing on the reasons why the students apologized, and the strategies employed in seeking the apology. Data analysis reveals that the students apologized mainly for cheating in exams, being late for classes, showing disrespect to the lecturers and being absent from classes. In terms of apology strategies, the students mostly employed the strategies of Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (expression of the apology), Promise of forbearance and Accounts (telling what has happened). The students tended to use email when apologizing for serious offences and they preferred to meet the lecturers face-to-face for the less serious ones.Keywords: Apology strategy, email, lecturers, students, VietnamCite as: Trang, N.T.H. (2017). Why and how university students apologize to their lecturers: The case of University of Foreign Language Studies, Vietnam. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 2(2), 79-87.