Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

A COM PARATIVE STUDY ON ENCOURAGING IN VIETNAMESE AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

Field: Communication Studies

Author : Lại Thị Thanh Vân, M.A.

Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of English-speaking countries,

University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (ULIS, VNU)

Contact information: bluecloud151@gmail.com

VIETNAM – 2011

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 4

1. RATIONALE 4

2. AIMS OF THE STUDY 4

3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY 4

DEVELOPMENT 5

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1. PRAGMATICS AND CROSS-CULTURAL PRAGMATICS 5

1.2.1. Definition of speech acts 5

1.2.2. Classifications of speech acts 6

1.2.2.2. Structure-function based approach 6

1.2.3. Encouraging as a speech act 7

1.3. POLITENESS IN CROSS-CULTURAL PRAGMATICS 7

1.3.1. Politeness defined 7

1.3.2. Conversational-maxim view on politeness 7

1.3.3. Face-management view on politeness 7

1.3.3.1. Face defined 7

1.3.3.2. Strategies for FTAs 7

1.3.4. Social variables affecting politeness 8

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 9

2.1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 9

2.2. RESEARCH DESIGN 9

2.2.1. Data collection instruments 9

2.2.2. Variables manipulated in data collection instruments 9

2.2.3. Contents of the questionnaires 9

2.2.4. Informants 10

2.2.5. Data collection procedure 10

2.3. RESULTS OF THE MPQ 10

2.4. REALISATION OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN ENCOURAGING 11

Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 11

3.1. OVERALL NUMBER OF STRATEGIES 11

3.2. OVERALL USE OF STRATEGIES 11

3.3. USE OF STRATEGIES BY SOCIAL VARIABLES 12

3.4. USE OF STRATEGIES BY SITUATIONS 12

3.4.1. Choice of encouraging strategies in high-power settings (+P) 12

3.4.1.1. Choice of encouraging strategies in Sit. 2 (+P, =D) (important package deal) 13

3.4.1.2. Choice of encouraging strategies in Sit. 1 (+P, –D) (important exam) 13

3.4.2. Choice of encouraging strategies in equal-power settings (=P) 13

3.4.2.1. Choice of encouraging strategies in Sit. 6 (=P, =D) (cancer stage 1) 13

3.4.2.2. Choice of encouraging strategies in Sit. 3 (=P, –D) (busy spouse) 14

3.4.3. Choice of encouraging strategies in low-power settings (–P) 14

3.4.3.1. Choice of encouraging strategies in Sit. 5 (–P, =D) (competition for promotion) 14

3.4.3.2. Choice of encouraging strategies in Sit. 4 (–P, –D) (TV contest) 14

CONCLUSION 15

1. REVIEW OF THE MAIN FINDINGS 15

1.1. Use of encouraging strategies 15

1.2. Influence of social status 15

1.3. Influence of social distance 16

2. IMPLICATIONS 16

REFERENCES 18

INTRODUCTION

1. RATIONALE

In cross-cultural contacts between the Vietnamese and the American, which are increasingly widespread, there appears a need for participants to have certain understanding of not only the target language but also the target culture to behave in an appropriate way for successful communication. It has been proved in reality that, without a reasonable level of cultural competence, there exists a strong likelihood of culture shock, cultural conflicts, and communication breakdown. As a result, studies of similarities and differences between Vietnamese and American verbal communication are of great importance.

The speech act of encouraging is common in both Vietnamese and American cultures. Appropriate encouragement can help improve one’s feeling, attitude, motivation as well as performance. However, cross-cultural studies of encouraging have not received much attention from Vietnamese researchers and linguists. This study is conducted in the hope of making positive contributions to the success in Vietnamese – American cross-cultural communication and in communicative English language teaching.

2. AIMS OF THE STUDY

The main aims of this study are:

to investigate how the Vietnamese native speakers (VNS) perform the act of encouraging as defined in relation to the social factors assigned in certain situations;

to investigate how the American native speakers (ANS) perform the act of encouraging as defined in relation to the social factors assigned in certain situations;

to find out if there are any prominent similarities and differences between the VNS’ and the ANS’ use of encouraging strategies in relation to the social factors assigned in the situations studied.

3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study focuses only on the verbal aspects of the speech act of encouraging. Furthermore, it mainly concentrates on VNS’ and ANS’ use of encouraging strategies in six situations, in which P and D are systematically varied while R is controlled. Influences of other parameters of the informants are not analysed in this study. What is more, the data are collected only through survey questionnaire and the number of informants is limited. Besides, only Northern Vietnamese dialect is taken into consideration.

In the view of the above limitations, this can only be regarded as a preliminary study and all the conclusions are tentative.