FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF LAW DIVISION OF LEGAL ENGLISH GRADUATION THESIS BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH Major: Legal English FACTORS THAT CONSTR

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF LAW

DIVISION OF LEGAL ENGLISH

GRADUATION THESIS BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH

Major: Legal English

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

OF LEGAL ENGLISH STUDENTS IN USING ENGLISH

Supervisor: CAO DANG QUYNH TRAM, MA Student: HUYNH LAM MINH VI

Student ID: 1352202010022

Ho Chi Minh City, 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF LAW

DIVISION OF LEGAL ENGLISH

GRADUATION THESIS BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH

Major: Legal English

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

OF LEGAL ENGLISH STUDENTS IN USING ENGLISH

Supervisor: CAO DANG QUYNH TRAM, MA Student: HUYNH LAM MINH VI

Student ID: 1352202010022

Ho Chi Minh City, 2017

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

Acknowledgments

It is a great pleasure to express my sincere thanks to all of the lecturers from Legal English Division for teaching me valuable lessons during my undergraduate studies at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Law

My utmost thanks and deepest gratitude go to my supervisor - Mrs Cao Dang Quynh Tram, who is also my class head teacher over these four years, for her thoughtful care, pertinent suggestions, and dedicated guidance in every step throughout this project Regardless of daytime or nighttime, she always provided me with the most useful comments as soon as possible and kindly told me to stay healthy during this stressful time Her insightful feedback and intellectual inspiration extremely motivated

me and significantly contributed to this study

Moreover, the research absolutely would not be completed without the participation of questionnaire respondents and interviewees Therefore, I would love to give my special thanks to those who generously took their precious time to share their opinions

Most importantly, to my beloved family, your unconditional love and constant encouragement during the course of this thesis as well as my entire life are worth more than words that can be expressed on paper

Lastly, I am forever thankful to all my dear friends who have always been there to support me along the way Though your names are not concretely mentioned here, all of your help are undoubtedly in my heart

Huynh Lam Minh Vi

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

Chart 4: Number of years that respondents have learnt English 31

Chart 6: Number of respondents who have misunderstood non-verbal

Chart 7: Reasons for misunderstanding non-verbal messages 33

Chart 8: Respondents’ views on the idea “People from different cultures may

misunderstand each other due to differences in thinking and point of view” 33

Chart 9: Respondents’ views on the idea “Lack of vocabulary potentially

leads to misunderstanding” 34

Chart 10: Number of respondents who have experienced listening difficulty

Chart 11: Frequency of connected speech lessons in respondents’ classes 35

Chart 12: Respondents’ views on the importance of connected speech lesson 35

Chart 13: Respondents’ views on misunderstanding due to connected speech 36

Chart 14: Number of respondents who have encountered misunderstanding

Chart 15: Respondents’ views on the differences among English dialects 37

Chart 16: The frequency of slang in everyday conversations 38

Chart 17: Age range that most frequently uses slang 38

Chart 18: Respondents’ views on misunderstanding due to slangs 39

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

Chart 20: Accents which respondents learn in class 39

Chart 21: Respondents’ views on communicating with native speakers who

Chart 22: Respondents’ interpretation of “I didn’t do nothing” 40

Chart 23: Respondents’ views on misunderstanding due to the use of ‘double

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

TABLE OF FIGURES

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments i

TABLE OF CHARTS ii

TABLE OF FIGURES iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Research Background and Motivation 1

1.2 Research Purpose and Objectives 3

1.3 Research Structure 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

Introduction 5

2.1 Definition of Misunderstanding in Communication 5

2.2 Causes of Misunderstanding in Human Communication 6

2.2.1 Culture Barrier 6

2.2.2 Language Barrier 10

2.2.3 Connected Speech 11

2.2.4 Homonyms 13

2.2.5 Dialect 15

2.3 Summary of Literature Review: 22

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 24

Introduction 24

3.1 Research Process 24

3.2 Research Design 25

3.2.1 Quantitative Research 25

3.2.2 Qualitative Research 27

3.3 Data Collection Method 28

3.4 Data Analysis Technique 29

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 30

Introduction 30

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

4.1 Questionnaire 30

4.2 Interview 40

4.3 Discussion of Results 42

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 45

Introduction 45

CHAPTER 6: SOLUTIONS, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 46

Introduction 46

6.1 Solutions to Misunderstanding in Communication 46

6.1.1 Culture Barrier 46

6.1.2 Language Barrier 47

6.1.3 Connected Speech 47

6.1.4 Homonyms 48

6.1.5 Dialect 48

6.2 Research Limitations 49

6.3 Recommendations for Future Research 50

REFERENCES vii

APPENDIXES x

Appendix A –THE MODIFIED QUESTIONNAIRE x

Appendix B –THE TENTATIVE QUESTIONNAIRE xvii

Appendix C - INTERVIEW QUESTIONS xxiii

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background and Motivation

Humans have a variety of needs to satisfy and purposes to fulfill According to Abraham Maslow, each and every one has an own set of needs which could be arranged

in a five-stage hierarchy Once a person satisfies physiological (immediate survival needs including food, sleep, etc.) and safety needs (home, clothing), they will seek companionship of family, friends and colleagues in order to fulfill the higher level of social needs This is where communication starts to get in because relationship needs are intimately linked to interpersonal communication Specifically, communication enables us to show affection and form connection with others The fourth level of esteem is associated with the desire for respect and recognition of others as well as ourselves We achieve our sense of self-respect and self-worth through communication with others and judging ourselves through the way people perceive us Finally, when these lower needs are satisfied, we will get to the top of the pyramid which is the need for self-actualization

The hierarchy of needs is depicted as a pyramid in Figure 1

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

Figure 1: Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Dimbleby & Burton 1 )

In addition, there is a whole variety of needs and purposes which motivate us to communicate We communicate to exchange ideas by sharing and receiving information Many people communicate to build and maintain relationships since communication helps bringing people together and it is central to every relationship In our business interaction, we communicate to persuade and win the support of others The art of persuasion is an essential skill to master as it directly affects our success in career and life Communication, therefore, is an absolute necessity in every walk of our life as it makes life much easier

“Been there, done that” is the expression we will definitely say when it comes

to the topic of misunderstanding in communication Karl Popper2 shares the same

For self-expression and creativity

ESTEEM NEEDS

For self-respect and the respect of others

RELATIONSHIP NEEDS For love &belonging, for being

part of family and other groups

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

idea about this issue: "it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood"

We have all been in the situation where the other person we are talking to misconstrues what we have said and vice versa Most of us believe that we are being crystal clear in our communication However, many times our messages turn out to be interpreted far differently from what we expect Misunderstanding and hasty assumptions affect the purpose of communication and cause a great deal of problems, as well as conflicts, to arise not only in our personal lives but also professional lives

It is obvious that English is a universal language and is one of the most spoken languages in the world; that is why it is chosen as the focus of this study Despite this fact, the explanation towards the question why there are misunderstandings in communication when people use English can also be applied to the usage of other languages For example, the reason for a person to struggle when using English is the language not being their mother tongue; and learning a new language can be a struggle Also, there are things like slangs in languages that can affect the way a person communicates with others A lot of people say that even though they think they are capable of conversing with a native speaker of that language, they are still afraid and shy

to do so Since they are lacking confidence and afraid of terms they do not know, like slangs, people tend to struggle to be in a conversation using any non-mother-tongue language, which for this topic is English

Motivated by these observations, the urgency of research is to determine factors affecting the interpretation made by the message receiver when they enter into a communicative act using English language Gaining a deep understanding of this issue will be beneficial to not only non-native speakers’ language learning process, but also native speakers in their achieving effective communication

1.2 Research Purpose and Objectives

The research question is "Why does misunderstanding appear in communication using English language?” Therefore, the main purpose of this thesis is to investigate and identify all the possible causes of misunderstanding And with the above stated

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

background, the purpose of the research is to support English language learners who have the same interest in the research topic in approaching the causes of misunderstanding Furthermore, this research aims to mitigate the situations of such misunderstanding to enhance the effectiveness of communication Besides, it can help non-native speakers improve the quality of their learning process, hence ability to use the English language more fluently

The aforementioned goals will be accomplished by fulfilling the following research objectives:

Determine the main elements that lead to wrong interpretation of the hearer/receiver/audience in communication

Investigate language learners for factors potentially causing difficulties

as well as misunderstanding when they communicate in English

Set forth some recommendations for non-native speakers to avoid common communication mistakes, hence misunderstanding when using English

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This chapter illustrates the theoretical background underlying the research inferred from academic findings in order to answer two questions: What is misunderstanding? And why does misunderstanding appear in human communication using English language? To further detail, it provides the relevant literature on clarifying the concept and presenting the fundamental causal factors of misunderstanding, which serves to support the following part of research methodology

2.1 Definition of Misunderstanding in Communication

Attention on the topic of misunderstanding is not recent There has been much significant and sustained research towards the study of misunderstanding in communication so far

Communication takes place by the presence of sending and receiving information process People communicate with others not only through words (verbal communication) but also through your body language, facial expression, physical setting, etc (non-verbal communication) Regardless of which form of communication the sender choose to express their thoughts and ideas out, there would be always possibility for their message to be understood differently by the receiver from what the sender actually intended to transmit “Don’t get me wrong!” or “Don’t misunderstand

me That’s not what I meant!” or other similar remarks can be frequently encountered in day-to-day ordinary speech Dascal3 states that misunderstandings are assumed to be ubiquitous Hinnenkam4 shares the same standpoint by stating that "misunderstandings are all-pervasive and ubiquitous, in all kind of encounters." That is to say, misunderstanding is a commonly-encountered phenomenon and an unavoidable element of communication

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

At this point, it would be prudent to shed some light on the notion of misunderstandings The linguist Weigand5 defines one of the constitutive features of misunderstanding is that it is a "form of understanding which is partially or totally deviant from what the speaker intended to communicate.”

Another view on misunderstanding is, which Hirst6 et al describes as, the instance when a dialogue partner obtains an interpretation of an utterance that he believes is complete and correct, however, not in line with what the speaker intended him to obtain

From a similar perspective, Humphreys-Jones7 believes that we can see the occurrence of misunderstanding when a communication attempts in unsuccessful because what the hearer believes to have been expressed in a given discourse situation differs from what the speaker intends to express

Generally speaking, misunderstanding is viewed as the mismatch between the speaker’s intended meaning and the hearer’s choice of interpretation for an utterance

2.2 Causes of Misunderstanding in Human Communication

2.2.1 Culture Barrier

It is generally claimed that culture happens to be the most influential factor of effective communication, but also the most prominent barrier leading to

misunderstanding Why is that?

Before embarking on any further analysis, it is important to define the term 'culture' According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries8, culture is a broad concept that encompasses a wide range of customs, beliefs, art, music, social organization, etc

of a particular country or group It basically shapes the way of life of the people that

8‘Culture’, Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, 2017,

http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/culture_1?q=culture, (accessed 8 June 2017)

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

come together to form a group with shared values (Leonard, Scotter & Pakdil9) To simplify the concept of culture, Weaver10 makes an association with the famous rhetoric image of an iceberg Accordingly, most people when conversing with others from a different culture can easily notice the difference in behaviours, which is the tip of the iceberg However, it will take a long time before they can further explore and understand each other’s deeply submerged part of the iceberg This level of a person holds all the values and thoughts they have gained living in their culture

From the perspective of communication, Schirato and Yell11 look at culture as a system of meaning where communication takes place And they emphasize the fact that culture plays a crucial role of rules and conventions that shape and constrain the development and way of life of the belonging members, especially their ways of communicating In other words, culture guides its people how to properly communicate with the world

However, it is also argued that communication has an influence on culture in a sense that communication helps determine culture by conveying values and meanings to other people regardless of its forms and means (Schirato & Yell12, Dimbleby & Burton13) For example, people from the West tend to be direct in their message, whereas Eastern people are more likely to take a detour to their point Therefore, Western culture, in this sense, is said to be direct and straight to the point, while Eastern culture to be indirect and diffuse In other words, without their pattern of communicating in the first place, Western and Eastern cultures would not be made up of that conversational pattern

Accordingly, it can be concluded that culture and communication are not separate concepts, but involved in a dynamic and mutual relationship (Schirato &

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

Yell14, Dimbleby & Burton15) As a result, culture can be a great obstacle to effective communication if the people involved in a communication are from different cultures, and not to mention sub-cultures However, as a culture is comprised of various factors, there are certain conspicuous ones that will be analyzed in order to clarify in details the many contexts of miscommunication due to culture barrier

2.2.1.1 Language:

The first factor is language As part of a culture, language serves as a unique identity of the belonging members Each culture speaks a different language in either verbal or non-verbal form And when such different identities meet, incomprehensibility in terms of verbal communication is inevitable But this is out of focus of the dissertation topic concerning misunderstanding Hence, difference in spoken language has to be taken out of account

However, people can still communicate through non-verbal form And this is where difference in culture can cause people to misunderstand one another (Patterson16) Accordingly, each culture assigns different meanings to a wide range of gestures In the United States, the 'OK' sign means something is of expected arrangement, or simply good enough for certain situation, whereas it is an obscene gesture in other countries Or, individualism differs from collectivism when it comes to expressing non-verbal meanings As individualism puts emphasis on an individual’s interests rather than those of a group, individualistic people tend to act and behave in a way that concerns their own benefits first and foremost (Laungani17).On the other hand, people from collectivist cultures will show others how they think and act for the sake of the collective good To put it simply, collectivist person will consider their acts very thoroughly as they might unintentionally gain negative reputation for their friends or family

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

2.2.1.2 Beliefs and social values:

Besides language, beliefs and social values also represent a culture’s distinctiveness, and shows how its people see the world (Dimbleby & Burton18) As a person grows up and develops, they unconsciously learn a wide collection of beliefs and social values of their culture that guide their behaviours, their way of communication (Weaver19; Leonard, Scotter & Pakdil20) Therefore, with their view and thinking being influenced and shaped in different systems of meaning, misunderstanding can be anticipated in either verbal or non-verbal form However, language has to be the uniform factor as already analyzed in the language section above To put it another way, two persons from different culture have to communicate using just one language for the influence of beliefs and social values on misunderstanding to be best applicable

To clarify this point, a simple verbal conversation in English between a Vietnamese and a foreigner can be analyzed It is important to firstly acknowledge that Vietnamese value and put a great emphasis on creating and maintaining harmony among people (Nguyen21) In this case, when asked a type of question by the foreigner that requires a straightforward response, many Vietnamese may fail to give the correct response of what they actually have in mind Instead, they may choose to give a "Yes,"

or any positive response that serves to please the foreigner, because they are afraid that

"No" may leave a negative impression on the foreigner if the foreigner feels a sign of disharmony But in fact, the Vietnamese does not want to convey agreement However, from the perspective of the foreigner, that "Yes" response may signal a willingness from the Vietnamese counterpart to do something for them, or an agreement to encourage the foreigner to take a certain action This kind of misunderstanding could lead to unfavorable results

Nguyen, M D., ‘Culture Shock—A Review of Vietnamese Culture and Its Concepts of Health and

Disease’, Western Journal of Medicine, vol 142, no 3, 1985, p 410 Available from:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1306060/?page=2 , (accessed 10 July 2017)

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

In addition, another example regarding the impact of beliefs and social values on non-verbal situations can be related to the matter of timing Patterson (2012) makes it clear that behaviours, a kind of non-verbal communication, can convey information about a person's personality, attitudes or motivations In other words, besides physical elements such as gestures and postures, any action or way of behaving that a person hooses to take can also serve to communicate with other people, which can affect other people's judgement and perception about oneself In this case of timing, Western culture regards time as a significant factor determining the success of an individual (Laungani22) Therefore, Western people take time in a serious manner that they will try

to use their time in the most efficient way However, time is more flexible to Eastern people It is not a considerable factor and can be changed if necessary Therefore, if both cultures meet for the first time, the Western side will likely to be on time, whereas the Eastern counterpart may show up later than the agreed time In terms of perception, the former shows up on time to show their respect and high priority on the meeting But the Eastern company may choose to arrive later to convey that they are very flexible and However, the former may perceive such lateness as being disrespectful or non-professional of the Eastern counterpart Also, the latter may think that Western people are rigid and hence difficult to work with

22

PD Laungani, Understanding Cross-Cultural Psychology: Eastern and Western Perspectives, London, SAGE Publications Ltd., 2007, p.66

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

learners This phenomenon of misunderstandings, however, often occurs to advanced English language learners who have achieved English fluency

Scholars have long aimed to investigate whether differences in language lead to differences in thoughts or not

In the early 1900’s, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was named after the American linguists Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf which posits that one’s language shapes one’s thoughts People who speak different languages see and think about the world differently from one another

In the article Lost in Translation by the US cognitive scientist Lera Boditsky which was published online in The Wall Street Journal 2010, she proved this point based on various recent studies: “All this new research shows us that the languages we speak not only reflect or express our thoughts, but also shape the very thoughts we wish

to express The structures that exist in our languages profoundly shape how we construct reality, and help make us as smart and sophisticated as we are” (Boroditsky23)

Language differences are therefore proving to be a major barrier to interlanguage communication In any case where one party uses a second language, the possibility for misunderstanding increases

2.2.3 Connected Speech

A large number of English learners have been facing a great deal of difficulties in listening to the native or highly proficient speakers They complained that native speakers speak so fast However, they have no trouble comprehending when they see such a spoken sentence in its written form or hear each word separately

Norris24 claims that learners have difficulty in comprehending what is being said because of connected speech features For those English-language learners at higher levels, usually, the case of misunderstandings appears in everyday conversation is not

23

L Boroditsky, ‘Lost in Translation’, The Wall Street Journal, 23 July 2010, https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703467304575383131592767868?mg=reno64 -wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052748703467304575383131 592767868.html, (accessed 20 June 2017)

24

RW Norris, ‘Teaching reduced forms: Putting the horse before the cart’, English Teaching Forum, vol 33, 1995

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

because of lack of vocabulary, but because of lack of ability to deal with these features

of connected speech This process is early described by Clarey and Dixson25 that it

“…results from a simple law of economy, whereby the organs of speech, instead of taking a new position for each sound, tend to draw sounds together with the purpose of saving time and energy.” In other words, speech stream is a continuous signal in which boundaries between words may not be acoustically reliable and where the end of one word can blend into the beginning of the next

In everyday speech, native speakers favor speed over clarity which leads to the fact that words and sounds are lost and linked together in different ways to enable us to articulate with minimal movement and help the language flow rhythmically.This concurrently brings about a big challenge on the part of second language listeners to keep up with the message while listening to this “reduced” speech In Reed and Levis‘s26 sight, “the pronunciation of connected speech may become a significant challenge to intelligibility, both the intelligibility of native speech for non-native listeners and the intelligibility of non-native speech for native listeners.” There are six essential categories regarding the classification of connected speech processes: linking, deletion, insertion, modification, reduction, and multiple processes

A large majority of second language learners lack proper knowledge about connected speech and neglect the matter This may cause them to have misunderstandings or even embarrassing situations in everyday communication Thus, exploring connected speech is crucial to each and every English-language learners as this type of language use does not merely appear in informal speech; however, in fact, it

“occurs in all levels of speech from casual to even very formal levels” (Brown & Kondo-Brown27) Nevertheless, it is not as easy as ABC for second language learners to understand connected speech as they have to figure out where the word boundaries are

Try saying those pairs of sentences with stringing words together:

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

“The good can decay many ways

The good candy came anyways.”

“The stuffy nose can lead to problems

The stuff he knows can lead to problems.”

“Some others I've seen

Some mothers I've seen.”28

In real-life communication, phonetically ambiguous pairs like “I scream/Ice-cream” or " a new display" / " a nudist play" cannot cause any difficulties to native speakers as they are more likely to fill in the gaps in understanding from context and predicting vocabulary However, it may be a huge problem to non-native speakers

as they are rarely able to make predictions about which syntactic forms and lexical items are likely to occur in a given situation Non- native speakers tend to rely almost solely

on the sounds which they hear Language learners who have been taught with strong focus on correctness and accuracy, as Brown29 claims, will thus experience a

“devastating diminuation of phonetic information at the segmental level when they encounter normal speech.”

2.2.4 Homonyms

There can be moments where you may confront ambiguities caused by homonyms when having a conversation with someone Whether intended or not, homonym still represents a serious hindrance in communication, especially to people who do not speak English as their first language

Richards and Schmidt30 and Yule31 define 'homonyms' as a term used to denote lexical items that are orthographically and phonologically identical but can be semantically interpreted in different ways For example, ‘ruler’ can refer to either a device used for measuring or drawing straight lines or a person exercising government

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

Let me take another example to make it clearer, the word “bill” causes misunderstanding in this joke:

Customer: - How much is my chicken bill?

Cashier: - Excuse me, Madam, but my name is John

It seems to be generally acknowledged that ‘Bill’ is one of the common English names In the above circumstance, however, the word ‘bill’ is construed as a piece of paper that shows how much the customer has to pay for her chicken Indeed, if the context does not effectively remove obstacles for the meaning of the homonym, the potential for misunderstanding will arise, which may create a barrier for speakers to communicate successfully

The case of homonyms is even more problematic when a legal word or phrase is known and used generally by the public but such term takes on a different shade of meaning than in their ordinary usage Considering the term ‘burglary’, at first glance, the distinction between the ordinary and legal usages may not seem quite obvious The difference lies in the legal consequences of the described conduct The legal usage requires a legal consequence of the described conduct, namely loss of property Media and layperson use the term burglary when referring to an act of breaking into the house

of another and stealing something from it By contrast, in legal usage, the defendant need only has intent to commit the felony therein inside and need not actually steal anything This legal term is frequently misunderstood and easily misused by most people (Tiersma32)

Things get so much easier when people are talking face to face, whenever a misunderstanding arises, the speaker can backtrack, clarify and make a correction immediately as both the speaker’s and the listener’s body language serves as a check on whether there is a misunderstanding (Nilsen & Nilsen33)

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

As a practical matter, homonyms potentially cause lexical ambiguity in legal documents whenever a word has several possible meanings or interpretations Usually, the reader may be aware of the intended meaning of a homonym through the given context, but some words with multiple and mutually inconsistent meanings cannot be determined by context For example, the word “since” can be used either to express a causal relation or to indicate the passage of time In order to avoid this semantic ambiguity, some contract drafters limit “since” to its temporal connotation and use

“because” to indicate causation and “as from” to indicate the passage of time” (Haggard

& Kuney34)

"The law is a profession of words."35 Despite the fact that we always start out with good intentions, the meanings of the words found in documents are not always clear and rarely reflect accurately the drafters’ ideas They can sometimes prevent others from understanding the information which the drafters convey as such words may

be capable of being understood in more than one way or interpreted wrongly This, in turn, is the greatest cause of litigation over drafted documents Drafters must take special care of all these terms to avoid problems involving misunderstandings; or even worse, the need for expensive litigation

2.2.5 Dialect

Statistically, English is the most widely used language worldwide as 1.5 billion learners choose English as their second language and it is spoken in more than 100 countries (Noack36) Despite its being common, English is spoken quite differently in those countries It seems what lies behind this situation is English has multiple dialects

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

Before going any further, it is worth clarifying the concept Clive Upton37, who has been researching English Dialects for almost fifty years, gives us a simple and straightforward definition of the term ‘dialect’: “A dialect is any variety of English that

is marked off from others by distinctive linguistic features Such a variety could be associated with a particular place or region or, rather more surprisingly, it might also be associated with a certain social group - male or female, young or old, and so on.”

To have a better view of dialect’s impact on creating misunderstanding, the following 3 factors will be analyzed in details: Lexicon, grammar and phonology

2.2.5.1 Lexical Differences:

The most conspicuous differences between dialects are the different lexical items

used in different varieties We can observe lexical differences in words and phrases by

comparing the way English is spoken in different geographical regions and among different social groups

Language change is one of the inevitable facts of any language Lexical changes are more noticeable due to the ongoing flow of new words or due to the new meanings

of the existing words There are several ways in which new words are made up: coining, borrowing, recutting, blending, compounding, etc Therefore, people from different regions or different social classes may have dissimilar ways of forming a particular word

More than one time, as English learners, it is sometimes unexpected that speakers

of the same language were referring to the same kind of shop that sells mainly alcoholic

drinks to be taken away and drunk at home when they talked about liquor store

(American English), off-licence (British English), bottle shop (Australian English) That is to say, they used words that have a synonymous counterpart in the other geographical region or other social group; one object (or idea) is expressed by different words in diferent dialects of English Taking account of using different words to

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

describe the same item, it is clear that there are disparate objects and activities in different regions (Wolfram & Schilling38)

Non-native speakers, for instance, have to deal with floor numbering difference between Britain and America In British English, the floor of a building at the ground level is designated as the ‘ground floor’ In American English, however, the floor at such level is called the ‘first floor’ If your American boss says: “Meet me on the first floor,” you will have to go straight to the floor at the street level On the contrary, meet your boss on the floor above the street level if he is British

Besides, even the same words may be used in different senses The common adverb “quite” can be the tricky word in some circumstances due to its dual meaning Both the British and American use this word, but two of them mean different things, depending on whether an American or a British says them

To take a simple example, when you invite a British friend and an American friend for dinner at a restaurant, and later, you ask them whether the food is good Suppose that they both say “the food is quite good.” Regarding British English, “quite good” only means “pretty good” or “fairly good”; therefore, you had better be wise to looking for a better place Concerning American English, however, “quite” is much more positive as it carries the meaning of “very” or “totally.” This obviously has the potential to create misunderstanding between a native and non-native speaker

As second language learners, we all have those hard times understanding British people, especially young people when they use language like "He is all mouth and trousers" instead of “He bloats a lot but he can't do anything." Nowadays, slang is becoming more noticeably increasing and widely used in daily discourse with the influx

of the internet, movies, TV shows, magazines, and other means of communication No matter what language you are speaking, slang is unavoidable; however, it is not usually taught in the classroom although it plays an integral role in becoming proficient in any language There are huge slang differences because each part of the world has its own

38

W Wolfram and N Schilling, American English Dialects and Variation, 3rd edn., John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2016, p 60

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

set of slang word Just because they are speaking the same language, does not mean they clearly understand all the slang terms from other regions or other societal groups

Slang is a set of informal non-standard words and expressions that is peculiar to a particular group (Wolfram & Schilling39) From the perspective of language, we can see

no difference in the formation between those that are labeled as “slang” and other lexical items Numerous slang terms are simply common lexical items that pass into informal mainstream speech, and thus involve changes in meaning or usage as a matter

of fact As in the below instance:

A: I’ve just ordered two 12” pizzas for us, so we can eat pizzas and watch movies later!

B: Wicked! Thank you I’m really excited!

The italicized word “wicked,” which is an adjective in English, does not mean

“evil” or “morally wrong” as set out in the dictionary In the aforementioned situation, however, this word is actually a slang term conveying the meaning of “brilliant” or

‘awesome.”

One of the fundamental characteristics of slang is it has strong informal overtones (Wolfram & Schilling40) As time goes by, the resources of slang has been enriched in various ways Group outside adult society or teenagers are pretty active in producing and creating slang People from different generations and in other locales do not always fully understand all the slang that has been created by the younger generations, not to mention that adults may feel totally unfamiliar with such terms This

is where we see the occurrence of misunderstanding or what we call ‘generation gap’ Teenagers employ slang terms as a ‘private’ language in their ordinary conversation in order to set themselves apart from adult population

Word usage that is considered as slang not only associated with people who fall within a relatively narrow age range but also with minority ethnic groups By way of

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

illustration, when a South African ever says to you they will do something “just now,”

as in, “I’ll get started on my homework and do all of it just now,” they mean they’ll do it later in the near future, but clearly not immediately Most of us might be thinking that

we know exactly what this common phrase means at first, but we might find it a little bit weird because what a South African actually means is totally different from what we previously think

Additionally, slang is also widely used amongst friends or colleagues who know each other well or who share the same interests or backgrounds Such groups are in reference to close-knit peer groups (Wolfram & Schilling41) which are in the minority When an in-group speaker prefers slang over conventional usage, he might want to pinpoint prestige, indicate group membership or draw a line separating group members from those who are not a part of the group

By and large, slang consists of words and expressions that broadly restricted to a particular group of people or a region Owing to the fact that the particular meaning such slang terms are understood by only a small fraction of population and lots of them cannot be found in most dictionaries, they frequently causes misunderstanding to outsiders

2.2.5.2 Grammatical Differences

For a regular Vietnamese learning English as a second language, there is a low expectation of their ability to master at the language that is used as a facilitator for their work or expanding their knowledge That is to say, an ordinary working person may choose to learn English just because their managers, their supervisors are not vietnamese Therefore, they have a need to merely understand and converse with their superiors, without having to use complex structures or grammars On the other hand, a student who wants to pursue an academic pathway may have to equip himself with advanced English skills so as to not only delve into research from other academics, but also to prove their competency As a result, depending on the level of his learning objectives, a user can choose to understand the language to the extent that is limited to

41

W Wolfram and N Schilling, American English Dialects and Variation, 3rd edn., John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2016, p.66

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

communicating in daily life, or to the full for the sake of their higher study It can be observed that most Vietnamese who learn English simply to communicate in daily conversational situations, such as instructing customers, or exchanging information when travelling abroad, tend to put less focus on their use of grammar In other words, grammatical errors in their sentences are inevitable and easily noticeable But, they can get their messages across

However, there are cases when the use of incorrect grammars can lead to misunderstanding According to Wolfram and Schilling42, there are a number of ways that a single grammar rule can be used differently in different English speaking regions Still, among the variety, there are two most significant usage patterns that needs attention to avoid misunderstanding in communication

Firstly, Wolfram and Schilling43 discuss that English speakers or writers, especially those who are not native, have a tendency to regularize irregular forms of words due to the fact that they have struggled to learn them by rote As a result, this pattern of usage can have an impact on listener’s and reader’s ability to interpret information regarding the object in question as the plural form of a word may be changed to its singular form For example, a girl who wishes to convey that she just had his or her 2 teeth pulled the previous day may cause her friends to misunderstand that she only had one tooth pulled if they say “I had my tooth pulled yesterday.” Or in the field of Information Technology, an employee may shock his manager if he reports that

“I already finished deleting the data,” when the manager only required him to take care

of one datum only

And the second pattern is the use of ‘double negation’ (Wolfram and Schilling44

) The term refers to the use of indefinite forms of a noun when following the negative form of a verb For example, “I didn’t do nothing” can be understood by a native that the

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

speaker actually did not do anything But with the use of the indefinite form ‘nothing’ in this case, a Vietnamese may interpret it differently that the speaker did something

2.2.5.3 Phonological Differences

Different regions have different phonological and phonetic patterns that are associated with the regional or socio-cultural characteristics (Wolfram & Schilling45) In other words, people from different regions pronounce differently, resulting in different accents within one language For example, words such as “bag” and “bad” may sound like “beg” and “bed” respectively in Northern United States Or people from a number

of European countries that are still influenced by the old English pronounce words like

“meet” and “night” as “mate” and “neet” respectively Nevertheless, such old pronunciation patterns have experienced changes overtime leading to the rising of current standard English pronunciation nowadays

However, it is also necessary to recognize the fact that despite coming from the same region, people are still likely to have different pronunciation patterns Such regions are regarded as Transitional Zones where there is a combination of pronunciation variants that come from other dialectal areas, and usually originate from one of the three central zones including Eastern New England, Western Pennsylvania and the West of America (Wolfram & Schilling46) Transitional Zone individuals can pronounce either with different separate variants or with a merger which refers to the tendency of two different vowels being pronounced closely the same For instance, people from Canada and North of America will tend to pronounce words such as “cot” and “caught,” “hawk” and “hock,” and “Dawn” and “Don” almost the same (Wolfram

& Schilling47, Labov48)

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

In addition, there is also a correlation between a language and social factors that needs to be taken into account (Milroy & Milroy49) It is argued that pronunciation changes stem from people’s desire to acquire higher level status or prestige in the society For instance, there was a time in New York City when people who were seeking

to reclassify themselves into a higher level status restore the post-vocalic “r” in words such as “car” and “card,” i.e to actually pronounce the “r” in those words as it should

be As a result, there exists a difference in pronunciation patterns of people from different social classes, hence misunderstanding in cross-classes conversation

From the perspective of non-native speakers, most find Received Pronunciation (RP for short) or General American accent much easy to follow in comparison with other accents Inasmuch as RP is the pronunciation model used by speakers such as newsreaders and TV announcers It is used in most British English language learning and teaching materials and in phonetic transcriptions that we can see in any British dictionary Similarly, General American accent is not only well-known but also widely used in many popular media channels such as movies, radio, podcasts, web videos, etc Naturally, in everyday discourse, communicating with native speakers who have unfamiliar accents seems to be a tough task for non-native speakers to get through

2.3 Summary of Literature Review:

After a long analysis, it is now time to make a brief summary of the major findings and ideas covered in the review This chapter begins with a general clarification about the notion of misunderstanding In addition, it also presents a review

of previous studies about the common causes of misunderstanding in human communication with the focus on English language With the discovering of relative causal factors to misunderstanding, this research can elaborate on the existing data, together with findings gathered from a survey conducted in association with this paper,

to bring forth recommended solutions for minimizing misunderstanding circumstances

As expounded in the earlier section, the model of this research will be described in the following figure:

49

J Milroy and L Milroy, Authority in Language, 3rd edn., Routledge, 1999, p 48

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

Figure 2: Conceptual framework

Misunderstanding

in communication Culture barrier

Language barrier

Connected speech

Homonym

Dialect

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

Introduction

As indicated in the title, this chapter contains detailed procedures of the dissertation To be more specific, in this part the author outlines the research methodology including process of the project, research design, data collection method

as well as data analysis technique

3.1 Research Process

This study is conducted with the following process:

As shown in the above figure, the research is conducted through specific stages Particularly, after determining research objectives and reviewing the theories and prior studies relating to the topic of the project, the next step of research model is concentrated on The author then moves on to research method which uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative method to collect the data Google Docs and Microsoft Excel are used as helpful tools for the author to analyze the data Finally,

Figure 3: Research process

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

conclusion is drawn, solutions are introduced and recommendations are made in the last step

3.2 Research Design

In this dissertation, both quantitative and qualitative research is carried out so as

to achieve the objectives of the research In this way, the mixed method helps produce validation of the findings; hence brings in effectiveness for the study

3.2.1 Quantitative Research

Quantitative approach produces numerical data that are analyzed by way of mathematically based methods Therefore, this approach makes it easier for the researcher to transmit the respondent’s information to numbers which will be later

determine the relationship between reviewed literature and research so as to intensify the persuasiveness and reliability of the research Owing to the objectives of this study, the data is gathered from a survey questionnaire on English language learners Different opinions are represented in numbers which will decide to confirm or reject the theory after analyzing All of the collected data will be visually shown in tables and charts to help the audience easily recognize the implication of the given information

3.2.1.1 Questionnaire Design

The survey questionnaire (Appendix A) is designed by the author and discussed

with the thesis advisor With the intention of making the respondents deeply understand

the questions and getting better responses, all of the questions are in both English and Vietnamese The questionnaire contains two sections, namely Section 1 and Section 2

Section 1 consists of basic background information such as gender, age, current employment position and how long they have been studying English

Section 2 consists of 16 questions and they are directly linked to the objectives of this research From the conceptual framework, there are five main factors, which potentially cause misunderstanding when people use English in communication, that

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

need to be tested: Culture barrier, language barrier, connected speech, homonym, and dialect

In this research, the author uses a combination of three types of question formats

so as to as follows:

Open-ended questions: This type of question, which only appears in Section 1, requires the respondents to give answers in their own words about their biographical information

Multiple-choice questions: In some questions, respondents are able to choose more than one answer or they can add their own comments in the given spaces

Likert scale questions: This type of question offers a scale of potential

choices so as to make the answers best fit the respondent’s opinions

3.2.1.2 Sampling

- Sampling criteria

To collect reliable data, the respondents were chosen based on the following criteria: Participants are at least 18 years old and they must have considerable number of years of learning English Besides, they have also learnt a majority of subjects in English during their time in university Meeting the above criteria will ensure the necessary frequency and length of time they have used English to figure out what elements possibly affect their interpretation when communicating in English

- Target population

These questionnaire and interview respondents are from different categories such

as student, officer, businessman, etc To be more specific, based on the above criteria, the research will focus mainly on students from Legal English division (LE-38, LE-39, LE-40B classes) and some students who have been attending second degree class (7AVB2CQ) at Ho Chi Minh City University of Law in Vietnam

- Target sample

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

This study mainly gathers primary data by administrating survey in the form of questionnaire through two ways of handling to respondents: directly giving paper-based surveys by hand and indirectly sending online surveys via Facebook

In the first way, the researcher gives the questionnaires directly to the respondents and explains clearly to them how to do the questions so that their inputs are relevant We have delivered 76 questionnaires directly to students from LE-39 and LE-40B classes by visiting them after they finished their final exams Accordingly, 44 survey forms and the other 32 are sent out to LE-39 class and LE-40B class respectively Besides, 18 questionnaires were also distributed to the second degree 7AVB2CQ class All the answers from the respondents are fulfilled voluntarily and collected immediately right after their fulfillment

In the second way, the survey questionnaire was created on Google docs The link of questionnaire is sent to LE-38 class online via Facebook closed group on 2ndJuly, 2017 Consequently, only 8 out of 34 students filled in the form

- Sample size

The researcher decides to take the sample of 100 respondents from Ho Chi Minh City University of Law As stated by Roscoe50, the appropriate and effective sample size for most study should range from 30 to under 500 as this limitation minimizes the risk of sample error to an acceptable level Thus, to align with the given timeline, budget and

available human resource, in this research, 100 questionnaires are distributed to the

participants through both online and paper-based surveys

3.2.2 Qualitative Research

In order to reach the dissertation objectives and make the study more rigorous, a qualitative research is held together with the aforementioned quantitative approach Specifically, the use of interview was chosen as it would allow investigating

50

JT Roscoe, Fundamental Research Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edn., New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

participant's views in greater depth so that people can have more faith in the results from the interview

Each and every student was administered a paper including interview questions Firstly, the interview began with a request for demographic information such as the participant’s age, educational level, how long they have been studying English (question 1,2,3) Then, there were questions relating to hindrances which affect the interpretation of the hearer/receiver/audience when using English in communication situation (question 4,5) Next, the last question aimed to ask for some solutions so as to mitigate the case of misunderstanding to the lowest level (question 6)

3.3 Data Collection Method

To produce high quality research outputs, both primary and secondary research are carried out Secondary research is viewed as the first stage of this project Secondary data analysis is defined as 'any reanalysis of data collected by another researcher or organisation' (Hakim51).Particularly, we had to review and investigate numerous prior

scholarly literature and research papers in order to create the framework for this study

Besides, some information of secondary data could be searched from magazines,

journals or e-newspapers These will become references to support for designing questionnaires and interview questions as well as findings

51

C Hakim, Research Design: Successful Designs for Social and Economic Research, 2nd edn., London, Routledge, 2000, p 24

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In terms of primary research, it can be explained as “research that is collected firsthand rather than found in a book, database, or journal.” 52

Interview and survey were chosen in this project as ways of gathering information about people’s experiences and opinions Interview was applied as we want

to gain detailed and in-depth information from a smaller specific group of people, while survey was used because we want to learn general patterns from a wider selection of people All of the findings will be displayed, analyzed and further discussed in next chapter

3.4 Data Analysis Technique

The questionnaire survey was made using Google Docs, and it comes in two formats, a printout version and an online version The printout surveys were distributed

to participants around the campus with the results being collected at the spot, while the online version ones were sent to respondents via Facebook so it took longer for the results to be collected All answers were compiled together using Google Docs, and using those results, Google Docs created graphs to illustrate the data collected in a more visual way However, some statistics needed to be done by ourselves; therefore, Microsoft Excel was used to create the graphs using the data provided

52

This idea is from a chapter in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2, a peer-reviewed open textbook series for the writing classroom, p 154

FACTORS THAT CONSTRAIN LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

Introduction

This chapter will bring in the presentation of the findings and analysis derived from the survey, as well as the interview The statistical data will be analyzed and further discussed later

4.1 Questionnaire

Chart 1: Gender

The first chart describes the percentage of respondent’s gender To be more detail, there are 84 respondents who are female accounting for 84% in total Whereas the ratio of male is smaller, there are 16 males out of 100 students who took part in this survey which occupies 16% of the total