A Vietnamese-English Cross-Cultural Study On The Use Of Responding To English Greetings.pdf

Output file Vietnam national university, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES PHÙNG THỊ ĐỨC A VIETNAMESE –ENGLISH CROSS CULTURAL STUDY ON THE USE OF[.]

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

PHÙNG THỊ ĐỨC

A VIETNAMESE –ENGLISH CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY

ON THE USE OF RESPONDING TO ENGLISH GREETINGS

(Nghiên cứu Giao thoa Văn hoá Anh- Việt trong việc sử dụng lời

đáp lại các lời chào của tiếng Anh)

Minor Thesis

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15

HANOI - 2010

PHÙNG THỊ ĐỨC

A VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON THE USE OF RESPONDING TO

ENGLISH GREETINGS

NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO VĂN HÓA ANH –VIỆT TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG

LỜI ĐÁP LẠI CÁC LỜI CHÀO CỦA TIẾNG ANH

M.A Mino Programme Thesis

Major: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

Supervisor: PHAN THỊ VÂN QUYÊN, MA

HANOI - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

RETENTION OF THE STUDY PROJECT REPORT i

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

I Rationale 1

II Aims of the study 2

III Scope of the study 2

IV Methodology 3

V Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter One: Literature Review 4

1.1 Language in communication 4

1.2 Language and culture 5

1.3 Cross-cultural communication 6

1.4 Cross-cultural pragmatics 7

1.4.1 Speech acts 7

1.5 An overview of greetings in English and Vietnamese 12

1.5.1 Definition of greetings 12

1.5.2 Functions of greetings 12

1.5.3 Characteristics of greetings 13

1.5.3.1 Addressing forms in greetings 14

1.5.3.1.1 Addressing forms in Vietnamese greeting 14

1.5.3.1.2 Addressing forms in English greetings 15

1.5.4 Types of greetings 16

1.5.4.1.Greetings in passing 17

1.5.4.2.Greeting before a conversation 17

1.5.4.3 Greetings in Business 18

1.5.4.4 Greeting at a social event ( at a party) 19

1.5.4.5 Greetings in the classroom 20

1.6 Responding to a greeting in the light of Cross-Cultural Pragmatics 21

Chapter two: RESEARCH AND METHODOLODY 23

2.1 Hypotheses 23

2.2 Data collection 23

2.2.1 The questionnaire 23

1.2.2 The informants 24

Chapter three: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 25

3.1 Considerations when responding to greeting 25

3.2 The strategies of responding to greetings 26

3.2.1 Data analysis 26

3.2.3 Findings and results 37

3.2.4 Suggestion for using responses to greetings in English 40

PART III: CONCLUSION 42 APPENDIX I SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE I BIBLIOGRAPHY II

PART I: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale

In recent years, English has become an international language used widely all over the world It is not only the language of communication and media but also the language of knowledge and culture Mastering English is considered an obligated condition for everyone in Vietnam and it is implied to be a “passport” for a good job because English serves their job and their promotion Therefore, people pay more and more attention to learning English They no longer do grammar and translation exercises only but listening skill and speaking skill have been invested more time and better attention as well As a result, English has been learnt more properly and used more effectively

However, in reality, Vietnamese learners of English often make mistakes in communicating with English speakers This is mostly caused by the effect of Vietnamese culture and the limitation of understanding about English culture One of the most important parts in almost every conversation is greeting which generally plays an important role in communication and functions as a start of a conversation or indentify the appearance of speakers or to express the respect to the listener In addition, greetings help

to establish, maintain a relationship and facilitates the conversation

Greeting is the first step of the communication The continual step is responding to the greeting, a decisive agent assuring the success of the communicating Thus, it is essential

to take great interest in not only what and how we greet each other but also what and how

we respond to greetings Although greetings and responses are, to some extent, formulaic, choosing a relevant response to a greeting is not an easy job In fact, many Vietnamese people failed to continue their conversation in English due to not only language ability but also understanding about the culture of target language, English In many cases, when being greeted by a foreigner, many English learners feel confused to find out a good and relevant response, some people cannot respond their partner’s greeting immediately Realizing the important role of responding to greetings, the author has chosen to study Vietnamese and English cross-cultural communication in term of responding to greetings with the expectation of finding out the similarities and differences between Vietnamese and English responses to greetings then suggest relevant responses to greetings in specific

situations, which partly helps English learners in Vietnam have more confidence and achieve more success in communicating in English

II Aims of the study

The ultimate goal of this research is

- to investigate the specific situations of responding the greetings among learners of English with certain variables (i.e age, gender, social hierarchy, etc.)

- to provide readers general information about English and Vietnamese greetings and the way they reply a greeting in their own language

- to compare and contrast replying strategies in English and Vietnamese in order to bring about the similarities and differences in the way Vietnamese and English people reply a greeting

- Therefore, the research questions are:

 What are the verbal strategies used by Vietnamese and English people to reply a greeting?

 What are the similarities and differences in responding to greeting in English and Vietnamese?

III Scope of the study

- Although the role of paralinguistic and non-verbal factors in real-life communication is fully conscious, the study focuses on the verbal aspects of the act

of replying a greeting only

- The study is confined only to strategies of replying a greeting in Vietnamese and Anglophone culture The Vietnamese Northern dialect and the English language spoken in Great Britain are chosen for contrastive analysis

- Conducting survey questionnaires enables the author to collect the data from a large population in a short period of time Recorded and videotaped face-to face conversations are impossible due to the limitation of time, geographical distance and financial difficulties

IV Methodology

In order to carry out this study theoretically, the author has based on careful studies and analysis of linguistic, semantic and pragmatic materials with the great support of my supervisor through her valuable remarks and comments as well as reference to both home and foreign publications Thus, in order to achieve the objectives of a cross-cultural research, the main method of study is the qualitative and quantitative one Thesurvey questionnaire is designed for Vietnamese people about their ways of replying greetings in their target language and English people about their ways of replying greetings in their mother tongue The survey was designed with different situations basing on the routines and daily conversations Their cultural and linguistic matters will be analyzed by the statistics, data, and description collected Besides, some comments and suggestions are also given by personal observations or consultation with the supervisor

V Design of the study

This study consists of three main parts Part I - Introduction- In this first part, all the theoretical background and academic routines are discussed In part B – Development focuses on the 3 chapters In chapter I, cross-cultural and responding to a greeting are defined cultural pragmatics and replying a greeting are mentioned In this chapter, the author distinguishes the differences and the similarities between responding to greeting in English and Vietnamese In the next chapter, the research methodology is discussed with analysis and findings from the survey questionnaires conducted by the Vietnamese and English Part III is the conclusion of the study, here, the author summarize all the main ideas, the important findings as well as some suggestions

PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter One: Literature Review

1.1 Language in communication

In the history of human’s evolution, language is seen as the most amazing achievement because it creates the distinguishing between man and beast Since language has become a part of the development of man and his society, it is impossible to distance language from people

Language includes a system of verbal forms of communication which conveys meaning by other means of human communication and a system of non-verbal cues such as body motions, facial expressions, etc According to Schmidt and Richard (91980:161),

“language is to build bridges, to consolidate political regimes, to carry on arguments, to convey information from one person to another, to entertain and in short, to communicate” Hence, “language is a human system of communication which uses structured vocal sounds and can be embodied in other media such as writing, print and physical signs” (The Oxford Companion To The English Language 1996:523)

Hybels,S and Weaver, R (1992) say “communication is any process in which people share information, ideas and feelings that involve not only the spoken and written words but also body language, personal mannerisms and style, the surrounding and things that add meaning to a message” In this sense, communication is considered a transactional process of creating and sharing meaning, through verbal and non-verbal behavior, between two or more persons

In Malinowski’s words (in Hudson R.A 1980:109) “language functions as a link in concerted human activity, as a piece of human behavior” In this way, communication has

“the phatic function” as communication is used not only for exchanging information but also establishing, reinforcing and maintaining a social relation to confirm each other’s presence In this sense, Verderber (1990:60) claimed 4 uses of language Firstly, language

is to designate, label and define thoughts, feelings, objects, people and experiences in order that they may be shared with other people Secondly, language is used to evaluate what it defines as language plays a role to control over the perceptions and behaviors of people

Thirdly, we use language to discuss things outside our immediate experience Finally, we can use language to reflect on or to talk about language because it is self- reflexive Talking about the functions of communication, Verderber also defined three functions of communication i.e psychological function, social function and decision-making function

In brief, it is difficult to distance language from communication Thanks to language, communication becomes more successful and effective In turn, communication helps language express all features and characteristics

1.2 Language and culture

Language and culture are the two factors which are interrelated because people share not merely language but also culture Thus, “What is culture?” It is difficult to define this concept Culture normally refers to the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior, language, ideas, customs and so on However, culture is the way we act, the context in which we exist, think, feel and relate to others In Kottak’s words (1979:4) culture that complex whole which include knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society Another definition that is the most widely –cited by Goodenough (1992:217)

A society’s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate

in a manner acceptable to its members, and to do so in any role that they accept for any one

of themselves

In this definition, culture is seen as a shared background (e.g national, ethic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values Therefore, culture is also absorbed through the socialization process Goodenough stated “the relation of language to culture is that of part to whole” and according to Goshgarian, “Language shapes our perception of reality”

The socio-cultural context reflects the social and cultural practices of a community through language It is not difficult to interpret culture through language because language reflects cultural identity which people meet daily in their lives Additionally, thanks to language, cultural values and ideas, human culture would be persevered by generations to generations In its turn, culture has a great influence on the way in which language is used Culture itself navigates guidelines or practices for linguistic behavior To add this sense,

William Frawley (1992:45) says: “Culture is the final arbiter of meaning, or linguistic meaning is entirely determined by the cultural context in which the language occurs”

In Bromfit’s words (C.J et al: 1995), language is one of the most important symbol systems

in any culture, thus, there is no surprise that language and culture should be taught and learned in the foreign or second language classrooms as learning a new language means learning a new culture

1.3 Cross-cultural communication

Obviously, cultural components play an important role in conveying the message of communication People living in a cultural environment gradually learn the language, beliefs and behavior of the group in which they re nurtured They know and understand the manners which are acceptable in their society Thus, there is an understanding between those who share the same culture However, when people from different cultural backgrounds, cross-cultural communication occurs Jose, P (1992) states:

Things happen as entities from different cultures directly and constantly communicate This, obviously, will lead to changes of the original patterns, or in other words, cross- cultural communication is the exchange of cultures and also the results of these changes Sooner or later they will experience a period of curiosity, frustration, anger, alienation, depression and other such reactions that have come to be labeled “culture shock” It is the reaction of the person from his culture to the visitor’s behavior coming from other culture

It seems that no matter how well a person has prepared himself, some degree of “shock” is inevitable and, some would say, necessary for better adjustment What is important is to recognize these feelings and to know how to respond to them (Condon and Yousef 1996)

In order to cope with this problem, we should adopt openness, a receptive attitude towards other cultures, never see them as awkward or meaningless Mentioning what makes communication successful, Byram and Flemin (1998:12) stated “acquisition of abilities to understand different modes of thinking and living, as they are embodied in the language to

be learnt, and to reconcile or mediate between different modes present in any specific interaction”

1.4 Cross-cultural pragmatics

In the eyes of linguists, language is considered a social product which should be examined

in a context to find out the meaning in relation of the language and the context Thus, it is impossible to interpret an utterance without the context in which it is used The term

“Pragmatics” is defined as “The study of language from the point of view of users, especially of the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social interaction, and the effects the use of language has on other participants in the act of communication In other words, pragmatics is the study of communicative action in its sociological context Communicative action includes not only speech acts – such as requesting, greeting, and so on; but also participation in conversation engaging in different types of discourse and sustaining interaction in complex speech events” (Kasper:1996) Pragmatics focuses on the actual language used in specific communicative situations Therefore, speakers must be sensitive to potential as well as actual meaning because pragmatics refers to the meaning implied in individual words and the order of words to consider how we use utterances when we talk To be more specific, making meaning is a dynamic process which involves different contributions of both speaker and hearer as well

as the context and the potential meaning of an utterance Besides, in Richard’ opinion (1992:284), when mentioning pragmatics, it is obvious that researchers have to answer the three questions as the followings: “How do the interpretation and use of utterances depend

on knowledge of the real world?, How do speakers use and understand speech acts? And How is the structure of sentences influenced by the relationship between the speaker and the hearer?” Briefly, world knowledge and social knowledge of participants in communication are so important that they can be distance from interpreting the real meaning of each utterance

1.4.1 Speech acts

In attempting to express themselves, people do not only produce utterances containing grammatical structures and words, they perform actions via those utterances If you work

in a situation where a boss has a great deal of power, then the boss’s utterance: “You’re

fired” is more than just statement This utterance can be used to perform the act of ending

you employment However, the actions performed by utterances do not have to be as dramatic or as unpleasant as in this example The action can be quite pleasant, as in the

compliment performed by the acknowledgement of thanks in or the expression of surprise

for instance, “You’re so delicious”, “You’re welcome” or even “You’re crazy” So,

Action performed via utterances are generally called speech acts and in English are commonly given more specific labels, such as apology, complaint, compliment, invitation, promise, or request and greetings

(George Yule, 1996)

These descriptive terms for different kinds of speech acts apply to the speaker’s communicative intention in producing an utterance The speaker’s normally expects that his or her communicative intention will be recognized by the hearer Both speaker and hearer are usually helped in this process by the circumstances surrounding the utterance This circumstances, including other utterances, are called the speech event In many ways,

it may be the nature of the speech event that determines t he interpretation of an utterance

as performing a particular speech act

On any occasion, the action performed by producing an uttereance will consist of three related acts There is first a locutionalry act, which is the basic act of utterance, or producing a meaningful linguistic expression If you have difficulty with actually forming the sounds and words to create a meaningful utterance in a language, then you might fail to produce alocutionary act

Mostly we don’t just produce well-formed utterances with no purpose We form an utterance with some kind of function in purpose This is the second dimension, or the illocutionary act The illocutionary act is performed via the communicative force of an utterance We might utter “I’ve just made some coffee” to make a statement, an offer, an explanation, or for some other communicative purpose This is also generally known as the illocutionary force of the utterance

We do not, of course, simply create an utterance with a function without intending it to have an effect this is the third dimension, the perlocutionary act Depending on the circumstances, you will utter “I’ve just made some coffee” on the assumption that the hearer will recognize the effect you intended (for example, to account for a wonderful smell, or to get the hearer to drink some coffee) This is also generally known as the prlocutionary effect