A Study On Linguistic Features Of Vietnamese - English Code - Switching In Vietnamese Conversations By Fpt High School Students'' .Pdf

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ LÀNH A STUDY ON LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF VIETNAMESE - ENGLISH CODE – SWITCHING IN VIETNAMESE CONVERSATIONS BY FPT

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ LÀNH

A STUDY ON LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF VIETNAMESE - ENGLISH CODE – SWITCHING IN VIETNAMESE CONVERSATIONS BY FPT HIGH

SCHOOL STUDENTS

Major : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code : 8220201

MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF

FOREIGN COUNTRIES (A SUMMARY)

Da Nang, 2022

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This thesis has been completed at University of Foreign Language Studies, The University of Da Nang

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Lưu Qúy Khương

Examiner 1: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Tất Thắng Examiner 2: Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Hòa

The thesis was orally defended at the Examining Committee Time: 11st August 2022

Venue: University of Foreign Language Studies

-The University of Da Nang

This thesis is available for the purpose of reference at:

- The University of Da Nang – The Center for

Learning Information Resources and

Communication

- Center for Information Technology and Learning

Resources , University of Foreign Language Studies - The University of Da Nang

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

These days, code-switching (CS) between Vietnamese and English has become increasingly common in many different situations from daily conversations to news, interviews on television, on radio as well as newspaper, magazines and so on Conversations occur at school involved CS between teachers and students are as normal and popular as those between students and students while communicating Since students have been exposed to English in almost every aspect of life, from entertainment such as songs, movies and games to education such as documents and source of information, frequently in communication, students unconsciously insert some English words or phrases into their Vietnamese utterances or vice versa

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understand Studies have been conducted in a large number delving into this phenomenon including Vietnamese and English Code-switching, its functions and motivations However, a deeper look into the linguistic features, especially in terms of pragmatics of English CS in Vietnamese conversations has been few Thus, this study entitled “A Study on Linguistic Features of Vietnamese-English Code–Switching in Vietnamese Conversations By FPT High School Students was set to investigate (1) the types of CS that are used most frequently (2) the pragmatic features of CS utterances, (3) the attitudes of students and English teachers towards this

phenomenon

1.2 Aims and objectives

The study aims at analysing the dominant types of Vietnamese - English CS in Vietnamese conversations at Vietnamese high schools, the pragmatic features and the functions of CS in their conversations with their teachers and peers at school Those are done to enrich the understanding about CS in terms of pragmatics and from that preserve the purity of Vietnamese

The study is targeted at:

- Investigating the dominant type of V-E CS used by high school students in Vietnamese conversations

- Analyzing the pragmatic features of V-E CS in Vietnamese conversations

- Investigating the views of students towards V-E CS in Vietnamese conversations

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1.4 Scope of the study

This study primarily focuses on V-E CS in Vietnamese conversations among 12 graders and 12 graders with their teachers at FPT High School Particularly in this study, pragmatic factors were studied carefully and not towards syntax The reason for this is because most students' CS is inserting words into sentences and paragraphs, so there is not much structure and content for in-depth study

1.5 Significance of the study

This research was to delve into CS and its popularity among students who are studying English as a second language in a school to see whether

CS caused any obstacles in communication or affected negatively the purity of Vietnamese

1.6 Organization of the study

This study comprises of five main chapters as follows:

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Chapter 1, Introduction, includes the rationales, the scope of the study,

the aims and objectives, the research questions and the significance of the study

Chapter 2, Literature Review and Theoretical Background, provides a

brief review of the previous studies related to the research and theoretical background for the study

Chapter 3, Research Design and Methodology, presents the research

method, sampling, data collection and data analysis, the procedure of the research, the reliability and validity of the research

Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, discusses the result of the data

analysis, finds out how and why code-switching is used in communication and certain functions in a conversation

Chapter 5, Conclusion and Implications, summarizes the issues studied

in the thesis, the implications and suggestions for future studies

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Theoretical background

2.1.1 Code-switching

In this research, the definition for Code switching of Scotton (1989) which is the use of two or more languages in the same conversation, usually within the same conversational turn, or even within

Myers-the same sentence of that turn seems to be Myers-the most suitable one since it

describes the phenomenon happening in the research context the most precisely Therefore, within this research, when the term CS is mentioned, it refers to the interwoven of two or more languages in a conversation

2.1.2 Types of Code-switching

In this research, the author classified data into different types of

CS Particularly, the three common types that have just been mentioned above which are “inter sentential, intra sentential and extra sentential” The criterion used in the analysis for determining a code-switch is the one used by Poplack (1980)

2.1.3 Function of bilingual speakers

2.1.4 Speech Act Theory

2.2 A Review of Previous Studies

2.2.1 Previous studies on Vietnamese and English switching

Code-Đại học Đà Nẵng

2.2.2 Previous studies on the functional aspects of switching

code-2.2.3 Attitudes towards code switching of previous studies 2.3 Summary

This chapter provided some theoretical background on the definitions

of CS, types of CS, Reasons for CS of bilingual speakers and Pragmatic features of CS In addition, this chapter gave the brief overview of code-switching research, which have been carried out on Vietnamese and English Code-Switching of FPT High School students and previous studies on the functional aspects of code-switching during the last few decades It also showed attitudes towards code-switching of previous studies Therefore, the theoretical framework would help establish better understanding of the CS phenomenon and lay a good foundation to carry

out the research

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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research design

Based on the clear-cut theoretical background in the previous chapter, this chapter aimed at dealing with methods and procedures employed in the thesis Firstly, I described the methods, which supported each other in investigating the data and getting the results Then, techniques of data collection and data analysis were presented in detail The next step was to mention the procedures in which the problems relating to the study are gradually solved Finally, instrumentation, sample and population, validity and reliability were stated in this chapter

This research primarily used qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyze the pragmatic features and the dominant type of

CS With the type of research seeking an in-depth understanding of the people involved, the qualitative is the most suitable design that allows participants to expand their answers, use their own words to express their thoughts Similarly, Hennink et al (2020) mention that when the participants of research are expected to tell their story and have a discussion in an in-depth interview or focus group discussion, qualitative research brings the most valid information

transcribed, and descriptive analysis was used to determine the frequency

of each type of CS used by students Later, students were invited to explain the purpose for CS and share their opinions on the use of CS in general by doing a survey The results of the data from this such as words, phrases and sentences as well as their functions for CS were analyzed Content analysis method was used to interpret the pragmatic features of their CS utterances with CS as well as to understand students’ perspectives The answers to questionnaire were used as the data source for the content analysis

3.3 Selected subjects and sampling of the study

The participants of this study are 160 12 graders at FPT high school of the school year 2021-2022, who have spent at least 9 years studying English with different levels of English proficiency in both written and spoken English With such a large population with varied language abilities, the researcher to identify the frequent occurrences of

CS and analyze the pragmatic features

Unlike other schools, besides the official English program implemented in most high schools in Vietnam, students at FPT are given

an additional program The course book used in the program is the book series called Pathways containing 4 levels, which is designed and issued

by the National Geographic learning This is a 3-year program starting at level Foundations, Level 1 or 2 depending on students’ placement test’s result in the first year of high school Students move up to the next level after each school year Because of this additional program, students at

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FPT have 8 classes of English per week, which is around 4 classes more than average Therefore, they might have more exposure to English than students in other schools

3.4 Data collection instruments

3.4.1 Recordings

Conversations in Vietnamese between students were recorded and analyzed with their consent to spot the utterances containing CS Conversations would be about students’ daily matters when discussing with partners, telling stories, asking for help or all sorts of situations including chats about academic business From the recordings, the functions of CS were identified

3.4.2 Questionnaire

The first questionnaire is to delve into the attitudes of high school students towards Vietnamese- English CS which they witness or experience at school A mix of open-ended questions and closed-ended questions designed for the purpose of gathering students’ viewpoints Open-ended questions allow survey takers to share their thoughts in detail with clear explanation which would ultimately collect better results This was an adaptation of the questionnaire in Nguyễn Thị Thu Phúc (2017) when she used a set of questions to gather the perspectives of students towards CS Her questionnaire consisted of many suitable questions for collecting data related to the perceptions of the respondents, which can be seen in her report of the survey result However, in her questionnaire, she used a list of close-ended questions leaving no chance for the respondents

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to share their inner thoughts regarding the use of CS Therefore, some modifications were made in this research

The survey takers also had to participate in a questionnaire having some questions asking about their use of CS according to their reflect and observations Students chose the best options for their answers

on a 5 likert scale A Likert scale posits that an attitude's strength/intensity is linear, i.e., on a scale ranging from Very comfortable, Comfortable, Normal, Uncomfortable and Very uncomfortable and another scale ranging from Strongly agree to Strongly disagree This way students’ attitudes can be quantified Each of the five (or seven) responses, for example, would be assigned a numerical value that would

be used to assess the attitude under examination Likert scales can evaluate frequency, quality, importance, and likelihood, among other things, in addition to assertions of agreement

3.5 Data collection procedures

Step 1: Explaining the purposes and reasons of the research to the participants of the research

Step 2: Setting up recording

Step 3: Analyzing The researcher counted the frequency of English Vietnamese CS and classified the switches into different groups, specifically: inter-sentential, extra-sentential and intra-sentential Moreover, the switches were sorted based on pragmatic categories to elucidate the trends

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Step 4: Distributing questionnaires to the students and teachers at FPT High School

Step 5: Collecting the answers With close-ended answers, they will be collected and the researcher will make tables or graphs to demonstrate the results of the questionnaire Turning to open-ended answers, responses will be analyzed to find out the similarities or the trends to reach conclusions

3.6 Data Analysis

From the recordings that the researcher gathered, the frequency

of each sort of CS is transformed into percentage form and collated into figures and pie charts These numerical data served as the responses to the research questions through systematic analysis The questionnaire was created using a systematic pattern in order to collect accurate and helpful data on certain study-related topics The researcher then used audio recordings to capture the CS's natural speech patterns in classroom interactions Following that, descriptive statistics were used to summarize the tape-recorded talks that had been written down After compiling the transcripts of Vietnamese-English talks, the CS occurrences in each language were examined to pinpoint the purposes utilized in each of the

121 recordings by various speakers in various settings Each sample was then explained in detail Finally, recommendations and conclusions were offered Additionally, the interview was the qualitative research method that was employed the most The advantage of one-on-one interaction between the researcher and respondents, which enhanced the direct

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