Luận văn PHÂN TÍCH SO SÁNH lời CHÀO TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

Table 1: The importance of greeting and the usage of greeting gesturesChart 1: The percentage of greeting forms in term of frequency Vietnamesesubjects Chart 2: Greeting forms in term of

PHÂN TÍCH SO SÁNH LỜI CHÀO TRONG TIẾNG

ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

(A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON GREETING IN

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE)

Gi¸o viªn híng dÉn : ThS NguyÔn ThÞ DiÖu Hµ

Sinh viªn : Lª ThÞ Ph¬ng

M· sinh viªn : DTF0857060051

Líp : Cö nh©n Anh K31

THÁI NGUYÊN, THÁNG 5 NĂM 2012

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Dieu Ha MA

Student: Le Thi Phuong

Student Code: DTF0857060051

Class: English Bachelor K31

THAI NGUYEN, MAY 2012

Acceptance

Language Academic class, being a candidate for the degree

of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accepts the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of

my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper.

Signature

Phuong

May, 2012

I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Ms Dieu Ha

MA (Foreign Languages Faculty, Thai Nguyen University) for her invaluable guidance and instructive comments throughout this study.

I am greatly indebted to my best friend, Le Thi Hang for her helpful suggestions and constructive ideas, which enlightened the arguments in the study.

I also wish to acknowledge my friend, Le Thu Phuong who is learning in Hanoi University for handing out questionnaires and collecting them, which have been useful for the accomplishment of the paper.

I also wish to thank informants, Vietnamese and English native speakers, for spending their precious time completing the questionnaires

Finally, and the most, I owe my deep thanks to my parents, who gave me constant support and enormous encouragement throughout procedure of study ThaiNguyen, May 2012

Le Thi Phuong

First impressions are a really important aspect of social culture The first action incommunication - greeting others in the correct way is fraught with various do's anddont's of etiquette It is a fact that Vietnamese usually are timidly incommunication and this is proved clearly through the result of the questionnaire.First, Vietnamese people do not talk directly about their problems which theyconcern but it is said that Vietnamese is curious because they always ask aboutpersonal problems in conversations whereas Westerners do not Second,Vietnamese carefully distinguish the greeting by relationships and emotion whileforeigners – English people greet together on time like good morning, goodafternoon, good evening Third, about gestures, Vietnamese often tend to avoidgestures which touching body directly such as hugging, kissing when meeting.However, those gestures are common and preferable in English Therefore,salutation terms used in a foreign language do not resemble that in our mothertongue and greeting behaviors vary between cultures Any lack of socio-pragmaticknowledge is likely to lead to awkward situation or misunderstanding inintercultural communication This paper aims at doing a contrastive research inEnglish and Vietnamese greetings to help English learners avoid thissociopragmatic failure and succeed in interaction with native speakers The firstpoint will be dedicated to Vietnamese greeting, English greeting and then acontrast between Vietnamese and English greeting (similarities and differences).The last point will be a discussion and implication on learning and teachingEnglish

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims 3

1.3 The scope 3

1.4 The significance 3

1.5 Limitations 4

1.6 Organization 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Language and culture 5

2.1.1 What is language? 5

2.1.2 What is culture? 5

2.1.3 The relationship between language and culture 7

2.2 Intercultural communication 8

2.3 Greeting 9

2.3.1 The definitions of greeting 9

2.4 Previous studies 19

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 21

3.1 Participants 21

3.2 Data collection instruments 21

3.3 Data collection procedure 22

3.4 Data analysis procedure 22

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 24

4.1 The results as perceived by the Vietnamese informants 24

1.1.2 Data analysis of greeting gestures 28

4.1.3 Data analysis of communicative topics in greeting culture 31

4.2 The results as perceived by the English participants 32

4.2.1 Data analysis of greeting forms 32

4.2.2 Data analysis of greeting gestures 34

4.2.3 Data analysis of communicative topics in greeting culture 37

4.3 Major cross-cultural similarities and differences 37

4.4 Discussion some implications in learning and teaching language (English – Vietnamese) 42

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 44

5.1 Summary 44

5.2 Suggestions for further research 45 REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Table 1: The importance of greeting and the usage of greeting gestures

Chart 1: The percentage of greeting forms in term of frequency (Vietnamesesubjects)

Chart 2: Greeting forms in term of position (Vietnamese subjects)

Chart 3: Greeting forms in term of context (Vietnamese subjects)

Chart 4: Frequency of greeting gestures in use (Vietnamese subjects)

Chart 5: Greeting gestures in term of gender (Vietnamese subjects)

Chart 6: Greeting gestures in term of communicative environment (Vietnamesesubjects)

Chart 7: The use of topic in Vietnamese greeting culture (Vietnamese subjects)Chart 8: The percentage of greeting forms in term of frequency (Anglicist subjects)Chart 9: Greeting forms in term of position (Anglicist subjects)

Chart 10: Greeting forms in term of context (Anglicist subjects)

Chart 11: Frequency of greeting gestures in use (Anglicist subjects)

Chart 12: Greeting gestures in term of gender (Anglicist subjects)

Chart 13: Greeting gestures in term of communicative environment (Anglicistsubjects)

Chart 14: The use of topic in greeting culture of English native speakers

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

When humans appear on earth, communication has become a daily action inlife and it is regarded as a useful mean for people to connect and exchangetogether, nowadays with the fast development of international trade, the globaleconomy and the globalization of foreign language usage, everyone knows thatpeople from different cultures have their own cultural perceptions, beliefs, valuesand social customs which greatly determine their communication ways In otherwords, different culture backgrounds will make a different result of interculturalcommunication It is this diversification that causes misunderstanding,unsatisfactory interaction or even unpleasant physical backgrounds and leads todifficulties or failures in the communication between people from different culturalbackgrounds

At present, English has become an international language with usersincreasing rapidly day by day and language learning as well as teaching has beenpaid more and more attention Furthermore, Vietnam government has manyopened-door policies so the number of people who intend to become morecompetent in English and plan to go abroad for study and work are going up fast

In addition, every year many foreign companies are set up in Vietnam and travelersgoing to Vietnam are also more crowded Thus, the need of learning Vietnamese aswell as Vietnamese culture is bigger and bigger However, people have fairly goodknowledge of linguistic; they still feel difficult to communicate in a natural wayand even face up with the culture shock and communication breakdown in cross-cultural communication Therefore, learners must have mutual understanding andawareness of cultural differences to be successful cross-cultural communicators

English is the compulsory subject in almost schools in Vietnam so therequirement of language teaching and learning is higher and higher Learners will

be taught at four main skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in schooltime but many people who are good at four skills feel afraid of or failure in

communication The main cause is valuated highly is social language so we shouldnote to improve this one In other words, we should know what to do in differentcontexts because it is clear to see that different cultures have differentcommunication

According to Goffman (as cited in Li, 2009:1), greetings provide the means

of the opening conversation appropriately, establish and maintain socialrelationship Thus, greeting plays a key role in making a good first impression andsuccessful conversation In Vietnamese proverbs, greeting is compared with “Mâmcỗ” (banquets and feasts) which has especially important meaning in society: “Lờichào cao hơn mâm cỗ” (greeting is higher than banquets and feasts) so we canrecognize that Vietnamese are extremely serious in greeting Besides, greeting isused for not only communicating but also measuring human’s quality (Le QuangThiem) In addition, the result of research on how to greet of English by Eiensteinand his colleagues (1996), many foreign language learners apply this language'sconvention to use in other languages that will cause more difficulties and get easilymisunderstand Nonconformity is due to many reasons; one of the reasons is theinfluence of mother tongue

From the above reasons, it can be said that intercultural communication will

be large challenges Up to now, there are many studies which focus on interculturalencounter of people during their foreign language learning However, studies onfinding out the greeting in English and Vietnamese have been far and few between

Therefore, to fill in this gap, I decided to carry out the study as “A comparative

analysis on the greeting in English and Vietnamese” in order to explore the

similarities and differences between two languages This study was divided intothree main parts (five chapters) as follow: part one is introduction, part two is someinformation backgrounds relating to greeting and part three is to give the results interms of forms, gestures, communicative topics of greeting and then it would behoped that some suggestions as well as strategies are given to help foreignlanguage learners avoid this pragmatic failure and succeed in interaction withnative speakers

1.2 Aims

This paper has been carried out to find out:

gestures, and communication topics

teaching

1.3 The scope

To make the most of the real conditions for research and ability of theresearcher, it is not my ambition to mention all issues of greeting in English andVietnam so this study focus only on contrasting the greeting in Vietnamese andEnglish in order to find out similarities and then differences between twolanguages in terms of forms, gestures, and communicative topics From that, youwill have a deep look in greeting in Vietnamese and English

1.4 The significance

This study was intended to:

materials and reference, and provide the language learners with identities - Englishand Vietnamese culture These positive and dynamic characteristics are stressedand developed

suitability and acceptability in terms of language, culture and communication in aspecific context, with a specific object From that you can achieve specific goalsthrough a curtain communication strategy by yourself

Research results are applied in practice of language teaching and learning to maketeaching and learning more exciting, effective, and creative Then, we feel moreconfident and get more successfully when communicating with native people

1.5 Limitations

Because of the limited time, the study will certainly limit the authenticity ofthe data and then the pragmatic effect of the expected results Furthermore, thestudy regarded the English language as a mother tongue so no distinction will bemade between American English, British English, Australian English, and so on aswell as no distinction of language among other regions in Vietnam In addition,when carrying out questionnaire, some people do not try best for the test so it isdifficult to access people’s competence and degree of understanding greetingaccurately

1.6 Organization

The main text consists of five chapters as follow:

Chapter I, Introduction, presents the rationale, scope, aims, significance

and limitation of the study

Chapter II, Literature Review, provides some related information to the

topic of the study (Language and culture, Intercultural communication, Greeting –the definition of greeting, greeting in Vietnamese and greeting in English, Greetinggestures - What gesture, eight common greeting gestures, and previous studies)

Chapter III, Methodology, shows participants, instruments, procedures of

data collection, and procedures of data analysis

Chapter IV, Results and Discussion, gives specific figures as well as some

comments in aspects (forms, gestures, and conversation topics) of the study

Chapter V, Conclusion, draws summary of the study and proposes some

suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Language and culture

2.1.1 What is language?

defined as “the system of communication in speech and writing that is used bypeople of a particular country or area’’ (Hornby, Gantenby, & Wakefield,2005:862) In addition, on website http://www.brainyquote.com/words/la/language183528.html, Language is stated that “Any means of conveying orcommunicating ideas; specifically, human speech; the expression of ideas by thevoice; sounds, expressive of thought, articulated by the organs of the throat andmouth” Therefore, language can be consider as a communicative mean whichhelps people change information, share thoughts or emotions, etc together In otherwords, language is the same as the most special product which is different fromother animals and has a main purpose of human communication

Besides, language is evaluated on another aspect, according to Kramsch(cited in Thuy, D., 2010:1) language is “the principle means whereby we conductour social lives” Also, Kress, G in book ‘Language and culture’ (1993:5) shared aview of language like “a product of cultural and social factors” Thus, language hasnot only communicative function but also the role of reflecting culture so it simplyunderstands that learning a language is accumulating culture

In brief, language has many different definitions which are based on otherpoints of each person or a group However, we can obviously recognize thatlanguage is an important medium of human communication and culture isexpressed through language

pointed to something constructed willingly by men, while ‘nature’ was given in

itself

As for Lustig & Koester (2006), basing on the link of culture andcommunication, “Culture is one that allows us to investigate how culturecontributes to human symbolic process” As language is said in above part, itserves for a main purpose of communication and particularly, this definitionshowed that culture and communication (symbols which people use) have the closerelation Thus, language and culture have interaction each other

On the other hand, culture is defined by Nguyen Quang (1998:3) as “a sharebackground (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a commonlanguage and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes, and values” Hecompared culture like ‘an iceberg’, in which the hidden part is much larger That isalso reason why most of the influence of culture on one person cannot be seenclearly so it is very difficult for many people to realize cultures deeply andencounter in communication

Interestingly, in the book ‘Introduction to cross cultural communication’,John H Bodley introduced culture from many aspects as follow:

a Topically defined, culture consists of everything on a list of topics, orcategories, such as social organization, religion or economy

b Historically defined, culture is social heritage, or tradition, that is passed on

to future generation

c Behavior defined, culture is shared, learned human behavior, a way of life

d Normatively defined, culture is ideas, values or rules for living

e Functionally defined, culture is the way humans solve problems of adapting

to the environment or living together

f Mentally defined, culture is a complex of ideals or learned habits thatinhabit impulses and distinguish people from animals

g Structurally defined, culture consists of patterned and interrelated ideals,symbols, or behaviors

h Symbolically defined, culture is bases on arbitrarily assigned meanings thatare shared by a society

In summary, it cannot exactly say how many definitions of ‘culture’ there are.

A book with 200 pages devoting to different definitions of culture was published in

1992 However, since then many other offered additional definitions andapproaches and one apparent thing is that these definitions are all proposed in order

to orient and set target for the researches

2.1.3 The relationship between language and culture

A nation or country which is small or large has its typical culture andlanguage so the notion language or culture alone cannot provide us with a clearunderstanding on the relationship between language and culture From that, itshould be made clearly the problem ‘does language influence the culture and viceversa?’

In the book ‘Introduction to cross cultural communication’, R.A Huson(1981) argued: “as for the relation between language and culture, most oflanguage is contained within culture” and the point of view is also shared byGoodenough (1957), which says, “A society’s language is an aspect of culture therelation of language to culture is that of part to people” Thus, it is easy torecognize that language plays an important role in culture and especially it can beregarded as the symbolic representation of people because language may containmany factors of culture–language reflects culture Furthermore, whencommunicating, we often see culture via language As a result, language andculture are interrelated and inseparable

More specifically, Kramsch (1998) clarified this correlation by emphasizingthree functions of language related to culture as follow:

(1) Language expresses cultural reality

(2) Language embodies cultural reality

(3) Language symbolizes cultural reality

In addition, the relationship between language and culture may be the mostimaginative of all when this one is seen from three metaphors: (cited in therelationship between language and culture by Weying Jiang, 2000)

Language and culture make a living organism Language is flesh and culture

is blood Without culture, language would be dead; without language, culturewould have no shape

(2) From a communicative view:

Language (swimming skill) + culture (water) swimming(communication)

Communication is swimming, language is the swimming skill and culture

is water Without water, communication would remain to a very limited degree (invery shallow water); without culture, there would be no communication at all

(3) From a pragmatic view:

Language (vehicle) + culture (traffic light)  transportation(communication)

Communication is like transportation: language is the vehicle and culture

is traffic light Language makes communication easier and faster; culture regulates,sometimes promotes and sometimes hinders communication

Consequently, language and culture have an inextricable relationship The twocannot exist without each other Therefore, one cannot understand or appreciate theone without the knowledge of the other

2.2 Intercultural communication

According to Samovar & Porter (1991:10) “intercultural communicationoccurs whenever a message is produced by a member of one culture forconsumption by a member of another culture, a message must be understood” (ascited in Intercultural communication) In this case, intercultural communicationused the definition of communication for emphasising on the communicationbetween people from different cultures

With a little bit of difference, by combining the meaning of the terms

‘culture’ and ‘communication’, as for Lustig and Koester (2005:52) hypothesizedthat “intercultural communication occurs when large and important culturaldifferences create dissimilar interpretations and expectations about how tocommunicate competently” Similarly, Allwood in the book “Interculturalcommunication” shared intercultural communication as “the sharing of information

on different levels of awareness and control between people with different culturalbackgrounds, where different cultural backgrounds include both national culturaldifferences and differences which are connected with participation in the differentactivities that exist within a national unit” As a result, intercultural communicationseems to offer the degree of difference that can occur among people not only fromdifferent cultures but also from similar culture The individuals are very differentfrom one another are most intercultural whereas those in which the individuals arevery similar to one another are least intercultural.

To sum up, when people from different cultural backgrounds meet eachother they need to exchange ideas, information etc., between them, which is calledintercultural communication Actually, the potential for misunderstanding and

disagreement is great if the cultural conventions of the participants are widely

different so it is important to study intercultural communication

2.3 Greeting

2.3.1 The definitions of greeting

Because of depending the author’s own views and their own areas ofresearch so there are many different ideas about greeting

Schegloff & Sacks (1973) in “An Evaluation of Greeting Exchanges in Textbookand Real life setting” viewed that greetings are considered as a speech eventconstituted by two parts side by side such as greeting-greeting:

A: Hello B: Hi

Or greeting – request for information:

A: Hi B: Do you have a class today?

On Wikipedia, greeting is an act of communication in which human beings(as well as other members of the animal kingdom) intentionally make theirpresence known to each other, to show attention to, and to suggest a type ofrelationship or social status between individuals or groups of people coming incontact with each other

Stolyarow II (2004:1) stated that “an expression of greeting indicates thewillingness to undertake a transaction of some sort, a universal signal (with plenty

of rich stylistic variations) that directs the other party” attention toward the agentand at the same time demonstrates the friendly, appreciative conduct the benefits apeaceful trader”.

According to Goody, E (1972) greeting has three major functions:

irrespective of their positions

achieve a specific result

In Vietnamese proverbs, we usually hear that: “Lời chào cao hơn mâm cỗ”,

“Dao năng sắc, nguời chào năng quen” Here, greeting is compared with ‘mâm cỗ’

in a society which Vietnamese are extremely serious in

(title/ first name)

Or Mornin’ (shortform)

From midnightto

midday

- Good morning,Mary

Mornin’ Ms Blue

(title/ first name)

Or Afternoon

After middayuntil 5p.m

-Good afternoon,

Mr Smith Afternoon John

+(title/ first name)

Or Evening

After 5p.m untilpeople

have gone tosleep

- Good evening,Ms

Cherry

- Evenin’ Jack

In “Contrastive Study of Chinese and English Greeting” which retrieved fromhttp://www.englishthesis.cn/articleview/2007-12-3/article_view_3185.htm.

Greetings classified according to formality as follow:

+ Formal greetings are used when speakers must be very polite towards thelisteners: “How do you do?”

+ Informal greetings are used in a more relaxing context “Hello/hi/how areyou?” are acceptable both among strangers and acquaintances whereas ‘hi/ hello’,followed by “How are things going?/How are you doing?” are generally applied byclose acquaintances or friends

For example:

- Two acquaintances meet in the corridor of the building of their workingplace:

A: Kate, how are you?

B: Fine, thank you

- Two friends meet in a cinema:

A: Hi, Ashley How are you doing?

B: Hi, Simon Pretty well!

Meanwhile, on the research of Eisenstein and Bodman (1988), greeting can

be divided into 8 forms:

The first one is greeting on the runs This greeting is used for close relationshipsuch as friends or neighbors They meet by chance and they do not have muchtime to taik so they just say some short words

For example: two friends meet accidentally

A: Hi, how ya doin’?

B: Hi! Gotta run, I’m late for class (Or Okay!)

The second one is speedy greeting This greeting is different from greeting on theruns about information It is quite common for colleagues They greet quickly andexchange information briefly while they are going to somewhere

For example: two colleagues greet each other.

A: Hi, how’ve you been?

B: Not bad ‘N you

A: Oh, can’t complain Busy

B: I know Me, too

A: Oh well, gotta take off See ya

B: Bye Take care

The third one is the chat This greeting is similar to speedy greeting but enclosedwith a topic for discussion People usually exchange some information beforesaying goodbye or changing into main topic In this greeting, there are much moreinformation than two above greeting

For example: A: Hi!

B: Hi!

A: Howa ya doing’?

B: All right – comfortable – pretty good Oh! Got that letter, by theway, that

I said I was waiting for I finally got it

A: Wow! That’s great That’s pretty good

B: Look, I’ll see you later

A: Okay Bye

The forth one is the long greeting The purpose of this kind is to warm up therelationship after a long time It includes mixed greetings and talks It is usuallyused for asking healthy or information

For example: M: Bea! (Bi)

B: Michelle! (Michel)M: Where’ve you been? I haven’t seen you around

B: We were away We just got back What’s new with you? Whathave you been up to?

M: (Michelle reports on neighborhood news in detail) We missedyou How are you? It’s so nice to see you Where’d you go?

B: (Bea described her vacation in detail) M: Well, I’m glad you’re back It’s so nice to see you I missedtalking to you

B: Aw Well, we’re back! How have you been doing?

The fifth one is the intimate greeting This greeting is used for close relationshipbetween people who know each other well In this greeting, English often use nonverbal gestures to express their greetings.

For example: a husband and a wife, the husband kisses his wife: well?

A wife: yes

A husband:Great.! You know today i have been promoted to amanager

A wife: oh really! Let’s celebrate

A husband: of course, where do you want to go?

The sixth one is the introductory greeting It is used for strange people who meetfor the first time Its major function is to allow the participants to find aconnection The opening is usually a comment without greeting This kind ofgreeting can recognized at the parties

For example: A: Nice party

B: Yes

A: Who do you know here?

B: Bill I work with him

A: Oh Are you an accountant, too?

B: No, I’m in public relation

A: Oh Well, I’m an old friend of Bill’s

The seventh one is the all-business greeting It is used for business It usuallyoccurs between people who have non-social relationship People show respect andconsideration by starting their business right away

For example: Client: Mr Matone?

Joe Matone: Yes?

Client: I want to talk to you about Puerto Rico

Joe Matone: Oh? Come in What about Puerto RicoThe last greeting is the re-greeting It is used for people who meet each othermany times in a day It usually consists of some non-verbal gestures or a few quickwords

For example: one co-worker having known earlier in the day that her co-worker

was not feel well greets again:

A : Lorie? Feel better?

B: yes, thanks!

2.3.1.2 Greeting in Vietnamese

In Vietnamese life, greeting has an extremely important position and BichHang (2010:9) viewed that “In Vietnam, greetings are diversified due toparticipants, age, and social hierarchy Especially, Vietnamese people attach greatimportant to social positions.” Moreover, the full length of a most formal greeting

is demonstrated in the book “Introduction to cross cultural communication” asfollow: Honorific + self – addressing + honorific-greeting + title/kinship + (name)+ honorific; for example, “Dạ cháu xin chào bác Hùng ạ.”

Vietnamese greet has various forms and it can be classified into two types: directgreetings and indirect greetings

- Direct greetings

The first form is “Addressee + perfomative verb chào/kính chào + addresser+ honorific’’ This one usually used in formal contacts and specifically it iscommon when people in lower position greet higher position with the purpose

‘respecting elder people’; for example, “Em chào cô ạ!”

The second form is “Perfomative verb chào/kính chào + addresser +honorific” We can see that this form is shorter than the first one but it is evaluatedenough formality to express polite attitude; for instance, “Chào Bác ạ”!

Particularly, addressers are not only pronouns but also proper name because of itsclose relation third one is “perfomative verb chào/kính chào + addresser” Thisstructure is acquainted with equal relationships such as friends and colleagues; forexample, “Chào Bác!”

The last one is “Addresser + honorific” which is also used for intimate casesbut it seems to depend on situation Thus greeting is hurry and short; for instance,

“Bác ạ!”

- Indirect greetings

Firstly, using question form to instead of greeting Vietnamese often use thisform when the relationship has reached a certain level It also means that whenthey know together, asking is the way for them to illustrate their care For example,Anh đi đâu về đấy?, the question usually requires answering to have informationbut surprisingly, asking which the same is as greeting of Vietnamese is lexical, and

it need not reply especially it can vary from family matters to working conditionand health as:

* Asking about health: “Dạo này em vẫn khoẻ chứ?/Khỏe không?”

* Asking about work: “Thế nào công việc vẫn tốt chứ?”

* Asking about the on-going action: “Bác đi làm à?/Cháu đi học à?”

Secondly, ‘title/name + question’ is a greeting form which expresses theaddressee’s notice to addresser Furthermore, in this case, some factors like time,place, and situation are basics to build question; for example, “Nga à, đi học sớmthế?”

Thirdly, ‘title/ name + gesture’ form is the shortest greet so it is used foractually close relationships and hurry circumstances; for example, “Lan!” (Smiling

or ‘V’ gesture)

Besides, in the study by Phan Thi Thanh Truc (2009), Vietnamese Greeting

by using invitations such as “Mời bác xơi nước!, Mời anh xơi cơm!” Theseutterances have the performative verb ‘mời’ and it usually happens when someonevisits a Vietnamese family during their meal They express the hospitality of theaddresser without the intention of inviting the guest In response to this kind ofgreeting, the addressee should turn down this “invitation” and express theirgratitude: “Vâng, cám ơn bác”, “Vâng, mọi người cứ tự nhiên” In addition, usingcompliments is as well as greeting like “Áo mới à? Xinh nhỉ!” By usingcompliments, the speaker creates positive feelings for the hearer and thus cementsthe relationship In response, the hearer often asks “Đi đâu?/Đi làm à?” instead ofresponds to the compliments by “Cám ơn!” or “Có đẹp thật không?”

2.3.2 Greeting gestures

2.3.2.1 What gesture?

In "Nonverbal communication across cultures" (2008) Nguyen Quangprovided a full definition of gestures as follows:

Gestures can be understood as the movements of arms, legs and body which

are used independently or with words in communication in order toemphasize or replace words, to control or display one's feelings andattitudes, and to express one's thought

As for Lustig, & Koester (2006:1), it is said that

Gestures are fascinating things, at once wholly expressive and curious

mysterious The flick of the wrist, the wave of a figure, or simply themovement of an eyelid can say more than a speech, and sometimes subtlegesture can express a felling more than words

In short, gestures perform many functions which may replace speech(during dialogue or when speech is not used at all), regulate the flow and rhythm ofinteraction, maintain attention, add emphasis and /or classify to speech, helpcharacterize and memorize the content of the speech

2.3.2.2 Common greeting gestures

Around the world, there are hundreds of greeting gestures; however, here

we only consider eight familiar ones as follow:

Handshaking

In the book “Field Guide to Gestures”, handshake is theway “two people grasp hands and pump” This one isone of the most popular greeting gestures all over theworld but shaking hand depends on many factors such

as interact ants, environment, and culture For example, in North Europe and inbusiness situation – North American it is normal for both men and women to shakehand whereas in Isamic countries handshaking between men and women is notacceptable

or kitchen Although hugging is a quite common gesture of greeting, people inIslamic countries don’t perform it comfortably with members of the opposite sex.May be, this one is suitable for family and close friends.

Hand Waving

In the study of Bui Thi Thu Thuy (2005):

This gesture is performed by the hand raised and moved from side to side Thiscommon gesture of friendly greeting and farewell has its origins as a distresssymbol, since it is one of the simplest and most obvious ways to

make oneself visible from a distance

Thus, hand waving is the intimate greeting which is to draw

other’s attention usefully and it is understood worldwide,

specifically people know together

Bowing

Armstrong, N and Wager, M

described the bow as “the body is bent forward at thewaist” and “Bowing is a submissive gesture that showsutmost respect and humility towards the figure to whomone bows” (2003:4) This action is a formal greeting inthe globe and it is often observed in the theater,performed by both actor and actress as a greeting at thebeginning of the show or a gratitude to audiences at the end In contrary, bowing isuncommon outside the theatre and the countries where sovereigns reign, inOriental cultures as Japan, South Korea, etc

Nodding

“Nodding gesture is a worldwide greeting no matter whatage, gender and social status he/she of” and “in this gesture,the head is moved down with a direct eye contact and asmile accompanied.”(Thuy, 2005:24) General speaking, thenod is used commonly for situations when people do nothave enough time to talk

Kissing

Armstrong, N and Wager, M illustrated a kissthat “Puckered lips touch some part of a companion’sbody, usually the lips, cheek, hand, or forehead”(2003:7) Kissing is various but it is known there are twomain types as public kissing and private kissing.Specifically, public kissing consists of cheek kissing,hand kissing and so on while private kissing involves romance especially “Frenchkissing” which is extremely cautious when kissing in some Islamic countries likeSaudi Arabia although we can see a kiss everywhere

Eyebrows rising

This gesture is not very common in every culture;however, When both eyebrows are raised for a few split

seconds during a greeting, it’s a sign of submissiveness…

a way of saying “I come in friendliness”, just practice

right now saying a very excited “Hey!” when

accompanied by a slight backwards head tilt, the greetinggesture can be made to come across as very sincere and genuine When we seepeople we know, we often give a quick up-down flash of the eyebrows inrecognition and greeting This is a common signal across all primates, includingmonkeys and gorillas Both the zygomatic smile and the eyebrow movement arevery popular body language tools used by sales people and politicians

“V” sign making

Accordingly, wiki shows that the ‘V’ sign is ahand gesture in which the index and middle fingers areraised and parted, while the other fingers are clenched

It has various meanings, depending on the culturalcontext and how it is presented Since world war II It is

most commonly used to represent the letter ‘V’ as in

"victory" or a symbol of peace (usually with palm

outward), as an offensive gesture (palm inward), to represent the number two (in

Vietnam, the “V” sign means "hello" since the Vietnamese word for the number

"2" sounds like the English pronunciation of the greeting "hi")

2.4 Previous studies

Home studies: Greeting is the subject has done by many linguists andscholars There are many studies of greeting culture in Vietnamese and sometypical works such as “The rite of modern Vietnamese words through greetingstatements, thanks and apologies” of Pham Thi Thanh (1995), “Behavior ofgreeting in English and Vietnamese conversation” of Nguyen Thuy Minh (2000),

“The directly salutatory form of the Vietnamese” of Nguyen Thi Luong (2003), “Acomparative analysis on greeting in Korean, and Vietnamese” of Hoang Thi Yen(2006), “A study on Vietnamese greetings and compared to French greeting” ofLuong Ngoc Hoan (2009), “A vietnamese – english cross- cultural study ongestures for greeting” of Bui Thi Thu Thuy (2009) Especially, the topic

“Greeting in English and Vietnamese”, some researchers carried on this one likePhan Ho Thanh Truc (2009), Pham Nguyen Thanh Tam (2009), Tran Thi BichHanh (2010), Phan Thi Bich Hang (2010)

Foreign studies: From the year 90s (1900), linguistic social studies emerged

as an advanced movement and the linguistic problems did not solve perfectly bypurely linguistic However, some prominent studies are as the study of Austin, J

L (1962): “Zur Theorie der Sprechakte” (discourse theory), Stuttgart, 1972 InGerman, there is a big contribution of Schurmann Thomas “Tisch-und imGrusssitten Zivilisationsprozess” (custom in the restaurant and greeting custom in

civilized process) (1930) as well as the study of Carola Otterstedt , “Abschied imAlltag - Grussformen Abschiedsgestaltung und im Vergleich interkulturellen”(saying goodbye in daily life - Demonstrate greeting in the beginning and at theend in cross-cultural comparison) (1993), studies of Stickel “SprachlicheUmgangsformen mehreren asiatischen Sprachen und im Deutschen”(communication style in German and in the Asian language), the BangkokWorkshop, Thailand (2000), which includes articles by several authors with thecontent “analysis greetings in Asian languages”.

From the above studies, I discovered the strong and weak points The moststrong points are that these studies showed many aspects of greeting quiteobviously The weak point is that these studies still lacks the reality; theexplanation of most of studies has not been analyzed further Some writers did notcount in the frequency of greeting and identify figures in their researching topic

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the issues of methodology including four sections.Section 3.1 presents main participants Section 3.2 describes the instruments fordata collection Section 3.3 is an elaborative description of procedures in collectingdata including procedures of designing questionnaire, procedures of handingquestionnaire Section 3.4 represents procedures in data analysis and reliabilitychecks This chapter concludes with data analysis

3.1 Participants

The main participants are 50 English native speakers and 50 Vietnamesenative speakers 50 English people at the age of eighteen and twenty five werechosen when I met randomly in Hoan Kiem Lake and 50 Vietnamese people arestudents of Hanoi University

3.2 Data collection instruments

In order to collect appropriate information throughout the process ofresearching such methodologies as followed are taken into used:

Analyzing materials: since most of the materials on greeting of English andVietnamese are all text-formed, or from the Internet, critical reading is requiredalong with a careful selection of materials

Questionnaire: for primary data, questionnaire survey is a good way tosave time and collect information reliably The survey questionnaire consists oftwo main parts, of which the informants are requested to answer some personalinformation in the first part such as name, age, sex, job, marital status, nationality,and native language Then in the second part, it is important to require participants

to tick ( ) where they think appropriate for using greeting forms, gestures, andtopics The first six questions are around greeting culture The rest of necessaryinformation is designed with tables There are six tables with content of greetingforms, gestures and topics The most eleven common forms, eight greetinggestures, and ten communication topics are given Specifically, table 1 presents thefrequency of eleven greeting form in use, table 2 shows suitable situations of

forms, table 3 talks about the level of using eight gestures as follow: hand shaking,hugging, hand waving, bowing, nodding, kissing, eyebrows raising and ‘V’ signmaking, table 4 focuses on greeting gestures in term of gender, table 5 describesabout communicative environment of gestures, and table 6 looks for informationabout topics in greeting culture In addition, the bottom of the survey is an openquestion which participants can give any opinion about greeting culture as long asthey thought so.

Observation: observing directly the greeting ways of native Englishspeakers and Vietnamese people is the best method to exploit the objectiveinformation so it is easier to draw out conclusion and suggestions for the research

Comparing greeting in English and Vietnamese by analyzing responses tocertain situations of the same scale together As a result, the similarities anddifferences between two cultures can be found and then cross-culturalunderstanding is obtained

Mathematically adding up the data: this is one of the most effective ways tohave correct statistics and to make tables and charts which best serve the research

3.3 Data collection procedure

After 4 months of searching for related materials, a questionnaire wasdesigned to collect data for the study 50 copies in English were administeredrandomly to 50 English native speakers who I met and chose in Hoan Kiem Lake

50 copies in Vietnamese were delivered to 50 Vietnamese students of HanoiUniversity Then, the questionnaires were collected and the data were analyzed

3.4 Data analysis procedure

The entire responses collected through questionnaires were checkedcarefully and then data were coded and analysed by SPSS The researcher groupedaspects following each table in survey Each sub-type of aspects was written again

on a separate sheet of paper; for example, all responses in which “frequency ofgreeting forms” was substituted for “suitable situations of greeting forms” wererecorded on a separate sheet This method was done for each aspect After that, aframework of items within categories was made Data collected from questionnaire

Percentage of result = number of responses (for each criteria) x 100

total number of people

This formula was used because it is a common instrument to calculatedescriptive statistics Data analysis procedures included calculating descriptivestatistics Descriptive statistics, which include categories in the form of tables orchart, were used to explore opinions of topics which were designed inquestionnaire After the results will be reported in chapter 4, solutions of studywere given and from that some suggestions were proposed to increase cross-cultural understanding of learning and teaching in foreign language faculty atThaiNguyen University, in particular, and people who need to know about thegreeting culture of English and Vietnamese in general

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Greeting in theory (books, newspaper, magazine, studies and etc) as well as

in reality extremely plays an important role so it is not surprising when 100% ofparticipants (see table 1) both English and Vietnamese who answered the surveyquestionnaire agreed this view Besides, all people can realize the importance ofgreeting gestures and the result of finding also showed that 100% of informants(see table 1) used gestures when greeting other people However, each country has

an own culture so it is undeniable that there are differences in greeting betweenWestern and Oriental people in general, and Vietnamese and English nativespeakers in particular And then the following sections analyze data collected fromthe English and Vietnamese surveys for the discovery of the frequency of greetingforms and gestures, communicative environment of eleven forms and eightgestures Moreover, gestures in terms of gender and suitable topics in greetingculture

Participants The Vietnamese native

4.1 The results as perceived by the Vietnamese informants

4.1.1 Data analysis of greeting forms

There are eleven greeting forms which were considered in terms offrequency, position and communicative environment

Chart 1: The percentage of greeting forms in term of frequency

As seen from chart 1, the first form of “Xin chào + name” was the topposition with 40% of participants always and 60% of participants frequently used.Ranked next to form four of “Chào/kính chào +addressee+ horonofic ‘ạ’!” andform five of “Chào/kính chào + addressee”, there were 70% of informantsfrequently and 30% sometimes used the fourth and fifth form, followed by the thirdform like “Cháu chào Bác ạ!”(40% frequently) and offers as “Mời Bác vào ăncơm!” (20% frequently) Other forms such as exclamation, ‘addresser + honorific’,question, compliment were used quite common in Vietnamese informants.However, it was also noticed that the suggestion like “Bạn có rảnh không?” andgreeting forms by time as “Chào buổi sáng, Mai!” were hardly used in Vietnamesegreeting culture (40% never do form nine – suggestion, and 50% never in the usage

of greeting forms which depend time of a day) Therefore, greeting forms inVietnamese culture are very various, each used form is usually based on particularsituations but the short forms are more common than long forms, especially, forms

in term of question are very popular when Vietnamese greet together, andsalutations are not to be affected by time because Vietnamese seem not concern thisfactor