A study on the effects of some cultural dimensions on the learning of english at thanh hoa medical college

MINOR THESIS A study on the effects of some cultural dimensions on the learning of English at Thanh Hoa Medical College Nghiên cứu sự ảnh hưởng của một số phạm trù văn hoá đến việc học t

 -NGUYỄN NGỌC ANH

M.A MINOR THESIS

A study on the effects of some cultural dimensions on the learning of English at Thanh Hoa Medical College

(Nghiên cứu sự ảnh hưởng của một số phạm trù văn hoá đến việc

học tiếng Anh tại trường Cao đẳng y tế Thanh Hoá)

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

Hanoi, 2011

 -NGUYỄN NGỌC ANH

M.A MINOR THESIS

A study on the effects of some cultural dimensions on the learning of English at Thanh Hoa Medical College

(Nghiên cứu sự ảnh hưởng của một số phạm trù văn hoá đến việc

học tiếng Anh tại trường Cao đẳng y tế Thanh Hoá)

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Do Mai Thanh, M.A

Hanoi, 2011

ABBREVIATIONS

1.1.2 Cross-cultural studies on the Anglicist–Vietnamese communication styles 7

CHAPTER II: DISCUSSION OF THE SURVEY AND DATA ANALYSIS 20

2.1.1 Discussion of the survey questionnaire and the informants 20

2.1.3 Comments on the results of the survey questionnaire 27

2.2.1 Discussion of the survey questionnaire and the informants 27

2.2.3 Comments on the results of the teachers’ survey questionnaire 31

CHAPTER III: SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR VIETNAMESE ELT TEACHERS 32

3.2 Teachers’ role in teaching the target language culture to students 33

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

To any nation all over the world, culture and language are inseparable parts Language is aproduct of culture and reflects culture Therefore, during the process of acquiring anotherlanguage, learners not only need to master the language but also understand its cultureespecially its values, norms and perception shared by native speakers

That English is so important brings the necessity of learning and teaching foreign language

in Vietnam There has been a great demand of studying it as the most universal trend Most

of the learners have a desire to reach a goal of communicative competence after eachEnglish course It is assumed that the comprehension and knowledge on the phonological,grammatical and lexical aspects are not only the bridge to the English language teachingand learning In fact, it is the differences in linguistics and communicative behaviors thatcause the obstacles on its teaching and learning task People should bear in mind that things

such as the place of silence, appropriate topics of conversation, forms of address, and expression of speech acts are different across cultures and the ability to use language

appropriately plays a very important role in the communicative process

Therefore, English language teachers should be aware of these distinctive features to helplearners overcome the psychological and cultural barriers in the teaching and learningprocess

It can be said that Vietnamese culture still has certain influences on English acquisition.The interference of the native culture, to some extents, may limit students’ ability toacquire the second language comprehensively Moreover, the researcher’s observation alsopoints out that students get many difficulties in recognizing errors caused by theinterference of their own Vietnamese cultural thought patterns The most common mistakesmade by Vietnamese are in greeting routines, politeness, and indirectness – directness Forexample, many English speakers complain that Vietnamese are very nosy and inquisitive

when they ask questions such as “Where are you going? Have you had lunch? What are you doing?” To many Vietnamese, however, these are common questions and people

regard them as part of the greeting formula In addition, English speakers often remarksthat Vietnamese do not greet and address them properly They often get annoyed or evenfeel frustrated with such questions The foreigners are not aware that it is cultural

differences that cause them unpleasant feelings At the same time, Vietnamese people donot know that they have violated the others’ privacy and caused “culture shock” to theforeigners As a result, the two sides may fail to communicate effectively due to thecultural differences out of their expectation.

Much of the reason lies in the fact that they do not pay attention to cultural differences incommunication Additionally, it is a tradition that in Vietnam English teaching processfocuses on only linguistic competence and cultural knowledge is not centrered on

This has inspired me to do research on cross-cultural communication with the focus on thethree cultural dimensions based on Dr Nguyen Quang’s framework, namely: Subjectivity– Objectivity, Directness – Indirectness, Accuracy – Inaccuracy These cultural dimensionsexist in every language but differ from culture to culture Hence this study was carried out

in the expectation of studying some cultural practices in Vietnamese communication styleswhich affect the English learning process at Thanh Hoa Medical College

2 Aims of the research

It can be affirmed that the study was carried out with 2 main aims

Firstly, this investigation aims to find out some cultural practices in Vietnamesecommunication styles which affect the English learning process

Secondly, it is hoped that some pedagogical implications for the English teachers will bedrawn out

3 Research questions

In fulfilling two main aims, the study needs to set up clear objectives Two followingresearch questions are expected to make the objectives clear

Research question 1: How do some cultural dimensions, namely Subjectivity –

Objectivity, Directness – Indirectness, Accuracy – Inaccuracy affect the Vietnameselearners of English?

Research question 2: What are the solutions for the Vietnamese teachers of English at

Thanh Hoa Medical College?

4 Significance of the research:

The investigation provides an insightful awareness of the influences of some Vietnamesecommunicative practices on their learners of English

As for students, identifying what influential dimensions is a good way to better theirEnglish usage It should be noted that not all cultural dimensions can be considered to

cause the interference on the use of English However, by the suggested implications, theresearch is expected to reveal some practical ways for students to practice their English andimprove it.

As for teachers, this is a good chance for them to reconsider the role of cultural dimensions

in learning English Through the research, they can make use of some implications in order

to improve students’ competence in English The study is also expected to generate aserious issue on cross-cultural studies Subsequent researches can develop the idea raised

in the research

5 Scope of the research:

The study focuses on investigating the influences of some cultural dimensions on thelanguage learning There will be three potential cultural dimensions on investigationnamely subjectivity – objectivity, directness – indirectness, accuracy – inaccuracypresented in the theoretical background, and this predication will be looked into in theprocess of data analysis

6 Methods of the research

The study was designed to use a combination of various methods to achieve its aims andobjectives (qualitative and quantitative) To begin with, an extensive review of literaturewas conducted, critically examining some cultural dimensions affecting the Englishlearning

Secondly, a useful and plausible tool is conducting a survey questionnaire on second-yearstudents and teachers of English at Thanh Hoa Medical College to investigate how culturaldimensions affect the English learning at Thanh Hoa Medical College and the solutions

7 Design of the research:

The research consists of three parts, part A – Introduction as the first part, part B –Development including three chapters, chapter I is the Literature Review in which thereview of works on the similar topics and the theoretical background will be revealed To

be more specific, terms and relationship between culture, language and communication aswell as the overview of some Vietnamese cultural dimensions are going to be presented.Chapter II is known as Discussion of the survey and Data analysis Chapter III namedSome implications for Vietnamese ELT teachers Part C – Conclusion, which is the lastone, concludes the major findings of the investigation, the limitations and suggestions forfurther research

be investigated.

1.1.1 An overview of Culture – Language – Communication

1.1.1.1 What is culture?

The term “culture” has been defined by many scholars It comes from the Latin word

“colere” that means to build on, to cultivate, and to foster Culture appeared at the sametime mankind appeared and began to work However, culture is a general and abstractconcept In each domain, culture is dealt with from different points of view

Rosaldo (1984) clarified that culture is far more than a mere catalogue of rituals and

beliefs R.A.Hudson considered culture as “the kind of knowledge which we learn from other people either by direct instruction or by watching their behaviour.” This knowledge

involves:

- cultural knowledge – which learned from other people

- shared non-cultural knowledge – which is shared by people within the same

community or the world over, but is not learned from each other

- non-shared non-cultural knowledge which is unique to the individual

According to Richard Camphell, culture in his book “Media and culture” was defined as “abroad category that identifies the ways in which people live and represent themselves at aparticular historical times” Ronald Wardhaugh shared the similar idea with him when

saying that “culture is the “know-how” that a person must possess to get through the task

of daily living, only for a few does it require a knowledge of some, or much, music, literature and the arts” (1985: 217).

In short, the term culture has been defined in different ways by many scholars Culture issometimes identified with notions of personal space, appropriate gestures, time and so

forth Culture is something to learn, it affects the way we act and respond, including thevisible aspects and dos and taboos of working in other countries

1.1.1.2 Language and culture:

“Just as birds have wings, man has language The wings give the bird its peculiar aptitude for aerial locomotion Language enables man’s intelligence and passions to acquire their peculiar characters of intellect and sentiment.”

(G.H.Lewes – The study of psychology)

Language is “a system of sounds, words, patterns, etc used by humans to communicate thoughts and feelings” (Oxford advanced learner’s encyclopedic dictionary: 506).

Halliday (1970: 143) pointed out three basic functions of language as following:

- Ideational function: expressing the speaker’s experience of the real world

including the inner world of his own consciousness

- Interpersonal function: establishing and maintaining social relations.

- Textual function: making links with language itself and with features of the

situation in which it is used

From the above functions, we can see that language and culture have a close andinseparable relationship We cannot comprehend the one without understanding the other.Without the language of a culture, we surely have no means to communicate in thatculture, and vice verse, with the absence of cultural knowledge in a language; we areunable to use the language appropriately

In general, language, certainly, is determined by culture Early anthropologists have thebelief that language and its structure were totally dependent on the cultural context inwhich they existed However, thanks to language, culture is preserved and enriched Allthe beliefs, values, attitudes, and perceptions can be transmitted via language They areinterwoven in such a way that culture influences the expressing language and language isfull of cultural dimensions

Many applied linguists also concluded the interrelationship between language and culture

Edward Sapir (1921: 1961) stated that “language does not exist apart from culture, which

is from the socially inherited assemblage of practices and beliefs that determines the texture of our lives.” and “language actually shapes the way in which we perceive, think and therefore act.” Language is really a mirror to reflect the ways of looking at the world.

Therefore, in teaching and learning a language, language knowledge cannot be separated

from culture as Kramsch (1993) said that “a language cannot be learnt without an understanding of the cultural context in which it is used.”

1.1.1.3 Language and communication:

Language – “the most important means of communication of human being” (Lenin) - is not

only studied as a system of signals but also considered in many fields of communicativeact Without language, there would be limited communication Language has a significantmeaning to our identity and existence in life It is a vivid reflection of thoughts, practices,tradition and culture Researches are realizing the importance of culture in language andlanguage communication Language is a component making culture of a community andculture factors are present in language communication As the differences and similaritiesamong languages in phonetics, grammar and vocabulary called cross-language, differentcommunities have different language communication styles The differences in thesecommunication styles are not identified easily and often cause misunderstandings Forexample, the “straight-forward to the problem” style of Anglicist culture seems to contrast

1.1.1.4 Cross cultural communication

People in the same country share the same cultural values and norms, so people with thesame background communicate more easily than those who come from different cultures.However, the tendency to globalization has developed so quickly that cross culturalcommunication is unavoidable

According to Nguyen Quang (Cross-Cultural Communication, 1998: 5), cross culturalcommunication is the process of sharing or exchanging information verbally or non-verbally between people from different cultures which are influenced by different culturalvalues, attitudes and behaviors From this point of view, it can be seen that differentcultural values and knowledge may lead to misunderstanding and culture shocks inparticular contexts What is believed to be “right” in one culture may not be appropriate inanother For example, Anglicist people may feel frustrated and unsatisfied with questions

that they consider to be “too curious” or “impolite” such as “How old are you? Are you married? How much do you earn? ”, but in Vietnamese culture, they are quite normal

and friendly

Some people use slangs so you can't look them up in the dictionary to get the real meaning,

for instance, when you are in Vietnam, you will hear a man say something like "ông nội mày đấy" when they want to threat or play a joke For example:

A: Ai đỗ xe ở đây vậy? (Who parked the car here?)

B: Ông nội mày đấy! (It’s your grandfather!)

"Ông nội mày đấy" does not mean "grandfather" but just means "It’s me" (The implied

meaning is that I’m on the higher position than you and you should be careful) And whatare effects of these problems? Misunderstanding the languages makes you confused somuch For example, when Westerners visit Vietnam, they may feel disturbed when hear

"What are you doing?" or "Where are you going?” Indeed, these sentences are just "Hi" or

"good morning" or in some situations Vietnamese people never say “thank you” or

“sorry”, instead they say “Em xin bác.)” or “Tôi đoảng quá!”

For example: In a shop

A: Here you are (Của chị đây.)

B: I beg you (Em xin bác.)

Or someone spills some tea on someone else’s shirt, he may say “Tôi đoảng quá!” “I’m

so clumsy!”

These may lead you to stress if you don't know how to deal To overcome these problems,

it is necessary that people learn to recognize cultural differences and similarities That’s thereason why they need to take in cultural knowledge while learning a foreign language asHymes (1964: xi) stated: “We know instinctively that to understand what somebody issaying, we must understand more than the surface of meaning of words We have tounderstand the context as well The need for background information applies all more toreading and writing To grasp the words on a page, we have to know a lot of informationthat isn’t set down on page” It is similar to Nguyen Quang’s idea that on trying to besuccessful in mastering a second language, the learner should reach not only linguistics butalso cultural knowledge of the language (Nguyen Quang, 1997: 7)

1.1.2 Cross-cultural studies on the Anglicist – Vietnamese communication styles:

There are many reasons which can cause difficulties to learners in L2 acquisition namelytheir ability, age, attitudes It will be insufficient if cross – cultural categories are notmentioned There are some major cultural categories that greatly influence the process of

learning and using English language by the Vietnamese learners, namely Subjectivity –Objectivity, Directness – Indirectness, Accuracy – Inaccuracy Nguyen Quang’s work inForeign Language Journal (1998) allows him to draw the conclusion that there are fourteenmajor Anglo-American-Vietnamese cross-cultural categories as followed:

1 Subjectivity – Objectivity;

2 Directness – Indirectness;

3 Accuracy – Inaccuracy;

4 Positive and Negative politeness;

5 Self-abasement and self-assertion;

11 Group orientation – Individual orientation;

12 High context – Low context;

13 Redundancy – Economicality;

14 Staticality – Dynamicality

All or some categories may exist in many languages However, one culture may have thepreference to one side of certain category to another For instance, in terms of accuracy –inaccuracy category, the difference in using passive voice among cultures is verynoteworthy Anglo people consider passive voice a symbol of formality and they tend touse it in formal speech and in written documents There is no dissimilarity in speaker orwriter’s attitude to the issue in active and passive voice On the other hand, passive voicewith the clear distinction of “bị” and “được” (to be in passive voices) becomes a barrier toVietnamese learners during the process of English language acquisition “Bị” refers tonegative meaning whereas “được” implies the opposite

Hôm qua tôi bị 8 điểm (I got mark 8 yesterday)  under the speaker expectation Hôm

qua tôi được 8 điểm (I got mark 8 yesterday)  above the speaker

expectation

Or some passive verbs in Vietnamese do not exist in English

Tuần trước tôi có vinh hạnh được gặp thầy hiệu trưởng

(I was met by the Headmaster last week)

Was met denotes the pleasure not passivity.

It is impossible to list all cross – cultural categories here What is more, the investigationinto influences of Vietnamese cultural dimensions on English learning is the mainstreams

of this study As a result, the research will go into details with some cultural categorieswhich may have prominent influences on the English learning

1.1.2.1 Subjectivity – Objectivity:

Each nation possesses typical viewpoints of the ego, nature and society In general, thereare two ways of recognizing the relationship between the ego and the other consisting ofboth humans and things among different cultures The first one named subjectivity inwhich the ego considers himself or herself a subject in connection with the objects Thesecond way when the ego and his or her surroundings have an equal role as objects iscalled objectivity The understanding of the nature of these two perceptions will be muchclearer in the following definitions:

“Subjectivity can be understood as the communicative way in which people consider the speakers or the writers’ position, feelings, and attitudes Objectivity can be understood as the communicative way in which people consider the ego an object, as a result, the speaker

or the writers’ positions, feelings, and attitudes are hardly seen, unless some intra – linguistic, para – linguistic and extra – linguistic factors are used.” (Nguyen Quang –

cited from Nguyen Quynh Sam, 2000: 11) The substance of Nguyen Quang’s research isthat subjectivity seems to dominate Vietnamese culture where as the Anglo-American arelikely to prefer the objectivity Object-oriented structures are more prominent than speaker-oriented expressions in English It is clearly shown through the following major aspects:

- Location and use of prepositions in English and Vietnamese (Subject-oriented and Object-oriented)

- Passive voice in English and Vietnamese

- Use of personal pronouns

In the use of prepositions in conversation or composition, the Anglo does not regard theposition of ego as important in talking about the direction of their movement Learners ofEnglish should bear in mind that it is not the position, but the direction that people in

Anglo culture pay attention to For instance, when someone says “This is the first time I have been to Sam Son.” From the utterance, it is very difficult for the hearer to make out

where the speaker is from The aim of this utterance is to inform his or her position namelySam Son On the contrary, the listener or reader can easily identify the position of the

speaker or writer by the following utterances in Vietnamese: “Đây là lần đầu tiên tôi đến (arrive)/ra (go to)/xuống (go down)/lên (go up) Sam Son.” A variety of positions is made

use of so that it can be inferred from the sentence above the social space of the speaker orwriter It depends on the preposition to decide whether he or she is the foreigner or aVietnamese from different places It is the first cross-cultural category that has causedmany difficulties for Vietnamese learners in mastering English as a L2 The interference ofsubjective culture leads to mistakes in both speaking and writing The study on theinfluences of Vietnamese cultural factors on English learning among first – year students atEnglish Department, CFL, VNU, which was carried out by Do & Van (1998) took thismatter into consideration The survey pointed out student’s mistake due to this kind of

thought: “I swim under the water” (cited from a first – year student’s writing) Because of

the subjectivity in Vietnamese culture, this student made use of the preposition “under”instead of “in” in standard English One more example is the two objects “sky” and “bird”

When the bird is flying, the Anglicist say: “A bird is flying in the sky” The reason is that

in fact, the object: “bird” is moving into the object “sky” Obviously, the Anglicist tend toleave out “ego” factor, they stand out of the world and only observe the relationshipbetween the two objects In contrast, Vietnamese tend to conceive their “ego” In this case,subjective factor is clearly seen They look up to the higher position, they see “sky” isabove and “bird” is also above The thing they concern is not the positive relationshipbetween the bird and sky but the relationship between them and the bird Thus they say:

“Con chim đang bay trên bầu trời” (A bird is flying in the sky).

The pair of prepositions “Trong – Ngoài” (In – Out) provides another evidence about thedominance of subjectivity in Vietnamese When the ego is in a larger/lighter spacecompared with a smaller/darker one, he/she employs the preposition “trong” and vice verse

he/she uses “Ngoài” such as “Trong nhà”, “Ngoài ngõ” (In the house, out the lane), as the

lane is considered to be lighter When compared to the road, the lane is smaller and darker,

so Vietnamese people say: “trong ngõ, ngoài đường” (in the lane, on the road).

The use of prepositions “Ra – Vào” (Out – In) in Vietnamese can be explained in the sameway

The use of passive voice is also an interesting indication of objectivity and subjectivity It

is obvious that the objectivity is expressed much clearly and strongly under the form ofpassive voice From Nguyen Quang’s paper, passive voice is often used in case of formalspeech or written communication in English The Anglo-American has the tendency ofspeaking or writing in passive voice more than the Vietnamese do In academic writing, it

is sometimes necessary to compose sentences like: 1 It is believed that … 2 I am strongly convinced that … 3 He is considered to be … In these cases, the objectivity can always be

seen However, if we translate those statements into Vietnamese, the active voice sounds

more acceptable: 1 Người ta tin rằng … People believe that … 2 Tôi thật sự tin rằng … I strongly believe that … 3 Người ta cho rằng anh ta … People think that he … In

Vietnamese, the ego always plays a very important role, as a result, he or she should be thesubject of the utterance Once again, the subjectivity can be seen clearly Furthermore, thepassive voice in Vietnamese is often understood by two ways: “bị” and “được” Thisdistinction reflects the differences in speaker and writer’s attitudes towards the issuementioned in the sentence “Bị” indicates the bad luck or negative attitudes; on thecontrary, it will be good luck or positive attitudes in case of “được” For instance, the

sentence: I got mark 7 can be translated into Vietnamese in two ways: Tôi bị điểm 7 (under the speaker’s expectation) Tôi được điểm 7 (over the speaker’s expectation).

A sense of subjectivity is strongly felt in this case: English people utilize passive voiceneutrally while the Vietnamese let out clearly their personal feelings The word “được”implies something that is neutral or that the speaker is happy and pleased to do something

or feel honored of doing something For example, “được thưởng” (be awarded), “được khen” (be praised), “được yêu” (be loved), “Tôi được vinh dự gặp ngài Thủ tướng” (I had honor of meeting the Prime Minister.) whereas the word “bị” refers to the opposite

meaning, for example “bị mất việc” (lost job), “bị thi trượt” (failed the exam) This isanother matter that learners of English should pay attention to in compositions It can besuggested that passive voice plays an essential part in English academic writing

English and Vietnamese share the same meaning of addressing systems which are used toaffirm and address oneself in social relationship or kinship relation as well In English,most of personal pronouns are neutral which reveal no special attitudes of the speakertowards the hearer In reverse, in Vietnamese, addressing system is not only used to calleach other but also expresses different feelings and relationship with the listeners

Different address forms for the same person reveal different attitudes: negative, positive orneutral There is a complex system of address forms in which speaker chooses anappropriate address form due to age, social status, attitudes, feelings and distance.

The third personal singular “She” can be translated as follows based on different attitudes:

She (neutral)

Cô, chị, em, bà Chị ấy, cô ấy, bà ấy Mụ, con, ả, thị, con mụ ấy,Nàng, người Chị ta, cô ta, bà ta con mẹ ấy

For example:

- Positive: Bà là một người phụ nữ nhân hậu (She is a kind woman.)

- Neutral: Chị ấy đang đi làm (She is working.)

- Negative: Mụ ta là loại đàn bà vô lương tâm (She is a kind of nonethic woman.)

He (neutral)

Ngài, chàng, ông, anh Anh ấy, ông ấy, cậu ấy Thằng, hắn, gã, y

- Positive: Ông là một con người vĩ đại (He is a great man.)

- Neutral: Anh ấy sẽ không đến đâu (He will not come.)

- Negative: Hắn chỉ là một kẻ vô công rồi nghề (He is only a jobless man.)

They (neutral)

Những con người ấy, các vị Họ, người ta, chúng nó Bọn nó, lũ chúng nó

ấy

- Positive: Thưa ngài, các vị ấy vẫn đang chờ ạ (They are still waiting, sir.)

- Neutral: Họ là những con người của công việc (They are men of work.)

- Negative: Lũ chúng nó thì làm được cái gì (They can do nothing for life.)

In summary, English personal pronouns only refer to person who the speaker is talking toand remain neutral if there are no other supporting infra-linguistic, para-linguistic factors.Contrarily, many Vietnamese pronouns are accompanied with the speaker’s feeling andattitudes

1.1.2.2 Directness – Indirectness

The second cross – cultural dimension that may have prominent influences on Englishlearning is Directness – Indirectness In every language there exist the two kinds ofexpressions: direct and indirect ones Therefore, it is not correct to say that a language isdirect and another is indirect In Nguyen Quang’s point of view, the evaluation ofDirectness and Indirectness of a language should be based on not only the language itselfbut also its cultural background and should be interpreted in the relation with culturalvalues (negative or positive cultural values, taboos .) and the interaction betweenlanguage, thought and culture

As reported by Kaplan J (1972), “cultural thought patterns” of foreign students studying inthe United States are different from culture to culture as expressed through their essays.Direct expressions are preference in the Anglo-American culture, on the other hand,Oriental people including the Vietnamese are likely to prefer indirect patterns ManyAmericans even “can judge members of cultural groups that value indirectness (i.e.hesitating, not “getting to the point” and “beating around the bush”) as not bring assertiveworld Nevertheless, they do not realize that a large percentage of the world’s culturesvalues indirectness and consider it rude to insist on getting to the point (Levine, D.R &Adelman, M.B, 1992) Instead of “getting to the point”, Vietnamese culture values thegentle way to the conclusion or the main idea of their speech and composition This featurecan be seen clearly when people have to write a letter of refusal Supposed that there was

an invitation to a wedding party, the following example will stand for a typical English

writing: Unfortunately, much as I’d like to be at the wedding, especially a Dutch wedding (!), it simply isn’t impossible for me to take that weekend off; I have to work fairly late on Friday night, and friends are coming down to stay from Sunday lunchtime so there would

be no way in which I could squeeze a wedding in Holland in between (cited from Vu et.

Al, 2006, p.48) The reason why the writer cannot take part in the wedding can be seenwithout any ambiguity However, in one sample of letters written by a Vietnamese, itsometimes takes a long way for the reason to be mentioned as cited from one student’s

letter of refusal: I would love to but unfortunately I will not be able to come I had to write

to you to say how sorry I am that I cannot make it (cited from Van &Do, 1998) This is one

example of a letter which is under the interference of indirectness in Vietnamese culture.The writer cannot find an appropriate way to explain the reason of refusal

The differences in employing directness and indirectness between Vietnamese andAmerican English can be manifested more clearly in subtle and sensitive topics, forexample, making requests, borrowing money, love declaring, bad news informing Inmaking requests, Vietnamese people tend to give reasons before requesting They employmany lead – in sentences to reach the purposes Nguyen Quang provides an interestingexample between a research worker and his director (1997):

- Situation: A research worker in Hanoi has an ill mother in the country He wants to have some days off to visit her, so he meets his director

Him (H): Is it nasty today, isn’t it, sir!

Director (D): Yes, I’ve got an unhappy stomach these days It’s the bad weather, perhaps H: Young and healthy as you are, you can’t stand it, let alone old people.

D: Yes, they surely suffer.

H: (a pause) My mother is eighty, you know

D: Oh, is she? It’s really longevity.

H: Yes, but she’s just fallen ill due to the weather.

D: Oh, my god, is it serious?

H: She went to visit my sister in another village the other day and caught a cold on the way back because of the weather change.

D: Any treatments for her?

H: Yes, Yes, I’ve bought a lot of medicine for her uh by the way I just come to ask for

3 days off t come and visit her Is it possible, sir?

D: It’s O.K It’s Wednesday today, so you’ll have 4 days off including Sunday.

H: Yes, thank you very much, sir.

(cited from Ngo Huu Hoang, 1998: 47)

Most of Nguyen Quang’s students read the conversation and thought that it would be polite

to carry the conversation in that way to get the speaker’s purpose However, when theconversation was given to some Australians and Americans, most of whom thought that theway the man led to his request is “extremely unnecessary”, “very confusing”, or even

“irritating” For them, the purpose of the visit should be mentioned immediately, anyreason should be informed afterwards

In the study “How to convey bad news in American English and Vietnamese” of NguyenQuang, he concludes that Americans express much more directly than Vietnamese people

do, even with such a subtle topic as death Words such as “die”, “was killed” appear much more frequently than in Vietnamese (35/178 compared to 2/182) For example:

- Your wife tragically was one of those killed in the plane crash.

- I’m sorry that your wife was killed.

- It is going to be difficult for you to hear this, but I’m sorry to say I think your wife

is dead.

The word “die” or “dead” tend to be replaced by the Vietnamese by other expressions:

- Không còn (not alive)

- Một trong những người xấu số (among the ones who have bad fates)

- Về nơi chín suối (go to the hades)

In conclusion, directness – indirectness is one of cross-cultural categories which havemuch influence on Vietnamese learners’ speaking and writing style Only when having thesufficient understanding of Anglo – American tradition and doing more practices under theteacher’s instructions, learners can overcome this problem and obtain both linguistic andcultural competence

1.1.2.3 Accuracy – Inaccuracy

From Nguyen Quang’s point of view, the Vietnamese seems to be more inaccurate than theAnglo – American He suggested some cases which can point out the differences betweentwo cultures:

1.1.2.3.1 The use of tenses

In English grammar, there are sixteen tenses to express a certain action happening at acertain time such as simple present, simple past, simple future, present continuous, pastcontinuous, etc And affixes are the indicator used to clarify different tenses in English Tounderstand this we will look at the use of some important tenses in more detail

The simple present tense is used for general statements of facts or to express habitual or

everyday activities For example:

- The Earth goes round the Sun.

- I go to school everyday.

We use the present continuous tense to talk about an activity that is in progress at the

moment of speaking

- It is raining now.

The simple past tense is used to indicate that an activity or situation began and ended at a

particular time in the past

- His wife left him ten years ago.

When we express the idea that something happened before the present, at an unspecified

time in the past, we use the present perfect tense.

- We have eaten it before.

The present perfect continuous tense is used to indicate the duration of an activity that

began in the past and continues to the present or to express a general activity in progressrecently or lately

- He has been running all the morning

Past perfect tense is used to express an activity that was completed before another activity

or time in the past

- They had finished lunch by the time I arrived.

When we talk about an activity or event going on at a particular time or over a particular

period in the future, we use the future continuous tense.

- I will be watching T.V at that time.

The future perfect tense is used to express an activity that will be completed before

another time or event in the future

- I will have finished my thesis by September.

From the examples above, it is shown that tenses in English are formed and useddifferently The two ways of forming tenses in English are adding infections to the bareform of the verbs and combining inflections and auxiliaries or modals The rules for theformation and usage of tense are fixed Therefore, the English language is very accurate.However, the situation is not the same in Vietnamese There are only lexical indicators

such as “đã, rồi, (already) từng (ever), vừa (just), sẽ, sắp (will), toan …" to express the past,

present and future The situation seems to be simpler in Vietnamese That is the reasonwhy many learners of English get difficulty in finding an appropriate tense to translateVietnamese into English Examples of “đã” can prove much ambiguity to Vietnameselearners due to the influences of inaccuracy “Đã” can be understood as an indicator to pasttenses in Vietnamese; nevertheless, the translation into English seems to be various interms of the verb tenses Moreover, what determine tenses and aspects in

Vietnamese are not auxiliaries, but context clues, especially metalinguistic, intralinguistic, and extralinguistic contexts as exemplified by Nguyen Quang (2002).

E.g “Đã” is used to refer to an action which is to take place in the future

- Vào giờ này ngày mai tôi đã có mặt ở Hà Nội.

(I will be in Hanoi by this time tomorrow.)

1.1.2.3.2 The use of genitive indicators

As a matter of fact, the genitive indicators are the “-s” genitive, possessive adjectives andpronouns and the preposition “of” It has the equivalence in Vietnamese named “của”.Accuracy in English indicators of possession often cannot be used interchangeably Thecase of –s genitive and –of genitive should be taken into careful consideration Assuggested by Quirk, R and Greenbaum S (2003, p 96 -97), the “–s” genitive is favored byanimated nouns, in particular persons and animals with personal characteristics We canonly say the youngest children’s toys, but not the door’s window or the love of John Onthe other hand, -of genitive is chosen in case of being the link between inanimate nounssuch as the title of the book or the system of the society It cannot be affirmed that –sgenitive does not replace –of genitive in all cases and vice versa Learners of Englishshould bear in mind those above basic rules In addition, possessive adjectives andpronouns play an important role in English The great awareness of possession of theAnglo – American is revealed through the close relationship between noun and itspossessive adjectives such as “my, your, her, his, our, their, its” Such words are neverabsent in English noun phrases of possession On the contrary, the usage of “của” is likely

to be more flexible It is the only genitive in Vietnamese; as a result it is popularly used forboth animate and inanimate nouns In many cases, the Vietnamese even obmit “của” as can

be seen in the following examples: Tôi ghi bài vào vở (Literal translation: I take note in notebook) (Standard English: I take note in my notebook) Tôi cầm lấy ví rồi đi thẳng (Literal translation: I took purse and went away) (Standard English: I took my purse and went away) The problem is that Vietnamese learners sometimes forget such indicators of

possession while speaking or writing in English due to the inaccuracy in their culture This

is another point they need to take into consideration

1.2 Review of previous studies

Nguyen Quang’s work in Foreign Language Journal (1998) points to draw the conclusionthat there are fourteen major Anglo-American-Vietnamese cross-cultural categories

1 Subjectivity – Objectivity; 2 Directness – Indirectness; 3 Accuracy – Inaccuracy; 4.Positive and Negative politeness; 5 Self-abasement and self-assertion; 6 Abstractness –

Rationality; 7 Sentimentality – Equality; 8 Hierarchy – Equality; 9 Introversion –Extroversion; 10 Deduction – Induction; 11 Group orientation – Individual orientation;

12 High context – Low context; 13 Redundancy – Economicality; 14 Staticality –Dynamicality

Such dimensions exist in every language The problem is that one culture may be in favour

of one side of a certain dimension than another For example, in terms of directness –indirectness dimension, Anglicist people (British, American, Australian ) tend to be moredirect in speaking than Oriental people Vietnam is an example, it is common forVietnamese people to have the habit of “beating around the bush” before going to the mainpoint

The study on the influences of Vietnamese cultural factors on English learning among first– year students at English Department, CFL, VNU, which was carried out by Do MaiThanh & Van Thanh Binh (1998) took this matter into consideration The study mentionedthe common mistakes made by the first year students in the Faculty of English LanguageTeacher Education (formerly known as English Department), University of Languages andInternational Studies, VNU due to the influences of some cultural categorical dimensions.This was conducted among the 1st year students K32 in 1999 and over ten years has gone

by, therefore, the results may have been different thanks to the openness of Vietnam to theworld, the improvement of the process of learning and communicating in English, theincorporation of cultural points into language lessons at upper secondary schools inVietnam

Another study by Ho Gia Anh Le in 2003 on Accuracy and Inaccuracy in English andVietnamese also dealt with aspects of Accuracy and Inaccuracy in English andVietnamese, the influence of this categorical dimension on English learning and someimplications for the learning and teaching of both Vietnamese and English as foreignlanguages The author comments that most of sentences that the pupils made weregrammatically correct but there existed a lot of cultural mistakes due to the interference ofcross-cultural categories in general, and Accuracy and Inaccuracy category in particular.The most typical errors are verb tenses, prepositions of place, the use of directness andindirectness in communication, insufficient redundancies in English usage

Tran Thanh Dung’s study (2004) concentrates on cultural factors that affects on teachingand learning English in secondary schools in terms of cultural category Subjectivity –Objectivity This implies that the subjectivity of Vietnamese learners has much effect ontheir process of learning English Many pupils find it disappointed and bored with learning

a second language when they meet difficulties in doing exercises One of the reasons is thatthey lack cultural experience, so they sometimes make mistake while studying Therefore it

is essential that they be provided enough cultural knowledge to avoid misinterpretation inthe lessons