An initial investigation of u s and vietnamese cultures in contrast through everyday conversations m a thesis linguistics 60 22 15

LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURESTABLES Table 1: Answers for question1 of Vietnamese students and American students Table 2: Answers for question 2 of Vietnamese students and American studentsTa

(BƯỚC ĐẦU NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU VĂN HÓA MỸ - VIỆT THÔNG

QUA CÁC CUỘC ĐỐI THOẠI HÀNG NGÀY)

M.A MINOR THESISField: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

Hanoi, 2012

1.4.2 Types of friendships 12

APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES

TABLES

Table 1: Answers for question1 of Vietnamese students and American students

Table 2: Answers for question 2 of Vietnamese students and American studentsTable 3: Answers for question 3 of Vietnamese students and American students

Table 4: Answers for question 4 of Vietnamese students and American studentsTable 5: Analysis of conversations for situation 1

Table 6: Analysis of conversations for situation 2

Table 7: Analysis of conversations for situation 3

Table 8: Analysis of conversations for situation 4

Table 9: Summary of Vietnamese-American contrasts

FIGURES

Figure 1: Iceberg model of Culture

Figure 2: Answers for question 1 of Vietnamese students and American studentsFigure 3: Answers for question 2 of Vietnamese students and American studentsFigure 4: Answers for question 3 of Vietnamese students and American studentsFigure 5: Answers for question 4 of Vietnamese students and American students

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

Human beings have been endued with a powerful engine to assist them in the process

of expressing their thoughts, feelings and transmitting emotions as well as information

to others: language However, there is a question remaining: “Why aremisinterpretation, communication breakdown and cultural conflicts still inevitable?”

Hymes, D (1966) coined those in one term: “communicative competence” which

literally denotes the capability of using one language appropriately under anycircumstances The fact is that language and culture are so closely interlaced, whichmeans the impossibility of separating them

The focus of the study is on conversations upon everyday topics, which will, to someextent, raise an awareness of cultural similarities as well as differences amongspeakers, aiming for a successful and fruitful interplay, or at least a reduction in theeffect of discrepant socio-cultural factors

The study on everyday conversations, specifically the topic of friendship, made by

American and Vietnamese students, has been selected to investigate as it was one ofthe great interests to the researcher and of great help to language insiders and outsiders

It is undeniable that how American native speakers react on friendship-related

situations in everyday life is far different from how Vietnamese people, language speakers, do Thereupon, a contrastive analysis of the ways American andVietnamese deal with disparate cases is regarded practical, necessary and worthy for amutual understanding

second-2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The present study focused on the contrast of American and Vietnamese cultures

through everyday conversations, particularly the topic of friendship, within the

framework of contrastive analysis, conversation analysis as well as the looks at therelationship between culture and language Therefore, the study was aimed at pointingout the answers for the two questions:

(1) What are the similarities between American culture and Vietnamese culture reflected through the topic “Friendship” in daily conversations?

(2) What are the differences between American culture and Vietnamese culture reflected through the topic “Friendship” in daily conversations?

3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study was aimed at promoting communicative competence through everydayconversations between the U.S and Vietnamese cultures, which was done based on thetheoretical background of contrastive analysis, conversation analysis and the points ofview of language-culture tie Thereupon, the main objective of this study was toanalyze and reflect the similarities as well as differences between the two targetedcultures

4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Since theoretical background is vital to the processes of data analysis, the writerexpected to deal with a variety of sets of theories concerning contrastive analysis,conversation analysis and viewpoints on culture-language relationship, etc

Due to the constraint of time and personal ability, the writer had no ambition forcovering a wide range of everyday conversations; instead, some featured situations

related to Friendship were chosen to take into consideration This study was intended

to discover how university students of American and Vietnamese cultures reacted to the same circumstances.

The database of this study consisted of elicited written questionnaires and audio-tapes

of natural conversations

5 METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

The study has been carried out based on a combination of different methods of

quantitative and qualitative approach which are as follows:

- Analyze and contrast

Questionnaires and audio tapes of native American and of Vietnamese university students were adopted to collect the data for analysis and discussion

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The study is comprised of three parts:

Part I, “Introduction”, includes the rationale, objectives of the study, research

questions, research methods, the scope and the design of the study

Part II, “Development”, consists three chapters:

- Chapter 1 – Theoretical background - presents the preliminary knowledge of

some basic theories and a review of related literature to the study

- Chapter 2 - Methodology - describes the research method, data collection

instruments, and detailed information about the research procedures

- Chapter 3 - Findings and Discussions - analyzes the initial data collected and

interviews The chapter mainly focuses on contrasting the similarities and differencesbetween the two mentioned cultures through the analysis of conversations made byAmerican and Vietnamese university students

Part III, “Conclusion”, a recapitulation of the research including the theoretical

frameworks, methodology and major findings, together with the limitations andsuggestions for further study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 A brief overview on Contrastive Analysis

1.1.1 Definition

In an attempt to minimize the problems that foreign language learners encounter on

their acquisition process, linguists proposed the conceptual theory of contrastive

analysis The term „Contrastive Linguistics‟ was first suggested by Whorf (1941),

meaning of „a comparative study which emphasizes on linguistic differences‟ However, not until the publication of „Linguistics Across Cultures‟ by Lado, R (1957)

was the in-depth excavation into this field commenced Later on, the original term

changed to „Contrastive Analysis‟ (CA) as we know it today.

As Fisiak (1981:1)‟s redefinition, CA is „a sub discipline of linguistics concerned with

the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the differences and similarities between them.‟ In other words, CA is

the systematic study of a pair or more of languages with a view to identifying theirstructural differences and similarities

The goal of CA is to find out the differences between the first language and the targetlanguage; simultaneously, via contrastive analysis, problems can be predicted andconsidered

Robert Lado (1957) noted:

„Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms

and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and

culture- both productively and when attempting to speak the language and to act in the culture and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and culture as practiced by natives.‟

1.1.2 Macro-linguistic Contrastive Analysis

In a way, CA can be perceived from different perspectives: micro-linguistically ormacro-linguistically While micro-linguistic CA lays emphasis on describing thelanguage elements without any recourse to external factors, macro-linguistic CA is afield of study concerned with language in its broadest sense Macro-linguistic CA is aformal description of how people communicate, including cultural and behavioralfeatures associated with languages based on the interrelationships

Macrolinguistics in CA can be characterized by:

(i) A concern for communicative competence rather than linguistic

Also, James, C (1980:101) paraphrased six variables first mentioned by Hymes (1974)

into „who says what to whom, where and when, how and why.‟

It can be interpreted that macro-linguistic CA looks at discourse analysis, the study oftext and conversational interaction, as one of its concerning disciplines Therefore, thetheory of conversation analysis is closely related to macro-linguistic CA in particularand in this contrastive study in general

1.2 An brief overview on Conversation Analysis

1.2.1 Conversation

Making conversations is one of the daily bases activities of human beings It isapparent that all of us get involved in conversational interaction, also, on which livinghuman societies depend to function properly According to C Goodwin and Heritage

(1990:283), social interaction was elucidated as „the primordial means through which

the business of the social world is transacted, the identities of its participants are affirmed or denied, and its cultures are transmitted, renewed and modified.‟

Undoubtedly, like an indispensable part, conversations help people socialize anddevelop and nourish their mutual relationships

1.2.2 Conversation Analysis

Studies have shown that when people converse, their communication is more than justthe systematic use of linguistic items; that is, something else other than language itself

„Conversation Analysis‟ is seen as a unique way of analyzing language and social

interaction This kind of study on talk-in-interaction has long been a phenomenon ofgreat interest for researchers of a wide range of fields Conversation analytic approachhas become most influential for its contributions to provide deep insights that canunravel many linguistic problems (Levinson 1983: 364) It takes, as one of its subjects,the study of mundane social interaction in naturally occurring settings on the basis ofrigorous and systematic methods The assumption that social actions are meaningful,and are produced and interpreted as such, leads to the desire to discover, describe andanalyze their natural organization or order, which constitutes and constructs thisorderliness Conversation analysis, therefore, licitly investigates all areas of sociallymotivated talk (Liddicoat, J A 2007:17) Its primary concern is the discovery,description, and analysis of how conversation is produced and understood

In order to provide real-life data from different subjects, audio taping technologieshave been employed to record naturally occurring actions in real-world settings,combined with direct observation and notes by researchers This gives rise to anextensive analysis of the rules and orders of talk New approaches to the study oflanguage and communication with respect to culture focusing on meanings-in-context,natural classification systems by members of a culture, their perceptions andconventions also brought about changes in conversation analysis.

1.3 Language and Culture

1.3.1 What is „language‟?

Kramsch, C (2004) defined language as „the principal means whereby we conduct oursocial group‟ Another view from Sapir (1921) was that „language is a purely humanand non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desire by means ofvoluntarily produced symbols.‟ Language is a part of culture and a part of humanbehavior

Fulfilling many other tasks, language was denoted with three major functions as stated

by Krech (1962) Firstly, language plays a role of the primary vehicle ofcommunication, such as expressing thoughts, greeting, conducting religious servicesand so on Secondly, it reflects the personality of an individual and his culturalproperties and also forms the shape of personality and culture in return Last but notleast, language enables the growth and transmission of culture, the continuity ofsocieties, and the effective functioning and control of social group

It is undeniable that language plays a paramount role in developing, elaborating andtransmitting culture and language, allowing us to provide everything needed tofacilitate communication

1.3.2 What is „culture‟?

The term „culture‟ has a wide range of definitions Culture can refer to a process, a

way of life and also a product

Tylor, E (1871) first gave the definition of culture which has been widely quoted:

„Culture… is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law,

custom and any other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.‟

According to Clifford Geertz, however, culture was viewed as a symbolic meaningsystem It literally served fully as a semiotic system in which symbols function tocommunicate the meanings from one mind to another

Goodenough proposed that „A society‟s culture consists of whatever it is one has to

know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and to do

so in any role that they can accept for any of themselves‟ (as cited in Wardhaugh,

1992:216)

From Banks‟s point of view (1988:126), it was „a cluster of attributes such as values,

beliefs, behavior patterns and symbols unique to a particular human group.‟

Hall (1976) developed the theory of culture by analogizing the iceberg model Hebelieved that culture was divided into two parts: one part was obvious enough for us tosee; the other more obscure with tangible aspects

Figure 1 Iceberg model of Culture

It is Nguyen, Q (1998) who defined the term „culture‟ was “a shared background resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values.‟ In other words, culture is the heritage from generation to generation.

The term 'culture' is seen as whatever a person must have in order to function and live

in a particular society

1.3.3 The relationship between language and culture

It is obvious that the relationship between language and culture is deeply rooted Theyare regarded as two back-to-back sides of a paper and both cannot exist outside thesocial contexts

Language is employed to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties Different ideasstem from differing language use within one‟s culture and their interconnectioncommence at one‟s birth When an infant is born, regardless of his or her origin,compared to any other infant born, in fact, is quite similar This idea has been aroundfor thousands of years and was discussed by Confucius However, not until the child is

exposed to their surroundings do they become individuals belonging to their own

cultural group

It is such a definite assertion that language is one part of culture and under the impact

of culture To be more precise, language is a major component and supporter of culture

as well as a vital instrument for transferring messages, a cultural-bound duty That is

not to mention about the fact that language is influenced, shaped by culture and reflects

culture Without language, culture would not be possible

A significant point was brought up by Emmitt and Pollock (1997), who stated that even

though people are brought up under similar behavioral backgrounds or cultural situations

but, nevertheless, speak different languages, their world view may be very different

Everyone‟s views are dependent on the culture which has influenced them, as well as

being described using the language which has been shaped by that culture The

understanding of a culture and its people can be enhanced by the knowledge of their

language Different thoughts are brought about by the utilization of different forms of

language Different languages will create different limitations; therefore, a person who

shares a culture but speaks different languages, will have different world views

CULTURE OFCOMMUNICATION

1.4 An overview on Friendship

1.4.1 Definition

„Friendship is a relationship between two people

who hold mutual affection for each other.‟

(Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

In real life, friendship can be established by any reasons, anywhere and anytime, such

as on starting a new job, moving from place to place and so on Friendship is of thevoluntary relationship which includes the practices of starting up, sustaining andruining, together with the expectations that friends have for each other Most of us takethis kind of relationship for granted and see them as a law of nature; while others donot In any case, it is globally agreed that friends ought to have shared commitment,priority to the other‟s request and supporting assistance

Linguistically speaking, there is no doubt that the word „friendship‟ exists in every

language of the world; however, somehow this term is too broad for us to understandfully In the attempt to translate the original word into our own mother tongue, weencounter an enormous problem: there are a huge number of correspondingconnotations That leads to a way to uncover cultural differences: review thephilological roots of those various verbal equivalents and trace their implications

1.4.2 Types of friendships

In the old Greeks‟ time, the great philosopher Aristotle initiated the very first

classification of friendships in his book Nicomachean Ethics As he proposed, there

were three types of friendships

- Friendship of utility: This kind of friendship based on the usefulness that

people see in each other that they think they can take advantage of Therefore,

it is not expected to last very long because as soon as the practical purpose is

no longer present, the link between those friends for benefits ends

- Friendship of pleasure: The name suggests the key factor for the existence of

friendship: pleasure It depends on the amount of pleasure, informally „fun‟,that the involvers get from the relationship In other words, they enjoy eachother‟s companionship However, this friendship is still of danger zone if theparticipants no longer find the other person pleasant to be with

- Friendship of the good: also known as Friendship of Virtue This friendship is

based on the respect and admiration that the participants have for each other The compatiblevalues, goals, perspectives and visions on both people‟s lives is required to assure apowerful and long-lasting relationship That is the reason why it takes much longer time tobuild; simultaneously, it is harder to

break

Whereas friendships of utility and pleasure exist for the utility and pleasure for oneself,the friendship of virtue is for the friend

At present, the concept of „friendship‟ can vary across a different, new scale

Wikipedia, for example, provides the following levels of friendships:

- Acquaintance: not a true friend; sharing of emotional ties is absent Normally,

acquaintances are the ones we see once in a while after a long time

- Best friend (or close friend): The kind of friendship owns the strongest ties

between the participants

- Bromance: A mixed term of „brother‟ and „romance‟ is newly established to

denote the close relationship (non-sexual) between men

- Casual relationship: Two people sticking together for the purpose of sexual

or near-sexual affinity, not for the demand of sharing a formal relationship This can also

refer to a "hook-up"

- Comrade: A very common term in military service or political connotation.

- Internet relationship: A form of friendship or romance which takes place over

the Internet These friendships are also based on the thought that they may never meet in reallife, they know each other for who they are, instead of the mask they may use in real life

- Open relationship a relationship, usually between two people, that agree each

partner is free to have sexual intercourse with others outside the relationship

- Pen pal: People who have a relationship via postal correspondence They may

or may not have met each other in person and may share either love, friendship, or simply anassociation between each other

The classification of friendship was identified on the basis of a number of factors, such

as how close the involvers were and how the relationship was formed, which sharedboth similarities as well as differences between cultures

1.4.3 Friendship in the U.S culture

A study done by Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and Matthew E Brashears(American Sociological Review, 2006) suggested that American society was believed to

be witnessing a significant reduction in the quantity and quality of close friendships.Causes were varied but the three most commonly blamed were gender confusion, divorceand technological development of mass media communications

Diep, T.X (US and Vietnamese cultures in contrast through everyday conversations,

2009) pointed out some features of American people towards making friends

- Firstly, Americans respect other people‟s privacy and hope those people do thesame thing for them They hesitate to make questions that may invade others‟ personalissues Thus, it is much more difficult for American people to have close friends.Nevertheless, once they can get rid of their reluctance and

understand each other thoroughly, they will certainly become best friends and cherish their friendship.

- Secondly, Americans are often quite initiative in striking up a conversationwith strangers, which creates an intimate atmosphere They are prone to keep theconversations at savoir-vivre level with topics on traffic, weather or news on public media

- Thirdly, in spite of being open in starting a talk-in-interaction, Americans arerather critical towards the politeness For example, they will not be happy if you visit them

at home without a phone call in advance; or, you open the door without knocking

- Fourthly, despite being widely known for their sociality and friendlyappearance, American people only consider their relationships as a circle of acquaintances

1.4.4 Friendship in Vietnamese culture

Diep, T.X (2009) also asserted that Vietnamese people easily open their heart to otherpeople as soon as they can overcome their reservation and find the interlocutortrustworthy In spite of the fact that there may not many clearly-stated taboo topics forconversations, the Vietnamese people are usually careful about the choice ofconversation contents Moreover, in contrary to the U.S culture, in Vietnamese culture,

it may be easier for two Vietnamese people to become close even if they only share afew interests or characteristics in common Gradually, their friendship will benourished and gain better mutual understanding

2.1 Data collection instruments

2.1.1 Survey questionnaire

The questionnaire was designed with four real-life situations with suggested solutions.The purposes of the survey questionnaire are 1) to explore how American andVietnamese people with the different cultures react to the same situations, 2) tocompare the data collected from audio tape to enhance the reliability of the study

2.1.2 Audio taping

Audio taping of naturally occurring talks is the main instrument in the process of datacollection as the study emphasized on interactive conversations The purpose of thesetapes is to re-confirm the results obtained from the survey questionnaire

2.2 Participants

Apart from the direct informants, since the study was intended to investigate twocultures, the writer called for the help from six assistants (two in two disparate states ofthe U.S: Georgia and Indiana, and four in Hanoi) Assistants in the U.S included oneVietnamese student studying in Wesleyan College (Macon, Georgia) and the other inWabash College (Crawfordville, Indiana) Assistants in Hanoi were four studentsenrolling in two universities: National Economics University and Thang LongUniversity

2.2.1 Survey questionnaire

Copies of the survey questionnaire were delivered to 80 informants: 40 American and

40 Vietnamese college students whose age ranged from 17 to 25 All informants in theU.S were native American, and in Hanoi were native Vietnamese Americaninformants from different departments selected were joining same classes with thewriter‟s assistants Meanwhile, Vietnamese informants were students from twodifferent universities; 20 of whom also were attending same classes with each of thewriter‟s assistants

2.2.2 Audio taping

Among 80 informants, the six assistants observed and randomly recorded their naturalconversations in real-life on four mentioned situations Each assistant in the U.S was incharge of recording two situations; each assistant in Hanoi took care of one situation

2.3 The procedure of data collection and analysis

2.3.1 Survey questionnaire

In the U.S, due to the strict school regulations, in both colleges, an online version ofthe survey questionnaire was sent via a mass email to the selected informants After

getting replies from informants, assistants were to work out the numbers of answers forevery question, then sent via email to the writer.

In Hanoi, a hardcopy of the questionnaire was given to informants during their recess

by their classmates (assistants) Next, the four assistants collected the answeredquestionnaire papers and did the same work as the U.S assistants Lastly, they sent thecalculation via email to the writer

2.3.2 Audio tapes

The data were collected from mundane talk occurring in natural settings in 2012, inGeorgia and Indiana (the U.S) and in Hanoi (Vietnam) In the U.S, the assistantsdecided the situations of which they were in charge of recording corresponding real-lifeconversations Each situation was observed and recorded without the notice of theinformants In Hanoi, the assistants took care of their own recordings of assignedsituation in which the recordings were also unknown

The collected audio tapes, then, were sent to the writer to transcribe analyze However,due to the spontaneousness in occurring of the talks and time constraint, each assistantcould only tape one conversation for one situation That made, in total, two recordingsfor each case, one in English language and one in Vietnamese language

The Vietnamese corpus was from 08 native speakers of Vietnamese living andstudying two different institutions in Hanoi The corpus contained four conversations,each of which was approximately more or less than one minute The first conversationwas between a twenty-year-old girl, sharing room with the writer‟s assistant and ayoung man neighbor them on the same floor in a rented house The setting was that theman had a habit of turning up the music at midnight or later, which often woke the girls

up The assistant‟s roommate decided to approach the neighbor‟s room to „negotiate‟.The second tape was a conversation among two students, one female and one male,who were supposed to be classmates or in the same department at college The girl wasstanding in front of the school gate, coincidentally next to the assistant, waiting for theboy Unexpectedly and luckily, the conversation was recorded on that day The thirdconversation was between two quite close classmates attending the InternationalFinance class (National University of Economics) five people One of them asked theother to let him copy the homework which, for some reasons, he did not do beforegoing to class The last conversation was recorded between the writer‟s assistant andher roommate This situation was quite similar to what the assistant had to suffer in reallife; therefore, it was rather easy for her to get it in tape.

The English corpus consisted of four tapes, all of which were recorded in the U.S(including Georgia and Indiana) All informants were native speakers of English fromNorth America and studying as undergraduates The first tape contained a conversationbetween a girl, roommate of the writer‟s assistant, and the landlord The girl sought forthe intervention of the land-owner to reinforce her already-sent-out warning previously.The second tape was made with the help of the assistant‟s close friend and hisPhotography (Wabash College) classmate 4 They met each other in a small privateparty in a friend‟s house The setting of the third conversation was in the History ofArts (Wabash College) between two classmates of the assistant One of them wasspending the whole night playing computer games, without studying Therefore, in thenext morning, he begged his classmate, a relatively good student, to let him „borrow‟the homework The final conversation was rather authentic as it happened between one

of the assistant and his roommate He said that they have been sharing room for almosttwo semesters now and disputes are inevitable What they normally did was just similar

to the tape

These data were claimed to come from actual interactions between native speakers ofEnglish in natural everyday settings Generally, they were transcribed on the basis ofthe conventions used in conversation analysis This, according to Psathas (1995: 45),

was appropriate and allowable in conversation analysis, as „Data may be obtained

from any available source, the only requirement being that these should be naturally occurring, rather than produced for the purpose of study.‟ By and large, the data could

be assumed to consist of naturally occurring interactions, and were very much similar

to those happen in everyday exchanges between native speakers

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

With the aim of investigating the reaction of native American and native Vietnamesetowards different situations, the writer conducted a survey questionnaire and its resultsare presented as following

3.1 Data analysis of the survey questionnaire

The survey questionnaire was released with four questions representing four everydaylife situations, together with four options for each The analysis below will present theresults for every single question as well as the comparison between American andVietnamese students‟ answers

B Ignore the noise and find ways to get back to sleep.

C Phone and make a request that the neighbor turn down the volume; or call for the landlord‟s help; or the police.

D Others (please specify): ……….