Một điển cứu về sự ngừng nghỉ diễn ngôn trong hai bài diễn văn nhậm chức năm 2013 của tổng thống barack obama và 2011 của thủ tướng nguyễn tấn dũng

The thesis was designed as a comparative and exploratory study of the use of pause in American and Vietnamese political speeches with two major purposes: (1) to investigate the ways discourse pause used in political speeches, (2) to demonstrate the effects of pause in the politician‘s presentations, (3) to explain briefly and subjectively the reasons why there were differences in using pause in two political culture. The selected subject who is representative to the U.S was the president Barack Obama while the Vietnamese one was the prime minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng. Data for this study were collected from two videos recording the two politician‘s inaugural ceremonies. The main method applied to conduct this thesis was observation. To draw on the major similarities and differences between two politicians in using pause, the researcher observed the videos and counted the numbers of pauses and their durations. The durations were divided into three groups: short (13 seconds), medium (47 seconds), long ( >8 seconds). The collected data were analyzed in terms of the frequency of pauses, the durations of pause, and the effects of pauses. The results show that Barack Obama used pause more frequently than Nguyễn Tấn Dũng did. The amount of time he paused was also longer than that of Nguyễn Tấn Dũng. The reactions of the audiences in each case were also different. Yelling and, clapping hands were generally common reactions the audiences had each time Obama used silence while quietness and handclapping at the end of the speech were the responses of the Vietnamsese audiences. The reasons why two politicians used pauses so differently were subjectively concluded to be the atmosphere, the cultural norms: highcontext culture and lowcontext culture, and the supported technology by the reseacher.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

A CASE STUDY OF DISCOURSE PAUSE USED IN 2013 INAUGURAL SPEECH BY THE U.S PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AND IN 2011 INAUGURAL SPEECH BY THE VIETNAMESE PRIME MINISTER NGUYEN TAN DUNG (FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF CROSS-CULTURAL PRAGMATICS)

Supervisor: Ngô Hữu Hoàng, PhD

Student: Bùi Thị Hằng Nga

HÀ NỘI - 2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

MỘT ĐIỂN CỨU VỀ SỰ NGỪNG NGHỈ DIỄN NGÔN TRONG HAI BÀI DIỄN VĂN NHẬM CHỨC NĂM

2013 CỦA TỔNG THỐNG BARACK OBAMA VÀ 2011

CỦA THỦ TƯỚNG NGUYỄN TẤN DŨNG

(XÉT TỪ GÓC ĐỘ DỤNG HỌC GIAO VĂN HÓA)

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Ts Ngô Hữu Hoàng Sinh viên: Bùi Thị Hằng Nga

Khóa: QH2010.F1.E15

HÀ NỘI - 2014

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express a special thanks to all of my teachers who gave me a general background knowledge about walk of life, researching method and cross-culture, especially PhD Ngô Hữu Hoàng who is adviser, for helping and coaching me by answering all my questions concerning my topic

Second, I would also like to thanks to all of my friends who are always standing by my side no matter what happen, especially Ms Trường- ―my granddaughter in brackets‖ and Ms Lan who gave me her reliability and encouragement

Finally, I want to thank my family members who were always my supports

in the moment when there was no one to answer my queries No word can express

my deepest gratefulness to my dad and my mom who have brought me up with love and affections I also want to thank to my sister, and brother who helped me with housework and encouraged me in studying

Bùi Thị Hằng Nga

The selected subject who is representative to the U.S was the president Barack Obama while the Vietnamese one was the prime minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng Data for this study were collected from two videos recording the two politician‘s inaugural ceremonies The main method applied to conduct this thesis was observation To draw on the major similarities and differences between two politicians in using pause, the researcher observed the videos and counted the numbers of pauses and their durations The durations were divided into three groups: short (1-3 seconds), medium (4-7 seconds), long ( >8 seconds) The collected data were analyzed in terms of the frequency of pauses, the durations of pause, and the effects of pauses

The results show that Barack Obama used pause more frequently than Nguyễn Tấn Dũng did The amount of time he paused was also longer than that of Nguyễn Tấn Dũng The reactions of the audiences in each case were also different Yelling and, clapping hands were generally common reactions the audiences had each time Obama used silence while quietness and hand-clapping at the end of the speech were the responses of the Vietnamsese audiences The reasons why two politicians used pauses so differently were subjectively concluded to be the atmosphere, the cultural norms: high-context culture and low-context culture, and the supported technology by the reseacher

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES v

INTRODUCTION I Rationale for the study 1

II Aims and objectives 2

III Significance of the study 3

IV Scope of the study 3

V Organization 4

DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 Discourse 5

1.2 Non-verbal communication 7

1.2.1 Paralanguage 8

1.2.2 Pause/Silence in Discourse 10

1.2.2.1 Definition and classification 10

1.2.2.2 Pause functions 11

1.2.3 Pauses situations in monologue 13

1.3 Low context culture and high context culture 15

1.3.1 Definition and comparisons 15

1.3.2 High-context and low-context culture in relationship with pauses in discourse 20

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 22

2.1 Selection of subject 22

2.2 Research instrument 23

2.3 Procedures of data collection 23

2.4 Procedures of data analysis 24

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 26

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3.1 Frequency of pauses and its duration 26

3.2 Pause effects 30

3.3 The reasons of the difference in using pauses of two politicians 35

3.3.1 The difference in atmosphere 35

3.3.2 Cultural norm 37

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 39

I Summary of findings 39

II Limitation 40

III Suggestions for further study 40

REFERENCES 41

APPENDIX 45

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LIST OF TABLES AND IMAGES

1 List of tables

1 Frequency of pauses and its duration 27

2 Summarized effects of pause in each case 31

2 List of images

1 The reactions of audiences during the time Obama

used pause

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3 The overall view of Obama‘s ceremony 36

4 The Vietnamese parliamentary auditorium 37

5 Teleprompter- a display device that prompts the

person speaking with an electronic visual text of aspeech or script

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an explanation of important information, pausing can help your audience keep up with you and have time to absorb important details Pause exists in all social interactions in any culture; however, the way people use pauses is not the same in different language and cultures The thesis is conducted to make this clearer

Besides, the globalization brings us a chance to communicate more widely not only in such fields as economics, society and culture but also in politics Many conferences are now being held with the participants of politicians from many countries-different cultures What will happen if a politician from a country uses pause in his/ her speech? The other politicians will be surprised meaninglessly or understand that they need to make some responses to the speaker showing their emotions or their willingness of listening Moreover, the relationships between Vietnam and the western countries are enhanced There are now more official visits from the delegates of these countries to our country, particularly the United States

Moreover, the selected subjects are famous people, particularly Barack Obama- the first black president of the United States With his background, Barack Obama is considered as a multi-cultural person Furthermore, Barack

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Obama is believed as ―a gifted speaker who has something to teach all leaders in

business and politics, regardless of their political opinions‖ by the contributor

Carmine Gallo in his 2012 essay in Forbes Magazine named ― Barack Obama-A master class in public speaking‖ Carmine Gallo also commented that Obama was an expert in using voice He slowed it down, lowered or loudened it, and especially paused for impact (Gallo, 2012) After watching several speeches conducted by Barack Obama, the researcher recognized that one of the special features of his all speeches, particularly in the 2013 inaugural speech, was the use

of pause with clear purposes This, to some extents, illustrated the specific features of American culture and society Additionally, learning from the famous people like Barack Obama and Nguyễn Tấn Dũng is much easier than learning from a book

All in all, considering the benefits of using pause effectively as well as anticipating the consequences of lacking understanding of it in communication in general, and in politics in particular, the researcher wants to conduct a study about this field not only to help people, particularly students, seize the benefits of using pause in communicating and avoid the misunderstanding, but also to bring about the differences of using discourse pause in two culture and political background

II AIMS OF THE STUDY

As stated in the above part, the researcher conducts this study to illustrate the similarities and differences regarding political culture in using discourse pauses by Barack Obama in comparison with Nguyễn Tấn Dũng From this main purposes, the author has had these research questions:

- What is the way Barack Obama used discourse pause in his

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- What can cause the differences in using discourse pause of two politicians?

III SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This thesis helps the researcher gain more knowledge about not only culture but also the use of discourse in cultures The study also evokes the desire

of learning and experiencing from the researcher Since then, the researcher has

an opportunity to broaden her knowledge about cultures in the world, especially American and Vietnamese cultures which will definitely be a vital knowledge for her in the future when globalization is more and more prevalent

The recognition of similarities and differences between discourse and culture will help the researcher find out the way of communicating properly and appropriately to improve her communication skills

As to students, the thesis may provide a fresh and unique approach about culture in general, and discourse pause in particular Students will find it as an interesting way to absorb the knowledge as well as achieve the extra information which is out of the text book

Regarding the politicians, the study may bring about a new view about presentation Politicians may have a different opinion about the way to deliver a speech as well as be aware of the effects of non-verbal communication and discourse pauses

IV SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The thesis only focuses on pause which is one of the branches of paralanguage and its surrounding issues in the political culture, not on all the categories of non-verbal communication The researcher just concentrates on analyzing the two inaugural speeches of the two politicians: Barack Obama and Nguyễn Tấn Dũng as objects of the study

The researcher bases on the perspective of cross-cultural pragmatics to evaluate the similarities and differences regarding political culture in using discourse pauses by Barack Obama in comparison with Nguyễn Tấn Dũng The

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researcher also uses the theoretical background about high-context and context culture to assess the way the politicians used pauses

low-V ORGANIZATION

The study consists of three main parts:

- Introduction, which provides the rationale, scope, aims, and

methods of the study

- Development, which covers three chapters:

 Chapter 1: Theoretical Background This chapter provides the

knowledge about non-verbal communication, paralanguage, discourse, pause, high-context and low-context culture

 Chapter 2: Methodology In this chapter, the researcher presents

the definition of the methods used to conduct the thesis The steps to collect the data and analyze the data are described clearly in this chapter

 Chapter 3: The study The differences in using pauses between

two politicians, pauses effects and the reasons for the differences are clarified in this chapter

 Chapter 4: Conclusion In this chapter, the researcher summarizes

the findings, points out the limitations of the thesis, and gives the suggestions for further research offered

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DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Discourse

Up to now, discourse remained to be the subject of heated debates Discourse is considered as a key notion in a lot of current works in the social science and its meaning varies according to the particular theorists For example,

in the book called ― A dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics‖, Crystal argued that discourse is often used to refer to a stretch of language- spoken and written-

in context ( Crystal, 1997) Besides, among many social theorists, notably structuralist social philosophers, Foucault believed that discourse is involved in socially and historically situated domains of knowledge or ways of interpreting the world ( Foucault, 1980) However, there are two main notions of discourse which are popularly used to talk about language in context

post Discourse is defined as “language in its social context, as it is used

to carry out the social and intellectual life of a community” (Mercer, 1995, p

79) This meaning of discourse emphasizes the importance of looking at language in context and usually involves an analysis of actual stretches of spoken and written language, often referred to as ‗texts‘

- Discourse is regarded as “different ways of structuring areas of

knowledge and social practice” (Fairclough, 1992) It is not used to refer to

particular texts, but rather to explain how certain ideas and values are embodied

in the communications of a community or society Discourse in this sense cannot

be observed or recorded but is rather a theory of social reality It is commonly used in analyses of political influence and social power

Discourse includes both verbal communication and non-verbal communication In this thesis, the researcher concentrates on discourse pause which is a minor branch of paralanguage in non-verbal communication Besides, discourse is discovered to have five main elements which are illustrated below:

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- Purpose: the foundation of the discourse What is the aim of a piece of writing or a stretch of language? For example they use it to explain, to narrate, to inform, to persuade, to entertain

- Speaker: who will be the person who tells the story or says the stretch of language?

- Audience: who will be the person who receive the information or the story?

- Form: how is the information delivered?

- Content: what is the actual information be told?

To make a successful conversation, people should consider all of these elements of discourse

Additionally, intonation is also considered as one of the elements of discourse The term intonation refers to a mean of conveying information in speech which is independent of the words and their sounds Central to intonation

is the modulation of pitch, and intonation is often thought of as the use of pitch over the domain of the utterance However, the patterning of pitch in speech is so closely bound to patterns of timing and loudness, and sometimes voice quality, that we cannot consider pitch in isolation from these other dimensions The interaction of intonation and stress - the patterns of relative prominence which characterize an utterance - is particularly close in many languages, including English For those who prefer to reserve ‗intonation‘ for pitch effects in speech, the word ‗prosody‘ is convenient as a more general term to include patterns of pitch, timing, loudness, and (sometimes) voice quality (Nolan, 2006)

Intonation is used to carry a variety of different kinds of information It signals grammatical structure, though not in a one-to-one way; whilst the end of

a complete intonation pattern will normally coincide with the end of a grammatical structure such as a sentence or clause, even quite major grammatical boundaries may lack intonation marking, particularly if the speech is fast Intonation can reflect the information structure of an utterance, highlighting constituents of importance Intonation can particularly indicate discourse

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function; for instance most people are aware that saying ― this is John‘s bag‖ with one kind of intonation as a statement, but with another as a question Intonation can be used by a speaker to convey an attitude such as friendliness, enthusiasm, or hostility; and listeners can use intonation-related phenomena in the voice to make inferences about a speaker‘s state, including excitement, depression, and tiredness (Nolan, 2006) For example, when someone is asked ― how is this dress?‖ and he/ she answer: ―L-O-V-E-L-Y‖ with a longer sound which means he/ she doesn‘t like this dress

1.2 Non-verbal communication

Communication is perceived as the transfer of information, ideas and emotions from one person to another People spend about 75% of walking hours sharing the knowledge, thought, and ideas to others However, it seems that most

of us fail to realize that a great deal of our communication is of a non-verbal form

The fact remains that there has been a substantial soar in research and interest in the phenomena of nonverbal communication during the decade In its narrow and accurate sense, nonverbal behavior refers to actions as distinct from speech Nonverbal elements consist of facial expression, paralanguage, hand and arm gestures, postures, positions, and various movements of the body or the legs and feet It may also include the way we wear our clothes or the silence we keep

Albert Mehrabian (1972) once states in his book, namely Nonverbal communication, that nonverbal communication is the act of imparting or interchanging thoughts, opinions, or information without the use of spoken words Non-verbal communication is used as a key variable to determine people‘s attitudes, values, and beliefs For example, an observer watching a focus group will pay special attention to the nonverbal cues of group interaction, such

as body language, facial expressions, and eyes contact, to identify group member‘s true feelings about an issue.( Mehranbian, 1972)

According to The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (2005), nonverbal communication is defined as communication without the use of spoken language

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In addition, Wikipedia‘s editors indicate that nonverbal communication is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages Nonverbal communication can be illustrated through gestures and touch, by body language or posture, by facial expressions and eyes contact In addition, it can be communicate through object communication such

as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture, symbols and inforgraphics Speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, emotion and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and stress ( Wikipedia, 2012)

Nguyen Quang (2008) also defines nonverbal communication as all the constituents of communication which are not verbally coded, but vocally and/or non-vocally channeled It includes paralanguage (nonverbal- vocal) such as: speed, volume, vocal flow, and extra- language such as gestures, postures, facial expressions, object language such as clothes, jewelry, and environmental language as conversational distance, setting

The proverb ― Actions speak louder than words‖ underscores the importance of nonverbal communication Nonverbal communication is especially significant in cross- cultural situation; however people in different culture adopt different nonverbal behaviors The lack of knowledge about nonverbal communication can cause misunderstandings or culture shock It seems that nonverbal communication differences account for typical difficulties in communication

or hesitations and speed in talking Some examples of paralanguage are laughing, crying, whispering, snoring, sucking, sneezing, sighing, etc Tone of voice plays

a fundamental role in telephone interactions (Wikipedia)

Stephen P Robbins (1998) states in their book, called Organization

Behavior: Concepts, Controversies, Applications, that paralanguage is

communication that goes beyond the specific spoken words It includes pitch, amplitude, rate, and voice quality of speech Paralanguage reminds us that people convey their feelings not only in what they, but also in how they say it (Robbins, 1998)

It can come to conclude that the paralinguistic properties of speech play an important role in human speech communication According to Wikipedia, there are no utterances or speech signals that lack paralinguistic properties, since speech requires the presence of a voice that can be modulated This voice must have some properties, and all the properties of a voice as such are paralinguistic However, the distinction between linguistics and paralinguistic applies not only

to speech but to writing and sign language as well, and it is not bound to any sensory modality Even vocal language has some paralinguistic as well as linguistic properties that can be seen and even felt.( Wikipedia)

In text-only communication such as email, chatting rooms and instant messaging, paralinguistic elements can be displayed by emoticons, font and color choices, capitalization and the use of non-alphabetic or abstract characters

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Nonetheless, paralanguage in written communication is limited in comparison with face-to-face conversation, even sometimes leading to misunderstandings

1.2.2 Pause/ Silence

1.2.2.1 Definition and classification

According to Clark (1996), pauses are powerful cues or what is happening

in a conversation To use them as a basic for analyzing culture-specific behavior,

we first have to check carefully what purposes pauses may serve in conversations and how the usage differs across cultures As we want to build a computational model for American English and Vietnamese, those two cultures are of special

interest

According to a study about ―Pausing strategies in discourse in Dutch‖

conducted by Monique E van Donzel and Florien J Koopmans-van Beinum, there are basically three different kinds of pausing used by the speakers, which are operationalized in the following way

- ―Silent pauses:- breathing pauses included, characterised by a total

absence of speech A pause was labeled as a silent pause if its duration was at least 150 msec This minimal length was to insure that closure times of stop consonants were not included In case the closure time occasionally did exceed 150 msec, it was obviously not marked as a silent pause

- Filled pauses A hesitation sound (`eeh') was labeled as a filled

pause These elements in the discourse do not have any lexical meaning, but they can indicate that the speaker needs time to plan the continuation of his/her telling, that he/she wants to avoid a silence, or that he/she wants to `hold the floor' Silences preceding and/or following the hesitation sound were marked as 'silence to a filled pause' (thus not as a silent pause), even if they were shorter than 150 msec

- Lengthening A speaker can use lengthening as a planning tool by

sustaining a particular vowel or consonant within certain words As

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a first step the words containing lengthening were determined by ear by the first author, and in a later stage checked by the second author Two kinds of lengthening were observed: a schwa added after the last consonant of the word, and the lengthening of a word- internal vowel or a consonant.”(Donzel & Beinum, 1999)

However, in this thesis, the researcher only concentrates on silent pauses which are mostly used by the two politicians in their speeches

1.2.2.2 Pause functions

In the book of Conversational organization- Interaction between speakers

and hearers, Charles Goodwin (1981) describes his research on gaze behavior

and manipulation According to Goodwin, gaze is used to manage turn talking and to signal understanding or attentiveness If attention signals of the hearer are missing, pause are used by the speaker to regain attention In this case the duration of the pause is dependent from the nonverbal signal of the hearer Pause/

Silence in speech can be used for the following purposes:

at major constituent boundaries, and sematic decision-making The matter of content and the function of pauses for the speaker are examined Until that point, the speaker is simply a language generator which pauses either in the course of normal decision-making operations or because of disruptions in those operations However, the speaker can be seen as a participant in the social act of speech He

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also claimed that ―Pause and other phenomena of spontaneous speech should be

functionally related to changes in the interpersonal situation and/ or to changes

in the responsiveness of the speaker, given a constant interpersonal situation‖

(Rochester, 1973)

In addition, according to Rochester, the functional significance of pauses

is considered in terms of cognitive affective-state, and social interaction variables Two sorts of social interaction variables are found to influence pauses

According to the book ―Politeness: Some universals in language use”

written by Brown and Levinson (1987), politeness strategies are constituted as an aspect of social interaction The authors describe some parallelisms in the linguistic construction of utterances with which people express themselves in different languages and cultures One motive of these parallels is isolated- politeness They claim the existence of conversational structure sequences and with it the intentional usage of pauses for politeness purposes A careful located pause can on the one hand mean acceptance and on the other hand refusal Moreover, the other common usage of pauses in conversations is to initiate turn- taking behavior It is one of the basic mechanisms in all types of dialogues and that is also a crucial mechanism in human system interaction Brown and Levinson also give an example about pause showing acceptance

A: Do you sing?

W: (silence)

A: Hooray! Give us a song

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In contrast, pause in this case can also be understood as a polite refusal if the conversers are not observant Or in a situation, where A asks B for a favor and B falls into silence, pause is considered as a polite refusal Therefore, pause can be used as a polite refusal or acceptance However, the interpretation of the pause remains a challenge to the speakers/ listeners Sometimes, pauses can cause the misunderstanding between the listeners and the speakers

1.2.3 Pauses situations in monologue

There are a lot of cases that people can use pause to make their speeches successful For example, in the speech ― I have a dream‖ in 1963, Martin Luther King Junior used pauses effectively and made it as one of his most famous speeches Let‘s look at the way he used pauses which were analyzed by Susan Dugdale in her essay ― Quick and Easy Tips for Using Pauses‖ in the magazine Write out loud

“This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning,”

(Pause for breath and for emphasis He was starting to quote something important Give the audience time to anticipate the new meaning.)

"My country,”

(Pause, brief-just enough to underline the importance of 'my country')

“tis of thee,”

(Pause, brief- just enough to underline 'thee')

“sweet land of liberty,”

(Pause- brief to underline 'liberty')

“of thee I sing.”

(Pause for breath and to give the audience time to take in the whole meaning of the previous phrases.)

“Land where my fathers died,”

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(Pause- brief to underline message of the phrase)

“land of the pilgrim's pride,”

(Pause-brief to underline message of the phrase)

“from every mountainside,”

(Pause-brief to underline the message of the phrase)

“let freedom ring."

(Pause to allow himself breath and the audience to take in the full impact of the previous phrases.) (Dugdale, ?)

To be more specific, in his essay namely ―Speech Pauses: 12 Techniques

to Speak Volumes with Your Silence”, Andrew Dulgan (2012)- the editor and

founder of Six Minutes, illustrated that pauses can be used in some below cases:

- The clause pause (the comma pause) is the use of short pauses in the speech whenever a comma would be used in written language to separate two clauses or items of a list clearly

For example: ―Wanting to impress my wife on our anniversary […] I prepared eggs, […] bacon, […] and pancakes for breakfast.‖

- The sentence pause is the use of medium pause whenever a period (

or question mark, or exclamation mark) would be used in written language to separate two sentence

For example: ―We were married ten years ago […] I still remember my first look at her coming up the aisle

- The paragraph pause is the use of longer pause in the speech whenever the speaker is transitioning from one idea to the another, in the same way as paragraphs are used in written language

- The emphasis pause is the pause used immediately before or after the key word or phrases The preceding pause signals ―listen up‖, while the succeeding pause tell the audience to ― put that in their memory‖

For example: ―Olivia Mitchell offers a cure […] called chunking […] to eliminate ahs and ums‖

- Dramatic pause is a part rhetorical and part theatrical pause used whenever the speaker wants to generate some drama or suspense

- Punch line pause is the pause used before or after punch lines in jokes The pause used before the punch line can create the heightened anticipation and signal a payoff, while that used after the punch line allow the audience to release their laughter

(Dulgan, 2012)

1.3 Low context culture and high context culture

1.3.1 Definitions and comparisons

High-context culture and its contrasting low-context culture are these term

which are defined by Hall in his book ― Beyond Culture‖ (1976) He states that

high-context transactions feature pre-programmed information that is in the receiver and in the setting, with only minimal information in the transmitted message In contrast, low-context transactions are the reverse Most the information must be in the transmitted message in order to make up for what is missing in the context

According to Wikipedia, high-context culture refers to a culture‘s tendency to use high-context messages over low-context message in routine communication This choice of communication styles translates into a culture that will cater towards in- group being a group that has similar experiences and expectations, from which inferences are drawn (Wikipedia)

In a high-context, many things are left unsaid, letting the culture explain Words and word choice become very important in higher context communication, since a few words can communicate a complex message very effectively to an in- group (but less effectively outside that group), while in a lower context culture, the communicator needs to be much more explicit and the

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value of a single word is less important Meanwhile, Low-context culture refers

to a culture‘s tendency to cater towards in- groups Low-context cultures, such as Germany or the United State makes much less extensive use of much similar experiences and expectations to communicate Much more is explained through words or verbalization, instead of the context (Hall, 1976)

Vietnam and most Asian countries are classified as high-context cultures The United States and Canada, along with Northern European countries, are classified as low-context culture (Hall, 1976) This is obviously an oversimplification Within a low-context culture, we will find ourselves in high-context situations and vice versa For example, within a low-context American culture, communications among family members are generally high-context because of the high level of shared experience For our purposes, though, we will rely on the broad-brush definition

While these terms are sometimes useful in describing some aspects of a culture, one can never say a culture is "high" or "low" because societies all contain both modes "High" and "low" are therefore less relevant as a description

of a whole people, and more useful to describe and understand particular situations and environments (Hall, 1976)

According to the Anthropologist Edward T Hall‘s theory, high-context cultures (including much of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and South America)are relational, collectivist, intuitive, and contemplative This means that people in these cultures emphasize interpersonal relationships Developing trust

is an important first step to any business transaction According to Hall (1976), these cultures are collectivist, preferring group harmony and consensus to individual achievement And people in these cultures are less governed by reason than by intuition or feelings Words are not so important as context, which might include the speaker‘s tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, posture—and even the person‘s family history and status A Japanese manager explained his culture‘s communication style to an American: ―We are a homogeneous people and don‘t have to speak as much as you do here When we say one word, we understand ten, but here you have to say ten to understand one.‖ High-context

All things considered, in his books named ―The Silent

Language (1959), The Hidden Dimension (1969), Beyond Culture (1976),

and The Dance of Life(1983), Hall also made a comparison between low-context

and high context cultures which can be seen from the below table:

Table 2: High-context and low-context culture in comparison

Association

 Relationships depend on trust,

build up slowly, are stable One

distinguishes between people inside and

people outside one's circle

 How things get done depends on

Association

 Relationships begin and end quickly Many people can be inside one's circle; circle's boundary

is not clear

 Things get done by following

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relationships with people and attention

to group process

 One's identity is rooted in

groups (family, culture, work)

 Social structure and authority

are centralized; responsibility is at

the top Person at top works for the

good of the group

procedures and paying attention to the goal

 One's identity is rooted in oneself and one's accomplishments

 Social structure is decentralized; responsibility goes further down (is not concentrated at the top)

Interaction

 High use of nonverbal

elements; voice tone, facial expression,

gestures, and eye movement carry

significant parts of conversation

 Verbal message is implicit;

context (situation, people, nonverbal

elements) is more important than

words

 Verbal message is indirect; one

talks around the point and embellishes

One is sensitive to conflict expressed

in another's nonverbal communication

Conflict either must be solved before

Interaction

 Low use of nonverbal elements Message is carried more

by words than by nonverbal means

 Verbal message is explicit Context is less important than words

 Verbal message is direct; one spells things out exactly

 Communication is seen as a way of exchanging information, ideas, and opinions

 Disagreement is depersonalized One withdraws from conflict with another and gets on with the task Focus is on rational solutions, not personal ones One can

be explicit about another's bothersome behavior

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work can progress or must be avoided

because it is personally threatening

Territoriality

 Space is communal; people

stand close to each other, share the

same space

Territoriality

 Space is compartmentalized and privately owned; privacy

is important, so people are farther apart

Temporality

 Everything has its own time

Time is not easily scheduled; needs of

people may interfere with keeping to a

set time What is important is

that activity gets done

 Change is slow Things are

rooted in the past, slow to change, and

stable

 Time is a process; it belongs to

others and to nature

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Learning

 Knowledge is embedded in

the situation; things are

connected, synthesized, and global

Multiple sources of information are

used Thinking is deductive, proceeds

from general to specific

 Learning occurs by first

observing others as they model or

demonstrate and then practicing

 Groups are preferred for

learning and problem solving

 Accuracy is valued How well

something is learned is important

Learning

 Reality is fragmented and compartmentalized One source

of information is used to develop knowledge Thinking is inductive, proceeds from specific to general Focus is on detail

 Learning occurs by following explicit directions and explanations

of others

 An individual orientation is preferred for learning and problem solving

 Speed is valued How efficiently something is learned is important

(Hall, 1959, 1966, 1976, 1983)

1.3.2 High-context and low-context culture in relationship with pauses in discourse

In the book called ―High- versus low-context culture: A comparison of

Chinese, Korean and American cultures‖, Kim (1998) stated that ―in context culture, communication style is influenced by the closeness of human relationships, well-structured social hierarchy, and strong behavior norms‖

high-(Kim, 1998, 512) The internal meaning is usually embedded deep in the information, so not everything is explicitly stated in writing or when spoken Thus, it is expected that the listener can read ―between the lines‖, to understand the unsaid, thanks to his or her background knowledge

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Hall (1976,91) also emphasized that “ a high-context communication or

message is one in which most of the information is either in the physical context

or internalized in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, or transmitted part of the message” Therefore, in high-context culture, people tend

to speak one after another in a linear way, so the speaker is seldom interrupted The interlocutors tend to have indirect and digressive communication, use few words, rely on contextual cues, avoid the use of personal names, respect for long pauses, and wait politely until the other person has stopped speaking before taking turns Gudykunst and Ting-Toomey (1988) illustrated that

―communication which is indirect, ambiguous, harmonious, reserved and

understated” The greater confidence is placed in the non-verbal aspects of

communication than the verbal aspects (Hall, 1976) It can be said that in the high-context culture, people use spoken words and non-verbal cues to comprehend what is being communicated To fully understand the conversation

or speech, the listener need to listen and observe concurrently to add the nonverbal nuances

In the low-context culture, meanings are stated through language, so people when communicating usually expect explanations when something remain unclear According to Hall (1976), most information is expected to be in the transmitted message in order to make up for what is missing in the context (both internal and external) The communication in low-context culture is also characterized by direct and linear communication, by the constant and sometimes never-ending use of words, so it is direct, precise, dramatic, open, and based on feelings or true intentions (Gudykunst & Ting-Toomey, 1988) People tend to prefer written communication as they do not need to include the subtleness of non-verbal communication The communicators focus more on the literal meanings of actual words used rather than relying on non-verbal cues to fully interpret meaning

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CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 2.1 Selection of subject

The study objectives at discourse pause used in 2013 inaugural speech by the U.S president Barack Obama and in 2010 inaugural speech by the Vietnamese prime minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng from a perspective of cross-cultural pragmatics which should be investigated following the case study design

In addition, the selected subjects are two videos recording Barack Obama‘s 2013 inaugural ceremony and Nguyễn Tấn Dũng‘s 2011 inaugural ceremony

A case study is a method of learning about a complex instance, based on a comprehensive understanding of that instance obtained through extensive description and analysis of that instance taken as a whole and in its context Or in the other words, it is an analysis of a group or person in order to make generalisations about a larger group or society as a whole Additionally, case study is used typically to answer these questions of how, how many, how much,

or why It is usually used for contemporary phenomenon in a real-life context when the researcher has a little or no possibility to control the events In spite of the fact that carrying out this study, the researcher doesn‘t have any chance to keep in touch with the informants during a long time, she need to spend lots of time to observe the informants through the video Besides, the research questions

of the study are mainly the questions of how, how many and what

Reckoning the features of the study which are suitable to adopt the case study design, the researcher decides to use case study as her main research design There are three main types of case study which are descriptive, explanatory, and combined Like their names, descriptive case study is used to describe an intervention and the context in which it occurred; explanatory case study aims at explaining causal links in interventions, linking program implementation with program effects; and combined is a case study that brings together findings from several case studies to answer an evaluation question To achieve the study‘s aim, the researcher has to focus on describe the way Obama

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and Nguyễn Tấn Dũng using pause in their speeches Therefore, the study should

be implemented following the theory of the descriptive case study

Although the two politicians have had several speeches in public, the researcher decided to choose the 2013 and 2011 inaugural speeches Because the

2013 speech is the most updated speech which not only plays an important role

in Obama‘s political life, but makes him more famous as well To be parallel, as

to Vietnamese case, the 2011 speech which Nguyễn Tấn Dũng had for his second term of office is chosen

2.2 Research instruments

The data will be collected through observation The researcher watches the videos recording two inaugural ceremonies of two politicians, then calculate the number of times pause used in each case as well as analyze the effects of using pause The type of the observation should be the observation of the documents and/ or the artifacts

Besides, The related documents are going to be collected through books, articles and the Internet considering the dangerous level of the information on the Internet, the researcher should collect the data from the websites having the domains such as gov, org, edu, and so on Besides, the key words to search will

be ― Language, communication, culture, nonverbal communication, paralanguage, pauses and its functions‖, and so on The video of the Inauguration Day of Barack Obama and Nguyễn Tấn Dũng was, in turns, downloaded from these website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Qiqctkd9Y and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYVDWlM_q2c

2.3 Procedures of data collection

Firstly, the researcher watches the two videos to have a general view about the inaugural ceremony Meanwhile, surfing the Internet to find out the information about this ceremony to answer these question: what do the presidents have to do? Do they need to prepare the inaugural speech by themselves ? if not, who helps them do that?