LờI an ủI giữa sinh viên trong tiếng việt và tiếng anh mỹ dướI góc độ giao tiếp đa văn hóa

LờI an ủI giữa sinh viên trong tiếng việt và tiếng anh mỹ dướI góc độ giao tiếp đa văn hóa LờI an ủI giữa sinh viên trong tiếng việt và tiếng anh mỹ dướI góc độ giao tiếp đa văn hóa LờI an ủI giữa sinh viên trong tiếng việt và tiếng anh mỹ dướI góc độ giao tiếp đa văn hóa luận văn tốt nghiệp,luận văn thạc sĩ, luận văn cao học, luận văn đại học, luận án tiến sĩ, đồ án tốt nghiệp luận văn tốt nghiệp,luận văn thạc sĩ, luận văn cao học, luận văn đại học, luận án tiến sĩ, đồ án tốt nghiệp

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FALCULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH - -

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

LỜI AN ỦI GIỮA SINH VIÊN TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT VÀ TIẾNG ANH MỸ- DƯỚI GÓC ĐỘ GIAO TIẾP ĐA VĂN HÓA

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.s Đỗ Thị Mai Thanh Sinh viên: Đoàn Ngọc Anh

Khóa: QH2008.F1.E5

Hà Nội, 5/2012

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Doan Ngoc Anh in group 08.1.E5, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelors Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

DOAN NGOC ANH

2 nd May 2012

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, M.A Do Thi Mai Thanh, for her useful guidance, insightful comments, and considerable encouragements to complete this thesis

I wish to express my special thanks to all my lecturers in Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their precious assistance, scholarly knowledge and enthusiasm

Great deals appreciated go to the contribution of all my friends for their assistances in my data collection

I would also want to send my appreciation to all the research participants Without their valuable opinions and ideas on the questionnaires, the research would not have been accomplished

Last but not least, I would like to express my indebtedness to my parents, my cousins and my best friends who have given me constant support and love during the completion of the thesis

Doan Ngoc Anh

Topics and strategies realized for comforting are analyzed with data taken from two questionnaires for the Vietnamese and the English students The first type of questionnaire is Metapragmatic one which was used to explore the appropriate situations’ topics for comforting in two subjects’ cultures and to test the validity and reliability of the situations’ topics The second questionnaire based

on discourse completion task which was used to elicit some forms of comforting from native students of American English and Vietnamese The results of the DCT were collected from 15 AES and 22 VNS and their responses were classified into eight comforting strategies with the type of quantitative analysis

The results gave out significant differences as well as similarities in the use

of topics and strategies between AES and VNS across two situations Besides, the socio-cultural factors of relationship and gender did have more or less influence on the preference of topics and strategies for comforting peers in which the influence

of the relationship is greater than the effect of gender Therefore, being aware of pragmatic competence is of great importance in cross-cultural communication

TABLE OF CONTENTS

* Acknowledgements ……… i

* Abstract ……… ii

* Table of contents……… iii

* List of abbreviations ……… v

* List of tables ……… vi

* List of figures and illustrations……… vii

PART I: INTRODUCTION……….……… 1

1 Rationale ……… 1

2 Aims of the study ……… ……….… 2

3 Significance of the study……….……… … 2

4 Scope of the study ……… 3

5 Structure of the study ……… 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT……… ………….…… 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW……… ……… 5

1.1 Speech acts……….……… 5

1.2 Comforting ……….………… ……… 6

1.2.1 Definition of comforting ……… 6

1.2.2 Comforting as a speech act ……… 6

1.2.3 Socio-cultural factors affecting comforting ……… 8

1.3 Comforting and discourse strategy ………… ……… 9

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ……… 14

2.1 Research questions……… 14

2.2 Data collection instrument ……… 14

2.3 Content of the questionnaires ……… 15

2.4 Selection of subjects……… 16

2.5 Data collection procedure……… 16

2.6 Data analysis……… 17

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION……….………… 18

3.1 Overall advisable topics and use of strategies for comforting…… … 18

3.1.1 Overall advisable topics for comforting……… 18

3.1.2 Overall use of strategies for comforting……… 19

3.2 Use of comforting topics and strategies- as seen from socio-cultural factors ……… 21

3.2.1 Relationship……… … 21

3.2.1.1 Advisable topics for comforting by relationship……… 21

3.2.1.2 Choice of comforting strategies by relationship in situation 1 22

3.2.1.3 Choice of comforting strategies by relationship in situation 2… 26

3.2.2 Gender ……… 31

3.2.2.1 Advisable topics for comforting by gender ……… 31

3.2.2.2 Choice of strategies by gender in situation 1 ……… 32

3.2.2.3 Choice of strategies by gender in situation 1 ……….… 35

3.3 Discussion ……….…… 38

3.3.1 Overall use of comforting topics and strategies ……….…… 38

3.3.2 Factor of relationship ……….…… 38

3.3.3 Factor of gender ……….……… 39

PART III: CONCLUSION ……….…… 41

1 Summary of the findings ……… 41

2 Implication for CCC ……… 41

3 Recommendation for further study ……… 43

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AES: American English students

CCC: Cross cultural-communication

DCT: Discourse completion task

FEA: Face enhancing act

H: Hearer

MPQ: Metapragmatic questionnaire

S: Speaker

VNS: Vietnamese students

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Frequency of preferred comforting topics for AES and VNS ……… 18 Table 3.2 Frequency of preferred strategies for AES and VNS ……… 20 Table 3.3 Frequency of advisable topics for comforting by relationship ………21 Table 3.4 Frequency of strategies by relationship in the love split-up situation……….22 Table 3.5 Frequency of preferred strategies by relationship in the death-of-loved-one situation………27 Table 3.6 Frequency of advisable topics for comforting by gender……… 31 Table 3.7 Frequency of preferred strategies by gender in love-split-up situation……….32 Table 3.8 Frequency of strategies by gender in death-of-loved-one situation….35

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 Frequency of preferred comforting topics for AES and VNS………19 Figure 3.2 Frequency of overall strategies for AES and VNS……….20 Figure 3.3 Frequency of strategies for close friends in the love split-up situation……….23 Figure 3.4 Frequency of strategies for acquaintances in the love split-up situation……… 24 Figure 3.5 Frequency of strategies by nodding acquaintance in the love-split up situation……… 25 Figure 3.6 Frequency of strategies by close friends in the death-of-loved-one situation……… 28 Figure 3.7 Frequency of strategies by acquaintances in the death-of-loved-one situation……… 29 Figure 3.8 Frequency of strategies by nodding acquaintances in death-of-loved-one situation……… 30 Figure 3.9 Frequency of strategies by same sex in the love split-up situation… 33 Figure 3.10 Frequency of strategies by opposite sex in the love split-up situation……….34 Figure 3.11 Frequency of strategies by same sex in the death-of-loved-one situation……… 36 Figure 3.12 Frequency of strategies by opposite sex in the death-of-loved-one situation……… 37

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE

It goes without saying that language plays an important role in communication among human beings; it is not only used to communicate but also to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties Likewise, culture also has a significant influence on

the ways in which language is used pragmatically As the soil, however rich it may be,

cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit – Seneca In another word, using language without the cultural

knowledge leads to produce the ineffective messages however rich the language people have

With this significance of language usage within certain cultures, one can see that learning a new language involves the learning of a new culture (Allwright & Bailey 1991) However, teachers and learners of English in Vietnam still focus on the development of linguistic competence – lexis, grammatical rules, vocabulary, and pronunciation with little attention to oral skills and even less to cultural aspect As a result, even possibly producing grammatically well-formed utterances, learners may experience unwanted culture shock, and communication breakdown when running into

a real and particular context of situation Besides, with the development of society as well as the process of globalization nowadays, the need for communicating with the native speakers is increasing dramatically Therefore, teaching and learning pragmatic and cultural competence as well as the differences and similarities between the two cultures is really important for learners to use the target language appropriately and avoid misunderstandings, offenses and communicative breakdowns

In terms of aspects of language, speech acts are considered the most closely related to culture, which attracted a considerable number of researchers; and various cross cultural studies of speech acts such as thanking, requesting, complementing, etc were carried out However, little attention has been paid to the speech act of

comforting though it is used frequently in daily life Actually, people find it hard to see someone they care about go through pain or difficulty Many people would like to help the person feel better and provide comfort but do not know what to say or worry they may say and do the wrong thing and even make matters worse In such sensitive situations, even the brightest persons seem to be at a loss for words Therefore, a study

on the similarities and differences in comforting in American English and Vietnamese cultures through verbal cues is believed to be of great importance and significance

For all reasons stated, a close look at the speech act of comforting in communication among students would be taken This will be conducted with the title:

“COMFORTING AMONG STUDENTS IN AMERICAN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE- AS SEEN FROM INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION”

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The study aims is:

(i) To explore advisable topics for comforting among American and Vietnamese

students in American English and Vietnamese culture

(ii) To examine comforting discourse strategies employed by Vietnamese and

American students under the influence of relationship

(iii) To examine comforting discourse strategies employed by Vietnamese and

American students under the influence of gender

3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

As the reasons stated in the previous part, teaching and learning English as a foreign or second language requires the pragmatic and cultural competence to achieve the communicative approach Therefore, the comparative study on the speech act of comforting is really necessary to improve teaching and learning methods in Vietnam

Moreover, with the increasing demand for interacting and communicating with native American especially among students, being aware of the differences as well as the similarities between two cultures will help learners and speakers especially

students in a new environment to use the target language appropriately and avoid misunderstandings, offenses and communicative breakdowns

It is hoped that the investigation into the ways of comforting among Vietnamese and American students will contribute to the success in the real-life communication

4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study focuses on verbal communication; paralinguistic and non- verbal factors are not discussed here

The data are collected by conducting survey questionnaires by the author herself Besides, the data analysis is mainly taken into account of strategies based on what is collected from two situations of case study in which the act of comforting occurs among three kinds of students relations: close friend, classmate, and schoolmate relations

In addition, it must be noted that different groups of age of the interlocutors may affect the speaker’s speech patterns However, the informants in this study are Vietnamese and American students at the age from 18-25 to keep the number of DCT items to a minimum The number of items would have doubled if the range of age is widened, which would have put a greater strain on the subjects to complete DCT

Finally, because of the limitations of time and materials, this study is unable to discuss the ways the addresses respond when they are comforted

In the view of these limitations, the study can only be regarded as a preliminary study and any conclusions are tentative

5 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY

As for the design of the study, it is composed of three main parts:

Part I - Introduction - introduces the rationale, aims, significance, and scope of the

study

Part II - Development - consists of three chapters They are:

- Chapter 1 (Literature review) introduces the key theoretical concepts that

the study based on: Speech acts, comforting, and discourse strategies

- Charter 2 (Methodology) mentions the research questions, data collection instruments, selection of subjects, data collection procedures and data

analysis

- Chapter 3 (Findings and discussions) presents the results of the study in terms of advisable topics and the use of comforting strategies in order to

answer the research questions

Part III – Conclusion – summarizes the most important findings of the study,

recommend for CCC as well as proposes some suggestions for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the theories and literature relevant to the topic under investigations in the present study The first section mentions speech acts, the second section reveals comforting, comforting as a speech act and factors affecting comforting The final section offers the discourse strategies

1.1 SPEECH ACTS

The notion of speech acts dates back the British philosopher of language John

Austin (1962) In his very influential work, ‘How to do things with words’, Austin

defines speech acts as the actions performed in saying something or actions performed using language In fact, when speaking, we perform certain linguistic actions such as giving reports, making statements, asking questions, giving warnings, making promises, comforting and so on In other words, speech acts are all the acts we perform through speaking – all the things we do when we speak

Austin (1962) distinguished the theory of speech acts between three kinds of

acts, namely locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary then Of these, a

locutionary act is the act of saying something in the full sense of “say” An illocutionary act is the one of using the sentence to perform a particular function; and

a perlocutionary act is the one of producing some kinds of effects that is produced by

means of saying something Among above three kinds of acts, the illocutionary act

which Austin later termed “speech act” is the core interest of Austin as well as of other

pragmatists (Levinson, 1983)

In addition, Yule (1997) believed that actions performed via utterances are generally called speech acts and, in English, are commonly given more specific labels such as requesting, apologizing, offering, etc The circumstances in which actions are performed to communicate are generally speech events- activities in which participants use language to interact in some conventional way to reach some outcome

According to Searle (1969), language is a part of action theory, and speech act are those verbal acts such as promising, threatening and requesting that are performed

in speaking Indeed, American usually says “How are you doing” and Vietnamese say

“where are you going?” to perform an act of greeting; or “It’s hot here” can be used to

perform acts of statement or request and so forth It is also argued that speech acts are culture-specific and the manner of performing them is governed by social norms which differ from one community to another

Although many theorists have studied the speech act theory, generally all of them share the common idea that speech act are the actions that are involved when one says something

1.2 COMFORTING

1.2.1 Definition of comforting

Comforting can be broadly defined as an act of making somebody who is worried or unhappy feel better by being kind and sympathetic towards them (see The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary vs comfort and comforting) Sharing the same

ideas, Longman dictionary also defines that ‘comforting is to make someone feel less

worried, unhappy, or upset, for example by saying kind things to them or touching them’ It can also be defined in another way such as comforting is to give moral or

strength to, to soothe someone in time of affliction or distress, to lessen pain or to ease

or relieve them physically and mentally (see The Free dictionary, Thesaurus by Farlex)

1.2.2 Comforting as a speech act

In terms of speech act theory, the speech act of comforting can be classified as the kind of directive as the speaker wants the hearer to calm down, to feel better or to overcome the pain

E.g A person comforting someone after a break up may say ‘Forget him and

find another one!’

In addition, comforting can also be seen as a Commissives in the sense that S offers spending time with the H or promises to help the H out, solving the problem or

just entertaining the H In short, the S wants to commit himself to taking an action to help the H out of the current situation

E.g ‘I’m here to listen to you’

Besides, in another aspect, comforting can be categorized into an expressive type of speech act, especially when the S wants to express his feelings to show sympathy to the H’s problem

E.g ‘I’m terribly sorry you’re in so much pain’

Moreover, comforting also functions as a representative speech act as the S tries

to point out the excuses or reasons to explain why it is pointless for the H to feel sad or disappointed

E.g ‘He’s just a jerk; he doesn’t deserve you anymore’

Furthermore, in real-life communication, one remarkable feature of this speech act is that it is a composite of several different sub-speech acts such as ‘expressing sympathy’, ‘giving advice’, ‘encouraging’, etc – to comfort hearers (Perlocutionary speech act) (Suzuki, T, 2008)

E.g.: ‘I’m sorry, but, maybe I’ll be sure to come next time’: This saying

comprises two sub-speech acts: apologizing and encouraging

Sharing the same idea with Toshihico Suzuki, Bui Anh Duong (2008) also stated that for different context, both American and Vietnamese people tended to use different strategies to comfort someone and employed at least two strategies for all situations given

Besides of speech act types, the speech act of comforting is supposed to be an FEA (face-enhancing act) for H (cf Kerbat-Orecchioni, 1997: p.14), because S use this speech act to give advice, offer support, or make a proposal, etc., for the hearers’ benefits

Moreover, comforting messages display high person-centeredness as they recognize the other’s feelings by helping the other to articulate those feelings,

elaborating reasons why the other are experiencing those feelings, and assisting the other to see how those feelings fit in a broader context (See Burleson, 2003a)

Burleson and Goldsmith (1998) argued, highly person-centered comforting messages are beneficiary and effective forms of support because they help to lessen the emotional stress of others by creating a supportive conversational environment and encourage sense-making about the upsetting experience

In short, it can be concluded that comforting is a very complex speech act, and

it is inclined to be performed by means of other strategies Also, it is a composite of several different sub-speech acts with the aims of enhancing face for H

1.2.3 Socio-cultural factors affecting comforting

Firstly, the factors of social statues and social distances have a remarkable influence on the use of comforting strategies and internal modification According to Bui Thi Anh Duong (2008), American and Vietnamese people used a greater number

of strategies in high-power and equal –power situations than in the low-power ones Moreover, social statuses also have influence on the frequency of use of internal modification in the act of comforting Speakers of unequal power in both Vietnamese and English were prone to use more down graders than upgraders when comforting (see Bui Thi Anh Duong, 2008)

Secondly, age is one of the factors affecting the act of comforting According to Suzuki (2010), the children used rather limited strategies to perform the speech act of comforting than the adult’s The common strategies that young informants aged from 7-10 attempted to comfort their communicative partners are apologizing, encouraging, offering something, and soothing while the adult use various of strategies such as giving sympathy, offering solutions, giving advice, or encouraging, giving praises of

H, criticizing H’s opponent, wishing for better results, offering support, etc

Relationship is another factor contributing to comforting Some research has examined how aspects of one’s relationship influence the quality of comforting one gives (Burleson, 2003) For example, Costin and Jones (1992) found that people

expend more effort comforting close friends than they do strangers Besides, comforting may be used as a maintenance behavior in close relationships (David et al., 2009) In fact, comforting bears some similarities to the maintenance behavior of positivity, which includes being supportive of one’s partner (Stafford & Canary, 1991)

David et al (2009) also indicates that people may alter their comforting strategies, depending on their perceptions of equity within romantic relationships People seek to balance perceptions of supportiveness using comforting strategies Individuals who recognize themselves as having greater wealth or status than their partner may feel that their role in the relationship is similar to that of a parent or guardian If individuals perceive that their status is an important contribution they make to the relationship, they may enjoy being able to effectively comfort their partners Burleson (1994) notes that sophisticated comfort givers often feel better about themselves after providing comfort It may be that providing effective comforting is a particularly positive experience for those who feel their status creates

an obligation to take care of their partners

Therefore, socio-cultural factors such as social status, social distance, age and relationship did have a significant influence on comforting and comforting strategies

1.3 COMFORTING AND DISCOURSE STRATEGIES

As mentioned in previous part 1.2.2, the speech act of comforting can be seen a composite of sub-speech acts or different types of speech act Therefore, the following comforting strategies were categorized basing on functions of speech act types, and the primary research in the related field

Category A: Expressing sympathy

According to Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, ‘sympathize’ is to feel sorry for somebody; to show that you understand and feel sorry about somebody's problems In terms of speech act types, ‘expressing sympathy’ can be seen as a expressive speech act Here are some illustrations:

English Vietnamese

 I’m so sorry to hear this

 I wish there was something I could

say to ease your pain

 I know this is hard and you’re

upset

 I understand that you miss your

family and friends

 Tôi rất tiếc về chuyện này

 Anh mong có thể nói được điều gì đó

để giảm đi nỗi đau của em lúc này

 Tớ biết điều này thật khó khăn và ấy cũng rất buồn

 Chị biết em nhớ gia đình và bạn bè lắm

Category B: Reassuring H’s feelings

In this strategy, S wants to calm H down and lift H’s spirit up at the same time According to Bui Anh Duong (2008), it is also one way of indicating that S and H are cooperators and thus to imply knowledge of H’s wants and willingness to fit one’s own wants with them

 Đừng buồn nữa!/ Buồn làm gì!

 Vui lên nào!

 Bình tĩnh!

 Cố lên nhé!

Category C: Soothing

Soothing can be understood as an act of saying or doing something that make H

to feel calmer and less worried, upset, or angry (Longman Dictionary of Temporary English) Utterances of this type are thought to relieve H’s hurt or sad feeling

English Vietnamese

 It’s OK

 It’s all right

 He is in a better place now

 He’s a good man

 You are a beautiful girl

 You are lucky to know the truth

 Không sao đâu

 Mọi chuyện qua rồi

 Bác ấy đã được an nghỉ rồi

 Bác ấy là một người tốt

 Cậu xinh thế này cơ mà!

 May mà biết được sự thật đấy!

Category D: Encouraging/ predicting better future

OALD defines ‘encourage’ as an act of giving somebody support, courage or hope By this sense, S tends to predict or assures better future possibilities to help H become more optimistic and hopeful for the better This strategy is realized with the future time

 There are a lot of fish in the sea

 You’ll get over it

 You’ll find someone better than

him

 Everything will be ok

 Đời còn dài, giai còn nhiều mà

 Cậu sẽ vượt qua được thôi

 Rồi ấy sẽ tìm được người tốt hơn hắn

ta

 Mọi chuyện rồi sẽ ổn cả thôi

Category E: Giving advice

This strategy has the use of the imperative mood and there are cases where the imperative mood is used effectively in order to offer something beneficial for H, in such speech acts as giving advice or offering for H (Suzuki, 2010)

English Vietnamese

 Just give him time and he will call you

 Just hang in there

 Just keep your head up honey

 Just think of all the happy and good times

you had together!

 Work hard and get better

 Just try to look at the bright side

 Hãy cho anh ấy ít thời gian, rồi anh ấy sẽ gọi cho cậu thôi

 Đi ra ngoài chơi thôi

 Cứ ngẩng cao đầu đi

 Hãy nghĩ tới những khoảnh khắc đẹp mà các bạn đã có với nhau

 Làm việc chăm chỉ lên đi

 Hãy nhìn vào những mặt tích cực

Category F: Offering support

This is another way for S to stress his cooperation with H Offering, especially offering support is one important strategy in which S’s good intentions in satisfying H’s positive face wants are demonstrated In other words, S may express his/her wish

to be ‘a shoulder’ for H to cry on, offer some materialistic help or simply to talk to

 Can I do anything to help you get

better?

 I will be here for you always when

you need to talk or just want to hang

Category G: Finding excuses

In this case, S tends to stress that it is not the H’s fault or point out the underlying cause This is essentially a face-saving act as it aims at denying H’s responsibility for the event and down-toning the severity of the problem

 It’s not your fault

 He’s just a jerk

 It’s just bad luck

 Maybe you two were not meant for

each other

 Đó không phải là lỗi của cậu

 Hắn ta chỉ là một gã đểu

 Chỉ là không may thôi

 Có lẽ hai bạn không hợp nhau

Category H: Enquiring H’s situation

This strategy is used to ask H for more information of the situation or H himself

to show his/her care for H or to resolve the problem

 When did this happen?

 Do you feel better?

 Có chuyện gì với 2 đứa chúng mày thế?

 Tại sao hắn lại đối xử với cậu như vậy?

 Chuyện này xảy ra từ bao giờ vậy?

 Giờ đã thấy đỡ hơn chưa?

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

The present study aims at giving an insight into the speech act of comforting in American English and Vietnamese languages used by native students This chapter deals with the research questions, data collection instruments, selection of subjects, data collection procedures and data analysis

2.2 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS

As stated in the previous sections, the study purpose is to examine the advisable situations’ topics for comforting and the strategies of verbal comforting in English and Vietnamese, how Vietnamese students differ from American students in their choice of comforting strategies by socio-cultural factors

In this study, data collection instruments include two main questionnaires:

 The Metapragmatic Questionnaire (MPQ) was designed to explore the appropriate situations’ topics for comforting in American English and Vietnamese cultures Also, it aimed to test the validity and reliability of the situations’ topics used in the next part of study

 The Discourse Completion Task (DCT) was designed to elicit some forms of comforting from native students of American English and Vietnamese

Besides, the Vietnamese translated versions of the MPQ and DCT questionnaires were used to collect the same data from the set of Vietnamese students

in Vietnamese

2.3 CONTENTS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRES

The questionnaires used for this study are designed in Vietnamese and English with the same contents for Vietnamese and English native speakers respectively, aiming to collect authentic and reliable data Both MPQ and DCT questionnaires comprised of two sections

To begin with, part one requests the respondents to fill in his/ her country of birth, residential area, gender, highest level of education and acquisition of language(s) other than his/her mother tongue All of the obtained information about the respondent serves as a useful source for comments and later analyses; especially gender is important information as it is one of parameters in this study

The MPQ questions aims to find out the appropriate situations of comforting in our social life in general and in comforting in particular The MPQ consists of five topics which were taken from personal experience and online interviews with a number of American students living in the USA and Vietnamese students living in Hanoi Each topic is categorized with socio-cultural factors; namely relationship and gender Subjects will choose the advisable topics in each parameter

The second questionnaire, the open-ended completion task (DCT) comprising

of two situations based on two most preferred topics selected from five topics in the MPQ was formed Besides, the factors of relationship were included in each situation

In this study, this parameter includes close friend, acquaintance, and nodding acquaintance, in which acquaintance was referred to participants’ classmates and nodding acquaintance was referred to informants’ schoolmates whom they sometime talked to Moreover, gender is another parameter which was also involved in each relationship Therefore, the informants are requested to verbally comfort to the following people:

o Close friend (same sex)

o Close friend (opposite sex)

o Classmate (same sex)

o Classmate (opposite sex)

o Schoolmate (same sex)

o Schoolmate (opposite sex)

Moreover, the situations in the questionnaire were designed to reflect real life situations To obtain the data for the study, observation was employed in order to reinforce the results from the questionnaire, as well as to clarify and test the validity of the obtained information Observation was paid on some types of English and Vietnamese comforting in daily-life situations

A full version of MPQ is provided in Appendix A and a version of DCT is in Appendix B The two questionnaires were then translated into Vietnamese

2.4 SELECTION OF SUBJECTS

The questionnaires were delivered to Vietnamese native speakers living in the North of Vietnam directly and American English native speakers living in America via emails The participants must be students aging from 15-25 and studying in high schools or universities Other criteria were also taken into account: country of birth, residential area, gender, highest level of education and acquisition of language(s) other than his/her mother tongue Of these parameters, gender had the most influence on the data analysis in this study Therefore, the number of participants was chosen equally between two groups of gender in both AES and VNS groups To be specific, the MPQ questionnaires were administered to 16 males and 14 females in AES group as well as

22 males and 22 females in VNS group The DCT questionnaires were delivered to 8

males and 7 females in AES group along with 11 males and 11 females in VNS group

4 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE

Firstly, the items of the MPQ questionnaire were administered to two groups of intended respondents: the Vietnamese version given to 44 Vietnamese students and the

English version given to 30 American students The data collected to explore the appropriate situations topics for comforting in American English and Vietnamese cultures Also, it aimed to test the validity and reliability of the situations’ topics used

in the next part of study Both the American and Vietnamese participants were asked

to choose the suggested topics for comforting peers Then the results were used to analyze the similarities and differences of comforting topics’ appropriateness between two cultures Then, they were also used as the baseline for the selection of the two valid and reliable situations topic for the DCT

Secondly, after the two topics had been chosen, the DCT was designed with situations based on two selected topics The DCT then were conducted on 22 Vietnamese subjects and on 15 American English ones Two groups of subjects were asked to write what they would say in such a situation The data collected were then coded using the discourse strategies in chapter one The results and findings from the statistic analysis of all comfort tokens are presented in chapter three

5 DATA ANALYSIS

As mentioned in the previous parts, we collected various kinds of comforting in English and Vietnamese, bilingual samples, on the basis of their communicative meaning; the data was classified into groups on the basis of the presented forms for the realization of comforting in each language Contrastive analysis was employed so that the similarities and the differences in comforting topics and comforting strategy usage

in English and Vietnamese were found out on the foundations of the findings in each language

The type of analysis was quantitative analysis in terms of what topics students preferred to comfort and what kinds of strategies students use most often when they comfort others To find out the comforting strategy usage in two groups, the data of DCT was analyzed according to comforting discourse strategies presented in chapter one (1.4)

CHAPTER THREE FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter presents the results of the study Then the results will be discussed

in order to answer the questions given in chapter two The comparisons between the overall advisable topics and use of comforting strategies, the use of comforting strategies by socio-cultural factors, namely relationship and gender in each situation are evaluated and interpreted on the basis of descriptive statistics and Excel functions Where charts are given for illustrative purposes, the tables of exact figures are found in the Appendices for comparison between AES and VNS

3.1 OVERALL ADVISABLE TOPICS AND USE OF STRATEGIES FOR COMFORTING

3.1.1 Overall advisable topics for comforting

This section gives the outline of advisable topics for comforting among American English and Vietnamese students As mentioned above, these five topics are the most common ones in student’s life that the author found in both cultures They are: love split-up, exam failure, death of loved one, losing things/ money, and serious illness The following table and figure demonstrate the frequency of preferred comforting topics for AES and VNS

Table 3.1 Frequency of preferred comforting topics for AES and VNS

Topics AES (%) Topics VNS (%)

Death of loved one 63% Death of loved one 60%

Serious illness 48% Love split-up 53%

Exam failure 44% Serious illness 48%

Figure 3.1 Frequency of preferred comforting topics for AES and VNS

It can be clearly seen from the table and graph that “death of loved one” is the most advisable topic that both AES and VNS suggested to comfort It is followed by

“serious illness” for AES group while “love split-up” is the second recommended topic for VNS group, 48% and 53% respectively Whereas, just 39% AES supposed it was necessary to comfort their peers when they have a break-up and the topic that the least number of VNS recommended was losing things/ money

3.1.2 Overall use of strategies for comforting

As mentioned in chapter 1, there are eight comforting discourse strategies categorized from the data of the study They are: (a) expressing sympathy, (b) reassuring H’s feeling, (c) soothing, (d) encouraging, (e) giving advices, (f) offering support, (g) finding excuses, (h) enquiring H’s situation The following table and figure demonstrate the frequency of overall strategies for AES and VNS

Table 3.2 Frequency of preferred strategies for AES and VNS

Strategy AES (n=15) VNS (n=22)

Frequency Percent Frequency Percent

(a) Expressing sympathy 96 36% 60 14% (b) Reassuring H’s feelings 7 3% 132 30%

(c) Soothing 34 13% 52 12% (d) Encouraging 36 14% 37 9%

(e) Giving advice 37 14% 96 22% (f) Offering support 29 11% 18 4%

(g) Finding excuses 15 6% 23 5%

(h) Enquiring H’s situation 11 4% 15 3%

Total 265 100% 433 100%

Figure 3.2 Frequency of overall strategies for AES and VNS

Note: (a) expressing sympathy, (b) reassuring H’s feelings, (c) soothing, (d) encouraging, (e) giving advice, (f) offering support, (g) finding excuses, (h) enquiring H’s situation

The table and graph show the overall contribution of the eight comforting strategies produced across situations by AES and VNS As can be seen from the graph, there existed some sharp differences between AES and VNS in the use of strategies (a) and (b) For AES, the most common way to comfort someone was expressing sympathy which accounts for 36% overall preferred strategies; whereas for VNS, this strategy’s frequency was nearly a half of AES’s with 14% In addition, while

“reassuring H’s feeling’ was the least frequently used strategy, this was the most frequent one for VNS with 30% ten times as high as AES’s Beside strategy (a), AES were inclined to employ strategies (e) “giving advice”, (d) “encouraging”, (c)

“soothing” evenly across situations and VNS opted for strategies (b) reassuring H’s feeling, (e) giving advice

3.2 USE OF COMFORTING TOPICS AND STRATEGIES- AS SEEN FROM SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS

3.2.1 Relationship

3.2.1.1 Advisable topics for comforting by relationship

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the relationship is an important factor affecting the way of comforting In this study, this parameter includes close friends, acquaintance, and nodding acquaintance, in which acquaintance was referred to participants’ classmates and nodding acquaintance was referred to informants’ schoolmates whom they sometime talked to The following table illustrates the frequency of advisable topics for comforting by relationship

Table 3.3 Frequency of advisable topics for comforting by relationship

Topics Close friend Acquaintance Nodding

acquaintance AES VNS AES VNS AES VNS

split-by the topic “death of loved one” with 80% for VNS group

Differently, the majority of both AES and VNS groups agreed that it was necessary to comfort acquaintances when they had lost a loved one This result was similar to the overall responses to comforting topics (table3.1.) Likewise, as for the communicative partners of nodding acquaintance, the most frequently suggested topic for both AES and VNS groups is “death of loved one”

Besides, for VNS, the least frequently advisable topic to comfort close friends, acquaintances and nodding acquaintances is “losing things/ money” while “love split-up” is the least suggest topic to comfort acquaintances and nodding acquaintances for AES

3.2.1.2 Choice of comforting strategies by relationship in situation 1

“You have been told that one of your friends has said goodbye to his/her first lover for his/her unfaithfulness; and he/she feels really upset and disappointed You meet him/her to

say something to cheer him/her up as a way of comforting What would you say to comfort him/her?”

Table 3.4 Frequency of strategies by relationship in the love split-up situation

Strategies Close friend Acquaintance Nodding

acquaintance AES VNS AES VNS AES VNS

(g)Finding excuse 16% 14% 8% 14% 3% 5%

(h)Enquiring H’s

situation 3% 0% 0% 2% 0% 9%

Figure 3.3 Frequency of strategies for close friends in the love split-up situation

Note: (a) expressing sympathy, (b) reassuring H’s feelings, (c) soothing, (d) encouraging, (e) giving advice, (f) offering support, (g) finding excuses, (h) enquiring H’s situation

The table and figure displays the frequency of preferred strategies used to comfort close friends in love split-up situation by AES and VNS As “love split-up” is the most suggested situation for both groups (table 3.3.), ANS tended to use almost strategies evenly to comfort their close friends with relationship break-ups while VNS used them differently

As can be seen in the chart, there existed significant differences between ANS and VNS preferences in the use of every strategy except for strategies (d)

“encouraging”, (g) “finding excuses” and (h) enquiring H’s situation Of the five significant strategies, VNS used more of (b) “reassure H’s feelings” and (e) “giving advice” strategies and fewer of the rest three strategies than AES To illustrate, “giving advice” is the most frequent used strategy for VNS with 30% saying that ‘Kiếm đứa khác đi, lần sau phải tỉnh táo hơn đấy’ (Find another one, be alert next time!) or ‘Hãy vui lên và sống thật tốt để khi gặp lại nó sẽ phải tiếc nuối’ (Be cheerful and live well,

then he will regret when meet you again) Whereas just 15% of AES used this strategy; for example, ‘Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow’ or ‘Go out and have a drink!’

Figure 3.4 Frequency of strategies for acquaintances in the love split-up situation

Note: (a) expressing sympathy, (b) reassuring H’s feelings, (c) soothing, (d) encouraging, (e) giving advice, (f) offering support, (g) finding excuses, (h) enquiring H’s situation

Similar to used strategies for close friends, this chart of strategies for acquaintances also indicates the strike distinction between two groups in the use of strategies (b) “reassuring H’s feelings and (a) “expressing sympathy” While 28% of VNS preferred to use “reassuring H’s feeling” to comfort their acquaintances, just 4%

of AES were in favor of it Examples in Vietnamese are ‘Thôi vui lên đi ấy!’ (Be cheerful) or ‘Buồn thì giải quyết được gì đâu, không việc gì phải vậy’ (Being upset doesn’t solve things up, don’t be like that); and AES just said ‘Move on!’ or ‘Cheer up!”

As for the similarity, the strategy that both groups used with almost the same frequency is “encouraging” Examples of Vietnamese are ‘Thế giới rộng lớn, rồi cậu

sẽ tìm thấy người yêu thực sự thôi’ (There are a lot of guys in this world, you’ll find

your true love finally) or ‘Đời còn dài, giai còn nhiều mà’ (There are a lot of fish in the sea) and AES also said ‘there are a lot of fish in the sea’ or ‘You’ll find someone new’

Fig

ure 3.5 Frequency of strategies by nodding acquaintance in the love-split up situation

Note: (a) expressing sympathy, (b) reassuring H’s feelings, (c) soothing, (d) encouraging, (e) giving advice, (f) offering support, (g) finding excuses, (h) enquiring H’s situation

As for the communicative of nodding acquaintance, the significant differences also appear in strategies (a) and (b) For AES, (a) “expressing sympathy” is the most frequently used strategy with 58% while this strategy was preferred by just one Vietnamese participant The most common comforting of AES participants is “I am sorry to hear that” or “Sorry you are going through this” while the only striking example of VNS is “Tớ biết ấy cũng buồn lắm, nhưng không nên buồn vì một người như vậy” (I know you are really sad now, still you shouldn’t be upset for a such bad guy) which was actually the composite of “expressing sympathy” and “giving advice” Besides, strategy (h) “enquiring H’s situation” was hardly used by both groups in love split-up situation, just a few VNS preferred this strategy to comfort acquaintances and nodding acquaintances while none of AES used this one