Một nghiên cứu liên văn hóa về yếu tố giáo dục trẻ em thông qua truyện cổ tích của ngườI phương tây và ngườI việt nam

Một nghiên cứu liên văn hóa về yếu tố giáo dục trẻ em thông qua truyện cổ tích của ngườI phương tây và ngườI việt nam Một nghiên cứu liên văn hóa về yếu tố giáo dục trẻ em thông qua truyện cổ tích của ngườI phương tây và ngườI việt nam luận văn tốt nghiệp thạc sĩ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

AN INTERCULTURAL STUDY OF CHILDREN EDUCATION THROUGH FAIRY TALES BY WESTERN AND VIETNAMESE PEOPLE

Supervisor: Ngô Hữu Hoàng, PhD

Student: Nguyễn Thị Như Lệ Course: QH2010.F1.E21

HÀ NỘI - 2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU LIÊN VĂN HÓA VỀ YẾU TỐ GIÁO DỤC TRẺ EM THÔNG QUA TRUYỆN CỔ TÍCH CỦA NGƯỜI PHƯƠNG TÂY VÀ NGƯỜI VIỆT NAM

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Ngô Hữu Hoàng, T.s

Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thị Như Lệ

Khóa: QH2010.F1.E21

HÀ NỘI - 2014

ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Thị Như Lệ QH2010.F1.E21, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited

in the library

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

Hanoi, 2014

Nguyễn Thị Như Lệ

Date: June 3, 2014

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all, the writer would like to express her most sincere gratitude to her supervisor, Mr Ngô Hữu Hoàng, PhD for the comments, support, and encouragement through the process of this study

Also, the writer would like to extend her appreciation to the Faculty of Languages and Cultures of English Speaking Countries for close supervision and useful information about deadline and thesis format as well Furthermore, the writer

is really grateful to friends who are always helpful and thoughtful in the last few months of the study process

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ABSTRACT

This study aims to figure out the similarities and differences of Western and Vietnamese fairy tales in children education Also, the writer hopes to give some recommendations for the causes of such differences, which present the cultural identities of Western and Vietnamese people To fulfill the aims of the study, the writer pay attention to the main characters with their virtues and their behaviors as well as the ending of both the good and evil Regarding data collection, the writer employs qualitative approach in 15 Western fairy tales (with the ratio 5:5:5 for German, Danish and Italian each) and 10 Vietnamese fairy tales with 7 presumed sub-questions on the contents of each fairy tale After finishing the study, the writer found a number of common and different points that are related to the expected virtues for the good, the relationship between the good and evil and lastly, the reaction of the good against the evil To explain for the differences, the writer considered four factors that has influence on the two cultures, from family, geography, history to religion To be more specific, the writer used the reason of history and geography for the first difference, family for the second and religion for the third one

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims 2

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Scope 3

1.5 Methodology 4

1.5.1 Data collection 4

1.5.2 Data analysis 5

1.6 Design 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Theoretical background 6

2.1.1 Fairy tales 6

2.1.2 Legends and Myths 11

2.1.3 Fairy tales and culture 12

2.2 Previous studies 13

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 14

3.1 Procedure 14

3.1.1 Data collection 14

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3.1.2.Data analysis 15

3.2 Findings 28

3.2.1 Research question 1: What are the similarities and differences between Western and Vietnamese fairy tales in children education? 28

3.2.2 Research question 2: To what extent can the differences between Western and Vietnamese fairy tales in children education be explainable? 33

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 38

4.1 Summary of the study 38

4.2 Limitations of the study 39

4.3 Suggestions for further studies 40

REFERENCES 41

SOURCE OF FAIRY TALES 43

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LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

1 List of tables

2 Analysis of Vietnamese and Western fairy tales

1 Ideal virtues for Western and Vietnamese female 30

2 Ideal virtues for Western and Vietnamese male 31

As regards education, there does exist common and varied points in education methods among cultures One of the most apparent common points is that nearly all people use fairy tales to educate children The term of fairy tale is not something strange to people at any level and its importance is clearly shown right from the frequency people experience it during their lives Among all kinds of books, they are chosen to be introduced to children first When children have not known how to read, they experience fairy tales through stories retold by their relatives, their teachers at kindergartens, etc Then, when they can read, they are offered fairy tales right from primary schools Fairy tales are considered a fat garden to feed the souls of children Children love anything full of colors, full of romance They can sit still for all day to draw a picture with their own imagination, which affords them to create any world they like For children, fairy tales are always a wonderful world will full of magic Such world maximizes the creativeness of those kids, bring to them the joyfulness and fantasy of their childhood For their significance, fairy tales are unsurprisingly used as a sharp education tool, which varies from cultures to cultures but also share certain common features, for example, directing children to do good things and love life

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As the writer majors in English as a foreign language, she found a study of the similarities and differences in fairy tales would be interesting and useful, which would perfectly facilitate educating language and culture as well Furthermore, among numerous researches of previous students from the University of Languages and International Studies- Vietnam National University, Hanoi, it is rather hard to find a work on fairy tales, not to mention the factor of children cultural education in fairy tales

The writer thereby decided to conduct a research in comparison between fairy tales by Westerners and those by the Vietnamese Similarly, in school, teachers often offer both Vietnamese and foreign fairy tales Children read Vietnamese fairy tales in comparison with Western fairy tales will have more comprehensive view about the world, about their cultures In the same way, this research will not only give readers the better understanding about the fairy tales by the Vietnamese and Westerners under cultural perspective, but also help readers to see clearly the interrelationship of culture between Vietnam and Western countries via fairy tales

For those reasons, “An intercultural study of children education through fairy tales by Western and Vietnamese people” would be useful for any person who has concern about culture, children education or simply fairy tales

1.2 Aims

As mentioned in rationale part, the study was conducted with the aim to clarify the similarities and differences between Western and Vietnamese fairy tales in the way adults educate their children, setting forth a number of underlying cultural factors that ruled over the differences in the view of the thesis writer herself

In addition, the study was expected to contribute to raising cross cultural awareness of students and teachers in the age of globalization, so as to facilitate cross cultural communication between Western and Vietnamese people

b To what extent can the differences between Western and Vietnamese fairy tales

in children education be explainable?

1.4 Scope

Given the limited condition for a research within school, although the title mentioned Western people in general, this study only worked on fairy tales by three peoples, which are German, Danish and Italian The writer chose these countries given that they had key features which met the demand of the research:

German fairy tales are very famous with Grimm's Household Stories (1876)

by the Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm These tales have spread their influence all over the world Auden (2002) used to praise the collection, during World War

II, as one of the founding works of Western culture: “It is hardly too much to say that these tales rank next to the Bible in importance.”

Danish fairy tales are certainly well known by both adults and children all

over the world with Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen (1872)

These tales have even been adapted to cartoon which are televised every day

Italy is located in South-Central Europe For centuries Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, was the centre of politics and religion of the Western civilization Therefore, Italian fairy tales are considered well reflecting the Western conventional society If Germany has Grimm brothers, Denmark has Hans Christian Andersen, then Italy is globally known with the name Giambattista Basile

through his work of Stories from Pentamerone (1847) The editor Barba (2014)

used to say: “Many of the tales that Basile wrote are the oldest known to exist, making Basile the “father” of all fairy tales, Italian and otherwise.”

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Besides, the writer also limited the number of fairytales down to 15 Western fairy tales (with the ratio 5:5:5 for German, Dane and Italian each) and 10 Vietnamese fairy tales In addition, the writer chose famous foreign fairy tales that were quite familiar with Vietnamese people in general and Vietnamese children in particular All the chosen foreign fairy tales were in English This brought the best convenience to the writer, who is studying English as her major; and this did not affect the quality of the study because it was conducted under cultural perspective The writer only counts the content of those fairy tales, not language knowledge like grammar Importantly, the fairy tales are chosen with the clear system of the good and evil, which facilitate the analysis of ethic lessons that the adults want to transfer to their children

Last but not least, when having figured out the similarities and differences between Western and Vietnamese fairy tales in children education, the writer intended to find the explanation for differences only, for the reason that she wanted

to see the cultural identities that affected the way of thinking and idealization of these two cultures

1.5 Methodology

1.5.1 Data collection

The main objects of the study are fairy tales by Western and Vietnamese people, so that the process of data collection mainly focuses on gathering most famous fairy tales with resemblance in their contents In addition, the writer attaches great importance to the main character (living condition and characteristic) and the ending of the story

The writer employed qualitative approach in analyzing 25 fairy tales, in which there are 10 Vietnamese fairy tales and 15 Western fairy tales (including 5 German fairy tales, 5 Danish fairy tales and 5 Italian fairy tales)

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1.5.2 Data analysis

Analyzing process was based on the theoretical background about the good and evil in fairy tales, from which the writer pay attention to the characteristics of each side, the relationship between them and the attitudes toward each other as well

Chapter 2 - Literature review

This chapter reviews relevant literature including an overview of definition of key concepts (fairy tales, myth and legend) as well as the relationship between fairy tales and culture

Chapter 3 – The study

This chapter presents and analyzes the collected data

Chapter 4 – Conclusion

This chapter summarizes some main issues mentioned in the research, offers the

limitation of the study and suggestions for further research

At the very end of the paper, the writer also include the list of references and source

of fairy tales as well

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical background

2.1.1 Fairy tales

2.1.1.1 Definition of fairy tales

There seems hardly any confusion or complexities in understanding the word “fairy tale” People live with it from their childhood When children have not known how to read, they experience fairy tales through stories retold by their relatives, their teachers at kindergartens Then, when they can read, they are offered fairy tales right from primary schools Simply, when mentioning the term “fairy tale”, all people immediately think of, as defined in most popular dictionaries namely Oxford Dictionary and Longman Dictionary, three elements: story – magic – children To be more specific, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Sydney et al., 2010) has given its definition as “a story about magic or fairies, usually for children.” According to the professor Steven, “fairy tales are narratives that have been shaped over centuries of retelling and that have achieved a basic narrative form that is a distillation of human experience”

2.1.1.2 Origin of fairy tales

Most of prominent fairy tales over the world are products of folklore, which are “the traditions and stories of a country or community” (Sydney et al., 2010) In the book of The Fairy Tale by Steven Swann Johns (2002), the author writes:

“Folklore includes all the traditional forms of expression that circulate without aid

of books – the art, speech, and literature created through personal interaction rather than through the printed medium.” In other words, folklore prefers oral way rather than literal one Due to this oral origin of fairy tales, Johns also declares, “There are

no exact and established versions, no identifiable authors, identifiable authors, and

no fixed titles.” Therefore, it is easy to understand that there are dozens or even hundreds of different versions of the same story; and they are all acceptable rather than considered plagiarized

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2.1.1.3 Common types of fairy tales

a Western fairy tales

There are not many sources discovering types of fairy tales Normally, they

class fairy tales as folklore In A Study of Fairy Tales by Laura Kready (2008), the

author gives seven types of fairy tales:

- The Accumulative, or Clock Story

This is the simplest form of the tale It may be:

(1) A tale of simple repetition

(2) A tale of repetition with an addition, incremental iteration

(3) A tale of repetition, with variation

- The Animal Tale

Obviously, this type of fairy tales goes around the main character that is animal

“Indeed some authorities would go so far as to trace all fairy tales back to some ancestor of an animal tale.”

- The Humorous Tale

“The humorous element for children also lies in the incongruous, the exaggerated,

or in the grotesque.” The orientation to compassion is the core factor to please children, who always appreciate harmony

- The Realistic Tale

The realistic fairy tale has a great sympathy with humble life and desires to reproduce faithfully all life worthwhile

- The Romantic Tale

This type leads readers to a adventurous and picturesque world, which is full of emotion “The purpose of the romantic is to arouse emotion, pity, or the sense of the heroic; and it often exaggerates character and incidents beyond the normal.”

- The Old Tale and the Modern Tale

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The old tale possesses the characteristics which are suited to children with aesthetics, the central unity and harmony of characters and plot On the contrary, the modern tale is often long and “presents a multiplicity of images that is confusing.” This type of fairy tales is known after the existence of Andersen's Fairy Tales

b Vietnamese fairy tales

According to Nguyễn Đổng Chi (2000), Vietnamese fairy tales are divided into three main types: the historical tale, the miraculous tale and the social life tale

- The historical tale

Historical fairy tales tells stories about a historical figure or event, which is developed into a dependent story against its original event Sometimes, the entire tale is fictional, only the main character has name of some real historical figure Sometimes it is true but no one can determine how many percent of the tale tells the truth Certainly, the tale must include magic which draws the curiosity and interest

of readers

This type can be divided into three groups: The first is historical fairy tale

with exaggerated characters or details, for example, Rắn Báo Oán In the second

group, legendary factors appear as spices which make the characters or events more interesting, but not to overwhelm historical factors For the third group, in contrast, legendary factors play the most importance, rather than historical factors doing

- The miraculous tale

Miraculous fairy tales tell stories that happen in people‟s daily life The topic can be about conflicts among members in family, about love and marriage or

social relationships (namely Tấm Cám, Cây khế, etc.) In other words, the main

content of miraculous fairy tales is social life and human fate Although including supernatural characters, the centre of the tales are people

The world in miraculous fairy tales is always magic and dreamy, containing the integration between supernatural and ordinary worlds In those tales, people can

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penetrate into supernatural world and conversely, genies can appear in ordinary

world, as in Tấm Cám and Thạch Sanh

 Miraculous fairy tales about heroes: In this group, the main character is a talent and extraordinary in some field These stories describe adventures of the main characters, and after all, they will slay the evil, protect the good,

bring happiness to people (namely Thạch Sanh)

 Miraculous fairy tales about miserable people: The main characters are often the youngest, the orphans, the ugly or servants In terms of social relationship, they are violated, suffer many difficulties However, in terms of characteristics, they possess every needed qualities but often endure all indignities The main characters finally overcome the obstructions (with the support of supernatural characters) and have a new life with wealth and

(maybe) love For this group, the writer can call out Sọ Dừa as an

outstanding example

- The social life tale

Although social life fairy tales also tell extraordinary stories, these stories are originated from ordinary world The supernatural factors do not play an importance role for the development of the stories

Normally, the main characters in these fairy tales are more active than those

in miraculous fairy tales though some miserable characters end with death If the conflict in miraculous fairy tales are solved by magic, that in social life tales follow

logical reality (such as Trương Chi)

 Social life fairy tales about miserable people: This group is in a line with miraculous fairy tales about miserable characters without a happy ending

 Social life fairy tales about bad habits, cruel behaviors of people like brag, undutifulness, etc

2.1.1.4 Good and Evil in fairy tales

Normally, there are two clearly separated types of characters in fairy tales – Good and Evil To see how these two concepts are shown in analyzed tales, firstly the writer needs to understand their definitions The concepts of Good and Evil in fairy tales or in any other literal works have to base on those from the view of philosophy

There are numerous arguments on the topic Good versus Evil: What to be called Good and what to be called Evil? Singh (2007) has published an article named “The simplest definitions of Good and Evil” The article can be boiled down

to this simple idea: “We may define „good‟ and „evil‟ to be synonymous of

„selflessness‟ and „selfishness‟ The good and evil is, therefore, not an act but intention behind the act.” Singh attaches more importance to the internal (intention)

of the person rather than the external (act) He may make someone think he is a good person due to his kind actions but he is still considered evil if those actions originate from bad thought of gaining benefit for himself

Feeling in the same way, Taylor (2013) explains this more specifically in the

article “The real meaning of „Good‟ and „Evil‟” In the article, he says,

“„Good‟ means a lack of self-centeredness It means the ability to empathize with other people, to feel compassion for them, and to put their needs before your own It means, if necessary, sacrificing your own well-being for the sake of others‟.”

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On the contrary, he continues, “„Evil‟ people are those who are unable to empathize with others As a result, their own needs and desires are of paramount importance They are selfish, self-absorbed and narcissistic.”

In real life, it is hard to recognize who is good and who is evil given their complicated psychology, which makes them good to someone and (maybe) bad to others Nevertheless, in fairy tales, these two types are normally clarified and simplified Good characters harm no one and even help others warmheartedly while evil characters think bad and do bad right from the beginning These two types exist parallel, highlight each other and together show the lessons, the message of the tale

2.1.2 Legends and Myths

Under the system of folk narratives, fairy tales are sometimes confused with legends and myths Therefore, in this research, the writer introduces the terms of legend and myth in order to distinguish fairy tale with them This analysis is based

on “The Fairy Tales” by Steven (2013)

2.1.2.1 Legends

A legend is a semi-true story, which is claimed to be historical in the nature, but with “mythical quality” Therefore, it usually contains the element of truth through heroic characters in a brilliant place and surrounds spiritual beliefs of the culture

This type of folk narratives is known with some famous stories namely King Arthur, Blackbeard and Robin Hood

2.1.2.2 Myths

Basically, a myth is a story based on tradition or legend It is “may describe the origins of the world and/or of a people A myth is an attempt to explain mysteries, supernatural events, and cultural traditions And, a myth represents

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reality in dramatic ways.” (Lombardi, 2010) For this type of folk narratives, most

of people are familiar with Greek Myths

To differentiate these three terms, Steven (2013) also gives an outline illustrating the relationship of fairy tales to other fold narratives:

Folk narratives:

a Myths – etiological narratives employing immortal protagonists

b Legends – quasi-historical narratives employing extraordinary protagonists

c Folktales – quotidian narratives employing ordinary protagonists

- Fairy tales – magical tales

- Fables – didactic or moralistic tales

- Jokes – humorous tales

- Novellas – romantic tales

2.1.3 Fairy tales and culture

As the origin of fairy tales is folklore, which is all about people‟s traditions and experiences, it is obvious that each fairy tale is a child of the culture Each detail in fairy tales brings one aspect of the corresponding culture In a research

recently, Durham University anthropologist Jamie Tehrani found that “Little Red

Riding Hood likely branched off 1,000 years ago from an ancestral story that has its

roots in the first century A.D” (Gannon, 2013) - The Wolf and the Kids, which has been told throughout the Europe and the Middle East Also, similar tales also pop

up in oral traditions in Asia and Africa with The Tiger Grandmother in East Asia

They all have the same plot, just different in characteristics As Gannon (2013) concluded, fairytales “can evolve much like species do, taking on new features and dropping others as they spread to different parts of the world.” They transform to fit into the traditions of their culture In other words, fairy tales show the features of such species, such cultures

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Therefore, it is not accidental that people choose fairy tales to introduce to children before other kinds of books People hardly find elsewhere such simple and effective tool to transfer the quintessence of their culture to youngsters

2.2 Previous studies

Fairy obviously plays an important role in presenting cultural resemblance and cultural identities among countries Suprisingly, however, there has been little cross-cutural research (in both English and Vietnamese languages) which works on fairy tales There has been two outstanding researches that work on this field: “So sánh các mối quan hệ giữa anh chị em trong truyện cổ tích Việt Nam và Đức” by

Tạ Thị Hồng Hạnh (2010) and “So sánh truyện cổ tích Hàn-Nhật” by Lưu Thị

Hồng Việt (2012) Nevertheless, the first only mention one small side of cultures

presented in fairy tales and the ethic lesson is briefly mentioned at the end of the study as a conclusion Besides, the second research seems to offer a more comprehensive view about culture However, this second study does not emphasize the cultural lesson that people want to transfer to their children through fairy tales

At the end of the day, no matter on the Internet or in the library, it is likely that there has been no work on the comparison between Western and Vietnamese fairy tales in children education The absence of research in this area makes the

“intercultural study of children education through fairy tales by Western and Vietnamese people” valued and interesting

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CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 3.1 Procedure

3.1.1 Data collection

To illustrate the methodology of the study, this study works on five

collections of fairy tales: Grimm's Household Stories by Grimms brother (1876),

Fairy tales and Stories by Andersen (1872), Stories from Pentamerone by Basile

(1847), Truyện cổ tích Việt Nam Hay Nhất by Tú Anh (2013) and 108 Truyện cổ

tích Việt Nam Hay nhất by Thùy Linh (2013) Below is the list of specific fairy

tales from these four collections:

Table 1 List of analyzed fairy tales

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Grimm's Household Stories

(German fairy tales)

- Briar Rose

- Mother Holle

- The Robber Bridegroom

- Little Red Riding Hood

- The Snow White

- The Little Mermaid

- The Wild Swans

- The Green Kinght

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(Italian fairy tales) - The Three Sisters

- The Three Enchanted Princes

- The King of Love

- Sun, Moon and Talia

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Truyện cổ tích Việt Nam Hay Nhất

(Vietnamese fairy tales)

108 Truyện cổ tích Việt Nam Hay nhất

(Vietnamese fairy tales)

- Bảy Điều Ước

- Cây Bưởi Đào

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are determined by the writer, which helped her find it easier to process the data Besides, open-ended questions bring new ideas, preventing the research from unilateral view Below is the list of 8 sub-questions that the writer used during the analysis:

Sub-question 1 Which virtue(s) does the good female character possess?

Sub-question 4 How does the good face the challenge?

A With others‟ helps

B With his/her own ability

Sub-question 5 How does the good react to the bad behavior?

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what children can learn from the relationship between the good and evil The forth sub-question is designed to see whether good people would receive helps from others and they should overcome the challenges by their own abilities The fifth sub-question shows the expectation of adults to the reaction of their children when they are harmed by bad behaviors Finally yet importantly, the rest two sub-questions offer people‟s view over the ending of both good and evil sides

After using all above questions to consider each story, the writer will gather all similar answers into groups and conclude what people want children to see and how they would be After that, the writer will compare to find the similarities of fairy tales from three Western countries and then the similarities and differences between this group and Vietnam

To answer the second question, about the extent in which the differences between Western and Vietnamese fairy tales can be explainable, the writer will see from cultural view, use cultural characteristics of each area to explain such differences

After going through 25 chosen fairy tales with the list of presumed questions, the writer received the results as below:

sub-Sub-question 1: Which virtue(s) does the good female character possess?

………

Table 2 Analysis of Vietnamese and Western fairy tales using sub-question 1

Western

filial piety, cleverness