Quan điểm của daniel hauer về phát âm tiếng anh của giáo viên việt nam và phản hồi của người việt nói tiếng anh về quan điểm đó

This research investigated the case of Daniel Hauer, an American English teacher in Vietnam, who has recently stirred up debates over standard pronunciation with his videos “When America

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS &

CULTURES OF ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES

TO THEM

Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Hạnh (Ph.D) Student: Hoàng Thị Hải Yến

Course: QH2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HÓA CÁC NƯỚC NÓI TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA DANIEL HAUER VỀ

PHÁT ÂM TIẾNG ANH CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VIỆT NAM

VÀ PHẢN HỒI CỦA NGƯỜI VIỆT NÓI TIẾNG ANH

I hereby state that I: Hoang Thi Hai Yen, class QH2014.F1.E1, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Fast-track program 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

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Acknowledgement

This work could have never been accomplished without guide and help from Ms Hanh Hoang, my dedicated supervisor She has always been an incredible mentor who was understanding and encouraging, which has motivated

me in the whole process of conducting this research I want to express my most sincere gratitude to her for the marvelous job she has done for me

Also, I am deeply indebted to my dearest friend, Vinh Trong Nguyen, for constantly providing me with technical and emotional support He was the one who coded the website to help me download comments from YouTube Without his help, collecting data would have been a far more daunting task to me Besides, Vinh has comforted me every time I got panic and anxious about my work I am grateful to him for helping me get through this tough time

Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends, who have always encouraged me to maintain my efforts to finish this dissertation My parents, despite the great distance, have regularly kept up with my progress and reminded

me to take good care of myself My little sister, on the other hand, was the one to help manage daily chores for me to totally focus on my thesis In addition, my gratitude is dedicated to my friends, especially those in class QH2014.F1.E1 along with Tien Thuy Tran, Ngoc Hong Pham and Ngan Kim Hua They have been such

an unending source of support and inspiration for me to continue my work

Abstract

English is now regarded as an international language (EIL) with many distinctive varieties; however, there remain diverse attitudes towards these varieties, including their pronunciation This research investigated the case of Daniel Hauer, an American English teacher in Vietnam, who has recently stirred

up debates over standard pronunciation with his videos “When Americans listen to English of Vietnamese people” and “Dirty competition?” The researcher applied a critical intercultural analysis to figure out what Hauer’s attitudes towards English pronunciation were and how Vietnamese English learners responded to them through their comments on the video Results showed that despite his claims of a fair test, Hauer seemed to prioritize his native English variety when adopting methodology and employing testers to assess Vietnamese English teachers’ pronunciation This reflected his position in the Minimization stage of ethnocentrism Meanwhile, in response to Hauer’s arguments, Vietnamese learners showed their overgeneralization, stereotypes and prejudice against their own in-group members, indicating cultural cringe in their ideology In some cases, these perceptions of Vietnamese learners were seen to be impinged by Daniel Hauer’s opinions on the matter These views revealed an agreement in setting native pronunciation standards for Vietnamese English learners, which resisted the commonly accepted attitudes towards English varieties in EIL context

2.1 Learners’ attitudes towards English as an International Language (EIL)

2.2 Intercultural communication theoretical background 8

4.1 Daniel Hauer’s perspective of Vietnamese English teachers’ pronunciation and its impacts on Vietnamese English learners’ viewpoints 194.1.1 Daniel Hauer’s perspective of Vietnamese English teachers’ pronunciation 194.1.2 Daniel Hauer’s influence on Vietnamese English learners’ viewpoints 23

4.2 Vietnamese English learners’ identities reflected through their responses to Daniel

4.2.1 Vietnamese English learners’ identities reflected through their responses to

List of abbreviations

EIL English as an International Language

WE World Englishes

ELF English as a Lingua Franca

DMIS Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity

SE Standard English

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1.1 English as an International Language

English diffusion has escalated so dramatically that people communicate in English in many parts of the world The language’s popularity contributes to enhancing its position as an international language since it possesses most of the requisite features According to Smith (1976), a language is considered international if it is the common means of communications among people from different countries McKay (2002) also supports that International English is the language used by people from native and non-native backgrounds to communicate

in a cross-cultural context In other words, an international language works as a tool for people all over the world to exchange their culture In this case, English performs its role in global communication, indicating its significance as an international language Another way of defining the term is proposed by Brutt-Griffler (2002) She concludes four central features of the development of global language in a relatively comprehensive and complete way, most of which are satisfied by English The first characteristic deals with econocultural function of the language It is the result of the world development in economy, science, and culture Regarding this requirement, English plays a significant part in proceeding and facilitating economic and cultural exchange and vice versa The next feature

of an international language refers to the coexistence of an international language and the national language in each country It means that the global language is part

of the multilingual system where citizens speak both the language and their mother tongue In this case, no language has been able to compete with English yet In his demographic estimate, Graddol (as cited in McKay, 2002) demonstrated that “the balance between L1 and L2 speakers will critically change, with L2 speakers

eventually overtaking L1 speakers.” (p 13) English would be spoken mostly by people whose mother tongues are other languages, fulfilling the task of an international language The third characteristic involves the idea that a global language is learned by people from different levels and classes in the society A little research has been dedicated to this aspect to demonstrate English’s prevalence Finally, an international language’s spread results from its speakers’ autonomy to learn the language instead of immigration of native speakers In terms of this criterion, McKay (2002) claims that the diffusion of English carried out by native speakers’ immigration could only create some “monolingual English-speaking communities” (p 14) such as the United States, Australia and New Zealand Henceforth, taking the large number of English speakers, most of whom are non-native, into account, it is safe to say that the spread of English occurs mainly in Outer Circle and Expanding Circle countries where native people’s immigration is not a stimulus In a nutshell, considering all factors mentioned above, English is an international language

With the fast development of English speaking countries and its potentials, English is now considered an international language (EIL) or a lingua franca (ELF), “the common language of choice, among speakers who come from different linguacultural backgrounds” (Jenkins, 2009, p 200) The new terms expose learners to a broader horizon from the World English to the World Englishes (WE)

1.1.2 Pronunciation in communication

As stated above, language’s main function is to exchange knowledge and culture Besides, one of the most significant elements of language that affect quality of communication is pronunciation According to Gilakjani (2012), misunderstanding would occur if the speaker and the hearer fail to convey their message in a clear way with recognizable sounds Consequently, the process of

encoding and decoding information would experience challenges and may even collapse Therefore, pronunciation plays a vital role in facilitating communication, which is also applicable in speaking English Along with EIL, there remain various attitudes towards different varieties in pronunciation Sobkowiak (2008) shows his concern that accepting varieties in pronunciation will cause confusion in English learners due to the lack of standards to follow Therefore, achieving native standards of pronunciation is considered targets of many language learners Meanwhile, Jenkins (2000) emphasizes that only some main features of pronunciation can cause intelligibility such as consonants (except for “th” sound in

“thank” and “they”), consonant clusters in the first and middle syllables, nuclear stress and differences between long and short vowels Changes in other elements can still assure clarity and understanding among speakers This view is supported

by many EIL studies Byram (1997) opposes the needs of native standards in not only pronunciation but also values and behaviors of English learners Sharing the same opinion, Alptekin (2002) proclaims on the importance of intercultural approach of EIL bilingual teachers To these scholars, varieties in pronunciation can still guarantee intelligibility in English communication Apparently, in EIL context, to serve the purpose of intercultural communication, native pronunciation

no longer commonly holds the predominant role

1.1.3 Daniel Hauer

Daniel Hauer is an American English teacher in Vietnam He has lived in Vietnam since 2013 and become quite fluent in Vietnamese Apart from running English courses in his own center, Hauer has also made vlogs teaching English and sharing about American and Vietnamese cultures on YouTube These videos appeal to a large number of Vietnamese English learners with the total number of approximately 73 million views Up until December 2017, his channel has gained more than a million subscribers on YouTube, and roughly 97 thousand ones have followed his Facebook account Hauer’s products often receive a number of

positive feedbacks from Vietnamese followers, complimenting on his in-depth knowledge of English language and Vietnamese culture as well as his clever methods to deliver it Without doubt, to many Vietnamese English learners, he is a popular teacher In August 2017, Daniel Hauer published two controversial videos claiming his perception on Vietnamese English teachers’ pronunciation of English The videos went viral and attracted attention from English researchers, teachers, and learners Specifically, nearly 28 thousand comments were left on the videos on YouTube Different perspectives were exposed, initiating heated debates on the issue Though several people contradicted Hauer’s point of view on this matter, a greater number of others supported it A myriad of these advocates even indicated that Hauer’s practical experiment and his revelation had enlightened them about English speaking proficiency of Vietnamese teachers, especially when it came to pronunciation Henceforth, there identified a practical need to investigate the validity and reliability of his argument on the issue to determine their applicability

in evaluating English speaking levels of Vietnamese teachers

With the diffusion of English, Crystal (1997) proclaims that nonnative English speakers has outnumbered those who speak the language as their mother tongue In fact, English adopted in each country is modified by its culture, history and acquisition regarding the language’s penetration into it (McKay, 2002, p 54), generating distinctive varieties Since English is now considered an international language, its varieties or Englishes deserve equal recognition from any English speakers all over the world Nevertheless, there remains confusion in attitudes towards the existence of standard English among its speakers Quirk (1985) firmly upholds the idea of protecting English from any damages caused by national or regional language adaptation Meanwhile, Kachru (1985) argues that Englishes are inevitable results and should be appreciated fairly This implies that contradictory

arguments on standard pronunciation remain in perspectives of different English speakers

This research aims at investigating and analyzing a specific case study of Daniel Hauer to clarify his viewpoint on the matter as well as Vietnamese English learners’ responses to it The goal is to address the two following questions:

Research question 1: What are Daniel Hauer's attitudes towards

Vietnamese English teachers’ pronunciation?

Research question 2: In what ways do Vietnamese English learners

respond to Daniel Hauer's judgements on Vietnamese English teachers’ English pronunciation?

This study applies critical analysis to Daniel Hauer’s statements about Vietnamese English teachers’ pronunciation of English and Vietnamese English learners’ reaction to his opinions Therefore, only the two YouTube videos “When Americans listen to English of Vietnamese people” and “Dirty competition?", and Vietnamese learners’ comments related to the topic were taken into consideration Specifically, the researcher investigated the two videos along with 1000 first comments by Vietnamese learners left on the former video, including sub-comments in response to Hauer’s pinned remark and the next above 500 comments based on time stamps Irrelevant statements that failed to show opinions

on the matter were excluded from the analyzed data In total, 349 comments were taken into consideration to reflect on Vietnamese learners’ attitudes towards Daniel Hauer’s opinions of Vietnamese English teachers’ pronunciation

1.4 Significance of the study

The research’s significance lies in its reflexivity values The study findings revealed Daniel Hauer’s perspective on Vietnamese English teachers’ pronunciation in a globalization context with many English varieties In addition, Vietnamese English learners’ attitudes towards the matter were also exposed to reflect how local learners responded to it Generally, the research showcased outstanding flows of opinions about Vietnamese teachers’ pronunciation of English and their underlying cultural phenomena

This research is divided into five chapters The first one is Introduction, which is assigned to provide background knowledge about the topic including the current situation of EIL, the importance of pronunciation in communication, especially in EIL context and an introduction of Daniel Hauer In addition, the first chapter also covers research problems along with its questions, scope, significance and organization The second chapter is Literature Review, aiming at introducing theoretical backgrounds of both linguistics field (learners’ perspectives of EIL pronunciation) and intercultural concepts such as stereotypes, prejudice, ethnocentrism and cultural cringe Next, methodology of collecting, sampling and analyzing data will be clarified and explained, followed by the fourth section: Findings and Discussion In the fourth chapter, the researcher will reveal Daniel Hauer’s cultural perception of Vietnamese English teachers’ pronunciation and its influence on Vietnamese learners’ viewpoints on the matter Besides, the cultural identities of Vietnamese learners reflected through their comments will also be showcased The study ends with a Conclusion which summarizes the findings, states research limitation and proposes direction for future studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

be equally respected (Lick & Alsagoff, 1998) These changes attract a deal of attention from both linguists and language learners Some strongly discard EIL for the reason that its application in pronunciation will ruin the language Specifically, allowing varieties in pronunciation will “bring the ideal [that is, Received Pronunciation] down into the gutter with no checkpoint along the way”(Sobkowiak, 2008, p 141) To Sobkowiak and his supports, without SE, English learners will confront difficulties when speaking English due to their lack of standards to set targets and compare their performance to Meanwhile, Lick and Alsagoff (1998) believes all English varieties should receive the same respect from any speakers Jenkins (2000) also clarifies some phonology factors that can

be adjusted without harming the intelligibility of communication

Besides linguists’ viewpoints, some studies have investigated learners’ attitudes towards varieties of English pronunciation In this research, “Future English teachers' attitudes towards EIL pronunciation” (Coskun, 2011) were reviewed to reflect on how English learners, who are also preservice teachers, perceive this matter

The empirical study employs both questionnaire and interview as data collection instruments for the sample size of forty-seven senior students at English

Language Teaching department in a Turkish university Results show that these preservice teachers are aware of the prominent EIL context and its emphasis on equal varieties They showcase a view of “International English” as “English easily understood by everyone (intelligible English)” (Coskun, 2011) In a way, the participants seem to hold an EIL viewpoint on English learning However, their definition of “intelligible” English still refers to English of the Inner Circle with their learning goals being to achieve native pronunciation standards Additionally, these teachers do not seem tolerant to English varieties of the Outer and Expanding Circles when refusing to adopt a variety in teaching pronunciation and considering native teachers the most ideal to learn pronunciation with On the whole, even though the participants claim positive attitudes towards varieties in English pronunciation, their underlying perception tends to favor native standards

2.2.1 Stereotypes and prejudice

Stereotypes refer to the general judgments and opinions on a particular individual or groups of people which reflect their oversimplified images Specifically, Herbst (1997, p 212) defines stereotypes as “a generalization about what people are like; an exaggerated image of their characteristics, without regard

to individual attributes” It can be related to the process of forming impressions of other individuals based on their appearance or membership of a certain ethnic group Stereotypes also reflect one’s perceptions of how they view members of their in-group and those of the out-groups (Tajfel & Forgas, 1981; Triandis & Vassiliou, 1967; Turner, 1987; Vassiliou, Triandis, Vassiliou, & McGuire, 1972,

as cited in Pittam, Kashima, & Iwawaki, 1990)

Baldwin, Coleman, González and Shenoy-Packer (2014) summarize some common features of stereotypes Specifically, stereotypes are basically the way people perceive the world and each other By generalizing attributes of some individuals to the group level, people categorize and label others and even themselves in cultural communities These stereotypes can still depict one’s characteristics in certain cases because they are established based on how members of a mutual group tend to behave and express themselves to the world Nevertheless, due to their nature of overgeneralization, stereotypes cannot be applied in all situations Unfortunately, human beings are likely to stereotype each other, especially when they do not have enough time to individuate their counterparts (Devine & Sharp, 2009) However, Patricia Devine (as cited in Baldwin, Coleman, González & Shenoy-Packer, 2014) concludes from her research results that this phenomenon can be prevented if ones dedicate their time and efforts to fighting the automatic stereotyping process and personalizing the images of people they communicate with

Devine and Sharp (2009) also propose a classification method of information processing based on its formation in automatic and controlled processes The former refers to the preconscious process where information is addressed and stereotypes are generated without intention Meanwhile, active and intentional involvement is a crucial factor of controlled processes

Prejudice is viewed as the hostile attitudes against certain people because of their native communities (Allport, 1979, as cited in Baldwin, Coleman, González

& Shenoy-Packer, 2014) Stephan and Stephan (1996) state that there can be a lot

of causes of prejudice, some of which are one’s personal characteristics including authoritarianism, self-esteem, and ethnocentrism

It is commonly believed that prejudice, in many ways, has a close relationship with stereotypes Nevertheless, research results reveal that it is not always the case Stephan et al (1996) conduct a study in six different countries about their people’s attitudes towards the superpowers (Japan, the Soviet Union, and the U.S.A.) and correlation between the attitudes and stereotypes of these countries The outcomes show only five substantial correlations out of eighteen potentials, failing to show a close or impressive relationship Similar results are found in the research of Brigham (1971) and Stephan and Stephan (1989) with average proportion In other words, in most cases, stereotypes of a group of people

do not entail prejudice against them An explanation for this phenomenon can be attributed to personal attempts to resist stereotypes It is inevitable that prejudice is established by the combination of one’s knowledge of stereotypes and his endorsement of them (Ashmore & Del Boca, 1981; Billig, 1985, as cited in Devine

& Sharp, 2009) Generally, a person can possess many stereotypes about others but whether they are applied to conceptualizing his perspective about other people counts on the subject himself

2.2.2 Ethnocentrism and cultural cringe

Ethnocentrism is a cultural term which strikes itself as a type of prejudice, which appears when people appreciate values of their in-group members more than those of out-group ones According to William Sumner (as cited in Baldwin, Coleman, González & Shenoy-Packer, 2014), ethnocentrism is identified when

“one’s own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled with reference to it” (p 119) Ethnocentric people possess a desire to spread their native identities and apply them to other cultures to create their universal standards They view their in-group sets of values and behaviors as “unquestioned” standards which people are all supposed to follow (Bennett, 2004, p 62) Out-group

members who fail to meet the standards will be regarded as “contemptible and inferior” (Axelrod & Hammond, 2003, p 926) Language, accents, biological characteristics and region are among the noticeable assessment criteria of members in an ethnic community which are perceived as the root of ethnocentrism (Sumner, 1906; Hirshfeld, 1996; Kurzban, Tooby & Cosmides, 2001, as cited in Axelrod & Hammond, 2003) Barth (1998) indicates mutual norms and judgment are shared by members of the same ethnic groups As a result, people with distinctive values and norms are likely to receive intolerance from these group members and may even get isolated In other words, ethnocentrism can be attributed to a sign of in-group favoritism or out-group hostility

Axelrod and Hammond (2003) summarize previous studies to clarify outstanding features of the in-group/ out-group process as followings:

• Members of an ethnic group are identified by their mutual distinctive sets of values (Oakes, Haslam & Turner, 1994, as cited in Axelrod & Hammond, 2003) regarding social and economic interests (Brewer, 1979a; Barth, 1969, as cited in Axelrod & Hammond, 2003); hence, there exists a need to showcase these attributes to verify one’s membership of that community The boundaries become especially

“salient” when spatial distances among groups shrink (Taijfel, 1982, as cited in Axelrod & Hammond, 2003, p 927)

• In-group favoritism, which can be triggered by “the most trivial and arbitrary distinction” (Ferguson & Kelly, 1964; Tajfel, 1970; Tajfel et al., 1971, as cited in Axelrod & Hammond, 2003, p 927) or even without any intention (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1993; Lamont & Molnar, 2002, as cited in Axelrod & Hammond, 2003), also entails willingness to make more generous contribution to the community (Brewer & Kramer, 1986; Kramer & Brewer, 1984, as cited in Axelrod

& Hammond, 2003)

• When outside dangers appear, both in-group favoritism and out-group hostility tend to develop to confront the possible competition (Sherif, 1961, 1996; Brown, 1988, as cited in Axelrod & Hammond, 2003) Nonetheless, the two phenomena do not necessarily co-exist and empirically correlate with each other (Cashdan, 2001; Brewer, 1979a; Turner 1978; Struch & Schwartz, 1989; Mummendey et al., 1992; Hewstone, Rubin & Willis, 2002, as cited in Axelrod & Hammond, 2003) in cultural identities of a group

These characteristics can also reflect ethnocentrism in ideology of a group member With its attempts to standardize attitudes and behaviors based on one’s own native culture to create homogeneity, ethnocentrism can be depicted as a specific way of “avoiding cultural difference” (Bennett, 2004, p 63) In fact, Bennett (2004) established a development process from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism called the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) (Bennett, 2004) In DMIS, ethnocentrism in one’s reaction to cultural differences goes through three stages, namely Denial, Defense, and Minimization

The first stage, Denial, comes with people’s unawareness of cultural differences and belief that their native culture with its identities and values is the only existing in the world Experiences of cultural differences almost do not arise because other distinctive cultures are blind to these people or “associated with a kind of undifferentiated other such as “foreigner” or “immigrant”” (Bennett, 2004,

p 63) The two noticeable traits of ethnocentric people at Denial stage are their disinterest in cultural differences and inability to differentiate other cultures Specifically, people with the former characteristic will show indifferent attitudes towards cultural differences even if having to discuss them Only when their benefits chance to be impinged by this cultural element will they respond in an aggressive and conservative way In addition, people at this stage cannot recognize

to note is that this phenomenon does not specially occur in dominant cultures; instead, any people from any culture can experience Denial stage if they hold similar viewpoints to the above-mentioned traits Generally, solution to this stage

is enlightening people about the existence of other dissimilar cultures apart from their native one

Once this realization is achieved, people can move to stage two of the development scale, which is Defense At this phase, cultural differences are recognized, which means people have more experience with them than the previous stage However, ethnocentric in-group members at Defense stage maintain their superiority to other out-group cultures They suppose their cultures are the most civilized and others should follow the same patterns and identities These in-group members even try to “help” other non-dominant groups’ members

by exposing them to the dominant cultures This process helps non-dominant individuals explore and shape their own independent identities in resistance to imposition of the dominant groups (Banks, 1988; Parham, 1989, as cited in Bennett, 2004) This phase is also where stereotypes of the in-group and out-group identities are formed, originating the notion of “us and them” and the need to be

“like us” (Bennett, 2004, p 65) A variation of Defense is called Reversal It distinguishes itself from the original term in a way that sees no threats from non-dominant people People at Reversal consider the adopted culture “superior to the culture of one’s primary socialization” in the way that it is “going native” (Bennett,

2004, p 66) A person can also be categorized into Reversal phase if he/ she stereotypes his/ her native group as the causes of non-dominant cultures The resolution to the problems in Defense stage is to “establish commonality” and help people recognize “the common humanity of people of other cultures” (Bennett,

2004, p 66) Fulfilling this, one can move to the last stage, Minimization

Minimization stage does not see cultural differences in a polarized worldview as the two other stages In fact, the dominant group members at this

stage expect universalism The problem lies in their inability to be fully aware of their own cultural identities They do not view their distinct features as unique values but believe that these traits appear in all other cultures Therefore, they tend

to make judgments based on their own sets of values and try to imprint others to achieve their standards and create homogeneity and universalism in the world

“Minimization tends to mask recognition of their own culture (ethnicity) and the institutional privilege it affords its members” (Bennett, 2004, p 67) In other words, in-group members can recognize their benefits and show better appreciation of their own ethnic community Actually, Minimization has only one trait that keeps its experience ethnocentric which is one’s underlying notion favoring their own native groups Other than that, this stage manages to eliminate the two ethnocentric features, namely the inabilities to view cultural differences in

a non-stereotypical way and “recognize the essential humanness of others” (Bennett, 2004, p 68) Hence, with better perception of their own culture as a context of social communication and interaction, people can leave the very last stage of ethnocentrism

The term “cultural cringe” was first coined by an Australian scholar, Arthur Phillips, in 1950 when describing Australian tendency to appreciate music and art from overseas more than those composed by local artists He refers “cultural cringe” as the feeling of inferiority of in-group members in self-comparison with out-group ones (Phillips, 1958, as cited in Mattar, 2009) This term suggests another view on the in-group/ out-group relationship, contrasting with ethnocentrism where one’s own native culture is perceived as dominant Mattar (2009) clarifies that “cultural cringe tends to operate on a holistic level, where cultural discrimination, rather than meritocratic evaluation is applied to almost every aspect of one’s own society” (p 180) What he means is that this

culture, leading to their overgeneralization that anything related to their group has lower quality than that of foreign communities This judgment can be attributed to personal assumptions without any convincing and clear evidence Simply speaking, in-group individuals with cultural cringe would prefer identity traits or products of the out-group just because they assume these features/ products are better than their own ones

Some researchers have investigated their own community to reflect on its members’ cultural cringe levels, two of which reviewed in this study were

“Devaluing Achievement Within a Culture: Measuring the Cultural Cringe” (Feather, 1993) and “Popular cultural cringe: Language as signifier of authenticity and quality in the Singaporean popular music market” (Mattar, 2009) to compare the results of cultural cringe in Australia and Singapore with Vietnam Both the researchers introduce a prevailing stereotype that Australian/ Singaporean people have problems with cultural cringe, motivating them to conduct a study to verify the fact Feather (1993) implements his investigation in high school and university students to figure out their perception of “national identity, identification with Australia, attitudes towards high achievers (“tall poppies”), estimated past, present, and future standing of both self and Australia, and global self-esteem” (p 182) Mattar (2009), on the other hand, particularly works on music patrons of various retail outlets to see their perception of their native music and artists While the former is an empirical study carried out in Australia, the latter aims at Singaporean people with a qualitative approach In the first research, questionnaire is employed

as the main data collection method to get results from 570 subjects, compared with observation and an interview of thirty-nine participants in Mattar’s study Not only

do they differ from each other in subjects and methodology but the two studies also reveal varying facts about cultural cringe in each country To be more specific, Feather’s results prove a counter to the initial assumptions that cultural cringe remained an issue in Australian community He finds out the subjects are critical

of their choices to consider the real quality of their domestic products instead of devaluing them since the beginning The participants show positive attitudes towards their native cultures without a sense of inferiority as assumed Feather also notes that participants with a pure Australian background express a clearer sign of bias for their in-group members than those from other cultural identities Basically, the research’s results contrast the stereotypes of Australian people with cultural cringe and insecurity Meanwhile, what Mattar (2009) concludes from his study proposes an opposite situation To Singaporean music patrons, their local musicians are considered less authentic than native ones from “Anglo-Saxon native-English speaking countries” (Mattar, 2009, p 191), originating from the fact that colloquial Singaporean English is placed in a lower position than English

of Anglo-Saxon countries In this case, the in-group music patrons “imposed Orientalist perceptions upon themselves as the result of conceptualizing the binary Occident as a positive stereotype” (p 192) With these perceptions and arguments, the existing assumption about cultural cringe of Singaporean people is demonstrated

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

The researcher watched the two videos “When Americans listen to English

of Vietnamese people” and “Dirty competition?” and transcribed them Meanwhile, YouTuber users’ comments on the videos were downloaded and put into Excel documents using website http://ytcomments.klostermann.ca/

The researcher looked through comments of the two videos to have an overview about their main contents and popular threads Then she decided to investigate those in the first clip “When Americans listen to English of Vietnamese people” because it had more relevant remarks These comments were arranged based on their time stamps except for the pinned statements of Daniel Hauer and their responses which were placed on top Next, the researcher read comments, noted down main arguments found in the data until there identified no new reasons (saturated data) and decided the total number of remarks to research more thoroughly (the first 1000 ones) Concerning this first sampling group of data, she re-read the claims more carefully to omit those that were irrelevant to attitudes towards Vietnamese English teachers’ pronunciation or failed to express the commenters’ opinions or reasons for stance These included such comments as

“I like it Thank you.” (Kênh của Bi), “Poor Dan!” (GIN 90), “I have problems with /z/ and /s/ Too difficult!” (Vy Thúy), and those discussing dirty competition, Hauer’s competence in Vietnamese or just swearing After filtering, the finalized number of data was 349 comments

3.3 Data analysis

Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were adopted in data analysis First, the researcher reviewed the selected data to summarize and synthesize Daniel Hauer’s standpoints based on his claims on the two videos and comments on YouTube Critical discourse analysis and English as an International Language (EIL) frameworks were employed to analyze his opinions The researcher compared the purposes of producing videos he claimed with his implementation of the experiment to review his perspective After that, she examined Vietnamese learners’ comments to figure out their perception of the matter and imprints of Hauer’s arguments on it The researcher categorized the comments into different groups based on the phenomena she observed and counted their frequency Typical claims were picked out and quoted to illustrate prevailing reaction to Hauer’s attitudes Because of the availability and accessibility nature of YouTube as a public forum of a social platform, the names

of samples were reserved instead of being encoded In addition, most of the comments were written in Vietnamese, so examples in this study were translated into English by the researcher if necessary The researcher also formatted some words in bold and italics to highlight some outstanding expressions of the commenters and added some explanation for the statements with italic notes in parentheses Next, she described what she had observed from the videos and comments and compared it with background theories and research to find the relationships among them Afterwards, she drew some conclusions from the phenomena identified and analyzed typical examples The relationship between attitudes towards EIL pronunciation and intercultural perception of Daniel Hauer and Vietnamese learners was also clarified after the analysis process

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

pronunciation and its impacts on Vietnamese English learners’ viewpoints

Although English is now possession of many countries all over the world, mirroring varieties of Inner Circle countries such as England and the United States

as superior to other varieties remains prominent among a number of the language speakers, especially those involving in English studies (Jenkins, 2009) As a result, the ability to master these varieties tends to be considered measurement of L2 learners’ proficiency This notion was partly illustrated in Daniel Hauer’s practical experiment in Vietnamese English teachers’ pronunciation

4.1.1 Daniel Hauer’s perspective of Vietnamese English teachers’

pronunciation

On the one hand, Daniel Hauer claimed his incentives to perform an impartial experiment on how well Americans understand English of Vietnamese learners This was depicted in his introduction and explanation of the pronunciation “test” where he asked for his parents’ cooperation The first element

to take into consideration is Hauer’s stated purposes of producing videos In the first video “When Americans listen to English of Vietnamese people”, he professed that:

This video has 2 purposes The first one is to point out to you guys some common problems in Vietnamese pronunciation of English And the second purpose is to emphasize to you guys the importance of correct pronunciation

This was backed up by his clarification in the next video “Dirty competition?”: