An investigation into starting and closing telephone conversations between friends and relatives in american english and vietnamese

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES LE THI QUY AN INVESTIGATION INTO STARTING AND CLOSING TELEPHONE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

LE THI QUY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO STARTING AND CLOSING TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN FRIENDS AND RELATIVES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE

NGHIÊN CỨU PHẦN MỞ ĐẦU VÀ KẾT THÚC CUỘC HỘI THOẠI QUA ĐIỆN THOẠI GIỮA BẠN BÈ VÀ NGƯỜI THÂN TRONG TIẾNG ANH

MỸ VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15

Hanoi - 2010

LE THI QUY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO STARTING AND CLOSING TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN FRIENDS AND RELATIVES IN AMERICAN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE

NGHIÊN CỨU PHẦN MỞ ĐẦU VÀ KẾT THÚC CUỘC HỘI THOẠI QUA ĐIỆN THOẠI GIỮA BẠN BÈ VÀ NGƯỜI THÂN TRONG TIẾNG ANH

MỸ VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15

Supervisor: NGUYEN THI THOM THOM, M.A

Hanoi - 2010

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1.Rationale 1

2.Aims and Significance of the study 2

3.Scopes of the study 3

4.Methods of the study 3

5.Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1Theoretical Background 5

1.1.1Communication and telephone communication 5

1.1.2Conversation and telephone conversation 7

1.1.3Characteristics of a telephone conversation discourse 9

1.1.4The characteristic of a telephone conversation interaction 10

1.2Prior research on telephone conversations 10

1.2.1Telephone openings 11

1.2.2Telephone closings 13

1.3Summary 14

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 16

2.1Data collecting procedure 16

2.1.1Instruments 16

2.1.2Participants 17

2.2Data analysis 17

2.2.1Findings from the data corpus 17

2.2.2Findings from the survey questionnaire 25

2.2.3The similarities and differences of starting and closing telephone conversations in American English and Vietnamese 30

2.3Summary 33

PART C: CONCLUSION 34

1.Summary of the findings 34

2.Limitations of the study 36

3.Implications and suggestions for further research 37

REFERENCES 39

Website: 41

1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication 41 APPENDIX #1 I

COMMON FRAMEWORK I Note: AmE: American English II

APPENDIX #2 II

TRANSCRIPTION (American native speakers) II III

APPENDIX #3 XI

TRANSCRIPTION (Vietnamese native speakers) XI

APPENDIX #4 XX

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (For American Native Speakers) XX

APPENDIX #5 XXIII

BẢN CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT (Dành cho người Việt bản ngữ) XXIII

vi

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1 Frequency of the callees speak first 26

Figure 2 Frequency of greeting the callers/ callees 27

Figure 3 Frequency of asking what the caller/ callee doing 27

Figure 4 Frequency of the callees initiate final closing 29

Figure 5 Frequency of expressing joy about engaging in the conversation 29

Figure 6 Frequency of giving reasons to end the phone 30

Table 1 Occurrences of opening sequences 18

Table 2 Occurrences of closing sequence 22

Table 3 Sample of interaction with four phases analysis 23

Table 4 Frequency of acts in the openings 25

Table 5 Frequency of acts in the closings 28 Table 6 Common opening patterns I Table 7 Common closing patterns II

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AmE: American English

V1: Vietnamese

V: Vietnamese people

A: American People

T: Transcription