Tính trực tiếp và gián tiếp trong lời nhận xét của giáo viên nước ngoài và giáo viên việt nam đối với phần trình bày của sinh viên trong luyện tập kĩ năng nói tiếng anh

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER DIRECTNESS AND INDIRECTNESS IN THE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

DIRECTNESS AND INDIRECTNESS IN THE ANGLICIST AND THE VIETNAMESE TEACHERS’ ORAL FEEDBACK ON THEIR STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCES

Supervisor: Lại Thị Thanh Vân (M.A.) Student: Phạm Thị Thu Thảo

HÀ NỘI - 2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

TÍNH TRỰC TIẾP VÀ GIÁN TIẾP TRONG LỜI NHẬN XÉT CỦA GIÁO VIÊN NƯỚC NGOÀI VÀ GIÁO VIÊN VIỆT NAM ĐỐI VỚI PHẦN TRÌNH BÀY CỦA SINH VIÊN TRONG LUYỆN TẬP KĨ NĂNG NÓI

TIẾNG ANH

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Lại Thị Thanh Vân (M.A.)Sinh viên: Phạm Thị Thu Thảo

Khóa: QH2010.F1.E2

ACCEPTANCE

I here by state that, I: Phạm Thị Thu Thảo, QH2010.F.1.E2, 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

Phạm Thị Thu Thảo

May 2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish that there is a word which more than ―gratitude‖ to describe my feelings toward the people who have unconditionally supported and encouraged me

to complete this paper

First and foremost, I wish to express my deeply gratitude to my supervisor,

Ms Lại Thị Thanh Vân, for her invaluable patience, wisdom, precious comments and great encouragement throughout this research Without her precious help, this paper would not have been completed

I would like to thank sincerely all anonymous informant who agreed to participate in this research Without their acceptance, this study could not be conducted

I would also like to acknowledge the authors of the references for their useful materials which have served as a foundation for the development of this research Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my parents and my boyfriend without whose patient care, love, understanding, encouragement and support, I could never have got this far

ABSTRACT

As one of the most significant dimensions in cross-cultural communication, directness and indirectness are claimed to have a strong connection with speech act performance in communication That evokes many studies into the directness and indirectness in different aspects of reality communication

This study was conducted with the aims to provide a view in the use of directness and indirectness expressed through teachers’ oral feedback for their students in language classroom communication The data were collected from three Anglicist teachers and three Vietnamese teachers by recording their oral feedback on students’ speaking performances The collected data then are analyzed by qualitative methods

Based on the collected data, some results have been found out Firstly, the extent of directness in the Anglicist teachers’ feedback and the Vietnamese teachers’ feedback is different Though the use of strategies are somehow balanced, the Vietnamese teachers appear to be more indirect due to the frequent use of linguistic devices in their feedback It also reveal that the number of strategies as well as the modifiers are the factors which contribute to the identification of degree of direness

in teachers’ oral feedback Secondly, the use as well as the choices of strategies and modifiers of the Anglicist teachers and the Vietnamese teachers are put in comparison to figure out the similarities and differences

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACCEPTANCE i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study and research questions 3

1.3 Significance of the study 3

1.4 Scope of the study 4

1.5 Organization of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Feedback 6

2.1.1 Definition of feedback 6

2.1.2 Classification 7

2.1.3 The importance role of feedback in language teaching and learning 9

2.2 Directness and indirectness 9

2.2.1 Definition 9

2.2.2 Directness and indirectness in culture 10

2.2.3 Directness and indirectness in language 11

2.2.4 Types of directness and indirectness 12

2.2.5 Motives for indirectness 13

2.2.6 The significance of directness and indirectness 14

2.2.7 Factors influencing the use of directness and indirectness 14

2.2.8 Directness and indirectness in teachers’ oral feedback 15

2.3 Speaking performances 15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 The research design 18

3.2 Informants 18

3.3 Research methods 19

3.4 Data collection 20

3.4.1 Data collection instrument 20

3.4.2 Data collection procedure 20

3.5 Data analysis 20

3.5.1 Data coding 20

3.5.2 Data analysis method 27

3.5.3 Data analysis procedure 27

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DICUSSION 28

4.1 Findings 28

4.2 Discussion 39

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 43

5.1 Summary of the major findings 43

5.2 Limitations 44

5.3 Implications 44

5.4 Suggestion for further study 45

REFERENCES 46

APPENDICES 51

LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES AND

ABBREVIATIONS

TABLES

Table 1: Categorization of criticism strategies

Table 2: Categorization of modifiers

PAGE

23

26

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

―Individuals with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds think differently‖ (Tohidian, I., & Mir Tabatabaie, 2010) In other words, Gayle (2002) also affirms the influence of social environment on human interaction behaviors These notions explain why people who come from different countries and speak different languages behave differently It also emphasizes the importance of understanding culture besides learning a language To be successful in communicating, especially in intercultural environment, it is necessary to deal with both language and culture It means that besides mastering the language, raising the awareness of cultural background is vital Therefore, it is advisable that English language learners understand the cultural backgrounds For English learners, the acknowledgement of cultures of English-speaking countries should be noticed

As for communication, in some circumstances, people do not always speak out what they really think, especially with negative things For example, if people does not find their friend’s joke interesting, they are more likely to say ―Hmm, it’s not bad‖ rather than ―It’s boring‖ As the human nature drives people to seek for harmony in the relationship with others, many people opt to respond in the first way unless they have another purpose, for instance to end up the relationship, or to embarrass that friend, etc People, generally, try different ways to mitigate their unpleasant words This is known as the adjustment in the degree of directness in verbal communication, in which the high degree of directness is often known as

―directness‖ and the low degree of directness is considered ―indirectness‖ ―Proper words in proper place at proper time to the right person will always make a successful communication‖ (Krauss and Chiu, 1998) The proper degree of directness is also one important factor which contributes to that success It could help to make the conversation go on smoothly, to avoid misunderstanding and cultural shock and to maintain harmony with others

However, it is hardly to clarify what ―a proper degree‖ is The valuation of directness and indirectness in some cultures, especially between Western cultures and Asia cultures including Vietnam, is considerably disparate Because of this distinctive difference, directness is considered not only a cultural dimension but also a cultural identity According to Levine and Adelman (1982), ―In American English using, directness is one of the most essential parts‖ Meanwhile, it is believed that in Asian countries including Vietnam, indirectness (or the low degree

of directness) is more valued (Curry, 2009) As a result, it can cause some certain problems in intercultural communication Therefore, understanding the degree of directness used in different languages is important to ensure the effectiveness of the conversation, as well as to avoid the impoliteness or rudeness, especially when giving feedback or personal opinions about particular problems or persons

In L2 learning and teaching, giving feedback plays a very important role in classroom It is an important part of any learning process (Brawdy& Byra, 1994; Clariana & Koul, 2006) Tabatabaei & Banitalebi (2011) also agreed that feedback

as a vital part in all learning contexts Through the feedback, teachers help students improve their performance, understand how they reach the desire output and learn more effectively However, in a language classroom, especially in Vietnam, intercultural problems in terms of cultural shock or misunderstanding may affect students’ conceivableness of the feedback That unsuccessful communication between teachers and students can lead to shock, disappointment and even anxiety which may have negative influences on students’ progress

However, in language classroom, or to be more specific in the scope of this paper - English language classroom setting where the cross-cultural communication does happen between students and the Anglicist teachers (who mostly come from United States, United Kingdom and Autralia), there are high chances that cultural problems happens, but very little studies, have been done Meanwhile, with many Vietnamese students in ULIS and other universities, their limited chance of exposure with intercultural communication may lead to misunderstanding, shock,

disappointment or even anxiety, etc during interacting process with teachers Therefore, understanding the degree of directness in each language, or to be exactly

in each culture, is essential in learning and teaching to ensure successful communication between teachers and students, better improvement and better relationship All of these factors have conditioned a chance for the researcher to conduct a study on ―directness and indirectness in the Vietnamese and the Anglicist teachers’ oral feedback on their students’ speaking performances‖

1.2 Aims of the study and research questions

As the research investigates the way the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers give oral feedback on their students’ speaking performances, it aims to find out the degree of directness in the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers’ comment and to explore the similarities and differences in using directness and indirectness It also studies the way teachers employ linguistic properties to realize the devices used to adjust the degree of directness when the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers give evaluation for their students Besides, this study can offers understanding to help avoid cultural shock for students and help teachers give feedback more effectively to their students

The study addresses the following questions:

(1) To what extent do the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers use directness and indirectness in their feedback on students’ speaking performance?

(2) What are the similarities and differences between the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers in the use of directness and indirectness in their feedback on students’ speaking performances?

1.3 Significance of the study

The research is an attempt to examine the degree of directness/indirectness

in the oral feedback given by the Anglicist and Vietnamese teachers about their students’ performances Once being completed, the ultimate outcomes can be beneficial for entities involved (including the Anglicist teachers, the Vietnamese teachers and students), for researchers and people who are interested in the field Some of the benefits can be listed as follows:

- Providing a general view of the way the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers give feedback on their students’ performance

- Providing a closer and deeper look on the degree of directness in the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers’ feedback from the cross-cultural communication study Therefore, the study can help teachers to have a critical view about giving feedback for students and help students to prepare themselves with teachers’ feedback to avoid misunderstanding and culture shock

- Offering a source of reference for researchers who are going to conduct related studies in the future and for people who are interested in the field

1.4 Scope of the study

The main focus of this paper is the directness and indirectness in verbal feedback of teachers in language classroom It means the feedback of teachers would be the source of data for researching Only two cultural dimensions include directness and indirectness will be studies

Since this is a cross-cultural research on the teachers’ use of directness and indirectness in their oral feedback, the informants will including teachers who comes from different cultures They are the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers who are teaching English Speaking skill in Universtiy of Language and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU) The reason for researcher’s choice is that ULIS, VNU is the university which has many language classrooms In those language classrooms, students carry out different kinds of speaking performances (for e.g presentation, short speech, skit, etc.) during their

learning process and make improvement from teachers’ feedback and support That environment is completely suitable for the research to conduct the study Besides, the research also is learning in this school, so it would be much convenient for the process of collecting data About the informants, three Anglicist teachers will be studied; they are English native speakers who come from United States, United Kingdom and Australia The same number of Vietnamese teachers also be chosen

to be the informants They must be proficient in English and use English in teaching The context is in the English language classrooms of university students where English is used in teaching and learning

1.5 Organization of the study

The study contains five parts

- Chapter 1: Introduction – states the problem and rationale for the study, together with the aim, significance, scope and organization of the study

- Chapter 2: Literature review – provides the theoretical background related to the research issue, including sub-parts which provide understanding and theoretical knowledge of feedback, the important of feedback in language teaching and learning, directness and indirectness and their significance in daily communication

as well as in teacher-student interaction

- Chapter 3: Methodology – states the details of the methods and procedures applied and implemented in the study to collect the data and analyze the data

- Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion– presents the results and discusses the main findings of the study

- Chapter 5: Conclusion – summarizes the main findings, points out the limitation and provides suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Since the research is the graduation paper which is conducted, read and evaluated by students and teachers who get used with basic knowledge in cultural issues, including the understanding about basic concepts such as culture, communication, cross-cultural communication, intercultural communication, etc., some of these common concepts would be omitted for the readers’ convenient in accessing information

2.1 Feedback

2.1.1 Definition of feedback

Many researchers have attempted to define feedback According to Gass and Selinker (2008, p 329-330), feedback is understood as all the information ―about the success (or, more likely, lack of success) of their [learners’] utterances and gives additional opportunities to focus on production and comprehension‖ Sadler (1989) also explain feedback as the information which is given to evaluate how an action is being developed in terms of its quality of success These definitions show that feedback is the information which tells how good a students’ performance (or the level of success) is and show how far it is to a desired performance

In the other hand, Lewis (2002) covers more in her definition She defines the act of giving feedback is telling learners about their progress and showing them errors in order to guide them to the areas of improvement In her definition, the purpose of giving feedback is clearly stated for learners’ improvement However, Lewis’s definition seems to refer more about the corrective feedback1 rather than others forms Since the study focuses on mainly on the evaluation of teacher rather than the corrective form, the researcher adopts both two definitions of Sadler and Lewis in this paper In which, feedback can be known as the information given to evaluate how the production or the output is well performed in term of its quality of

success and to guide learners to the areas of improvement Feedback can be given under written or oral form However, in the scope of this paper, only oral form is studied

2.1.2 Classification

Feedback can be sorted in different categories It can be either positive

feedback or which ―demonstrates comprehension of learners’ language‖

(Tabatabaei, 2011), or can be negative feedback, which show the non-target points

in his/ her utterance According to Baron (1993), negative feedback also is known

under another terms called ―criticism‖ It is undeniable that criticism is inevitable in

feedback In common knowledge, criticism is known as the practice of judging something or someone in an intelligible way Whilst, feedback, as stated above, besides showing the progress and mistakes, also including the information for improvement The difference also has mentioned by Tewksbury in ―Skweeze Life!: Criticism vs Feedback, Part 2‖ (2001): ―I think that feedback is simply information that helps people change their behaviour in a positive way So, it is encouraging, that helps people to see the facts, move forward Criticism is usually a dumping of anger and blame that very rarely encourages anybody to change anything‖ In a nut shell, it can be seen that feedback is the concepts which is superior the concept

―criticism‖

Back to the classification, according to Petchprasert (2012), feedback can be

divided in two types which are explicit and implicit feedback There are different

definitions of explicit feedback, It can be known as ―the process of providing the learner with direct forms of feedback‖ (Varnosfadrani and Basturkmen, 2009) In oral performance, teachers can give explicit feedback by pointing out that the learners’ utterance is wrong They directly identify their students a specific point of error (Carroll & Swain, 1993, as cited in Varnosfadrani & Basturkmen, 2009) In contrast, ―implicit feedback or indirect corrective feedback is defined as furnishing the type of error that has been made but not providing a correction‖ (Bitchener & Knoch, 2010; Bitchener, Young, & Cameron, 2005)

According to Lyster & Ranta (1997), corrective feedback can be sorted in six categories which are explicit correction, recast, clarification request, repetition, metalinguistic feedback and elicitation:

1) Explicit correction: According to Lyster and Ranta (1997), explicit correction is ―any feedback technique that involves a teacher simply providing a student with the correct answer‖ (pp 46-49)

2) Recast: According to Lyster and Ranta (1997), recast is defined as ―a more implicit feedback technique that involves the teacher’s reformulation

of all or part of a student’s utterance, minus the error‖ (pp 46-49)

3) Clarification request: According to Lyster and Ranta (1997), clarification request is a ―feedback type in which the teacher asks a question indicating to the student that there is a problem with the language utterance‖ (pp 46-49) 4) Repetition: According to Lyster and Ranta (1997), repetition is ―the type

of the feedback that involves a teacher repeating wrong utterance highlighting it with intonation‖ (pp 46-49)

5) Metalinguistic feedback: According to Lyster and Ranta (1997), metalinguistic feedback ―involves a teacher making comments or indicating

to the student that there is an error in the language output (e.g., Can you find

an error?)‖ (pp 46-49)

6) Elicitation: Lyster and Ranta (1997) define elicitation as ―a feedback type when teachers ask for completion of their own sentence by pausing and allowing students to correct themselves; they may also ask questions to elicit correct form and help students to reformulate an ill-formed utterance‖ (pp 46-49)

In this paper, the main type of feedback will be studied is metalinguistic feedback

2.1.3 The importance role of feedback in language teaching and learning

As mentioned before, feedback is very important in learning and teaching It

is the key in formative assessment Successful feedback requires teachers to have

―(1) a clear idea of the process of task resolution, (2) understand the extent to which the child is capable of dealing with this process and/or its parts, and (3) know the figure that the child has, distancing itself from its position of knowledge (it is the teacher role to put himself in the position of another)‖ (Santo & Pinto, 2008) This practice is not an easy task with teachers However, the effect that feedback brings

in learning is undeniable It supports students in controlling and improving their performance from the strengths and weaknesses Through the feedback offered, students can see the differences between their product and desired output, to see how far they have done and learn from the mistakes which they have made Raising students’ awareness of these things can ensure for their better performance in the future

2.2 Directness and indirectness

In contrast, indirectness, according to Searle (1975), involves "those cases in which one illocutionary act is performed indirectly by ways of performing another" (as cited in Zhang & You, 2009) Another definition is ―the means in which one meaning is conveyed indirectly through utterances or non-verbal behaviors in order

to achieve certain goal, or the means in which one's intent is revealed in a roundabout way‖ (Zhang & You, 2009) Both the explanations describe quite fully the nature of indirectness However, to sum it in some short words, the researcher would like to cite a simpler explanation of indirectness used in an interesting scientific book named ―That’s not what I meant‖, in which Dorweiler (2005) refers

―the way people mean what they don’t exactly say‖ as indirectness For example, instead of giving a demand like ―Go home!‖ which is a direct speech act, a less aggressive form can be given such as ―Why don’t you go home?‖ This question can be considered as an indirect expression since the purpose of the speaker is not waiting for a response or a reason but conveying the implied message that the listener should go home

2.2.2 Directness and indirectness in culture

Directness and indirectness are the major cultural dimensions which are quite familiar in cross-cultural study These two concepts are popular in communication of all cultures A linguist named Deborah Tannen (1994) affirms that they are the fundamental elements in human communication and also are among ―the elements which vary the most from one culture to another, […] can cause confusion and misunderstanding‖ It can be seen that the differences which make them become a cultural identity lie under variety of the degree of directness and the manifestation in each culture There are cultures which highly respect the direct expression while there are cultures value the indirect ways This is due to the term ―cultural thoughts patterns‖ introduced by Kaplan (1972) In his study, Kaplan research the essays of English students in compare to ones of foreign students in America to come to the output of five discourse structures illustrated in the diagram below:

Figure 1 Kaplan’s diagram

a) Figure a: Linearity with ideas expressed straightforward, representing English

b) Figure b: Parallel construction with the first idea completed in the second part, representing Semitic

c) Figure c: Circularity with the topic looked at from tangents, representing Oriental

d) Figure d: Freedom to digest and introduce ―extraneous‖ material, representing Romance

e) Figure e: Similar to ―d‖ but with different lengths, parenthetical amplifications and an abrupt stop of subordinate elements, representing Russian

2.2.3 Directness and indirectness in language

―Where directness or indirectness are cultural themes, they are always language-related‖ (Saville-Troike, 2008) This statement affirms that there is always a relation between directness and indirectness with language Direct speech acts are ―those where surface form matches interactional function‖ (Saville-Troike, 2008) It means that direct speech acts involve the correspondence between expression meaning and implied meaning Whilst, indirect speech acts occurs when there is a mismatch between the expressed meaning and implied meaning, when an

individual means more than what he/she says Yule (1996) also share the same opinion but with different terms which are structure and function He states that

―whenever there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function, we have

a direct speech act Whenever there is indirect relationship between a structure and

a function we have an indirect speech act‖ It can be seen that Yule also based on the correspondence between structure which, in other words, is what an individual say (expressed meaning) and function which, in other words, is what he/she means (implied meaning) to differ the direct and the indirect speech acts

As stated above, directness and indirectness are the cultural elements which vary the most from cultures to cultures, which also means that they are various in languages The degree and manifestation in each language is the main feature that make them become a cultural identity There are cultures which value the direct way but there are also cultures value the indirect way That valuation are expressed partly through language However, it should be noticed that no language completely employs one way of expression, the characteristic of being direct or indirect is identified by the domination of one feature to another For example, Western cultures are always considered to prefer direct expression and Asian cultures prefer indirect ways, however, it does not mean that Western people never

be indirect and Asian people never be direct It should be understood that directness takes the advantage in Western while indirectness dominate in Asia

2.2.4 Types of directness and indirectness

According to Searle (1975), there are basically two types of indirectness which are conventional indirectness and non-conventional indirectness

―Conventional indirectness refers to those utterances which are standardized

to perform only those acts conventionally designated for certain functional purposes which are not assigned to them in their grammatical forms‖ (Searle, 1975) Blum-Kulka et al (1989, p.42) share the same idea by stating that conventional indirectness includes ―propositional content (literal meaning) and pragmalinguistic

form used to signal an illocutionary force‖ For example, ―Would you lend me your notes?‖, both the meaning and the exact wording refer to one illocutionary force

―The second type of indirectness, non-conventional indirectness, also

referred to as hints, comprises those utterances, which are ambiguous on either

prepositional content or illocutionary force or both‖ (Searle, 1975) For example,

by replying ―I have to study for the exam‖ to an invitation, the speaker indirectly refuses the invitation In the non-conventional indirect speech act, tfsimilar indirectness ties closely to the context With the conventional indirectness, individuals need to know and to understand the language to find out the intended meaning while with non-conventional indirectness, intended meaning can be figured out from the context

2.2.5 Motives for indirectness

Motives for the mitigation of degree of directness relates to a so-called ―face threatening acts‖ and ―face saving acts‖ It is accepted that people in all cultures have an awareness of self-image which is called ―face‖, as they communicate In a conversation, there are speech acts which is considered represent a threat to another individual’s expectations regarding self-image They are known as face-threatening acts In turn, given the possibility that the behaviors might be interpreted as a threat

to another face, the speaker can make adjustment to lessen the possible threat That

is known as a face-saving act

In social interactions, face-threatening acts are at times inevitable based on the terms of the conversation Indirect speech act is one of the way to reduce the threat It does exist many situations that using indirectness is necessary to avoid embarrassment, friction or even pain for yourself and your interlocutors The motives which lie behind indirectness usage are various In this paper, the researcher would like to apply the classification of Searle (1975) in the ―Indirect speech acts‖ in which motives for indirectness are classified into four categories:

- Indirectness for politeness

- Indirectness for self-protection

- Indirectness for humor

- Indirectness for rejection and denial

2.2.6 The significance of directness and indirectness

In communication

Directness and indirectness, to be more exactly, the degree of directness is very importance in communication in general Depending on the context that a conversation takes place, the degree of directness in the conversation could contribute to a success communicating, exchanging messages and opinions Moreover, it could help avoid unexpected situations and misunderstanding due to the differences in cultures

In classroom teacher-student interaction

In teacher-communication, teachers’ verbal and nonverbal behaviors have great influence on students’ learning Besides, they can affect other factors including students’ attitude, moods, motivation and classroom atmosphere, therefore influence students’ progress as well In cross cultural communication, teachers and students from different cultures may meet difficulties due to the culture differences, appropriate degree of directness can ensure for the safe mutual understanding, avoid culture shock for both teachers and students

2.2.7 Factors influencing the use of directness and indirectness

There are many factors which attribute to the mitigation of degree of directness in communication, regardless the cultural issue Do (2000) introduces fourteen different factors including age, gender, residence, psychological mood, occupation, personality, topic, place, communicative environment, relative distance, time pressure, position, distance, foreign language acquisition However, in the scope of the study, only some factors which are considered to be related will be discussed They are age, gender and topic

- Age: the old people tend to be more indirect than the young

- Gender: females have the tendency to use indirect expression more than male

- Topic: while referring to a subtle topic or a taboo, etc people often opt for indirectness

2.2.8 Directness and indirectness in teachers’ oral feedback

As mentioned above, feedback plays a vital role in learning and teaching Since feedback is featured by teachers giving comments, raising students’ awareness of the mistake or drawback in their products/ performances, it is considered to bring possible negative effects on the ―face‖ of the interlocutors who, within the scope of this paper, are students The situation is more sensitive with negative feedback (criticism) Besides, language classroom is the place where has a high risk of cultural shock due to the cultural differences between teachers and students Even with Vietnamese teachers, their English proficiency and the longtime of exposure to the language can affect to the degree of directness in their illocutionary force This can lead to the some gap between students and teachers Therefore, understand the appropriate degree of directness can make the act of commenting or giving feedback more effectively, teachers can convey fully their messages to students without bringing hurt or embarrassment

2.3 Speaking performances

Speaking is among four skills that learners should master in order to communicate in a foreign language environment In language learning, many different kinds of speaking performances are designed to create a speaking environment for students to practice In ULIS where this paper is conducted, speaking performances are various from presentations, skits, forums, debates, etc., but presentations still take the majority in the curriculum of students There are various criteria to evaluate a presentation In a study, Kerby and Romine (2010) offer many different criteria related to different competences including content,

organization, language use, delivery, interactions In this research, based on the observation, some related criteria will be presented below The acknowledgement

of those criteria will help readers have a basic understanding on the content of teachers’ feedback

- Organization: In the study of Kerby and Romine (2010), the highest score

is given for the organization that audience can easily follow It can present and develop fully and clearly the ideas of speaker(s) in a logical way

- Content: It is suggested, according to the rubric (Kerby & Romine, 2010, p

178), that the satisfied content should ―guides audience to new level of understanding, creatively meets objectives of presentation‖ And if the presentation

is prepared and delivered in group, group members should demonstrate understanding of other members’ material Moreover, it must ―consistently demonstrates awareness of audience’s level of understanding through use of discipline-related language, content, and examples‖ (Kerby & Romine, 2010, p 178), or in other words, the use of content and language should be appropriate with audiences and the speakers should show the awareness of audiences’ level

- Delivery: It is considered one of the most important parts of a presentation

since the performance of the speakers and the way speakers convey their ideas to audience will contribute considerably to the success of the presentation The delivery is evaluated by sub-criteria, regarding the non-verbal communication (including eye contact, posture, gestures and appearance), vocal quality and the visual aid In which, for the non-verbal communication, eye-contact should be maintain regularly with audiences to read the audiences’ reaction and check their comprehension; gesture, posture and appearance should be appropriate, do not cause distraction and can enhance the content About the vocal quality, the speakers are expected to perform accurate grammar, clear pronunciation without pauses and lack of vocal variety Besides, the expression of enthusiasm through vocal quality is highly appreciated The last is about visual aids, good visual aids, in Kerby and

Romine’s study, are expected to use creatively by the speakers to strengthen their ideas and ―invoke interest‖

- Question responsiveness: This part refers to presenters’ ability and skill in handling questions, addressing the problems posed in given question and answering the questions

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 The research design

The design is the multiple case study which is an analysis of a group of subjects According to Thomas (2011), case studies are known as ―the analyses of persons, events, decisions, periods, projects, policies, institutions, or other systems that are studied holistically by one or more methods The case that is the subject of the inquiry will be an instance of a class of phenomena that provides an analytical frame — an object — within which the study is conducted and which the case illuminates and explicates‖ The multiple cases study is conducted with numeral of cases which are chosen for ―their diversity where the study can explore multiple practice, describe the diversity of practice and explain the critical mediating factors‖ (Yin, 1993) In compare with the single case, the multiple-cases is considered beneficial since it augment external validity and help guard against observer biases Moreover, it can adds confidence to findings by providing a look

at range of similar and contrasting cases, so ―we can understand a single-case finding, grounding it by specific how and where and, if possible why it behaves as

it does‖ (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p.79) In additional, as the research study the use of directness and indirectness of the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers in their oral feedback in language classroom, it involves multiple cases and multiple research units Thus, multiple cases are chosen since it is suitable research design which allow researcher to gain in-depth information about the cases and have a closer look of the issue in real-context

possesses.‖ (Tongco, 2007) This sampling method enables the researchers to work with rich cases in order to gain in-depth potential data

Since the study examines the degree of directness/indirectness in the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers’ oral feedback about their students’ performances, the participants of the research will be the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University There are three Anglicist teachers from University of Languages and International Studies, International Standard Program and International School, Vietnam National University and three Vietnamese teachers from University of Languages and International Studies who will be chosen as the subjects of the study

All the teachers who involve in the study must be proficient in English and

in using English in teaching They are assigned by the university to teach speaking skill for Vietnamese students The speaking class must include different kinds of speaking performances, but mainly presentations, to create room for practicing and

it is necessary that there are sections for teachers to do the giving feedback practice The chosen foreign teachers all come from English-speaking countries such as England, USA and Australia Whilst, the chosen Vietnamese teachers are experienced in teaching English and using English in teaching, hence, they get used

to interacting with students and have experience in giving feedback on students’ speaking performance

3.3 Research methods

Quantitative and qualitative research methods were chosen to conduct this study, but the qualitative one is used mainly This method has been applied in many academic disciplines, traditionally in social sciences with the aim of gathering in-depth information about the research issue It is often used with small but focused samples Since the subject of the study is teachers’ oral feedback, data is collected

by recording devices through observation Then the data is analyzed by qualitative method To collect the data, the researchers asked for the teachers’ permission to attend in their class, all the oral feedback will be recorded, then the data will be transcribed The researcher will based on the transcription to conduct analysis in the later chapter

3.4 Data collection

3.4.1 Data collection instrument

As mentioned above, observation will be chosen as data collection instrument to gather the observational data which is the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers’ oral feedback on their students’ speaking performance Data are recorded by recording devices and are transcribed later to serve the research purpose

3.4.2 Data collection procedure

There will be two steps in the data collection process

Step 1: The research will contact the three Anglicist teachers and the three Vietnamese teachers to get their permission and schedule to conduct the observations

Step 2: Observation will be carried out according to the schedule It will take several weeks to complete the observation The researcher has to prepare all needed devices to serve the data collection process, including an audio recorder All the oral feedback which is given by teachers will be recorded

3.5 Data analysis

3.5.1 Data coding

The feedback of teachers will be coded based on the strategies they use to

negative feedback is focused here because it exposes potential face-threatening acts

to interlocutors Therefore, the date coding is adapted from the coding categories of Nguyen, Minh Thi Thuy (2005) In additional, the scarcity of sources on feedback analysis and coding scheme also contribute to the researcher’s decision of deploying code categories based on those ones developed by Nguyen, Minh Thi Thuy (2005, p 112 - 114) who developed a research named ―Criticizing And Responding To Criticism In A Foreign Language: A Study Of Vietnamese Learners

Of English‖

It has been stated by Blum-Kulka (1987) that the degree of directness of a criticism is determined by the degree of illocutionary transparency Therefore, illocutionary force will be interpreted according to the categories in the table below

to decide whether it is more direct or more indirect

with hearer’s choices/ actions/ work/ products, etc

adjectives with negative meaning or evaluative adjectives with positive meaning plus negation

hearer’s choice, etc

negation word ―No‖ or performatives ―I don’t agree‖ or ―I disagree‖ (with or without modal) or via arguments against hearer

d Identification of problem Stating problems or errors found with

hearer’s choice, etc

structures as ―I find it difficult to understand…‖ or ―it’s difficult to understand…‖

negative effects of hearer’s choice, etc for hearer himself or herself or for the topic

choices/ actions/ work/ products, etc

purpose of fixing errors by asserting specific alternatives to hearer’s choice, etc

rather than an obligation for hearer personally or as a rule which speaker thinks is commonly agreed upon and applied to all

with an implicature that hearer is incapable of making correct choices otherwise

"you have to", "you must", ―it is

obligatory that‖ or "you are required‖ or

―you need‖,

―it is necessary‖

"will you ?", "can you ?", "would you ?" or imperatives (with or without politeness markers), or want-statement

"I advise you ", or structures with

"should" with or without modality

"I suggest that " or such structures as

"you can", "you could", "it would be better if" or "why don't you" etc

uncertainty to raise hearer’s awareness

of the inappropriateness of hearer’s choice, etc

awareness of the inappropriateness of hearer’s choice, etc

not belong to (h) and (i) May include sarcasm

Table 1 Categorization of criticism strategies

As mentioned above the feedback can include potential face-threatening acts

to interlocutors, there does exist the modifiers which is used to mitigate the degree

of directness Hinkel (1997) considers these modifiers as indirectness devices and classifies them in three groups which are rhetorical strategies and markers, lexical and referential markers, and syntactic markers and structures All of these devices are used in both English and Vietnamese However, the devices introduced in Hinkel’ study is just the internals ones which are part of the speech acts Nguyen (2005) has made up for the flaws with the external modifiers This paper will adopt both the modifiers in the two studies to serve the analysis process Those modifiers are presented in the table below:

head acts

onto the issue he or she was going to raise

E.g.: ―I read your essay and here are some my own ideas of this‖

hearer either before or after a criticism

to compensate for the offensive act (It is acknowledged that an alternative term to

―sweeteners‖ is ―positive remarks‖ However, this term is not used in the present study because the present study does not focus on giving feedback on positive aspects)

E.g.: ―There are quite good relevant ideas that you presented but ‖

or her awareness of the potential offence that his or her speech might cause to hearer

E.g.: ―You had a few spelling mistakes but I think that’s because you’re writing too quickly, nothing too major.‖

his or her intent

and criticism (negative feedback) response

effect of the offensive acts

E.g.: ―I thought that …‖

clearness?

E.g.: May, could, would 2.2 Lexical/ phrasal

E.g.: sort of, kind of

E.g.: Hardly, partly, possible, probably, somewhat, somehow

E.g.: quite, a little bit

E.g.: Do you think? Do you agree?

harmony between the interlocutors E.g.: I mean, you see, you know, etc

2.3.Rhetorical questions and markers

a Rhetorical questions and tags E.g.: You have mentioned that, haven’t

you?

c Vagueness and Ambiguity E.g.: Lots of, approximately; several; at

least, at best; always; things (stuff) like that, who knows, etc

Table 2 Categorization of modifiers

3.5.2 Data analysis method

The collected data are processed by interpretive method based on the coding table above The interpretation will be viewed in comparison for further discussion

on the use of directness and indirectness between the use of the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers in their oral feedback

3.5.3 Data analysis procedure

The process of transcribing and analyzing the collected data will be carried out through the following steps:

Step 1: The recording is transcribed

All the tape recordings will be transcribed into written form

Step 2: The data is interpreted

The transcribed data first will be interpreted to find out the degree of directness and indirectness in teachers’ oral feedback The interpretations also are put into comparison to figure out any possible similarities and differences between and the devices used to mitigate the degree of face-theatening that the Anglicist and the Vietnamese teachers use

Step 3: Findings and discussion are drawn

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DICUSSION

4.1 Findings

This chapter provides an insightful and detailed analysis of data collected during the research procedure Accordingly, the interpretation of these data is also offer to answer the research questions

The table below are the analyses of some of the feedback of the Anglicist teachers on their students’ short speeches and the strategies they use:

The Anglicist teacher 1

- “So your supporting examples were very specific I think your third example was

a little confused” (Indirect strategy: expression of uncertainty)

- “However, I wasn’t quite clear about what you are saying” (Indirect strategy:

expression of uncertainty)

- “Over, you would want your voice to be brighter, you will want to speak louder

and clear.” (Indirect strategy: suggestion for changes)