The focus of this study was on the differences and similarities in English and Vietnamese invitations. The literature review of the thesis is based on the theoretical background of speech acts, politeness strategies, the existing theory on pragmatics and cross-cultural pragmatics, categories of inviting in English and Vietnamese through previous researches as well as books on linguistics and English learning.
The data for analysis was provided by two groups of participants: thirty English native speakers and thirty Vietnamese native speakers. The study employs by survey questionnaires data collection instruments. The survey questionnaires consisting six situations were delivered to thirty Vietnamese and thirty English participants.
The study aims to find out the similarities and differences between the ways English and Vietnamese making invitations. As a result, two research questions are addressed: (1) What are the major similarities and differences in the ways native speakers of English and native speakers of Vietnamese using hedge to decline invitations? (2) Do social distance and
relative power affect the choice of inviting forms by native speakers of English and Vietnamese native speakers?
Data analysis methods in this study are statistics, comparing and contrasting.
After the results was presented, the discussion to answer two research questions were made, and some implications on teaching was introduced.
1.2. Major findings
In the research, hedging in invitation declining has been viewed in the light of pragmatics. After collecting data, six main hedging strategies have been found, including Delaying, Showing Regret, Giving Excuses, Showing Respect, Giving an Alternative and Mixing Different Ways. Such factors as power distance of the inviters and the invitees and the formality of the events have been explored to find the similarities and differences in the use of hedges to decline an invitation between Vietnamese and American people.
The result of the survey shows that a majority of English speakers and Vietnamese speakers using hedges when declining invitations (94.5% and 96.7% respectively).Moreover, when declining an invitation, gender decides the use of hedging. 99.5% Vietnamese and 97.8% English female participants say they mostly hedge. The number of Vietnamese male who agree to hedge frequently is just 97.3% while that of the American is 96.8%.
Giving Excuses is a tactic favored by Vietnamese people. They tend to give very detailed excuses in every decline. This is sometimes seen as lengthy and unnecessary in conversations with the Americans
It has been noticed that it is a Vietnamese habit not to say sorry and thank very often, especially in socialized situations, or when there exists intimacy between the speaker and the hearer. Saying sorry and thank to someone close will be considered pseudo and artificial in Vietnamese
culture. This habit is a disadvantage when Vietnamese people have to decline an invitation from American partners, as American people tend to say sorry and thank very often, even to those who are intimate as a sign of respect.
The favorite strategy used by both Vietnamese and English people is Mixing Different Ways, while the least favored tactic is Delaying.
1.3. Implications on teaching
According to Raines (1999), language is the most typical, the most representative and the most central element in any culture. Language and culture are simply not separable; one cannot fully understand the nature of either language or culture unless they are seen as inseparable. It follows that second language learning is often second culture learning (Brown 1989).The results of the present study demonstrate that refusing in an L2 is a complex task because it requires the acquisition of the socio-cultural values of the target culture. In order to effectively communicate in the L2, the learner needs to acquire the socio-cultural strategies used most frequently by NSs, and the rules for their appropriate implementation. Under some aspects of contrastive view into making invitations both in English and Vietnamese, the study is about to discuss some implications for Vietnamese learners of English.
It is, first, essential for teachers to make students aware of cultural similarities and differences of making invitations in Vietnamese culture and the cultures where the target language is spoken. Teacher should distinguish and highlight which hedging strategy, in other words, when and they are used in informal
situations as well as formal ones. Through that, students can get to know clearly the functions of this speech act in order to use it effectively in daily interactions. It drives the students to be more confident when they make and keep the conversations with other people, especially those who come from English speaking countries. This is important because teachers themselves are making every effort to qualify our students for using English for communication.
Teachers, secondly, should provide their students any input that is necessary for students to enrich their understandings on the way invitation declining made in both languages as well as to enhance students' language and communicative competence. The input can be provided in various ways. For example, modern technology in language teaching today offers a great help for teachers to provide students with many sources of invitations such as Internet, television, videos, and many others. From that teachers can provide students with many options for choosing suitable hedging strategy that are close to real life situations. These are quite different to what are presented in the textbooks in order to bring authentic materials into the classroom.
Thirdly, to develop pragmatic ability in the FL classroom, language instructors should design contextualized, task-based activities which expose learners to different types of pragmatic input and prompt learners to produce appropriate output
To successfully perform a speech act, language instructors should teach language forms and functions contextually in communicative oral activities in
both formal and informal situations in order to develop the learners’
sociolinguistic ability in an L2.
Both socio-cultural and sociolinguistic information should be incorporated into the language curriculum and language textbooks. Specifically, students should be taught how to perform different speech acts in an L2 in different situations of social status, social distance, and with reference to the gender relation between the speakers and interlocutors.
Last but not least, teachers should also provide their students with as many as communicative opportunities as possible. Teachers should transform the class into a small society, or a neighborhood or an office where students can practice some activities as role play or mapped dialogue. These activities can stimulate students' enthusiasm, creativity in declining invitations in English.
FitzGerald (1999) argues that we as teachers should not forget that we are preparing our students not only for the domestic workplace and society. Our world is shrinking and the possibility of our students working abroad, or even at home with foreigners is much greater than before. Our students are very likely to need to communicate with both native and non-native speakers of English