An english -vietnamese cross – cultural study of boasting Hà Thị Tuyết Nhung Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã Số: 60 22 15 Người hướng dẫn: Đào Thị Thu Trang, M,A Năm bảo vệ: 2010 Abstract: This study examines the similarities and differences in how Anglicist and Vietnamese native speakers boast of themselves, a face threatening act, with a focus on the utilization of politeness strategies. Being conducted in the light of cross-cultural analysis and based on the collection of quantitative method with the use of survey questionnaires, the study is carried out with the special emphasis given to:  Linguistic realization of boasting in English and Vietnamese.  Strategies in boasting employed by two particular cultural groups: Anglicist and Vietnamese. Collected data from survey questionnaires are cross-culturally compared and contrasted. The findings of the study provide the evidence that people from both cultures employ politeness strategies in their expressions with different preference. This hopefully contribute to helping interlocutors avoid communication breakdowns in Vietnamese-Anglicist cross-cultural communication and helping teachers improve their process of English teaching. Keywords: Giao văn hóa; Tiếng Anh; Ngôn ngữ học. Content: 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS * Certificate of originality of study project report *Acknowledgements *Abstract *Table of contents *Abbreviations * List of tables * List of figures i ii iii iv vi vii viii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale 2. Scope of the study 3. Aims of the study 4. Methodology 5. Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1. Language, culture and cross-cultural communication 1.1.1. Language, culture in communication 1.1.2. Language and culture in cross-cultural communication 1.2. Speech act 1.2.1. What is a speech act? 1.2.2. Classification of speech acts 1.2.3. Boasting as a speech acts 1 1 2 2 3 3 5 5 5 5 6 7 7 8 10 5 1.3. Politeness 1.3.1. What is politeness? 1.3.2. Face and Politeness 1.3.3. Politeness strategies CHAPTER 2: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 2.1. Advisable topics to boast 2.2. Politeness strategies realized in boasting 2.3. Use of strategies in boasting as seen from communicating partners' parameters 2.3.1. Data analysis 2.3.2 Major similarities and differences 2.4. Use of strategies in boasting as seen from informants' parameters 2.4.1. Data analysis 2.4.2 Major similarities and differences PART III: CONCLUSION 1. Review of the findings 2. Implications for cross – cultural communication 3. Suggestions for further research REFERENCES APPENDICES 11 11 12 14 16 16 18 20 20 28 28 29 31 33 33 33 33 35 9 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE Nowadays, as English becomes an international language in many fields, the number of Vietnamese learners of English has increased. However, it is recognized that many Vietnamese – English interactions have experienced communication breakdown due to misinterpretations and misunderstandings. Language plays an important role in our life. Language is not only for communication but also for cultural exchange among nations. It is difficult to imagine what our lives would be like without language. Language is a sign that makes human different from all other species in the animal kingdom. People use it to communicate their ideas and thoughts to express their feelings such as anger, love, hate… and to convey their hopes and dreams. Cross – cultural communication is an interesting and attractive field for us to find out the similar and different language when studying speech acts such as greeting, advising, promising among countries in the world. Comparisons of speech acts from different cultures have revealed that the same speech acts may be realized differently across cultures, following social norms of usage which are specific to the given speech community. In real – life conversations, people show different aspects of lives through diversified formal and informal speech. Among them, lots of people can’t wait to tell us all how fantastic they are, how they are good at this and even better than that. They claim all manner of wild and outrageous things. They may claim to be enlightened, wise, highly intellectual and they might tell you that they are so popular that you should be honored they chose you to spend their day with. This is the way people boast and big themselves up. In the process of learning a foreign language, learners of English have to get to know a different culture. They sooner or later realize the presence of cross – cultural 10 differences between English and Vietnamese. There were many studies about how English and Vietnamese differ from each other in the ways of expressing sympathy, promise, excitement, enjoyment… However, the study of boasting has not been paid much attention to. With the hope of contributing a little to successful cross – cultural communication, this paper with a limited scope of research on English and Vietnamese similarities and differences in boasting has been written to help speakers of English observe the nature of boasting, how to boast, when to boast in real – life situations. 2. SCOPE OF THE STUDY Although paralinguistic (speed, loudness, pitch…) and extralinguistic (facial expressions, postures, proximity…) factors, to some extent, play a decisive role in interpersonal communication, they are beyond the scope of this study. The study only focuses on the verbal aspects of the act of boasting. The study is limited to the data obtained from the survey questionnaire on ways of boasting in three socially differentiated situations. The questionnaires were given to 50 Vietnamese and 50 English native speakers. Basing on their completion of the questionnaires, the author used the utterances for contrastive analysis. Among the various participants’ social relationship, the author only examines the relationship between close friends, colleagues, bosses-employees, and the people they dislike. 3. AIMS OF THE STUDY The research is intended to investigate major similarities and differences in the ways of boasting by the Vietnamese and English in given situations. Its goal is to provide a deep insight into cross – cultural communication between two languages and cultures, thus help to avoid communication breakdown in English – Vietnamese cross-cultural interaction. In order to gain this overall target, the study will:  discover the acts of boasting based on the theories of speech acts and politeness.  investigate advisable topics that the English and Vietnamese prefer to boast about.  investigate the use of politeness strategies in boasting through relationship with certain partners and under certain variables (age, gender, marital status, living place…) through some specific situations. 11  find out major similarities and differences in how the English and Vietnamese boast of themselves verbally.  raise teachers’ and learners’ cross – cultural awareness of boasting in cross – cultural communication in order to avoid potential conflicts. 4. METHODOLOGY The study is mainly conducted by the quantitative method with the use of survey questionnaires. The questionnaires are designed with both close-ended and open-ended questions. In the open-ended part, DCT (Discourse Completion Task) questions are designed and used. DCT is regarded as an effective method to collect a wide range of similarities and differences between Vietnamese and English, and more importantly between the two cultures in showing objection within the scope of the study. In general, all the considerations, comments and remarks in this thesis are based on:  Relevant publication  Survey questionnaires  Statistics, description and analysis of the collected data  Consultation with supervisor  Discussion with Vietnamese and English native colleagues  Personal observation 5. DESIGN OF THE STUDY The thesis consists of three parts: PART I: INTRODUCTION This part includes the rationale, aims, scope of the study, methodology and design of the study. PART II: DEVELOPMENT This part is divided into two chapters: Chapter 1: Theoretical background In this chapter, theories of language, culture and communication are mentioned. A theory of speech act is also mentioned with the view of boasting as a speech act. The definition of politeness, politeness strategies are critically discussed. Chapter 2: Data analysis and findings 12 In this chapter, data analysis and findings of the study are presented with the illustrations of tables and charts. The similarities and differences of boasting between Vietnamese and English languages and cultures are drawn from detailed and critical analysis of data. PART III: CONCLUSION Summary of the major findings, implications for cross-cultural communication and suggestions for further research are presented in this part. 44 REFERENCES 1. Austin J.L. (1962). How to do things with words. CUP, London-Oxford-New York. 2. Brown, P. and Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge University Press. 3. Delahunty G.P., Gurvey J.J. (1994). Language Grammar and Communication. MC Grow-Hill, Inc. 4. Leech G. W. (1983). Principles of Pragmatics. London and New York, Longman. 5. McArthur, T. and McArthur, R. (1996). The Oxford Companion to the English 6. NguyÔn Quang (2003). Giao tiÕp néi v¨n hãa vµ giao v¨n hãa. Nhµ xuÊt b¶n §HQGHN, Hµ Néi. 7. Nguyen Quang (2005). Lecture notes for cross-cultural communication. CFL-VNU, Hanoi. 8. Richards, J.C. and Schmidt, R.W. (1983). Language and Communication. London and New York: Longman. 9. Searle J, R. (1969). Speech acts-An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge University Press. 10. Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics. New York. Longman. 11. Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Ofxord University Press. 12. Verderber R. (1981). Communicative. Wadsworth Publishing Company. Language. Oxford University Press. 13. Watts, R.J. (2003). Politeness. Cambridge University Press. 14. Wierbicka, A. (1987). English Speech Act Verbs. Academic Press. 15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boasting . similarities and differences in how the English and Vietnamese boast of themselves verbally.  raise teachers’ and learners’ cross – cultural awareness of boasting in cross – cultural communication. as anger, love, hate… and to convey their hopes and dreams. Cross – cultural communication is an interesting and attractive field for us to find out the similar and different language when studying. Data analysis and findings 12 In this chapter, data analysis and findings of the study are presented with the illustrations of tables and charts. The similarities and differences of boasting