THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRAN THI THUY AN AN INVESTIGATION ON PRAGMATIC TRANSFER IN VIETNAMESE EFL REFUSALS (Nghiên cứu chuyển đổi ngữ dụng học cách nói từ chối sinh viên Việt Nam) M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN – 2018 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRAN THI THUY AN AN INVESTIGATION ON PRAGMATIC TRANSFER IN VIETNAMESE EFL REFUSALS (Nghiên cứu chuyển đổi ngữ dụng học cách nói từ chối sinh viên Việt Nam) M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Dr Duong Duc Minh THAI NGUYEN – 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep thanks to people who have assisted me when I carried out the research I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Dr Duong Duc Minh for his encouragement and guidance throughout the research who gave me his precious comments, expert advice and most of his kind encouragement during my doing research Also, I would like to acknowledge my grattude to all of the lecturers and the staff of the Department of Post-Graduate Studies at School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University for their valuable lectures and supports I am greatly indebted to my colleagues and students at Thai Nguyen College of Educaton, Thai Nguyen School of Foreign Languages, University of Wollongong, Australia for their enthusiasm, helpfulness, care and patence towards my data collection which grant great contributons for my thesis Finally, I would like to express my special thanks to my parents, my husband and other members in my family for their love, care, support and encouragement so that I could accomplish my study i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby declare the thesis enttled An Investigaton on Pragmatc Transfer in Vietnamese EFL Refusals is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the School of Foreign Languages - Thai Nguyen University and this thesis is in total fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Arts This thesis has not been submitted for any degree and any other university or instituton Signed Date ii ABSTRACT This study is an attempt to investgate similarites and diferences in the speech acts of refusals among natve Vietnamese speakers (NVs), Australian natve speakers of English (NEs), and Vietnamese learners of English (VEs) The Written DCT (Discourse Completon Test) was used for data collecton Research subjects included 90 people in three groups: 30 natve Vietnamese speakers, 30 Vietnamese English learners, and 30 Australian natve English speakers The performance of three groups were compared to find out the diferences in semantc formulae of refusals made by Vietnamese, Vietnamese English learners and natve English speakers, the characteristics of pragmatic transfer in EFL learners The responses were coded according to the classificaton of refusal strategies as outlined by Beebe et al., (1990) The findings reveal that pragmatc transfer exists in choice and content of semantic formulae Natve speakers liked to use more direct refusal strategies and positve feelings than Vietnamese speakers and the pragmatc transfer occurred in Vietnamese EFL learners LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS B.A: Bachelor of Arts DCT: Discourse Completon Task EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language L1: First Language L2: Second Language NE: Natve English NNSs: Non- natve Speakers NSs: Natve Speakers NV: Natve Vietnamese VE: Vietnamese EFL learners LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 3.1: Classificaton of DCT 19 Table 3.2 The semantic formulas used in the analysis of data (Beebe et al., 1990 and modified by Phuong, 2014) 20 Table 4.1: Refusals to a request of higher status person 23 Table 4.2: Examples of semantc formula 24 Table 4.3: Refusals to a request of lower status person 25 Table 4.4: Examples of semantc formula 25 Table 4.5: Refusals to an invitaton of higher status person .26 Table 4.6: Examples of semantc formula 26 Table 4.7: Refusals to an invitaton of lower status person 27 Table 4.8: Examples of semantc formula 27 Table 4.9: Refusals to an ofer of a higher status person .28 Table 4.10: Examples of semantc formula 28 Table 4.11: Refusals to an ofer of a lower status person .29 Table 4.12: Examples of semantc formula 29 Table 4.13: Refusals to a suggeston of a higher status person 30 Table 4.14: Examples of semantc formula 30 Table 4.15: Refusals to a suggeston of a lower status person .31 Table 4.16: Examples of semantc formula 31 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Ratonale for the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Outline of the study CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Pragmatc Transfer 2.2 Factors afectng pragmatc transfer 2.3 Speech Acts 2.4 Refusal as a Speech Act 2.5 Classificaton of Speech Acts 2.6 Studies on the Speech Act of Refusals 12 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 17 3.1 Research approach 17 3.2 Subjects of the study 17 3.3 Instrument 17 3.4 Data collecton procedure and analysis 19 3.4.1 Data collecton procedure 20 3.4.2 Data Analysis 20 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 22 4.1 Refusals to requests 23 4.1.1 Refusal to a request of salary payment (higher) 23 4.1.2 Refusal to a request of staying late (lower) 25 4.2 Refusals to invitations 26 4.2.1 Refusal to an invitaton to a restaurant (higher) 26 4.2.2 Refusal to an invitaton to a boss party (lower) 27 4.3 Refusals to ofers 28 4.3.1 Refusal to an ofer to pay for a vase (higher) 28 4.3.2 Refusal to an offer to an executve promoton (lower) 29 4.4 Refusals to suggestions 30 4.4.1 Refusal to a suggeston to have more conversation in Foreign Language (higher) 30 4.4.2 Refusal to a suggeston to write a reminder (lower) 31 4.5 Choice of semantic formulae used in refusals of Vietnamese EFL learners 32 4.5.1 ‘Explanaton’ 32 4.5.2 “Gratitude’ 33 4.5.3 Positve feeling & Regret 33 4.5.4 Direct ‘No’ 34 4.5.5 Social Status 35 4.5.6 Social Distance 35 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS 37 5.1 Semantc formulae for the speech act of refusals used by native speakers of Vietnamese, Native English and Vietnamese EFL learners 37 5.2 Pragmatc transfer in the semantc formulae used in refusals of Vietnamese EFL learners 38 5.3 Implicatons 38 5.4 Limitations 39 5.5 Recommendations for Future Studies 39 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX 45 vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Ratonale for the study Language is the carrier of culture and culture the substance of language: The two cannot exist separately (Romaine, 2000) To succeed in communicating with others, one must be aware of the culture behind the language used in communicaton (Tanck, 2004) When speaking a foreign language, the issue of culture becomes critical English as Foreign language (EFL) learners, especially those with languages diferent and distant from English psychologically, culturally, phonologically, and syntactically, may struggle when attempting to communicate in English Non-profcient language learners are not only jeopardized by their imperfect language knowledge but obstructed by their inadequate knowledge of culture To compensate for their lack of knowledge, EFL learners may fall back on their own linguistc cultural reservoir, translating utterances from their mother tongue and applying their own cultural rules when communicatng in English (AlEryani, 2007; Lauper, 1997) This might lead to pragmatc errors that could result in misunderstanding and embarrassment or pragma-linguistc failure (Riley, 1989; Thomas, 1983; Umale, 2011) This is especially important nowadays as “cross-cultural communicaton is becoming an integral part of life, with globalizaton and rapid advances in new technology” (Umale, 2011, p 19) In additon, employment opportunites in the local and global market increasingly demand good language proficiency and communicatve ability Therefore, teaching pragmatc rules in a way that they would involve communicaton strategies and speech acts will give students the English knowledge and communicatve competence that will secure good job placements after graduaton development of communicative competence in a second language (pp 5573) New York: Newbury House Belza, A (2008) A questionnaire-based comparative study of Irish 2007English and Polish speech act of requesting Unpublished doctoral dissertaton University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland Bou-Franch, P (2012) Pragmatc Transfer 10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0932 Retrieve date: May 2018 Bruti, S (2006) Cross-cultural pragmatics: The translation of implicit compliments in subtitles The Journal of Specialized Translation Retrieved from http://www.jostrans.org/issue06/art_bruti.php Retrieved date: 20 March 2018 Byon, A (2004) The Korean speech act of refusals: Sociopragmatic Analysis The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 11, 241-270 Che-Lah, S and Suleiman, R (2011) Refusal strategies in English by Malay University Students GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies (12) pp 69-81 Dao, D A (2000) Viet nam van hoa su cuong Hanoi: Nha xuat ban van hoa dan toc Do, X H (2002) Invitatons in invitaton letters in English composed by Vietnamese people M.A Thesis University of Queensland, Australia Ewert, A and Bromberek-Dyzman, K (2008) L2 users’ sociopragmatc and paralinguistcs choices in L1 acts of refusal In L Roberts, F Myle and A David (Eds) EUROSLA yearbook (pp 32-51) Amsterdam; Benjamin Farnia, M., & Wu, X (2012) An intercultural communicaton study of Chinese and Malaysian university students’ refusal to invitaton International Journal of English Linguistics, 2(1), 162–176 Félix-Brasdefer, J C (2004) Interlanguage refusals: Linguistic politeness and length of residence in the target community Language Learning, 54(4), 587-653 Retrieved from http://ezproxy.mnsu.edu/login?url=http://search proquest.com/docview/ 85612353?accountd=12259 Retrieved date April 2018 Gass, S., Houck, N., 1999 Interlanguage refusals: a cross-cultural study of Japanese-English Mouton, The Hague, Berlin Horn, R & Ward, G (Eds.) (2004) The handbook of pragmatics Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd Inook, L (1992) The art of refusal: comparison of Korean and American cultures Harthi Trust Online Library Jamieson, N L (1991) Culture and development in Vietnam Honolulu: East-West Centre Justo, V (2006) Direct and indirect speech acts in English Unpublished BA thesis Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Retrieved from http://is.muni.cz/th/109677/f_b/bachelor_thesis.pdf Retrieved date May 2018 Lauper, J (1997, March) Refusal strategies of native Spanish speakers in Spanish and in English and of native English speakers in English Paper presented at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Orlando, FL Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED408845.pdf Retrieved date May 2018 Lingli, D and Wannaruk, A (2010) The Efects of Explicit and Implicit Instruction in English Refusals Chinese Journal of Linguistics, 33 (3) pp 91-111 Olshtain, E., & Cohen, A (1989) Speech act behavior across languages In H W Dechert & M Raupach (Eds.) Transfer in language production (pp 53-67) Norwood, NJ: Ablex Phan, T.V.Q (2001) Some English - Vietnamese cross-cultural diferences in refusing a request MA thesis Hanoi Phuong, N.T (2006) Cross cultural pragmatics: Refusals of requests by Australian natve speakers of English and Vietnamese learners of English The University of Queensland Riley, P (1989) Well don’t blame me! On the interpretaton of pragmatic errors In W Olesky (Ed.), Contrastive linguistics pp 231-249 Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins Robinson, M (1992) Introspective methodology in Interlanguage pragmatcs research In G Kasper (Ed.) Pragmatics of Japanese as a native and foreign language (pp 27-82).University of Hawai Press Romaine, S (2000) Language in society: An introduction to sociolinguistics (2nd ed.) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press Searle, J (2001) Rationality in action Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Takahashi, S (1993).Transferability of L1 indirect request strategies to L2 contexts Pragmatics and Language Learning, 4, pp 50-84 Takahashi, S (1996) Pragmatc transferability Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18(2), pp 189-223 Takahashi, T., & Dufon, M (1989) Cross-linguistc influence in indirectveness: The case of English directives performed by native Japanese speakers [ERIC Document ED 370 479.] Tanck, S (2004) Speech act sets of refusal and complaint: A comparison of natve and non-native English speakers’ producton TESOL Working Papers, 4(2), 1-22 Thomas, J (1983) Cross-cultural pragmatic failure Applied linguistics, 4(2), 91112 Tran, N T (1998) Co so van hoa Viet nam Hanoi: Nha xuat ban giao duc Umale, J (2011) Pragmatc failure in refusal strategies: Britsh versus Omani interlocutors Arab World English Journal, 2(1), 18-46 Wolfson, Nessa (1989) Perspectives Cambridge, Mass.: Newbury House APPENDIX Discourse Completon Test Directions: Please read the following situation and then complete them by refusing Do not spend a lot of tme thinking about what answer you think you should provide; instead, please respond as naturally as possible and try to write your response as you feel you would say it in the situation Example: You work in a department store You are busy helping someone when one of your regular customers asks to see something in the display case You: I’m sorry, I’ll be with you in a minute Customer: Okay, I’ll wait then You are the owner of a bookstore One of the best workers asks to speak to you in private Worker: As you know, I’ve been here just a little over a year now, and I know you’ve been pleased with my work I really enjoy working here, but to be quite honest, I really need an increase in pay You: Worker: Then I guess I’ll have to look for another job You are the president of the printng company A sales man from a printing machine company invites you to one of the most expensive restaurants in New York Salesman: We have met several times to discuss your purchase of my company’s products I was wondering if you would like to be my guest at Lutece/Hanoi in order to firm up a contract You: Salesman: time Perhaps another You are a top executive at a very large accountng firm One day the boss calls you into his office Boss: Next Sunday my wife and I are having a little party I know it’s short notice but I am hoping all my top executives will be there with their wives What you say? You: Boss: That’s too bad I was hoping everyone would be there You’re at your desk trying to find a report that your boss just asked for While you’re searching through the mess on your desk, your boss walks over Boss: You know, maybe you should try to organize yourself better I always write myself little notes to remind me of things Perhaps you should give it a try! You: Boss: Well, it’s an idea anyway You arrive home and notce that your cleaning lady is extremely upset She comes rushing up to you Cleaning lady: Oh God, I’m sorry! I had an awful accident While I was cleaning I bumped into the table and your china vase fell and broke I feel just terrible about it I’ll pay for it You: (Knowing that the cleaning lady is supportng three children.) Cleaning lady: No, I’d feel better if I paid for it You’re a language teacher at a university It is just about the middle of the term now and one of your students asks to speak to you Student: Ah, excuse me, some of the students were talking after class recently and we kind of feel that the class would be better if you could give us more practce in conversation and less on grammar You: Student: O.K., it was only a suggeston You’ve been working in an advertising agency now for some tme The boss ofers you a raise and promotion, but it involves moving You don’t want to go Today, the boss calls you into his office Boss: I’d like to ofer you an executve positon in our new ofices in Hicktown/ Hanoi It’s a great town - only three hours from here by plane And, a nice raise comes with the positon You: Boss: Well, maybe you should give it some more thought before turning it down You are at the ofice in a meetng with your boss It is getting close to the end of the day and you want to leave work Boss: If you don’t mind, I’d like you to spend an extra hour or two tonight so that we can finish up with this work You: Boss: That’s too bad I was hoping you could stay THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COOPERATION BẢNG CÂU HỎI HỒN THÀNH TÌNH HUỐNG Hư ớng dẫn: Vui lòng đọc tnh sau sau từ chối tình cách điền vào chỗ trống cho sẵn Đừng dành nhiều thời gian suy nghĩ câu trả lời; thay vào đó, vui lòng trả lời cách tự nhiên tình Ví dụ: Bạn làm việc cửa hàng bách hóa Bạn bận giúp đỡ khách quen bạn u cầu xem thứ kệ hàng Bạn: Em xin lỗi, anh/chị chờ em phút Khách hàng: Được rồi, đợi Bạn chủ hiệu sách Một nhân viên tốt yêu cầu nói chuyện riêng với bạn Nhân viên: Như anh/chị biết, em làm năm em biết anh/chị hài lòng với cơng việc em Em thực thích làm việc đây, thành thật mà nói, cần tăng lương Bạn: Nhân viên: Em hiểu rồi, em phải tìm cơng việc khác Bạn chủ tịch công ty in ấn Một nhân viên bán hàng từ công ty máy in mời bạn đến nhà hàng đắt Hà Nội Nhân viên bán hàng: Chúng ta gặp nhiều lần để thảo luận việc bạn mua sản phẩm công ty Tôi muốn mời anh/chị đến Hà Nội để thiết lập hợp đồng Bạn: Nhân viên bán hàng: Có lẽ để lúc khác Bạn giám đốc điều hành hàng đầu cơng ty kế tốn lớn Một hơm ơng chủ gọi bạn vào văn phòng Sếp: Chủ nhật tuần sau vợ tổ chức bữa tệc nhỏ Tôi mời riêng hy vọng tất giám đốc điều hành giỏi đến dự Bạn từ chối nào? Bạn: Sếp: Chán Tôi hy vọng tất người đến Bạn bàn làm việc cố gắng tìm báo cáo mà sếp bạn vừa yêu cầu Trong bạn tìm kiếm đống lộn xộn bàn, sếp bạn bước tới Sếp: Từ có lẽ cậu nên cố gắng gọn gàng Tôi viết mẩu ghi nhỏ để nhắc nhở tơi thứ Có lẽ cậu nên thử! Bạn: Sếp: Ái chà, dù ý tưởng Bạn đến nhà nhận thấy người phụ nữ giúp việc bạn vơ khó chịu Nhìn thấy bạn, chạy đến chỗ bạn Người giúp việc: Trời ơi, xin lỗi! Tôi vừa làm chuyện tày trời Trong dọn dẹp, va vào bàn bình sứ rơi vỡ tan Tơi sợ q Tơi đền tền cho anh Bạn: (Biết người giúp việc nuôi ba đứa trẻ.) _ Người giúp việc: Không, cảm thấy tốt đền tền cho anh Bạn giáo viên ngôn ngữ trường đại học Bây học kỳ học sinh bạn yêu cầu nói chuyện với bạn Sinh viên: Em xin lỗi, số sinh viên nói chuyện sau học gần chúng em cảm thấy lớp học tốt thầy cho chúng em thực hành giao tiếp nhiều trọng ngữ pháp Bạn: _ Sinh viên: Vâng, em gợi ý Bạn làm việc công ty quảng cáo lâu Sếp đề nghị bạn tăng lương thăng chức, lại liên quan đến việc chuyển chỗ làm việc Bạn không muốn đâu Hôm nay, sếp gọi bạn vào văn phòng Sếp: Tơi muốn đề bạt cậu lên vị trí văn phòng Hà Nội Đó thành phố tuyệt vời, cách bay Và, tất nhiên cậu giám đốc điều hành Bạn: Sếp: Chà, có lẽ cậu nên suy nghĩ thêm trước từ chối Bạn họp với sếp văn phòng Đã gần đến cuối ngày bạn muốn sớm Sếp: Nếu cậu khơng có việc gấp, tơi đề nghị làm thêm hai tối để hồn thành công việc Bạn: Sếp: Tệ thật Tôi hy vọng cậu lại làm thêm TRÂN TRỌNG CẢM ƠN ... THUY AN AN INVESTIGATION ON PRAGMATIC TRANSFER IN VIETNAMESE EFL REFUSALS (Nghiên cứu chuyển đổi ngữ dụng học cách nói từ chối sinh viên Việt Nam) M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English... refusals used by native speakers of Vietnamese, Native English and Vietnamese EFL learners 37 5.2 Pragmatc transfer in the semantc formulae used in refusals of Vietnamese EFL learners 38 5.3... refusal by native speakers of Vietnamese, native English and Vietnamese EFL learners then explore whether the pragmatic transfer exist in the semantic formulae of Vietnamese English language learners