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An american – vietnamese cross-cultural study on non-verbal expressions of disappointment
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORTI HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE STUDY PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED ENTITLEDAN AMERICAN - VIETNAMESE CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON NONVERBAL EXPRESSIONS OF DISAPPOINTMENTIS MY OWN STUDY IN THE FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS.Ha Noi, 2009Bùi Hải Sơni AcknowledgementsI would like to take this opportunity to thank all the following people for their great supports during my three-year time for the MA course.First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Ms. Phan Thị Vân Quyên, my supervisor, for her clear guidance, insightful comments and dutiful supervision.I would like to give my sincere thanks to all the lecturers at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University - Ha Noi (HULIS-VNU) for their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm in their lectures, from which I have acquired valuable knowledge and inspiration to fulfill this minor thesis. My deep thanks also go to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Quang whose interesting lectures on Cross-Cultural Communication with perspectives on cultural variety have inspired me to do this cross- cultural study.I would like to express my gratitude to my family, to many of my friends and colleagues, for their valuable sharing and encouragements. I wish to acknowledge the important contribution of both Vietnamese and American informants, whose names I cannot mention here for the completion of my study.ii AN AMERICAN – VIETNAMESE CROSS-CULTURAL STUDYON NONVERBAL EXPRESSIONS OF DISAPPOINTMENTABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to investigate the most common nonverbal expressions of disappointment used by American and Vietnamese people in the field of facial expressions, gestures and postures. Another aim was to find out the similarities and differences between their ways of expressions. Finally, the influential factors affecting the expressions of disappointment were also examined in the study.The quantitative method was applied in the research. The survey inspected American nonverbal expressions of disappointment through Vietnamese informants’ perception and Vietnamese nonverbal ways of expressing disappointment through American informants’ observation. 30 questionnaires were sent out and 30 responses were received.One result of the study was that disappointment seemed to be a universal emotion of which American and Vietnamese people shared most the expressions. It was also discovered that the informants’ length of stay or work with native people and cultural knowledge had great influence on their perception of communicating partners’ emotional states. Additionally, the results of the study revealed that the choice of expressing disappointment depended much on the communicating partners and communicating situations.The principal conclusion was that people would communicate better when understanding more about the host culture. One different conclusion was that the successful cross-cultural communication did not only depend on length of stay or work with people of another culture.iii TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONSNVC: Nonverbal CommunicationELT: English Language TeachingCE: Communication EventCA: Communication ActVN: Vietnam/ VietnameseAM: America/Americaniv List of tablesTable 1: Informants’ parametersTable 2: American and Vietnamese common expressions of disappointmentTable 3: Amount of expressiveness in American and Vietnamese culturesTable 4: Amount of expressiveness as seen from informants' length of stayTable 5: Amount of expressiveness as seen from the informants' cultural knowledgeTable 6: Influence of communicating partners on amount of expressiveness in American and Vietnamese culturesTable 7: Influence of comunicating situations on amount of expressiveness in American and Vietnamese culturesList of charts and graphicsChart 1: Importance of Nonverbal CommunicationDiagram 1: Classification of Nonverbal CommunicationChart 2: Amount of expressiveness in American and Vietnamese culturesv TABLE OF CONTENTSPART A: INTRODUCTION .1i. Rationale 1ii. Aims of the study 1iii. Scope of the study 2iv. Methods of the study 2v. Organization of the study 3PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW .41.1. CULTURE 41.2. COMMUNICATION .41.2.1. Definition of Communication .41.2.2. Forms of Communication 51.2.3. Components of Communication 51.2.4. Cross-cultural communication 61.3 NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION .61.3.1 Definition of nonverbal communication 61.3.2 Importance of nonverbal communication 71.3.3. Differences between Nonverbal Communication and Verbal Communication .81.3.4 Classification of nonverbal communication .81.3.5. Nonverbal communication across culture .91.4. DISAPPOINTMENT AND ITS NONVERBAL EXPRESSIONS .10CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .182.1. COMMENTS ON THE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES AND DATA COLLECTION METHOD: .182.2. COMMENTS ON THE INFORMANTS .192.3. THE PROCEDURE OF DATA COLLECTION .20vi 2.4. DATA ANALYSIS METHOD .20CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS .213.1. DATA ANALYSIS: .213.1.1. Most common expressions of disappointment used by Vietnamese and American people 213.1.2. Amount of expressiveness in American and Vietnamese cultures .233.1.3. Amount of expressiveness in Vietnamese and American cultures as seen from informants’ parameters .243.1.3.1. Length of stay or work with native people .243.1.3.2. Cultural knowledge 253.1.4. Influential factors on the amount of expressiveness .263.1.4.1. Communicating partners 263.1.4.2. Communicating situations 273.2. DISCUSSIONS OF THE FINDINGS: 28PART C: CONCLUSION 311. SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS 312. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION 313. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 32APPENDICES .33BIBLIOGRAPHY 34vii . whose names I cannot mention here for the completion of my study. ii AN AMERICAN – VIETNAMESE CROSS-CULTURAL STUDYON NONVERBAL EXPRESSIONS OF DISAPPOINTMENTABSTRACTThe. inspected American nonverbal expressions of disappointment through Vietnamese informants’ perception and Vietnamese nonverbal ways of expressing disappointment