Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS các chiến lược khen ngợi của sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng anh tại đại học thái nguyên m a thesis linguistics 60 22 15

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES - - TRẦN THI YÊ ̣ ́N COMPLIMENTING STRATEGIES BY ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC KHEN NGỢI CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN ) M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 60.22.15 Hanoi-2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF TABLES viii PART A INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the Study Research Questions Significance of the Study Scope of the Study PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Cross - Cultural Communication 2.1.1 Definition of Culture 2.1.2 Definition of Communication 2.1.3 Definition of Cross - Cultural Communication 2.2 Speech Act Theory 2.2.1 Definitions of Speech Acts 2.2.2 Types of Speech Acts 2.2.2.1 Austin‟s Classification 2.2.2.2 Searle‟s Classification 2.2.2.3 Leech‟s Classification 2.2.2.4 Bach and Harnish‟s Classification 2.2.2.5 Direct and Indirect Speech Acts 2.2.3 Speech Acts across Cultures iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2.3 Politeness 2.3.1 What is Politeness? 2.3.2 Politeness Strategies 2.3.2.1 Maxim Approach a) Grice‟s Cooperative Principle b) Lakoff‟s Politeness Rule c) Leech‟s Politeness Principle (PP) 2.3.2.2 Face-management Approach a) Goffman‟s Conceptualization of Face b) Brown and Levinson‟s Politeness Theory 2.4 The Speech Act of Complimenting .10 2.4.1 Definition of Compliments .10 2.4.2 Functions of Compliments .10 2.4.3 Complimenting as a Speech Act .11 2.4.4 Compliment Topics 12 2.4.5 Complimenting Strategies .12 2.4.5.1 Basic Complimenting Strategies 12 2.4.5.2 Modifications of Basic Complimenting Strategies 13 2.4.5.3 Direct and Indirect Strategies in Complimenting 13 2.4.5.4 Complimenting Strategies in Terms of Personal Focus 13 2.5 Previous Research on Compliments .13 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODS 17 2.1 Subjects of the Study 17 2.2 Data Collection Instrument 17 2.3 Data Gathering Procedure 18 2.4 Data Analysis .18 2.5 Research Methods .18 CHAPTER REALIZATIONS OF COMPLIMENTING STRATEGIES 19 3.1 Overall Response Patterns 19 3.1.1 Expressions Preceding the Compliment 19 3.1.2 Expressions Following the Compliment 20 3.2 Category of Complimenting Strategies .21 3.2.1 Basic Complimenting Strategies .21 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3.2.2 Combinations of Basic Complimenting Strategies 22 CHAPTER DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS 23 4.1 Overall Analysis of the Response Patterns 23 4.1.1 Components of the Response Patterns 23 4.1.2 Comments on the Expressions Preceding and Following the Compliment .25 4.1.3 Use of Complimenting Strategies 28 4.1.4 Interference from Vietnamese Culture to the English-major Students‟ Choice of Complimenting Strategies 29 4.2 Use of Complimenting Strategies with Respect to the Informants .30 4.2.1 American Informants 30 4.2.2 Vietnamese Informants and Vietnamese Learners of English 31 4.3 Use of Complimenting Strategies with Respect to the Communicating Partners 32 4.3.1 When the Communicating Partners are Male Classmates 32 4.3.2 When the Communicating Partners are Female Classmates .33 4.3.3 When the Communicating Partners are Male Teachers 34 4.3.4 When the Communicating Partners are Female Teachers 34 4.4 Use of Complimenting Strategies across Topics 36 4.4.1 Appearance/Possessions 36 4.4.2 Ability/Accomplishment 39 PART C CONCLUSION 40 Summary of Major Findings 40 Conclusion .41 Pedagogical Recommendations .42 Limitation of the Study 43 Suggestions for Further Research 44 REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX A DISCOURSE COMPLETION TEST (English Version) I APPENDIX B DISCOURSE COMPLETION TEST (Vietnamese Version) .III vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AmE American English DCT Discourse Completion Task EFL English as a Foreign Language F Face-threatening Acts FTA Face Threatening Act M Male TNU Thai Nguyen University V Vietnamese VE Vietnamese English vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Tables Title Page Table Types of expressions preceding the compliment 20 Table Types of expressions following the compliment 20 Table Categories of complimenting strategies 21 Table Combinations of basic complimenting strategies 22 Table Deviation in the frequency of complimenting strategies between groups 29 LIST OF FIGURES Figures Title Page Figure Choices of politeness strategy (Brown and Levinson, 1987) Figure Bach & Harnish‟s categorization of the speech act of complimenting 11 Figure Components of the response patterns 24 Figure Complimenting strategies employed by the three groups of 28 informants Figure Complimenting strategies by male and female American informants 31 Figure Complimenting strategies by male and female Vietnamese informants 32 Figure Complimenting strategies by male and female Vietnamese learners of 32 English Figure Strategies employed to compliment male classmates 33 Figure Strategies employed to compliment female classmates 33 Figure 10 Strategies employed to compliment male teachers 35 Figure 11 Strategies employed to compliment female teachers 35 Figure 12 Strategies employed to compliment on appearance or possessions 37 Figure 13 Strategies employed to compliment on ability or accomplishment 39 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale Learning a language means more than knowing linguistic features such as the rules of grammar or the vocabulary system We must also know how to use a language in its social and communicative contexts; however, EFL teachers not often stress pragmatic knowledge in their classrooms, focusing instead on linguistic knowledge As a result, even with a high level of language proficiency and goodwill, learners still have great difficulty making themselves understood or interpreting properly what is said to them They even find it extremely difficult to produce or sometimes understand a speech act such as a compliment, an apology, a request or a refusal The mistaken messages they send or receive lead not only to breakdowns in communication, but also to bad effects within social relationships This common problem can also be seen in Vietnamese learners of English Although they may have spent a long time studying English and done very well on exams, they can not communicate effectively with native speakers The barrier here is cultural awareness They are from different cultures, thus have different frames of reference Failure in communication can cause what we call “culture shock” We things with words as Austin (1962) states In our mother tongue and our culture, we face little or no difficulty in employing words appropriately in order to achieve our aim because we unconsciously follow the norms and conventions of our speech community The speech act of complimenting has been chosen as the topic of the present study because this speech act is highly representative of face-threatening acts and the realization of this speech act is largely culture-specific (Gass, 1995; Liao, 1996) People from different cultures share the same communicative purpose in complimenting each other However, they tend to use different patterns and strategies and compliment different attributes When people compliment each other in a foreign language, the intended purpose may not be achieved, but the reverse may occur In other words, miscommunication or misinterpretation happens when a user of a foreign language inappropriately compliments others In Vietnam, in recent years, much research work has been done into various speech acts; however, so far very little research has been carried out in Thai Nguyen University where millions of non-English major students and thousands of English major students are learning and speaking English With an effort to fill the gap, we carried out this study as an investigation into the speech act of complimenting by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Aims of the Study This study aims to find out the preferred strategies by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University when complimenting in English and to identify the interferences from Vietnamese culture to the students‟ choice of strategies Research Questions The study is intended to address the following questions: [i] What are the preferred strategies by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University when complimenting in English? [ii] Is there any interference from Vietnamese culture to the students‟ choice of strategies when complimenting in English? Significance of the Study The researcher hopes that this study will be significant theoretically, practically and pedagogically Theoretically, the study may contribute to the theoretical literature by examining the interferences from Vietnamese culture to the choice of strategies when complimenting in English by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University Practically, the study may reinforce these students‟ awareness of the interferences from their culture to their choice of strategies when complimenting in English by investigating what they have already known and what they have not and what proves to be difficult when they are confronted with the complimenting situations, which may help them achieve a better performance in cross-cultural communication Pedagogically, research in cross-cultural communication including this paper may help teachers and educators understand the students‟ problems in order to evaluate textbooks and other teaching materials as well as assessment procedures of language proficiency, to assess the value of communicative language teaching practices, and to help learners develop strategies to handle misunderstandings and other communication problems Scope of the Study Due to limited time and experience, this study just focuses on verbal communication Other factors such as non-linguistic factors (facial expression, gestures, eye contact, etc.), paralinguistic factors (intonation, pause, speed of speech, etc.) will not be taken into account LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Cross - Cultural Communication 2.1.1 Definition of Culture Today, definitions of culture are multiple and diverse; however, in this paper, culture is defined and classified for the purpose of the study related to communication Therefore, out of the many possible definitions examined, the following definition guides this study: “culture is a set of shared and enduring meaning, values, and beliefs that characterize national, ethnic, or other groups and orient their behavior” (Mulholland 1991) 2.1.2 Definition of Communication Communication can be defined as “the exchange and negotiation of information between at least two individuals through the use of verbal and non verbal symbols, oral and written/visual modes, and production and comprehension processes” (Canale, 1983, p 4) It is a form of social interaction and involves a high degree of unpredictability and creativity in form and message 2.1.3 Definition of Cross - Cultural Communication According to Clarke and Sanchez, the term ăcross-culturală implies interaction with persons of different cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, sexual orientation, religious, age and class backgrounds ăCross-cultural communicationă is a process of exchanging, negotiating, and mediating one's cultural differences through language, non-verbal gestures, and space relationships It is also the process by which people express their openness to an intercultural experience (Clarke and Sanchez, 2001) Kramsch defined cross - culture as “the meeting of two cultures or languages across the political boundaries of nation states.” (Kramsch, 1998, p 81) Thus, cross - cultural communication is the exchange and negotiation between individuals who come from different cultural background Normally, people know how to behave appropriately within their own culture and society, but when they move from country to country, this social etiquette changes For instance, it is quite usual for Vietnamese people to greet each other by saying “where are you going?” Such utterance may be perceived as annoying curiosity by native English speakers because for most Western cultures the individuals and personal privacy come first For Asian cultures, nevertheless the emphasis is on promoting group harmony 2.2 Speech Act Theory 2.2.1 Definitions of Speech Acts LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The concept of speech acts was first defined by Austin (1975) He did not use the term speech act, but “performative sentence” or “performative utterance,” which indicated that “the issuing of the utterance is the performing of an action” (p 6) The term itself was first used by Searle (1969) who claimed that “talking is performing acts according to rules” (p 22), and that “speech acts […] are the basic or minimal units of linguistic communication” (p.16) However, Back and Harnish (1979) believed that there is more to a speech act than this In their view, speech acts are a complex combination between utterances, locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts Thus, the speech act schema, or SAS, is as follows, where e is an expression, S the speaker, and H the hearer: “In uttering e [utterance act], S says something to H [locutionary act]; in saying something to H, S does something [illocutionary act]; and by doing something, S affects H [perlocutionary act]” (Bach & Harnish, 1979, p 3) Wierzbicka (1991) claimed that most of the early definitions of speech acts are ethnocentric, and that thus they fail to take into consideration what she believed is one of the most important characteristics of speech acts, namely cultural specificity She says that, cultural values and characteristics such as indirectness, objectivism, courtesy, and cordiality are reflected in the way speakers produce speech acts This multitude of definitions also leads to a multitude of taxonomies This study deals with the most important classifications of speech acts in the following section 2.2.2 Types of Speech Acts 2.2.2.1 Austin’s Classification Austin (1975, p 151) first classified speech acts into five categories: - Verdictives provide us with findings and results - Exercitives are characterized by the description of powers, rights, and influences - Commissives commit the speakers themselves to some future action - Behabitives are actions that have to with „social behaviors‟ - Expositives develop views, conduct arguments and to clarify the use of references 2.2.2.2 Searle’s Classification Communicative approaches to speech act theory mostly categorize speech acts according to what they communicate to the hearer Thus, Searle (1976) proposed five types of speech acts: - Declarations change the world via their utterance - Representatives tell people how and what things are - Expressive express feelings and attitudes - Directives get someone to something - Commissives commit the speakers themselves to some future action 2.2.2.3 Leech’s Classification LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com appeared with high frequency among Vietnamese informants and Vietnamese learners of English On the contrary, these types of compliments are often avoided by Americans It would be a somewhat insulting compliment, as it would be taken to imply something disparaging about the hearer's appearance previous to having new haircut or getting a new watch In American culture does exist what is called backhanded compliment or left-handed compliment A backhanded compliment is nothing you necessarily want to get: it is a compliment that also insults at the same time or saying it the other way around: an insult that masquerades as a compliment A backhanded compliment might first fool you into thinking you received a real compliment but it is a deliberate and rather subtle way to disguise an insult For instance, the compliment “I love your new haircut, it slims your face a lot” immediately gets negated by an implied criticism, namely that her face is too wide Sometimes backhanded compliments are not intentional but generally the term applies to the intentional use of a disguised insult Consequently, it is advisable for Americans to avoid using the heareroriented strategy when complimenting on appearance or possession Instead, 'What a nice haircut!' or “Nice watch!” is an appropriate compliment in this case It seemed that Vietnamese learners of English were not aware of this aspect in American culture They stilled held the Vietnamese culture strictly when they gave compliments which may be interpreted as backhanded compliments by American partners Finally, the data also indicates a sharp contrast in the use of the speaker-oriented strategy among the three groups when the topic of compliment concerns appearance or possession While as much as 40.8% of the American English compliments employed the speaker-oriented strategy, only 4.8% of the Vietnamese compliments and 10.7% of the Vietnamese English compliments employed this strategy As have been discussed in the section 4.2., Vietnamese learners of English , more or less, seemed to be influenced by the Vietnamese culture that they seldom gave speaker-oriented compliments to avoid the compliment being interpreted as an invasion of personal privacy or as a request for the object complimented 4.4.2 Ability/Accomplishment Regarding this common topic, difference still exists among the three groups of informants Both Vietnamese informants and Vietnamese learners of English employed the hearer-oriented strategy the most with a frequency of 56.9% and 47.7%, respectively whereas American informants preferred the topic-oriented strategy (see Figure 12) In other words, American English native speakers have a tendency to give credits directly to the result, the product achieved through hard work, whereas Vietnamese and Vietnamese English speakers 38 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com focus more on talent and ability For example, when a classmate has finished his presentation, an American student will say “Your presentation was excellent” In the same situation, a Vietnamese student will say “Cậu thuyết trình tốt lắm” and an English-major student will say “You presented really well.” S H T 56.9% 47.7% 43.6% 40.8% 40.3% 37.9% 18.6% 11.5% 2.8% V (n=253) VE (n=260) AmE (n=140) Figure 13 Strategies employed to compliment on ability or accomplishment Vietnamese learners of English are generally similar to Vietnamese informants in the tendency of choosing strategies to compliment on ability or accomplishment; therefore, it seems that they still hold the Vietnamese cultural norms strictly 39 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART C CONCLUSION In the previous part, the data collected from the DCT have been carefully analyzed The final part of the study presents a brief summary of the objectives of the study and the major research findings The implications of the study for English language teaching are also discussed Next, the limitations of the study are mentioned Finally, some suggestions are provided for future research Summary of Major Findings The study sought to answer the following questions: [i.] What are the preferred strategies by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University when complimenting in English? [ii.] Are there any interferences from Vietnamese culture to the students‟ choice of strategies when complimenting in English? With the careful analysis of the data, the study reveals the following major findings: First, regarding the overall response patterns, a high percentage of all groups of informants preferred to gave compliments without any preceding or following expressions Second, concerning the expressions preceding or following the compliment, there are some expressions found among Vietnamese students, which could not be found among American students Many of these expressions are also found among English-major students; therefore, it can be inferred that English-major students tend to adopt the Vietnamese cultural norms when complimenting Third, regarding the complimenting strategies, the most frequently used strategies among all groups is the topic-oriented strategy with a frequency of nearly 50% The hearer-oriented strategy comes second in the choice of Vietnamese and Vietnamese English students and comes third in the choice of American students The speaker-oriented strategy is the least frequently used among Vietnamese and Vietnamese English students but it is the second choice of American students Vietnamese culture does insert influence on English-major students‟ choice of complimenting strategies Fourth, with respect to the gender of the compliment givers, male American students prefer topic-oriented strategies when giving compliments, while female American students tend to employ speaker-oriented and hearer-oriented strategies more than the topic-oriented strategy Contrary to the tendency among American students, female Vietnamese students preferred to employ the topic-oriented strategy when giving compliments in English while male Vietnamese students opted for compliments which utilize the hearer-oriented and speaker-oriented strategies This tendency is also seen among English-major students; 40 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com therefore, it can be inferred that English-major students at Thai Nguyen University still adopt the Vietnamese cultural values in complimenting Fifth, regarding the communicating partners, the tendency in choosing complimenting strategies among American students does not vary whether their communicating partners are teachers or students On the contrary, the tendency in choosing strategies when giving compliments to different communicating partners varies significantly among Vietnamese students and Vietnamese English students Especially, Vietnamese English students are generally similar to Vietnamese students in the tendency of choosing complimenting strategies; therefore, it seems that they still hold the Vietnamese cultural values strictly Lastly, regarding the compliment topics, all the groups of students prefer the topicoriented strategy when they gave compliments on appearance or possession with a high frequency of more than 50% Americans tended to avoid using the hearer-oriented strategy when complimenting on appearance or possession because these compliments may be interpreted as insulting or backhanded compliments However, Vietnamese English students, like Vietnamese students, took these types of complimenting strategy as their second choice Vietnamese English students are also similar to Vietnamese students in the tendency of choosing strategies to compliment on ability or accomplishment Both groups employed the hearer-oriented strategy the most whereas American English students preferred the topicoriented strategy Therefore, we can conclude that they are still influenced by the Vietnamese culture Conclusion Having finished the analysis, the researcher is then able to draw a conclusion that American students, Vietnamese students and English-major students at TNU, in this study, employed all complimenting strategies: the speaker-oriented, the hearer-oriented and the topicoriented strategies In other words, each group of students used all types of complimenting strategies; however, we have to remember that the frequency of use of each complimenting strategy depends on their status, gender, compliment topics and cultural background The American students and the Vietnamese students have different cultural backgrounds which sometimes make their ways of giving compliments different from each other Particularly, it should be noted that the English-major students at TNU, who stand between the two cultures, seem to be influenced by both of them On one hand, they are deeply rooted in the Vietnamese culture; therefore, in some cases, they still hold the Vietnamese culture strictly when giving compliments in English On the other hand, they learn about the American English language and American culture; consequently, they gradually adopt the American cultural values That is why sometimes the way they give compliments is similar to that of American students 41 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Pedagogical Recommendations Based on the results of the investigation into the use of complimenting strategies in American English, Vietnamese English and Vietnamese from the cross-cultural communication perspective, the researcher would like to offer some recommendations for English language teaching in our country First, teachers in the foreign language classroom should focus explicitly on the communicative not only on the grammatical rules Thomas (1983) proposes that teachers should develop the students‟ ability to analyze language use in a conscious manner and to alert students to possible cross-cultural differences In addition, scales of politeness and appropriateness should be taught explicitly to enable the learner to make the right decision Recognizing the pragmalinguistic/ sociopragmatic distinction also helps learners to be sensitive and to work according to the norms and conventions of the speech community of the target language Second, this study reveals the importance of the cultural dimension of communication in the target language context To help students realize maximum pragmatic success, teachers need to make their students fully aware of the specific speech act sets and the accompanying linguistic features to produce appropriate and acceptable compliments and other important speech acts (Tanck, 2002) Umar, (2004) claims that this awareness could only be enhanced through a variety of classroom drills and exercises that involve realization of the target speech act in different situations Learners should be given ample time to practice these drills of pragmatic competence “until they become part of their linguistic repertoire” (p 24) Morrow, (1996) proposes that specific speech act instruction could improve pragmatic competence of nonnative speakers, and Hudson, (2001) suggests the use of DCT in the classroom to focus on the social distance between speakers Therefore, in classroom, teachers should create natural contexts in which students can apply their linguistic knowledge into reality Teachers can choose authentic materials such as books, newspapers, or videos to show students how native speakers give and respond to compliments, draw students‟ attention to the differences and similarities presented above Then, involve students in role – play activities In these activities, teachers should vary the roles and switch student‟s role so that they can have many interaction opportunities with different people of different age and social status in different situation Third, the conventional patterns of compliments should be taught in the classroom If participants used wrong complimenting patterns, their compliments would be awkward or ambiguous Such as conventional expressions as congratulations on should be taught Moreover, Vietnamese complimenting style should be avoided when using English Instead, English learners should be taught the five common adjectives used in English compliments: 42 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com nice, good, beautiful, pretty and great and the two verbs: like and love In addition, it is important to teach English learners how to express their wonder by using what and how and when they can use each one Fourth, it is necessary for a teacher of English to raise students' awareness of cultural similarities and differences between compliment patterns in Vietnamese culture and English culture The different patterns may require an explanation Last but not least, notoriously known as a compliment-saving culture, Vietnamese learners should be aware that compliment is a polite speech act which is widely used in everyday conversation to build up relationship American people welcome compliments and feel positive to those who give a good one in a sincere way Understanding the role of compliment in social interaction can help learners achieve successful communication Moreover, learners must be sufficiently cultural awareness to be able to make informed choices, to have a natural conversations with the native speakers of English Limitation of the Study This study was limited in four ways: First, the findings came only from a small number of respondents (16 American English, 30 Vietnamese, and 30 Vietnamese English speakers) Therefore, the generalizations made on the basis of these findings can be applied only to a small group of people Second, it looked at utterances in stimulated situations by using a discourse completion test (DCT) This method of eliciting stimulated responses has been criticized because it does not reflect natural speech In addition, it was difficult to interpret the Discourse Completion Test (DCT) because of the absence of facial expressions and tone, which help avoid misinterpretation of intention of the compliment, particularly in the ironic upgrades Hence, a researcher is sometimes obliged to analyze her data subjectively This provides additional support to the claim that DCT is not a proper instrument to collect the data for examining one of the speech acts However, this method was necessary because it helps us to focus on the forms and realizations of compliments and compliment responses in different situations with different speakers (Olshtain, 1991) as cited in Ismail, 1999 Moreover, it allows learners to exhibit their conversational knowledge without the cognitive pressures of face-to-face interaction (Bergman and Kasper, 1993) as cited in Ismail, 1999 Third, in this study, participants were asked to interact with the members of their own community Therefore, it is expected that they should follow the Vietnamese norms even when they use English 43 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Finally, due to the limit of time, the research used DCT to collect data, and thus, it cannot include the paralinguistic and non-linguistic aspects of the speech act This certainly limited the authenticity of the data and then the pragmatic effect of the expected results Suggestions for Further Research Based on the limitations mentioned above, the researcher recommends the following for future studies: First, it is necessary for other researchers to conduct studies with larger samples and more situations to yield more valid results Second, further studies should examine recorded spontaneous spoken data to provide an overall insight of this speech act Third, not only the utterances of the subjects but the hearer‟s responses to compliments should be taken into consideration It is necessary to consider the hearer‟s reactions in order to conduct a more accurate investigation of the interactive aspects of compliments and compliment responses Fourth, further studies should be launched to tackle the different variables that may affect the production of this speech act such as age, social distance, ranking of imposition, and language competency Finally, more comparative research should be carried out on other speech acts e.g., advising, complaining, offering etc in order to enrich the literature of speech act theory 44 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com REFERENCES Alexander, P.A., & Murphy, P K (1998) 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Describing Conceptions of the World around us Instructional Science, 10(1981), 177-200 Morrow, L (1996) Sociolinguistics and Second Language Learning (Unpublished MA Thesis) University of Wales Mulholland, J (1991) The Language of Negotiation London: Routledge Nelson, G., Al-Batal, M., & Echols, E (1996) Arabic and English compliment responses: Potential for pragmatic failure Applied Linguistics, 17(4), 411–432 Olshtain, E., & Cohen, A (1991) Teaching speech act to nonnative speakers In Wolfson, N (1989) The social dynamics of native and nonnative variation in complimenting behavior In M R Eisenstein (Ed.), The dynamic interlanguage, 219-236 New York: Plenum Olshtain, E (1991) Compliments and reactions in a society with a “positive politeness” orientation Paper presented at the Meeting of the American Association for Applied Linguistics Quang, Nguyen Van (1999) Some Cross Cultural Differences in Vietnamese and American Ways of Complimenting and Responding to Compliments (Ph.D dissertation) University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Saville-Troike, M (1982) The Ethnography of Communication Oxford: Blackwell Searle, J (1976) The classification of illocutionary acts Language in Society, 5, 1-23 Searle, J (1969) Speech acts Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Suu, Nguyen Phuong (1990) Giving and responding to compliments: a cross-cultural study in English and Vietnamese University of Canberra: TESOL Centre Tanck, S (2002) Speech Act Sets of Refusal and Complaint: A comparison of Native and Non-Native English Speakers' Production Studies in Second Language Acquisition Thomas, J (1983) Cross-cultural pragmatic failure Applied Linguistics, 4, 91–112 Umar, A (2004) Request strategies as Used by Advances Arab Learners of English Um AlQura Journal of social Sciences Umm Al-Qura: Umm Al-Qura University Press 47 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Wierzbicka, A (1991) Cross-cultural Pragmatics: The Semantics of Human Interaction Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter Wierzbicka, A (1985) Different cultures, different languages, different speech acts Journal of Pragmatics, 9, 145-178 Wolfson, N., & Manes, J (1980) The compliment as a social strategy Papers in Linguistics: International Journal of Human Communication, 13(3), 391–410 Wolfson, N (1989) Perspectives: sociolinguistics and TESOL Newbury House, New York Wolfson, N (1984) Pretty is as pretty does: A speech act view of sex roles Applied Linguistics, 5(3):236-244 Wolfson, N (1983) An empirically based analysis of complimenting in American English In N Wolfson & E Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition, 82-95 Rowley, MA: Newbury House Wolfson, N (1981) Compliment in cross-cultural perspective TESOL Quarterly, 15, 117-124 Yan Xia (2008) A Cross-Cultural Study of Politeness Strategies Used in English Compliments and Compliment Responses by Han, Kazak, and Uygur EFL Learners School of Foreign Studies, Nanjing University Yule, G (1997) Pragmatics Oxford: Oxford University Press Yule, G (1996) The Study of Language (2nd Edition) Cambridge: CUP 48 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com APPENDIX A DISCOURSE COMPLETION TEST This questionnaire format is designed for the study “The speech act of complimenting by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University” with the hope of finding out the interferences from Vietnamese culture to the students‟ choice of strategies when complimenting in English The questionnaire has two parts: the first part asks you for personal information and the second asks you to give compliments IN ENGLISH to situations Please put yourself in the following situations and write down what you would say in English in the space provided as honestly as possible to both parts You might find more than one appropriate response I would appreciate your responses to all the situations in the questionnaire as the information you provide will be extremely valuable to me However, if you feel that you not want to answer a particular question, I will gladly accept your decision I can assure that your responses will be completely anonymous and will not be used for any other purposes Part A: Personal Profile Name: Age:……………………………… Gender: Major: Part B: Pay compliments to the following situations You come across a person on campus and you have noticed that he/she has a new haircut that you think is really nice After exchanging greetings, what would you say to compliment him/her on the new hairstyle? If that person is your male classmate: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your female classmate: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your male teacher: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your female teacher: …………………………………………………………………………………… You come across a person on campus and you have noticed that he/she is I LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com wearing a new watch, and you like it very much What would you say to compliment him/her on the new watch? If that person is your male classmate: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your female classmate: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your male teacher: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your female teacher: …………………………………………………………………………………… At a class party, you find a person sing very well What would you say to compliment him/her? If that person is your male classmate: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your female classmate: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your male teacher: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your female teacher: …………………………………………………………………………………… In a seminar class, a person gives a presentation, and you think he/she an excellent job What would you say to compliment him/her? If that person is your male classmate: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your female classmate: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your male teacher: …………………………………………………………………………………… If that person is your female teacher: …………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for your help! II LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com APPENDIX B PHIẾU CÂU HỎI ĐIỀU TRA Phiếu câu hỏi thiết kế cho việc nghiên cứu "Hành động lời nói khen ngợi sinh viên chuyên ngành Tiếng Anh Đại học Thái Nguyên" Phiếu câu hỏi có hai phần: phần thứ xin bạn vui lịng cho biết thơng tin cá nhân phần thứ hai xin bạn đưa lời khen ngợi tiếng Việt cho tình mà chúng tơi đưa Bạn đưa nhiều lời khen cho tình Những thơng tin phiếu câu hỏi giữ kín không sử dụng vào mục đích khác Phần A: Thơng tin cá nhân Tên: Tuổi:……………………………… Giới tính (Nam/Nữ): Chuyên ngành: Phần B: Tình Bạn tình cờ gặp người khn viên trường bạn nhận thấy người có mái tóc mà bạn nghĩ thực đẹp Sau hai người chào hỏi nhau, bạn nói để khen ngợi kiểu tóc người đó? Nếu người bạn nữ lớp với bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Nếu người bạn nam lớp với bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Nếu người giáo bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Nếu người thầy giáo bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Bạn tình cờ gặp người khuôn viên trường bạn nhận thấy người đeo đồng hồ mới, bạn thích Bạn nói để khen người đồng hồ mới? Nếu người bạn nữ lớp với bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Nếu người bạn nam lớp với bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… III LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Nếu người giáo bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Nếu người thầy giáo bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Tại bữa tiệc lớp, bạn thấy người hát hay Bạn nói để khen người đó? Nếu người bạn nữ lớp với bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Nếu người bạn nam lớp với bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Nếu người giáo bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Nếu người thầy giáo bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Trong buổi thảo luận, người có thuyết trình hay Bạn nói để khen người đó? Nếu người bạn nữ lớp với bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Nếu người bạn nam lớp với bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Nếu người giáo bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Nếu người thầy giáo bạn: …………………………………………………………………………………… Xin chân thành cảm ơn giúp đỡ bạn IV LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ...  Modesty maxim: Minimize praise of self Maximize praise of other  Agreement maxim: Minimize disagreement between self and other Maximize agreement between self and other  Sympathy maxim: Minimize... strategies by Vietnamese informants, American informants and Vietnamese learners of English when their communicating partners are male classmates 32 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com... LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale Learning a language means more than knowing linguistic features such as the rules of grammar or the vocabulary