Luận văn thạc sĩ the use of body language in inaugural addresses made by the us presidents

PART 1 – INTRODUCITON VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ DỊU THE USE OF BODY LANGUAGE IN INAUGURAL ADDRESS[.]

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ DỊU THE USE OF BODY LANGUAGE IN INAUGURAL ADDRESSES MADE BY THE US PRESIDENTS VIỆC SỬ DỤNG NGÔN NGỮ CƠ THỂ TRONG CÁC BÀI PHÁT BIỂU NHẬM CHỨC CỦA CÁC TỔNG THỐNG MỸ M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.220.201 HANOI – 2014 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ DỊU THE USE OF BODY LANGUAGE IN INAUGURAL ADDRESSES MADE BY THE US PRESIDENTS VIỆC SỬ DỤNG NGÔN NGỮ CƠ THỂ TRONG CÁC BÀI PHÁT BIỂU NHẬM CHỨC CỦA CÁC TỔNG THỐNG MỸ M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.220.201 Supervisor: Dương Đức Minh, PhD HANOI – 2014 z DECLARATION I, Nguyễn Thị Dịu, declare that the thesis entitled ―The use of body language in inaugural addresses made by the US presidents‖ reports the result of the study conducted by myself The minor thesis is submitted to Department of Post-graduate studies, ULIS, Hanoi for the Degree of Master of Arts It has not been published anywhere Student’s name Nguyễn Thị Dịu In my capacity as supervisor of the candidate‘s thesis, I certify that the above statements are true to the best of my knowledge Supervisor Duong Duc Minh, PhD Date: Hanoi, April 22, 2014 i z ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Duong Duc Minh, PhD for his patient guidance, and careful correction in my thesis I am indebted to my teacher, Nguyen Thi Hang for her useful materials advices My special thanks are to my boyfriend, Nguyen Van Tien who have encouraged and helped me a lot during this study Finally, my heart- felt gratitude goes to my family members, especially, my mother for their assistance and encouragement in my training course ii z ABSTRACT To date, there have been a lot of researches to build the suggestion that nonverbal communication, especially the body language has the important role in the second language communicative competence of the communicators The most common sense is that the body language can convey equal, or even more meanings in the communication processes A supposition is that if the communicators can have the gist of all the body languages used in communicating situations, the processes of communicating can have the best results This study has the aim to make investigations of the body language used by the US Presidents in their inaugural addresses, which can provide the readers with the clear and specific examples of body languages used in official situations The findings of this research can also enlighten the possible applications of body languages into social communication of English language, especially for education The further applications of body languages into communication will also be included in the latter part of this research From such expectations of the findings, the author will use the methods of translating the speeches made in the inaugural addresses of the Presidents Bush and Obama for elaborated analysis, so that all dimensions of the body languages used by the two presidents will be enlightened The main findings of this study include the two significant aspects of body languages used by the Presidents in their important events: they have more tendencies to use hand gestures than smiles to build attraction of the audiences, and more importantly, they have the stable uses of dominant hands in associations with describing the good things with positive valances, and the non-dominant hands in describing the bad things with negative valances In the this study, the author made summary of the main findings of this research, as well as the emphasis of the different roles of hands and smiles used in communication, the uses of the left and right hand gestures with positive and negative valences, and the implication of the uses of body languages in cross-cultural communication for better effectiveness Finally, the author also made suggestions for the possible further studies in the same research field of body language in communication iii z LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The Illustrator used in communication Figure 2:Transition signals used in interpersonal communication Figure Emblems used in communication Figure 4: Affect Display of personal emotion Figure Various Facial Expressions of the communicators 11 Figure Four distance zones in interpersonal communication 21 Figure Comparisons of the uses of left and right hands of the two Presidents 27 iv z LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Spoken clauses used by the two presidents in the analysis 25 Table 2.2 Number of right and left-hand gestures during clauses with positive and negative emotional valence 28 Table 2.3 Test of understanding level of the respodents 29 Table 2.4 Test of rate of remembering 30 Table 2.5 Test of correlation between the uses of body movements and the understanding of the audiences 30 v z TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii Abstract iii List of figures iv List of tables v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale for the Study Aims of the Study 3 Significance of the Study Scope of the Study Organization of the Study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction to Body Language or Nonverbal Communication 1.1.1Definition of body language or nonverbal communication 1.1.2 Elements of nonverbal communication 1.1.2.1.Gestures 1.1.2.2.Facial Expression 1.1.2.3 Eye behaviors 11 1.2 Theories, Structures and Significance of Nonverbal Communication 12 1.2.1 Theories of Nonverbal Communication 12 1.2.1.1 Ray Birdwhistell's Theory on Kinesics (1970) 12 1.2.1.2 Edward Hall‘s Theory on Proxemics 12 1.2.1.3 Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen‘s Theory on Kinesics (1969) 13 1.2.2 Functions of Nonverbal Communication 14 1.2.3 Structure and Properties of Nonverbal Communication 15 1.3 Significance, Benefits and Limitations of Nonverbal Communication 17 1.3.1 Relationships between verbal and nonverbal communication 17 1.3.2 Studying fields of nonverbal communication 18 1.3.3 Significance of nonverbal communication in social activities 19 vi z 1.3.4 Applications of body gestures in nonverbal communication 19 CHAPTER 2: DATA COLLECTION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICAION OF THE US PRESIDENTS 21 2.1 The uses of Hands and Smiles of the Presidents in Inaugural Addresses 21 2.2 The Uses of Left and Right Hands of the Presidents for Positive and Negative Valences 23 2.2.1 Data collection 24 2.2.2 Procedure 24 2.2.3 Results 26 2.2.4 Discussions 27 PART C: CONCLUSION 32 Conclusion Remarks 32 Implications for The Use of Nonverbal Behavior in Cross-cultural Communication 33 Suggestions for Further Studies 34 REFERENCES 35 APPENDIXES I Appendix 1: President Bush‘s 2001 Inaugural Address Transcript I Appendix 2: President Obama‘s 2009 Inaugural Address Transcript V vii z PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale for the Study Throughout the history of the world, languages used to be the main tools for the communities to cooperate, survive and develop Such tools may vary from this type of creature to the others For instance, the oceanic creatures such as the dolphins and seals have their sounds to make lingual connections with the others in their communities; for mammal animals such as the lions and the dogs, they may bark or grind as the signals of communicating In another example of the birds, they may sing to call for help or dating of their kind Each type of create has its own specific type of language, and the world may have thousands of languages to be recognized However, the most significant and supreme one is the language systems of the humans Since ancient times, the language systems of humans have associated with a number of crucial elements, such as the movements, gestures, sounds or symbolic items To date, there have been a lot of hypotheses of the origin, the spot of time, the methods and conditions of the appearances of languages in the world, and the first one to be used in the world is still a great topic for debates The origins of languages have been in efforts of scientists to figure out the first appearing one, and the progress is still very long for the world to continue There have been a number of approaches that scientists have used as tools to find out the true The first approach is the ―Continuity theories‖ The assumption of this type of theories is that the languages cannot be the single form as the starting point to the ending ones used in today‘s context Our primate ancestors should have generated a lot of pre-linguistic systems as the foundation for the later developments of lines of languages Based on the demographic, ethnic, living and communicating conditions, each language can have their separate developments from those systems in their evolutions In another type of theories, the "Discontinuity theories", which have the assumption that languages integrated unique characteristics, and that they should have had their appearances in the long progress of human evolution Another important approach is that the languages can be formed in the combinations of the genetic codes and the social interactions, through appearances, experiences and modifications (U1bek, 1998) However, the common important agreement z ... dimensions of the body languages used by the two presidents will be enlightened The main findings of this study include the two significant aspects of body languages used by the Presidents in their important... DISCUSSION OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICAION OF THE US PRESIDENTS 21 2.1 The uses of Hands and Smiles of the Presidents in Inaugural Addresses 21 2.2 The Uses of Left and Right Hands of the. .. communicating situations, the processes of communicating can have the best results This study has the aim to make investigations of the body language used by the US Presidents in their inaugural addresses,