Untitled THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN THI NGAN A STUDY OF JUDGES’ CODE – SWITCHING ON VIETNAMESE TV GAME SHOWS (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng chuyển mã ngôn ngữ của các giám khả[.]
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN THI NGAN A STUDY OF JUDGES’ CODE – SWITCHING ON VIETNAMESE TV GAME SHOWS (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng chuyển mã ngôn ngữ giám khảo chương trình giải trí truyền hình Việt Nam) M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN - 2019 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN THI NGAN A STUDY OF JUDGES’ CODE – SWITCHING ON VIETNAMESE TV GAME SHOWS (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng chuyển mã ngôn ngữ giám khảo chương trình giải trí truyền hình Việt Nam) M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Thi Hang THAI NGUYEN – 2019 DECLARATION I hereby warrant and declare that the thesis entitled “A study of judges’ code – switching on Vietnamese TV game shows” is my own work to the best of my knowledge and belief It contains no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements) and has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic degree or diploma Signature: Name: Nguyen Thi Ngan Supervisor’s signature Dr Nguyen Thi Hang i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is my first experience for doing a thesis I would like to express my deep indebtedness to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Hang, for her wholehearted assistance This thesis would not have finished without her suggestions, corrections and encouragements My special thanks also go to my all colleagues in Centre for Human Resource Development for Foreign Language Studies – Thai Nguyen University facilitate in my studying process Furthermore, I am grateful to all authors of books listed in the bibliography, whose ideas are good references for my research to be conducted and developed Last but not least, I am indebted to my little family and my best friends, Phuong and Yen, who always understand, support and motivate me to finish my thesis ii ABSTRACT This study examines the code – switching phenomenon practiced by the judges in the context of Vietnamese TV game shows A mix of quantitative and qualitative approach was applied to obtain the research aims, i.e., the frequency, types and functions of code – switching My analysis of data shows that factors such as the time where the game shows took place, the theme of the game shows, the audiences for each show and the judges’ social background decide the frequency of the judges’ switching] Their switching have been classified into three types namely intra – sentential code – switching, inter – sentential code – switching and tag – switching These switches serve two main functions: discourse and social functions Subfunctions under each category have also been identified in the study iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES iv Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Objectives 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the research 1.5 Research struture Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.0 Introduction 2.1 Bilingualism .4 2.2 Code – switching 2.2.1 Concepts of code – switching 2.2.2 Types of code – switching .6 2.2.3 Functions of code – switching 10 2.3 Summary 13 Chapter 3: Research methodology 14 3.0 Introduction 14 3.1 Research methodology .14 3.2 Data collection 15 3.3 Data analysis .16 3.4 Summary 17 Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion 18 4.0 Introduction 18 4.1 Frequency of the judges’ code – switching .18 4.2 Code – switching types 21 4.2.1 Intra – sentential code – switching (type 1) 22 iv 4.2.2 Inter – sentential code – switching (type2) 24 4.2.3 Tag – switching (type 3) 26 4.3 Functions of code – switching 27 4.3.1 Discourse functions .27 4.3.2 Social functions 31 4.4 Summary 35 Chapter 5: Conclusion 36 5.1 Summary of key findings 36 5.2 Implications, limitations and suggestions for further research 37 References 39 List of tables Table 3.1 Summary of game shows and episodes v Table 4.1 Judges’ switching times in each game show Table 4.2 Types of code – switching Table 4.3 Judges’ intra – sentential code – switching Table 4.4 Judges’ inter – sentential code – switching Table 4.6 Judges’ tag – switching Table 4.7 Functions of the judges’ code – switching Table 4.8 A list of words for the judges’ qualification vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Rationale “No nation in the world is completely monolingual” (Miriam, 2006) Vietnam, a multi-ethnic nation with over 50 ethnic groups, is not an exception Besides, many foreign languages, i.e., English, Chinese and Japanese, are utilized in Vietnam Among these foreign languages, English is the most popular one which is used in both educational and non – educational settings The inserting of English to Vietnamese conversations between people, who share their first language, has been known as the phenomenon of code – switching This practice seems to be appropriately popular in social and educational, formal and informal situations Vietnam is in the most brilliant stage of game show development Every year, hundreds of entertainment programs or TV game shows are screened According to Vietnam Television Audience Measurement (Vietnam – TAM) statistic figure, there are over 140 game shows published in Vietnam in 2016 (Vietnam-TAM, 2016) Some well-known programs are The voice; Sing my song; The face Vietnam; Vietnam next top model; The remix new generation They seem to be the one that most Vietnamese audience watch and follow It is rather common to find Vietnamese people speaking both Vietnamese and English as illustrated in the following example: Example 1.1: Tơi thích đoạn (I really like the hát bạn chorus chorus part in your song) (Sing my song 2016, episode 1, 45:56) Studies on the practice of code – switching in Vietnam are mainly found in the language teaching and learning context Examples of these studies are English – Vietnamese code – switching in tertiary educational context in Vietnam (Nguyen, 2012); Vietnamese university EFL teacher’s code – switching in classroom instruction (Nguyen, 2013); Code – switching in English Language Education: Voices from Vietnam (Nguyen, 2016) However, little has been known so far concerning this practice on game shows It is observed that both judges and participants involved code – switching between Vietnamese and English rather frequently in interactions in their shows Vietnamese authors tend to examine code – switching in fields such as education, social network, and so on, in both written and spoken language However, very few of them are interested in the code – switching on Vietnamese television This study, therefore, expects to grasp understanding of judges’ code – switching on Vietnamese TV game shows – a little part of language code – switching between English and Vietnamese 1.2 Objectives As mentioned, this study aims to gain better understanding of code – switching employed by judges in game shows, the specific objectives are as follow - To obtain the frequency of code – switching used by judges on some popular Vietnamese TV game shows - To identify their kinds of code – switching - To determine the functions of their switches 1.3 Research questions The overarching research question has been formulated to achieve the objectives: How judges code – switch between Vietnamese and English in interactions on Vietnamese TV game shows? Sub-questions are: (1) How frequently is code – switching taken by judges on Vietnamese TV game shows? (2) What kinds of code – switching are used by the judges on Vietnamese TV game shows? (3) What functions their switches take?