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The thesis analyzed the first debate between the two typical representatives of the United States in terms of lowcontext culture. The major aim of this thesis was to explore how characteristics of lowcontext culture expressed through the way two US presidential candidates debated. Case study and document analysis were chosen as the main approach way and method of this study. Collected documents were analyzed and finally conclusion was drawn out from the analyzed data. As a result of completing the above procedure, the researcher has found out some characteristics of lowcontext culture expressed clearly through the first debate by the US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. They are relying on facts and statistics, using direct style in speaking, and employing linear logic. Obama often gave more details but less clear structure than Romney did. Besides, characteristics of lowcontext culture also affected to language strategies of the two presidential candidates including lexical strategies and grammatical strategies. Both candidates used simple words and spoken words with literal meaning. However, Mitt Romney communicated more explicitly because he used shorter and simple sentences so that the audiences could easily get his points. This study helps us understand more about the communicative ways of the two presidential candidates in particular and the people in the United States, a lowcontext culture in general.
ABSTRACT The thesis analyzed the first debate between the two typical representatives of the United States in terms of low-context culture. The major aim of this thesis was to explore how characteristics of low-context culture expressed through the way two US presidential candidates debated. Case study and document analysis were chosen as the main approach way and method of this study. Collected documents were analyzed and finally conclusion was drawn out from the analyzed data. As a result of completing the above procedure, the researcher has found out some characteristics of low-context culture expressed clearly through the first debate by the US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. They are relying on facts and statistics, using direct style in speaking, and employing linear logic. Obama often gave more details but less clear structure than Romney did. Besides, characteristics of low-context culture also affected to language strategies of the two presidential candidates including lexical strategies and grammatical strategies. Both candidates used simple words and spoken words with literal meaning. However, Mitt Romney communicated more explicitly because he used shorter and simple sentences so that the audiences could easily get his points. This study helps us understand more about the communicative ways of the two presidential candidates in particular and the people in the United States, a low-context culture in general. TABLE OF CONTENTS i CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF TABLES v PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study 1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Significance of the study 2 4. Scope of the study 2 5. Research questions 2 6. Organization 3 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter1: Literature review and theoretical background 1.1 Previous studies 4 1.2 Theoretical background 7 1.2.1 Low-context culture and high-context culture 7 1.2.2 Differences in characteristics of low-context and high-context cultures 8 1.2.3 About the first debate by the US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney 10 Chapter 2: Methodology ii 2.1 Case study approach 12 2.2 Research methods and instruments 12 2.3 Data analysis 13 2.4 Ethical issue 13 Chapter 3: Results and discussion. 3.1 Some characteristics of low-context culture expressed through the first debate by the US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. 14 3.1.1 Rely on facts and statistics 14 3.1.2. Use direct style in speaking 19 3.1.3 Employ linear logic 21 3.2. Vebal strategies by the presidential candidates 28 3.2.1 Lexical strategies 28 3.2.2 Grammatical strategies 31 PART 5: CONCLUSION 1. Major findings of the research 38 2. Limitations 39 3. Implications 40 4. Suggestion for further studies 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX 45 iii LIST OF TABLES 1. Table: 1.2.2 a: Differences in characteristics of low-context culture and high- context culture by Edward T. Hall, 1976 (pg 8-9) 2. Table 1.2.2 b: Differences in characteristics of low-context culture and high- context culture by Sana Reynolds and Deborah Valentine, 2003 (pg 9) 3. Table 1.2.2 c: Differences in characteristics of low-context culture and high- context culture by Mary Ellen Guffey, Dana Loewy,2010 (pg 10) 4. Table 3.2.1 a: Words used by the two presidential candidates (pg 28) 5. Table 3.2.1 b: Word types and word pairs (pg 29) 6. Table 3.2.2 a: Sentence Size (pg 31-32) 7. Table 3.2.2 b: Some emphasizing sentences (interrogative sentence, “let”… sentences, “look”… sentences) (pg 35) 8. Table 3.2.2 c: Repetition and parallelism examples (pg 36-37) iv PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study As a student studying about languages, the researcher sees that Vietnam culture and Anglo-Saxon culture are so different. Vietnam culture is a high-context culture. Meanwhile, Anglo-Saxon culture is a low-context culture. These two types of cultures decide different ways of communication. The communicating ways are expressed in daily life, in economic discourse and especially in political discourse. American culture is one representative of low-context culture. Many characteristics of low-context culture are expressed through debates between US presidential candidates every four years. In the current global background, learning English as well as finding out about other cultures, especially American culture are very important. For that reason, the researcher has chosen the topic “Some characteristics of low-context culture through the first debate by the US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney” to analyze. 1 2. Aims of the study To raise the researcher’s awareness of the communicative ways in the major fields of society, politics, education and culture as an English and international culture learner. 3. Significance of the study - helps us understand more about low-context culture to distinguish between low- context and high-context cultures. - helps us understand more about politics and life in the world. - brings about a new and interesting way to approach and find out the politic life through approaching and finding out the culture. 4. Scope of the study The study focuses only on some characteristics of low-context culture expressed in the first debate by the US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The research just concentrates on analyzing verbal arguments of the two candidates. 5. Research questions - What are some characteristics of the first presidential debate by Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in term of low-context culture? - What are verbal strategies by the two presidential candidates? - What are the lessons from low-context culture’s characteristics? 2 6. Organization of study - Part 1 introduces the problem statement, the reason why the topic is worth researching, the research aims and objectives, the significance of the study, the research questions and the scope of study. - Part 2 includes three chapters: + Chapter 1 presents a review of literature, relevant research associated with the problem addressed in this study and theoretical background. + Chapter 2 presents the methodology and procedures used for data collection and analysis. + Chapter 3 contains an analysis of the data and presentation of the results. - Part 3 offers a summary and discussion of the research’s findings, implications for practice, limitation of the study and recommendations for future research. 3 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Previous studies After finding, the researcher has seen some studies having topics relating to this topic. For example: In the seminar paper called “High-context and low-context communication styles” (2005), Angela Gamsriegler has focused on the differences in low-context and high- context communication styles across cultures and their influence on the way people perceive information. Apart from dealing with the definition of used terms in the first part, the seminar paper had provided information on the role of culture in communication in its second part In addition, in the second part, the author has identified culturally affected areas of communication, the differences in communication styles, as well as the perception of information across cultures. In the last chapter, she has explained the main causes for intercultural misunderstandings. “The primary aim of this seminar paper was to show how a person’s cultural background affects communication. What was found was that the process of communication involves the perception, interpretation and evaluation of a person’s behavior.” The perception, interpretation and evaluation of a person’s behavior are all “dependent on a person’s cultural background, which determines the meanings attached to a specific behavior”. Besides, the differences in perception of information across cultures or in other words, the differences of how people across cultures perceive information were described in the seminar paper. Specifically, “in low-context 4 cultures people tend to rely heavily on the spoken word whereas in high-context cultures people focus strongly on context.” After observed and analyzed what people perceived, Angela Gamsriegler has found out that “perceptual patterns are selective, learned, consistent, inaccurate and, most importantly, culturally determined.” Finally, she has concluded that “two people from different cultures will not only communicate in different ways but also experience a situation differently.” In another research called “Inference and culture: the distinction between low- context culture and high context culture as a possible explanation between cultural differences in cognition” of Hiroshi Yama and Norhayati Zakaria propose another possible cultural and Eastern high context culture (Hall, 1976). Hiroshi Yama and Norhayati Zakaria has seen a distinction in cognitive behaviors between Easterners and Westerners that is while Westerners usually use holistic thinking to solve problems, Westerners use analytic thinking more often. “This distinction in cognitive behaviors has often been explained by using a framework based on the fact that Western culture favors independent self-construal (individualist culture) and Eastern culture favors interdependent self-construal (collectivist culture).” The two researchers particularly focus on “the difference between the rule-based inference more common in low- context Western cultures and the dialectical inference more common in high-context Eastern cultures”. Besides, they have argued that rule-based inference using global rules is more adaptive in low context cultures. In the conclusion, the primary goal to propose a possible explanation for cultural differences in cognition of this paper has clarified. The cultural differences in cognition include “the analytic cognition practiced by Western cultures and the holistic cognition practiced by Eastern cultures”. Instead of using the distinction between Western individualist culture and Eastern collectivist culture, the two researchers used “the distinction between low context culture in the West and high context culture in the East”. The two researchers have proposed a new framework which is “contrasted with that of cultural psychologists (e.g., Nisbett, 2003; 5 Nisbett et al., 2001), who assume that culture and mind are inseparable and emphasize the role of self-construal in culture and cognitive style.” Their framework has shown that “culture and context are inseparable and, as such, that context has a strong connection to the types of information required in order to draw effective meanings or sense-making into the thinking process.” One another research titled “What’s a cross cultural mediator to do? A low-context solution for a high-context solution” (2008) of John Barkai explores “issues facing mediators in cross-cultural conflicts, offer suggestions for conducting cross-cultural mediations, and propose a template of factors that mediators should consider when assisting parties in cross-cultural mediation.” This research was based on and developed from researches by social scientists and anthropologists, particularly Edward T. Hall and Geert Hofstede. After analyzing and evaluating, the researcher has concluded that cultural differences are the reasons why cross-cultural mediations are more complex than domestic mediations. “However, mediators who find themselves in cross-cultural mediations can apply some basic principles and strategies to improve the likelihood of success based upon the application of cultural dimension interests (CDI’s) to their mediation.” The most recent research is the one called “Lexical Analysis of Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney (1st debate)” (2012) conducted by Martin Krzywinski. “The analysis describes in detail the structure of each candidate's speech, words and phrases that they used (exclusively or shared), and the degree to which they repeated themselves.” The research’s aim is to “explore the structure of speech, as characterized by the use of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, pronouns and noun phrases. The speech patterns of opposing candidates are compared in an effort to identify priorities, perspectives, characteristic values and personality traits.” 6 [...]... the US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in aspect of lowcontext culture Some researches focus on low-context culture, high-cotext culture, their differences and their effect to communication and so on Some others just pay attention to analize characteristics of discourse of the first debate between the two presidential candiate Barack Obama and Mitt Romney The researcher thinks that... communication, first debate of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, critical discourse analysis, linear- thinking, linguistic strategies in political debate, rhetorical techniques in political debate, and so on Besides, the researcher has also collected and synthesized statistics from the transcript of the first debate between the two US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney downloaded from website:... candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney 3.1.1 Rely on facts and statistics It is easy to see that facts and statistics appear many times in the first debate between the two presidential candidates They appeared in almost all speaking turns of the the presidential candidates After counted and synthesized, the researcher found out 13 that in this debate, there was at least 65 times Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. .. and synthesized, the researcher found out 13 that in this debate, there was at least 65 times Barack Obama and Mitt Romney used facts In which, Barack Obama used about 31 times and Mitt Romney used not less than 34 times However, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney delivered about 53 statistics each one Although facts and statistics would be the effective tools for the two presidential candidates to... illustrated clearly how middle-class families will be burdened under the pledge of Mitt Romney Facing to criticism of Obama, Mitt Romney also gave many facts and statistics to support his key points protesting Obama s arguments For instance, in his effort to prove that Obama s plan to increase tax of big businesses, Romney said “with regards to 97 percent of the businesses are not… taxed at the 35... investments that they need to make without dumping those costs on the middle-class Americans.” With the specific facts and detailed figures, Obama was successful in persuading people to believe him rather than Romney s plan Facing to argument of Barack Obama, Mitt Romney critisized that the policies of president affected to middle-income Americans He had shown that: Middle-income Americans have seen their... “Low-context cultures tend to emphasise logic and rationality and linear processes of discovery and thinking.” Through the debate between the two presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, the researcher sees that both Obama and Romney are linear thinkers Firstly, they both tended to be concerned with details People can see that right from the allocation of the time for discussion “There will... program as well as its efficiency Obama often gave more details than Romney did Romney delivered his plans to improve the economy, to withdraw health 21 care plan of Obama, to revise the health insurance law for people over 65 years old, to add legislation to prevent the financial collapse and to reduce budget deficit However, Romney did not give details despite Mr Obama s attempts to pin him down ... deficit.” Or when talking about tax plan, Romney said “So if the tax plan he described were a tax plan I was asked to support,… That's part one…Number two, I will not reduce the share paid by highincome individuals And number three, I will not, under any circumstances, raise taxes on middle-income families…” In this term, Mitt Romney did better than Barack Obama Romney nearly always divided his arguments... this debate, the way Obama and Romney used language was affected by their low-context culture Therefore, through analyzing their strategies to use language, we will see more clearly characteristics of low-context culture 3.2.1 Lexical strategies According to research scientist Martin Krzywinski, the researcher has synthesized these following tables: Table 3.2.1 a Barack Obama Mitt Romney Words used 7,280 . least 65 times Barack Obama and Mitt Romney used facts. In which, Barack Obama used about 31 times and Mitt Romney used not less than 34 times. However, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney delivered. between the two US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney downloaded from website: http://www.npr.org/2012/10/03/162258551/transcript-first -obama- romney- presidential-debate. Recognizing. specific facts and detailed figures, Obama was successful in persuading people to believe him rather than Romney s plan. Facing to argument of Barack Obama, Mitt Romney critisized that the policies