NGHIÊN cứu CHIẾN lược bày tỏ sự hài LÒNG được sử DỤNG bởi BAN GIÁM KHẢO TRONG HAI CHƯƠNG TRÌNH TRUYỀN HÌNH THỰC tế THE VOICE u s và THE VOICE VIETNAM

Based on the theoretical background of crosscultural communication, this study examines the similarities and differences in satisfaction expressing strategies between American and Vietnamese judging panels in two reality shows: The Voice U.S and The Voice Vietnam. It focuses primarily on the popularity and preference of strategies of expressing satisfaction. In order to accomplish this thesis paper, quantitative and qualitative methods are both used in this study with priorities given to the quantitative one. The data were collected from seven episodes of The Voice U.S season 3 and nine episodes of The Voice Vietnam season 1 with approximately 2000 minutes in total. The results gained from the findings and data analysis have revealed eight common satisfaction expressing strategies employed by American and Vietnamese judging panels. The analysis of 405 comments using satisfaction expressing strategy (227 in English and 178 in Vietnamese) showed some significant similarities and differences between American and Vietnamese judging panels in expressing satisfaction. It is hopeful that the findings could have partially valuable contribution to the reduction of culture shocks and pragmatic failures in communication in real life.

strategies of expressing satisfaction.

In order to accomplish this thesis paper, quantitative and qualitative methods areboth used in this study with priorities given to the quantitative one The data were

collected from seven episodes of The Voice U.S season 3 and nine episodes of The Voice Vietnam season 1 with approximately 2000 minutes in total

The results gained from the findings and data analysis have revealed eight commonsatisfaction expressing strategies employed by American and Vietnamese judgingpanels The analysis of 405 comments using satisfaction expressing strategy (227 inEnglish and 178 in Vietnamese) showed some significant similarities anddifferences between American and Vietnamese judging panels in expressingsatisfaction It is hopeful that the findings could have partially valuable contribution

to the reduction of culture shocks and pragmatic failures in communication in reallife

TABLE OF CONTENT

Acknowledgements……… i

Abstract……… ii

List of figures, tables and abbreviations……….v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale……… 1

2 Aims of the study……….2

3 Research questions……… 2

4 Scope of the study………3

5 Methodology………3

6 Significance of the study……… 3

7 Organization of the study……….4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Culture and communication……… 5

1.1.1 Culture……….5

1.1.2 Communication………6

1.1.3 Cross cultural communication……….9

1.2 Speech act………10

1.2.1 The notion of speech acts……… 10

1.2.2 Classification of speech acts……… 13

1.2.3 Expressing satisfaction as a speech act……… 15

1.3 Reality television……….17

1.3.1 Definition……… 17

1.3.2 “The Voice” series……….17

1.3.2.1 Definition……… 17

1.3.2.2 Format description of The Voice U.S season 3 and The Voice Vietnam season 1……… 18

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 Methodology………20

2.1.1 Material……….20

2.1.2 Participants……….20

2.1.2.1American judging panel (season 3 – 2012)………20

2.1.2.2 Vietnamese judging panel (season 1 – 2012)………21

2.1.3 Data collection procedure……… 21

2.1.4 Data analysis procedure……….21

2.2 Results……….22

2.2.1 Research question 1……… 22

2.2.2 Research question 2……… 30

2.2.3 Concluding remarks about major cross cultural similarities and differences……… 37

PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Summary of the findings……….40

2 Implications……….41

3 Limitation of the study………42

4 Suggestions for further study……… 42

REFERENCES……… 44

APPENDICES……….47

Appendix A: The Voice U.S

Appendix B: The Voice Vietnam

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS

Table 1-1: The five general functions of speech acts (Yule, 1996, p 55)

Table 2-1: Use of satisfaction expressing strategies by judging panels in two reality shows: The Voice U.S and The Voice Vietnam

Table 2-2: Use of strategy 1 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

Table 2-3: Use of strategy 2 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

Table 2-4: Use of strategy 3 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

Table 2-5: Use of strategy 4 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

Table 2-6: Use of strategy 5 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

Table 2-7: Use of strategy 6 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

Table 2-8: Use of strategy 7 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

Table 2-9: Use of strategy 8 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

Table 2-10: Frequency of using strategies to express satisfaction by American and Vietnamese judging panels

Figure 1-1: Nguyen Quang’s diagram of components of communication (NguyenQuang, 2001, p 9)

Figure 2-1: Use of satisfaction expressing strategies by American panel in TheVoice U.S

Figure 2-2: Use of satisfaction expressing strategies by Vietnamese panel in TheVoice Vietnam

Figure 2-3: Use of satisfaction expressing strategies by judging panels in two realityshows: The Voice U.S and The Voice Vietnam

TVU: The Voice U.S

TVN: The Voice Vietnam

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study

The desired outcome of the language learning process is the ability to be competent

in not only linguistics but also pragmatics Language teaching in most of advancededucations is based on the idea that the goal of language acquisition is

communicative competence As Hymes (1966) puts it, “speakers of a language have to have more than grammatical competence in order to be able to communicate effectively in a language; they also need to know how language is used by members of a speech community to accomplish their purposes.” (p.20)

Language and culture are intimately related Language and its structure are entirelydependent on the cultural context in which they existed Littlejohn & Foss (2005)

recall that Hymes suggests that “cultures communicate in different ways, but all forms of communication require a shared code, communicators who know and use the code, a channel, a setting, a message form, a topic, and an event created by

transmission of the message" (p 312) Speech communities create and establish

their own speaking codes/norms Philipsen (1975) explains that “Each community has its own cultural values about speaking and these are linked to judgments of situational appropriateness” (p 13) Learners merely master a language when they

can thoroughly comprehend the interrelationship between language and culture Inparticular, to be able to use the target language appropriately in terms of pragmaticcompetence, language learners need to understand how to employ a variety ofspeech acts in different contexts of the target culture Expressing satisfaction is one

of them

Different speech act strategies reflect culture’s distinctive interactional style Thischaracteristic explains why when the conversation is joined by people not comingfrom the same culture, breakdowns in communication may happen Speech acts,therefore, vary according to the culture it belongs to Expressing satisfaction iscommonly considered one of the most frequently used speech act in both formal and

informal talks Through investigating the way people apply it in different culture;

we could identify which one is valued in each community

With all the reasons mentioned above, the researcher is stimulated to conduct across cultural study on satisfaction expressing by judging panels in two reality

show: The Voice U.S and The Voice Vietnam These two reality shows attracted a

larger number of audience each season in both countries since the preliminary day itwas on air Within limitation of this study, the researcher would deeply investigatethe situations in which the judging panels express their satisfaction for thecontestants to find out the major similarities as well as the differences between thetwo languages It is hopeful that the findings could have valuable contribution to thereduction of culture shocks and pragmatic failures in communication in real life

2 Aims of the study

The study is carried out to accomplish three primary objectives Firstly, it isconducted to discover the common strategies to express satisfaction which were

utilized by judges/ coaches in two reality shows: The Voice U.S season 3 and The Voice Vietnam season 1 In addition, the paper investigates the similarities as well

as the differences between American and Vietnamese judges/coaches ways ofemploying those strategies of commenting Last but not least, raising American orVietnamese people’s awareness of the impacts of culture on these differences is alsothe main objective of this study

3 Research questions

This paper aims to investigate common strategies employed by the American andVietnamese judging panels to verbally express satisfaction to the contestants in TheVoice U.S and The Voice Vietnam With a view to achieve these above aims, theresearcher seeks the answers to the following research questions:

Research question 1: What are the common strategies employed by the Americanand Vietnamese judging panels to verbally express satisfaction to the contestants inThe Voice U.S (TVU) and The Voice Vietnam (TVV)?

Research question 2: What are the similarities and differences in the ways Americanand Vietnamese judging panels apply these strategies in the reality show?

4 Scope of the study

There are three seasons of The Voice US with 65 episodes and one season of TheVoice Vietnam with 22 episodes in total However, due to the size and limitation of

a preliminary research, the study would merely focus on the latest season of eachnation which is The Voice U.S season 3 and The Voice Vietnam season 1 Both ofthese two seasons premiered in 2012 and ended in 2012 and the early 2013 Morespecifically, this study will analyze satisfaction expressing strategies extracted fromseven episodes of The Voice U.S and nine episodes of The Voice Vietnam witharound 2000 minutes in total

5 Methodology

Quantitative and qualitative methods are both used in this study with prioritiesgiven to the quantitative one In the other words, all the conclusions andconsiderations are based on the analysis of the empirical studies and statisticsprocessed on Excel, a software program commonly used in mathematical statistics.Moreover, such methods as descriptive, analytic, comparative and contrastive arealso utilized to describe and analyze, to compare and contrast the database so as tofind out the similarities and differences in expressing satisfaction strategies

6 Significance of the study

The present study is conducted to provide a more insight view into how judgingpanels from different countries express their satisfaction in the two reality showsnamely The Voice U.S and The Voice Vietnam It is hopeful that other researcherswho share the same interest in this field of linguistics would find the findings of thispaper useful for their further related studies

Besides, the study is also expected to provide English learners with knowledge ofsociolinguistics aspect of an English speaking country Thus, it could add more

valuable information for those who want to dig deep into second languageacquisition, pragmatics competence and cross cultural communication of Vietnamand America

7 Organization of the study

After the introduction, the rest of the paper includes the following parts:

Chapter 1: Literature review – provides the background of the study including thedefinition of key concepts and the discussions of related studies

Chapter 2: The study – describes the procedures to conduct the research, presents,analyze the results and discusses the findings the researcher obtained according tothe two research questions

Conclusion summarized the major issues discussed in the paper, provides someimplications and points out the limitations of the research as well as proposesseveral suggestions for further studies Following this part are References andAppendix

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Culture and communication

1.1.1 Culture

The concept of culture has been defined in a wide variety of patterns for a long timeand no single definition of it has achieved consensus in the literature The

term "culture" appeared first in its current sense in Europe in the 18th and 19th

centuries, to connote a process of cultivation or improvement Tylor (1874)

describes culture in the following way: "Culture or civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as

a member of society." (p 1) Although Tylor explains his understanding of culture in

the course of a larger argument about the nature of religion, this could be considered

a general theory of culture Other anthropologists have generally presented theirvarious definitions of culture as refinements of Tylor's Alfred (1917) identifies

culture with the "superorganic," that is, “a domain with ordering principles and laws that could not be explained by or reduced to biology” (p 163) Gerald (1973,

p 75) reviewed various definitions of culture and debates as to their parsimony andpower, and proposed as the most scientifically useful definition that "culture" be

defined "as our generic term for all human nongenetic, or metabiological, phenomena" Hofstede (1984) defines culture as “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group from another” (p 51),

which is passed from generation to generation, it is changing all the time becauseeach generation adds something of its own before passing it on It is usual that one’sculture is taken for granted and assumed to be correct because it is the only one, or

at least the first, to be learned

Culture, therefore, is a complex concept However, due to limitation of the study,the researcher would focus on the definitions in which the relationship with the

course studied was mentioned Out of the many possible definitions examined, the

following definition guides this study: “Culture is a shared background (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values (Levine and Adelman -

cited in Nguyen Quang’s lecture note) To be more specific, culture is defined as theshared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affectiveunderstanding that are learned through a process of socialization These sharedpatterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those ofanother

1.1.2 Communication

There is a saying that: “Bad human communication leaves us less room to grow.”

As we can see, the etymology of the word ‘communication’ comes from the Latin

‘to make common to many’ This has been the main assumption behind aconsiderable number of linguistic theories – that in some way in speaking we shareknowledge with each other in a common pool No matter how brilliant andinvaluable your idea, it is worthless unless you can share it with others Theimportance of speech and words whether through a paper or a voice is acommunication medium to convey directions and provide synchronization Thanks

to it, things can be expressed, ideas can be shared, and thoughts can be joined.Without communication, there is no way to express thoughts, ideas and feelings.From the dawn of human civilization up to present, a lot of scientists haveattempted to reason the definition of it But, as Gudykunst and Tingtoomey (1988,

p 27) point out, "no consensus has been achieved when it comes to formulating an interdisciplinary definition which can be accepted across the diverse fields of study." Linguists, considered communication in term of distinct feature, also tried to

give their own ones

Berko (1989) expresses his view by paying attention to human communication Hedefines:

“The process of communication is a conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional one in which feelings and ideas are expressed in verbal and

nonverbal messages It occurs in intrapersonal, interpersonal, and public levels Human communication is dynamic, continuous, irreversible, interactive and contextual.”

It could be inferred that communication may be intentional or unintentional, mayinvolve conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or nonlinguisticforms, and may occur through spoken or other modes Communication, in general,

is a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create sharedunderstanding

Another succinct definition offered by Hybels and Weaver (2001, p 5) is

that communication is “any process in which people share information, ideas, and feelings that involve not only the spoken and written words but also body language, personal mannerism and style, the surrounding and things that add meaning to a message.” In other words, communication is the activity ofconveying information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information,

as by speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behavior Besides, this viewpoint alsomentioned an important aspect of communication related to the means oftransferring messages In broader expression, there is a variety of verbal and non-verbal means of communicating exists such as body language, eye contact, signlanguage, haptic communication, chronemics, and media such as pictures, graphics,sound, and writing

Generally, communication can be viewed as “the process of sharing meaning through verbal and nonverbal behavior” (Levine and Adelman,1993).To attain a

closer look at communication and its system, the diagram designed by NguyenQuang as given below may serve the purpose:

Figure 1-1: Nguyen Quang’s diagram of components of communication (Nguyen

Quang, 2001, p 9)

Communication

- Vocal inferences Body language

- Time/ chronemics

- Lighting system

In a nutshell, Peters (2010, p 7) emphasizes that: “Communication is everyone’s panacea for everything.” Although several different opinions of how to form the

definition of communication still exists, linguists also reaches the consensus thatcommunication is not the essence of being human, but also a vital property of life.Especially in these centuries of information revolution and formation of knowledgesocieties, the importance of communication has increased manifold

1.1.3 Cross cultural communication

As a consequence, the critical identification of the two terms “culture” and

“communication” sheds light on another issue of the correlation between them.With the process of globalization, especially the increas of global trade, it isunavoidable that different cultures will meet, conflict, and blend together Peoplefrom different cultures find it hard to communicate not only due to language barrierbut also because of different communication styles That is the reason why the term

“cross-cultural communication” exists in our life

According to Kramsch (1998, p 81), the term “cross-cultural communication” can

be defined as: “the meeting of two cultures or two languages across the political boundaries of nation-states.” Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and

Applied Linguistics also shares the same view when considering cross-cultural

communication as: “an exchange of ideas, information, etc between people from different background.” In addition, Levine and Adelman (1993) imply that: “cross- cultural communication is communication (verbal and non-verbal) between people from different cultures; communication that is influenced by cultural values, attitudes and behavior; the influence of culture on people’s reactions and responses

to each other.” (p 94)

To be more specific, the phrase cross-cultural communication describes the ability

to successfully form, foster, and improve relationships with members of a culturedifferent from one's own It is based on knowledge of many factors, such as theother culture's values, perceptions, manners, social structure, and decision-makingpractices, and an understanding of how members of the group communicate

verbally or non-verbally Undoubtedly, it is evident that culture differencessignificantly contribute to one of the biggest challenge for cross-culturalcommunication Effective communication with people of different cultures isespecially challenging Cultures provide people with ways of thinking, seeing,hearing, and interpreting the world Thus the same words can mean different things

to people from different cultures, even when they talk the "same" language Whenthe languages are distinct, translation has to be used to communicate and thepotential for misunderstandings increases, the study of cross-culturalcommunication becomes more and more essential

It is undeniable that cross cultural communication gives opportunities to shareideas, experiences, and different perspectives and perception by interacting withlocal people However, in order to keep the communication smooth and easy,people need to be aware of potential problems that may happen during thecommunication cycle If the people involved are not well equipped with theknowledge of other cultures and a receptive attitude towards cultural divergences,they are even more likely to fall victim to them

1.2 Speech act

First mentioned by the Oxford philosopher J.L.Austin in the 1930s and then

subsequently developed in Austin’s pivotal work in the field of linguistics How to

do things with words (1962), “Speech act” has become a key concept and “remain a central concern of pragmatics, especially cross-cultural pragmatics” (Blum-Kulla and Kasper, 1989, p 2) According to Austin, “in saying something the speaker does something” (1962), which means that words in themselves actions

1.2.1 The notion of speech acts

The foundation of speech act theory, as mentioned above, was laid by John L.Austin, and this idea was further elaborated and widely refined across differentdisciplines, including both linguistics (especially in pragmatics) and philosophy (i.e.philosophy of language) by lots of researchers such as Hyme (1964), Searle (1969),

Leech (1983), Richards and Schmidt (1983), Levinson (1983), Green (1989) andYule (1996) Basic concept of speech act theory is that saying is a part of doing orwords are connected to actions It could be easily observed from people’s dailyutterance that human communication employs language in various ways By verbalcommunication, they normally act/react or do something as a consequence ofutterances by their interlocutor In other words, one utterance can trigger a certainaction For instance, the utterance ‘It is so hot in here!’ uttered immediately afterentering a room with a window wide open in the middle of summer It can be asimple statement concerning the high temperature in the room, but it also might be arequest from a speaker to a hearer to close the window and turn on the airconditioner.

The theory of speech acts aims to do justice to the fact that even though words(phrases, sentences) encode information, people do more things with words thanconvey information and when people convey information, they often convey morethan their words encode Although the focus of speech act theory has been onutterances, especially those made in conversational and other face-to-face situations,the phrase 'speech act' should be taken as a generic term for any sort of languageuse, oral or otherwise Austin (cited from Levinson, 1983) identifies three distinctlevels of action beyond the act of utterance itself He distinguishes the act of saying

something, what one does in saying it, and what one does by saying it, and dubs

these the 'locutionary', the 'illocutionary' and the 'perlocutionary' act,respectively This division is specifically expressed as follow:

First, there is the locutionary act meaning "the act of 'saying' something." A

locutionary act has meaning; it produces an understandable utterance

Example: (1) The competition will be challenging

The locutionary act performed in uttering a declarative sentence can be thought of

as the act of stating, placing the proposition in question in the common ground ofsome discourse

Second, there is the illocutionary act aiming "the performance of an act in saying something as opposed to the performance of an act of saying something." An

illocutionary act has force; it is informed with a certain tone, attitude, feeling,motive, or intention.

Example: By uttering (1), the speaker may be performing the act of informing,claiming, guessing, reminding, warning, threatening, or requesting We also say thatutterances are associated with illocutionary forces In some cases, speakers canmake what illocutionary act they intend to perform explicit

(2) a The competition will be challenging That is a threat

b The competition will be challenging I guess

c The competition will be challenging I am warning you

d The competition will be challenging Let me remind you

Third, there is the perlocutionary act, for "saying something will often, or even normally, produce certain consequential effects upon the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the audience, of the speaker, or of other persons." A perlocutionary act has

consequence; it has an effect upon the addressee

Example: By uttering (1), I may have achieved in convincing you to practice harderfor the competition

More particular, by describing an imminently dangerous situation (locutionarycomponent) in a tone that is designed to have the force of a warning (illocutionarycomponent), the addresser may actually frighten the addressee into moving(perlocutionary component) These three components, then, are not altogether

separable, for as Austin (cited from Levinson, 1983) points out, "we must consider the total situation in which the utterance is issued the total speech act if we are

to see the parallel between statements and performative utterances, and how each can go wrong Perhaps indeed there is no great distinction between statements and performative utterances." In contradistinction to structuralism, then, speech act

theory privileges parole over language, arguing that external context the context

of situation is more important in the order of explanation than internal context the interrelationships among terms within the system of signs

Of these three dimensions, the illocutionary force is the most discussed.Illocutionary acts are considered the core of the theory of speech acts As already

suggested above, an illocutionary act is the action performed by the speaker inproducing a given utterance The illocutionary act is closely connected withspeaker’s intentions, e.g stating, questioning, promising, requesting, giving

commands, threatening and many others As Yule (Yule, 1996, p 48) claims, “the illocutionary act is thus performed via the communicative force of an utterance which is also generally known as illocutionary force of the utterance” Basically,

the illocutionary act indicates how the whole utterance is to be taken in theconversation

1.2.2 Classification of speech acts

Austin (1962) classifies speech acts into five classes These are: (1) Verdictives,which verdict where one can exercise judgment, such as declare, rank, grade, calland acquit; (2) Exercitives, which execute of right, authority, and influence such asorder, designate, command, advice and appoint; (3) Commisives, which commit thespeaker to a certain action such as promise, guarantee, intend, pledge, vow, andswear; (4) Expositives, which clarify the way utterances fit the proceedings ofconversation or arguments such as affirm, describe, accept, or explain; and (5)Bahabitives, which react towards behaviors of others, such as apologizing,congratulating, swearing, applauding and thanking

Unfortunately, Austin’s classifications are often argued as incomplete and thosecannot cover all possible dimensions, in which speech act can vary One problem isthat the same utterance could potentially have different illocutionary forces.Therefore, it is hard for the speaker to assume whether the intended illocutionaryforce will be recognized by the hearer For those reason, Searle (1969, p 12 – 19)proposes five alternatives of speech act classification

1 Presentatives: The illocutionary act where the speaker describe states orevents, such as reporting, claiming, explaining, classifying, describing,declaring, affirming, and et cetera

2 Directives: The illocutionary act where the speaker tries to get listeners to dosomething, such as requesting, ordering, suggesting, commanding, inviting

3 Commisisves: The illocutionary act where the speaker stated a commitment

He commits himself to do something in the future Such as promising,threatening, agreeing, refusing, and et cetera

4 Expressive: The illocutionary act where the speaker expresses his feeling andattitude, such as complimenting, thanking, apologizing, greeting, welcoming,etc

5 Declaratives: The illocutionary act where the speaker brings out a change inthe world Such as firing, marrying, divorcing, and et cetera

Mey (2001, p 87) points that Searle’s proposal “is more oriented than Austin’s towards the real world, in as much as it takes its point of departure in what actually

in the case, namely that people perform a speech act whenever they use language, irrespective of the “performative” criterion,” yet noted that these ways of

classification still share similarities Following Searle, Yule (1996) summarizes thefive general functions of speech acts with their key features as below:

Table 1-1: The five general functions of speech acts (Yule, 1996, p 55)

Speech act type Direction of fit S = speaker; X = situation

1.2.3 Expressing satisfaction as a speech act

As found in Oxford Advanced leaner’s dictionary, satisfaction is “the good feeling that you have when you have achieved something or when something that you wanted to happen does happen; something that gives you this feeling” Similarly,

Longman dictionary of contemporary English for advanced learner defines that

satisfaction is “a feeling of happiness or pleasure because you have achieved something or got what you wanted”

In accordance with the classification model of Speech act from Searle (1969, p.

240) and Yule (1996, p 55), “expressing satisfaction” belongs to type “expressive” – “the illocutionary act where the speaker expresses his feeling and attitude” For

I think every song you take; you make it your own.

You changed the song enough to put your mark on it.

Moreover, “expressing satisfaction” could be also classified as “directives” – “the illocutionary act where the speaker tries to get listener to do something” as follows

If you‘re going to make records, you should make.

Finally, “expressing satisfaction” can be considered as “commissives” – “the illocutionary act where the speaker states a commitment” such as:

I will vote for you tonight, definitely, I promise.

In short, lying on such basis, “expressing satisfaction” is a kind of speech act whichbelongs to four out of five types mentioned in the classification model proposed bySearle (1969, p 240) and Yule (1996, p 55) Specifically, to grasp it briefly, in term

of verbal strategies, there are eight ways to identify “satisfaction”:

Strategy 1: Complimenting

Strategy 2: Exaggerating

Strategy 3: Predicting bright prospect

Strategy 4: Suggesting things to do

Strategy 5: Using jokes

Strategy 6: Offering help or reward

Strategy 7: Showing understanding and sympathy

Strategy 8: Showing admiration

The closer look into this aspect of linguistic field would be shed light on in the nextchapter

Similarly, according to Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary, “a reality show is a type of television programming that aims to show how ordinary people behave in everyday life, or in situations, often created by programme makers, which are intended to present everyday life.”

Another sub-genre of reality TV is "reality competition" or so-called "reality gameshows," which follows the format of non-tournament elimination contests.Typically, participants are filmed competing to win a prize, often while livingtogether in a confined environment Participants are usually removed from a teamuntil there is only one person who is then declared the winner Usually this is done

by eliminating participants one at a time, in balloon debate style, througheither disapproval voting or by voting for the most popular choice to win Voting isdone by the viewing audience, the show's own participants, a panel of judges, orsome combination of the three One of the most noticing reality competitions will

be introduced in the next section

1.3.2 “The Voice” series

1.3.2.1 Definition

The Voice is a hit reality vocal competition series that searches for the nation's best

voice breaking audience records in multiple territories worldwide Lauched as “The

Voice of Holland” in the Netherlands in 2010, the format has since become one of

the most successful and progressively growing entertainment brands in the world.Many other countries have adapted the format and began airing their nationalversions in 2011 and 2012 The format is a popular one and has often beenredesigned for television in the United States and Vietnam as well The series wascreated and licensed internationally by Dutch-based Talpa Media Group Thefranchise has signed a global recording and artist services agreement with UniversalMusic Group

1.3.2.2 Format description of The Voice U.S season 3 (2012) and the Voice

Vietnam season 1 (2012)

There are three phases in the series: a blind audition (“vòng giấu mặt” or the

"unseen" audition in the U.S which was recently changed due to a proposed lawsuitfrom the American Legion of Blind persons), a battle phase (“vòng đối đầu”), andlive performance shows Four judges/coaches, all particularly noteworthy recordingartists, choose teams of contestants through a blind audition process The coacheshear the artists perform (about sixty seconds to ninety seconds), but they don't get tosee them thanks to rotating chairs If a coach is impressed by the artist’s voice,he/she pushes a button to select the artist for his/her team At this point, the coach’schair will swivel so that he/she can face the artist he/she has selected If two or morejudges want the same singer, the singer has the final choice of coach If no coachpushes their button, the artist is eliminated from the competition

Each team of singers is mentored and developed by its respective coach Coacheswill dedicate themselves to developing their team of artists, giving them advice, andsharing the secrets of their success along with the help from their celebrityadvisers In the second stage, called the battle phase, coaches have two of their teammembers battle against each other directly by singing the same song together, withthe coach choosing which team member to advance from each of individual

"battles" into the first live round Within that first live round, the surviving actsfrom each team again compete head-to-head, with public votes determining one of

two acts from each team that will advance to the final six, while the coach chooseswhich of the remaining three acts comprises the other performer remaining on theteam.

In the final live performance phase of the competition, the top artists from eachteam will compete each week against each other during a live broadcast Thecoaches have the power to save one contestant that had not received the public'svote that week As of season two in the U.S and season one in Vietnam, thesecontestants would give a last chance performance to win their coach's save.However, in deciding who moves on to the final four phases, the television audienceand the coaches have equal say 50/50 With one team member remaining for eachcoach, the contestants compete against each other in the finale where the outcome isdecided solely by public vote It is also noted that in “The Voice” season 3 in theU.S, for the first time in the series, coaches will not be guaranteed a spot to thefinals This is the first season to feature three performers in the finale instead offour

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

This chapter presents the details of the methodology employed to answer theresearch questions including the material, participants, data collection proceduresand data analysis procedures Quantitative and qualitative methods are both used inthis study with priorities given to the quantitative one

2.1 Methodology

2.1.1 Material

The American and Vietnamese reality shows “The Voice U.S” season 3 -2012 and

“The Voice Vietnam” season 1 – 2012 is used for analysis in this study

2.1.2 Participants

2.1.2.1 American judging panel (season 3 – 2012)

Judges/ Coaches Personal information

1 Christina María Aguilera

(born December 18, 1980)

An American singer, songwriter, performer,producer, director and actress

2 Thomas DeCarlo

Callaway better known by

his stage name Cee Lo

Green

(born May 30, 1974)

An American singer-songwriter-producer,television personality, actor, entrepreneur, popculture and fashion icon

3 Adam Noah Levine

(born March 18, 1979)

An American singer-songwriter, musician andoccasional actorbest known as the front manand lead singer of American poprock band Maroon 5

4 Blake Tollison

Shelton (born June 18,

An American country music artist andtelevision personality

1976)

2.1.2.2 Vietnamese judging panel (season 1 – 2012)

Judges/ Coaches Personal information

3 Vu Thu Minh often known simply

as Thu Minh (born September 22, 1977)

A Vietnamese Solo (music)-singer ofmultiple genres

4 Trần Quyết Lập, stagename Trần

Lập (12 December 1974)

A Vietnamese male rock musician He isbest known as the lead singer of BứcTường

2.1.3 Data collection procedures

The procedures of data collection involved three phases as below:

Phase 1: The subtitles of 39 episodes (10 of TVU 2012 and 16 of TVV 2012)

including all of the playoffs and the perform lives were downloaded from the

Internet

Phase 2: While watching the episodes, all the valid sayings expressing satisfaction

basing on the analytical framework mentioned in the previous part as the standards

of expressing satisfaction in the present study

Phrase 3: The satisfaction expressions of eight judging panels balanced in

nationality: 4 Americans and 4 Vietnamese Their information was presented in the

previous section

2.1.4 Data analysis procedure

After the data had been collected, all the valid satisfaction expressions were

classified into subtypes of satisfaction strategies As mentioned in the previous part,

there are 6 most commonly used strategies by both American and Vietnamesejudging panels

In order to determine whether the differences in expressing satisfaction among therepresentatives of the two cultures exist or not, the data were coded and enteredonto Microsoft Excel sheets, and then analyzed statically The outputs of dataprocessing were deeply examined, carefully analyzed and taken into furtherconsideration

2.2 Results

The following results address the two research questions

2.2.1 The common strategies employed by the American and Vietnamese judging panels to verbally express satisfaction to the contestants in The Voice U.S (TVU) and The Voice Vietnam (TVV)

 Strategy 1: Complimenting

This strategy shows the speaker’s concern to the hearer Normally, the judgingpanels express their satisfaction by saying congratulations or noting the quality oract As observed, this strategy is the most popular one employed by the jugdes whenthey are persuaded by the contestants’ performances In addition, this strategy isalso frequently used when the judging panels see the effort or improvement fromthe candidates That is to say, provided that the contestants try their best to completetheir performances, they can receive positive compliments from the panels Fromthe data collected, some typical expression used by the American panel membersare:

I appreciate your artistic vision (Christina – liveshow 1 – Melanie Martinez)

I think it is a cool rendition, jazzy, sexy, smooth, sultry, you being able to cap it off, hitting the high notes as impressively as always (Cee Lo – liveshow 1 – Julio Cesar Castillo)

Amazing job, Loren, seriously (Adam Levine – live show 1 – Loren Allred)

You look beautiful tonight Thought you sounded as great as ever, continuing to improve (Cee Lo – live show 2 – Adriana Louise)

Congratulations to you and Christina for figuring out where you fit in musically (Blake Shelton – Top10 – Dez Duron)

Another really dynamic, powerful vocal from Ms Amanda (Christina – Top 8 – Amanda Brown)

I’m never disappointed with your performances I think you’re amazing (Adam – Top 6 – Nicholas David)

You are so wonderful (Adam – Semi final – Terry Mcdermott)

Meanwhile, Vietnamese panel members tend to compliment by giving adequate anddetailed explanations to prove the insightful observation Therefore, their commentsare usually comparatively lengthy as follow:

Em và huấn luyện viên của mình đã chọn được 1 cách xử lý mới, thông minh cho bài hát này, đã cố tình mang rock vào trong bài hát này, phá đi cái giọng hát bình thường của em mọi khi, 1 sự thay đổi táo bạo, rất là mới (Đàm Vĩnh Hưng – liveshow 1 – Dương Trần Nghĩa)

Giọng hát của em ngay từ những ngày đầu tiên lắng nghe và tất cả chúng tôi đều có nhìn nhận chung đó chính là em hát có một cái độ vang và những khoảng sáng trong giọng hát của em rất tự nhiên, thậm chí khi mà em để mic rất là xa, giọng em

nó vẫn cứ sáng, vẫn cứ vang, và những cái xử lí của em mặc dù nó rất là nhỏ, rất là tinh tế nhưng mà nghe vẫn rất là rõ Và đó là một cái ưu điểm rất lớn của em không phải ai cũng có được (Thu Minh – liveshow 3 - Nguyễn Trọng Khương)

Bạn ấy là 1 nhân tố luôn gây bất ngờ, mỗi vòng thi bạn hát 1 dòng nhạc, mà dòng nhạc nào bạn cũng xử lý rất đẹp và hay nhưng tôi chỉ hơi sợ là khi tôi nghĩ đến bạn thì tôi phải nghĩ đến dòng nhạc gì đây, còn tôi biết ý định của bạn là dành tặng bài

hát này cho 1 người đặc biệt thì tôi biết là người đặc biệt này của bạn sẽ rất hạnh phúc vì đã đón nhận đc 1 món quà đặc biệt, vì có hương vị riêng, không copy, không trộn lẫn mà lại rất là ngon, và nhân vật đó là Trúc Nhân (Hồ Ngọc Hà – liveshow 5 – Trúc Nhân)

 Strategy 2: Exaggerating

This strategy is utilized to evince the intense and passionate interest of the judgingpanels in the contestants’ performances In other words, they frequently use this tomaximize his/ her approval, appreciation, passion, etc towards the hearer In fact,these statements are often followed with raising tone, intensive stress and otheraspects related to the prosody It is relatively easy to realize this strategy thanks to

the appearance of such intensifiers as vô cùng, thực sự, bao nhiêu, etc in Vietnamese and perfectly, extremely, incredibly, etc in English In addition, some big words as unbelievable, perfect, incredible, etc and hoàn hảo, xuất sắc, thăng hoa, etc are also commonly used when the panels comment on the performances of

the contestants Moreover, an important characteristic of using this strategy is thatthese exaggerated expressions are always accompanied by appropriate explanations

to avoid becoming jokes or irony

This strategy is widely applied to express satisfaction by American panels due to thesuper high quality of the contestants’ performances These are the most typicalones:

The only thing I can possibly think …incredible job (Adam Levine – live show 1 – Loren Allred)

I want America to know, when you start voting tonight that when God was passing out the ability to rock, he gave Terry just a little bit more (Blake – live show 1 – Terry McDermott)

You blew me away (Cee Lo – live show 2 – Cody Blew)

My gosh, my heart is pounding right now, you did a brilliant job performing it (Blake – Top 12 – Michaela Paige)

That means there’s no limits and no boundaries to what Cassadee can do…You have that special thing, that one in 100 million people have (Blake – Top 12 – Cassade Pope)

You were on fire (Christina – Top 10 – Sylvia Yacoub)

You’re a world-class singer You really are (Blake – Top 6 – Amanda Brown) That was unbelievable That was unbelievable (Blake – Top 6 – Terry McDermott) Man, I got to tell you, forget this “Voice” competition We are just a group enjoying an incredible God-given brilliant voice (Adam – Top 6 – Trevin Hunte)

Although the percentage of using exaggeration in commenting of Vietnamese panel

is merely a half of American’s, it ranks the second among the most popular strategyemployed to express satisfaction by the panel members

Tôi nghĩ bạn là người đưa Jazz đến gần hơn với các bạn trẻ (Hồ Ngọc Hà – Liveshow 1 – Nguyễn Thùy Linh)

17 tuổi nên cái ngọn lửa bên trong nó còn hừng hực cháy cùng với giọng hát của

em nó đốt hết mọi trái tim của mọi người ở đây và trong đó có cả tôi (Hồ Ngọc Hà – Liveshow 1 – Hương Tràm)

Chúc mừng em đã chinh phục tất cả các khán giả trong những nốt nhạc (Hồ Ngọc

Hà – liveshow 3 – Đinh Hương)

Âm nhạc đã đưa em lên tận mây xanh như vậy, em hát rất tuyệt vời (Đàm Vĩnh Hưng – liveshow 7 – Dương Trần Nghĩa)

Version của em làm chị nổi da gà (Thu Minh – Liveshow 6 – Thái Trinh)

Em đã mang lại sức sống cho bài hát này (Thu Minh – Liveshow 5 – Xuân Sơn)

 Strategy 3: Predicting bright prospect

This strategy is occasionally employed among both of American and Vietnameseprogrammes When this strategy is utilized, the judging panels will concentrate onthe competency as well as the feature of the contestants to create a bright prospectfor them as long as they can foster their abilities and never stop makingimprovement For instance:

You know, Cassadee, I think you are going to be around for a long time (Blake – live show 1 – Cassadee Pope)

I cannot believe America didn’t vote her in (Blake – Top 12 – Adriana Louise)

I think people will have hard time forgetting about that performance (Blake – Top

10 – Sylvia Yacoub)

Vote for this man We need him (Cee Lo – Top 8 – Nicholas David)

Anh tin là cộng với sự bình chọn của mọi người nữa, em sẽ có chiếc vé đi vào vòng trong (Trần Lập – Liveshow 3 – Nguyễn Trọng Khương)

Anh tin là khán giả sẽ tiếp tục yêu mến, bình chọn em (Trần Lập – Liveshow 5 – Thùy Linh)

Em là một người có thể thừa kế ngôi vị mà chúng tôi đặt ra Em chắc chắn sẽ là người được trông chờ nhất (Đàm Vĩnh Hưng – Liveshow 7 – Hương Tràm)

 Strategy 4: Suggesting things to do

American panel rarely applies this strategy when they express satisfaction.Meanwhile, Vietnamese’s tend to use this more frequently This strategy isemployed when the panels keenly feel fascination about the performances Theywant to offer some pieces of advice to help the contestants perfect their futureperformances It is essential to note that in a lot of cases, judging panels do notsatisfy with the contestants and also suggest things to help them improve These

comments are not categorized as “expressing satisfaction strategy” because it is

often fairly lengthy, thus, evidently proves that the panels feel uncomfortable about

the performances American panels usually make use of these followingexpressions:

You know, I think this is definitely the best performance we’ve seen, and so I want

to see – I never thought I think this, more country music from you (Adam – Top 10 – Cassadee Pope)

You could do that I want to hear that from you It’s about sultriness (Christina – Top 6 – Melanie)

From the Vietnamese data:

Nếu bạn có thể tìm hiểu sâu vào Blue, không chỉ những nốt cao, trầm, giọng ca của bạn sẽ đượm hơn, ăn sâu hơn với những người yêu nhạc (Trần Lập – liveshow 3 – Phan Ngọc Luân)

Đào sâu thêm tình cảm của em thì em sẽ bất khả chiến bại (Thu Minh – Liveshow 5 – Thùy Linh)

Không thể cứ làm một cô công chúa Pop Ballad như thế này được Như thế này là

đủ rồi em ạ, đủ để mọi người phê rồi (Thu Minh – Liveshow 7 – Hương Tràm)

 Strategy 5: Using jokes

When the panels apply this strategy, they express humorous intention and make thecontestants realize the positive message hidden under those sayings WhileAmerican panel show interest for this strategy, Vietnamese panel rarely uses this

You look like a star I really appreciate it And I hate it (Blake – Live show 1 – Joselyn Rivera)

You’re talking really big steps and God dang it, I don’t like it, to be honest with you (Blake – Live show 2 – Adriana Louise)

I get angry every time I watch you because I really wanted you on my team and Blake stole you I’m still not fully recovered from that (Adam – Top 10 – Terry McDermott)

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to have a moment of silence to just mourn the loss of all the other competitions (Cee Lo – Top 6 – Trevin Hunte)

Thử thách thì em nghĩ là hơi khó, vì là 17 tuổi thì vẫn đang hồn nhiên, làm sao mà hát dã man như này được (Hồ Ngọc Hà – Liveshow 1 – Hương Tràm)

Còn với Hương Tràm, ngay từ đầu tôi đã xác định em là 1 người rất ghê gớm, cho nên là tôi về tôi xem hết tất cả những clip tren youtube về em và tôi xem thử coi em

sẽ tiếp tục ghê gớm như thế nào nữa thì mỗi một ngày tôi thấy càng dễ sợ hơn (Đàm Vĩnh Hưng – Liveshow 7 – Hương Tràm)

 Strategy 6: Offering help or reward

In this strategy, the panels are willing to support the contestants in some aspects.They highly appreciate the contestants’ effort and deeply understand theirdifficulties Analysis from the data collected reveals that this is absolutely notAmerican panel’s favor and it is also rarely applied in Vietnamese comments Infact, this strategy is merely applied for the contestants whose performances areperfectly wonderful

You're only 18 If a record deal doesn't happen for you after this, I would love to take you on the road under my wing personally I would love to show you the ropes personally (Christina – Top 6 – Trevin Hunte)

If there was one artist in this competition left that I wish I could work with, it’s you, Melanie (Blake – Top 10 – Melanie Martinez)

Và anh sẽ là người nhắn tin bình chọn để em vào trong (Đàm Vĩnh Hưng – Liveshow 1- Bảo Anh)

Chúng ta sẽ có cơ hội luyện tập cùng nhau, để làm những điều còn lạ lẫm hơn nữa (Trần Lập – Liveshow 1 – Thảo Nguyên)

 Strategy 7: Showing understanding and sympathy

The Voice is an undeniably tough competition requiring the remarkable vocalability If the contestant wants to stay in this competition, he/she needs to provetheir talents by facing challenges all the time It is the reason why the panels oftenshow that they understand the contestants’ difficulties and then, sympathize withthem For instance:

There are all these long notes And it’s tough (Adam – Live show 2 – Adriana Louise)

That song is really the way it starts from low, builds into mid range and goes super high To hit the notes consistently is really hard to do I don't know if I would

be up for that challenge (Christina – Live show 2 – Adriana Louise)

Oh man That’s gospel That’s crazy I love how ambitious your song choices are (Adam – Top 10 – Nicolas David)

Bởi vì bài hát này đã rất là quen thuộc với quý vị khán giả trên thị trường âm nhạc

và đối với em sẽ là 1 thử thách rất là lớn lao (Thu Minh – Liveshow 1 – Dương Trần Nghĩa)

Bài hát này là của nhạc sĩ Anh Quân và các bạn cũng biết ban nhạc Anh Em là những người chuyên môn cao vì thế khi mà họ viết 1 ca khúc rất là chơi khó ca sĩ.

Ai có bản lĩnh từ thanh nhạc tới âm nhạc thì sẽ biểu diễn tốt những bài hát của họ (Hồ Ngọc Hà - Liveshow 1 – Thu Thủy)

Sao em mạo hiểm thế, dám lên tông để chọn khoảng cao như vậy? Chúc mừng em

về đích an toàn (Đàm Vĩnh Hưng – Liveshow 3 – Bùi Anh Tuấn)

 Strategy 8: Showing admiration

Showing admiration expresses the panels’ great appreciation for the contestants’talents They are completely amazed by what the contestants have done in theirperformances In most of circumstances, this strategy could be identified by

focusing on some signals preceding as using short exclamations as “Oh my God”,

“God dang it”, “Oh man”, etc or nonverbal language as standing or crying

Following are typical examples of this strategy:

You still took it to that big note at the end which I love and I respect and I adore you for Hats off to you (Christina – live show 2 – Devyn Deloera)

I have always been a huge fan of what you did (Adam Levine – Top 6 – Terry McDermott)

That’s a huge part of being a fan of someone’s music, and I’m genuinely a fan of your music (Adam – Top 6 Nicholas David)

Mà em rất là tâm phục về giọng hát đó chính là Hương Tràm và chị Em nghĩ ca sĩ thường là phải lấy hơi và phải rất là cố gắng để mà thể hiện một bài hát nhất là những bài hát khó Nhưng riêng với hai người, hai thí sinh này thì hình như là lấy hơi từ lý trí (Hồ Ngọc Hà – Liveshow 9 – Kim Loan)

Em là nữ ca sỹ tôi bắt đầu kiêng nể (Đàm Vĩnh Hưng – Liveshow 8 - Đinh Hương)

2.2.2 The similarities and differences in the ways American and Vietnamese judging panels apply these strategies in the reality show

In the total of 229 utterances in English and 188 utterances in Vietnamese, 405comments using satisfaction expressing strategies were given to the contestants(227 in English and 178 in Vietnamese) The distribution from the eight strategies isillustrated in Table 1

Table 2-1: Use of satisfaction expressing strategies by judging panels in two

reality shows: The Voice U.S and The Voice Vietnam.

American Panel Vietnamese Panel

Figure 2-1: Use of satisfaction expressing strategies by American panel in The

Voice US

The information from the graph provided reveals that the very first strategy(complimenting) seems to be the most popular one employed by American panel.This strategy is utilized totally 205 times of 227 utterances, which accounts forapproximately 90% Strategy 2 (exaggerating – 61.23%) and Strategy 8 (showingadmiration – 23.34%) rank second and third successively These are the mostsignificant expressions:

You did a wonderful performance (Cee Lo – Live show 2 – Adriana Louise – Strategy 1)

You did a good job (Adam – Semi final – Trevin Hunte – Strategy 1)

I think you’re amazing (Adam – Semi final – Nicholas David – Strategy 1)

I really enjoyed that And I love that (Blake – Top 8 – Amanda Brown – Strategy 1) Man, that was great (Adam – Top 8 – Cody Blew – Strategy 1)

I truly believe that you can sing dare I say anything…You could sing the dictionary, man (Adam – Top 10 – Trevin Hunte – Strategy 2)

Your voice, it just melts me…I don’t know, I don’t have anything brilliant to say something (Blake – Top 8 – Melanie Martinez – Strategy 2)

Your vocal ability is a monster beast that is a gift from God (Christina – Top 8 – Trevin Hunte – Strategy 2)

I’m a big fan of your voice (Cee Lo – Top 8 – Terry McDermott – Strategy 8)

On the other hand, the proportion of applying strategy 4 (suggesting things to do)and strategy 6 (offering help or reward) is merely around 5% (13/227 times), whichcould be inferred that American panel show the least concern for using thesestrategies

 Vietnamese panel

Figure 2-2: Use of satisfaction expressing strategies by Vietnamese panel in The

Voice VN

As is shown by the graph, similar to American panel, Vietnamese panel shows thestrong interest for strategy 1 (complimenting) with particularly 79.78% (142/178).Moreover, they are fond of using strategy 2 (exaggerating – 29.78%) and strategy 7(showing understanding and sympathy – 13.48%) in expressing satisfaction Incontrast, strategy 8(showing admiration) and strategy 5 (using joke) are categorized

as the least used methods which constitute only a small proportion of 1.68% and4.5% Following are the most prominent examples:

Ngày hôm nay một lần nữa chúc mừng chị (Thu Minh – liveshow 9 – Kim Loan – Strategy 1)

Thực ra hôm nay Hương Giang đã làm chị rất hài lòng, tốt hơn mọi lần rất nhiều

và tất cả mọi thứ đều dung hòa lại, không bị quá như những cái lần mình tập nữa.

Và đây là những gì mà chị rất hài long về Hương Giang Cám ơn Hương Giang rất nhiều (Thu Minh – Liveshow 3 – Hương Giang – Strategy 1)

Tất cả những gì Thắng thể hiện được ra đã làm cho mọi người cảm thấy em đã mang đến cho khán phòng này 1 không khí rất là hấp dẫn Và anh thấy là anh hoàn toàn có thể chia sẻ với em là anh chúc mừng em Em đã vượt qua được bản thân mình (Trần Lập – Liveshow 1 – Văn Thắng – Strategy 1)

Bạn như là 1 nữ ca sĩ, 1 nữ danh ca đứng trong 1 quán bar để hát Jazz nhưng bạn vẫn lộng lẫy và rực rỡ (Hồ Ngọc Hà – Liveshow 1 – Thùy Linh – Strategy 2)

Bạn đang đi giữa núi rừng, giữa Tây Nguyên Bạn chính là mặt trời trên cao nguyên (Đàm Vĩnh Hưng – Liveshow 1 – Kim Loan - Strategy 2)

Với một sân khấu nó gần như thế này thì tất cả những sự vụng về, hay là bối rối ở trên sân khấu sẽ đều bị nhận biết nhưng…(Hồ Ngọc Hà – Liveshow 9 – Hương Tràm – Strategy 7)

Here is the graph illustrating the use of eight strategies in expressing satisfaction byAmerican and Vietnamese panels

Figure 2-3: Use of satisfaction expressing strategies by American panel and

Vietnamese panel in The Voice US and The Voice VN

It is clearly observed from the figure that the time of employing strategies inexpressing satisfaction of American panel is remarkably higher than Vietnameseone On average, American judging panel applies from two to three strategies ineach comment In contrast, Vietnamese panel merely uses from one to twostrategies to express satisfaction What is more, it is worth noticing that both ofAmerican and Vietnamese panels use a variety of methods to verbally give theircontestants satisfaction Although they are keen on of using strategy 1(complimenting) and 2 (exaggerating) the most, the distribution of other strategies

is comparatively distinctive Such differences are specifically analyzed as follows:

 Strategy 1: Complimenting

Table 2-2: Use of strategy 1 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

American panel Vietnamese panel Strategy 1 90.3% (205/227) 79.78% (142/178)

A glance at the table shows that although being commonly employed by bothpanels, the proportion of using strategy 1 (complimenting) by American judgesconsiderably exceeds those applied by Vietnamese ones In specific, approximately

90% (205/227) of American utterances are complimenting, in comparison with

nearly 80% (142/178) of Vietnamese ones

 Strategy 2: Exaggerating

Table 2-3: Use of strategy 2 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

American panel Vietnamese panel Strategy 2 61.23% (139/227) 29.78% (53/178)

As illustrated in the table above, though also have the same rank (number two)compared to the seven other strategies, the percentage of employing strategy 2 ofAmerican panel is threefold in comparison with Vietnamese ones This strategy isused by Vietnamese judges totally 139 times out of 227 utterances which accountsfor nearly 62% Meanwhile, it is noticeably less favored by American judges, witharound 30% (53/178)

 Strategy 3: Predicting bright prospect

 Table 2-4: Use of strategy 2 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

American panel Vietnamese panel Strategy 3 16.74% (38/227) 17.42% (31/178)The figure from table 4 reveals the similarity in applying strategy 3 (predictingbright prospect) when giving comments between Vietnamese and American panels

To be more specific, American judges employ this strategy for 38 times out of 227utterances, representing nearly 17% Meanwhile, predicting bright prospect isutilized 31 times out of 178 utterances, constituting approximately 17.5%

 Strategy 4: Suggesting things to do

Table 2-5: Use of strategy 2 by American panel and Vietnamese panel

American panel Vietnamese panel Strategy 4 5.72% (13/227) 11.24% (20/178)

As shown in the table, it is apparent that the percentage of using strategy 4(suggesting things to do) of Vietnamese judging panel is twice as much as