MỘT VÀI ĐẶC TÍNH CỦA VĂN HÓA NGỮ CẢNH THẤP TRONG CUỘC TRANH LUẬN ĐẦU TIÊN CỦA CÁC ỨNG CỬ VIÊN TỔNG THỐNG MỸ BARACK OBAMA VÀ MITT ROMNEY

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.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF LOW- CONTEXT CULTURE IN THE FIRST DEBATE BY THE US PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES BARACK OBAMA AND MITT ROMNEY Supervisor: Ngo Huu Hoang Ph.D Student: Doan Phuong Linh Year of enrolment: QH2009 Hanoi, May 2013 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP MỘT VÀI ĐẶC TÍNH CỦA VĂN HÓA NGỮ CẢNH THẤP TRONG CUỘC TRANH LUẬN ĐẦU TIÊN CỦA CÁC ỨNG CỬ VIÊN TỔNG THỐNG MỸ BARACK OBAMA VÀ MITT ROMNEY Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Tiến sỹ Ngô Hữu Hoàng Sinh viên: Doãn Phương Linh Khoá: QH2009 Hà Nội – Năm 2013 Acceptance page I hereby state that I: Doan Phuong Linh, class 09E22, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper. Signature Date: 23 April, 2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Ngo Huu Hoang for the continuous support of my graduation thesis. His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. He has given me useful comments, remarks and engagement through the researching process of this thesis. Without his guidance and persistent help this thesis would not have been possible. In addition, I would like to thank all teachers of Faculty of English Language Teacher Education who were always willing to help and support me during the completion of the study. Finally, the special recognition goes out to my parents, my sisters, and all of my friends from class 09E22 for their support, encouragement and patience during my pursuit of the study. i 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. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS 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 iii Barack Obama and Mitt Romney 10 Chapter 2: Methodology 2.1Case 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 iv 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) v 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 [...]... 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... 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 . Ngo Huu Hoang Ph.D Student: Doan Phuong Linh Year of enrolment: QH2009 Hanoi, May 2013 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP MỘT VÀI ĐẶC. THẤP TRONG CUỘC TRANH LUẬN ĐẦU TIÊN CỦA CÁC ỨNG CỬ VIÊN TỔNG THỐNG MỸ BARACK OBAMA VÀ MITT ROMNEY Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Tiến sỹ Ngô Hữu Hoàng Sinh viên: Doãn Phương Linh Khoá: QH2009 Hà. Doãn Phương Linh Khoá: QH2009 Hà Nội – Năm 2013 Acceptance page I hereby state that I: Doan Phuong Linh, class 09E22, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the