the current situation towards the phenomenon of Vietnamese equivalent of English among the students at Cao Ba Quat high school

CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW2.1.SlangSlang is a compound word formed by the combination of ‘s’ in ‘street’ and ‘lang’ in ‘language’. Therefore, slang is used to referred to Street language, an informal form of a language, used in daily communication by a certain group of people. According to the encyclopedia, slang consists of a lexicon of nonstandard words and phrases in a given language. Use of these words and phrases is typically associated with the subversion of a standard variety (such as Standard English) and is likely to be interpreted by listeners as implying particular attitudes on the part of the speaker. In some contexts, a speakers selection of slang words or phrases may convey prestige, indicating group membership or distinguishing group members from those who are not a part of the group.For example:Cockney rhyming slang is the language used in London by Cockney – the people who were born within the sound of Bow Bells; therefore, the people from other places cannot understand at the first listening. The Vietnamese students also have their own slang.No table (slang): no comment

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

I.1 Statement of the problem

English is one of the most important languages in the world It can even besaid to be the single most important language It is the international language,the only language that truly links the whole world together According toJennifer (2013), English has special or official status in more than 75countries It’s spoken as the first language by 375 million people and as thesecond language by approximately 375 million people Estimates suggest thatone in every four people is able to speak a little English, with numbersincreasing year-on-year

Moreover, a mastery of the language provides job opportunities outside ofEnglish-speaking countries, as well as in them Multinational corporationsemploy English-speakers in offices around the world English is also the firstlanguage of organisations such as the European Union, the United Nations,the Commonwealth of Nations, and NATO

In summary, English is very important in our life For this reason, schools

in countries with other primary languages often require students to study English as a Second Language or a Foreign one

In Vietnam, English has become a compulsory subject at secondaryschools as well as high schools However, together with speaking standardEnglish, Vietnamese students have invented a number of statements which noone can understand at the first listening These statements belong to thephenomenon of Vietnamese equivalent of English and can be understood as akind of slang

The phenomenon of Vietnamese equivalent of English among the youngpeople in Vietnam is becoming more and more popular More important, thisissue is ripened into a huge social problem In an article, Dr Le Trung Ngan

has said “This phenomenon firstly seemed to be harmless but it has gradually left unforeseen consequences”

Because of the current state of using the so-called slang among theVietnamese youths and the serious consequences left, this study is carried outwith the purpose of explorring the current situation towards the phenomenon

of Vietnamese equivalent of English among the students at Cao Ba Quat HighSchool – whether they are interested in using slang or not, and their opinionsabout this phenomenon

I.2 Objectives

The objective of this study is to explore the current practice of using slang,specially, the words and phrases towards the phenomenon of Vietnameseequivalent of English in such 7 aspects as the extent of the knowledge ofslang, the frequency of using slang, the reasons for not using slang, when touse slang, the reasons for using slang, the feelings about slang and theopinions towards the impacts of using slang

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Slang

Slang is a compound word formed by the combination of ‘s’ in ‘street’ and

‘lang’ in ‘language’ Therefore, slang is used to referred to Street language, aninformal form of a language, used in daily communication by a certain group

of people

According to the encyclopedia, slang consists of a lexicon of non-standardwords and phrases in a given language Use of these words and phrases istypically associated with the subversion of a standard variety (such asStandard English) and is likely to be interpreted by listeners as implyingparticular attitudes on the part of the speaker In some contexts, a speaker'sselection of slang words or phrases may convey prestige, indicating groupmembership or distinguishing group members from those who are not a part

of the group

For example:

Cockney rhyming slang is the language used in London by Cockney – thepeople who were born within the sound of Bow Bells; therefore, the peoplefrom other places cannot understand at the first listening

The Vietnamese students also have their own slang

No table! (slang): no comment!

No star where (slang): no problem/ not at all Ugly tiger (slang): shy

Black chicken (slang): okey

In short, slang is an informal kind of language that is not considered part

of the standard vocabulary of a language and that is used very informally inspeech, especially by a particular group of people

2.2 Vietnamese equivalent of English

The phrase Vietnamese equivalent of English refers to the way of using

Vietnamese equivalent of one English word instead of it whencommunicating, the English words are combined together to make up asentence with Vietnamese grammar according to homophonic principle.These sentences do not agree to both English and Vietnamese; in this case,

the Vietnamese equivalent is called Slang

(http://vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/thoi-su/mot-dung-tieng-anh-theo-nghia-viet-cua-teen-2142857.html)

The principle of forming the so-called slang is mainly based on thehomophonic phenomenon in Vietnamese language The English words aretranslated into Vietnamese and combined together to make up a phrase thathas a Vietnamese tame meaning

These examples will make it easier to understand the Vietnameseequivalent of English

No table!(slang): No comment!

Umbrella tomorrow (slang): sugared dry apricot

In the first example, no table is used instead of no comment that has the Vietnamese equivalent of miễn bàn

In Vietnamese, table and comment have the same pronunciation bàn; however, in English, table refers to an article of furniture consisting of a flat, slab top supported on one or more legs or other supports, while comment has

the meaning of a remark, observation or criticism As a result of this

homophonic phenomenon, the Vietnamese youths use no table in stead of no

Let’s take a look on the second example, Sugared dry apricot is a kind of food and its Vietnamese equivalent is ô mai.

In Vietnamese, umbrella is pronounced ô – a portable device used for

protection against rain, snow, etc, and consisting of a light canopy supported

on a collapsible metal frame mounted on a central rod; tomorrow is pronounced mai – the day following today, this is why umbrella tomorrow is used instead of sugared dry apricot.

The other statements belonging to this phenomenon will be mentioned inpart 2.3 below

2.3 List of statements involved in this phenomenon.

Below is the list of popular statements involved in this phenomenon

which are collected from a private blog blog.zing.vn and from the website www.vietbao.vn.

Black chicken (Okey)

Clothes donkey (đồ con lừa)

Dog die (chó chết)

Down birth have fun (Giáng sinh vui vẻ)

Dream what (Tưởng gì)

Eat picture (ăn ảnh)

Go die go (đi chết đi)

Go dust (đi bụi)

Home face road, dad do big (nhà mặt phố, bố làm to)

Hover go for water it pure (lượn đi cho nước nó trong)

I wanna toilet kiss you (anh muốn cầu hôn em)

I love toilet you sit down (tôi yêu cầu bạn ngồi xuống)

I no want salad again! (tôi không muốn cãi nhau với anh nữa) Know die now (Biết chết liền)

Lemon question (chảnh)

Like is afternoon (Thích thì chiều)

No dare where (không dám đâu)

No family live (vô gia cư)

No I love me (không ai yêu tôi)

No four go (Vô tư đi)

No star where (không sao đâu)

Pickhand dot com (bó tay.com)

Seven love (Thất tình)

Sky down no enemy (thiên hạ vô địch)

Son with no girl (con với chả cái)

Star I miss mono? (vì sao tôi cô đơn?)

Stop we share hand (thôi mình chia tay)

Story minor (Chuyện vặt)

Sugar I I go, sugar you you go (đường tôi tôi đi, đường anh anh đi) Sugar sugar a hero man (Đường đường một đấng anh hùng)

Ugly tiger (xấu hổ)

Umbrella star go again (dù sao đi nữa)

Uncle like (Chú thích)

Understand die now (hiểu chết liền)

You think you delicious? (mày nghĩ mày ngon à?)

2.4 The current state of the phenomenon amongst the young people

in Vietnam in recent years.

Prof Dr Nguyen Van Khang, the former deputy director of the linguisticinstitute, believes that slang is a kind of language belonging to certain socialgroups When there are different groups in a society, there are different kinds

of language that go with these groups

In the past, it is said that slang was unpleasant, for it was undesirablegangs’ language For this reason, it can be acceptable in informalcommunication but not appropriate in formal one

However, Slang, for the time being, is used by most of social groupssuch as students, pupils, office staffs, journalists etc The young people inVietnam nowadays like using slang and consider it a fashionable, particularand typical feature of their group They use slang anywhere – at school, athome, at the office; with anyone - friends, teachers, parents, even relatives.They update the latest slang from the internet and compare with friends Theyoung even set up private pages to discuss about slang and introduce them toothers

According to vnexpress.net – a Vietnamese electronic newspaper, in

many forums, the youths often use this kind of language and even create aslang dictionary This phenomenon is inclined to develop and become moreand more popular over time and space, it spreads from the South to the North,from urban areas to rural ones, from the past to the present

The young introduce slang to friends in a web page

There are four primary fators that make the youths interested in thephenomenon of Vietnamese equivalent of English

According to Eric Partridge (1934), Today and Yesterday, the young use

slang to communicate with others just for the fun of the thing They want toadd the waggishness to their conversation

The second reason is that slang is used as a means by which the insidersmake other people unable to identify something

Another reason is that the young use this kind of language by habbit

Quynh Nhu – an overseas student said that “Many people use slang by habbit

and I sometimes inadvertently use them when talking to my parents”.

teen-2142857.html)

(http://vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/thoi-su/mot-dung-tieng-anh-theo-nghia-viet-cua-One more reason, according to Mrs Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thanh – a teacher

of English at Tran Hung Dao Special High School, is that the young use slangbecause they do not have a thorough grasp of vocabulary and grammar;thereby, they use slang instead of standard English

In fact, using slang leads to serious consequences

First, using slang in communication makes the interlocutors difficult tocomprehend and is even open to misunderstanding

Second, using slang in a long period of time without controlling hasmade up a habit of using them unconsciously Most of the youths nowcertainly face many difficulties in constructing a sentence in grammar as well

as in using words in contexts

Last but not least, a large number of the young people in Vietnam have atendency to use this kind of language casually and widely which damages andcrooks the Vietnamese language’s pureness

CHAPTER III CONTENTS AND METHODOLOGY

a large portion of a group by using questionnaire

In this study, the questionnaire was designed in the form of a test sothat it is easy for the students to answer the questions and it helps theresearcher collect the data quickly The questionnaire was given to 54students at Cao Ba Quat High School in class time The students wereexplained how to answer each question In 15 minutes, the studentscompleted and returned it directly to the researcher

After collecting the students’ answers, the researcher carried out adata analysis and created a summary table.

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter presents and discusses the research findings from thesurvey questionnaire of this study.

The results are divided into 7 sections The first section presents anddiscusses the knowledge of slang of the students at Cao Ba Quat HighSchool; the second section is about the frequency of using slang; the thirdone is about the reasons for not using slang; the fourth is about the reasonsfor using slang; the next is about the feelings and the last one is about theopinions of the students about the impacts of using slang

4.1 Extent of knowledge of slang

Chart 4.1 Students’ knowledge of slang

Chart 4.1 above illustrates the extent of knowledge of slang It showsthat the majority of the respondents (n = 35, 65%) know 6 to 15 statements

in the total of 37 statements of slang The minority of the students (n = 1,2%) knows about 26 to 37 statements 26% (n = 14) out of the total knowfrom 16 to 25 statements

The figures in this section indicates that the students at Cao Ba QuatHigh School do not know many of the statements involved in thephenomenon of Vietnamese equivalent of English

4.2 Frequency of using slang

1 – 5 statements

6 – 15 statements

16 – 25 statements

26 – 37 statements

The chart below describes the frequency of using slang of the students

at Cao Ba Quat High School

Chart 4.2 The frequency of using slang

The chart shows that the majority (n = 22, 41%) never use slang whileonly 11% (n = 6) of the respondents chose level “always” 26% (n = 14)sometimes use slang and 22% (n = 12) rarely use slang

The fact is that the number of students who do not and rarely useslang is bigger than that of the students who use slang Therefore, most ofthe students at Cao Ba Quat High School do not often use slang whencommunicating

4.3 Reasons for not using slang

Chart 4.3 Reasons for not using slang

According to chart 4.3, over half of the students who have never used slang (n = 12, 54%) state that they do not use slang because slang is rubbishy while

always sometimes rarely never

You do not know the slang Slang is rubbishy

Slang is difficult to understand

few (n = 4, 18%) do not use slang because they don’t know slang The rest (n =

8, 28%) believe slang is difficult to understand, so they do not use them when communicating.

Clearly, the reason for not using slang mainly lies in the nonsense of them.

4.4 Reasons for using slang

The chart below describes the distribution of respondents regardingthe reasons for using slang

Chart 4.4 Reasons for using slang

From the chart above, it is clear that 47% (n = 15) of the respondentsuse slang just for fun while no one (0%) uses slang because it is theirgroup’s code A few students (n = 9, 28%) use slang by habit and 25% (n

= 8) use slang because of the lack of vocabulary and grammar

Obviously, nearly a half of the students uses slang for the reason ofthe fun

4.5 When to use slang

Lack of vocabulary and grammar

Just for fun Group’s code

By habit

93%

2 3 4

Chart 4.5 When to use slang

As can be seen in the chart, a large number of students (n = 30, 93%)reported that they had used slang when communicating with their friends.Only 7% (n = 2) reported they had communicated with both friends andparents and relatives by slang

It can be said that most of the students use slang to communicate withfriends only

Chart 4.6 Students’ feelings about slang

As shown in chart 4.6, the majority (n = 23, 43%) agree that thestatements involved in the phenomenon of Vietnamese equivalent of

Communicating with friends

Communicating with parents and relatives

Both Other

Rubbishy Interesting

No opinion