complimenting strategies by english-major students at thai nguyen university = các chiến lược khen ngợi của sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng anh tại đại học thái nguyên

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES - - TRẦN THI YÊ ̣ ́N COMPLIMENTING STRATEGIES BY ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC KHEN NGỢI CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN ) M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 60.22.15 Hanoi-2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF TABLES viii PART A INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the Study Research Questions Significance of the Study Scope of the Study PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Cross - Cultural Communication 2.1.1 Definition of Culture 2.1.2 Definition of Communication 2.1.3 Definition of Cross - Cultural Communication 2.2 Speech Act Theory 2.2.1 Definitions of Speech Acts 2.2.2 Types of Speech Acts 2.2.2.1 Austin‟s Classification 2.2.2.2 Searle‟s Classification 2.2.2.3 Leech‟s Classification 2.2.2.4 Bach and Harnish‟s Classification 2.2.2.5 Direct and Indirect Speech Acts 2.2.3 Speech Acts across Cultures iv 2.3 Politeness 2.3.1 What is Politeness? 2.3.2 Politeness Strategies 2.3.2.1 Maxim Approach a) Grice‟s Cooperative Principle b) Lakoff‟s Politeness Rule c) Leech‟s Politeness Principle (PP) 2.3.2.2 Face-management Approach a) Goffman‟s Conceptualization of Face b) Brown and Levinson‟s Politeness Theory 2.4 The Speech Act of Complimenting .10 2.4.1 Definition of Compliments .10 2.4.2 Functions of Compliments .10 2.4.3 Complimenting as a Speech Act .11 2.4.4 Compliment Topics 12 2.4.5 Complimenting Strategies .12 2.4.5.1 Basic Complimenting Strategies 12 2.4.5.2 Modifications of Basic Complimenting Strategies 13 2.4.5.3 Direct and Indirect Strategies in Complimenting 13 2.4.5.4 Complimenting Strategies in Terms of Personal Focus 13 2.5 Previous Research on Compliments .13 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODS 17 2.1 Subjects of the Study 17 2.2 Data Collection Instrument 17 2.3 Data Gathering Procedure 18 2.4 Data Analysis .18 2.5 Research Methods .18 CHAPTER REALIZATIONS OF COMPLIMENTING STRATEGIES 19 3.1 Overall Response Patterns 19 3.1.1 Expressions Preceding the Compliment 19 3.1.2 Expressions Following the Compliment 20 3.2 Category of Complimenting Strategies .21 3.2.1 Basic Complimenting Strategies .21 v 3.2.2 Combinations of Basic Complimenting Strategies 22 CHAPTER DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS 23 4.1 Overall Analysis of the Response Patterns 23 4.1.1 Components of the Response Patterns 23 4.1.2 Comments on the Expressions Preceding and Following the Compliment .25 4.1.3 Use of Complimenting Strategies 28 4.1.4 Interference from Vietnamese Culture to the English-major Students‟ Choice of Complimenting Strategies 29 4.2 Use of Complimenting Strategies with Respect to the Informants .30 4.2.1 American Informants 30 4.2.2 Vietnamese Informants and Vietnamese Learners of English 31 4.3 Use of Complimenting Strategies with Respect to the Communicating Partners 32 4.3.1 When the Communicating Partners are Male Classmates 32 4.3.2 When the Communicating Partners are Female Classmates .33 4.3.3 When the Communicating Partners are Male Teachers 34 4.3.4 When the Communicating Partners are Female Teachers 34 4.4 Use of Complimenting Strategies across Topics 36 4.4.1 Appearance/Possessions 36 4.4.2 Ability/Accomplishment 39 PART C CONCLUSION 40 Summary of Major Findings 40 Conclusion .41 Pedagogical Recommendations .42 Limitation of the Study 43 Suggestions for Further Research 44 REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX A DISCOURSE COMPLETION TEST (English Version) I APPENDIX B DISCOURSE COMPLETION TEST (Vietnamese Version) .III vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AmE American English DCT Discourse Completion Task EFL English as a Foreign Language F Face-threatening Acts FTA Face Threatening Act M Male TNU Thai Nguyen University V Vietnamese VE Vietnamese English vii LIST OF TABLES Tables Title Page Table Types of expressions preceding the compliment 20 Table Types of expressions following the compliment 20 Table Categories of complimenting strategies 21 Table Combinations of basic complimenting strategies 22 Table Deviation in the frequency of complimenting strategies between groups 29 LIST OF FIGURES Figures Title Page Figure Choices of politeness strategy (Brown and Levinson, 1987) Figure Bach & Harnish‟s categorization of the speech act of complimenting 11 Figure Components of the response patterns 24 Figure Complimenting strategies employed by the three groups of 28 informants Figure Complimenting strategies by male and female American informants 31 Figure Complimenting strategies by male and female Vietnamese informants 32 Figure Complimenting strategies by male and female Vietnamese learners of 32 English Figure Strategies employed to compliment male classmates 33 Figure Strategies employed to compliment female classmates 33 Figure 10 Strategies employed to compliment male teachers 35 Figure 11 Strategies employed to compliment female teachers 35 Figure 12 Strategies employed to compliment on appearance or possessions 37 Figure 13 Strategies employed to compliment on ability or accomplishment 39 viii PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale Learning a language means more than knowing linguistic features such as the rules of grammar or the vocabulary system We must also know how to use a language in its social and communicative contexts; however, EFL teachers not often stress pragmatic knowledge in their classrooms, focusing instead on linguistic knowledge As a result, even with a high level of language proficiency and goodwill, learners still have great difficulty making themselves understood or interpreting properly what is said to them They even find it extremely difficult to produce or sometimes understand a speech act such as a compliment, an apology, a request or a refusal The mistaken messages they send or receive lead not only to breakdowns in communication, but also to bad effects within social relationships This common problem can also be seen in Vietnamese learners of English Although they may have spent a long time studying English and done very well on exams, they can not communicate effectively with native speakers The barrier here is cultural awareness They are from different cultures, thus have different frames of reference Failure in communication can cause what we call “culture shock” We things with words as Austin (1962) states In our mother tongue and our culture, we face little or no difficulty in employing words appropriately in order to achieve our aim because we unconsciously follow the norms and conventions of our speech community The speech act of complimenting has been chosen as the topic of the present study because this speech act is highly representative of face-threatening acts and the realization of this speech act is largely culture-specific (Gass, 1995; Liao, 1996) People from different cultures share the same communicative purpose in complimenting each other However, they tend to use different patterns and strategies and compliment different attributes When people compliment each other in a foreign language, the intended purpose may not be achieved, but the reverse may occur In other words, miscommunication or misinterpretation happens when a user of a foreign language inappropriately compliments others In Vietnam, in recent years, much research work has been done into various speech acts; however, so far very little research has been carried out in Thai Nguyen University where millions of non-English major students and thousands of English major students are learning and speaking English With an effort to fill the gap, we carried out this study as an investigation into the speech act of complimenting by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University Aims of the Study This study aims to find out the preferred strategies by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University when complimenting in English and to identify the interferences from Vietnamese culture to the students‟ choice of strategies Research Questions The study is intended to address the following questions: [i] What are the preferred strategies by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University when complimenting in English? [ii] Is there any interference from Vietnamese culture to the students‟ choice of strategies when complimenting in English? Significance of the Study The researcher hopes that this study will be significant theoretically, practically and pedagogically Theoretically, the study may contribute to the theoretical literature by examining the interferences from Vietnamese culture to the choice of strategies when complimenting in English by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University Practically, the study may reinforce these students‟ awareness of the interferences from their culture to their choice of strategies when complimenting in English by investigating what they have already known and what they have not and what proves to be difficult when they are confronted with the complimenting situations, which may help them achieve a better performance in cross-cultural communication Pedagogically, research in cross-cultural communication including this paper may help teachers and educators understand the students‟ problems in order to evaluate textbooks and other teaching materials as well as assessment procedures of language proficiency, to assess the value of communicative language teaching practices, and to help learners develop strategies to handle misunderstandings and other communication problems Scope of the Study Due to limited time and experience, this study just focuses on verbal communication Other factors such as non-linguistic factors (facial expression, gestures, eye contact, etc.), paralinguistic factors (intonation, pause, speed of speech, etc.) will not be taken into account PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Cross - Cultural Communication 2.1.1 Definition of Culture Today, definitions of culture are multiple and diverse; however, in this paper, culture is defined and classified for the purpose of the study related to communication Therefore, out of the many possible definitions examined, the following definition guides this study: “culture is a set of shared and enduring meaning, values, and beliefs that characterize national, ethnic, or other groups and orient their behavior” (Mulholland 1991) 2.1.2 Definition of Communication Communication can be defined as “the exchange and negotiation of information between at least two individuals through the use of verbal and non verbal symbols, oral and written/visual modes, and production and comprehension processes” (Canale, 1983, p 4) It is a form of social interaction and involves a high degree of unpredictability and creativity in form and message 2.1.3 Definition of Cross - Cultural Communication According to Clarke and Sanchez, the term ăcross-culturală implies interaction with persons of different cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, sexual orientation, religious, age and class backgrounds ¨Cross-cultural communication¨ is a process of exchanging, negotiating, and mediating one's cultural differences through language, non-verbal gestures, and space relationships It is also the process by which people express their openness to an intercultural experience (Clarke and Sanchez, 2001) Kramsch defined cross - culture as “the meeting of two cultures or languages across the political boundaries of nation states.” (Kramsch, 1998, p 81) Thus, cross - cultural communication is the exchange and negotiation between individuals who come from different cultural background Normally, people know how to behave appropriately within their own culture and society, but when they move from country to country, this social etiquette changes For instance, it is quite usual for Vietnamese people to greet each other by saying “where are you going?” Such utterance may be perceived as annoying curiosity by native English speakers because for most Western cultures the individuals and personal privacy come first For Asian cultures, nevertheless the emphasis is on promoting group harmony 2.2 Speech Act Theory 2.2.1 Definitions of Speech Acts The concept of speech acts was first defined by Austin (1975) He did not use the term speech act, but “performative sentence” or “performative utterance,” which indicated that “the issuing of the utterance is the performing of an action” (p 6) The term itself was first used by Searle (1969) who claimed that “talking is performing acts according to rules” (p 22), and that “speech acts […] are the basic or minimal units of linguistic communication” (p.16) However, Back and Harnish (1979) believed that there is more to a speech act than this In their view, speech acts are a complex combination between utterances, locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts Thus, the speech act schema, or SAS, is as follows, where e is an expression, S the speaker, and H the hearer: “In uttering e [utterance act], S says something to H [locutionary act]; in saying something to H, S does something [illocutionary act]; and by doing something, S affects H [perlocutionary act]” (Bach & Harnish, 1979, p 3) Wierzbicka (1991) claimed that most of the early definitions of speech acts are ethnocentric, and that thus they fail to take into consideration what she believed is one of the most important characteristics of speech acts, namely cultural specificity She says that, cultural values and characteristics such as indirectness, objectivism, courtesy, and cordiality are reflected in the way speakers produce speech acts This multitude of definitions also leads to a multitude of taxonomies This study deals with the most important classifications of speech acts in the following section 2.2.2 Types of Speech Acts 2.2.2.1 Austin’s Classification Austin (1975, p 151) first classified speech acts into five categories: - Verdictives provide us with findings and results - Exercitives are characterized by the description of powers, rights, and influences - Commissives commit the speakers themselves to some future action - Behabitives are actions that have to with „social behaviors‟ - Expositives develop views, conduct arguments and to clarify the use of references 2.2.2.2 Searle’s Classification Communicative approaches to speech act theory mostly categorize speech acts according to what they communicate to the hearer Thus, Searle (1976) proposed five types of speech acts: - Declarations change the world via their utterance - Representatives tell people how and what things are - Expressive express feelings and attitudes - Directives get someone to something - Commissives commit the speakers themselves to some future action 2.2.2.3 Leech’s Classification ... investigation into the speech act of complimenting by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University Aims of the Study This study aims to find out the preferred strategies by English-major students. .. 20 Table Categories of complimenting strategies 21 Table Combinations of basic complimenting strategies 22 Table Deviation in the frequency of complimenting strategies between... questions: [i] What are the preferred strategies by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University when complimenting in English? [ii] Is there any interference from Vietnamese culture to the students? ??