Communication style at the Vietnamese and American workplace

Communication style at the Vietnamese and American workplace Phong cách giao tiếp công sở ở Việt Nam và Mỹ Phạm Thanh Huyền University of Languages and International studies M.A Minor

Communication style at the Vietnamese and

American workplace Phong cách giao tiếp công sở ở Việt Nam và Mỹ

Phạm Thanh Huyền

University of Languages and International studies M.A Minor Thesis English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Supervisor : M.A Phan Thị Vân Quyên

Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract Facing the fact that more and more Vietnamese and Americans have to work

with each other due to the globalization, this study has been carried out to investigate and describe the Vietnamese and American communication style at the workplace Data were obtained from 30 Vietnamese and 30 Americans who have experience working with foreigners (i.e Americans and Vietnamese) in different companies After analyzing and discussing the results of the survey, a number of potential problems experienced by Vietnamese and Americans when communicating were revealed Based on these barriers, the study provided some concluding remarks of this study Though the research is in small scale and cannot cover all problems faced by Vietnamese and Americans in intercultural working environment, the author of this study hopes that it will contribute to identifying the problems Vietnamese and Americans may experience and help their communication become easier and more effective

Keywords.Tiếng Anh; Giao tiếp; Giao tiếp công sở

Content

The study consists of 5 chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction presents the rationale, the objectives, the scope, the

significance, the methods and the design of the study

Chapter 2: Theoretical background starts with the definitions of culture,

communication and intercultural communication Then, Hofstede’s and Hall’s cultural dimensions are presented and discussed After that the communication style at the workplace are taken into consideration as well as some potential problems in multicultural

working environment are identified Finally, the previous studies is mentioned and evaluated

Chapter 3: Methodology presents the methodology used in this study This part

consists of 3 parts: the selection of participants in which the author gives some reasons for the selection and the description of the participants; the data collection instruments in which the instrument and procedure of data analysis are discussed; methods of data collection in which the methods and procedure of data collection are identified

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion introduces the results of the survey which

describe the differences between Vietnamese and American communication style, which leads to problems occurring when Vietnamese and American people communicate at the workplace Then, the findings are analyzed and discussed

Chapter 5: Conclusion presents the conclusion, implication for people working in

intercultural working environment, the limitations of the study in which the author states the reasons for the study’s limitations, and suggestions for further study

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