Hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in American and Vietnamese Cao Thị Hậu Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15 Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Đỗ Thị Mai Thanh Năm bảo vệ: 2009 Abstract. The purposes of this study is to find out the ways to express different polite strategies to hide bad feelings in American English and Vietnamese and to compare the different strategies of hiding bad feelings used by different gender of two ethnic groups: Vietnamese females vs. males, and American females vs. males. The data for this study were collected through questionnaires from a total of 40 American informants and 40 Vietnamese informants. The survey was conducted from February to April of 2009, and the data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The overall findings of the survey show the differences between the ways of hiding bad feelings of Vietnamese and American and assure that gender does play a significant role in hiding bad feelings of two ethnic groups: Vietnamese females vs. males, and American females vs. males. Keywords. Kỹ năng nói; Cảm xúc; Người Mỹ; Người Việt; Hội thoại Content 1. Rationale Language, according to Schmidt & Richard (1980, p. 161), is used to “build bridges, to consolidate political regimes, to carry on arguments, to convey information from one person to another, to entertain – in short, to communicate.” When the function “to communicate” flows successfully, a social relation has been established, reinforced and maintained. Thus, successful communication requires not only pure linguistic competence but also knowledge of social norms, social status, social values, and relations between individuals known as communicative competence - the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately. Successful communication needs the correct interpretation by an addressee of a speaker’s/ writer’s intent in performing a linguistic act. The lack of this pragmatic competence as well as linguistic competence may lead to impoliteness, misinterpretation, culture shocks, or even communication breakdown. Hiding bad feelings is chosen for investigation in this study not accidentally. First, communicative functions are not only language – specific, they are culture – specific as well. The difference in the ways in which languages realize the same function seems to make it problematic for language learners to say the right thing at the right time. It seems to be dangerous when the exposure of negative feelings may insult or loose face of the interlocutors. Knowing how to hide the bad feelings and response appropriately is very necessary, especially for cultural outsiders. Second, a number of studies concerning speech acts such as thanking, advising, requesting, apologizing, disagreeing, etc. have been carried out in this college. Some of the researches on hiding feelings have already done at under-graduate level, but none has been carried out at higher levels. Thus, I would like to continue exploring this topic in my M.A. thesis. Moreover, a comparison of hiding bad feelings between American native speakers of English and native speakers of Vietnamese is considered to be valuable to the teaching and learning of spoken English in Vietnam. That is why the thesis is named “Hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in American and Vietnamese”. 2. Aims of the study The very first aim of this study is to find out the ways to express different polite strategies to hide bad feelings in American English and Vietnamese. The second purpose is to compare the different strategies of hiding bad feelings used by different gender of two ethnic groups: Vietnamese females vs. males, and American females vs. males. Thanks to these findings, some suggestions for successful communication will be given. The study is, therefore, conducted with the hope of contributing to the socio-cultural aspects of spoken English communication for the avoidance or at least the reduction of communication failures in terms of sociolinguistic. The following questions guided the research: 1. What are ways to express different polite strategies to hide bad feelings in American English and Vietnamese? 2. Does gender difference affect the ways of hiding bad feelings of American and Vietnamese? 3. Scope of the study Although the author is fully conscious of the role of non-verbal factors in real life communication, they are beyond the scope of this study. The study is only confined to the verbal aspect of the communication of hiding bad feelings. And the study focuses on some specific situations in business, university and family. The Vietnamese northern dialects and American English are chosen for contrastive analysis. By American English, the author means the English spoken by those who have American nationality and speak English as their native language. Although such sociological factors such as relative power, ranking of impositions and social distance are crucial, they are kept neutral and constant. The study especially focuses on the effects of different genders on the ways of hiding bad feelings of native speakers of Vietnamese and American. 4. Methodology of the study 4.1. The survey instrument The survey instrument, a three-page questionnaire, was devised to work out hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in American and Vietnamese. The questionnaire was divided into three sections. The first section contained demographic questions in order to gain information about the participants’ nationality, age, gender, marital status, area where they spend most of their time, occupation, acquisition of language(s) other than their mother tongue. The second section consisted of three questions. Respondents were asked: “How often do you hide your bad feelings? What is your purpose when you hide your bad feelings? What bad feelings do you often hide?” This section dealt with the basic concept of hiding bad feelings in order to review the subjects’ understanding of hiding bad feelings. The third section related to seven situations, including 3 situations in university, 2 situations in family, and 2 situations in business. In this section, informants were asked to be in specific positions to produce practical strategies of hiding bad feelings. They can choose one of the appropriate answers given or express their own ideas. 4.2. The participants. The subjects in this study were divided into two groups: Vietnamese people and American people. The Vietnamese group included 20 females and 20 males, who were native speakers of Vietnamese living in the Northern part of Vietnam. The American group included 20 females and 20 males who were native speakers of English living in the USA. The questionnaires were delivered to many people of two groups from different professions and social status. Their ages range from 18 to 60 years. Due to research requirement seen from gender perspective, the survey was distributed almost evenly in number of female and male respondents in both of the two groups. The number of females respondents accounts for 50% and male respondents 50%. This balance will affirm valid findings of the study. 4.3. Data collection. Two different methods were used for data collection. First, while visiting some places like travel agencies, restaurants, hotels, cafeterias, libraries, classrooms, and at home in February, March and April of 2009, the researcher contacted 44 foreigners and 55 Vietnamese people and asked them to answer the questionnaire. A total of 75 participants, including 35 foreigners and 40 Vietnamese people, completed the survey giving a response rate of 79.6%, 72.7% respectively. Next, written questionnaires were mailed to 10 Americans and 12 Vietnamese people. Out of 22, a total of 18 questionnaires from 8 Americans and 10 Vietnamese people were returned, giving a response rate of 80%, 83.3% respectively. The large gap of response rates in data collection may be the result of the two different approaches for data collection, namely visiting or mailing. After all the data had been collected, the answers were kept and referred to when analyzing the findings. 4.4. Data analysis. To understand the basic knowledge about the theme, such materials as textbooks, reference books, newspapers, sources from internet were consulted. The research is mainly relied on the survey questionnaires. The data was coded and entered onto Microsoft Excel sheets, and then analyzed statistically, using percentage and reliability values, via the computerized program called SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). Based on the collected information from the questionnaires, all the discussions, comments, and conclusions are inductively made. The quantitative method is mainly employed in the investigation with the illustration of tables, and graphs. Together with the quantitative method, contrastive analysis is also used to achieve the objectives of the research. Supporting techniques such as consultation with the supervisor, discussion with colleagues, and personal observations are also of significant contribution to the study. 5. Design of the study The study is divided into three main parts: Part 1: Introduction: The rationale, aims, scope of the study, methodology, comments on the survey instrument, on the participants, on the data collection and analysis method are all introduced in this part. References 1. Bruner (1978). In Richards, J. C. (ed.) (1985).The context of language teaching. CUP. 2. Brumfit, C. J. et al. (1985). Language teaching. CUP. 3. Hybels, S. & Weaver, R. (1992). Communicating effectively. Mc Graw Hill. 4. Kottak, C. P. (1979). Cultural anthropology (2 nd edition). New York. 5. Kramsch C. (1998). Language and cultural. Oxford: University press. 6. Lª, T. (2002). Some Anglicist – Vietnamese cross-cultural differences in hiding feelings. Hanoi: CFL. 7. Quang, N. (1994). Intercultural communication. CFL. VNU. 8. Sapir (1970). Language: An introduction to the study of speech. United Kingdom. 9. Schmidt, R. W. & Richards, J. C. (1980). Interaction, acculturation and the acquisition of communicative competence. A case study of an adult. In Wolfson & Judd (Eds.) (1983). Sociolinguistics and language acquisition. Newsbury House publishers. 10. Searle J. R. (1969). Speech acts. England: Cambridge. CUP. 11. Trang, N. (2003). Body language used in hiding feelings. Hanoi: CFL. 12. Yule G. (1997). Pragmatics. Oxford University Press. 13. The effectiveness of your communication is from the response you get. Retrieved January 16, 2009, from: http://www.about-personal-growth.com/communication.html 14. Verbal communication. Retrieved January 16, 2009, from: http://cobweb2.louisville.edu/faculty/regbruce/bruce//mgmtwebs/commun_f98/Verbal.ht m 15. www.zompist.com/excuse.html. Retrieved February 24, 2009 . to be valuable to the teaching and learning of spoken English in Vietnam. That is why the thesis is named Hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in American and Vietnamese . 2. Aims of. understanding of hiding bad feelings. The third section related to seven situations, including 3 situations in university, 2 situations in family, and 2 situations in business. In this section, informants. survey instrument The survey instrument, a three-page questionnaire, was devised to work out hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in American and Vietnamese. The questionnaire was divided into