BHS Thesis minor part

AN AMERICAN - VIETNAMESE CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON NONVERBAL EXPRESSIONS OF DISAPPOINTMENT

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT

I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE STUDY PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED

ENTITLED

AN AMERICAN - VIETNAMESE CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON NONVERBAL

EXPRESSIONS OF DISAPPOINTMENT

IS MY OWN STUDY IN THE FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS.

Ha Noi, 2009

Bùi Hải Sơn

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the following people for their great supports during my three-year time for the MA course.

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Ms Phan Thị Vân Quyên, my supervisor, for her clear guidance, insightful comments and dutiful supervision.

I would like to give my sincere thanks to all the lecturers at University of

Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University - Ha Noi (HULIS-VNU) for their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm in their lectures, from which I have acquired valuable knowledge and inspiration to fulfill this minor thesis

My deep thanks also go to Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Quang whose interesting lectures on Cross-Cultural Communication with perspectives on cultural variety have inspired me to do this cross- cultural study.

I would like to express my gratitude to my family, to many of my friends and colleagues, for their valuable sharing and encouragements

I wish to acknowledge the important contribution of both Vietnamese and

American informants, whose names I cannot mention here for the completion of my study.

AN AMERICAN – VIETNAMESE CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY

ON NONVERBAL EXPRESSIONS OF DISAPPOINTMENT

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the most common nonverbal expressions of disappointment used by American and Vietnamese people in the field of facial expressions, gestures and postures Another aim was to find out the similarities and differences between their ways of expressions Finally, the influential factors affecting the expressions of disappointment were also examined in the study.

The quantitative method was applied in the research The survey inspected American nonverbal expressions of disappointment through Vietnamese informants’ perception and Vietnamese nonverbal ways of expressing disappointment through American informants’ observation 30 questionnaires were sent out and 30 responses were received.

One result of the study was that disappointment seemed to be a universal emotion of which American and Vietnamese people shared most the expressions It was also discovered that the informants’ length of stay or work with native people and cultural knowledge had great influence on their perception of communicating partners’ emotional states Additionally, the results of the study revealed that the choice of expressing disappointment depended much on the communicating partners and communicating situations.

The principal conclusion was that people would communicate better when understanding more about the host culture One different conclusion was that the successful cross-cultural communication did not only depend on length of stay or work with people of another culture.

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

NVC: Nonverbal Communication

ELT: English Language Teaching

CE: Communication Event

CA: Communication Act

VN: Vietnam/ Vietnamese

AM: America/American

List of tables

Table 1: Informants’ parameters

Table 2: American and Vietnamese common expressions of disappointment

Table 3: Amount of expressiveness in American and Vietnamese cultures

Table 4: Amount of expressiveness as seen from informants' length of stay

Table 5: Amount of expressiveness as seen from the informants' cultural knowledge Table 6: Influence of communicating partners on amount of expressiveness in American and Vietnamese cultures

Table 7: Influence of comunicating situations on amount of expressiveness in American and Vietnamese cultures

List of charts and graphics

Chart 1: Importance of Nonverbal Communication

Diagram 1: Classification of Nonverbal Communication

Chart 2: Amount of expressiveness in American and Vietnamese cultures

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

i Rationale 1

ii Aims of the study 1

iii Scope of the study 2

iv Methods of the study 2

v Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 CULTURE 4

1.2 COMMUNICATION 4

1.2.1 Definition of Communication 4

1.2.2 Forms of Communication 5

1.2.3 Components of Communication 5

1.2.4 Cross-cultural communication 6

1.3 NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 6

1.3.1 Definition of nonverbal communication 6

1.3.2 Importance of nonverbal communication 7

1.3.3 Differences between Nonverbal Communication and Verbal Communication 8

1.3.4 Classification of nonverbal communication 8

1.3.5 Nonverbal communication across culture 9

1.4 DISAPPOINTMENT AND ITS NONVERBAL EXPRESSIONS 10

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 18

2.1 COMMENTS ON THE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES AND DATA COLLECTION METHOD: 18

2.2 COMMENTS ON THE INFORMANTS 19

2.3 THE PROCEDURE OF DATA COLLECTION 20

2.4 DATA ANALYSIS METHOD 20

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS 21

3.1 DATA ANALYSIS: 21

3.1.1 Most common expressions of disappointment used by Vietnamese and American people 21

3.1.2 Amount of expressiveness in American and Vietnamese cultures 23

3.1.3 Amount of expressiveness in Vietnamese and American cultures as

seen from informants’ parameters 24

3.1.3.1 Length of stay or work with native people 24

3.1.3.2 Cultural knowledge 25

3.1.4 Influential factors on the amount of expressiveness 26

3.1.4.1 Communicating partners 26

3.1.4.2 Communicating situations 27

3.2 DISCUSSIONS OF THE FINDINGS: 28

PART C: CONCLUSION 31

1 SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS 31

2 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION 31

3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 32

APPENDICES 33

BIBLIOGRAPHY 34