Vietnamese australian cross cultural study on hiding feelings at the workplace

Vietnam national university, noi College of foreign languages Post graduate department Nguyen NHu Trang A Vietnamese – Australian cross – cultural study on hiding feelings at the workplace (Nghiên cứu giao thoa văn hóa cách che dấu cảm xúc nơi công sở người Úc người Việt) M.A minor thesis Field: Linguistics Code: 602215 Ha noi, 2009 Vietnam national university, noi College of foreign languages Post graduate department Nguyen NHu Trang A Vietnamese – Australian cross – cultural study on hiding feelings at the workplace (Nghiên cứu giao thoa văn hóa cách che dấu cảm xúc nơi công sở người Úc người Việt) M.A minor thesis Field: Linguistics Code: 602215 Supervisor: Phan Thi Van Quyen, MA Ha noi, 2009 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration ……………………………………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………………………… ii Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………………………iii Table of content …………………………………………………………………………………………iv List of tables ……………………………………………………………………………………………v Abbreviations and Conventions ……………………………………………………………………vi part I: introduction ………………………………… 1 Rationale of the study ………………………………………………………………….……1 Aims and objectives of the study ……………………………………………………….….2 Scope of the study……………………………………………………………………….… Methodology …………………………………………………………………………….… Significance of the study: …………………………………………………………………….3 The design of the study: ………………………………………………………………….….4 Part II: development ………………………………… Chapter 1: Literature Review ………………………………………………………5 1.1.Culture…………………………………………………………………………………… 1.2 Communication……………………………………………………………………………5 1.2.1 Communication………………………………………………………………………6 1.2.2 Factors affecting human communication …………………………………………… 1.3 Culture and Communication ………………………………………………………………9 1.4 Politeness……………………………………………………………………………… 12 v 1.4.1 Notion of politeness……………………………………………………………………12 1.4.2 Notions of face and facework …………………………………………………………13 1.4.3 Politeness strategies ………………………………………………………………… 14 1.5 Hiding feelings in social interaction ……………………………………………… ……16 Chapter II: Methodology ………………………………………………………… 20 2.1 Data collection instrument………………………………………………………………20 2.2 Questionnaire and Participants ………………………………………………………….20 2.3 Administration of the Questionnaires ………………………………………………… 22 Chapter 3: findings and Discussions…………………………………………24 3.1 What are the influential factors on the choice of verbal strategies of hiding feelings in Australian English and Vietnamese? …………………………………/……………………24 3.2 How often Vietnamese and Australian people hide their feelings at the workplace? ………………28 3.3 What are the verbal strategies of hiding feelings used by Australian and Vietnamese people? …………29 3.3.1 Verbal strategies used by Australian and Vietnamese people to hide their feelings ………………… 29 3.3.2 Use of strategies by Vietnamese participants in specific situations ……………… …32 3.3.3 Use of strategies by Australian participants in specific situations ……………………35 3.4 Some explanations………………………………………………………………… 37 Part III : conclusion and implications ……………… 40 Major findings………………………………………………………………………………40 Implication of the study…………………………………………………………………….41 Implications for intercultural communicators ……………………………………………41 2 Implications for EFL teachers ……………………………………………………………41 vi Limitations of the study and Recommendations for future research ………………………42 REFERENCES …………………………………………………………… 44 Appendix 1……………………………………………………………………………………46 Appendix 2……………………………………………………………………………………49 vii Abbreviations and CONVENTIONS Dct FTA EFL L2 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Factors governing the choice of strategies in hiding feelings by Vietnamese people……………………………………………………………………………….23 Table 2: Factors governing the choice of hiding feelings strategies by Australian people……………………………………………………………………………….24 Table 3: Differences between Australian and Vietnamese participants hiding feelings in specific situations (by percentage) ………………………………………………26 Table 4: The frequency of hiding feelings by the two groups (by percentage) …………28 Table 5: Differences between Australian and Vietnamese participants hiding feelings in specific situations (by percentage) ………………………………………….… 29 Table 6: Strategies used by Australian and Vietnamese people to hide their feelings (by percentage) …………………………………………………………………….31 Table 7: Summary: Use of strategies by Vietnamese participants …………………………32 Table 8: Summary: Use of strategies by Australian ……………………………………….35 part I: introduction I.1 Rationale of the study It is undeniable that language is a tool of human communication Various kinds of meanings can be conveyed in language which involves the interaction between the speaker and the hearers However, successful communication requires not only pure linguistic competence but also knowledge of social norms, social values and relations between interactants As language, to some extend, is part of or a manifestation of its culture (Davies, 1989 in Nguyen Van Do, 2007) Culture, language, and society are closely related to each other and interact between themselves Therefore, communication breakdown or culture shock may happen in cross – cultural interaction when interactors are not aware of cultural barrier In other words, the interpretation of an utterance should be involved both linguistic pattern and the socio – cultural background of the speaker It is no secret that today‘s workplace is rapidly becoming larger and larger, as the business environment expands to include various geographic locations and span numerous cultures What can be difficult, however, is understanding how to communicate effective with individuals who speak another language or who rely on different means to reach a common goal The world today is dramatically different from that of twenty or even ten years ago The influence of Multinational Corporation, the technological revolution, the ―information superhighway‖ and the movement of the private and public sectors towards globalization sets the sense New laws, agreements and regional partnership from NAFTA to GATT to the European Union or Asian, have contributed to make this massive change not only possible but also achievable Vietnam is a country where intercultural contacts are rapidly increasing, following the introduction of the renovation process since 1986 Opened door policy allows more foreign companies and partners to invest in most industries in the country to help boost the economy This process has resulted in increasing interactions between Vietnamese and foreigners, especially from English – speaking countries We investigate how culture influences the hiding feelings at the workplace by Australian speakers of English and Vietnamese We choose hiding feelings to study as in our daily life we hide our feelings so often to achieve our purposes that we are sometimes unaware of the fact that we are doing so Hiding feelings is so important in communication Without it communication may be broken-down and our relationships may be broken, as a result Hiding feelings is very various across cultures so misunderstanding can arise if we not apply pragmatic competence appropriately Taking into consideration the importance of pragmatic competence and the social setting of Vietnam, the study is significant in that it is conducted with the hope of resolving and simplifying cross- cultural misunderstanding For more details: I Aims and objectives of the study As far as we know, there is a gap in our understanding of how Vs and Aus hide their feelings at the workplace and how culture influences their use of language patterns at the workplace So this study aims to find out: How Australian and Vietnamese hide their feelings at the workplace How social-cultural factors such as social status, gender, age, … influence the choice of hiding feeling strategies of both groups For more details, this study aims to answer the following questions: What are the influential factors on verbal strategies of hiding feelings in Australian English and Vietnamese? How often Vietnamese and Australian people hide their feelings at the workplace? What are the verbal strategies of hiding feelings used by Australian and Vietnamese people? Research hypotheses To achieve the aims of the study, the following hypotheses are suggested for investigation: a There are some differences in the frequency and the way of hiding feelings at the workplace between Vietnamese and Australian b Some factors such as interlocutor‘s status, age, gender affect the choice of hiding feeling strategies used by Australian and Vietnamese people I Scope of the study Hiding feelings is clearly essential in communication And to achieve the best result, speaker usually makes use of both verbal and nonverbal cues However, in fact, there are a few nonverbal cues for hiding feelings: some use eyes contact, some use hands while many verbal cues are available for people to hide their feelings These verbal cues are various and different depending on the cultures of communicators, their backgrounds ect Therefore, in this thesis, we would like to focus mainly on verbal strategies Hiding feelings takes place everywhere: in the family, at school, at the public places… However, the author choose to study hiding feelings at the workplace because the world is now globalized, the workplace now is a multicultural place Amid today‘s heightened global tensions, success increasingly belongs to people who can work effectively across cultures and languages The author should think that the understanding of how Australian and Vietnamese people hide their feelings may be helpful for those working in multicultural environment The researcher makes an investigation into how Vietnamese and Australian use the language to hide their true feelings at the workplace I.4 Methodology To achieve the aims and objectives mentioned above, the study compare and contrast the verbal strategies of hiding feelings of the two groups basing on the statistical and qualitative data collected from a survey questionnaire modified from the Discourse Completion Task developed by Beebe et al The survey questionnaires are given to 40 Vietnamese people who are working at offices in Hanoi and 40 Australian people who are working in Australia Besides, more information needed for the study are gathered from researcher‘s observation To process the data, quantitative method, contrastive analysis methods are employed I Significance of the study 39 Western people‘s lifestyle Western people‘s relationship Self in Western people‘s view Western people‘s communication Vietnamese‘s lifestyle Vietnamese‘s relationship Self in Vietnamese‘s view Vietnamese‘s communication 40 Part III : conclusion and implications Language and culture are closely linked So to communicate successfully requires both linguistic competence and communicative competence A lack understanding of cultures can lead to serious cross-cultural misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication So far, this research has investigated how native speakers of Australian English and Vietnamese differ in their frequency and degree of hiding feelings Based on the data collected from the questionnaire data and some other sources of information such as self-observation, books, newspapers , the author has drawn out some findings Major findings According to the research result, parameters such as age, social distance, social status, ect are influential factors in the hiding feelings of the two groups However, for Vietnamese, the social status is the most influential factors This can be due to the influence of Confucianism: that ―when communicating, those that follow Confucian philosophy would be concerned with status relationships (Samovar and Porter 2001, p.112) Vietnamese also attach greater importance to age than Australian as Vietnam is a highly hierarchical society Vietnam is an Asian culture, where face-saving acts are highly advisable Vietnamese people definitely not want their conversation partners to feel humiliated That is why when they have negative feelings toward others, they tend to avoid confrontation, and thus, choose hiding feelings for safety Therefore, the act of hiding feelings is employed much more often among Vietnamese informants than among Australian people The most preferred strategy in Australian and in Vietnam is Minimizing However, Vietnamese people also resort to Alluding, ambiguous, and vague utterances to maintain their harmony beside this strategy This can be explained by looking at the communication styles of the two groups Vietnamese prefer indirect styles to others They seem to be less explicit and rely less on words to convey meaning They often convey meaning or send messages by manipulating the context In Australian culture, 41 people prefer independence, self-reliance, and a greater emotional distance from each other They cannot depend merely on manipulating context—not doing or not saying something that is always done or said in that situation That is why there is such a difference Implication of the study 2.1 Implications for intercultural communicators Language is the principal means whereby we conduct our social lives When it is used in a context of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways Therefore, when people have to operate within an entirely different cultural and social environment, such as a foreign country, culture shock may happen and result in the feelings of anxiety, surprise, disorientation, confusion, ect To avoid, or at least reduce it, all the people involved should cooperate to have mutual understanding A positive relationship with other people of other cultures requires you to understand and respect their culture and customs Beyond understanding the norms of other cultures, you also need the communication skills and appropriate strategies that are applicable to a given country or region To create a healthy business relationship in a corporate environment, you must thus be properly prepared: * * Get a feel for the attitudes, atmosphere and approach of the business community Know about your encounter's culture, collective personality and way of doing things * Observe the * Learn to * Give you These are a few of the key factors in preparing to engage in an interactive business relationship with other cultures 2.2 Implications for EFL teachers Language is the most typical, the most representative and the most central element in any culture Language and culture are closely related to each other; one cannot fully understand the language without knowledge of culture as they are seen as inseparable 42 It follows that learning second language is often learning second culture (Brown 1989) and teaching second language is often teaching second culture Findings in this minor thesis show that communicating in an L2 is a complex task because it requires not only the acquisition of the language but also of the sociocultural values of the target culture In other words, to effectively communicate in the L2, the learner needs to acquire the socio-cultural strategies used most frequently by native people, and the rules for their appropriate employment We would like to make the following pedagogical recommendations for L2 instruction: * Language instructors should help to develop learners‘ pragmatic ability in the FL classroom with contextualized, task-based activities which expose learners to different types of pragmatic input and prompt learners to produce appropriate output * To successfully perform a speech act, language instructors should teach language forms and functions contextually in communicative oral activities in both formal and informal situations in order to develop the learners‘ sociolinguistic ability in an L2 * Both socio-cultural and sociolinguistic information should be incorporated into the language curriculum and language textbooks Specifically, students should be taught how to perform different speech acts in an L2 in different situations with reference to social status, age, and to the gender relation between the speakers and interlocutors Teachers of L2 should bear in our mind that we are preparing our students for not only the domestic workplace and society Our world is shrinking and the possibility of our students working abroad or working even at home with foreigners is much greater than before Our students are very likely to need to communicate with both native and nonnative speakers of English Limitations of the study and Recommendations for future research Due to the data collection instrument, other factors such as prosody (intonation, tone, and stress), gestures and facial expressions were not observed And the answers to questions may differ from what participants really say in real-life situations Thus naturalistic data collection instruments, such as role-plays or recordings made in natural settings, would be desirable 43 Moreover, the researcher only conducted the survey on Vietnamese participants who are working in Vietnam, and on Australian participants who are working in Australia The result may be somehow different if the participants are Vietnamese working in Australia or Australian working in Vietnam Finally, this study concentrated on social status, social distance, and gender as the three focal variables Other potentially relevant factors, such as the time spent to learn English, or the degree of imposition of the requests… were not specifically investigated and left for later research Focusing on the cross-cultural study of hiding feelings at the workplace, the present thesis is explicitly restricted in scope There remain many interesting aspects which merit further research, including: * Investigating non-verbal cues such as facial expressions, eyes contacts used in hiding feelings * Investigating the effects of other factors such as social distance, topic on hiding feelilngs * Investigating Vietnamese and Australian participants who are working in multicultural offices 44 REFERENCES In English Andrew Wright (1987) How to communicate successfully Cambridge University Press Austin, J.L (1962) How to things with words London: Oxford University Press Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G (1989) Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies Norwood, NJ: Ablex Brown, P., & Levinson, S C (1987) Politeness: Some universals in language usage Cambridge University Press Claire Kramsch (1998) Language and culture Oxford University Press Crawford, AC (1966) Customs and Culture of Vietnam Ha Noi: Charles E Tuttle company Haney, William V (1986) Communication and interpersonal relations: text and cases Houndmill Basingstok Heather Bowe and Kelie Martin (2007) Communication across cultures Cambridge University Press Holmes, J (1995) Women, men and politeness London: Longman Leech, G N 10 James, Card (1980) Contrastive analysis Harlow 11 Joyce Merill V (1986) Culture bound Cambridge University Press 12.Kieu T T H (2001) Disagreeing in English and Vietnamese Vietnam National University 13 Larson, Charles U (1976) Communication everyday encounters Belmont 14 Larry.A Samorva (2007) Communication between cultures Belmont, CA, USA 15 Phan, T.V.Q (2001) Some English - Vietnamese cross-cultural differences in refusing a request MA thesis Hanoi VNU 16 Richard J.watts (2003) Politeness Cambridge University Press 18 Ronal Wardhaugh (1985) How conservation works Basil Blackwell 19 Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics New York 20 Wierzbicka, Ann (2003) Cross –cultural pragmatics: the semantics of human interaction Berlin New York 21 (http://books.google.com/books?id=2_LOefevBwQC&pg=PA4&dq=isbn 22 (www.peacecorps.gov/wws/publications/culture/pdf/chapter3.pdf) 45 In vietnamese Nguyễn Quang.(1998) Trực tiếp gián tiếp dụng học giao thoa văn hóa Việt Mỹ Tạp san ngoại ngữ -1998 Hoàng Phê (1998) Từ điển tiếng Việt Nhà xuát Xă hội Trần Ngọc Thêm (1998) Cơ sở văn hóa Việt nam Nhà xuất giáo dục Trần Ngọc Thêm (2001) Bản sắc văn hóa Việt nam trước ngưỡng cửa thiên niên kỷ Nhà xuất giáo dục 46 Appendix Cultural survey Dear Sir/Madam, I have attended a PhD research on the culture effects Could you please kindly give me a time to take a short survey! Your helps will support to me a chance to success in my research Thank you very much! This questionnaire is designed for the research purposes only which is to investigate the cross-cultural differences between Vietnamese and English native speakers in hiding feelings at the workplace for better understanding of cross cultural communication If you agree to participate, you will fill out the questionnaire Please respond as you would in a real conversation Your information will be highly appropriated and strictly confidential Please tick (√) where appropriate * Your age: *Gender: * Education: * Marital status: * Place where you have lived most of your time: * Languages other than your mother tongue: Which of the factors listed below you generally take into consideration when you decide to hide your feelings in communication with other people in your language at the workplace? Please put them in order of importance 01 is the most important If it is of no importance please make a cross(x) a Age b Sex c Social status d Occupation 47 e Social distance f Communication setting h Topic g Others (Please explain) ………………………………… In your observation, how often Australian people hide their feelings at the workplace? a Always b Often c Sometimes d Rarely e Never Which of the following communicative strategies Australian people often use to avoid revealing their feelings at the workplace? a minimize (i.e the speaker tries to make the matter less serious, or smaller by using synonymous but mild words) b allude (i.e the speaker makes a disguised reference to the matter, not mention it directly they say this thing but deliberately refer to another thing) c equivocate (i.e the speaker deliberately makes ambiguous or unclear utterances The hearer has to deduce what the speaker means) d tell a white lie.( i.e the speaker hides his/her feelings completely by saying things contrary to what they think or they feel The hearer can not realize their feelings) e.Silence f Others (please explain) 48 Situations In the office, you are trying to concentrate on some important work However, a few colleagues of opposite sex are laughing and horsing around You are annoyed Do you hide your feeling? If you do, what would you say? …………………………………………………………………………… You failed in your project At the monthly meeting of the company, many people criticize you Among those, a colleague of the same sex whose professional skill is not as good as yours criticize you most Do you hide your feeling? If you do, what would you say? ……………………………………………………………………………… A colleague younger than you often uses office phone for long distance calls Being a person with sense of responsibility, you feel unpleasant You think it is not good thing to Do you hide your feeling? If you do, what would you say? ………………………………………………………………………… You are a new comer in the office Other colleagues (older than you) cause you a lot of difficulties They often ask you to errands in the office such as making coffee, getting document…You are not comfortable Today when you have lots of things to do, they, as usual, ask you to such things Do you hide your feeling? If you do, what would you say? ……………………………………………………………………………………… An employee in your office has started coming to work late everyday and is extremely moody Today when your office is up to the ears in work, she comes late again You feel annoyed Do you hide your feeling? If you do, what would you say? …………………………………………………………………………………… In the office, your boss often goes to work showing a lot of cleavage (too short skirts, sensitive shirts) Today your company has an important meeting with partners she/he comes in as usual with sensitive clothes Do you hide your feeling? If you do, what would you say …………………………………………………………………… Thank you very much for your help! 49 Câu hỏi điều tra Chúng lập câu hỏi khảo sát nhằm phục vụ cho việc nghiên cứu đề tài ―Sự giao thoa văn hóa cách che dấu cảm xúc nơi công sở người Úc người Việt‖ Xin quí vị bớt chút thời gian trả lời giúp câu hỏi sau Xin tin không nêu danh quý vị trường hợp hình thức Xin chân thành cảm ơn quý vị Xin quý vị đánh dấu (√) vào ô phù hợp * Tuổi : * Quốc tịch: *Giới tính: * Học vấn: * Tình trạng nhân: * Nơi sống lâu nhất: * Ngoại ngữ: Quí vị thường cân nhắc yếu tố sau quí vị định che dấu cảm xúc với nơi công sở Hãy xếp theo thứ tự ưu tiên 01 quan trọng nhất.Nếu yếu tố không quan trọng xin quí vị đánh dấu(x) a Tuổi b Địa vị xã hội c Nghề nghiệp d Thời gian quý vị quen biết người đối thoại e Khung cảnh giao tiếp f Giới tính người đối thoại h Chủ đề giao tiếp g Các yếu tố khác (Xin giải thích) Theo quan sát quý vị, người Việt giấu cảm xúc nơi cơng sở với mức độ nào? a Luôn che giấu 50 b Thường xuyên che giấu c Thỉnh thoảng che giấu d Ít che giấu e Khơng che giấu Theo quý vị, người Việt thường nói để che giấu cảm xúc mình? a Nói giảm b Nói bóng gió nói tránh c Nói mập mờ d Nói dối e Im lặng f Những chiến lược khác (xin nói rõ) Xin trả lời tình sau: Quý vị cố gắng tập trung vào công việc quan trọng Nhưng số đồng nghiệp khác giới lại cười nói vơ tổ chức bên cạnh Q vị bực bội Quý vị có che giấu bực bội khơng (Nếu che giấu q vị nói gì) Quý vị vừa thất bại dự án Tại họp định kỳ công ty, nhiều người chích q vị Trong người chích q vị nhiều người có chun mơn nhiều so với quý vị.Quý vị thấy bị xúc phạm Q vị có dấu cảm xúc khơng người đồng nghiệp tuổi giới? Nếu có dấu quý vị nói nào? ……………………………………………………………… Một đồng nghiệp trẻ tuổi quý vị thường dùng điện thoại văn phịng để bn chuyện riêng Là người có trách nhiệm quý vị thấy khó chịu với việc Hơm q vị lại chứng kiến việc bn chuyện đường dài với qýi vị có giấu bực bội mình? Nếu giấu q vị nói nào? ………………………………………………………………… 51 Quý vị người đến công ty Những đồng nghiệp trước sai bạn làm việc vặt phòng pha cà phê, mua giấy, hay lấy tài liệu….quý vị cảm thấy không thoải mái với việc Hơm q vị có nhiều việc cần hoàn thành quý vị lại bị họ sai làm hết việc đến việc Quý vị có giấu cảm xúc khơng? Nếu có q vị nói gì? ………………………………………………………………… Một nhân viên cơng ty quý vị thường xuyên làm muộn trạng thái ủ rủ Hôm công ty ngập công việc cô ấy/anh lại đến muộn ủ rủ thường lệ Q vị nói gì? ………………………………………………………………… Xếp quý vị làm với trang phục khêu gợi Hôm nay, buổi gặp đối tác quan trọng công ty cô ấy/ ông ăn mặc Quý vị thấy khó chịu Quý vị có giấu khó chịu khơng Nếu có giấu q vị nói gì? ………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………… ... communication in an international working environment I The design of the study: The study is divided into three parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion The introduction provides... Factors governing the choice of hiding feelings strategies by Australian people The data presented in the table shows that in communication at the workplace, the Vietnamese and the Australian people... provides the information such as the rationale, the aims, the scope, the method and the significance of the study The development consists of three chapters Chapter one, Literature Review, presents the