Nghiên cứu liên văn hóa việt úc về các hành vi động chạm trong giao tiếp

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THANH HUỆ A VIETNAMESE- AUSTRALIAN INTERCULTURAL STUDY ON HAPTICS IN COMMUNICATION NGHIÊN CỨU LIÊN VĂN HÓA VIỆT-ÚC VỀ CÁC HÀNH VI ĐỘNG CHẠM TRONG GIAO TIẾP M.A MINOR THESIS Field: Code: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 60.22.02.01 Hanoi-2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THANH HUỆ A VIETNAMESE- AUSTRALIAN INTERCULTURAL STUDY ON HAPTICS IN COMMUNICATION NGHIÊN CỨU LIÊN VĂN HÓA VIỆT-ÚC VỀ CÁC HÀNH VI ĐỘNG CHẠM TRONG GIAO TIẾP M.A MINOR THESIS Field: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 60.22.02.01 Supervisor: Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn Hanoi-2013 DECLARATION This thesis is a presentation of my original research work Wherever contributions of others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussions The work was done under the guidance of Dr Huynh Anh Tuan The research was approved by the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Hanoi, October 18th, 2013 Bui Thanh Hue i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to make my thesis reach an end I would like to express my faithful gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Huynh Anh Tuan for his patient guidance, stimulating suggestions and encouragement throughout my research I wish to thank all the staff members of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, VNU for providing me the best environment to fulfill my thesis Especially, my sincere thanks send to my friend Vu Thi Kim Huong, Vice Director of Atlantic Company and Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, an oversea student in Australia for their helping me to contact Australian informants I am greatly indebted to my friends for their assistance of collecting data and conducting interview without which this study could not have been successful Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks to my family who offered me their love, care, support and encouragement so that I could accomplish my study Hanoi, October 2013 ii ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate haptics in communication of Vietnamese and Australian people, examine the cultural values of the Vietnamese and the Australian that influence norms of haptics in communication, and make comparison and contrast of touching behavior between the two cultures It also raises an awareness of cultural differences in intercultural communication and gives some suggestions to lessen the possibility of haptics miscommunication The data collection tools used in this study included observations and interviews Then contrastive analysis was carried out to clarify both similarities and differences in haptics between the two cultures: Vietnamese and Australian The major findings of the study showed that both Vietnamese and Australian people share some similar perceptions of haptics in communication For example, they feel quite free to practice some touching behavior with their relatives and close friends like holding hands, linking/locking arms, hugging shoulder, hugging waist, etc., or only hand-shaking with someone they not know much of or meet at the first time; and they feel more pleasant to touch or get touched by others of the same sex more than those of the opposite sex Besides, the study also denoted some differences in touching norms between the Vietnamese and the Australian cultures Australian people seem to be more comfortable to touch each other in communication, and not to pay much attention to sex distinction when touching their relatives or close friends On the other hand, Vietnamese people‟s touching behavior tends to be influenced by sex distinction They touch their relatives or friends of the same sex more freely than they touch those of the opposite sex Based on the findings of the study, some discussions and implications were made along with recommended suggestions for further research iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii PART A INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale…… Aim and objectives of the study Scope of the study Research questions Methods of the study Structure of the study PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1.1 Cross-cultural Communication vs Intercultural Communication………5 1.1.1.1 Definitions of communication 1.1.1.2 Cross-cultural Communication vs Intercultural Communication 1.1.2.Nonverbal communication 1.1.2.1.Definitions of nonverbal communication 1.1.2.2.Classification of nonverbal behavior 1.1.2.3.Functions of nonverbal behavior 1.1.2.4.The importance of nonverbal behavior 10 1.1.3.Haptics in communication 11 1.1.3.1.Definitions of Haptics 12 1.1.3.2.Classification of Haptics 12 1.1.3.3.The role of Haptics in communication 14 iv 1.1.3.4.Haptics culture: high-contact, low-contact, and medium-contactb cultures 17 1.2 PREVIOUS STUDIES 19 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 21 2.1 An overview of survey approach 21 2.2 Research method 21 2.3 Data collection method 22 2.4 Data analysis method 23 CHAPTER RESULT AND DISCUSSION 24 3.1.he findings from observation 24 3.1.1 Touching behavior of the Vietnamese and the Australian 24 3.1.2 Touching behavior in communication between the Vietnamese and the Australian 29 3.1.3 Major similarities and differences in haptics between the Vietnamese and the Australian 31 3.2.The findings from interview 32 3.2.1 The findings from interviews with the Vietnamese 33 3.2.2 The findings from interviews with the Australian 34 3.2.3 Major similarities and differences in the Vietnamese and the Australian’s perception of haptics in communication 36 3.3.Discussion on the findings 37 3.3.1 Cultural values of the Vietnamese influence their norms of haptics in communication 37 3.3.2 Cultural values of the Australian influence their norms of haptics in communication 38 PART C CONCLUSION 41 v 1.Summary 41 2.Suggestions for more effective intercultural communication 42 3.Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 43 REFERENCES 44 APPENDIX I vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale “We should never denigrate any other culture but rather help people to understand the relationship between their own culture and the dominant culture When you understand another culture or language, it does not mean that you have to lose your own culture ” Edward T Hall In the wake of globalization, people of different nations nowadays become closer and closer The academic study of intercultural communication focuses on the interactions between people from different cultures Misunderstandings and conflicts happen in various aspects of intercultural communication such as linguistic differences, diverging stereotypes, social roles and belief systems The intercultural studies assume the responsibility of facilitating resolution to intercultural communication problems In fact, people often not only interact with each other by words but also a range of touching behavior to express their intents The combination of verbal and nonverbal language in communication sometimes creates culture shock and communication breakdown because every culture has its own norms and customs and has a different way of communicating with its members Haptics-touching behavior is considered to play an important role in communication because it can replace words to express speakers‟ feelings, greetings and opinions and reduce cognitive burden for speakers Moreover, haptics can help listeners facilitate comprehension of a spoken message as well as convey thoughts not presented in speech However, Toomey (1998) emphasized that different cultures have different expectations as to who should touch whom in different interaction scenes It is due that touching behavior is habitual and routine, thus people tend to use it unconsciously and spontaneously The meaning of each touch depends upon the individuals involved, the context in which the act is performed, and the cultural backgrounds of the interacting people Understanding your own culture as well as the others‟ is very important for everybody to find it easier to communicate effectively and know the reason why people act in the different ways and avoid unnecessary miscommunication According to Toomey (1998), the Vietnamese is a member of low-contact cultures and the Australian is a member of moderate-contact cultures, so when people from these two cultures interact with each other, miscommunication always runs the risk of breaking out In this study, the touching behavior of the Vietnamese and the Australian will be observed to explore the comparison and contrast in norms of haptics influenced by different cultural values between the Vietnamese and the Australian cultures It is expected to raise an awareness of cultural differences when interacting across cultures, and then give some suggestions to lessen the possibility of haptics miscommunication Aim and objectives of the study This study is carried out with the aim of making comparison and contrast between the Vietnamese and the Australian cultures of haptics, so it is expected to fulfill the following specific objectives:  Investigating the similarities and differences of haptics in communication between Vietnamese and Australian people  Raising an awareness of cultural differences when interacting across cultures  Making contribution to avoiding intercultural problems of haptics in communication by giving some suggestions Scope of the study This study discusses the topic of nonverbal communication Extralinguistically, the study especially emphasizes on haptics communication in the two cultures: Vietnamese and Australian From the findings of study, we can see that the Australian tend to use touching behavior in communication more comfortable than the Vietnamese does Within families and close circles of friends, women will often greet other members with a kiss on the cheek and men will often greet each other by shaking hands Australian men generally not openly display strong affection for male friends It is not common to see Australian men showing affection towards each other in public even if they are very close friends The exception to this might be while playing sport, and at family gatherings, or between homosexual men Signs of affection between males and females are more common and it is quite normal to see couples holding hands, and sometimes same-sex couples, holding hands, walking arm-in-arm or kissing in public Their concerns about physical contact depend on a great extent on the gender and sexual orientation of the parties involved Australian people seem not care much about their touching behavior if both are of the same gender, but something is different with two of opposite-sex If the recipient is male, and the female is making the contact, he normally does not complain of feeling violated or otherwise attacked when receiving a hug from a female counselor or doctor Of course, that does not mean that it will never happen Nevertheless, some examples of tactile communication strongly appreciate Handshaking, for example, is widely practiced in Australia It is common when meeting or greeting in a wide variety of situations The duration of a handshake could influence its acceptability However, Australian people not usually touch each other than to shake hands at the first meeting Out of the handshake, hugging is a common way to greet good friends in Australia Kissing for greeting between two female is more popular than that between two male or a male and a female The younger not bother to see two men or two friends of different sexes kiss each other in public, whereas the older consider it socially unacceptable The following is a list of touching behavior and its communicating purpose in Australia: 39 Touching behavior Shaking hands Meaning in the Australian culture To greet someone at the first meeting and for friendly greeting between two males Kissing on cheeks Usual greeting between two females Holding hands, hugging shoulder, To express friendship and intimacy linking/locking arms of a person of the same sex Holding hands, hugging shoulder, To show love of a couple linking/locking arms of a person of the same sex Patting a person's back Disrespect Kissing a person of the same sex An expression of affection between two females, but homosexuality between two males To sum up, the thesis concluded that the Vietnamese belongs to the lowcontact culture and the Australian belongs to the moderate-contact cultures This conclusion is in consistence with the report of Grundwald (2008) that Vietnam is one of the least haptically active regions on earth and touching degree is moderate in Australia 40 Part C: CONCLUSION Summary There are always internal cultural differences in interpretation of messages via touches in communication The frequency of touch and for what purposes touching behavior are used varies significantly between different cultures due to their own perceptions and cultural values Overall, this research paper performs as a fairly comprehension study on haptics communication between the Vietnamese and the Australian Some similarities and differences between the Vietnamese and the Australian cultures of touching revealed through analyzing collected data Both Vietnamese and Australian people share some similar perceptions of haptics in communication For example, they often touch each other freely with their relatives and close friends and they express their intimacy in these relationships via various touches such as holding hands, linking/locking arms, hugging shoulder, hugging waist, etc.; with someone they not know much of or meet at the first time, only hand- shaking is acceptable In addition, Vietnamese as well as Australian people feel more pleasant to touch or get touched by others of the same sex more than those of the different sex Besides, the study also denotes some differences in touching norms of the Vietnamese and the Australian Australian people seem to be more comfortable to touch each other in communication They not pay much attention to sex difference in touching with their relatives or close friends, which is contrary to Vietnamese people whose touching behavior, even with their relatives or closed friends, tends to be influenced by sex distinction They normally touch their relatives or closed friends of the same sex more freely than those of the opposite sex 41 Suggestions for more effective intercultural communication How much touching goes on during conversation is often a cultural trait People from a high-contact culture tend to be comfortable with hugs and kisses on the cheek when greeting and departing During conversations touching on the arm, shoulders, hands, elbows, leg, etc is very common In contrast, people from a “keep your hands to yourself”, I mean the low-contact culture, are comfortable with little or no touching when greeting and departing During their conversations, they tend to try to control and limit their touch at least as they could The importance and complexity of haptics communication in a variety of interpersonal contexts is underscored in the nonverbal communication literature However, whether touch produces positive or negative effects on interpersonal relationships may depend upon the perceptions or norms of haptics in each culture Andersen and Leibowitz (1978) found that communication apprehension was positively correlated to touch avoidance The degree of touch avoidance people may sense varies by culture (Hall, 1966; Remland & Jones, 1988) Hall (1966) designated societies based on how much they avoid touching At least in terms of public touch, Hall designated both the Vietnamese and the Australian as being touch-avoidant cultures Raising an awareness of touch taboos of each culture help us avoid misunderstandings when interacting across cultures Misunderstandings occur in all communication of both verbal and nonverbal languages, even between people from the same cultural and linguistic background We cannot expect to get everything right all of the time when interacting with people from different cultures Raising an awareness of cultural difference is the key solution and learning how to respond when a misunderstanding occurs and learning from our mistakes It is important to be aware that our own nonverbal behavior might be insulting to others The first step in developing skills to communicate with people from other cultures is to develop an appreciation of the rules of communication in our own culture Similarly, an awareness of the most 42 common barriers to effective intercultural communication is the next step to overcome them It also means that we will not be less likely to judge a person from another culture by our own cultural values When we are learning a new language, we need to learn the language as well as have an awareness of the culture It is important of will have to learn new meanings and new ways of behaving We sometimes communicate via a great deal of touching behavior unintentionally, so it is necessary to be careful when using them with a person you meet at the first time We need try to learn various messages from various touching behavior across cultures in the world Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study It is important to maintain that “…not all people in a particular culture engage in the same nonverbal actions, so interpretations of nonverbal communication must be carefully evaluated before generalizations can be made ” (Samovar et al., 2008: 200) What I have presented in this minor thesis so far is really far short of an adequate understanding of the Vietnamese and the Australian cultures of haptics communication due to the limited time, the small scope of the study, and the limited knowledge of the researcher Moreover, culture is dynamic and multidimensional so one person‟s observation will never be enough to cover the whole possible variation within one culture Hence, this study should be considered as the point to start the journey on intercultural study Further studies need carrying out to study on intercultural differences not only between the Vietnamese and an English speaking culture but also other non- English speaking cultures as Larry (1987) indicated that we are now using English in intercultural context, but there is little attention given to intercultural communication between non-native English cultures 43 REFERENCES Cruz, W (2001) Differences in Nonverbal in Communication Styles between Cultures: The Latino-Anglo perspective Leadership and Management in Engineering, October 2001, vol.1 (4) Camps, J (2010) The Final Touch: How Touch Affecting People’s Helping Behavior Katholieke Universiteit Leuven De Vito., J A (2002) Human Communication (9rd Ed.), Unit 8: Nonverbal Messages, pp 134-157 Desccombe, M (2007) The Good Research Guide for a Small-scale Social Research Projetcs (3rd Ed.) Open University Express Fisiak, J (ed.) (1981) Contrastive Analysis and the Language Teacher Oxford: The Pergamon Institue of English Freitang, R A & Stokes, Q A (2009) Global public relations: spanning borders, spanning cultures New York: Routledge Fujishin, R (2000) Creating Communication: Exploring and Expanding Your Fundamental Communications Skills UK: Acada Books Griffin, E (2009) A first look at communication theory New York: McGraw-Hill Grundwald, M (2008) Human Haptic Perception: Basics and Applications Switzeland: Birkhauser Verlag Gudykunst B.W (2003) Cross-cultural and Intercultural Communication USA: Sage Publications Hall, E T (1959, 1981) The Silent Language New York: Doubleday 44 Hartmann, R.R.K & Stork, F.C (1972) Dictionary of Language and Linguitics London: Applied Science Publishers Khanh, Ha Can (2007) MA thesis: The Anglicist-Vietnamese Differences in Touching to Show Intimacy Vietnam National University, Hanoi Knapp, M L (1978) Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction New York: Holt, Rinechart and Winston Knapp, M & Hall, J (2010, 2007, 7th ed.) Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction Wadsworth: Cengage Learning Martin, T N & Nakayama, T K (2004) Intercultural Communication in Contexts (3rd Ed.) New York: Mc Graw Hill Mast, M S & Hall, J A (2004) Who is the boss and who is not? Accuracy of judging status Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, vol 28 (3), pp 145-165 Mokoginta, K (2009) MA thesis: The Intercultural Analysis of Indonesian and Australian Students’ Nonverbal Behavior: an Afford to Develop Intercultural English Learning Material” Australia: The University of Adelaide Nanda, S & Warms, L R (2007, 20122) Cultural Anthropology Wardworth: Cengage Learning Quang, Nguyen (2008) Giao tiếp phi ngơn từ qua văn hóa NXB Đại học Quốc gia Hà nội Samovar et al (2007) Communication between Cultures USA: Thomson Wadsworth Scollon, R & Scollon, W.S (2nd ed, 2001) Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach UK: Blackwell Publishers 45 Scollon, R., Scollon, W.S & Jones, H.R (3rd ed 2012) Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach UK: Blackwell Publishers Te, Dinh Huynh (2007) Nonverbal Communication, retrieved from the web: http://www.vietspring.org/values/nonverbal.html Toomey, T S (1999) Communicating Across Cultures, The Guilford Press Trang, Thi Thu Dao (2006) MA thesis: A Vietnamese-American Cross-cultural Studies on Touching Behavior Vietnam National University, Hanoi Online source: Scheuren, F (2004) What is a survey Retrieved from the link: http://www.amstat.org/sections/srms/pamphlet.pdf http://www.youtube.com/ 46 APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR AUSTRALIANS Interviewer: I am from Faculty of Postgraduate Studies of ULIS I am conducting a research with title: “A Vietnamese- Australian study on Haptics in Communication” I would like to understand more about the Australian culture of haptic communication Could you please help me by answering some questions about your touching behavior in communication? Interviewee information: Name: Age: Occupation: Have you ever interacted with Vietnamese people? How you feel about Vietnamese people? Are you a person who naturally touches others to communicate? What you often do? According to your culture, what parts of body can be freely touched to express something you want to say? Why? Is there any difference in your touching behavior with a male and with a female? Why? According to your opinion, what regions of body are considered to be rude to touch and get touched? Why? If you meet someone at the first time, what touching behavior could you practice? Why? How would you feel if someone you don‟t know hug/slap your shoulder, touch your hands/arms or thighs while communicating? Why? I What you think if you see women, men or a man and a woman kiss each other on lips/cheeks in public? Why? Do you have any experience with accidental touches in bus, elevators or in crowd? If yes, what was your reaction? Thank you so much for your help! II APPENDIX CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN NGƯỜI VIỆT Chào anh(chị), Học viên cao học ngành Tiếng Anh trường ĐHNN-ĐHQGHN Chúng tiến hành nghiên cứu liên văn hóa Việt-Úc hành vi động chạm giao tiếp Tôi tiến hành nghiên cứu với mục đích tìm hểu so sánh hai văn hóa Việt-Úc hành vi động chạm giao tiếp nhằm tránh hiểu làm không đáng có giao tiếp liên văn hóa Tơi mong anh (chị) giúp đỡ trả lời giúp số câu hỏi quan niệm văn hóa người Việt hành vi động chạm giao tiếp Tơi phải ghi âm lại nói chuyện để làm tư liệu phân tích cho nghiên cứu Tôi mong anh (chị) giúp đỡ Thông tin người vấn: Tên:……………………………………………………… Tuổi:……………………………………………………… Nghề nghiệp:…………………………………………… Anh (chị) giao tiếp với người Úc chưa? Nếu có, cảm nhận anh (chị) người Úc nào? Anh (chị) có thường có thường xuyên có hành vi động chạm giao tiếp không? Những hành vi gì? Theo quan niệm anh (chị), phận thể tự động chạm thay cho điều anh (chị) muốn nói giao tiếp? Anh (chị) giải thích lí anh chị lại quan niệm Quan niệm phân biệt giới tính nam-nữ người Việt nam có ảnh hưởng đến quan niệm anh (chị) chuẩn mực hành vi động chạm giao tiếp khơng? Anh (chị) giải thích lí anh chị lại quan niệm III Theo quan niệm anh (chị), phần thể có hành vi độnh chạm bị coi thơ thiển/mất lịch sự? Anh (chị) giải thích lí do? Với người anh (chị) gặp lần đầu tiên, anh (chị) có hành vi hành vi động chạm nào? Anh (chị) giải thích lí anh chị lại quan niệm Anh (chị) cảm thấy người anh (chị) không quen biết có hành vi như: khốc vai, vỗ vai, chạm vào tay, chạm vào đùi anh (chị) giao tiếp? Anh (chị) giải thích lí anh chị lại quan niệm Anh (chị) nghĩ nhìn thấy người phụ nữ, người đần ông, người đàn ông người phụ nữ (không yêu nhau) hôn vào môi vào má nơi công cộng? Anh (chị) giải thích lí anh chị lại quan niệm Anh (chị) vơ tình bị động chạm xe bt, thang máy hay đám đông chưa? Anh (chị) thường phản ứng tình đó? Cảm ơn nhiều giúp đỡ anh (chị)! IV APPENDIX SAMPLE INTERVIEW NOTE-TAKING Interviewer: We are conducting a research with title: “A Vietnamese- Australian study on Haptics in Communication” We would like to understand more about Australian culture of haptic communication Could you please help us by answering some questions about your touching behavior in communication? Interviewee: Yes, I‟m happy to take part in your interview Interviewer: Could you please introduce some information about yourself? Interviewee: Mr R Ebrahim 46 year old Australian citizen times visitor to VN Residing & teaching ESL in HN for the past years Interviewer: Have you ever interacted with Vietnamese people? Interviewee: yes Interviewer: How you feel about Vietnamese people? Interviewee: friendly and kind Interviewer: yes, now come to our questions Are you a person who naturally touches others to communicate? Interviewee: - conscious about who I touch and where I touch them - careful to consider this person‟s culture, age and sex Interviewer: According to your culture, what parts of body can be freely touched to express something you want to say? Interviewee: - above the wrists V - the back of the forearms - a tap on the shoulder to get someone‟s attention  your relationship with the person you touch decides whether it‟s okay to touch them or not Interviewer: Is there any difference in your touching behavior with a male and with a female? Interviewee: - no difference with closed friends and relatives - more relaxed with fellow male Interviewer: What regions of body are considered to be rude to touch and get touched? Why? Interviewee: the same as in VN, it‟s the private parts of body such as face, chest, waist, bottoms, thighs Interviewer: If you meet someone at the first time, what touching behavior can you practice? Interviewee: only hand-shaking Interviewer: How would you feel if someone you don‟t know very much touches untouchable parts of your body? Interviewee: - In general no problems and depending on the circumstances - touching of the thigh is inappropriate Interviewer: Is it generally socially acceptable in your country for women or men, or a man and a woman (not in love) to kiss on lips/cheeks in public? Interviewee: - Absolutely nothing! - Australia is a wonderfully tolerant, liberal, progressive, open and inclusive country and society -> openly express who you are and your affections in public without fear or shame VI Interviewer: Do you have any experience with accidental touches in bus, elevators or in crowd? Interviewee: yes Interviewer: What would you react in those situations? Interviewee: - not bother me at all because they are accidental touches - inappropriate touching is a punishable crime in Australia: „sexual assault‟ Anyone get touched inappropriately can inform the police - I don‟t think the Vietnamese have same protection for victims VII ... HAPTICS IN COMMUNICATION NGHIÊN CỨU LIÊN VĂN HÓA VI? ??T -ÚC VỀ CÁC HÀNH VI ĐỘNG CHẠM TRONG GIAO TIẾP M.A MINOR THESIS Field: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 60.22.02.01 Supervisor: Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn Hanoi-2013... behavior between Vietnamese and other cultures In a review of studies on touching behavior in Vietnam, Dao Thi Thu Trang (2006) carried out a cross-cultural study on touching behavior between Vietnamese... Quang (2008) Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang Australian Defense Minister visits visits Korea Korea 25 Vietnamese Vice President Nguyen Thi Governor General Quentin Bryce of Doan visits Thailand