A contrastive analysis of strategies in giving criticisms in english and vietnamese = (phân tích đối chiếu chiến lược đưa ra lời phê bình trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt)

vinh university foreign Languages department ===    === trần thị hoài A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF STRATEGIES IN GIVING CRITICISMS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐƯA RA LỜI PHÊ BÌNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT) GRADUATION THESIS Field: Linguistics Vinh - 2012 vinh university foreign Languages department ===    === A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF STRATEGIES IN GIVING CRITICISMS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐƯA RA LỜI PHÊ BÌNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT) GRADUATION THESIS Field: Linguistics Supervisor: Student: nguyễn thị kim anh,m.a trần thị hoài Class: 49A-Englớh VINH - 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For the completion of this work, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, M.A, Nguyen Thi Kim Anh for her absolutely indispensable assistance, excellent suggestions, expert advice and detailed critical comments, without which the study would not have been completed I am greatly indebted to all my lecturers at the Foreign Language Department of Vinh university for their endless enthusiasm and undeniably useful lectures Another thank, I would like to give to my classmetes for their help when I was doing the study In addition, my warmest thanks are due to my loving parents who supported me with love, time and encouragement Vinh, May 10, 2012 Tran Thi Hoai Thanh ABSTRACT The importance and significance of how to give criticisms in intercultural communication successfully has stimulated me in the study on the similarities and differences in giving criticism in English and Vietnamese cultures through verbal cues The study describes the relationship between language and culture, the definition of speech acts, as well as the aspects of C.A in culture first, and then the similarities and differences in the criticism strategies in English and Vietnamese The criticism strategies in the two languages are also dealt with The implications to the teaching of the criticism strategies in English to the Vietnamese learners of English from a socio-cultural perspective are also mentioned TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENT iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v ABBREVIATIONS vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Justification of the Study Aims of the Study Scope of the Study Methods of the Study Design of the Study PART B: DEVELOPEMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Contrastive Analysis 1.2 Language and Culture 1.2.1 Definition of language 1.2.2 Concept of culture 1.2.3 The relationship of language, culture and communication 1.2.4 Comparison of English and Vietnamese culture 1.3 Speech Acts 1.3.1 Definition of speech acts 1.3.2 Classification of speech acts 1.4.Criticism 10 1.4.1.Definition 10 1.4.2 Classification of criticism 12 1.4.3 The speech act of criticizing 13 CHAPTER 2: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE CRITICISM TRATEGIES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 15 2.1 Criticizing strategies in Vietnamese 15 2.1.1 Direct criticism 15 2.1.2 Indirect criticism 18 2.2 Criticizing strategies in English 21 2.2.1 Direct criticism 21 2.2.2 Indirect criticism 23 2.3 Compare and contrast the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese criticism strategies 26 2.3.1 The criticism strategies in English and Vietnamese 26 2.3.2 Influence of cultural features on differences and similarities of criticizing strategies in English and Vietnamese 33 CHAPTER 3: IMPLICATIONS TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN VIETNAM 34 3.1 Some suggested ways to give a good criticism 34 3.2 Implications in foreign language teaching and learning 34 PART C: CONCLUSIONS 37 Recapitulation 37 Suggestions for further study 38 REFERENCES LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Page Table 1: The strategies in English and Vietnamese criticisms 26 Table 2: Result of survey on direct and indirect strategies in English and Vietnamese 30 Table 3: Result of survey on direct strategies in English and Vietnamese 31 Table 4: Result of survey on indirect strategies in English and Vietnamese 32 Figure 1: Comparison of direct and indirect strategies in English and Vietnamese 30 ABBREVIATIONS C.A Contrastive Analysis L1 The First Language L2 The Second Language (the foreign language being learnt) S The Speaker H The Hearer FTA Face Threatening Act E.g Example Adj Adjective PART A INTRODUCTION Justification of the study Language is a means of communication, a kind of social tool which is essential for us to interact with the society Language helps us to understand the culture and life styles of the other societies It is due to language that we are able to communicate with the other societies and to mix up with them It allows us to convey and elaborate our perspective However, there are many forms and styles of language Different countries and religions have different ancestral languages and styles of speaking In fact, Vietnamese learners of English usually find themselves unable to communicate in a natural way or face up with communication breakdown in the target language, especially with native speakers of English The reason is that the teaching and learning of English in Vietnam mainly focused on the development of linguistic competence – lexis, grammatical rules, vocabulary, and pronunciation Whereas, little attention has been paid to oral skills and even less to cultural aspects In addition, Vietnamese learners of English also get culture shock in every aspect of cross-cultural communication because of the lack of the target language culture and cultural differences Therefore, learners must have mutual understandings and awareness of cultural differences to be successful cross-cultural communicators Criticism as an evaluative or corrective exercise can occur in any area of human life Criticism is a subtle one, a high face-threatening act in communication, especially in intercultural communication In addition, criticisms are socially complex even for native speakers Therefore, a study on the similarities and differences in giving criticizing strategies in English and Vietnamese cultures would bring great importance and significance The study can help teachers and learners of English, especially Vietnamese learners of English avoid cultural shock and trouble in communication Aims of the study This study aims to:  Describe and classify the strategies of criticism in English and Vietnamese  Compare and contrast strategies of giving criticism in English and Vietnamese  Analyse the influence of culture on English and Vietnamese in giving criticism Scope of the study The study focuses on contrastive analysis in giving criticism strategies in English and Vietnamese cultures The study can not deal with all fields related to aspects of communication, for the limited time and scope, the study is confined to the speech act of giving criticism Methods of the study The study is carried out using the quantitative method with collecting, analysing and clarifying the procedure of collecting data Qualitative method is used most of the time for a sufficient theoretical background The strategies of criticism will be identified, classified and analysed to find out the typical features of each sub-strategy Then they are compared and contrasted basing on the cultural features in two languages to point out the basic similarities and differences The examples will be collected from some selected English and Vietnamese short stories Design of the study There are three parts in this study Part A - Introduction - introduces the justification, aims, scope, methods and design of the study Part B - Development - consists of three chapters 2.3 Compare and contrast the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese criticism strategies 2.3.1 The criticism strategies in English and Vietnamese Table 1: The strategies in English and Vietnamese criticisms Language English Vietnamese Strategies Direct strategies Expression disagreement disapproval phản of No, and I don't đối/ khơng tán think thành/ khơng hài lịng/ It’s wrong to… không đồng ý/ không I don’t agree chấp nhận I can’t approve of…, không cho rằng/ không I (really) don’t approve nghĩ of…, không I'm (really) not pleased đồng quan điểm với about , I’m not (very) happy cho rằng/ nghĩ about…, không In my opinion…, phải xem lại I would like to say how Theo tôi/ tớ/ ( 1st much I disapprove of…., person), sai/ không (I must say) I find… đúng/ không chấp nhận unacceptable, , I don’t know (about)…, Thật tồi tệ/ sai lầm/ Actually/ In fact, I think đáng xấu hổ …, ( negative - evaluative I disagree…, adjectives) ! I can’t agree (with)…, (I’m afraid) 33 I can’t accept…,etc Negative evaluations adjectives with negative evaluation person criticized + (nonsense, negative evaluative adj unkind, stupid negative evaluative the positive evaluative adjectives + adjectives a trông mà + negative with negation "not" evaluative adj negative meaning phrase + + negative adj - Action criticized + mà + negative adj - Làm qi mà - Trơng/ nhìn đâu mà - Đã + negative adj + lại + negative adj - Tưởng + positive adj + ngờ + negative adj - Ai đời/ đời thuở nhà + lại - ( negative evaluative phrase)! Identification problem of There seems to be some Person criticized mistake negative adj It was wrong of …, Person criticized You’re mistaken + …, không đúng/ sai You’re wrong to …, etc Action criticized + negative adj 34 + + là/ Consequences e.g This is stupid We’re nên/ thảo nào/ hèn + going to be shattered on consequences that nine mile walk [2] thì/ + + consequences thể consequences Indirect criticism Advice an Imperative cần/ nên/ phải the performatives : đừng nhé/ nghe/ nha You should… , không nên You’d better…, Sao/ ? You ought to…, If I were you I would…,I advise you…, I should advice that…, My advice would be…, It might be an idea to …, etc Being ironic e.g Are you able to e.g Mày biết nghĩ cho gia manage the house? [7] đình mày q Mày có biết mà bố mẹ phải lo lắng không hả?[13] Demand You have to…, phải/ cần phải/ bắt buộc You must…, phải It is obligatory that…, You are required…, You need…, It’s necessary …, etc 35 Metaphor e.g She has an acid e.g Chị đừng vẽ rắn tongue She can raise thêm chân, bày đặt laughs at other people’s chuyện để vu cáo người expense [6] Request Imperatives khác.[12] with or Imperatives without subject Questions "please" đừng (có, có mà) the tags : won’t you, will (có, có mà) you, why don’t you Rhetorical question + không (được) e.g Why can’t you be e.g Tao muốn lương like other man? Why thiện Ai cho tao lương can’t you be like Folo thiện?[10] who has a steady job or something honest and honorable like that? [3] Suggestion How about…, Why don’t Tôi /( 1st person) đề you…, etc nghị I suggest that…, Gợi ý nên It is suggested that… Sẽ tốt May I suggest you…, What I’m going to suggest You can …, You could…, It would be better if , etc Supposition/ Wish Supposing (that) …, Giá mà/ On the condition that…, Phải chi không I wish…, etc 36 From the data of criticism strategies in English and Vietnamese collected, we can find that criticism strategies of both language include direct and indirect In the total number of criticisms counted, there are 34 direct criticisms and 16 indirect ones in 50 in total English criticisms; 31 direct and 19 indirect in total 50 Vietnamese criticisms Each strategy in two language accounts for the different percent, shown in the following table Table 2: Result of survey on direct and indirect strategies in English and Vietnamese Strategies Total number Direct Indirect English 34 (68%) 16 (32%) 50 (100%) Vietnamese 31 (62%) 19 (38%) 50 (100%) of criticisms counted Language Figure 1: Comparison direct and indirect strategies in English and Vietnamese Indirect Indirect 38% 32% Direct 62% Direct 68% In English In Vietnamese According to the figures, in general, both languages choose more direct criticisms than indirect ones The English use more direct criticism but less indirect ones than the Vietnamese In particular, the English delievered 68% for 37 direct criticism, compared to 62% for the Vietnamese and 32% for indirect criticism, compared to 38% for the Vietnamese To direct strategies, English and Vietnamese both consist four substrategies: "negative evaluation", "expression of disagreement and disapproval", "identification of problem", "consequences" Table 3: Result of survey on direct strategies in English and Vietnamese English Vietnamese and 12% 14% Negative evaluation 16% 20% Identification of problem 22% 12% Consequences 18% 16% Total direct criticisms 68% 62% Total number of criticisms counted 50 (100%) 50 (100%) Expression of disagreement disapproval There is a clear disparity between English and Vietnamese in using negative evaluation and identification of problem The Vietnamese produced a considerably smaller number of “identifications of problem” than the English, 12% for the Vietnamese compared to 22% for the English, whereas the Vietnamese made use of a great number of “negative evaluation” (20%) There is no considerable difference between the two languages found for the expression of disagreement and disapproval ,and consequences 12% in English and 14% in Vietnamese for expression of disagreement and disapproval; 18% in English and 16% in Vietnamese for consequences Apart from the direct ways, there are indirect strategies of criticizing in both English and Vietnamese In both languages, we can criticize indirectly via "advice", "being ironic", "demand", "metaphor", "request", "rhetorical question", "suggestion", or "supposition/wish" 38 Table 4: Result of survey on indirect strategies in English and Vietnamese English Vietnamese Advice 4% 8% Being ironic 2% 2% Demand 4% 10% Metaphor 2% 2% Request 6% 6% Rhetorical question 2% 4% Suggestion 10% 4% Suppostion/ Wish 2% 2% Total of indirect criticisms 32% 38% Total 50 50 Table illustrates the distribution of indirect criticisms by the both languages As can be seen, the collected data shows a significant difference between the English and the Vietnamese in the use of "advice", "demand" and "suggestion" While the English preferred "suggestion", the Vietnamese tended to use more "advice" and "demand" Indeed, "suggestion" constitutes the largest percentage of the English criticisms (10%), but contributes only 4% to the Vietnamese’s total use of criticism By contrast, "advice" is used 8% and "demand" is used 10% by the Vietnamese, but are used only the same of 4% for both by the English Other indirect strategies, "being ironic", "metaphor", "request", "rhetorical question", and "supposition/wish", are distributed with approximate percentage between the English and Vietnamese 39 2.3.2 Influence of cultural features on differences and similarities of criticizing strategies in English and Vietnamese The differences between cultures lead to the differnces between systems of beliefs, values, and assumptions of English and Vietnamese, and also the ways to give criticisms - a high face-threatening act in communication From the data analysed, the Vietnamese produced fewer direct criticisms but more indirect ones than the English Because the Vietnamese appreciate harmony and they tend to be more indirect in expressing their point of view, especially in delivering criticisms While, the English tend to be more rational and therefore more direct in speech acts of criticizing The English not want to give their opinions or show their feelings in public and often cause confusion by not saying what they mean Whereas, in Vietnamese culture, the sincerity and straightforwardness are highly appreciated That is why the Vietnamese used more "negative evaluation" than the English did The sense of community makes the Vietnamese feel responsible for helping the people who have done something wrong to correct themselves Therefore, the Vietnamese had a rather higher percentage of frequency in "advice" and "demand" than the English did In producing the "request", the English tended to make use of the questions beginning with " can"/ "could" to express their request politely Whereas, the Vietnamese combined the use of words " nhé/ nghe/ đi/ nha/ " at the end of the request to show their closeness, one value of Vietnamese culture There is a complex hierarchy of relationships in Vietnam, so in the field of addressing term, the Vietnamese system of addressing is rather complicated: tôi/ tao/ anh/ mày/ chú/ While, the English addressing system is in interpersonal contact by using I - You system for every case However, in both English and Vietnamese culture, people respect the politeness, they try to keep and save face and avoid FTA when they give criticisms In conclusion, the knowledge of cultural differences and similarities between the English and the Vietnamese help us to be successful in giving criticisms and avoid communication breakdown 40 CHAPTER IMPLICATIONS TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN VIETNAM 3.1 Some suggested ways to give a good criticism People can sometimes be afraid to express a criticism, or afraid to be criticized The threat of criticism can be sufficient to silence people, or cause them to stay away So self-confidence can play a big role in criticism - the confidence to criticize, and the confidence to face criticism If people's emotions are not properly considered, criticism can fail to succeed, even although it is well-intentioned, or perfectly sensible Hence criticism is often considered an "art", because it involves human insight into "what one can say and cannot say" in the given situation Criticism can cause harm as well as good things Criticism can hurt or offend people For these reasons, people often try to keep the flow of criticism under control with rules Such rules often state:  Who has the right to criticize, and who is not allowed to criticize  Who or what can be criticized, and who or what cannot be criticized  What sorts of criticism are acceptable  When and how the criticism may be made (the appropriate situations and formats for criticism)  What counts as an appropriate motivation for criticism 3.2 Implications in foreign language teaching and learning Vietnamese learners of English usually find themselves unable to communicate in a natural way or face up with communication breakdown in the target language, especially with native speakers of English The reason is that the teaching and learning of English in Vietnam mainly focused on the development of linguistic competence – lexis, grammatical rules, vocabulary, and pronunciation Whereas, little attention has been paid to oral skills and even 41 less to cultural aspects In addition, Vietnamese learners of English also get culture shock in every aspect of cross-cultural communication because of the lack of the target language culture and cultural differences Therefore, in learning criticizing strategies, , the Vietnamese learners may: stick to a limited number of ways of giving criticisms in English; impose the conventional ways of giving criticisms in Vietnamese when speaking English; be unaware of the ways to soften the potential of threatening fact elements when delivering criticisms in English; give criticisms in English by translating the Vietnamese criticism strategies That's why the awareness of cultural differences and similarities between languages is very important and significant in cross-cultural communication, especially in giving criticisms The ability to criticize is something which rarely occurs naturally, it has to be learnt To learn to criticize, requires several kinds of qualities:  Insight: people have to understand the meaning of criticism (it is not simply about "being negative"), and they have to know clearly why they are criticizing  Attitude: people have to feel emotionally confident and morally comfortable, both about making a criticism, and about dealing with the response to criticism  Inquiry: people have to be able to question authority, query popular opinions, and interrogate things taken for granted  Knowledge: learners need to prepare the knowledge of speech acts, cross- culture and criticizing strategies  Skills: people have to be able to choose and apply the correct kind of criticism to an issue, so that the criticism will be balanced, completed and persuasive Above all, these are reasoning skills, fact-finding skills and communication skills 42  Integrity: people have to stay consistent in making a criticism, and follow it up, rather than be arbitrary; they have to know what they can and cannot say in their situation Usually, these qualities are learnt most easily through practical experience with try-outs, where people have a dialogue of some kinds, and give each other feedback on how they are doing Often, teachers can design assignments specifically to stimulate students to acquire these qualities But the facility for critical thought usually requires some personal initiative, the willingness "to what it takes" Also, the introduction of English and Vietnamese cultures to the translation teaching of criticism is believed to be of great importance in foreign language teaching 43 PART C CONCLUSIONS Recapitulation The English criticisms are quite different from the Vietnamese criticisms for under the influence of the differences in culture values The Vietnamese who appreciate harmony tend to be more indirect in expressing their point of view, especially in delivering criticisms than the English who tend to be more rational and therefore more direct in speech acts The Vietnamese employed more “negative evaluation” than the English did because of differences in the culture values of sincerity and straightfordwardness “Advice” and “demand” in Vietnamese are regarded as demonstrating case, sincerity and friendliness, while they are considered as interfering or facethreatening in the English culture; therefore, the Vietnamese had a rather higher percentage of frequency in “advice” and “demand” than the English The influence of the culture values that the Vietnamese prefer closeness, sincerity and friendliness, “requests for change” in form of questions are limited in use in Vietnamese whereas they are highly appreciated in English The English tend to be more informal than the Vietnamese in the forms of addressing, which are governed by the complicated hierarchical system of addressing On the basis of the results of the study, this contrastive study has presented some cultural differences and similarities in English and Vietnamese, and its influences on the criticizing strategies People can face up with the problems in cross-cultural communication, especially in giving criticism which is considered a high face threatening act in communication Therefore, some implications in these areas will be introduced in hope of helping the Vietnamese learners of English 44 Suggestions for further study For better understanding of speech acts in giving criticism, it is suggested that more studies on the field be carried out:  The study on politeness strategies in complaining in English and Vietnamese cultures  The cross cultural study on advising in English and Vietnamese For the whole thesis, shortcomings and inediquacies are unavoidable Therefore, we would be grateful for comments and criticisms so that we could improve it 45 REFERENCES Austin, J L (1962) How to Do Things with Words Oxford: OUP Brown & Yule (1983) Discourse Analysis CU Press Fisiak, J et al 1984 Contrastive Linguistics and The Language Teachers Pergamon Press Oxford House, J., & Kasper, G (1981) Politeness markers in English and German In F Coulmas (Ed.), Conversational Routine 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văn hóa Việt Nam Hà Nội: NXB Giáo Dục 16 Van, Doan Tran Thuy (2007) Study on criticism in English and Vietnamese, M.A Thesis VNU-CFL 46 47 ...vinh university foreign Languages department == =    == = A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF STRATEGIES IN GIVING CRITICISMS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CHIẾN LƯỢC Đ? ?A RA LỜI PHÊ BÌNH... in communication Aims of the study This study aims to:  Describe and classify the strategies of criticism in English and Vietnamese  Compare and contrast strategies of giving criticism in English. .. That may not have been the intention, but it can be interpreted that way 21 CHAPTER A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE CRITICISM STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE Basing on the direct and indirect