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In these days society, the prevalence of technology and internet has pushed people from different continent close together. The need of intercultural interaction has increased among those who learn foreign language as a second one. Expressing emotions and feelings such as sadness, happiness or worry is the basic demands of people. However, the way people from different countries express these emotions is different from separated cultures. Originating from that fact, this study is conducted to make the comparison between American and Vietnamese in the way they show their worry. Furthermore, recently, there has appeared a new kind of entertainment, reality show, which reflects exactly what people think and behave in their daily life. Coming up with this phenomenon, the researcher makes up her mind to carry out the study basing on the way contestants in two versions of The Voice in the US and in Vietnam express their worry and nerve before each battle. The paper will convey the preference in expressing a worry of both American and Vietnamese contestants and then make the comparison between two cultures. In the last part of the research, some implications for language teaching and learning, as well as translating activities will be suggested.
ABSTRACT In these days society, the prevalence of technology and internet has pushed people from different continent close together. The need of intercultural interaction has increased among those who learn foreign language as a second one. Expressing emotions and feelings such as sadness, happiness or worry is the basic demands of people. However, the way people from different countries express these emotions is different from separated cultures. Originating from that fact, this study is conducted to make the comparison between American and Vietnamese in the way they show their worry. Furthermore, recently, there has appeared a new kind of entertainment, reality show, which reflects exactly what people think and behave in their daily life. Coming up with this phenomenon, the researcher makes up her mind to carry out the study basing on the way contestants in two versions of The Voice in the US and in Vietnam express their worry and nerve before each battle. The paper will convey the preference in expressing a worry of both American and Vietnamese contestants and then make the comparison between two cultures. In the last part of the research, some implications for language teaching and learning, as well as translating activities will be suggested. TABLE OF CONTENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Statement of acceptance ii Acknowledgement iii Abstract iv List of tables, figures viii PART A- INTRODUCTION I. Rationale for the study ……………………………… 2 II. Scope of the study 4 III. Objectives of the study 4 IV. Significance of the study 5 V. Research methodology 6 VI. Organization of the study 7 PART B- DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES I. Overview of previous studies 8 II. Theoretical preliminaries 10 1.Speech acts 10 1.1 Definition 10 1.2 Classification 11 1.3 Expressing a worry as a speech act 13 2. Politeness and politeness principles in communication 14 2.1 Definition of politeness 14 iii 2.2 Positive and negative politeness 14 2.3 Politeness principles 14 3. Directness and indirectness in communication 15 3.1 Directness and indirectness 15 3.2 Some socio-cultural factors affecting the choice of directness and indirectness in communication 16 4. Politeness and directness/indirectness in expressing a worry in American English and Vietnamese 17 III. The context of what is in relation to the study 18 1. Reality show 18 2.The Voice- a successful reality show 19 2.1 Overview 19 2.2 Format description 20 2.3 Judging panel 21 CHAPTER II: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION I. Findings 23 II. Discussion 30 III. Concluding remarks about major cross-cultural similarities and differences 38 PART C- CONCLUSION I. Summary of findings 41 II. Implications 42 iv 1. Implication for teaching and learning a foreign language and culture 43 1.1 Implications for teachers of language 43 1.2 Implications for learners of language 44 2. Implications for translation and interpretation 44 III. Limitations of the study 45 IV. Suggestions for further studies 45 BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES Appendix 1: Utterances of American contestants in The Voice US Appendix 2: Utterances of Vietnamese contestants in The Voice Vietnam LIST OF TABLES, PICTURES AND FIGURES v PICTURES PAGE Picture 2.1: Kaplan’s diagram about way of thinking Picture 2.2: The international “The Voice” logo Picture 2.3: Coaches of The Voice US season 1 Picture 2.4: Coaches of The Voice Vietnam season 1 15 20 21 22 FIGURES PAGE Figure 3.1: Use of worry expressing strategies by American contestants in The Voice US Figure 3.2: Use of worry expressing strategies by Vietnamese contestants in The Voice Vietnam 32 34 TABLES PAGE Table 3.1: Use of worry expressing strategies by contestants in two reality show: The Voice US and The Voice Vietnam Table 3.2: Use of worry expressing strategies by American contestants in The Voice US 31 31 vi Table 3.3: Use of worry expressing strategies by Vietnam contestants in The Voice Vietnam Table 3.4: Use of strategy 1 by American contestants and Vietnamese contestants Table 3.5: Use of strategy 2 by American contestants and Vietnamese contestants Table 3.6: Use of strategy 3 by American contestants and Vietnamese contestants Table 3.7: Use of strategy 4 by American contestants and Vietnamese contestants Table 3.8: Use of strategy 5 by American contestants and Vietnamese contestants Table 3.9: Frequency of preferred worry expressing strategies for American and Vietnamese contestants 34 36 37 37 37 38 40 vii 78 PART A - INTRODUCTION I. Rationale for the study “To have another language is to possess a second soul” ~Charlemagne~ The soul in this immortal saying of Charlemagne does not only refer to the language itself, but also to culture of the country giving birth to that language because culture can be seen as the soul of a country and language is the key to open the door of that soul. In other words, it is undeniable that language plays an integral part of culture. it is the mirror reflecting a nation’s culture and tradition, in which speech acts is considered as means to express people’s feelings and emotions. In fact, many language learners have encountered culture shocks or even the relationship break-up when they communicate with foreigners owing to the misinterpretation of the message. Nguyen Quang (1998,p.2) states that, “One cannot master a language without profound awareness of its cultural background and in both verbal and non-verbal communication, culture makes itself strongly felt”. According to him, in the international environment, cultural disagreement is happened frequently. Let’s look at a very simple example to have a general view about the issue: - Minh: Oh my god! I’ll surely die this semester! (Ôi trời ơi, kỳ này mình chết chắc rồi!) - Tommy: ??? (being confused) Obviously, the Vietnamese boy in the conversation does not have any implications about the death in his saying. All he wants to do is to show his worry about the bad result of this semester so that his friend can share with him. 78 Unfortunately for this boy, the way he adopts the hyperbole to express his feeling not only fails to receive the sympathy from his buddy but also makes the Western friend confused. The fact is that Eastern people in general always try to avoid mentioning something that makes them feel uncomfortable by using meaning transferences. Meanwhile, the Western culture prefers directly expressing their emotions or feelings. Hence, the cultural differences can explain for the communication breakdown in many situations like this. It can be seen from the example that expressing a worry is one of the speech acts that are easiest to lead to miscommunication between English learners and native speakers due to the lack of cultural awareness. Nevertheless, while others as wishing, or complaining are received much attention from scholars and researchers, expressing a worry is ignored despite its frequent use. The problem here is that it is quite difficult to do a study on the way people show their worry, as they tend to hide it most of the time. With the prevalence of mass media nowadays, many reality shows has become not only a source of entertainment for everyone but also a mirror reflecting many aspects of people lives including feelings expression and communication. When a reality show becomes popular worldwide and is franchised to different version, it must be adapted flexibly so that it can be suitable to the audiences in the target nation. That is also true to the reality show The Voice US version and Vietnamese one. Therefore, the way contestants in these two versions express their worry is different. Originating from the concern of the issue, the researcher think that it is better to dig deeper into the way British and Vietnamese people expressing a worry by analyzing two different versions of a famous reality show named The Voice US and The Voice Vietnam. Only by doing that, can the researcher fulfill her hope of breaking the iceberg between two cultures. All thing considered, the researcher comes up with her paper‘s title “A cross- cultural communication study of expressing a worry in English and Vietnamese”. 78 II. Scope of the study Expressing human’s emotions and feelings is one of the issues attracting the attention of linguists and experts. It requires any linguist who cares about this topic to spend time and attempt so that he or she can approach the issue sufficiently. However, owing to time constraint and the limited ability of the researcher, this paper only focuses on the verbal form of worry expression in spite of the fact that nonverbal form plays a significant role in showing an emotion. Furthermore, due to the limited condition of the researcher and because she would like to approach the speech act in a new way, the researcher plan to carry out the survey basing on the feeling of contestant in one of the most famous reality show The Voice. The study also conveys the response of contestants from both American and Vietnamese versions. In addition, the scale of the research limits the survey in just 12 episodes of each version. The information collected from the survey will be analyzed carefully and sincerely by the researcher. III. Objectives of the study This study aims at investigating into preferable way people from American and Vietnam express their worry via two reality shows The Voice US and The Voice Vietnam. Also, the study is conveyed with the intention of making the comparison between contestants of two versions and the vary of worry expressions in English and Vietnamese. Moreover, the researcher is interested in analyzing the data and then giving useful suggestion for the communicators so that they can avoid unwanted mistake. Specifically, the paper is intended to address the following questions: 1) What are the preferable ways American contestants use to express a worry? 2) What are the preferable ways Vietnamese contestants use to express a worry? 78 3) What are the similarities and differences between contestants from the USA and Vietnam in the preferable way of expressing a worry? IV.Significance of the study After being accomplished, the paper, first and foremost, is expected to be useful for the researcher herself. By carrying on the study, the author hopes to raise her awareness about cultural behaviors through language. After studying about expressing a worry or nerve in English and Vietnamese, the researcher may have understanding about not only worry expression but also other speech acts such as expressing anger or happiness, and so on. This is particular meaningful for her future job when she luckily has an opportunity to work as a translator or an interpreter for a multinational organization. With equipped knowledge, she can avoid unwanted culture shock or misinterpreting when communicating with foreigners, especially the Westerners. More than that, the paper is hoped to benefit the English learners as well as any people who are interested in investigating into various aspects of speech acts in general and worry expressions in particular. To some extent, the author would be very happy to contribute her small attempt to the teaching and learning English at the university, especially to the intercultural communication course. With the researcher’s ambition investigating the general understanding about the differences and similarities between two cultures in the way they expressing their worry, the paper, once fulfilled, can serve as a source of reference for those who are fond of digging deeper into the issue and language learners. Finally, the paper is hoped to play as a contributor for narrowing the cultural distance between two countries. V. Research methodology [...]... rất là run và hồi hộp (Đào Bá Lộc- Vòng Thi Giấu Mặt- Gala 1) Mình sắp phải lên dĩa rồi, sự thật là mình rất lo lắng và khá là căng thẳng bởi vì sự biểu diễn từ trước tới giờ của mình so với lúc đi thi và lúc tập thì khác nhau khá là nhiều (Trần Phương- Vòng Thi Giấu Mặt- Gala 1) Cảm giác bây giờ thì … rất là hồi hộp (Hoàng Triều-Vòng Thi Giấu MặtGala1) 78 Hiện tại Dung rất là run và chỉ biết... phải vượt qua được và đem niềm hạnh phúc về cho bố tôi (Kim Cương- Vòng Thi Giấu Mặt – Gala 3) Khi bước cùng Bá Lộc từ thảm đỏ vào thì mình cảm thấy rất là lo lắng nhưng mà dù cho một chút lo lắng đó, nó cũng không ảnh hưởng gì đến ý chí của mình 78 hôm nay và mình chắc chắn là mình sẽ dành phần thắng (Hữu Thuận – Vòng thi Đối Đầu- Gala 5) Mình nghĩ rằng mọi thứ bây giờ đã sẵn sàng, và điều mà mình... khán giả một giây phút lắng đọng và cố gắng chinh phục 4 vị huấn luyện viên (Phuong- Blind Audition- Ep 1) Cảm giác của mình lúc này là rất là run, hồi hộp, trong đó có một chút phấn chấn Xiết chặt tay, hít thật sâu, bước lên sân khấu và hát hết sức (Trang Quoc Cuong- Blind Audition- Ep1) Hiện tại thì mình đang cố gắng hết sức để lấy lại sự bình tĩnh để thể hiện thật tốt (Dao Ba Loc- Blind Audition-... cd player, and a tape player, so don’t be jealous… Vài năm trước thì mình đã mắc một căn bệnh rất khó chữa và mình phải điều trị trong vòng 6 tháng Những tưởng giấc mơ âm nhạc của mình đã không còn nhưng may mắn là sau 6 tháng thì các bác sỹ nói là mình có thể hồi phục và đó là một tin vui đối với mình Mình cảm thấy như được hồi sinh thêm một lần nữa và kể từ đó thì mình tích cực luyện tập hát (Ngọc... Giấu Mặt- Gala 2) Trước khi bước lên sân khấu để biểu diễn thì mình thấy hồi hộp lắm vì lần này có rất nhiều người hát hay và mình sẽ cố gắng để biểu diễn hết sức của mình (Tư Nghi- Vòng Thi Giấu Mặt- Gala 2) Trước khi bước lên sân khấu để biểu diễn thì mình thấy hồi hộp lắm vì lần này có rất nhiều người hát hay và mình sẽ cố gắng để biểu diễn hết sức của mình (Quốc Huy- Vòng Thi Giấu Mặt- Gala... Classification The father of speech act theory, John L.Austin, categorizes speech acts as three main types: locutionary (acts), illocutionary (force) and perlocutionary i A locutionary act is the act of saying something in the full sentence of “say” Ex: Nice weather today?” "In performing a locutionary act we shall also be performing such an act as: asking or answering a question; giving some information... cảm thấy rất hồi hộp và lo sợ (Châm AnhVòng Thi Giấu Mặt) However, the American competitors are not exceptions but it is a little bit less common than in Vietnamese ones I was so nervous I forgot my words! When I get nervous…( Tarralyn-Blind Audition- Ep.1) I’m scared and nervous (chuckles) It’s making me teary-eyed because because It’s just… (crying) I’ve waited a really long time … To have my... contestants: Hôm nay tham gia vào vòng thi giấu mặt của The Voice thì bản thân mình cũng cảm thấy rất hồi hộp vì các thí sinh ai cũng hát hay cả (Hoài Trinh- Vòng thi Giấu Mặt-Gala 1) Sau đây, để lên sân khấu và trình bày cac khúc mình đã lựa chọn thì mình đang rất là run và hôi hộp vì không biết huấn luyện viên nào sẽ lựa chọn mình (Hoài Trinh- Vòng thi Giấu Mặt-Gala 1) Vài phút sắp tới mình chuẩn... attracted a lot of attention from both experts and those who are keen on language and culture studying In the international field, originating from the need of investigating cultural behavior of people through languages, many linguists spent time and efforts exploring the first speech acts theories Since the 1960s of the twenty century, John L Austin, a British philosopher of language, developed his... can conclude some most common ways employed by 78 contestants as the strategies to express their worry before going into a big competition in their life as following: 1 Strategy 1: Directly showing the nerves 2 Strategy 2: Hiding the true feeling 3 Strategy 3: Explaining the current situation 4 Strategy 4: Looking forward to a bright prospect 5 Strategy 5: Showing strong determination Strategy 1: Directly . theory, John L.Austin, categorizes speech acts as three main types: locutionary (acts), illocutionary (force) and perlocutionary. i. A locutionary act is the act of saying something in the full sentence. linguists spent time and efforts exploring the first speech acts theories. Since the 1960s of the twenty century, John L. Austin, a British philosopher of language, developed his observation of the. political and diplomatic policies of the countries. Yet, with an open policy and the normalization in diplomatic relation between two countries since 1995, Vietnamese students were offered a lot of opportunities