Vietnam national university College of foreign languages Postgraduate department **0** Cao ThÞ HËu Hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in American and vietnamese (Che giấu cảm xúc không vui hội thoại hàng ngày ng-ời Mỹ ng-ời Việt Nam) PROGRAM I M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Hanoi, 2009 Vietnam national university College of foreign languages Postgraduate department **0** Cao ThÞ HËu Hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in American and vietnamese (Che giấu cảm xúc không vui hội thoại hàng ngày ng-ời Mỹ vµ ng-êi ViƯt Nam) PROGRAM I M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Đỗ Thị Mai Thanh, M.A Hanoi, 2009 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Part 1: Introduction 1 Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Methodology of the study 4.1 The survey instrument 4.2 The participants 4.3 Data collection 4.4 Data analysis Design of the study Part 2: Development Chapter 1: Theoretical background 1.1 Language, communication, and culture 1.1.1 Language and communication 1.1.2 Language and culture 1.2 Hiding bad feelings used as a face saving act 1.3 Previous researches on subject matters related to hiding feelings Chapter 2: Verbal communication and hiding bad feelings 10 2.1 Verbal communication 10 2.2 Ways of using verbal language to hide bad feelings 11 Chapter 3: Results and Discussions 16 3.1 Ways to express different strategies to hide bad feelings in American English and Vietnamese 16 3.1.1 Frequency of verbal hiding bad feelings in American and Vietnamese in particular social groups 17 3.1.2 Different strategies used by American and Vietnamese in hiding bad feelings 20 3.1.3 Communication in university 22 3.1.4 Communication in family 23 3.1.5 Communication in business 24 v 3.2 Different strategies of hiding bad feelings used by different gender of two groups - as seen from gender perspective 25 3.2.1 Hiding bad feelings used by Vietnamese females vs males 25 3.2.2 Hiding bad feelings used by American females vs males 33 Part 3: Conclusion 41 Summary 41 Some suggestions for successful communication 42 Suggestions for further study 43 vi LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPHS Table 1: Frequency of verbal hiding bad feelings in terms of age 17 Table 2: Frequency of verbal hiding bad feelings in terms of gender 18 Table 3: Frequency of verbal hiding bad feelings in terms of marital status 18 Table 4: Frequency of verbal hiding bad feelings in terms of living area 19 Table 5: Frequency of verbal hiding bad feelings in terms of occupation 19 Table 6: Frequency of verbal hiding bad feelings in terms of language acquisition 20 Chart 1: Different strategies used by American and Vietnamese in hiding bad feelings 21 Chart 2: Different strategies of hiding bad feelings in communication in university used by native speakers of Vietnamese and native speakers of English 22 Chart 3: Different strategies of hiding bad feelings in communication in family used by native speakers of Vietnamese and native speakers of English 23 Chart 4: Different strategies of hiding bad feelings in communication in business used by native speakers of Vietnamese and native speakers of English 24 Chart 5: Different strategies of hiding bad feelings used by different gender of two groups: Vietnamese females vs males 26 Chart 6: Different strategies of hiding bad feelings used in communication in university by Vietnamese females vs males 27 Chart 7: Different strategies of hiding bad feelings used in communication in family by Vietnamese females vs males 28 Chart 8: Different strategies of hiding bad feelings used in communication in business by Vietnamese females vs males 30 Chart 9: Different purposes of Vietnamese males and females in hiding bad feelings 31 Chart 10: Different bad feelings hidden by Vietnamese males and females 32 Chart 11: Different strategies of hiding bad feelings used by different gender of two groups: American females vs males 34 Chart 12: Different strategies of hiding bad feelings used in communication in university by American females vs males 35 Chart 13: Different strategies of hiding bad feelings used in communication in family by American females vs males 36 vii Chart 14: Different strategies of hiding bad feelings used in communication in business by American females vs males 37 Chart 15: Different purposes of American males and females in hiding bad feelings 39 Chart 16: Different bad feelings hidden by American males and females 40 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS SPSS = Statistical Package for the Social Sciences FTA = Face threatening act FSA = Face saving act Stra = Strategy Uni = University Fami = Family Busi = Business A = Always S = Sometimes N = Never MS = Marital status LA = Living area Pur = Purpose F = Feeling Part 1: Introduction Rationale Language, according to Schmidt & Richard (1980, p 161), is used to ‚build bridges, to consolidate political regimes, to carry on arguments, to convey information from one person to another, to entertain – in short, to communicate.‛ When the function ‚to communicate‛ flows successfully, a social relation has been established, reinforced and maintained Thus, successful communication requires not only pure linguistic competence but also knowledge of social norms, social status, social values, and relations between individuals known as communicative competence - the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately Successful communication needs the correct interpretation by an addressee of a speaker’s/ writer’s intent in performing a linguistic act The lack of this pragmatic competence as well as linguistic competence may lead to impoliteness, misinterpretation, culture shocks, or even communication breakdown Hiding bad feelings is chosen for investigation in this study not accidentally First, communicative functions are not only language – specific, they are culture – specific as well The difference in the ways in which languages realize the same function seems to make it problematic for language learners to say the right thing at the right time It seems to be dangerous when the exposure of negative feelings may insult or loose face of the interlocutors Knowing how to hide the bad feelings and response appropriately is very necessary, especially for cultural outsiders Second, a number of studies concerning speech acts such as thanking, advising, requesting, apologizing, disagreeing, etc have been carried out in this college Some of the researches on hiding feelings have already done at undergraduate level, but none has been carried out at higher levels Thus, I would like to continue exploring this topic in my M.A thesis Moreover, a comparison of hiding bad feelings between American native speakers of English and native speakers of Vietnamese is considered to be valuable to the teaching and learning of spoken English in Vietnam That is why the thesis is named ‚Hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in American and Vietnamese‛ 2 Aims of the study The very first aim of this study is to find out the ways to express different polite strategies to hide bad feelings in American English and Vietnamese The second purpose is to compare the different strategies of hiding bad feelings used by different gender of two ethnic groups: Vietnamese females vs males, and American females vs males Thanks to these findings, some suggestions for successful communication will be given The study is, therefore, conducted with the hope of contributing to the socio-cultural aspects of spoken English communication for the avoidance or at least the reduction of communication failures in terms of sociolinguistic The following questions guided the research: What are ways to express different polite strategies to hide bad feelings in American English and Vietnamese? Does gender difference affect the ways of hiding bad feelings of American and Vietnamese? Scope of the study Although the author is fully conscious of the role of non-verbal factors in real life communication, they are beyond the scope of this study The study is only confined to the verbal aspect of the communication of hiding bad feelings And the study focuses on some specific situations in business, university and family The Vietnamese northern dialects and American English are chosen for contrastive analysis By American English, the author means the English spoken by those who have American nationality and speak English as their native language Although such sociological factors such as relative power, ranking of impositions and social distance are crucial, they are kept neutral and constant The study especially focuses on the effects of different genders on the ways of hiding bad feelings of native speakers of Vietnamese and American Methodology of the study 4.1 The survey instrument The survey instrument, a three-page questionnaire, was devised to work out hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in American and Vietnamese The questionnaire was divided into three sections The first section contained demographic questions in order to gain information about the participants’ nationality, age, gender, marital status, area where they spend most of their time, occupation, acquisition of language(s) other than their mother tongue The second section consisted of three questions Respondents were asked: ‚How often you hide your bad feelings? What is your purpose when you hide your bad feelings? What bad feelings you often hide?‛ This section dealt with the basic concept of hiding bad feelings in order to review the subjects’ understanding of hiding bad feelings The third section related to seven situations, including situations in university, situations in family, and situations in business In this section, informants were asked to be in specific positions to produce practical strategies of hiding bad feelings They can choose one of the appropriate answers given or express their own ideas 4.2 The participants The subjects in this study were divided into two groups: Vietnamese people and American people The Vietnamese group included 20 females and 20 males, who were native speakers of Vietnamese living in the Northern part of Vietnam The American group included 20 females and 20 males who were native speakers of English living in the USA The questionnaires were delivered to many people of two groups from different professions and social status Their ages range from 18 to 60 years Due to research requirement seen from gender perspective, the survey was distributed almost evenly in number of female and male respondents in both of the two groups The number of females respondents accounts for 50% and male respondents 50% This balance will affirm valid findings of the study 4.3 Data collection Two different methods were used for data collection First, while visiting some places like travel agencies, restaurants, hotels, cafeterias, libraries, classrooms, and at home in February, March and April of 2009, the researcher contacted 44 foreigners and 55 ... verbal hiding bad feelings in terms of language acquisition 20 Chart 1: Different strategies used by American and Vietnamese in hiding bad feelings 21 Chart 2: Different strategies of hiding bad. .. strategies of hiding bad feelings used in communication in business by Vietnamese females vs males 30 Chart 9: Different purposes of Vietnamese males and females in hiding bad feelings 31... be valuable to the teaching and learning of spoken English in Vietnam That is why the thesis is named ? ?Hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in American and Vietnamese? ?? 2 Aims of the study