Vietnamese-Australian cross-cultural study on hiding feelings at the workplace Nguyễn Như Trang Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15 Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Phan Thị Vân Quyên Năm bảo vệ: 2009 Abstract. This study investigates similarities and differences in hiding feelings at the workplace between Australian and Vietnamese using a modified version of discourse completion task (DCT) developed by Bee et al. (1990). 40 Australian people and 40 Vietnamese people participated in this study. Three main findings are discussed. Firstly, in hiding feelings, Vietnamese people are more influenced by such factors as social status and age than Australian people are. Secondly, the frequency of hiding feelings by Vietnamese people is much greater than that by Australian people. And finally, about the choice of hiding feelings strategies , both Australian and Vietnamese prefer Minimizing to other strategies. However, Australian people are apt to use Minimizing more but Alluding and Equivocating less than Vietnamese. All the differences between the two groups are explained by resorting to the cultures: the collectivism culture of Vietnam and the individualism culture of Australian Keywords. Tiếng Anh; Giao văn hóa; Giao tiếp Content 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 do 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. 2. 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: 1. How Australian and Vietnamese hide their feelings at the workplace. 2. 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: 1. What are the influential factors on verbal strategies of hiding feelings in Australian English and Vietnamese? 2. How often do Vietnamese and Australian people hide their feelings at the workplace? 3. 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. 3. 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. 5. Significance of the study. This study may provide insights into the similarities and differences between Vietnamese and Australian in the frequency as well as the verbal strategies of hiding feelings. The author would like to give some cultural explanations for these similarities and differences. Hopefully, it may help achieve successful communication in an international working environment. I. 6. The design of the study: The study is divided into three parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion. The introduction 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 concepts relevant to the research topic such as different points of view of culture and communication, politeness Chapter two deals with specific information of the method, the survey questionnaire and the respondents. It also presents analysis of the data collected from the survey questionnaire. The last chapter presents some major findings. The conclusion is a review of the study, the limitation of the study and suggestions for further study. 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Nhà xuát bản Xă hội. 3. Trần Ngọc Thêm. (1998). Cơ sở văn hóa Việt nam. Nhà xuất bản giáo dục. 4. Trần Ngọc Thêm. (2001). Bản sắc văn hóa Việt nam trước ngưỡng cửa thiên niên kỷ mới Nhà xuất bản giáo dục. . communication in an international working environment. I. 6. The design of the study: The study is divided into three parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion. The introduction. 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. introduction 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,