VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH A CROSS- CULTURAL STUDY ON EXPRESSING SATISFACTION IN AMERICAN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO THOA VĂN HÓA VIỆT- MỸ TRONG CÁCH THỨC DIỄN TẢ SỰ HÀI LÕNG) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15 Hanoi, 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDY NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH A CROSS- CULTURAL STUDY ON EXPRESSING SATISFACTION IN AMERICAN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO THOA VĂN HÓA VIỆT- MỸ TRONG CÁCH THỨC DIỄN TẢ SỰ HÀI LÕNG) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15 Supervisor: Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, PhD Hanoi, 2013 DECLARATION I certify that this thesis entitled: “A cross- cultural study on expressing satisfaction in American English and Vietnamese”, which is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, is the result of my own work I have provided fully documented references to the work of others The material in this thesis has not been submitted for any other formal course of study Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh Hanoi, 2013 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mr Huynh Anh Tuan, PhD, my supervisor, for his valuable guidance, his instructive comments and his dutiful supervision, without which this thesis would be far from completed I would also like to give my sincere gratitude to all of the lecturers at HULIS- VNU, Hanoi for their scholarly knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm in their lectures During the process of implementing the research, they have created the favorable conditions for me, not only in terms of accessing to essential materials but also by the heart-warming encouragement I also take this opportunity to express my immense thankfulness to my friends and classmates, who have always stayed by my side, given me constructive comments and perked me up every time I need Particularly I want to say a special thanks to two friends of mine, who are all living and studying in the U.S for their invaluable help in distributing the survey questionnaire They are Le Huong Ly and Nguyen Thi Lien Huong I cannot forget to acknowledge the important contributions of both Vietnamese and American informants, whose names cannot be mentioned in the thesis Finally, I would like to express my enormous debt to my parents for their continual encouragement and immeasurable support ii ABSTRACT Based on the theoretical background of cross- cultural communication, this study aims at investigating the similarities and differences in expressing satisfaction towards different co- interactants in the Vietnamese and American language and culture It focuses primarily on:  The popularity of strategies of expressing satisfaction employed  The use of directness and indirectness in expressing satisfaction To succeed in doing such a research, the author of the study takes informants’ social parameters such as age, sex, marital status, living area, and knowledge of foreign language(s) into consideration Besides, their survey responses are carefully analyzed to build a frame, a common set of strategies in the field The conclusion is drawn from data analysis and findings are presented and compared in a brief and concise way Some common expressing satisfaction patterns in both Vietnamese and American cultures from the data are also presented and illustrated with the hope of partially helping avoid cultural conflicts or communicating breakdowns iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1:The five general functions of speech acts (Yule) Table 2: Number of informants with their status parameters Table 3:D-ID in the situations under study (in Vietnamese) Table 4: Use of D-ID as seen from Vietnamese communicating partners‟ parameters Table 5:D-ID in the situations under study (in American) Table 6:Use of D-ID as seen from American communicating partners‟ parameters Table 7:Use of D-ID as seen from Vietnamese informants‟ parameters Table 8:Use of D-ID as seen from American informants‟ parameters Table 9:Use of strategies as seen from Vietnamese communicating partners‟ parameters Table 10:Use of strategies as seen from American communicating partners‟ parameters Figure 1: Ferrando‟s diagram of culture Figure 2: Nguyen Quang‟s diagram of components of communication Figure 3: Areas of language knowledge (Bachman and Palmer, 1996:68) Figure 4:: Bach and Harnish‟s classification of speech acts (1979) Figure : Possible strategies for doing FTAs Figure 6: Nguyen Quang‟s schema of possible strategies for doing FTAs Figure 7: Kaplan‟s diagram iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Theoretical background and literature review I Theoretical background Culture and communication 1.1 Culture 1.2 Communication 1.3 Culture- communication correlation 12 1.4 Cross- cultural communication 13 1.5 Communicative competence 16 Cross- cultural pragmatics 19 Speech acts 21 3.1 The notion of speech acts 21 3.2 Classification of speech acts 22 3.3 Expressing satisfaction as a speech acts 25 Politeness 26 4.1 Face and politeness 26 4.1.1 Face 26 4.1.2 Politeness 28 4.2 Positive politeness strategies 30 4.3 Negative politeness strategies 33 v Directness and indirectness 35 5.1 Directness and indirectness defined 35 5.2 Levels of indirectness 37 5.3 Directness and indirectness in correlation with politeness 39 5.4 Social factors influencing the use of directness and indirectness in human interaction 41 Chapter 2: Methodology 44 Research questions 44 Data collection instruments 44 2.1 The questionnaire 44 2.2 The informants 46 Data collection and analysis method 47 Chapter 3: Data analysis: Findings and discussion 48 Data analysis of D- ID in expressing satisfaction 48 1.1 D-ID strategies in expressing satisfaction 48 1.2 Use of D- ID as seen from communicating partners’ parameters 50 1.2.1 Vietnamese findings 50 1.2.2 American findings 51 1.2.3 Similarities and differences 53 1.3 Use of D-ID as seen from informants’ parameters 55 1.3.1 Vietnamese findings 55 1.3.2 American findings 56 1.3.3 Similarities and differences 57 Data analysis of strategies in expressing satisfaction (SES) 59 2.1 Strategies in expressing satisfaction 59 2.2 Realization of SESs in Vietnamese 60 2.2.1 Realization of SESs in Vietnamese as seen from co- interactants’ parameters 60 2.2.2 Realization of SESs in Vietnamese as seen from informants’ parameters 71 2.3 Realization of SESs in English 76 vi 2.3.1 Realization of SESs in English as seen from co- interactants’ parameter 76 2.3.2 Realization of SESs in English as seen from informants’ parameters 85 2.4 Similarities and differences 90 PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of the study 93 Limitations of the study 95 Suggestions for further study 96 REFERENCES 97 APPENDICES I vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale With the great speed of developing and expanding, English has emerged as the most powerful international language all over the world Starting from its use gradually turning into colossal, plus the characteristics of convenience, English on those days can be said to be the “golden key to every door” In the Vietnamese context, as a result of the open policies and a lot of encouragement and support from society, the needs of learning English have also been magnified However, for the sake of examination, the real purpose of learning English has been somehow distorted A long time ago, the method of English teaching at school was Grammar- Translation Method with the stress on grammatical points Up till now, thanks to the attentive researches from language teachers and educators, the pendulum of English language teaching has swung to communicative approach Acquiring a new language means a lot more than the manipulation of syntax and lexicon Language is not just a system of sounds, words and grammatical structures in isolation, yet it is seen as a system of communication existing in a community The goal of language teaching is, therefore assumed to be learners’ ability to communicate in the target language As a matter of fact, to attain the good command of communication, culture learning apparently becomes indispensable Brembeck (1977) noted that, “To know another‟s language and not his culture is a way to make a fluent fool of oneself” It is the same in the case of teaching and learning English In order to help learners achieve communicative competence, we have to pay close attention to culture awareness and acquisition That dialectical connection has always been a concern of researchers and from time to time it has received more and more agreement Thomas (1983) states that the lack of socio linguistic competence results in rudeness, miscommunication or even communication breakdown because non native speakers’ inappropriate use of cultural norms and conventions are considered ...VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDY NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH A CROSS- CULTURAL STUDY ON EXPRESSING SATISFACTION IN AMERICAN. .. learners of English avoid cultural shock in -cultural communication Scope of the study The paper investigates expressing satisfaction as a speech act in English and Vietnamese Expressing satisfaction. .. limitation of time and material, the study only concentrates on investigating strategies of expressing satisfaction in English and Vietnamese in some certain situations together with some typical