VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ************ NGUYỄN THỊ THÁI A VIETNAMESE - AMERICAN CROSS - CULTURAL STUDY OF VERBAL AND NONVERBAL BEHAVIORS IN MARRIAGE PROPOSAL Nghiên cứu giao văn hóa Việt - Mỹ về hành vi ngôn từ và phi ngôn từ trong cầu hôn M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Hanoi - 2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ************ NGUYỄN THỊ THÁI A VIETNAMESE - AMERICAN CROSS - CULTURAL STUDY OF VERBAL AND NONVERBAL BEHAVIORS IN MARRIAGE PROPOSAL Nghiên cứu giao văn hóa Việt – Mỹ về hành vi ngôn từ và phi ngôn từ trong cầu hôn M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Prof. Nguyễn Quang Hanoi -2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I declare that the thesis entitled “A Vietnamese-American cross-cultural study of verbal and nonverbal behavior in marriage proposals” reports the results of the study conducted by myself in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree Master of Arts.
It has not been submitted for any other degree at any other institution. Hanoi, March 2016 Nguyễn Thi Tha ̣ ́i i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Nguyen Quang for his untiring and practical assistance throughout the process of my writing. Without his responsible help and enthusiastic guidance, I would not have been able to complete this thesis.
I greatly wish to acknowledge my thanks to my classmates at the University of Languages and International Studies as well as my colleagues for their informative and constructive comments on my study. Had it not been for their suggestions, this thesis could not have been fully completed. Finally, my big thanks go to my beloved parents and husband for their constant support and unconditional care while I was writing this thesis. Hanoi, March 2016 Nguyen Thi Thai ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT This paper is carried out at endeavor of investigating verbal and nonverbal behavior used in marriage proposal by the Vietnamese and American.
From that, major similarities and differences between the two languages in this regard are revealed. On the basis of quantitative and qualitative methods, 70 clips are selected to collect data from Vietnamese people and American ones who are currently living in big cities. The result reveals that Indirectness + Directness is the most common strategy used by the Vietnamese and the American in terms of verbal behavior. Medium rate, pitch, volume, short pause and direct eye contact, formal postures, hand holding, hugging, kissing are mostly used by both Vietnamese and American people in terms of nonverbal behavior.
Besides, the study goes deeply in the differences between the two cultures. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION………………………………………………………. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLES.
vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study. Scope of the study.
Aim & objectives of the study. Significance of the study .6 Design of the study. 4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW. Culture, communication & their relationship.
Relationships between culture & communication. Intralanguage, paralanguage & extralanguage. Classification of directness & indirectness. 13 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.2 Marriage proposals in Vietnam & American .4 Review of previous studies.
18 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY. Selection of subjects. Data collection procedures. Data analysis procedures.
22 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS & DISCUSSIONS. 31 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Summary of findings. Limitations of the study.
Suggestions for further study. 47 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF TABLES Figure 1: Flowchart of face to face communication. 7 Table 1: Strategies applied in marriage proposals. 23 Table 2: Rate used in marriage proposals.
28 Table 3: Pitch used in marriage proposals. 29 Table 4: Volume used in marriage proposals. 30 Table 5: Vocal interferences used in marriage proposals. 31 Table 6: Pauses/silence used in marriage proposals.
32 Table 7: Eye contact used in marriage proposals. 33 Table 8: Gestures used in marriage proposals. 35 Table 9: Types of hand & head gestures used in marriage proposals. 35 Table 10: Posture used in marriage proposals.
39 Table 11: Touching behaviors used in marriage proposals. 39 vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Single directness SD Single indirectness SI Compound directness CD Compound indirectness CI Indirectness+Directness I+D Directness+Indirectness D+I Percent % viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale We are living in the age of world integration. Besides economy, the integration of culture and language is of great importance.
Language and culture are believed to be interrelated. Culture is different from society to society, even from individual to individual. Thus, what is acceptable in one culture may not be accepted in another. Language is also a way to create cultural identity.
Conversely, culture influences the way in which language is used. Each country takes pride in its own culture, which refers to its own beliefs, values, norms and social practices that the citizens living in that nation must and should follow. The case of countries like Vietnam and America is not the exception. Thus, when moving to work or live in another country, a person has to flow into the main stream for the feeling of difference and isolation to be eliminated and the advice of studying the target culture carefully before departure to avoid culture shock or clash is highly recommended, which is especially true for any Vietnamese students and teachers wishing to study in America and vice versa.
Among various aspects of culture, wedding mostly attracts the attention of young people as one of the most wonderful turning steps in life. Whenever wedding is studied, marriage proposal is mentioned also. The fact that there has been no in- depth cross-cultural study in this field gives the author the motivation to undertake the research entitled A Vietnamese-American Cross-Cultural Study of Verbal and Nonverbal Behaviors in Marriage Proposal. Scope of the study As the title suggests, the thesis focuses on the cross-cultural investigation of Vietnamese and American people in asking for marriage.
The author realizes that it would be inadequate if the thesis only mentions the verbal message because it does not fully convey cross-cultural differences in marriage proposal. Therefore, I decide 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com to study both verbal and nonverbal behavior to have a deeper understanding of these differences. Asking for marriage is common in our life and it is far beyond the scope of the study to discover every factor in a proposal such as gifts accompanied, setting, and context. To be more specific, with intralanguage, among the fourteen categorical dimensions in communication as “subjectivity vs objectivity”, “accuracy vs inaccuracy” or “positive politeness vs negative politeness”, directness vs indirectness would be taken as one of the major dimensions and it appears almost ubiquitous in communication.
With paralanguage, the author wishes to analyze rate, pitch, volume, vocal interference and pauses/silence because these are considered to be the closest factors to language. Similarly, covering all elements of extralanguage seems to be impossible. Hence, the research is intended to explore only body language with the expressions of: eye contact, gesture, posture and touching behaviors. Apparently, an ethnographic research would be ideal.
However, due to the time constraint, experience and reference shortage, the data will be collected mostly through video clips. Other methods of data collections (such as survey questionnaires, audio taping or videotaping) are not employed either. Aims and objectives of the study In the light of cross-cultural pragmatics, this study aims at comparing and contrasting verbal and nonverbal expressions used in marriage proposal by the American and Vietnamese in the selected movie clips. The research is undertaken to target the following objectives: To investigate how the Vietnamese and American perform marriage proposal in terms of verbal and non-verbal behavior.
2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com To find out major similarities and differences between the Vietnamese and the American in the ways they convey verbal and non-verbal messages in marriage proposal. Significance of the study This study contributes to Vietnamese – American cross – cultural awareness. More specifically, the results of the research are believed to help people better understand the common practices of marriage proposal in the Vietnamese and American cultures. Research questions: There are 2 questions that the study attempts to answer: What strategies and nonverbal behaviors are used in marriage proposal by the Vietnamese and American? What are major similarities and differences between the Vietnamese and American in the way they convey verbal and non-verbal messages in marriage proposal? 1.
Research methods In order to achieve the objectives of a cross-cultural study mentioned above, the method to be employed is quantitative. Besides, contrastive analysis is used. The research instruments are movie clips taken from YouTube or the Internet. The approach to video materials collection and exploration hopefully provides reliable intralinguistic illustrations and valid data for research.
Its combination of visual and audio stimuli supports the researcher not only to benefit real verbal communication, real dialogue with stress, intonation, rhythm of language but also to witness non-verbal behavior like facial expressions, body movements, postures, and 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Additionally, using videos is a method of collecting data that is easy to carryout and save researcher‟s time. Selected videos will be representative of some population and the researcher directly watches and analyzes them. That is why video clips are chosen for this cross – cultural study.
Design of the study The thesis consists of the following chapters: Chapter I: INTRODUCTION This chapter includes the rationale, aims, objectives and scope of the study. Chapter II: LITERATURE REVIEW Such key concepts as culture, communication, marriage proposal, directness, and indirectness strategies in asking for marriage, paralanguage factors as rate, pitch, pauses and body language as posture, kissing, touching are critically discussed. Also, a review of related studies will be presented. Chapter III: METHODOLOGY This chapter provides methods, instruments and procedures for collecting and analyzing data.
Chapter IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS This chapter presents the findings of the study, and discusses the ways the Vietnamese & English perform marriage proposal as well as the similarities and differences when performing marriage proposal. Chapter V: CONCLUSION: The conclusion gives the summary of findings as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter sheds light on the key concepts of “culture”, “communication” and their relationships as well as intralanguage, paralanguage and extralanguage as means of realization for verbal and nonverbal behaviors. It also identifies marriage proposal as an interpersonal social event for the research.
Culture, communication and their relationship 2.1 Culture Kottak (1994:41), a cultural anthropologist, argues that humans are animals with a difference. That difference is culture, a major reason for our adaptability and success. Culture consists of tools, institutions, beliefs, rituals, games, works of arts, language, etc. Judging from this statement, culture is the most beautiful word created to grant human and human becomes the most honorable animal thanks to its single feature – known as culture.
For this author, culture is concrete, tangible tools as institutions, works of art, language, etc and abstract, intangible – as beliefs. In Levine and Adelman‟s words (1993:17), Culture is a shared background (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values. In this way, culture is shared among people, which does not belong to a single individual.