ii ABSTRACT This Ubesis focuses on cross-cullural similarities and differences in giving comments on contestants’ performance by judges m Vietnam Idol and American Idol. Politeness strategies realized for giving comments are analyzed with data taken from the video clips of the two shows. The thesis falls into two major chapters: Chapter I: “Theoretical preliminaries” deals with the notion of culture, cross- culture, speech acts, classifications of speech acts, politeness, and politeness strategies. Chapter II: “Data analysis and findings”: Video clips are used to collect data for the study.
Giving comments which resorts to various strategies of politeness is a flexibly and effectively communicative act in both Vietnamese and American cultures. iv ABBREVIATIONS A: American CUP: Cambridge University Press TTA: Face Threatening Act H: The hearer NP: Negative Politeness PP: Positive Politeness S: The Speaker V: Vietnamese TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT ABBREVIATIONS ‘TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION L Rationale JL Aims of the study HI. Scope of the sludy IV. Comments on the informants VE.
Design of the sludy PART B: DEVELOPMENT AWA CHAPTER I: THEORITICAL PRELIMINARIES 1. Definition of culture WAR 1. Language-culuure interrelationshap 1.3 Communication and cross-cultural communication om 1.5 Communicative competence co 1.1 Theories of specch act 12.2 Classification of speech acts 12.3 Commenting as a speech act 13 Politeness 13.1 Theory of politeness 13.1 Positive politeness strategies 1.2 Negative politeness strategies. PART A: INTRODUCTION IL — RATIONALE Itis of little doubt that language plays a very important role in human’s life, ‘Then, English, nowadays, has become an international means of commumication in our moder life However, almost all of people leaming English find very difficult to understand or to convey English native speakers’ ideas or thinking, maybe, because of the cultural differen between Vietnam and English spoaking countrigs.
Besides, the lack of ths Jeamers’ awareness of the target language culture and the cultural differences is also the source of culture shock in every aspect of cross-cultural communication. It is the reason why those days, the study of communication and cross-cultural cornmunication bas ‘become an urgent need thanks to the popularity of mass media and the increasing demand of Communicative Langnage Teaching (CLT). Doing research on communicative acts has, therefore, been of great significance With the development of socicty, the need of entertainment has been inercasing morc rapidly, People seek many ways to relax their mind such as go for holiday, go camping and so on, However, the simplest way of enlartaininent is music. Many music shows and games have been broadcasted on TY attracting the interest of most of people.
Vietnam Idol and American idel are very famous shows of music nowadays. Besides selecting an excellent contestant to become the idol of music, the audience also concern the marmer the jndges give comments on the performance of confestanls. Thus, Vitmamase — American cross-cultural studies appear useftil and vital in this way. Commenting is common in many languages and ouifures.
It is realized by comforting, showing concer ar expressing likes or dislike or reaction, cle. with the hearer. Cross- cultural study on judges’ commenting on contestants” performance has not received much concem form linguistics and researchers, Then, how do Viemamese and American judges give comments on contestants” performance? How are the two manners different? Which aanner is a positive way? ‘Thhis leads the author to the decision to conduct a research into “A Vietnamese-American cross-cultural study of giving comments on contestants’ performance by juiges in Vietnam and American Tal” lo find oul the similarities and differences in the manner of giving comments of Vietnamese and American judges on tw obtained 51 utterances of commenting, meanwhile, she has got 36 commenting utterances of Victnam version, which makes a total of 87 ulleranees. This sive of the samples could somehow be considered eligible enough for the researcher to carry out a reliable study.
Research methods To conduct the study, the researcher has employed (wo methods namely quanti live and qualitative ones. The combination of these two msthods has offered the researcher valid data for later analysis Regarding the aim of the sludy, the researchor has found that quantitative is the most feasible method to deal with the research problems. It is because in the social sciences, quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of quantitative proportiss and phenomena and their relationships. The abjective of quantitative ressarch is to develop and employ mathematical models, thearies and/ or hypotheses pertaining to phenomena, The process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental conection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative rclationships.
Besides, qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, haditionally im the social sciences, bul also in markel research and further contexts, Qualitative researcher aims to gather an in-depth understanding of imman behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The qualitative method investigates the why and kow of devisioremakitys, nol just what, sehere, when. lence, smaller but focused samples are more oflen needed, rathor than large samples Data collection procedures ‘The data collection procedure has been divided into two successive phases Phase 1: This phase has concentrated mainly on collectmg 4 shows of American Idol and another 4 shows of Vietnam Mol. To be more specific, the researcher has spent a lot of time finding then watching 12 Vietnamese cpisodcs and 12 American ones then collected 4 cpisodss of each version, Phase 2: ‘The rescarcher has watched then takon notes all the transcripts of the commenting parts af totally 8 American and Vietnamese shows, Afterwards, she has identitied the strategies of politeness used in every commenting utterance franscripted.
Simultaneously, prominent CHAPTER LI DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS: TT. Information of American Yel and Vietmarn Idol ILL, American Idol 14. Vietnam Idol IT2. Realisation of polilsness sirategias in giving cormments an contestants? performance by judges in American Idol and Vietnam 11.1 Giving comments with both positive and negative politeness strategies 26 11.
Strategies realized and discussed 3 IL3 Data analysis of strategics in giving comments on contestants’ 31 performance by judges in Vicinam Idol 2010 and American 2011 113.1 Top 4júdges' chơice- Vietnam Idol and top 4 perform American Idol 2011 I1.2 Top 3 Vietnam Idol and top 3 perform American Idol 2011 1.2 Major cross-cultural similarities and differences 11.3 Concluding remarks PART C: CONCLUSLON 1 Summary of major findings I Implications TH. Suggestions for further study REFERENCES APPENDICES CHAPTER LI DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS: TT. Information of American Yel and Vietmarn Idol ILL, American Idol 14. Vietnam Idol IT2.
Realisation of polilsness sirategias in giving cormments an contestants? performance by judges in American Idol and Vietnam 11.1 Giving comments with both positive and negative politeness strategies 26 11. Strategies realized and discussed 3 IL3 Data analysis of strategics in giving comments on contestants’ 31 performance by judges in Vicinam Idol 2010 and American 2011 113.1 Top 4júdges' chơice- Vietnam Idol and top 4 perform American Idol 2011 I1.2 Top 3 Vietnam Idol and top 3 perform American Idol 2011 1.2 Major cross-cultural similarities and differences 11.3 Concluding remarks PART C: CONCLUSLON 1 Summary of major findings I Implications TH. Suggestions for further study REFERENCES APPENDICES ớ In this chapter, thearies of culture, cross-culture, culture-shock, languags-culture irúemolationship, speoch sel, and ch ñealions d[ speoch aols, polilene politenc: Principles and politeness strategies, definition of the two shows are ctitically discussed, Chapter Il: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS In this chapter, the author focuses on anatyzing the manner of giving commenls of judges through the two shows with the illustration of video clips (if necessary). The similarities and differences in the way of giving comments by Vietnamese and American judges are drawn from detailed and critival analysis of dala Part C: CONCLUSION ‘Summary of the major findings and suggestions for further research are mentioned in this pHrl.
tw obtained 51 utterances of commenting, meanwhile, she has got 36 commenting utterances of Victnam version, which makes a total of 87 ulleranees. This sive of the samples could somehow be considered eligible enough for the researcher to carry out a reliable study. Research methods To conduct the study, the researcher has employed (wo methods namely quanti live and qualitative ones. The combination of these two msthods has offered the researcher valid data for later analysis Regarding the aim of the sludy, the researchor has found that quantitative is the most feasible method to deal with the research problems.
It is because in the social sciences, quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of quantitative proportiss and phenomena and their relationships. The abjective of quantitative ressarch is to develop and employ mathematical models, thearies and/ or hypotheses pertaining to phenomena, The process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental conection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative rclationships. Besides, qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, haditionally im the social sciences, bul also in markel research and further contexts, Qualitative researcher aims to gather an in-depth understanding of imman behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The qualitative method investigates the why and kow of devisioremakitys, nol just what, sehere, when.
lence, smaller but focused samples are more oflen needed, rathor than large samples Data collection procedures ‘The data collection procedure has been divided into two successive phases Phase 1: This phase has concentrated mainly on collectmg 4 shows of American Idol and another 4 shows of Vietnam Mol. To be more specific, the researcher has spent a lot of time finding then watching 12 Vietnamese cpisodcs and 12 American ones then collected 4 cpisodss of each version, Phase 2: ‘The rescarcher has watched then takon notes all the transcripts of the commenting parts af totally 8 American and Vietnamese shows, Afterwards, she has identitied the strategies of politeness used in every commenting utterance franscripted. Simultaneously, prominent examples of each strategy have been noted down to exemplify the researcher’s later analysis, IVA. Data analysis procedures First, the verbal data have been interpreted into subtypes of politeness strategies.
As observed, thare are seven stralagies [hat are most commonly used by boll Vietnamese and American jndgas. Aifter that, the researcher has calculated the frequency of commentators’ using the above potitoness stratogies. This slop has beon followed by her converting the frequency ima the percentile forms for comparison, Finally, the researcher has compared the frequencies of politeness strategies used by Violinamose jndges and American ones ¥. COMMENTS ON THE INFORMANTS: In the two shows Vietnam Idol and American Idol, there are two groups of informants.
The ‘Vietnamese group consists of 3 informants (one female and two males), but in the final round, onc informant is added. The sccond group was 3 judges (also onc female and two males) Deiails of the informants’ parameters are - Vietnamese group: + "Two females: singer (Siu Black) and editor (Diem Quynh) «Two males: direclor (Quang Dung) and composer (Quoc Trung) - —— Ảmriem gronp ~ One female; singer/actress and record producer Jennifer Lopez ‘Two males: singer-songwriter Steven ‘Tyler and music manager Randy Jackson. DESIGN OF THE STUDY The thesis consists of three parts Part A: INTRODUCTION This part includes the rationale, aims, scope of the study, methodology and design of the study. Part B: DEVELOPMENT ‘This part is divided into Lwo chaplors Chapter I: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES contestants” performance.
‘The findings from the study hopefully would be a source of th slance in understanding between (he lwo cull: Aincriean and Vietriarncse I AIMS OF THE STUDY ‘The aims of the study are: + To convey ways which judges give verbal comments an contestanls’ performance in Vietnam Idol 2010 and American Idol 2011. - ‘Yo point out the similarities and differences in the manner American and ‘Vietnamese judges commenting in their target Tanguage end culture - Toanswer the two research questions: + Which politeness strategies are used by Vietnamese judges and which ones are chosen by Amorican judgos? ~ Who employs more politeness strategies in verbal communication; Viemamese judges and American ones?