VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ---------- PHẠM NGỌC LIÊN USING ASSOCIATIVE GROUP ANALYSIS TO INVESTIGATE UNDERLYING CULTURAL ASSUMPTIONS OF AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE (SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP PHÂN TÍCH LIÊN TƯỞNG THEO NHÓM NHẰM NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC GIẢ ĐỊNH VĂN HÓA ẨN CỦA NGƯỜI MỸ VÀ NGƯỜI VIỆT) MA. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 HANOI – 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ---------- PHẠM NGỌC LIÊN USING ASSOCIATIVE GROUP ANALYSIS TO INVESTIGATE UNDERLYING CULTURAL ASSUMPTIONS OF AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE (SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP PHÂN TÍCH LIÊN TƯỞNG THEO NHÓM NHẰM NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC GIẢ ĐỊNH VĂN HÓA ẨN CỦA NGƯỜI MỸ VÀ NGƯỜI VIỆT) MA. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Hạnh, PhD HANOI – 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT I hereby certify my authority of the Study Project Report submitted entitled “Using Associative Group Analysis to Investigate Underlying Cultural Assumptions” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Hanoi 2017 Phạm Ngọc Liên i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Best of thanks to all those who helped along the way.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This paper investigates the influences of intercultural exposure on schema, or more specifically, underlying cultural assumption shifting by applying Associative Group Analysis on three groups of Americans, Vietnamese students in a group called Hanoikids in Hanoi with frequent international exposure and Vietnamese students in Lao Cai province with little to none exposure. The results show that although there are a few similarities between Hanoikids and the other groups, those are not systematic and/or can be explained by factors other than cultural identity. It suggests that people from the same culture or country might have distinctive schema on even everyday concepts. Thus, assumptions about a person based on where he/she comes from might prove to be misjudgments.
To avoid that, it is advisable that we also pay attention to the aspect of individuality on top of cultural identity in intercultural situations. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES Table 1.1: Numbers of words and total weighted scores of the three groups for each theme word. 41 FIGURES SEMANTOGRAPHS Figure 1.1: Semantograph for the theme “Graduation” .1: Semantograph for the theme “A Good Job” .1: Semantograph for the theme “Ambition” .1: Semantograph for the theme “Moving out” .1: Semantograph for the theme “Parents” .1: Semantograph for the theme “Happiness” .1: Semantograph for the theme “Freedom” .1: Semantograph for the theme “LGBT” .1: Semantograph for the theme “Travel Around the World”. 39 WORD CLOUDS Word cloud 1.2: Word clouds for the theme “Graduation” from Hanoikids and American respondents .2: Word clouds for the theme “A Good Job” from Hanoikids and American respondents .2: Word clouds for the theme “Ambition” from Hanoikids and American respondents .2: Word clouds for the theme “Moving out” from Hanoikids and American respondents .2: Word clouds for the theme “Parents” from Hanoikids and American respondents.
30 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Word cloud 6.2: Word clouds for the theme “Happiness” from Hanoikids and American respondents .2: Word clouds for the theme “Freedom” from Hanoikids and American respondents .2: Word clouds for the theme “LGBT” from Hanoikids and American respondents .2: Word clouds for the theme “Travel Around the World” from Hanoikids and American respondents. 40 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT. iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Identification of the problem and rationale. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Culture and intercultural competence.
Schema and underlying cultural assumptions. ASSOCIATIVE GROUP ANALYSIS: METHOD AND PROCEDURE. The Associative Group Analysis method and procedure. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS.
Main features of the three groups’ responses for the theme “Graduation”. Main features of the three groups’ responses for the theme “(A) Good Job”. Main features of the three groups’ responses for the theme “Ambition”. Main features of the three groups’ responses for the theme “Moving out” 25 3.
Main features of the three groups’ responses for the theme “Parents”. Main features of the three groups’ responses for the theme “Happiness”. 31 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Main features of the three groups’ responses for the theme “Freedom”.
Main features of the three groups’ responses for the theme “LGBT”. Main features of the three groups’ responses for the theme “Travel Around the World”. Finding Summary and Discussion. Suggestions for further studies.
English Survey Form. Vietnamese Survey Form. II vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Identification of the problem and rationale Terms such as “the American culture”, “the Vietnamese culture” or “the Japanese culture” are ubiquitous in our daily life and even research articles.
These terms seem to indicate that each country has only one uniform culture, which, if not everyone, then at least the majority of people in it would share. This kind of assumption often appears in intercultural situations, such as the one below between two Hanoikids members, the students who work as free tour guide in Hanoi, and their American guests. The audio was recorded in an attempt to gather data for this research exclusively. American 1 (A1): Russians, they’re not that nice.
They're really cold. Hanoikids 1 (H1): Yes, as cold as their weather. A1: And then Vietnamese are as warm as their weather. (both laugh) H1: Yeah, so Africans are the most… the friendliest in the world.
We've been there a few months, they're very friendly. H1: I went to the south, Nha Trang and Phan Thiet. That's the place in Vietnam where there're many Russian tourists. A1: Really? H1: Because they have a straight flight from Russia to the city.] H1: So for Russians - they're really beautiful but they're not that friendly, uhm, so.
I went there, not during the summer vacation - I just took some days off. Hanoikids 2 (H2): To Nha Trang? H1: Yeah, I went travelling but after that we had a kind of tourism presentation so we conducted a kind of survey to ask the tourists and ask if they could record. But when we 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com approached them. A1: Oh (laugh) H1: Yeah, they just give me a really very cold expression so… they're just like mafia.
A1: It feels like mafia. H2: Russians are like mafia? Because when listening to mafia, we just like think of Italians.] A1: But Russians are also really pretty. A2: But of course they're cold.] H1: You know, Vietnamese really like Russians because they helped us a lot during the war, they do. A2: Up until now? H1: Yeah, until now, like people from my parents' generation.
H1: They really like Russians. My dad, when he went to Russia, how to say, he said that they really welcome, was really welcomed there. He really likes Russians. A1: Oh really? A2: Older generation? H1: Yeah.
H2: Yeah, different from the younger generation. They suffered from something bad, like World War II. H1: Like US war, so they shared the same pain. Oh, and we have something like, English or British are really cold.
They're really cold. A2: They don’t talk much. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com H1: Yeah, they're kind of reserved, and then, but then there's a story that because England is so foggy, so we're this close, but because of the fog so we can't see each other. So it appears they're cold but they're not really, because they don't see you.
Nguyen, personal communication, June 19, 2016) There are many generic country and cultural assumptions here, from the weather of a country (“England is so foggy”), its people’s physical appearances (“Russians are also really pretty”), to their characteristics (Russians “are really cold”, British “are kind of reserved”). These assumptions often imply the homogeneity of characteristics or sharing of identity among people from the same country, or culture. However, would individuals really be shaped by only just where they come from? How are their personal values affected by their geographical dwellings and/or their native culture? How do international and/or intercultural experiences exert impacts on their beliefs and values? To seek answers for those questions, the research is carried out by studying the three groups of the U. residents whose mother tongue is English, the Vietnamese from Lao Cai province, Vietnam, whose first language is Vietnamese, and Hanoikids club’s members, who are students in Hanoi conducting free tour guiding for foreigners visiting their city.
Aims of the study The first purpose of this paper is to investigate an often alleged assumption made in intercultural communications, that people from the same country or culture share a higher degree of similarity in identity than those from a different one. The argument is that, in this day and age of globalization, with easy access to various sources of up-to-date, all-over-the-world information, foreign music, reading materials and cinematography, and the development of transportations 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com leading to more convenient traveling, the intercultural exchange frequency is higher than ever and still increasing. Thus, for people enjoying large intercultural exposure, it is possible to develop background knowledge and values very different from those of the same nationality/culture with less exposure, while more similar to a foreign culture. The second purpose of this paper is to examine if the effect of intercultural exposure on individuals of the same group is definitive, i., if it results in consistent outcome, such as tending towards being more similar to another certain culture, for each person.
Research questions The research is designed to offer answers for the following questions: a, To what extent do people from each nation share the same set of cultural values? How does this affect its people in terms of underlying cultural assumptions, or schemata? b, How would exposure to international and/or intercultural situations impact individuals? 4. Scope of the study Due to limited resources, the research focuses on investigating only three groups: thirty-two Americans, thirty-four Hanoikids members – Vietnamese students with high international interaction frequency and thirty-two Vietnamese students with low international interaction frequency. It is to compare if the two Vietnamese groups demonstrate substantially higher degree of similarity than the group from a foreign culture. residents are chosen to be in this study as they are often regarded as a culture with values on the other end of the spectrum compared to oriental cultures like the Vietnamese’s, as well as because of their popularity and strong influences worldwide.
Moreover, the United States also offer one of the 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com greatest number of guests for Hanoikids (along with Australia, Singapore and Canada – number in 2016), therefore, Hanoikids members are more likely to be affected by their culture than others’. Methodology The study employs the Associative Group Analysis, which is specialized on analyzing cultural background knowledge, and in this case, an indicator for underlying cultural assumptions of each group. This is a method employing both psychology and linguistics approaches, most commonly used in intercultural studies, making the research an interdisciplinary one. The method and procedure will be described in more details in Chapter II.
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