Complimenting strategies by english-major students at Thai Nguyen University

Complimenting strategies by english-major
students at Thai Nguyen University


Trần Thị Yến


Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Phan Thi
̣
Vân Quyên
Năm bảo vệ: 2012


Abstract. This study aims to find out the preferred strategies by English-major students
at Thai Nguyen University when complimenting in English and to identify the
interferences from Vietnamese culture to the students’ choice of strategies. Data were
collected from 30 Vietnamese native speakers, 16 American English native speakers
and 30 English-major students at Thai Nguyen University. The result of the research
shows that American students, Vietnamese non-English major students and English-
major students at Thai Nguyen University shared all complimenting strategies: the
speaker-oriented, the hearer-oriented and the topic-oriented strategies; however, the
frequency of each complimenting strategies depends on their status, gender, compliment
topics and cultural background. English-major students at Thai Nguyen University seem
to be influenced by both of Vietnamese and American cultures.

Keywords. Tiếng Anh; Ngôn ngữ; Kỹ năng nói; Sinh viên

Content
1. Rationale

Learning a language means more than knowing linguistic features such as the rules of
grammar or the vocabulary system. We must also know how to use a language in its social and
communicative contexts; however, EFL teachers do not often stress pragmatic knowledge in
their classrooms, focusing instead on linguistic knowledge. As a result, even with a high level of
language proficiency and goodwill, learners still have great difficulty making themselves
understood or interpreting properly what is said to them. They even find it extremely difficult to
produce or sometimes understand a speech act such as a compliment, an apology, a request or a
refusal. The mistaken messages they send or receive lead not only to breakdowns in
communication, but also to bad effects within social relationships.
This common problem can also be seen in Vietnamese learners of English. Although they
may have spent a long time studying English and done very well on exams, they can not
communicate effectively with native speakers. The barrier here is cultural awareness. They are
from different cultures, thus have different frames of reference. Failure in communication can
cause what we call “culture shock”. We do things with words as Austin (1962) states. In our
mother tongue and our culture, we face little or no difficulty in employing words appropriately in
order to achieve our aim because we unconsciously follow the norms and conventions of our speech
community.
The speech act of complimenting has been chosen as the topic of the present study because
this speech act is highly representative of face-threatening acts and the realization of this speech
act is largely culture-specific (Gass, 1995; Liao, 1996). People from different cultures share the
same communicative purpose in complimenting each other. However, they tend to use different
patterns and strategies and compliment different attributes. When people compliment each other
in a foreign language, the intended purpose may not be achieved, but the reverse may occur. In
other words, miscommunication or misinterpretation happens when a user of a foreign language
inappropriately compliments others.
In Vietnam, in recent years, much research work has been done into various speech acts;
however, so far very little research has been carried out in Thai Nguyen University where
millions of non-English major students and thousands of English major students are learning and
speaking English. With an effort to fill the gap, we carried out this study as an investigation into
the speech act of complimenting by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University.

2. Aims of the Study
This study aims to find out the preferred strategies by English-major students at Thai
Nguyen University when complimenting in English and to identify the interferences from
Vietnamese culture to the students’ choice of strategies.
3. Research Questions
The study is intended to address the following questions:
[i]. What are the preferred strategies by English-major students at Thai Nguyen
University when complimenting in English?
[ii]. Is there any interference from Vietnamese culture to the students’ choice of
strategies when complimenting in English?
4. Significance of the Study
The researcher hopes that this study will be significant theoretically, practically and
pedagogically.
Theoretically, the study may contribute to the theoretical literature by examining the
interferences from Vietnamese culture to the choice of strategies when complimenting in English
by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University.
Practically, the study may reinforce these students’ awareness of the interferences from their
culture to their choice of strategies when complimenting in English by investigating what they
have already known and what they have not and what proves to be difficult when they are
confronted with the complimenting situations, which may help them achieve a better performance
in cross-cultural communication.
Pedagogically, research in cross-cultural communication including this paper may help
teachers and educators understand the students’ problems in order to evaluate textbooks and
other teaching materials as well as assessment procedures of language proficiency, to assess the
value of communicative language teaching practices, and to help learners develop strategies to
handle misunderstandings and other communication problems.
5. Scope of the Study
Due to limited time and experience, this study just focuses on verbal communication. Other

factors such as non-linguistic factors (facial expression, gestures, eye contact, etc.), paralinguistic
factors (intonation, pause, speed of speech, etc.) will not be taken into account.


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