This paper investigates how similarly and differently native speakers of English
and Vietnamese use apologies politely in terms of cross-cultural perspective in
the light of 3 apology strategies including: getting attention, rejecting a request or
an invitation and admitting guilt with an explanation basing on the previous
study of Mrs. Huynh Cam Thao Trang (2009) as a foundation for research. The
data are collected by books, questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire is
obtained with 20 Vietnamese participants and 20 English participants including
American, Australian, Canadian and English. The interview is also delivered to
20 English participants and 20 Vietnamese participants. The participants for
questionnaire and interview are different. Their responses then are analyzed
separately to identify the types of apology structure and to measure the degree of
frequency in giving apologies. The study is of a descriptive nature. Frequencies,
percentages and the means of these percentages are considered. The prime
findings of the study reveal that Vietnamese and English native speakers are
nearly similar in the choice of apology forms appropriate in admitting guilt with
an explanation and different in the degree of using apologizing words. The
Vietnamese native speakers less give apologies than native speakers of English.
It seems that the English native speakers give apologies more politely than
Vietnamese people but in Vietnamese culture instead of using apologizing word
Vietnamese people have different ways of speaking to show the politeness.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1. Motivation of the study
Commonly language is an important part of culture, and a culture is reflected
through its language. A piece of culture can be referred to, but it is differently
interpreted. In the broadest sense, language is also the symbolic
representation of a person, since it comprises his/her historical and cultural
background, as well as his/her approach to life and his/her ways of living
and thinking. Brown (1994: 165) describes that “a language is a part of a
culture and a culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately
interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the
significance of either language or culture”. In a word, culture and language are
inseparated, so foreign language learning is foreign culture learning. As a result,
nowadays learning a foreign language does not only learn syntactic structures or
learn new vocabulary and expressions but also incorporate some cultural
elements intertwined with language itself. As Vietnam is integrating many
countries around the world, learning English is getting more and more important
and essential. English has been used as an international language all over the
world and as a means of communication with different purposes. However, to
succeed in communication is not easy since every society has its own socio-
cultural and communicative behaviors. The difficulty is that understanding how
to communicate effectively with individuals who speak another language or who
rely on different means to reach communicative goal. It is, therefore, perhaps the
most important for people to realize that a basic understanding of cultural
diversity is the key to effective cross-cultural communications.
In daily life, people take plenty of actions to communicate with others, for
example, thanks, apologies, greetings, invitations, compliments, requests or
complaints which can be done both verbally and non-verbally. There have been
many conflicts of the world are caused as result of the lack of cross –culture
knowledge. Take speech acts of apology as an example. An apology is one of the
cultural features that people who learn English need to pay attention to. It is anexpressive speech act which is not only a normal utterance but also an issue of great concern.
For the above reasons, finding the similarities and differences in English and
Vietnamese in apologies is a must. The finding hopefully helps Vietnamese
teachers and learners keep the conversation with foreigners going on. To achieve
it, the thesis is attempted to answer tree research questions:
1. How do the Vietnamese native speakers and the English native speakers say
apologies?
2. What are the similarities and differences in making polite apologies between
the Vietnamese native speakers and the English native speakers?
3. Do ages, social positions and relationships influence making polite apologies?
2. Aims of the study
The aims of this study are to compare how similarly and differently the native
speakers of English and Vietnamese use apologies in terms of cross-cultural
features based on comparing the structures and strategies of apologies.
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