HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON MAKING INVITATION IN
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IN TERMS OF CROSSCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Supervisor: M.A, Vũ Tuấn Anh
Name of student: Nguyễn Việt Hưng
Date of birth: 05/02/1996
Class: K21A2(2014-2018)
Ha Noi - 2018
1.Rationale
There is no doubt that today mastering a language is very necessary because it
can give learners important opportunities to communicate to study and work
effectively abroad. It is very difficult to master a foreign language because the
enormous vocabulary and profound understanding in grammar are not enough.
So it is necessary for learners to understand the culture of the language that they
want to master. Let take English and Vietnamese as an example. There are
differences in the use of language between English and Vietnamese. To learn a
language means to learn the culture of the country where the language is
spoken. This can help learners to master this language as well as immerse in to
the culture and daily life the target language to comprehend that language.
Acquiring a second language demands more than learning new words and
another system of grammar (Levine and Adelman, 1982). The goal of
learning language nowadays is to be able to have effective communication with
native speakers. However, communication can fail to achieve as the
misunderstanding of the country’s culture. The good knowledge of the country’s
culture can helps learners to interact well with the people in the native country
where the language is widely spoken. As a result, it is very difficult to combine
culture and use cultural knowledge well in learning a language. Each language
and the culture of the country cannot be separated from each other. Each
country has its own traditions, customs, rituals reflected by the language.
Understanding social conventions and attention to such concepts as
politeness, and face, which are important to members in a particular
culture, will certainly enable us to better comprehend the different ways of
speaking by people from different cultures, thus helping eliminate ethnic
stereotypes and misunderstandings. Problems arise as language learners are not
competent and fail to understand the cultural- social aspects of communication.
Take speech acts of invitation as an example. Vietnamese saying goes: "khách đến
nhà không trà thì bánh" (when guests come, either tea or cakes should be served).
This saying highlights the importance of inviting in Vietnamese culture, where
invitation speech acts make up a high proportion in daily interactions. Inviting
undoubtedly plays an important role in communication in all cultures. Wall (1987)
indicated that many of our daily social interactions involve making invitations and
responding to them. In daily social life, people are sometimes invited to go
somewhere or to do something on important occasions such as weddings, birthdays,
and graduations, to small ones like movies, eating out, or vendors in the markets
invite customers to buy their items. Take these two following sentences as
examples:
(1) Alan and I wanted to have a few people over for a dinner party to celebrate
finishing my dissertation, and we’d like to invite you especially, since you’re
chairman. (Tillitt & Bruder, 1999, p.23).
(2)
Ăn cho vui. Cô Nga. (Thach Lam, 2000, p.167)
Invitations help to establish, maintain, reinforce and further strengthen social
rapports. Americans and Vietnamese share certain similarities in terms of making
and responding to invitations in social interactions. However, differences are
undoubtedly numerous. Many cases of making invitations are different in Vietnam
and American. Mastering how to make appropriate invitations which are suitable to
a particular culture should be taken in considerations so as not to cause hurts,
shocks, misunderstandings, and misinterpretations. A frequently misunderstood area
in American verbal interaction is that of extending, accepting, and refusing
invitations (Levine & Adelman, 1982). Moreover, helping Vietnamese learners of
English master and use invitation-making effectively is a must.
2.Aims and objectives of the study
The thesis aims to find out the good ways to make invitations in Vietnamese and
English native speakers. In addition, this paper aims to find out the syntactic
and cultural similarities and differences between spoken invitations in
Vietnamese and English native speakers.
3.Scope of the study
This paper focuses on how to make invitations in English and Vietnamese
speakers. This paper, moreover, aims to analyze the similarities and differences
in making invitations in English and Vietnamese.
4.Research questions
The research is aimed to answer the following to answer the following
questions:
1. How to make spoken invitation in the English culture?
2. How to make spoken invitation in the Vietnamese culture?
3. What are similarities and differences in making spoken invitations in
making spoken in the Vietnamese and English cultures?
4.What are the implications of the similarities and differences in
making spoken invitations in the English and Vietnamese to English
learners?
5.Methods of the study
In carrying the research I have adopted such methods of study as descriptive
methods, contrastive analysis, statistic techniques and observation.
6.Design of the study
The study consists of three parts:
Part A -Introduction deals with Rationale, Aims, Scope, Research Questions,
Methods and Design of the study.
Part B- Development consists of three chapters: Chapter 1 talks about Literature
Review, Chapter 2 states on making invitation in English and Vietnamese, some
similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese invitations.
Chapter 3- Application for English learners in translation will be pointed out.
Part C - Conclusion will be shown, followed by References part.
TABLE OF CONTENT
ACKNOWLEGDEMENT
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
1.3. Scope of the study
1.4. Research questions
1.5. Methods of the study
1.6. Design of the study
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Politeness strategies
2.2. Generalization of speech acts
2.2.1. Definitions of speech acts
2.2.2. Classification of speech acts
2.3. Invitations as speech acts
2.4. Pragmatics and cross-cultural pragmatics
2.5. Categories of inviting in English and Vietnamese
2.5.1. Direct invitations in English and Vietnamese
2.5.2. Indirect invitations in English and Vietnamese
2.6. The similarities and differences in making invitations between English and
Vietnamese
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Research questions
3.2. Research hypothesis
3.3. Research method
3.4. Summary
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4. 1. An overview of results
4.1.1. An overview of results in equal power settings
4.1.2. An overview of results high power settings
4.1.3. An overview of results low power settings
4.2. Results of data analysis
4.2.1. The choice of inviting forms in equal power settings
4.2.2. The choice of inviting forms in high power settings
4.2.3. The choice of inviting forms in low power settings
4.3. Discussion
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
5.1. Summary, major findings and implications on teaching
5.1.1. Summary
5.1.2. Major findings
5.1.3. Implications on teaching
5.2. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies
5.2.1. Limitations of the study
5.2.2. Suggestions for further studies
REFERENCES