4B07 NguyenThiMyNgan a Contrastive Analysis of Refusing an Offer in English and Vietnamese

Running head: REFUSING AN OFFER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

Refusing an offer in English and Vietnamese

A Contrastive Analysis

Nguyen Thi My Ngan

HCMC University of Education

Contrastive Analysis Course 2010

Instructor: Nguyen Ngoc Vu

December, 2010

Refusing an offer in English and Vietnamese 1

Abstract

It’s really difficult to refuse someone when he or she offers you

something or to do something, especially when you’re busy or you don’t

want to do. You want to refuse but you don’t know how to say let your

friends or your listeners feel satisfied and contented. Or when your boss

offers you a promotion but you feel you have no ability, how can you

refuse? I hope this paper will help students understand the differences of

refusing an offer in Vietnamese and English to become more proficient in

their studying of English.

Based on literary works either published or uploaded in the internet

and English speaking materials written by native speakers, this paper

studies refusals of offers to enhance the efficiency of the teaching and

learning of this speech act in English and Vietnamese, create the

tactfulness and flexibility in language use for both Vietnamese learners of

English and English-speaking learners of Vietnamese with the maxim

declared in a Vietnamese proverb: “You don’t have to buy words, so don’t

let them hurt the feeling of others.”

Moreover, investigating the politeness strategies of refusals and

finding the similarities and differences in two languages can help the

Vietnamese learners overcome the difficulties caused the interfere of two

cultures when they face the sticky cases of refusing offers. It also helps to

enhance and improve language communicative competence of

Vietnamese learners of English.


Literature review

Refusal is characterized as a response to one of the speech acts,

request, invitation, offer and suggestion, rather than as an initiating act. It is

a speech by which a speaker denies to engage in an action proposed by

the interlocutor (Chen, Ye and Zhang, 1995)

The speech act of refusal occurs when a speaker directly or

indirectly say no to a request or invitation. Refusal is a face-threatening act

to listener/requestor, inviter, because it contradicts his or her expectations,

and it often realized through indirect strategies. Thus it requires a high

level of pragmatic competence (Chen, 1996).

Until now, there have been some works studying about refusals.

Nguyen Phuong Chi studied some ways of refusals: nonverbal like shaking

the head, brushing something aside, having a dirty look… and verbal.

Pham Thi Van Quyen studied the refusals of requesting in Vietnamese in

comparison with English basing on some available situations. Nguyen Thi

Hai studied the refusals in conversations with actions “request”, “ask,

“beg”, “advice”, “invite”, “ thank”, “ compliment”, “ congratulate” …in

Vietnamese.

In this paper, I will give some examples of the English and

Vietnamese refusals of offers in different situations. In the whole paper, I

just focus on verbal refusing an offer. I include three types of offer refusals:

direct, indirect, both direct and indirect. Then I show some similarities as

well as differences in refusing an offer in English and Vietnamese. The

final part of the paper, I will explain the pedagogical implications of this

function- refusing an offer.


Refusing an offer

I) Definition:

According to Vietnamese dictionary, refusal means you don’t

want to accept the things you was given or offered (page 1036). For

example, you refuse an offer, an invitation, a duty, ect. In Oxford

Advanced dictionary, the noun refusal is an act of saying or showing

that you will do not give or accept something.

Offer means an act of saying that you are willing to do something

for somebody or give something to somebody (Oxford dictionary, page

1052).

Refusing an offer here means you are not willing or reject to do

something when someone offers you to do. It also means you don’t

accept the offer help of someone.

The communication strategies are affected by many factors,

particularly Culture, especially face and politeness.

II) Types:

In this paper, I use four situations for three main types of refusing

an offer in English and Vietnamese. I take the examples from the study

by Ly Quy Khuong and Tran Thi Phuong Thao, 2004 . Here are four

situations which I use to analyze how the listeners refuse:

Situation 1: You’re very busy. Your colleague offers you to help

him. You don’t have time to help him, how can you refuse him?

Situation 2: You bike is broken. Your friend offers to help you to

take it to bike repair store. You don’t want to bother him or you don’t

want to accept his help offer. How can you refuse him?


Situation 3: You come to visit your friend’s house. Your friend

offers you some cakes that you don’t want to eat. How can you refuse

her?

Situation 4: You have just moved to a new flat several days. You

have difficulty in unlocking the door. Your neighbor offers to help you.

You don’t want, how can you refuse?

After each example in one language, I use the parentheses to

explain the equivalent structures in another language.

1) Refusing an offer directly

According to conversation theory, speech act was made appropriate

to termination of their own speech is direct speech act. Consider the

following examples to see the differences between two languages easily.

Some examples in Vietnamese refusals:

[1] Thôi. Chuyện của mình thì tự giải quyết đi. Tôi không

có rảnh rang. ( No. You should solve your problem by yourself. I’m not

free)1 (situation 1)

[ 2] “ Thôi. Về đi. Xe của tôi chứ có phải xe của Bình

đâu?.” ( No. Go away. It’s my bike, not your bike, ok?) (situation

2)

[3] Bánh này dở lắm. Không ăn đâu. ( This cake is bad. I

don’t want to eat). (situation 3)

[4] Thôi khỏi. Tôi không cần anh giúp. ( No. I don’t need

your help. (situation 4)

Some examples of English:

[5] I can’t help you. Don’t bother me. ( tôi không giúp anh/

chị đâu. Đừng làm phiền tôi(situation 1)

[6] Go away. ( làm ơn biến đi dùm đi). ( situation 2)

[7] No, it’s awful. ( Không, nó ghê quá) (situation 3)

1 The part in parentheses in this paper is the equivalent structure in other language.


[8] No. go away. ( không, đi đi). (Situation 4)

From the example 1 to example 6, the listeners or offered

people refuse directly, bluntly and indelicately. These ways of

response may hurl the informants’ feelings or make them be

shocked. However, the number of these sentences is not much.

Khuong and Thao say that almost informants suppose the use of

delicate, tactful and polite language still have more effect in

refusal strategies. Considering these examples to understand

more:

[9] Phương à, xin lỗi. Chắc tôi không giúp anh/ chị được

rồi. ( Sorry Phuong, Perhaps I can’t help you) (situation 1)

[ 10] “ Thôi. Muộn rồi. Bình về trước đi.” ( No. It’s too late.

You should go home, Binh) (situation 2)

[11] Không. Cảm ơn. Mình không thích ăn loại bánh này. (

No. Thanks. I don’t like this kind of cake). (situation 3)

[12] I’d really like to help you, but you see I’m so busy in

my project. Sorry, I can’t help you. ( Tôi thật sự rất muốn giúp

anh/ chị. Nhưng anh/ chị thấy rồi đó, tôi rất bận rộn làm kế hoạch

của mình. Xin lỗi, tôi không thể giúp anh/chị được.) (situation 1)

[13] No, it’s alright. I can manage. ( Không, được rồi. Mình

có thể tự xoay sở.) (situation 2)

[14] No, Thank you. ( Không, cảm ơn) (situation 3)

Moreover, unlike native speakers of English, Vietnamese

sometimes likes to use proverbs of philosophy in human life when

they refuse directly:

Ex: Không cần anh giúp đâu. Đèn nhà ai nấy sáng đi ( I

don’t need your help. Half the world not knows how the other half

lives). (situation 4)


2) Refusing an offer indirectly:

Here are some responses to three situations indirectly in

Vietnamese and English:

In Vietnamese, we have some examples:

[15] Phương à, thât sự xin lỗi. Dạo này tôi bận tập trung

vào kế hoạch kinh doanh mới, sợ là tới hết năm nay cũng chưa

hết bận nữa. David rất nhiệt tình, hay anh/ chị thử nhờ anh ấy

xem. (I’m really sorry, Phuong. This time, I’m really busy to

concentrate on my new project.I’m afraid I’m going to be busy

until the end of the year. David is really ethusiatic, You can ask

him to help you). (situation 1)

[16] Cảm ơn Binh, mình dắt bộ được mà. …với lại đoạn

này chẳng có tiệm sửa xe đâu. ( Thanks Binh, I can walk to take

it. Moreover, there is no bike repair shop). (situation 2)

[17] Cảm ơn bạn. Tôi ăn chưa quen loại bánh này.

( Thanks. I’m not familiar with eating this kind of cake). (situation

3)

[18a] Cảm ơn anh. Hôm qua tôi tự mở được. Phiền anh, tôi

ngại lắm. ( thanks. Yerterday I can open it. I’m afraid of bothering

you”. (Situation 4)

[18b] Chà, chà anh tốt quá nhưng em nghĩ em tự mở

được. Cảm ơn anh nhiều. ( You’re so kind but I think I can open

it. Thank you very much”. (situation 4)

In English, we have some examples for refusing the offer for 4

above situations:

[19a] I’d like to help you, but I’m really busy in my new project.

Sorry. ( Tôi rất muốn giúp anh/chị nhưng tôi bận làm kế hoạch mới rồi.

Thông cảm nha). (situation 1)


Or [19b] Sorry, I’m really busy this time. ( Xin lỗi, dạo này tôi bận

lắm). (situation 1)

[20] I really appreciate your concern but I can solve this by myself.

Thanks anyway. ( Tôi đánh giá cao sự quan tâm của bạn nhưng tôi có thể

tự giải quyết. Dù sao đi nữa cũng cảm ơn). (situation 2)

[21] Well Thanks, it look delicious. But I’m really full. Next time, I’ll

try it. ( Nhìn ngon quá nhưng mà tôi no quá. Lần sau tôi sẽ cố gắng thử).

(Situation 3)

[22] Oh, Thanks. You’re so generous, but I’m familiar with it ( Bạn

thật sự hào phóng làm sao, nhưng tôi quen với việc này rồi).(situation 4)

These involve the politeness strategy in language. Politeness is a

popular phenomenon to every society, every aspect of interaction. Without

politeness, life loses the good relationship between human to each other.

Politeness is a culture issue which has the features of each community.

Every society, every country has its own politeness principles. However,

evaluating which statement is true, how to speak politely, which level is

formal is regulated by each specific culture.

In reality, sometimes we can achieve the effect by using this speech

act instead of using other speech act. This is an indirect speech act.

Indirect speech act strategies based on ability to express something

indirectly and its contents are shown by the definition “Direct speech act”

(Searle, 1975). By refusing “No, I don’t want to lend you my money”,

informant can say “Sorry, My mum hasn’t sent my money yet” to inform

that he doesn’t want to help his partner.

There are many opinions in the use of direct or indirect speech act.

Some authors say that brief and condensed way of indirect speaking will

help to express the own personality of the speakers. Moreover, it’s perhaps

more politely than direct way of speaking. Consider two examples to

realize the politeness in these utterances:


Khuong anh Thao( 2004) says that most of surveyed examples in

Vietnamese start with “gratitude” and give the explanations for their

refusals or otherwise. While English sentences often start with phrases

“You’re so kind”, “you’re a wonderful person…” or “I’m awfully sorry, but...”,

then reasons or promise of accepting the offer in the future. This ends with

gratitude. Besides that, interestingly, as I have mention above, Vietnamese

would like to use some sentences with “the philosophy of human life” that

are familiar with Vietnamese to response indirectly.

For examples:

[23] Anh/ chị nhờ Advid thử coi vì “trong khốn khó mới biết bạn

hiền”. ( You can offer David to help you because “hard times show whether

a friend is a true friend”. (Situation 1).

3) Refusing an offer both directly and indirectly:

The speakers can response the other’s offer by combining both

direct and indirect speech act.

Here are some responses for four situations above:

In Vietnamese:

[24] “Anh Phương à,Như đã giải thích hôm trước, tôi đang

có dự án cần hoàn thành gấp nên không thể giúp anh được. Dù

không trực tiếp tham gia nhưng tôi có thể nhờ một người khác

phụ giúp anh/chị”. Dạo này anh khỏe không? ( Phuong, As I

explained last time, I have had a project in emergency so I can’t

help you. Though I don’t take part in, I can have someone else to

help you. How have you been). (situation 1)

[25] Cảm ơn Bình rất nhiều. Mà Bình về đi vì muộn lắm rồi.

Mình tự dắt bộ được. Với lại đoạn đường này không có tiệm sửa

xe đâu. ( Thanks Binh. You should go home because it’s too late.

I can take it. Moreover, there is no bike repair store here).

(situation 2)


[26] Cảm ơn bạn. Thật sự mình chưa quen ăn loại bánh

này. Với lại mình còn no lắm. Mình không ăn nữa đâu. Lần sau

nhất định mình sẽ ăn thử. ( thanks. I’m not familiar with this kind

of cake. I’m still full. I can’t eat more. I’ll try next time). (situation

3)

[27] Cái cửa này hôm qua em mở được. Chắc hôm nay sẽ

mở được. Anh khỏi giúp em đi. Không sao đâu. Có gì em gọi anh

sau. Thôi cũng trễ rồi, anh về phòng ngủ đi. Chúc anh ngủ ngon.

( I can open it yesterday. Today I can open. You don’t need to

help me. Don’t worry for me. I will call up you later.. It’s too late,

you should return your room. Good night.). ( situation 4).

In English:

[28] In fact, I’d like to help you, but I’m really busy in my

new project. Sorry. I can’t help you. I think David can help you.

( Tôi rất muốn giúp anh/chị nhưng tôi bận làm kế hoạch mới rồi.

Xin lỗi, tôi không giúp anh/chị được. Tôi nghĩ David giúp anh/

chị được đó) (situation 1)

[29] No, thanks. It’s too late now, you should go home. I

really appreciate your concern but I can solve it by myself. See

you later. ( thôi cảm ơn bạn. trễ rồi bạn về đi. Cảm ơn bạn đã

quan tâm nhưng mình tư giải quyết được). (Situation 2)

[30] Thanks. It looks delicious but I’m really full so I’ll have

to pass it. ( Cảm on nhé. Nhìn ngon quá nhưng mình no quá rồi.

đành bỏ qua nó thôi.). (Situation 3)

[31] You’re so kind but I’m familiar with it. You don’t need to

help me. I can manage it. Thanks ever so much. ( anh tốt quá

nhưng tôi đã quen với nó rồi. không cần giúp tôi. Tôi xoay sở

được. cảm ơn nhiều nhé.). (Situation 4)


In example 23 and 27, we can find that these are not only the

refusals; they are also the greetings in everyday life.

III) The Contrast between English and Vietnamese in refusing

offers:

Based on the above examples and the examples in the surveys of

Khuong and Thao (2007), Let see some differences in syntactic structure

by the following tables and also consider the word use.

The structure of direct speech act:

In English :

Table 1

Negative words refusing words

No I don’t need your help,

You don’t need to help me…

Table 2:

Negative word Thanking

No Thanks,

thank you,

thanks ever so much

Table 3:

appreciation reasons Excuses/apology

I’d like to help you But I’m too busy to help

you

Sorry ( situation 1).


In Vietnamese:

Table 3:

Negative word Thanking

Thôi

Không

Khỏi cần

Không cần đâu

Cảm ơn

Cảm ơn

Cảm ơn

Cảm ơn

The structure of indirect speech act:

In English:

Table 4

Addressee terms Excuses/apology reasons

Phương à, Thành thật xin lỗi Tôi bận quá,

không giúp anh được

rồi.( situation 1).

Table 5

Thanking word Reasons/ explaining why not

accepting

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I can manage it.

But I can do it by myself.

But I’m really full.


Table 6

Positive appreciation Reasons/ explaining

why not accepting

Thanking word

I really appreciate your

concern

A nice offer

You’re so kind

but I can solve this by

myself

but I can open it

but I can manage

Thank any way

Thanks

Thank you.

Thank you very much

Thanks a lots.

Table 7:

Compliments/ exclamations Expressing the regrets

It looks delicious

Oh, What a pity!

But I’m really full. I’ll try it next time.( situation 2)

I wish I didn’t eat anything before I come here.

( situation 2)

Table 8:

Calming words Reasons/ explaining why not

accepting

Don’t worry

Never mind

It’s better now. ok ( Situation 1)

Let me try. (Situation 4).


And some here are the structures of some sentences of refusing an

offer in Vietnamese:

Table 9:

Thanking words Reasons/ explaining why

not accepting

Cảm ơn Bình

Cảm ơn bạn

Cảm ơn anh nha

Nhưng mình có thể tự dắt xe về

được. ( situation 2)

Tôi chưa quen loại bánh này.

( situation 3).

Hôm qua tôi tự mở được, chắc hôm

nay tự mở được.

Table 10:

The sympathies with the

interlocutor

The replacing actions

Cũng trễ lắm rồi, Bình về trước đi

Bạn làm gì đủ sức mà mở

Để mình dắt được mà. ( situation 2).

Để đó đi. ( situation 4)

Table 11:

Thanking words Philosophy of human life.

Cảm ơn Nhưng “đèn nhà ai nấy sáng” đi

anh ạ . ( situation 4)


Nhưng “đèn nhà ai nấy sáng” Bình

à. ( situation 2)

Table 12:

The person who refuses gives the

anxiety/ worry

Reasons/ explaining for the

anxiety or worry

Mình chỉ sợ

Em không muốn

Làm phiền Bình thôi.( situation 2)

Anh đổ mồ hôi vì những chuyện lặt

vặt này (situation 4).

The structure of both direct and indirect speech act:

In both English and Vietnamese, the rate of these kinds of sentences

is really rarely. ( Khuong, 2007).

In English:

Table 13:

We can show the structure of situation 1 in direct and indirect

speech act of refusing an offer like this

Addressee

term

reasons Refusing

words

promise asking for

information

See example 24 above.

Table 14:

Negative

words/phrases

Thanking

words

Reasons/ explaining

why not accepting

No Thanks But I can manage


No Thanks It’s too late now. I think

you should go home.

( situation 2).

Table 15:

Appreciations Refusing words Thanking

You’re so generous But I don’t need Thanks any way

Thanks

Thank you

In Vietnamese:

We can show the structure of situation 1 in direct and indirect

speech act of refusing an offer like this

Table 16

Appreciation Reasons excuses Promise/advise

See example 28 above.

Table 17

Negative

words/phrases

Thanking words Reasons/ explaining

why not accepting

Thôi được rồi Cảm ơn Bình Mình tự dắt bộ

xe được rồi.

Table 18:

Thanking words Reasons/ explaining

why not accepting

Promising/ wishing

Cảm ơn bạn Tôi ăn chưa quen loại Lần sau tôi nhất định


Cảm ơn anh

bánh này lắm

Chắc em tự mởi được

sẽ ăn thử

Khuya rồi, chúc anh

ngủ ngon nhé.

In both English and Vietnam`ese, these kinds of both direct and

indirect sentences are very rare but sometimes people still like to use them

in refusing an offer.

The similarities

Refusal speech act varies in directness with situation and culture but

there are some similarities in refusing an offer between English and

Vietnamese. Both try to abide the Cooperative Principle and Politeness

Principle in three main types of refusing an offer (direct, indirect, both direct

and indirect).

From the previous examples, therefore, to refuse an offer, the native

speakers of English as well as Vietnamese learners of English have many

ways of responding. They can use direct or indirect speech act or they can

combine both direct and indirect.

Vietnamese and English both employ the directness types. The first

one is direct refusal such as “No way, no thanks”…in English, “thôi, khỏi…”

in Vietnamese. The next is ability of negation speech act which means the

speaker doesn’t have ability to accept the offer. These speech acts can be

“I can’t” in English, “tôi không thể giúp anh”..in Vietnamese. The third is

indirect speech act which means refusal is performed through the other

speech such as “I’m really busy this week” in English or “tôi có thể tự mở

nó được” in Vietnamese (situation 4).

Both English and Vietnamese refuse an offer by giving the reasons

why not accepting or offering other occasions (see the given examples

above)


Politeness is the norm that people of different culture backgrounds

must obey and uphold because to satisfy other’s face is to save your own

face. Therefore, both Vietnamese and English prefer to the indirect refusal

speech act in offer than the direct refusal speech act. Using direct or

indirect speech act in life of Vietnamese and English both depends on

many factors: age, gender, relationship, social status…

Some main differences between Vietnamese and English in

refusing an offer

Refusing an offer in English and Vietnamese mainly differ in

practical strategies of word use and syntactic structure.

About intercultural verbal styles, Viet Nam and some other Asian

countries like China, Korean, Japan … belong to high-context

communication. The meaning or intention is conveyed through the context

and the non-verbal channels (pause, silence, tone…) of the verbal

message. They don’t tell directly. Moreover, Vietnamese are influenced by

agricultural culture and Confucianism. Therefore, they focus on the

delicateness, consideration in their language use to maintain the affection

and gratitude of their friends, their neighbours…These results in a

diversified and various addressing system which depends on age, social

status, hierarchy… And this system of address of Vietnamese has more

complex terms in kinship than English does such as anh,em, chú, bác,

dì,cô, tao mày, đệ huynh, chị em…While English people are more direct

and blunt in expressing their thought and they just use personal pronoun “I,

You” for their partners in any conversation. For example:

Chị về đi. Chắc em không giúp được chị rồi. ( situation 1)

Làm sao tao giúp mày được trong khi tao cũng đang bận tối mặt tối

mũi. ( situation 1)

I sympathy for your difficult situation but I can’t help you.(situation 1)


I’m too busy to help you. ( Situation 1).

Additionally, according to Khuong and Thao survey (2007)

Vietnamese tend to use model particles such as à, ư, nhỉ, nhé, thôi, nha…

to express the speakers’ nuance.

Cảm ơn Bình nhé nhưng mình tự dắt xe được (situation 2).

In Vietnamese culture, the face of Vietnamese involved the respect

of hierarchy, the status admission of interlocutor. Therefore, politeness

behavour is not only personal politeness strategies but also forcefully is the

clever choice in vocabulary. Some words “dạ, ạ, xin, thưa” often appear in

Vietnamese speech act of refusal when they talk to the older people

(parents, grandparents, teachers…).

Ex: “ Dạ, em không muốn làm anh đổ mồ hôi vì cánh cửa này đâu”.

(Situation 3)

As I have referred above, Vietnamese often use philosophy of

human life in refusing an offer while English rarely use.

We know that English-speaking countries belong to low-context

communication; the meaning is expressed through explicit verbal

messages to help the listeners understand easily. People’s speech acts

are also embedded in the cultural background. The doctrine of collectivism

and social hierarchy influenced Vietnamese, so people try to be

harmonious and self-restrained in the social communication. English

people are influenced by individualism and equality, so their association is

more simple and direct. Li Honglin ( 2007) says that the variety of speech

acts is influenced by the social distance, social power, and difficulty of

acquired behavior. However, these factors don’t enjoy same status in

Vietnamese and English speech act of refusing an offer. Social power

plays an important role in Vietnamese, so does the social distance in

American English. According to Li, The cross-linguistic differences are due

to basic differences in cultural values. Social hierarchy is typically


illustrated in the aspects of superior and inferior social ranks, parents and

children, teachers and students. Social distance is typically displayed in the

relation of close relatives or friends and ordinary friends or strangers.

Additionally, English people are not sensitive to social rank. English

may use the same type of refusal speech acts to refuse anyone,

regardless of his social status. However the selection of refusal speech

acts based on social distance is quite different. The more distant the social

distance, the more indirect the refusal speech acts. English possibly would

use more assistant speech acts and rhetorical utterances to weaken the

frankness of refusal. For instance, consider the situation 3: the speaker is

offered to eat something. If his workmate offers him, the English may

refuse like this “No, thank you. I just ate before coming”, “Thank you, but

I’m not hungry”. If his workmate’s mother offers, the refusal speech acts

may be “It’s very nice of you, but I’m full”, “Thank you. It smells delicious.

But I have just had meal”, “Oh, thanks. I’ve eaten already. And I’m full now.

I can’t eat any more”. The later refusal speech acts have the associative

and rhetorical utterances such as “It’s very nice of you”, “It smells

delicious”. Those utterances alleviate the refusal impact. Vietnamese is

just on the opposite. They consider the social order, so the refusal bases

on relationship, social status, age…that result in the speech act of refusing

an offer of Vietnamese is quite different in each situation. That means

directness of the speech act of refusing an offer varies and depends on

whom they speak to in each situation such as friends, parents, lover… For

example, Vietnamese refuse their friends “ tao không ăn đâu”, or refuse

their mother “ con no lắm rồi mẹ ơi” or refuse their lover “ em không ăn nổi

nữa, no lắm rồi”. And therefore, the addressee words also change such as

“tao, em, con…” while English just use “I” or “me”. This contributes to make

Vietnamese have more nuances.


Moreover, according to Dũng’s surveys, In indirect refusal of an

offer, although both English and Vietnamese refuse an offer by giving the

reasons, the reasons of Vietnamese are brief and they don’t attach

anything more. But sometimes, the English try to replace the reasons by

dilemma which make the refusing be softer and the partner doesn’t lose

face or feel hurled or offence. A remarkable point is that the English tend

to attach the regrets of not accepting the offer while Vietnamese are rare to

use them. Consider the following examples:

“Oh,What a pity! I’m really full now. I can’t eat any more.”

I have categorized the forms of refusing an offer in English and

Vietnamese by 18 tables above. Considers these 18 tables we can see the

syntactic structure of some sentences of refusing an offer in English is

mainly different in word order. Each culture uses different word order to

express their thoughts. For instances, If we look back the examples of

situation 1, we can see While Vietnamese tend to use the politeness mode

of refusing an offer like “Addressee term+ apology+ reasons”, English

tend to use “ question attentiveness” strategy. They try to employ different

refusal strategies in other that the problems in questions can be solved. A

mode of polite refusing an offer is “ I would like to+ reasons+ apology”.

An example in Vietnamese:

Phương à, thành thật xin lỗi, tôi bận quá chắc không giúp anh

được.( situation 1).

An example in English:

I would like to help you but I’m really busy. Sorry

Therefore, the contrastive analysis of refusing an offer in English and

Vietnamese shows that there are no consistent similarities in any functions

between Vietnam and English. From the above examples and the analysis

of their structures, we can draw some conclusions about the differences

between two languages:


Firstly, refusing an offer in English and Vietnamese also has a few of

common characteristics in structures and contents of the general refusals,

but it also has some own characteristics.

Secondly, a sentence of refusing an offer in English is simpler and has

fewer variants than its equivalent structure in Vietnamese.

Thirdly, a sentence of refusing an offer in Vietnamese is more

complicated than its equivalent structure in English.

Last but not least, a great number of variants of refusing an offer in

Vietnamese make it have more nuances in structure than its equivalent

structure in English. This helps the language learners to express more

nuances in their thought when they have a conversation.

Therefore, in learning language, we consider the different languages

not to base on whether these languages can express what kinds of

meanings, but we consider them base on whether some expressed

languages are forced to have some meanings which other languages don’t

need to express without necessity.

IV) Pedagogical implications:

Learning language is a form of activity that involves many of the

cultural and social factors. When the learners practices communication in

new language, the habits in culture become the second characteristics that

can become advantages or disadvantages in their learning and practicing

communication. Vietnamese learners of English have difficulty not only in

the differences in language and non-language factors but also in language

style, approach strategies…In this paper, we refer to “refusing an offer”,

one of the functions of English. Therefore, besides the language

competence and the knowledge about culture of country, the teachers of

language need the knowledge about the communicative style or the culture

of the learners. This helps the teachers understand the difficulties of the


learners and adjust the appropriate methods, techniques of teaching to

create the connection between the learning and teaching.

In fact, the differences in language of communicative behaviors can

cause cultural interferences that have negative influences on the teaching

and learning task. Therefore, foreign language teachers should be aware

of these distinctive features to help learners overcome the psychological

and cultural barriers in the teaching and learning process.

Teacher need to make students be aware of specific speech acts

sets and the accompanying linguistic features that are necessary to

produce appropriate and well-received refusals.

This paper gives further relevance to the importance of the

understanding of speech acts across cultures and the fact that the

understanding or lack there of can hinder or strengthen the communication

exchanges between cultures. This paper could be especially relevant for

teachers of foreign or second languages as it further supports the idea that

language, particularly in speech acts, is laden with culture. Speech acts

include real-life interactions and require not only knowledge of the

language but also appropriate use of that language within a given culture.

Teaching the cultural aspects of discourse is a vital part of our duty as

teachers to aid our students in becoming successful second or foreign

language speakers.

A lack of understanding of politeness strategies in different

languages and cultures can, as with inappropriate use of certain speech

acts, be a cause of cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Situations are

complicated when, as is common today with the use of English as an

international language, speakers using language which is not their native

language may be extremely unsure as to the cultural implications of much

of what they are saying. Thus as a being teacher, I will try to help the


students overcome the difficulties in studying second language, especially

in studying English function of refusing an offer:

Firstly, teacher should give students the simple examples of this

function and explain their use clearly. Many things can happen in

conversation that no one can predict. Teacher should also try to provide

students with some of the common patterns that English speakers use

everyday and also help students to build their vocabulary to include these

patterns and phrases. The teacher also shows functional connection

between refusals and offers and explains to students some useful phrases

of refusing an offer that are often used. Moreover, we should instruct

students when to use three types of refusing an offer appropriately in each

situation.

Secondly, teacher should draw students’ attention to politeness and

rudeness of refusing an offer and encourage students employ the

politeness strategies if they want to achieve the success in communication.

This helps improve students’ language competence.

Last but not least, teacher can design many tasks which provide

students with opportunities to practice them in short exchanges, dialogs

and conversations or teacher can conduct some activities like role play that

make students use the patterns of refusing an offer and helps them

remember these pattern longer. From these activities students not only

practice the patterns, but also practice pronunciation, vocabulary and how

to respond correctly in conversation because “Experience is the best

teacher.” (Trăm hay không bằng tay quen), practice makes perfect.

Moreover, if students are given many chances to speak and are

encouraged frequently, they’ll be more confident to speak the second

language in many situations like their mother tongue. Then they relate the

English refusals in the situations to Vietnamese ones to see the similarities

and differences of refusing an offer in two languages. Therefore, confusing


or language transfer between English and Vietnamese can be avoided

effectively.

V) Conclusion

In conclusion, the refusal especially refusing an offer is one of the

most important functions of English and Vietnamese. Some linguists say,

that functions only express the intention or purpose of a speech act, other

think that your social role, the setting, the topic or even the mood you are

in are criteria for choosing the right function to express yourself effectively.

So I can say this contrastive analysis of refusing an offer is really useful

and important in communication and it also has many teaching implications

in learning a second language. From the data of previous surveys, I collect

the statistics of the examples and draw the results. Because of the limits of

time and the data, I just show the examples of refusing an offer. And from

that I analyze the structure of these examples. I mainly focus on some

basic points that are the syntactic structure and word use to contrast. On

the whole, from this paper, we can see some differences and similarities in

refusing an offer between English and Vietnamese. I hope that this paper

is useful for the students and the teachers of English. Understanding the

interrelation between two languages helps the learners acquire second

language effectively and improve their language everyday.


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4B07 NguyenThiMyNgan a Contrastive Analysis of Refusing an Offer in English and Vietnamese

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