A Vietnamese-American cross-cultural study of giving comments on contestants’ performance by judges in Vietnam and American Idol

Abstract

This thesis focuses on cross-cultural similarities and differences in giving comments on contestants’ performance by judges in Vietnam Idol and American Idol. Politeness strategies realized for giving comments are analyzed with data taken from the video clips of the two shows. The thesis falls into two major chapters: Chapter I: “Theoretical preliminaries” deals with the notion of culture, cross-culture, speech acts, classifications of speech acts, politeness, and politeness strategies. Chapter II: “Data analysis and findings”: Video clips are used to collect data for the study. Giving comments which resorts to various strategies of politeness is a flexibly and effectively communicative act in both Vietnamese and American cultures.