TTLA: Building dialogue for Vietnamese textbooks from the perspective of conversational interaction theory

Author name: NGUYEN KIM YEN

Thesis title: Building dialogue for Vietnamese textbooks from the perspective of conversational interaction theory

Dissertation field:Linguistics

Specialized:Linguistic reasoningCode: 62 22 02 40

Name of postgraduate training unit:University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Vietnam National University, Hanoi

1. Purpose and research objects of the thesis

Applying the research results on interaction in conversation analysis, the purpose of the thesis is to study conversations in practical Vietnamese textbooks for foreigners in terms of conversational models, structures, language characteristics of conversation, interaction contexts, mechanisms for creating conversational interactions, specifically question-answer interactions in Vietnamese conversations. From there, solutions are proposed to build conversations for Vietnamese textbooks and methods are proposed to teach and improve Vietnamese conversational skills for foreign students.

The research object of the thesis is the dialogues in Vietnamese teaching textbooks for foreigners.

2. Research methods used

In addition to the two common methods in scientific research, induction and deduction, we also use the following research methods:

- Analytical-descriptive method;

- Comparison method

- Research methods such as: statistics-classification, investigation-interview.

3. Main results and conclusions

3.1. Main results

- The thesis has surveyed the dialogues in the practical Vietnamese textbook to obtain a reliable body of documents, thereby identifying the dialogue structure, linguistic characteristics of the dialogue, interaction mechanisms, communication behaviors, communication contexts, and communication characters appearing in the dialogue.

- The thesis analyzed and evaluated the way of constructing dialogue, the communicative behaviors included in the dialogue as well as the context and communicative characters selected to construct dialogue at different levels.

- The thesis has surveyed the common difficulties of foreign students when interacting in conversation in Vietnamese and their opinions and suggestions about the conversation lessons in the textbook.

- The thesis has proposed solutions for compiling practical Vietnamese textbooks, especially the construction of interactive and realistic conversations, and proposed methods for teaching conversation skills to improve students' communication skills.

3.2. Main conclusions

- Based on the theory of conversational interaction, the thesis has surveyed and evaluated the construction of dialogue in 12 Vietnamese textbooks on topics, communication contexts, communication characters and especially the question-answer interaction (as the basis for conversation analysis) created from the communication characters and conversation content.

- The thesis has pointed out the positive points and especially the limitations of the conversations when building the context, communication situations or choosing the relationships between the communication characters is not fully calculated to the ability to apply to the real conversation of foreign learners - those who will participate in conversational interactions. Besides, the conversational content has not fully demonstrated the diversity and liveliness of communication behaviors in real conversational interactions, completely lacking the dramatic aspect of everyday conversations, which also reduces the opportunity to learn and experience real interactions through the lessons of the learners, making them not feel confident and encounter many difficulties when communicating with Vietnamese people in real life.

- The thesis has proposed a way to build dialogues for textbooks at all levels in terms of both structure and content to ensure the structure of the lesson and practical application.

- The thesis also proposes methods for teaching conversation skills and distinguishes the teaching of conversation skills from speaking skills. According to the current trend of teaching foreign languages ​​in a communicative direction, teaching conversation skills as an independent skill in teaching Vietnamese as a foreign language has been somewhat reasonable and has initially achieved results in terms of method.

KEY SUMMARY ON DOCTOR THESIS

Author:NGUYEN KIM YEN

Topic:Designing conversations for the Vietnamese coursebooks on the perspective of the interactive conversation theory

Science major:Linguistics

Specialization:Theoretical LinguisticsCode: 62 22 02 40

Post Graduate Training Unit :University of Social Sciences and Humanities – VNU-Hanoi.

1. Objectives and research objects of the thesis

The objective of this thesis is to apply some theoretical frameworks of Conversation Analysis (CA), the interactive conversation study in particular as the basis for studying the dialogues in Vietnamese coursebooks for foreigners about the model, the structure of the dialogue, the characteristics of the dialogue language, the interactive context, the interactive question-and-answer in Vietnamese conversation. Based on that, the thesis proposes solutions to design dialogues for Vietnamese language curriculum and proposes methods of teaching and improving Vietnamese conversation skills for foreign students.

The study subjects of the thesis are dialouges in the curricula of Vietnamese language teaching to foreigners.

2. Research Methodology

- Methods of interpretation and induction in scientific research

- Descriptive methods in linguistics with specific techniques such as statistics, classification, comparison.

- Questions and interviews.

3. Key findings and conclusion

3.1. Key findings:

-The thesis examines conversations in the Vietnamese curriculum in order to obtain a reliable data, which identifies the structure of the dialogue, the language characteristics of the dialogue, the interaction mechanism, speech acts, communication context, participants appear in conversation.

- The thesis analyzes and evaluates the way the dialogue is constructed, the speech acts which are incorporated into the dialogue as well as the communicative context and participants chosen to design the dialogue at all levels.

- The thesis examines common difficulties of foreign learners when interacting with the Vietnamese people and their ideas and suggestions on conversations in the curriculum.

- The thesis proposes solutions for the compilation of Vietnamese language teaching practice and proposes methods of teaching conversation skills to improve the conversational competence for foreign students.

3.2. Conclusion:

- Based on interactive conversation theory, the thesis has investigated and evaluated the construction of dialogues in 12 Vietnamese language textbooks on the topic, communication context, participants and especially the interaction of the question and response (as the basis for conversation analysis) is generated from the participants themselves and the conversation content.

- The thesis has pointed out the positive points and especially the limitations of the dialogues when designing the context, the communication situation or the selection of relations of the participants in the dialouge. In general, the practical application of foreign learners who will engage taken in conversation interaction has not been considered comprehensively. In addition, the content of dialogues does not reflect the diversity and lively nature of speech acts in the reality interaction, lacking the dramatic side of normal conversation. This causes a reduction of chances to experience real interaction through the lessons to the students, making them not feel confident and have difficulty when communicating with the Vietnamese people.

- The thesis proposed the method to design the dialogue for the curriculum at all levels both in terms of structure and content, ensuring the structure of the lesson and practical application.

- The thesis also proposes methods of teaching conversation skill as an independent skill in the combination with the speaking skill. Teaching conversation skill as an independent skill in teaching Vietnamese as a foreign language is reasonable and meets the requirements of teaching language methodology.