Nonverbal strategies used in closing a conversation at offices by English and Vietnamese staff and managers

Abstract

A conversation can be closed verbally or nonverbally. While people can learn to speak a language, they need to experience to behave appropriately. Furthermore, behaving well in the mother tongue is difficult but much more challenging in a foreign language. For this reason, the present study is to compare and contrast the ways English and Vietnamese staff and managers utilize nonverbal strategies to terminate their conversations at offices. From conversation analysis perspective, 60 English and 60 Vietnamese conversations with closing sections are gathered in films selected basing on strict criteria on contents, airtime and broadcast channels. Nonverbal closing strategies are noted down, generalized, compared and contrasted in both languages. As similarities, English and Vietnamese subjects often perform physical behaviors of standing up and moving towards the door due to the typical setting – working environment. Regarding differences, as opposed to English subjects, Vietnamese subjects tend to produce indirect closings by employment more number and types of nonverbal strategies in combination with roundabout leg movement. Especially, English subjects show their attentiveness by direct eye contact while Vietnamese ones display their respect and attention by smiling and head-nodding.