English Varieties in the Mekong Region: The Interference of Vietnamese Culture with Target Language Usage
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Abstract
As language and culture have an organic relationship with each other, when using English, it is inevitable that users will be influenced by the culture and living habits of their country. The Mekong region countries are characterized by distinct features of climate, soil, rivers, culture, religion, and so on. From that perspective, this article aims to shed light on how such features influence the way Vietnamese people speak English. To fulfill the aims of the study, I first used the comparative method to examine some aspects of Vietnamese and Western (specifically British) culture. Next, I used the error analysis method to analyze sentence samples containing cultural elements from 146 essays in different disciplines to determine the effects of cultural differences between the two countries on Vietnamese users’ English expressions. The findings indicate that there are some differences stemming from climate conditions, lifestyle, living conditions, ideas about animals, religion, literature and so on. I hope that the results of this study will help Vietnamese learners of English have a broader view of the English varieties being used and help teachers suggest some pedagogical implications appropriate for teaching English as a foreign language to learners from Vietnam and other Mekong region countries.
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