ABSTRACT

Using English and Vietnamese proverb in everyday conversation, in literature is well recognized. If there is a lack of proverb comprehension, English and Vietnamese learners may it difficult to master English and Vietnamese. Although we can not deny the importance of proverbs, teaching and learning proverbs may not be adequately concerned. As we know, there are many topic appeared in the proverbs. The most familiar topic for many people is family. However, few learners know the family-related to proverbs. Understanding this problem, making a study on English and Vietnamese proverbs has been done with the hope that we will contribute on teaching and learning English proverbs. The thesis has been carried out in a logical order. Firstly, the writer provides an introduction that mentions the objective, the scope, the methods and the design of the thesis. Then, in the second part, the author gives the theoretical knowledge of proverbs in general. It is difficult for the writer to cover all the topics in the proverbs, so only the family- related to English and Vietnamese proverbs is selected. After giving some English and Vietnamese proverbs based on the family relationship, there would be the comparison English and Vietnamese proverbs related to the topic family. To sum up, the thesis has found out some problem faced by learners of proverbs and provided some suggestions for teaching and learning proverbs. It is difficult for the author to deal with all things related to the thesis. However, we hop to find some useful ways of teaching and learning proverbs related to the topic family.

A STUDY ON VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH PROVERBS RELATED TO TOPIC FAMILY.

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale:
English plays an important role in international communication and all fields, such as education, economics, literature, trade, science, communication. English today is probably the third language by the great number of native speaker, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. However, when combining native and non-native speakers, English is the most commonly spoken language in the world. It has been referred to World language or Global language. Therefore, learning English is very popular and necessary for people in all countries in general and in Vietnam in particular. Many Vietnamese people want to master English to serve their own purposes. In fact, there are many difficulties in studying English well because of some complicated aspects related to English, such as vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, writing style. Especially, English proverbs create many challenges for Vietnamese studying English. The main reason is that the teaching and learning English proverbs are not concerned much. However, we cannot deny the importance of proverbs when we study English. As you know, a proverb is often easier to express an idea better and more convincingly, than with a long speech. Knowledge of proverbs is necessary for a perfect understanding of a language. In addition, family is a familiar topic to everyone. Moreover, proverbs related to family may be interesting and useful for people. But there has had little attempt toward studying comparison between English and Vietnamese proverbs related to topic family.

With these ideas in mind and the encouragement from supervisor, I decided to choose the title: A study on English and Vietnamese proverbs related to family for my graduation thesis.

2. Objective of the study

As the title of my thesis suggests, the study aims at fulfilling the following objectives. Firstly, the study provides the deeper understanding about English and Vietnamese proverbs in common. Secondly, it provides some popular proverbs of topic family in English and Vietnamese. From this thesis, the readers can understand these proverbs more about their meaning, structure and usage. The third, the study has a part to show the similarities and differences about English and Vietnamese proverbs related to family and explain these reasons for differences. Last but not least, it discovers some problems facing Vietnamese learners of when using English proverbs and suggests some exercise to improve these problems. 3. Methods of the study. In this thesis, the writer focuses on studying English and Vietnamese proverbs related to the topic family. In order to complete the thesis, the author has used the method integrated, both studying researches and carrying the study with a survey. In the first part, the background knowledge related to proverbs, which has been selected in both English and Vietnamese materials. Then, these materials would be analyzed to analyzed to show the comparison between proverbs in English and Vietnamese. In addition, the proverbs related to family would be collected and translated into English and Vietnamese. These proverbs would be divided according to different relationships. From the tables of English and Vietnamese proverbs, the writer would analyze the similarities and differences between English and

Vietnamese proverbs related to the topic family. Besides, there would be a survey carried out. 50 students in Foreign Language Department at Hong Duc University would be selected at random. The author would do that to survey the learning of English proverbs of these students. The data collection instruments would be questionnaires mainly. The system of questions concentrated on English proverb comprehension. After surveying, I analyze the data and find out the problems of learning English of these students. Finally, I would collect some best implication for teaching and learning proverbs. 4. Scope of the study. In reality, there are many aspects relating to teaching and learning proverbs. Besides, there are many topics of proverbs such as topic of animal, human, plant, love, childrenit is impossible for the writer to mention all thing related to the topic of the study, so only the proverbs of family are mentioned. In addition, there are many Vietnamese proverbs and English proverbs about the topic family, I have no ambition of covering all proverbs related to family. As a result, I collect 200 popular proverbs to serve for my study. Besides, it is difficult to design and deliver the survey questionnaires for all teacher and students of English in Hong Duc University. Therefore, the author would only choose 50 students of Foreign Language Department at Hong Duc University.

5. The design of the study

The thesis consists of four parts: Part A: Introduction. The writer states the rationale, the objectives, the scope, the methods and the design of the study.

Part B: Development. There are three chapters in this part: Chapter 1: Literature review- provides some knowledge related to English and Vietnamese proverbs. Chapter 2: Comparison between English and Vietnamese proverbs related to the topic family- show the similarities and differences of Vietnamese and English proverbs related to this topic. Then, finding out some reasons for these differences. Chapter 3: Problems faced by learners in studying proverbs and some suggestions to overcome these problems- using the questionnaire of proverb comprehension, then analyzing and find out the difficulties of learning familyrelated proverbs. Next, giving some implications for teaching and learning proverbs. Part C: Conclusion Part D: Appendix.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Literature review

1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4. 1.5.

Definition of proverbs Classification of proverbs Functions of proverbs Proverbs versus idioms, sayings. Some topics used in english proverbs and vietnamese proverbs.

Chapter 2: Comparison between English and Vietnamese proverbs related to the topic family. 1. Family- related to proverbs in English.

2. Family -related to proverbs in Vietnamese 3. Classification Family-Related English and Vietnamese Proverbs 3.1. Attitudes towards women in Family-Related English and Vietnamese Proverbs 3.2 .Marriage in Family-Related English and Vietnamese proverbs. 3.3. Choosing mates in Family-Related English and Vietnamese proverbs 3.4. Husband-Wife relationship in Family-Related English and Vietnamese proverbs. 3.5. Divorce, remarriage and polygamy in Family related English and Vietnamese. 3.6. Parent Offspring 3.6.1. Parents-Offspring Relationship in Family-Related Vietnamese Proverbs 3.6.2. Parents-Offspring Relationship in Family-Related English Proverbs 3.6.3. Parents Attitudes towards Offspring 3.6.4. Offsprings Duties towards Parents 3.6.5. Brotherhood and Sisterhood 3.6.6.. Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law Relationship 4. Similarities in Family- Related to English and Vietnamese proverbs 4.1. Some English and Vietnamese proverbs have the same form 4.2. Some English and Vietnamese proverbs have the same meaning. 4.3. Some English and Vietnamese proverbs both have the same form and same meaning. 4.4. Using the styles of writing in family-related to English and Vietnamese proverbs. 4.4.1. Simile 4.4.2. Metaphor 5. Differences in Family- related to English and Vietnamese proverbs. 5.1. In term of appearance

5.2. In term of meaning. 5.3. In term of rhythm 6. Some reasons for the above differences: 6.1. In term of custom 6.2. In term of religion. 6.3. in term of traditional family Chapter 3: 1. Introduction 2. Procedure of a research 3. Findings and discussion 4. Problems and suggestions 5. Implication of English and Vietnamese Proverbs for English Language Teaching and Learning PART C: CONCLUSION Problems faced by learners in studying proverbs and some suggestions to overcome these problems.

1. Major findings of the research. 2. Suggestions for further study.