Cultural Values In Chinese And American Conversational Styles

The thesis, from a theoretical and practical point of view, aims to discover the effects of cultural values differences on conversational style in Chinese and American cultural settings.The present study is closely deployed around the above research goal with three issues discussed: (1) cultural values differences affect Chinese and Americans on choosing conversational topics in communication; (2) we can study and compare Chinese and American conversational styles in cultural value systems; (3) the major findings in the thesis are meaningful to enrich Yule's theory on dividing conversational styles.The research method used in the thesis is through practical study, i.e., by analyzing the feedbacks of the questionnaire. The present study includes 2-questionnaire research. The two questionnaires are composed in both Chinese and English with the same content. The accomplishment of the questionnaire was realized with the help of 100 people: 50 Chinese (aged from 22-64) and 50 Americans (aged from 26-72). The data were analyzed in percentages and presented in the form of tables.Statistical analysis of the collected data yields the following findings: (1). it proves that Chinese and Americans tend to choose different conversational topics in conversation; (2). it reveals the correlation between cultural values differences and conversational style. Moreover, it helps us to observe on how the five major cultural values differences (C.f. 2.5) affect Chinese and Americans on choosing different conversational styles.