Chinese Discourse and Interaction - Theory and Practice - Yuling Pan
9. Discourse analysis of Chinese speakers’ indirect and contraryto- face-value responses to survey interview questions
Chinese Discourse and Interaction - Theory and Practice - Yuling Pan
Anna Yukyee Chan
US Census Bureau
Description
The primary objective of this study was to measure the communication style of a large sample of Chinese speakers so that the findings will be generalisable. The analysis focused on their responses to a personal opinion type question and expanded the scope of Pan’s study (Pan, this volume) with a full set of Chinese and English cognitive interview data. By applying the new coding and measurement tool, this study compared the communication style of Chinese respondents to that of English-speaking respondents and performed statistical tests on any observed differences between the two sample groups. The second objective was to examine the internal validity of the survey question by analysing the contextual cues, provided by the respondents during the entire interview, that either support or contradict their face value response to the opinion question. This enables the coders to determine the meaning behind the response. A final objective was to explore the social and demographic factors associated with the communication styles of Chinese respondents to predict the scope of the phenomenon observed.