TABLE OF CONTENTS Sub cover page Statement of authorship. ii Table of contents. 01 List of abbreviations. 05 List of tables.
Background of the research. Reasons for the research. Scope of the research. 14 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Intercultural communicative competence: Basic definitions. Intercultural communicative competence. Characteristics of Intercultural learning and Intercultural learners.1 Characteristics of Intercultural learning. Characteristics of Intercultural learners.
Components of Intercultural communicative competence. Cognitive domain reform. The behavioural/skill-based domain. Developing Intercultural communicative competence.
Approaches and classroom techniques/activities. Materials/Cultural contents. The roles of teachers in developing learners‟ ICC. Reflection on English language education in Vietnam from ICC 40 perspectives.
The goal of English language education and the textbook 40 reform. The role image of teachers in Vietnam. Reflection on English teaching in Hue City from ICC perspectives.1 Social facilitators for developing students‟ ICC.2 English teaching reality in Hue City. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods in education 48 research….2 Data collection tools.
Data collection procedure. 58 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Teachers‟ formal and informal intercultural experience.2 Teachers‟ views towards integrating ICC in TEFL. Teachers‟ attitudes towards integrating ICC in TEFL.
Teachers‟ and students‟ interest in ICC. Teachers‟ opinions on the importance of intercultural 66 teaching………………………………………………………………………………………. Teachers‟ willingness to provide more time to intercultural 67 teaching ………………………………………………………………………………………. Teachers‟ perceptions of intercultural teaching.
Teachers‟ perceptions of EFL objectives………………………………… 69 4. Teachers‟ perceptions of intercultural teaching objectives 72 4. Teachers‟ practice on developing students‟ ICC in EFL class …………………. Time devoted to intercultural teaching …………………………………………….
Teachers‟ favored cultural topics ……………………………………………………… 78 4. Teachers‟ opinions on cultural content in textbooks. Techniques/activities to develop students‟ ICC ……………………………… 84 4. Possible factors affecting teachers‟ willingness in implementing 88 Intercultural communicative approach in TEFL ………………………………………………… CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION.
Summary of the findings. Teachers‟ views towards intercultural teaching ……………………………. Teachers‟ practice on developing students‟ ICC……………………………… 97 5. iv 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BA : Bachelor of Arts CA : Communicative Approach CLT : Communicative language teaching EFL : English as a foreign language ELT : English language teaching IC : Intercultural communication ICC : Intercultural communicative competence ICT : Intercultural teaching IA : Intercultural approach MOET : Ministry of Education and Training SPSS : Statistical Package for the Social Sciences TEFL : Teaching English as a foreign language 5 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.
The teachers‟ profile. Teachers‟ intercultural experience. Teachers‟ and students‟ interest in ICC. Teachers‟ opinions on the importance of culture teaching.
Teachers‟ degrees of willingness to devote more time to 68 culture teaching. Teachers‟ desire to promote intercultural competence through 68 their teaching. List of objectives in English language teaching. The results of teachers‟ perceptions on objectives of ELT.
Culture teaching objectives in four dimensions. The results of culture teaching objectives in four dimensions…. Allocation of teaching time over language teaching and 77 cultural teaching. Possible cultural topics.
Freedom of using additional materials. Percentage of cultural contents in the textbook. Teachers‟ satisfaction with the cultural contents of the 83 textbook. The activities from most often used to less often used.
Presentation of the statements regarding ICT. The results of teachers‟ disposition of ICT. Difficulties facing culture teaching. 91 6 ABSTRACT This study was conducted with the participation of 51English teachers of 5 high schools in Hue City.
It aimed to investigate teachers‟ views as well as their related practices and applications on integrating intercultural contents in EFL classrooms. The data were collected mainly through questionnaires and then analyzed applying SPSS software (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). The results from the study revealed that most teachers have positive attitudes towards intercultural teaching, which creates an encouraging basis for the possibility of implementing Intercultural Approach in English teaching. However, the study also showed teachers‟ inconsistency as well as ambiguity when putting intercultural approach into practice.
Consequently, the infusion of intercultural dimension is still limited in some senior high schools in Hue. The study attempted to clarify the difficulties that hinder intercultural teaching in class, suggested useful solutions and practical implications to improve the ways of developing students‟ intercultural communicative competence. 7 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the background that motivates and the reasons originate the study. The aim and scope, the research questions as well as the research composition are also included.1 Background of the research The background of this thesis lies on the interrelationship between language and culture, the challenges of English language teaching (ELT) in the age of globalization and finally the widespread importance of English and its influence on socioeconomic changes in Vietnam.
Language and culture are deeply intertwined. And the recognition of their relationship is actually far from new. Nearly a century ago, Sapir (1921) stated language is a part of culture and a part of human behavior. Holding the same view, Kramsch (1991, p.217) confirmed that culture and language are “inseparable and constitute a single universe or domain of experience.” A more recent researcher, Pulverness (2000, p.86) also argued that “to attempt to divorce language from its cultural context is to ignore the social circumstances which gave it resonance and meaning”.
It has been clear that language is a major component of culture and influenced by culture. It is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. Therefore, the meaning attributed to language is cultural-specific. As a result, in order for language learners to fulfill many tasks in social life and to function a foreign language in a particular context, cultural awareness and competence should be taken into account.
In other words, effective communication is more than a matter of language proficiency and, apart from enhancing and enriching communicative competence, cultural competence can also lead to empathy and respect towards different cultures as well as promote objectivity and cultural perspicacity. 8 Especially when communication becomes the ultimate value of language education, teachers must instruct their students on the cultural background of language use. If one teaches language without teaching about the culture in which it reflects and operates, the students may attach incorrect meaning and may use the language inappropriately in the wrong cultural context; thus, communication break- down, even conflict, happens and the purpose of learning a language is defeated. To foster this view, Byram and Morgan (1994, p.5) also strongly maintained that culture learning has to take place as an integral part of language learning and vice versa.
With adequate understanding of culture, learners will be able to act flexibly, sensibly and appropriately when coming into contact with different cultural norms that they encounter. However, which target culture(s) students should be exposed to and which method of teaching culture teachers should employ remain a questionable issue, to which the solutions are strongly influenced by the current trend of the world - the age of globalization. It is obvious that when the world becomes smaller and closer than ever, the scope of target cultures become fuzzy and unpredictable.12) claimed that in the era of globalization, we have been witnessing “global economic flows” and “global cultural flows”, however it is “the phenomenon of English being a global language lies at the heart of globalization.13) suggested that “there has never been a time when so many nations needed to talk to each other so much.” As a result, English has become the language of and for international communication. This phenomenon entails the fact that the use of English is no longer connected to the culture of inner circle countries.
When non-native speakers outnumber native speakers with the ratio of around 3:1, and when the purpose of learning English is not only to know about native cultures, but to be connected to the wide world, cultural contents about other countries apart from those of Anglo- American must be taken into account and will play a more relevant role in today‟s cross-cultural communications. Thus, the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) seems inadequate in this intercultural context due to its native-speaker based notion and ignorance of cultural identities of the learners. The international status of 9 English requires a more appropriate teaching approach – Intercultural Communicative Approach or Intercultural Approach (IA), in which learners are prepared and trained to be both global and local speakers of English or effective mediators in this multicultural world. Then the goal of the language teaching is shifted to developing language learners‟ intercultural communicative competence (ICC).
In addition to the close attachment between language and culture and the urgency of globalization, the widespread importance of English in the development and improvement of Vietnam is one of the solid foundations spurring this study. Apparently, English and English language education has had strong influence on the social changes in the country. If you go out, you will see English instructions required in every public place, every restaurant or hotel. Newspapers, magazines and TV channels in English are growing and becoming so popular.
A large number of special journals on English teaching and learning are puzzling our choice. Towns and cities are crowded with English language centers. Slogans and illustrations in English are often seen in schools, streets and especially on adverts. Bilingual contracts or documents, in which one of the two is definitely English, are compulsory in joint-venture enterprises and projects.
Playing as the dominant medium of communication, English has shown its obvious importance in the development cause of the country, especially when Vietnam has joined the World Trade Organization. In fact, the quality of English language education is now not only the matter of a subject at schools, a foreign language teaching, but has close relationship with the social and economic progress of the whole country. Therefore, we can see the government‟s great concern about English language education through many policies to raise people‟s awareness about the inevitable role of English such as a downward shift in the age of compulsory English language learning, the appearance of English in most of the important national exams, the reforms of English textbooks and the frequent conferences and workshops on training and innovating English teaching and learning method. All of the above not only aims to emphasize English language role, but to remind people who are 10 attempting to achieve success in any fields of the hidden cost of poor English command.
Understanding the nature of foreign language education, integrating ourselves into the world and the country‟s trend of development, we have come to realize that to only teach English is not enough, how to make the quality of English language education effectively serves international communication in this global village is what really counts.2 Reasons for the research This thesis took its original inspiration from my own experience in learning English as a village student, in teaching English in some centers and schools and in communicating in English as an international cooperation officer over a period of 18 years. Until some recent years, English has been introduced as a compulsory subject for primary education at Grade 3. However, I do not know why a long time ago in a poor small village I was taught English at the age of 8, Grade 2. It seems to me that an organization offered our school some English books and my class 2A was chosen to study English.
A teacher from a high school was sent to teach us the very first letters and words in English. I remember so clearly the first book with pink covers, fresh paper and full of colorful pictures named “English for children”. As a child, I was immediately interested in that beautiful book and started learning English as a subject at school, which remained the only reason for English learning in many years later. The first time I uttered some English to a foreign person was at grade six.
A New Zealander visited my class and I was assigned to be the speaker. I recalled whispering something like “how old are you?” and “where do you come from?” and that was everything I could.