MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ----- ----- PHAM THI NGOC AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS‟ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE OF INTEGRATING TARGET CULTURE FOR COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOK 10 AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE MA THESIS THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: TRAN QUANG HAI, D. HUE, 2013 BỘ GIÁO DỤC ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ----- ----- PHẠM THỊ NGỌC KHẢO SÁT QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ VIỆC DẠY KẾT HỢP VĂN HÓA ĐÍCH NHẰM NÂNG CAO NĂNG LỰC GIAO TIẾP CỦA HỌC SINH Ở CÁC TRƯỜNG THPT TẠI QUẢNG TRỊ THÔNG QUA GIÁO TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH 10 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. TRẦN QUANG HẢI HUẾ, 2013 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere.
Author Phạm Thị Ngọc i ABSTRACT This thesis studied issues relating to teachers‟ perceptions and practice of integrating target culture for communicative competence in English textbook 10 at some high schools in Quang Tri province. In that process, it attempted to demonstrate teachers‟ perceptions and practice of incorporating target culture in English language teaching, whether teachers have positive or negative attitudes towards culture teaching, how they practice integrating target culture in teaching English language and whether they are satisfied with the cultural content in the Grade 10 English textbook. By means of questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation, the data were collected and analyzed based both on the quantitative and qualitative approaches. The participants for this study included 48 EFL teachers at some high schools in Quang Tri and the data was collected mainly through questionnaire.
In addition, I delivered the interviews with 10 EFL teachers who are currently teaching at high schools in Quang Tri to help me confirm the results collected through tape- recording and note-taking. Lastly, classroom observation is also used in this study. Thanks to this method, I could see the specific behaviors and events occurring in the classroom. It also provides more detailed and precise evidence than other data sources.
The results from the study indicated that most of the teachers were aware of the importance of culture teaching in English language classes. They were also interested in the cultural content in the Grade 10 English textbook. Teachers thought teaching of culture through the textbook could benefit their students by not only enriching students‟ knowledge but also bettering students‟ communicative competence or intercultural communication. However, teaching of culture in the Grade 10 English textbook at high school seemed not to satisfy teachers‟ need and interest as well as students.
They also expected that the Grade 10 English textbook should have an appropriate syllabus and more presentation the cultural content. From the analysis of this real situation, the study also provides some pedagogical implications and suggestions to raise the teachers‟ awareness of culture teaching through the Grade 10 English textbook, helping them apply this issue effectively into English language classes. ii Acknowledgements Above all, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Tran Quang Hai, who has been a source of ideas, comments, and support at every stage of the development of this research paper.
He was always willing to be unstinting in his support, reading the paper and making thought - provoking suggestions. I would also like to give special thanks to Assoc. Truong Vien, for his helpful support and enthusiastic encouragement. Also, my special thanks go to the teachers and the students at some high schools in Quang Tri Province who generously and enthusiastically spent their time for iii my interviews, questionnaire and classroom observation to be conducted conveniently.
Finally, from the bottom of my heart, I am deeply grateful to my beloved family, and my close friends who always give me advice, support and encouragement to help me overcome all the difficulties while I conducted this study. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLES .vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
viii CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION. Background of the study. Reason for the study. Aims and Objectives of the research.
Significance of the study. The scope of the study. Structure of the study.5 CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW. Definitions of culture.
Culture and com munication. The history of culture teaching. Relationship between language and culture. Cross - cultural awareness.
Cross – cultural awareness. Intercultural communicative competence. Culture in language teaching. Role of culture in language teaching.
The importance of incorporating the target culture in English language teaching. Goals and principles of teaching culture. The main goals. Way of teaching culture.
Factors influencing the choice of methodology. The most common approaches to the teaching of culture. Techniques and activities for teaching culture. Course book adaptation .28 CHAPTER 3 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
Classroom observation sheets on seven experimental teaching periods .34 CHAPTER 4- FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Teachers‟ beliefs about language and culture teaching. EL teachers‟ attitudes towards culture teaching. Teachers‟ perceptions of language teaching objectives.
Teachers‟ perceptions of cultural teaching objectives. Teachers‟ perceptions about „culture‟. Teachers‟ perceptions of cultural aspects in English textbook. Topics teachers expect to teach culture in English textbook for Grade 10.
Teachers‟ perceptions on cultural aspects in Grade 10 English textbook. Teachers‟ opinions on the role of culture in language teaching. Teachers‟ perceptions of time they devote to culture teaching. Teachers‟ practice relating to culture teaching.
The observation of teachers‟ practice of integrating target culture in language classroom.63 CHAPTER 5- CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS. Summary of results. Implications and recommendations. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research .72 APPENDICES vii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 4.1: Teachers‟ interest in culture teaching .2: Teachers‟ opinions on the importance of integrating target culture in ELT .3: The result of teachers‟ beliefs on objectives of English language teaching .4: A list of culture teaching objectives .5: The result of culture teaching objectives as defined by teachers in four dimension .6: Teachers‟ definitions of „culture‟ .7: Cultural topics expected by teachers .8: The themes and topics related to aspects of cultures found in Grade 10 English textbook .9: Teachers‟ opinions on cultural aspects in Grade 10 English textbook .10: Teachers‟ opinions about the role of culture in teaching FL .11: The culture teaching activities teachers practice .59 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EF : English foreign language EFL : English as a foreign language FLT : English language teaching FL : Foreign language ICC : Intercultural communication competence ix CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION 1.
Background of the study In today‟s world, mobility has become a part of every student‟s life. Most students have now a chance to visit other countries, to live, study and work abroad. Therefore, learning foreign languages has become the norm in the globalized world. It is inevitable that students need a certain level of intercultural knowledge and competence to be able to adjust oneself in new cultures and educational context.
In this respect, one‟s understanding of the new cultures as well as his/her own culture has a crucial role to become a globalized citizen. Learning a language without culture is a recipe for becoming what Bennet (1993) calls “fluent tool”. A fluent tool is someone who speaks a foreign language well, but does not understand the social and philosophical content of that language. Hence, teachers play an important role when dealing with both the language and the culture in language teaching.
There have been different definitions of culture in the literature. In one definition, culture includes a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors and artifacts that members of a society use to interact with their world and one another (Duran & Riley, 2005). In addition, Furtenberg (2010) considers that culture is not seen as providing factual information but as a process which shapes human behavior and interaction. According to Brown (1999), language is symbolic representation of people because it entails cultural and historical background as well as these people‟s approach to life and their ways of living and thinking.
Therefore, language and culture are so interwoven that separating one from the other would lead to the loss of the significance of the other. Without culture, language would be dead and without language, culture would have no shape (Jiang, 2000). Considering the inseparable interface of culture and language, it is difficult to think of teaching a foreign language without dealing with its culture. And the goal of foreign language teaching is intercultural understanding and intercultural communication, not only the understanding of one‟s own culture but also of another culture as well is 1 important.
English learners have to be able to communicate with other people who come from different cultures. Hence, efforts must be made to improve culture teaching and promote the students‟ communicative competence. In other words, it is necessary that teaching for English linguistics competence cannot be separated from teaching for intercultural competence. As a teacher of English, the author has realized that most students of English have insufficient knowledge on the target culture, which helps them communicate successfully with other people.
Also, teachers do not have suitable strategies and clear goals that would help them to create a framework for organizing instructions around cultural themes. Furthermore, EFL teachers think that students will be exposed to cultural material later after they have mastered the basic grammar and vocabulary of the target language. EFL teachers then have spent most time on this problem rather than pay attention to cultural factors to perform their language. From the issues mentioned above, the study attempted to examine the teachers‟ perceptions and practice of integrating target culture for communicate competence in classroom.
It provides instructors with a framework for teaching effective culture. Reason for the study Due to the inseparability of language and culture, it is necessary to incorporate culture into the language teaching and learning process. According to Kramsch‟s view (1993), second foreign language learners should become learners of the second culture because language cannot be learned without an understanding of the cultural context in which it is used. She confirms: “culture is not an independent aspect of language learning or teaching, it is a feature of language, it is always in the background” (ibid.
However, as we know, the Grade 10 English textbook includes cultural aspects that have not been adequately mentioned yet to be taught in the time allowed. In fact, teaching culture in the textbooks in general and in the Grade 10 English textbook in particular has not really been considered as the main issue in the curriculum of English in Vietnam. So teachers have not really been stressed role 2 of culture in their language teaching. Therefore, it is necessary to decide what and how to introduce and to what extent should the target culture be introduced in accordance with the students‟ competence of language.
In the context of some high schools in Quang Tri Province, the author would like to conduct a study that teachers‟ perceptions and practice relating to the target culture in the Grade 10 English textbook in the classroom. In fact, from what has been observed at some Quang Tri High Schools, the author has found that culture has not been highlighted as an important aim in the English curriculum yet; the awareness of culture function in language learning is not adequate paid attention to; the students are not provided with enough cultural knowledge to perform the target language. As Tang (1999) propounds the view that culture is language and language is culture. He suggests that to speak well, one has to be able to think in that language, and thought is extremely powerful.