VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *************************** VŨ THỊ TUYẾT AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CULTURAL CONTENTS AVAILABLE IN THE READING PASSAGES OF ENGLISH 12, STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES AND EXPECTATIONS TOWARDS CULTURAL CONTENTS TO BE LOADED TO THIS TEXTBOOK AND CULTURAL LEARNING AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL (Phân tích các nội dung văn hóa trong các bài đọc của sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 12, thái độ và mong đợi của học sinh về nội dung văn hóa được chuyển tải trong cuốn sách và việc học các kiến thức văn hóa đó ở trường THPT Phúc Thọ) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 HA NOI – 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ****************************** VŨ THỊ TUYẾT AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CULTURAL CONTENTS AVAILABLE IN THE READING PASSAGES OF ENGLISH 12, STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES AND EXPECTATIONS TOWARDS CULTURAL CONTENTS TO BE LOADED TO THIS TEXTBOOK AND CULTURAL LEARNING AT PHUC THO HIGH SCHOOL (Phân tích các nội dung văn hóa trong các bài đọc của sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 12, thái độ và mong đợi của học sinh về nội dung văn hóa được chuyển tải trong cuốn sách và việc học các kiến thức văn hóa đó ở trường THPT Phúc Thọ) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Supervisor : Assoc. Võ Đại Quang HA NOI – 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authorship of the study project report entitled: An investigation into the cultural contents available in the reading passages of “English 12”, students’ attitudes and expectations toward the cultural contents to be loaded to this textbook and cultural learning at Phuc Tho High School The thesis is submitted to Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master Degree of Arts in English Teaching Methodology at University of Languages and International Studies, Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi.
Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Ha Noi, November 2016 V Th Tuyết i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of conducting this MA thesis, my efforts could not have achieved such great success without the help and support from a number of people. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Vo Dai Quang, for his genuine guidance, everlasting support and strong encouragement throughout the stages of my study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise and suggestions have greatly inspired me in my growth of teaching career.
My deepest respect and gratitude are extended to the lecturers and many others from Faculty of Post-graduate Studies at ULIS, VNU, for their enthusiastic help and support during all my course as well as the writing of the present thesis. My sincere thanks also go to my classmates and my friends for their whole- hearted concern and encouragement. Moreover, a special word of thanks isconveyed to all the teachers and grade- 12 students at Phuc Tho High school for their help and participation throughout the data collection procedure for my MA thesis. Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my beloved family for their being with me and supporting me at the hardest times throughout all my studies and the fulfillment of this academic work.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Language and culture are now deemed to be co-constitutive; hence English language teaching (ELT) textbooks should incorporate cultural aspects and promote intercultural competence. However, cultural traits in the reading passages of the textbook English 12 seem to be ignored in teaching and learning English process at Phuc Tho High school. The students here, to a great extent, know the rules of language, but are not always able to use the language adequately as it requires since they are not knowledgeable enough about the target culture. This research is carried out to point out cultural groups and categories presented in the reading passages of the textbook English 12.
Moreover, the reseacher aims to find out the students‟ concerning the presence these cultural contents in this textbook as well as their cultural learning at Phuc Tho high school so that the learners can raise their cultural aweaness and get appropriateness in communication during and after learning the material “ English 12”. In order to fulfill these aims, two checklists and a student questionnaire were employed by the researcher. The subjects involved in this study were 84 grade-12 students, including 28 males and 56 females who are all students of mixed-level classes. They were invited to participate in the survey questionnaire for data collection.
Quantitative data were analyzed by calculating the frequencies, percentages and rank orders. Qualitative data were analyzed by applying the coding system for the categorization of collected responses and content analysis. Based on the findings, some suggestions were given to teachers with the hope that they will collaborate with the school to make certain positive changes to this problematic reality. Hence, teachers and learners need to have awareness and attitudes to integrate cultural knowledge into training English language so that English learning and teaching at Phuc Tho High school become more interesting and effective.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration .iii Table of contents .iv List of abbreviations .vii List of tables .viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Aims of the study. Objectives of the study. Methods of the study.
Scope of the study. Significances of the study. Structural organization of the study. 4 CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW.
Theoretical background of language and culture. Definition of language. Definition of culture. Interrelationship between language and culture.
Culture and cultural learning. Theoretical background of textbook. The role of textbook in teaching and learning. Theoretical background of reading skill.
Definition of reading and reading comprehension. Reading passages and the load of cultural background knowledge. Review of the related studies. Studies on Classification of cultural content in ELT textbooks.
16 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Studies on cultural categories in foreign language textbooks. Studies on attitudes and expectations towards cultural learning and contents in English textbooks. Restatement of research questions.
The fitness of the research approach. The context at Phuc Tho High school. Textbook under Evaluation. Data collection methods.
Checklist One used for the investigating the cutural groups. Checklist Two used for the investigating the cutural categories. Data collection and data analysis procedure. Data collection and data analysis procedure on textbook analysis.
Data collection and data analysis procedure on students‟ attitudes .29 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Attitudes of cultural contents in English 12 textbook. Expectations of cultural contents in terms of cultural categories in the textbook. Expectations of the preferred cultural groups in EFL textbooks.38 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Students‟ attitudes towards cultural learning. Students‟ attitudes towards learning cultural groups and reasons for learning cultural groups. Students‟ attitudes towards situations of current cultural teaching and learning in EFL classrooms at Phuc Tho high school. Summary of main findings.
Implications of the study. Limitations and recommendations for further research.VI vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FLT Foreign Language Teaching ELT English Language Teaching EFL English as a Foreign Language vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Units and topics in the textbook.1: The distribution of frequency and percentages of the cultural groups in the reading passage of English 12 textbook.2: Distribution of frequency and percentage of cultural categories according to Checklist Two.3 : Students‟ attitudes of cultural contents in English 12.4 : Ranking of students‟ expectations about the most preferred cultural categories to be presented in textbook.5: Ranking of students‟ expectations about which cultural groups should be presented in textbooks.6: Students‟ attitudes towards cultural learning.7: Ranking of students‟ attitudes about the cultural groups they had tried and were willing to learn.8: Students‟ reasons for learning cultural groups.9 : Students‟ preferences about the most helpful methods for cultural learning.10 : Factors obstructing students‟ abilities to learn about cultures.43 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In this part, the researcher will present the rationale of the study, the aims, objectives and the research questions, the scope, the methods, the significance, and the structural organization of the study. Rationale There is no doubt that it would be a “nightmare” if human society existed without communication, of which language is a significant means. Among many languages existing all over the world, English is nowadays commonly used as regards the international language that plays a crucial role in a lot of fields such as economy, politics, commerce and science, etc.
As a result, more and more people are interested in learning English not only because of their jobs‟ requirements, but also for the needs to integrate with the outside world. However, on the way mastering a foreign language, especially English, the learners have to encounter so many difficulties arising both within the language itself and from outside. One of these foremost barriers is culture difference. Emmitt and Pollock (1997) when discussing the relationship between language and culture have stated that “language is rooted in culture and culture is reflected and passed on by language from one generation to the next”.
From this, one can see that learning a new language involves the learning of a new culture (Allwright &Bailey, 1991) and “if we teach language without teaching at the same time the culture in which it operates, we are teaching meaningless symbols or symbols to which student attaches the wrong meaning”( Politzer, 1959, p. In Vietnam, English has been taught as a compulsory subject in both public and private schools for many years. Nevertheless, the focusing so much on teaching grammar, vocabulary and language skills, which often dominates in English teaching and learning method, results in the ignorance of teaching cultural background knowledge presented in the materials. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Among the ELT materials, English 12 is the English textbook nationally published and used for senior high schools in Vietnam.
In fact, there have been investigations carried out on the issue of cultural elements in ELT. Still, little attention has been paid to the cultural content of the ELT textbooks, and no investigations have examined the cultural content of the reading passages of the textbook “English 12”. Furthermore, almost no attention has been given to the teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes and awareness of the cultural load of the textbooks they use. All the mentioned reasons have urged the author to choose “An investigation into the cultural contents available in the reading passages of “English 12”, students’ attitudes and expectations toward the cultural contents to be loaded to this textbook and cultural learning at Phuc Tho High School” as the title for this MA thesis.
Aims of the study The main purposes of the this study are: (1) to examine the state of references to different cultural groups and cultural categories presented in the reading passages of the textbook English 12, (2) to find out the learners‟ attitudes and expectations on cultural contents in the textbook English 12 and their culture learning at Phuc Tho high school. (3) to give some pedagogical implications that may raise students‟ cultural awareness and hope to contribute some possitive changes in teaching and learning English in the current context at Phuc Tho High school 1.