VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HẠNH A STUDY ON THE FEATURES OF SOURCE CULTURE, TARGET CULTURE AND INTERNATIONAL CULTURE REPRESENTED IN TEXTBOOK TIENG ANH 10, TIENG ANH 11 AND TIENG ANH 12 OF THE TEN-YEAR CRRICULUM m M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01 Hanoi, 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HẠNH A STUDY ON THE FEATURES OF SOURCE CULTURE, TARGET CULTURE AND INTERNATIONAL CULTURE REPRESENTED IN TEXTBOOK TIENG ANH 10, TIENG ANH 11 AND TIENG ANH 12 OF THE TEN-YEAR CRRICULUM nh t m M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS LUẬ VĂ HẠC SỸ Field: English English Linguistics Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ng Anh Code: 8220201. H V Vâ Cán bộ HD: GS. H V Vâ Hanoi, 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “A study on the Features of Source culture, Target culture and International culture Represented in textbook Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh 11 and Tiếng Anh 12 of the 10-Year Curriculum” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi is my own study, and that it has not been submitted for any degree to any other universities or institutions. Where other sources of information have been used, they have been identified and acknowledged.
Signature Nguyen Thi Hồng Hạnh LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To accomplish this study, I am indebted to many people for their essential and thoughtful help. First and foremost, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my respectable supervisor, Prof. Hoang Van Van for his restless and sympathetic encouragement and critical feedback. Without his guidance, this thesis has not been materialized.
I would also like to acknowledge a particular debt to Dr. Huynh Anh Tuan for his invaluable advice and enthusiastic support. Another person I wish to acknowledge my thank is Dr. Ngo Tu Lap, my American Studies‟ lecturer, who I have disturbed many a time to ask for his worthy hints though he is not my supervisor.
My sincere thanks also go to the librarian Nguyen Duc Ta. Without his help I could not collect such large amount of material about the topic. I also thank my dear colleagues at Tam Duong High School for all their help, support and encouragement when I encountered difficulties. Last but not least, I would like to express my thanks to my friends who were willing to help me during the course.
In particular, I find myself owed to my family especially my husband and my children for their love, care and tolerance in completion of this thesis. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Since the dawn of human civilization, human beings have borne in themselves their cultural identities. No one knows for sure since when cultural values were transmitted from one community to another population, but we are sure it was, in ancient times probably within their communities or to neighbouring communities, and then up to now to other communities or even overseas ones with different frontiers. It has long been proved that language is the most significant aspect that make up cultural value of a society.
Thus, language textbooks should be those containing cultural content. This study aims to investigate source culture, target culture and international culture represented in the new textbook series English 10, English 11 and English 12 of the ten-year curriculum for Vietnamese high schools and helps to promote the continued development of intercultural competence in language education. based on Cortazzi and Jin‟s (1999) category and another category i. neutral culture based on Aliakbari‟s (2004) category and Xiao (2010)‟s suggested themes for detecting big “C” and little “c” culture aspects.
The present study is conducted in the hope of finding out: (1) which source of culture among Source culture, target culture and international culture is the most dominant in the selected textbooks and (2) to what extend are these sources represented in the textbook series. The main findings of the study revealed that Vietnamese culture and International culture gained the highest proportion of cultural references in the books. While target culture was secondly densely referenced. Of all the 16 themes for little “c” and big “C” „lifestyle‟, „literature/ art‟ and „values‟ of little “c” and „education and „social norms‟ of big “C” have gained highest frequency of other themes.
Very few references of „economy‟, „politics‟ could be explored in the books. Among the cultural data input, pictures and images accounts the most coverage of the cultural value in the thesis. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ASEAN : Association of Southeast Asian Nations ICC : Intercultural Communicative Competence EFL : English as a Foreign Language MOET : Ministry of Training and Education VC : Vietnamese Culture TC : Target Culture IC : International Culture C1 : Learners‟ native culture C2 : Target culture iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 2. The structure of the target textbooks Table 2.
The structure of ONE unit of the target textbooksTable Table 2. The theme of each unit in the textbooks Table 3. Cultural and Culture-free sections of One unit in the books Table 3. Numbers of aspects of analysis on culture-related content/total units Table 4.
The themes of the units in the textbooks under Big C and little c culture Table 3. Source Culture, Target Culture, and International Target Culture in section Culture and Communication of each unit in the three textbooks Table 4. Frequency and percentage of Source Culture, Target Culture and International Target Culture in the textbooks Table 4. Frequency and percentage of big “C” and little “c” in three books‟ unit themes Table 4.
Frequency and percentage of the 16 themes in the textbooks Table 4. Frequency and percentage of culture-related content in the textbooks v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. Iceberg Model of Culture Figure 2. An example of Culture-free section in the target textbooks Figure 2.
An example of Textbook selection with Cultural information vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1. Content analysis card of one unit Appendix 2. Coding guidelines for the nine themes of big “C” culture (adopted from Xiao, 2010, p. 39, cited by Dehbozorgi, Amalsaleh, Kafipour, 2009 ) Appendix 3.
8 coding guidelines for little “c” culture (adopted from Xiao, 2010, p. 40, cited by Dehbozorgi, Amalsaleh, Kafipour, 2009 ) Appendix 4. Samples codes for “Modes of Addressing” Subcategories under “Social norms” of Big “C” vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study.
Aims of the study and research questions. Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Method of the study.
Organization of the study. 8 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW. The roles of textbooks in language education. Culture and language.
Culture and language. Classification of cultural content in English Textbooks. Some related studies. 17 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
Data analytical framework. Data analytical unit. Data collection procedure. Instrument of the analysis.
Constructing the content analysis card. Description of the content analysis card. Applying the content anlysis card. 33 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION.
Data analysis and Discussion. Data analysis Phase 1: Selection of relevant data and determining the object of each unit. Determining the object of each unit. 36 Student: Nguyễn Thị Hồng Hạnh 1 K25 – QH 2016.E1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Data analysis Phase 2: Textbook analysis, classifying pictures, texts and activities into types of culture sources and cultural themes. The presentation of Source Culture (VC), Target Culture (TC) and International Target Culture (IC) under the themes of “Big C” and “Little c” Culture. Source Culture or Vietnamese Culture in the textbooks. Target Culture or Culture of Inner Circle countries: United Kingdom, America, Australia in the textbooks.
International Target Culture or Cultures of other countries in the textbooks. 59 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION .The cultural theme of each unit in the books .2 Frequency and percentage of cultural themes in the books .Frequency and percentage of culture-related content in the textbooks. 69 Student: Nguyễn Thị Hồng Hạnh 2 K25 – QH 2016.E1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION This part introduces the rationale of carrying out this study, its aims and objectives as well as its scope and significance. The part also presents the structure of the thesis.
Rationale of the study Culture in English language teaching materials has been subject to discussion among professionals and teachers for ages. Some teachers want to have cultural content in their language classrooms and similarly students may wish to acquire the cultural knowledge, which enables them to engage authentically with the language use of a particular native-speaking community. With the rising interest in culture and the development of intercultural approaches in language teaching, evaluating the cultural contents in EFL textbooks is becoming a great concern. Evaluating the cultural contents of textbooks is essential because they vary greatly.
Just as with English textbooks, some scholars have proposed criteria or check lists to evaluate cultural contents (Byram et al., 1994; Cunningsworth, 1995; Huhn, 1978; Kilickaya, 2004; Reimann, 2009; Risager, 1991; Sercu, 1998, cited in Liu, 2016: 841); (Cotazzi and Jin, 1999; Mckay, 2000; and others, cited in Yasemin & Reyhan, 2011: 161). Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has been recognized as an essential skill in the globalized world in foreign language education. In order to become intercultural communication competent, each individual, in general, and every English learner, in specific, needs to learn more about other cultures. Teaching language and culture as an integrated whole and Intercultural Language Learning have been becoming a new trend.
It is an attempt to raise students' awareness of their own culture, and help them to interpret and understand other cultures. In this method, no specific culture has been paid attention, but a variety of cultures has been included in the curriculum. English textbooks profoundly influence English teaching. Hence, "cultural content in English textbook" is much of importance that worth being evaluated so that possible hints may be found to improve it in the future.
Student: Nguyễn Thị Hồng Hạnh 3 K25 – QH 2016.E1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com In Vietnam, the subject that cultures have a great influence on foreign language learning and teaching has now been given more and more concerns in recent years. Many studies have been conducted on this subject, for instance (Nguyen et al, 2013; Tran, 2015; Phan & Nguyen, 2008; Nguyen, 2013, Trinh, 2016, etc. I, myself, found through my experience as an English learner and then an English teacher that while a great number of students, for most part and in many circumstances, know what English native speakers are saying, they fail to understand them due to their limited knowledge of British cultures or English speaking cultures. Obviously, providing students with only the knowledge of grammar and the content of English language usage without cultural content is not enough for them to understand native speakers' saying and writing in a wide range of contexts.
My students, especially in conversation, demonstrate misunderstandings, although they do not make any mistakes in grammar or vocabulary.