MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY VO THI MINH NGOC TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF INTEGRATING CULTURE IN AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM AT NGUYEN THAI BINH SECONDARY SCHOOL MASTER’S THESIS Ba Ria – Vung Tau, March 2023 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY VO THI MINH NGOC TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF INTEGRATING CULTURE IN AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM AT NGUYEN THAI BINH SECONDARY SCHOOL MASTER’S THESIS Submitted to the Postgraduate Institute in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL Course code: 8140111 SUPERVISED BY ASSOC. PHAM HUU DUC, PH. Ba Ria – Vung Tau, March 2023 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “Teachers’ and Students’ perceptions of integrating culture in an English language classroom at Nguyen Thai Binh Secondary school” is my own work. Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma.
No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. Vung Tau, February 2022 Signature Vo Thi Minh Ngọc iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my supervisor for his helpful guidance, insightful comments and especially her enthusiastic encouragements. Without her my thesis would not have been completed.
Secondly, I am also grateful to all the participants who were enthusiastic and cooperative in completing the online surveys and interviews. Without their cooperation, this thesis could not have such precious and reliable data for analysis. Especially, I am thankful to all of my students and colleagues for their great encouragement and support whenever I felt exhausted and dealt with the difficulties during the progress of conducting the research. Lastly, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my family, especially my parents who have constantly supported me both spiritually and materially during the completion of the thesis.
iv ABSTRACT Integrating culture into the teaching and learning of English in the classroom implies not only the transmission of intercultural knowledge but also the learners’ enthusiasm in the language. On that basis, this thesis was carried out with the main aim at exploring the secondary school teachers’ and students’ perceptions of integrating culture in an English language classroom at Nguyen Thai Binh Secondary school to find out the challenges the secondary teachers and students may encounter to provide some recommendations for secondary school teachers and students to teach and learn English effectively. This study used a mixed-methods approach, but the quantitative data collection method was commonly used. In my school, there were 15 English teachers at Nguyen Thai Binh Secondary school, 5 teachers from other schools and 120 students from four grades who took part in the survey.
In terms of data analysis, quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (e., mean, standard deviation, and frequencies/ percentages), whereas qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. Teachers are typically aware of the necessity of teaching and integrating culture in the foreign language classroom, according to the findings of the data analysis. It was also shown that while all teachers have some awareness of parts of the target culture, how they deal with the target culture is heavily influenced by curricular considerations and limits. Students, on the other hand, have had a lot of trouble understanding the cultural aspect of learning a new language.
The study's findings have various implications for the integration of culture in foreign language classes, as well as suggestions for further research. v TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP. v LIST OF FIGURES .ix LIST OF TABLES .xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. Rationale for the study.
Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of research. Significance of the Study. Organization of the Study.
6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Overview of culture and language. The definition of culture. The definition of language.
The role of culture in teaching and learning English language. Some different views on culture in language learning .6 Theoretical framework of the study .1 Teachers’ cultural cognition .2 Teachers’ professional teaching skills.3 Research setting and participants .2 Validity and Reliability of the Instruments .5 Data collection and analysis procedures. 33 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH RESULTS .1 Findings from students' survey (See APPENDIX B).2 Findings from teachers' survey (See APPENDIX C). Results for the research questions.
55 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .2 Pedagogical Implications for teachers and students. 65 APPENDIX A: GROUP DISCUSSION OUTLINE. 65 APPENDIX B: STUDENT SURVEY QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS. 68 APPENDIX C: SURVEY QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS.
70 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. 1 What constitutes culture?. 2 Theoretical framework of the study. 1 Data collection and analysis procedures of the study.
1 Results of student’ the choice of studying English was my own. 2Results of student’studying English because it is a worldwide language. 3 Results of student’ studying English because it enables me to make friends through social media. 4Results of student’ studying English because it is the language to communicate with all people abroad.
5 Results of student’ studying English because I want to know about the English culture. 6 Results of teacher’ the importance of integrating culture in teaching English. 7 Results of teacher’ providing my students with appropriate language to be used in different communication situations. 8 Results of teacher’ helping my students learn about how to do things and behave in different social interactions.
9 Results of teacher’ asking my students to share aspects of their own culture in English. 10 Results of teacher’ asking my students to do all kinds of projects to introduce their own or local culture to foreigners. 11 Results of teacher’ asking my students to discover an aspect of a foreign culture and recommend it to their friends. 12 Results of teacher’ using videos, CD-ROMs or the Internet to illustrate aspects of foreign cultures.
13 Results of teacher’ encouraging students to explore the causes of differences between domestic and foreign cultures. 14 Results of teacher’ relating cultural content to what I have learned and experienced about foreign cultures or countries. 15 Results of teacher’ finding it easy to combine the language and the culture. 16 Results of teacher’ introducing culture before or after lesson.
17 Results of teacher’ using multi-method to teach cultures. 51 x LIST OF TABLES Table 3. 1 Research students’ information about gender. 2 Research students’ information about educational level.
3 Research teachers’ information about gender. 4 Research teachers’ information about working experience. 1 Results of student’ the choice of studying English was my own. 2 Results of students’ studying English because it is a worldwide language.
3 Results of student’ studying English because it enables me to make friends through social media. 4 Results of student’ studying English because it is the language to communicate with all people abroad. 5 Results of students’ studying English because I want to know about the English culture. 6 Results of teacher’ the importance of integrating culture in teaching English.
7 Results of teacher’ providing my students with appropriate language to be used in different communication situations. 8 Results of teacher’ helping my students learn about how to do things and behave in different social interactions. 9 Results of teacher’ asking my students to share aspects of their own culture in English. 10 Results of teacher’ asking my students to do all kinds of projects to introduce their own or local culture to foreigners .11 Results of teacher’ asking my students to discover an aspect of a foreign culture and recommend it to their friends.
12 Results of teacher’ using videos, CD-ROMs or the Internet to illustrate aspects of foreign cultures .13 Results of teacher’ encouraging students to explore the causes of differences between domestic and foreign cultures .14 Results of teacher’ relating cultural content to what I have learned and experienced about foreign cultures or countries .15 Results of teacher’ finding it easy to combine the language and the culture .16 Results of teacher’ introducing culture before or after lesson. 17 Results of teacher’ using multi-method to teach cultures. 50 xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as a Foreign Language L2 Second Language MOET Ministry of Education and Training xiii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION This chapter first provides the background of the research including a brief introduction to the teaching and learning of culture in English in middle schools in Vietnam in general and Nguyen Thai Binh Secondary School in particular.
Then, the Research Problem Statement is presented. Next, Purpose of the study is introduced, followed by the research objectives and research questions. In addition, the importance of research and definition of key terms is also considered to indicate some of the contributions that have been made to address specific issues, research aims and pertinent topics. Finally, the organization of the thesis is included, and definitions of terminology are supplied to assist the research's logicality and intelligibility.
Rationale for the study Although it is not a recent topic, the integration of cultural influences into language has received extensive research as mobility has become an integral component of every student's life in today’s world. Most students these days have the opportunity to travel to other countries for educational purposes and to learn about different cultures. As a result, in today’s globalized society, studying a foreign language has become the norm. To be able to live in different cultures and educational situations, students must have a certain level of intercultural awareness and competency.
In this regard, one's knowledge of new cultures, as well as one's own culture, is critical to being a global citizen. It is the most often favored and learned second language (L2) and foreign language (FL) (Graddol (2006); Le (2004)). Speakers of English as a second or foreign language (FL) outnumber native English speakers (Crystal, 2004). Communication is culturally linked to individuals and communities, according to Philipsen (2002).
As a result, in addition to strengthening communicative skill, teaching English should also focus on growing intercultural competence (IC). Culture and language learning have long been thought to be tightly intertwined (Dai, 2011; Zhao, 2011); nonetheless, why and to what extent we should teach and learn culture while teaching and learning a foreign language has been a point of contention. 1 Teaching language is erroneous and insufficient without a cultural study. Understanding the cultural contents linked with a language is important when it is taught for educational purposes (Lado, 1964).
As a result, there has been a significant amount of culture-related study in language teaching and learning. However, these studies have only looked at a few levels of learner outcomes in learning culture, which is typically not their major focus (e., Byrd, Cummings Hlas, Watzke, and Montes Valencia, 2011; Chen, 2013; Georgiou, 2011; Gomez Rodriguez, 2012; Pitkowska, 2015; Salem, 2013). According to Rivers (1981), cultural training should contain at least seven objectives. These include making students aware of how people act; the effects of social variables such as age, sex, and social class on the way they speak; how people in the target culture traditionally act in various situations; culture in the most commonly used words and phrases; being critical of the target language culture; developing skills necessary for locating and organizing materials about the target culture; and developing intellectual curiosities.
Despite the fact that different studies have acknowledged these goals, whether culture can be taught in the language classroom remains a contentious question. According to Krashen (1982), the classroom is not an acceptable venue for learning either language or culture.