TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1 LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS. Aims of the study. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Error! Bookmark not defined. Scope of the study. Structure of the thesis. 9 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Socio-cultural factors. Learning English out of class versus in class. Learning English out of class. Learning English in class .The main roles of the teachers and students in classroom activities………………………………………………………………….The teaching and learning process .The interaction between the teacher and students .The impact of socio-cultural factors on learning English out of class……………………….
Previous studies relating to the research. Research design and approach. Instruments of data collection. Data collection procedure.
Data analysis methods. 42 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Results from the questionnaires and interviews. The impact of social factors on learning English out of class (Cluster 1).
The impact of cultural factors on learning English out of class (Cluster 2). How the social factors have influences on learning Engish out of class (Cluster 3). How the cultural factors have effects on learning Engish out of class (Cluster 4). 70 2 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH.
Summary of the key findings. Implications for teachers. Implications for administrators. Implications for students………………………………………………75 5.
Contribution of the study. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further research. 79 Appendix 1: Questionnaires Appendix 2: Interview questions 3 LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS LIST OF TABLES Table 3.
Summary of the questionnaire components……………………………41 Table 4. The reliability of the piloted questionnaires…………………………. The reliability of the questionnaires……………………………………45 Table 4.Mean score of the impact of social factors on learning English out of class by English majors……………………………………………………………46 Table 4. Frequencies and percentage of opinions on the fact that students in big cities have better English competence than those in rural remote areas………….
Mean score of the effects of social-factors on learning English out of class by English majors at College of Foreign Languages………………………. Frequency of item 8: I dare not ask for clarification in class for fear of losing face. Therefore, I seek ways of studying English out of class to become more self-confident in public……………………………………………………………. Frequency of item 10: Students dare not exchange their ideas with the teachers because of hierarchical relationships, so they want self-study through friends, forums, internets and so on………………………………………………62 Table 4.
Frequency of item 13: Vietnamese students‟ unwillingness to express opinions is due to Confucian morality. Thus, they want to learn out of class to have chances to show their own ideas…………………………………………………. Frequency of item 17: Vietnamese students tend to avoid arguing and debating with others about disagreement of ideas…………………………………63 LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS Figure 2. Essential aspects of the ideal teaching-learning process.
Percentage of English majors‟ agreement with the impact of one‟s…. Percentage of students‟ opinions of negative learning experiences and poor achievement due to cultural factors…………………………………………. Mean score of the reasons of learning English out of class……………52 4 Chart 4. Percentage of the influence of “traditional for craving knowledge” on English studying out of class………………………………………………………53 Chart 4.
Percentage of the increasing demand for English learning people due to open-door policy…………………………………………………………………. Mean score of the influence of social classes on studying English out of class……………………………………………………………………………….59 5 ABSTRACT The current study investigates the impact of socio-cultural factors on learning English out of class by English majors at Hue University College of Foreign Languages. The first aim of this study is to examine socio-cultural factors that affect learning English out of class. The second aim is to explore how these socio-cultural factors have effects on studying English out of class by English majors.
The data were collected through interviews and questionnaires with English majors at Hue College of Foreign Languages. The results indicated that most of the students agreed that socio-cultural factors affect their English learning out of class. English majors were influenced by socio-cultural factors. The students want to learn English out of class more to practice by themselves due to the impact of Confucianism.
In fact, they dare not exchange or discuss their ideas with the teachers in classes. Besides, they also take advantages of studying English out of class to become more active and self-confident because of students‟ shyness, passiveness and lack of confidence. Indeed, they are not ready to take part in activities in classes or to express their own ideas before classes. Furthermore, students want to seek ways of learning English out of class through friends, forums, English clubs and the Internet since the crowded classroom prevents them from free communicative activities Finally, the majority of students want to practice English out of class to master it so that they can meet the demand of society and employment.
Based on the findings, recommendations and implications are provided to students so that they can have good ways of studying English out of class. Rationale English has become one of the most important languages in the world. It has trickled even into lesser known countries as something that is needed to communicate with others. English is used in politics, business dealings, and everyday life.
Many people are finding it hard to get by without knowing English (Grace, n. In many countries, most tourism authorities and other officials in contact with the public speak English to interact and engage with tourists and immigrants. English is also one of the most helpful ways to narrow the gaps among countries in this new era. In addition, English nowadays is considered as the golden key that helps us promote our positions and relationships with many other countries, it obviously becomes a global language.
Besides, Vietnam is a member in the community of developing countries, so it seems hard for us to keep up with the latest changes as well as the day-by-day development of the worldwide nations, to exchange the matters of culture, society and economy if lacking English. Thus, English is a popular tool of communication because of its importance. Nowadays, Vietnam is a member of Asian Bloc and World Trade Organization; hence, there are many Non- Governmental Organizations that come to Viet Nam to invest in the fields of business, economy, education, etc. Moreover, our society is changing at a rapid speed with the structural shifts in production, education and many other fields of life, etc.
From these facts, many serious challenges have presented themselves with regard to maintenance and function of higher education. In line with these events, the number of people those who can communicate fluently in English must be in proportion to that development. In Vietnam, most students at all levels have to learn English because it is a compulsory subject at most schools. They realize the essence of English as it is the magic key to the future.
In the current time, students with Bachelor Degrees who want to get Master or PhD Degrees in Vietnam or abroad have to equip themselves with good English skills as one of the first criteria. Besides, English has long 7 been the international language and globalization has made it more important than ever. Due to globalization, media from around the world is more readily available through a variety of sources such as the internet, television and radio. Thus, besides studying English inside the class, most of the students take English out of class to satisfy their requirement and to explore new horizons in the social and human spheres.
In addition, the factors out of class enable the students with multiple choices to discover new values and relations by widening their understanding of the vivid experience. Furthermore, English is said to be the global lingua franca that is used by several countries so as to communicate with other countries. That is why we need to be proficient in speaking it. The need for knowing the English language increases because of globalization and our connections, relations and transactions with other countries.
Because of this great need, schools from all over the world require the study of the English language. Students even tend to study English outside of their country so as to suffice their need of the language. Nowadays, the majority of classroom environments are culturally diverse. Although the university has the capability of providing opportunities to students, there are still other factors that could affect the quality of the English language learning (Celis et al.
They are socio- cultural factors. From the above reasons, I have decided to conduct a study titled: “An investigation into the impact of socio-cultural factors on learning English out of class by English majors at hue University College of Foreign Languages”. Aims of the study This study focuses on two main aims. The first aim is to find out the socio- cultural factors that have influences on learning English out of class by English majors.
The second aim is to explore how these socio-cultural factors have effects on learning English out of class by the English majors. Research significance It is hoped that the findings of the research will help the Vietnamese EFL 8 teachers as well as students find out the socio-cultural factors which affect learning English out of class. As an English teacher, the researcher has a desire to help all of the English majors and her colleagues know more about how the impact of these socio-cultural factors is so that they can consider success or failure in learning as well as teaching English. In addition, the teachers of English can have new methods to improve their teaching and English majors can take advantage of every chance to enhance their learning English out of class.
More importantly, through this thesis, the readers can realize the influences of socio cultural factors out of class on English majors as well as their learning style to find out appropriate ways of applying new methods successfully in teaching and learning English in Viet Nam. Research questions This thesis seeks the answers for the following questions: 1. What socio-cultural factors affect learning English out of class by English majors? 2. How do these socio-cultural factors have effects on learning English out of class by English majors? 1.
Scope of the study This study was carried out at Hue University College of Foreign Languages with 100 English majors. Structure of the thesis This thesis consists of 5 chapters: Chapter 1- The Introduction: introduces the reasons, aims, research questions and scope of the study, from which the readers can easily have a whole view of the topic. Chapter 2- The Literature review: tells readers all about the theoretical background relating to the thesis. Chapter 3- The Methodology: presents research methodology: the participants, data collection and other steps used during the research process.
9 Chapter 4- The Findings and discussions: describes the findings of the research and the discussion on what the study has found. Chapter 5- The Conclusion: summarizes the main findings and presents the conclusion, implications, limitations and suggestions for further research. 10 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Introduction This chapter presents the literature review related to the present study.
There are five main parts in this section. The first part introduces some socio-cultural factors. The second part presents learning English out of class versus in class. The third part discusses self study.
The fourth part emphasizes the impact of socio- cultural factors on learning English out of class. The next part reviews the previous readings relating to the topic. The last section provides a summary of the whole chapter.2 Socio-cultural factors It stands to reason that there is an interaction between socio-economic or socio-cultural factors and language learning. As an international language, English is ubiquitously learnt; and certainly English learning is also influenced by some of or all of the socio-cultural factors of a certain society where English is being learnt (Bui, 1999).
The socio-cultural factors can be: culture, social demand, social attitudes, population and learning environment.