VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE CULTURAL CONTENT IN THE TEXTBOOK "MOTIVATE! 2" AT VUS IN HO CHI MINH CITY A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By NGUYEN KHANH VAN Supervised by NGUYEN DUY MONG HA, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, OCTOBER 2021 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my greatest gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyễn Duy Mộng Hà, for all of her devotion, diligent supervision, and constant encouragement together with invaluable advice on my thesis writing. Without her insightful recommendations and constructive comments, it would have been impossible for me to accomplish my thesis.
I also owe my thankfulness to all the lecturers who are always conscientious in delivering worthy knowledge to me throughout 2 years studying the TESOL program at USSH, directly or indirectly contributing to the completion of this thesis. Besides, my sincerest thanks also go to the Board of Administrators and other members of the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, who gave me an opportunity to defend this thesis. Simultaneously, I am also immensely indebted to my colleagues and friends working at the language center - VUS, especially Ms. Lan Hương, Ms.
Trúc Mai, Ms. Bảo Quyên, and Ms. Diệu Vy, whose permanent assistance and precious experience in teaching English have furnished me with worthful data and information that played an essential role in this research. Last but not least, my heartfelt gratitude is sent to my family, whose devoting care and constant support have encouraged me to accomplish the predetermined goals as well as overcome the time of discouragement and tiredness.
Without their standby support, there is virtually impossible that this thesis will be completed in time. i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I hereby citify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE CULTURAL CONTENT IN THE TEXTBOOK "MOTIVATE! 2" AT VUS IN HO CHI MINH CITY in terms of the statement of requirements for the Thesis in Mater’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee. No other person’s work has been utilized without acknowledgement in the content of this thesis. The current thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other situation.
Ho Chi Minh City, October 2021 ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, NGUYEN KHANH VAN, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis. Ho Chi Minh City, October, 2021 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. I STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY.
II RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS. III TABLE OF CONTENTS. IV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. VII LIST OF TABLES.
VIII LIST OF PICTURES AND FIGURES. XI CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY. AIMS OF THE STUDY.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. SCOPE OF THE STUDY. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY .7 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. The components of attitude.
The relationship between attitude and motivation in language teaching and learning. Factors affecting attitude in English learning process. The role of attitude in English teaching and learning process. The relationship between culture and language.
Culture in language teaching and learning. Categories of culture. Sources of cultural information. Forms of cultural representation.
CULTURAL CONTENT REPRESENTATION IN CURRENT EFL TEXTBOOKS. Cultural content representation. Layout and design. Subject and content.
The cultural content delivery. Goals of culture teaching. Culture teaching strategies. Criteria for evaluating cultural content representation in EFL textbooks.
32 iv CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY. RESEARCH SITE AND PARTICIPANTS. Context of the study. Student pilot questionnaire.
Teacher pilot questionnaire. DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE. Interview to teachers. Interview to teachers.
62 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Data analysis from textbook evaluation. Layout and Design. Subject and Content.
Data analysis from classroom observation. Data analysis from the questionnaire. Students’ and teachers’ attitudes to the cultural content representation in “Motivate! 2”. Students’ and teachers’ attitudes to the cultural content delivery through “Motivate! 2”.
Factors motivate students to learn the cultures of different countries in the world. Data analysis from teacher interviews. Teachers’ perception of the importance of culture teaching. Teachers’ perceptions of the cultural content in “Motivate! 2” and the use of supplementary materials to support culture teaching in class.
Teachers’ perceptions of the topic’s relation to learners’ culture when teaching the Target cultural background. Teachers’ perceptions of class activities for culture learning. Students and teachers’ attitudes to the cultural content representation in “Motivate! 2”. Layout and Design.
Subject and Content. Students’ and teachers’ attitudes to the cultural content delivery through “Motivate! 2”. Goals achievement related to cultural competence. Culture Teaching Strategies.
Factors motivate learners to learn the cultures of different countries in the world. 99 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. Teachers and students’ attitudes to cultural content representation in “Motivate! 2”. Layout and Design.
Subject and Content. Teachers and students’ attitudes to the cultural content delivery through “Motivate! 2”. Goals achievement related to cultural competence. Culture teaching strategies.
Factors motivate students to learn the cultures of different countries in the world. Suggestions for teachers. Suggestions for VUS. Suggestions for textbook authors.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH. 144 APPENDIX 3A: ITEM-TOTAL STATISTICS’ RESULTS OF STUDENT PILOT QUESTIONNAIRE. 144 APPENDIX 3B: ITEM-TOTAL STATISTICS’ RESULTS OF TEACHER PILOT QUESTIONNAIRE. 148 APPENDIX 4A: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FORM A.
148 APPENDIX 4B: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FORM B. 153 APPENDIX 4C: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FORM C. 159 APPENDIX 4D: A SUMMARY OF 3 CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS AT VUS. 168 APPENDIX 5A: STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE IN ENGLISH.
168 APPENDIX 5B: STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE IN VIETNAMESE. 173 APPENDIX 5C: TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRE IN ENGLISH. 178 APPENDIX 5D: TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRE IN VIETNAMESE. 188 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VUS Vietnam USA Society English Centers EFL English as a Foreign Language ELT English Language Teaching NTMK Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Ss Students Ts Teachers USSH University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Ho Chi Minh City EF The Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages SPSS 26 Statistical Package for the Social Science) M Mean S.D Standard Deviations CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.
Eight forms of cultural representation in English textbooks. Lee (2009)’s framework of Big “C” and small “c” cultural themes. Themes under Big “C” culture in “Motivate! 2”. Themes under small “C” culture in “Motivate! 2”.
The synthesis of culture teaching goals. The synthesis of culture teaching strategies. The synthesis of criteria for evaluating cultural content in EFL textbooks. Criteria for evaluating cultural content representation in “Motivate! 2”.
Eight guiding principles of EFL materials design. Demographic characteristics of student participants. Demographic characteristics of teachers in the survey process. Demographic characteristics of teachers in the interview process.
The brief summary of student pilot questionnaire items. Reliability statistics’ results for “Layout and Design”. Reliability statistics’ results for “Activities”. Reliability statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the first run.
Reliability statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the second run. Reliability statistics’ results for “Culturally oriented goals”. Reliability statistics’ results for “Culture teaching strategies”. The brief summary of teacher pilot questionnaire items.
Reliability statistics’ results for “Layout and Design”. Reliability statistics’ results for “Activities”. Reliability statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the first run. Reliability statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the second run.
Reliability statistics’ results for “Goals achievement related to cultural competence” for the first run. Reliability statistics’ results for “Goals achievement related to cultural competence” for the second run. Reliability statistics’ results for “Culture teaching strategies”. The brief summary of main research questionnaire items for surveyed student.
The brief summary of main research questionnaire items for surveyed teachers .Item-total statistics’ results for “Layout and Design”. Item-total statistics’ results for “Activities”. Item-total statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the first run. Item-total statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the second run.
Item-total statistics’ results for “Goals achievement related to cultural competence”. Item-total statistics’ results for “Culture teaching strategies”. Item-total statistics’ results for “Layout and Design”. Item-total statistics’ results for “Activities”.
Item-total statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the first run. Item-total statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the second run. Item-total statistics’ results for “Goals achievement related to cultural competence” for the first run. Item-total statistics’ results for “Goals achievement related to cultural competence” for the second run.
Item-total statistics’ results for “Culture teaching strategies”. Sources of Culture in “Motivate! 2”. Themes under Big “C” and small “c” cultures in “Motivate! 2”. Students’ attitudes to the layout and design in “Motivate! 2”.
Teachers’ attitudes to the layout and design in “Motivate! 2”. Students’ attitudes to class activities for culture learning. Teachers’ attitudes to class activities for culture learning. Students’ preferences for the forms of culture learning activities.
Students’ attitudes to the use of supplementary materials for culture learning. Teachers’ attitudes to the use of supplementary materials for culture teaching. Students’ and teachers’ preferences for outside sources of information. Students’ attitudes to the subject and content in “Motivate! 2”.
Teachers’ attitudes to the subject and content in “Motivate! 2”. Students’ attitudes to the study of Source, Target and International cultures. Teachers’ attitudes to the study of Source, Target and International cultures. Students’ and teachers’ preferences for learning and teaching the cultural information of native English-speaking countries.
Students’ and teachers’ preferences for learning and teaching the cultural information of non- native English-speaking countries. Students’ attitudes to the learning of visible and invisible aspects of culture. Teachers’ attitudes to the teaching of visible and invisible aspects of culture. Students’ and teachers’ preferences for themes under Big “C” culture.
Teachers’ reasons for teaching themes under Big “C” culture. Students’ and teachers’ preferences for themes under small “c” culture. Teachers’ reasons for teaching themes under small “c” culture. Students’ evaluation of the goals achievement related to cultural competence.
Teachers’ evaluation of the goals achievement related to cultural competence of students. Students’ attitudes to culture teaching strategies employed in language classrooms. Teachers’ attitudes to the culture teaching strategies employed in language classrooms. Strategies for teaching cultural information inside and/or outside “Motivate! 2”.
Hindrances of imparting cultural information in “Motivate! 2”. The reasons for students’ intrinsic motivation to learn the cultures of different countries in the world. The reasons for students’ extrinsic motivation to learn the cultures of different countries in the world. The effect of gender on students’ selection of native English speaking countries.
Teachers’ perception of culture teaching’s advantages. The occurrences of native and non-native English speaking countries in “Motivate! 2”. 166 ix LIST OF PICTURES AND FIGURES Picture 1. 4 levels of the Student’s Book.
The introduction of “Motivate! 2”. An example of The Progress check in “Motivate! 2”. An example of The Revision Sections in “Motivate! 2”. An example of The Vocabulary and Grammar Guide in “Motivate! 2”.