TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP………………………………………. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………… 1 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………. 6 LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES……………………………………… 6 ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………… 7 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION……………………………………… 8 1. Background of the Research……………………………… 9 1.
Reasons for the Research………………………………… 10 1. Structure of the Research………………………………………… 14 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………… 15 Chapter introduction……………………………………………………. Definitions of culture …………………………………………… 15 2.
Relationship between language and culture……………………… 17 2. Intercultural communicative competence……………………… 20 2. Importance of integrating the target culture into the 21 language classroom………………………………………. Goals and principles of teaching culture…………………… 23 2.
Techniques and activities in teaching aspects of 25 cultures…………………………………………… 2. Reality in teaching cultural aspects in Tieng Anh 10 at Kon Tum 28 High School……………………………………………………… 2. Defining cultural aspects in Tieng Anh 10………………. Difficulties teachers face when dealing with cultural aspects 31 in Tieng Anh 10………….
Syllabus design and course book adaptation…………………. Supplementary materials development…………………. Definition of theme-based syllabus……………………. Advantages and disadvantages of using theme-based 39 syllabus…………………………………………………… 2.
Topics in cultural syllabus………………………………… 42 2. Course book adaptation…………………………………… 44 2. The role of needs analysis in the development of a course… 46 2. The process and methods of needs analysis……………… 46 2.
50 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES……………. Instruments for data collection …………………………………. Classroom observation sheets for teachers‟ comments on 55 five experimental teaching periods………………………. 56 3 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION……………………… 58 Chapter introduction…………………………………………………….
Findings and Discussion……………………………………………. Teachers‟ perception on teaching and learning the target 58 cultures in English classes…………………………………. Difficulties teachers faced when dealing with cultural aspects in 61 Tieng Anh 10………………………………………………………. Teachers deal with cultural aspects in Tieng Anh 10…………… 65 4.
Frequency of discussing cultural aspects in Tieng Anh 10……. The necessity of supplementary materials for teaching the cultural aspects in Tieng Anh 10…………………………………. Topics of culture are often discussed in English classes in Tieng Anh 10………………………………………………………………… 72 4. Activities of culture that students are interested in and teachers often use in the English classes……………………………… 75 4.
Cultural aspects and activities should be included when 79 designing supplementary materials for Tieng Anh 10…………. Teachers‟ feedback on the five experimental teaching periods… 80 4. Teachers‟ suggestions to improve teaching and learning cultural aspects in Tieng Anh 10…………………………………… 81 Chapter Summary……………………. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS…………….
Summary of key findings……………………………………. Implications for EFL teachers at Kon Tum High School…. Implications for students at Kon Tum High School……… 89 4 5. Implications for Administrators at Kon Tum High School… 92 5.
Suggested supplementary materials for teaching aspects of 92 target cultures in Tieng Anh 10………………………………… 5. Why to design?. What to design?. How to design?.
97 REFERENCES………………………………………………………… 98 APPENDICES 5 LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Pages 4. Teachers‟ perception on teaching and learning the target cultures in English classes…………………………………………………… 55 4. Difficulties teachers faced when dealing with cultural aspects in Tieng Anh 10……………………………………………………………. Teachers deal with cultural aspects in Tieng Anh 10………………… 62 4.
Frequency of discussing cultural aspects in Tieng Anh 10………… 64 4. The necessity of supplementary materials for teaching the cultural aspects in Tieng Anh 10………………………………………………… 66 4. Topics of culture are often discussed in English classes in Tieng Anh 10…………………………………………………………………………. Activities of culture that students are interested in and teachers often use in the English classes……………………………………….
Cultural aspects and activities should be included when designing supplementary materials for Tieng Anh 10…………………………. Teachers‟ suggestions to improve teaching and learning cultural aspects in Tieng Anh 10………………………………………………… 78 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching EFL: English as a Foreign Language ICC: Intercultural Communicative Competence ELT: English Language Teaching MOET: The Ministry of Education and Training 7 ABSTRACT This thesis studied the designing of supplementary materials to teach aspects of target cultures in Tieng Anh 10 at Kon Tum High School. In that process, it attempted to demonstrate teachers‟ perceptions on learning and teaching culture in English classrooms, including the difficulties teachers faced in integrating some aspects of target cultures in Tieng Anh 10. Besides, the study tried to gain insights into what topics EFL teachers at Kon Tum high School often discussed and cultural activities were often used in teaching culture on which the author based to design supplementary materials to teach aspects of target cultures in Tieng Anh 10.
The subjects for this study included 10 EFL teachers at Kon Tum High School. The data collected mainly through questionnaire and teachers‟ classroom observation on five experimental teaching periods. In addition, some informal interviews with five teachers who have currently been teaching English at Grade 10 helped to confirm the results collected through the questionnaire and classroom observations. The results from the study revealed that most of the teachers were aware of the importance of integrating the aspects of target cultures in teaching English to students for intercultural communicative competence.
However, teachers faced a lot of difficulties when dealing with the cultural aspects in the textbooks such as students‟ attitudes toward learning target cultures, teachers‟ and students‟ cultural background knowledge, time limitation and especially the lack of teaching aids and reference materials to teach the aspects of target cultures in Tieng Anh 10. Therefore, in the findings and discussion, the study emphasized the necessity of designing supplementary materials to teach aspects of target cultures in which cultural topics and activities teachers often used and students were interested in were explored properly and effectively. Background of the Research We are long past the era of learning a language for the sake of linguistic analysis. It is necessary that teaching for English linguistic competence cannot be separated from teaching for intercultural competence.
The advent of Vietnam joining WTO and modern teaching methodologies has created the need to communicate well among language learners in general and English learners in particular. When more foreigners choose Vietnam as a tourist destination or as an investment proposition, successful communication will lead to successful co-operation in many fields. English is no longer a “foreign” language. It has become an “international” as well as an “intercultural” language and is the official language of two billion people in at least 75 countries throughout the world.
The number of people speaking English as a second language has surpassed the number of people speaking it as their first language. It is English that people use to access hundreds of other cultures. EFL Vietnamese learners are naturally motivated to learn how to communicate successfully with people of many other cultures as a result. Therefore, EFL Vietnamese teachers should give their students opportunities to think about, talk about intercommunication, the similarities and differences between cultures as well, and should include cultural examples in their English teaching periods.
In addition, in language education, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has put emphasis on communicative competence comprising linguistic, discourse, sociolinguistic and strategic competences. Language learners, therefore, should master both linguistic and supra-linguistic items, among which is culture. This will help to develop tolerance and cultural sensitivity as well as minimize miscommunication. 9 One significant event is the increase in the global information and the globalization of English usage.
Intercultural competence has naturally played an important role in the foreign language classroom as a result. According to Jandt (2004: 45-46), intercultural competence is identified by four skills: personality strength, communication skills, psychological adjustment, and cultural awareness. Moreover, as Claire Kramsch (1993 in Marcela Krhovská, 2007: 11) explained: “…Culture becomes the very core of language teaching. Cultural awareness must then be viewed as enabling language proficiency… Culture in language teaching is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, so to speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing…” It is obvious that intercultural competence not only raises students‟ awareness of their own culture and then compares and contrasts that with other cultures, but also shows their attitudes toward other cultures.
As a teacher of English at Kon Tum High School, the author has realized that most of English students have not been supplied with enough cultural knowledge of the target cultures, which surely helps them communicate successfully in the globalization age. Furthermore, EFL teachers have spent most of time on solving the tasks in the textbooks which are often discrete in terms of cultural communication rather than provide their students with the cultural appropriateness to perform their language. In fact, we cannot be competent in the language if we do not also understand culture that has shaped it. We cannot learn a foreign language if we do not have an awareness of that culture.
It is not only therefore essential to have cultural awareness, but also intercultural awareness. In addition, Samovar and Porter (1995: 153) analyzed the link of language and culture, they noted that language is a form of human cultural behavior and it is language that helps us understand not only one another but culture as well for it is a reflection of culture. They then concluded that “if one is to use language well, one must know the culture that uses the language”. 10 From the issues mentioned above, the author has been acknowledged the essential role of target cultures in English learning and teaching.
The mentioned writers‟ point of views on the values and the necessity of target cultures into ELT are the great contribution to the research. Reasons for the research With the problems mentioned above, this research is carried out for the following reasons: Firstly, there is an indispensible link of language and culture and the recognition of the necessity of integrating aspects of target cultures in ELT. As Pham (1998: 14) confirms that learning a language is learning a culture. Language is not merely a system of sounds and grammar rules, but always exists in close relation to its socio- cultural context.
If one is unaware of the culture behind a language, one can hardly communicate successfully in that language. Therefore, the students of English should be raised the awareness of the target cultures in language learning. It also makes the learning of English more effective and motivated in communication. It is also a vital factor that can improve learner‟s communicative competence in learning a language.
Secondly, from what has been observed at Kon Tum High School, the author has found that culture has not been highlighted as an important aim in the English curriculum yet; the awareness of culture function in language learning is not paid adequate attention; the students are not provided enough cultural knowledge to perform the target language. Furthermore, according to the statistics in a report released in 2006, 79% out of 98.5% of Vietnamese students learning English interviewed gave a negative answer when they were asked whether they could communicate in English or not; about 86.8 % of the twelfth graders did not have the ability or the self-confidence to communicate in English (Kim Lien, 2006). Likewise, according to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phuong, the Principal of Ngo Quyen High School – 11 Da Nang City, he affirmed that there were only approximately 15% students among 1,750 students in the school-year 2008-2009 who could use English to communicate at the average level (Ngoc Doan, 2009).
From the problems mentioned above, the inability to communicate well mentioned above can be possibly traced to the limited time spent on speaking activities, culture exploration, and the difficulties teachers of English faced when they want to maximize students‟ intercultural communication such as the fixed curriculum distribution, the mixed level students, the inability of teachers toward the cultural knowledge and the pressure of the exams, especially, the limitation of sources of materials available related to cultural aspects in contemporary English curriculum.