1 Vietnam national university, ha noi UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ----- o0o ----- HỒ THỊ MỸ HẠNH TREATMENT OF CROSS-CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING SKILL TO GRADE 12A1 STUDENTS OF ENGLISH IN NAM DAN 1 HIGH SCHOOL IN NGHE AN PROVINCE Xử lý các yếu tố giao văn hoá trong giờ dạy nói tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 12A1 Trường THPT Nam Đàn 1, tỉnh Nghệ An M.A MINOR - THESIS Field: English linguistics Code: 602215 HÀ NỘI, 2010 Vietnam national university, ha noi UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ----- o0o ----- HỒ THỊ MỸ HẠNH TREATMENT OF CROSS-CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING TO GRADE 12A1 STUDENTS OF ENGLISH IN NAM DAN 1 HIGH SCHOOL IN NGHE AN PROVINCE Xử lý các yếu tố giao văn hoá trong giờ dạy nói tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 12A1 Trường THPT Nam Đàn 1, tỉnh Nghệ An M.A MINOR - THESIS Field: English linguistics Code: 602215 Supervisor: Assoc. Ngô Đình Phương HÀ NỘI, 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION…………………………………………………………….iii TABLE OF CONTENT.iv LIST OF TABLE.v LIST OF FIGURE.iv PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Aims of the study. Scope of the study.
Methods of the study. Organization of the study.3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review 1. The importance of cross- cultural knowledge in foreign language learning 1.1 Definitions of term “culture” and “cross-culture” 1. What is culture?.
What is cross-culture?. The relationship between language and culture. Goals and objectives for treatment cross-cultural characteristics in English teaching. Some consideration in raising students` cross-cultural awareness when teaching English as Foreign language.
Speaking skill and the position in E language teaching 1. Definition of speaking skill. The position of speaking skills in English language teaching. What types of culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom?.13 Chapter 2: The study TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Setting of the study. Participants and Classroom context. Data collecting instruments……………………………………………………………. The attitudes of the learners towards the target culture 2.
Positive attitudes towards the target culture. Negative attitudes towards the target culture. The attitudes of the teachers and learners towards the importance of culture ELT. The attitudes of the learners and teachers towards cross-cultural characteristics in speaking skills.
The students' evaluation on the applied culture teaching activities. Speaking as the best way of enhancing cross- cultural knowledge. The change in NDI students' test result after inserting and treating English culture- teaching activities into the teaching of speaking at NDI high school………………………. Discussion of the findings …………………………………………………………….27 Chapter 3: Suggestions for treatment cross-cultural characteristics into teaching of speaking in English to grade 12A1 students in Nam Dan I high school 3.
Suggestions for treatment cross- cultural characteristics into teaching of speaking in English to grade 12A1 students in Nam Dan I high school 3. Teachers and students` sources in Nam Dan I high school for enriching cross- cultural information. Activities for improving cross-culture teaching methods in NDI high school. Suggested issues for further research………………………………………………37 REFERENCES APPENDICES TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.province 8 SUGGESTED LESSON PLANS LIST OF TABLE Table 1: Positive attitudes toward the target language .19 Table 2: Negative attitudes toward the target language.20 Table 3: The attitudes of the students toward the rank of skills in order of importance in learning speaking skill.21 Table 4: The attitudes of the teachers toward the rank of skills in order of importance in learning speaking skill.22 Table 5: The attitude of students toward the importance of speaking skill in enhancing cross-cultural knowledge.24 Table 6: The change in students` test result after treating English culture-teaching activities into the teaching of speaking skill.province TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.province 9 LIST OF FIGURE Figure 1: The students` perception of the role of culture in English learning.20 Figure 2: The attitudes of the students toward the rank of skills in order of importance in learning speaking skill.21 Figure 3: The attitudes of the teachers toward the rank of skills in order of importance in learning speaking skill.22 Figure 4: the attitudes of teachers and students toward influence of the difference between Vietnamese and English culture on their teaching and learning spoken English.23 Figure 5: The students` evaluation on the applied culture teaching activities.24 Figure 6: The change in students` test result after treating English culture-teaching activities into the teaching of speaking skill.province TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.province 10 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale English, the most popular foreign language in Vietnam, has been taught from the early age (at the age of six or even younger) in most of schools throughout the country as a compulsory subject. Thus, many Vietnamese, especially the young people, can speak English; however; not many of them have intelligible cultural knowledge. Personally, I think that cultural gaps are one of the most important keys lead us to success in communicating genuinely and understanding the real world outside the classroom. In order to use the language effectively, language teachers should realize that knowledge of the world's language and culture is increasingly important.
Language learners need to have mastery of not only the language itself but also the culture in which the language is used. Therefore, it is suggested that language teachers should focus on the integration of culture in language classroom, which serves as a tool for helping students understand and appreciate other cultures. Nowadays, in teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam, speaking has received a great deal of attention. Nonetheless, English is learnt and taught in a non-native environment, students usually do not have close contact with native speakers of English and have little opportunity to discover how these speakers think, feel, and interact with others.
That is the reason why they do not feel confident enough to converse with English teachers or native speakers. It proves everything clear that culture and language can not be separated and the teaching and learning of a foreign language should always be a culture- based course. So as to improve student's communicative competence, teacher should insert cross- cultural knowledge into the learning and teaching of speaking skills. From my teaching experience, cultural challenges in speaking-class have become a great source of inspiration for my thesis, which deals with the problem: "Treatment of cross-cultural characteristics in the teaching of speaking skill to grade 12A1 students of English.
This study is, hence, to aim at treating cross-cultural characteristics into teaching of speaking in English for the teacher and students at Nam Dan I high school.province TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Aims of the study The major aims of the study are as follows: - To investigate the teachers' and students' attitudes towards the importance of cross- cultural knowledge to the learning of a foreign language. - To find out the attitudes of teachers and students at Nam Dan 1 high school toward the importance of culture in learning speaking skills in English language teaching. - To find out the effective ways of treatment cross-cultural characteristics into teaching of speaking in English.
Scope of the study To develop speaking skill and the communicative competence for students at Nam Dan I high school, teachers has made a lot of effort to motivate the students to participate in speaking class effectively. However, in the thesis, the researcher wants to find out the attitudes, as well as the cross-culture awareness in teaching and learning spoken English. The scope of this study is limited to the raising of students' cross-cultural awareness through speaking only. The subjects of the study are grade 12A1 students of English at Nam Dan I high school in Nghe An province.
The research is confined to English and American cultures as the cultures of the target language. The suggestions and recommendations are all centered on a combination of task-based of activity- based syllabuses. Research questions This study is implemented to find answers to the following questions: 1. What is the students' perception of the role of cultural understanding in learning English? 2.
How do teachers and students at NDI high school appreciate the role of culture in speaking skills? 3. How does students' cross-cultural understanding change through the treatment of cross- cultural characteristics in speaking lessons? 5. Methods of the study Because the purpose of this study is to investigate the teachers` and students` perception of the role od cultural understanding in learning English, a questionnaire was used as the key (LUAN.province TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.province 12 instrument of data collection. Data were analysised quantitatively by means of descriptive statistics.
Organization of the study The study is divided into three main parts: Part A is the INTRODUCTION. In this part, the rationale, the aims, research questions, the scope of the study, method, and design of the study are presented. Part B is DEVELOPMENT. There are three chapters in this part.
Chapter 1 reviews the related knowledge that helps to give the theoretical foundation for this study. This review consists of the literature on the role of cross- cultural understanding , techniques that can be used to raise students' cross- cultural awareness, the role of speaking skill in English language teaching and important factor in cross-cultural communication. Chapter 2 can be seen as case study in real situation. This chapter discusses the context of the study, data collection methods and analyses the data collected to answer specifically the research questions for the study.
It provides the detailed results of the instruments for data collection and discussion of the finding. Chapter 3 contains the summary of findings, the suggestions for treatment of cross-cultural characteristics into speaking lesson. and the recommendation for further studies. Part C is CONCLUSION.province TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.province 13 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1.
The importance of cross- cultural knowledge in foreign language learning When students learn a foreign language, their ultimate aim should be directed towards the understanding of the ways people do things and why they do them. At the same time language teachers also feel that while this goal is the most ideal, it is not very easy to handle, due partly to our imbalanced knowledge of more than one dicipline, partly also to time limitation in the classrooms. Students also have to face a unique problem of not being able to get themselves exposed to the natural environment while pursuing their language study. Therefore, they have to be equipped with cross-cultural knowledge to learn foreign language more effectively.1 Definitions of term “culture” and “cross-culture” 1.
What is culture? There are many definitions and ways of understanding term " culture", Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1954) found over three hundred definitions of culture in their study, which underlines the difficulty and scope of issues involved in communicating and teaching about culture. "Culture" has many aspects, it includes behavior, attitudes, and the social knowledge that person use to interpret experience. In other words, culture should be seen as assumptions, ideas, and belief that are used to interpret other's action, words, and thinking. According to Kluckhohm (cited in Christopher Early1993:42): Culture is the patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, required and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments of artifacts, the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values.(1934:16) thinks "Culture is what really binds men together".
Culture is all accepted and collaborated ways of behavior of a given people. It is that facet of human life learned behavior shared with others.province TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.province 14 Takdir Alisjahbana ( Indonesia) (cited in Soenjono Dardjowidjojo 1973) defined culture as that which is left when all has been forgotten. He understood the culture of the individual to be that hard-to-isolate element that distinguishes the "cultivated" man. In Levine's definition (1993), culture is like an " iceberg", the exposed parts are those which are easy to recognize such as language, food, ect.