SKKN treatment of cross cultural characteristics in the teaching of speaking skill to grade 12a2 students of english in nam dan 1 upper secondary school

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF TRAINING AND EDUCATION NAM DAN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHING EXPRIENCES TOPIC: Treatment of cross-cultural characteristics in the teaching of speaking skill to grade 12A2 students of English in Nam Dan upper secondary school Teacher: Hồ Thị Mỹ Hạnh Group: Xã Hội Tel: 0986987872 Nam Dan 2021 PART A: INTRODUCTION TABLE OF CONTENT PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale…………………………………………………… ……………2 Aims of the study………………….…………………………………… 3 Scope of the study……………………………………………………… Methods of the study…………………………………………………… PART A CONTENT Chapter Literature review…………………………………………………3 Chapter 2: The study……………………………………………………….11 Chapter 3: Solutions ………………………………………… ………14 PART C THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE METHODS The result of the study…………………………………………… ……19 The effectiveness of the study…………… …………………………….22 PART D CONCLUSION REFERENCES APPENDIX APPENDIX APPENDIX PART A INTRODUCTION 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 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 not feel confident enough to converse with English teachers or native speakers and people in other countries where English is used mainly It proves everything clearly that culture and language can not be separated and the teaching and learning of a foreign language should always be a culturebased 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 crosscultural characteristics into teaching of speaking in English for the teacher and students at Nam Dan I high school 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 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 skill in English 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 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 12A2 students of English at Nam Dan I high school in Nghe An province The suggestions and recommendations are all centered on a combination of task-based of activity- based syllabuses Methods of the study Because the purpose of this study is to investigate the teachers` and students` perception of the role of cultural understanding in learning English, a questionnaire was used as the key instrument of data collection Data were analysised quantitatively by means of descriptive statistics PART B CONTENT Chapter Literature review 1.1 The importance of cross- cultural knowledge in foreign language learning 1.1.1 What is cross-culture? Cross-culture can be seen as cultures in contact or cultures encounters The term "cross-culture" usually refers to the meeting of two cultures or languages across the political boundaries of nation-states ( Claire Kramsch) They are predicated on the equivalence of one nation-one culture-one language In foreign language, teaching a cross-cultural approach seeks ways to understand the other on the other side of the border by learning his or her national language Cross-cultural communication does not only study cultural differences and their influences on the people's behaviors but also see the similarities between them Effective cross-cultural communication is concerned with overcoming cultural differences across nationality, religion, borders, culture and behavior Cross-cultural communication competency can only be truly achieved through cross cultural awareness training, language acquisition, foreign travel and cultural immersion Cross-cultural understanding refers to the basic ability of people to recognize, interpret and correctly react to people, incidences or situations that are open to misunderstanding due to cultural differences It is said that cross-culture understanding is recognition of the ways in which two cultures resemble one another as well as the ways in which they differ Mastering cross-culture knowledge opens great vista for the teacher and provides a basis for better understanding of persons from other backgrounds, as well as supplying new insights into approaches to teaching a second language According to Meyer (cited in Eli Hinkel;1991:37), intercultural competence has been defined in foreign language learning as "the ability of a person to behave adequately in a flexible manner when confronted with actions, attitudes, and expectations of representatives of foreign cultures" 1.1.2 The relationship between language and culture Culture, unlike language, does not consist of specific rules that apply to all people in one culture Nevertheless, Culture and language have a close relationship Many linguists have been discussed a question for a long time: how the language and culture relate to each other? One of the most well known sources is Sapir-Whorf's hypothesis (cited in Pinker 1994:59) state: "We cut nature up, organize it into concepts and as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language The agreement is, of course, an implicit and unstated one, but its terms are absolutely obligatory." Pinker shows that Whorf did not his research properly to prove his hypothesis However, it cannot be denied that language and culture are profoundly connected, or rather, that language is inseparable from culture According to Claire Kramch (1998:3) "They give meaning to it through the medium they choose to communicate with one another, for example on the telephone or face to face, writing a letter or sending an e-mail message, reading the newspaper or interpreting a graph or chart The way in which people use the spoken, written, or visual medium itself to creates meanings that are understandable to the group they belong to, for example, through a speaker's tone of voice, accent, conversation style, gestures and facial expressions." Through Clair Kramch's idea, we find that language embodies cultural reality As Nguyen Van Do (2006) has said: "Language and culture can be seen as the faces of a sheet of paper" Language cannot exist outside the social context, language is a social institution Buttjes (1990:55) points out the reason why language and culture are inseparably connected that: 1- Language acquisition does not follow a universal sequence, but differs across cultures; 2- The process of becoming a competent member of society is realized through exchanges of language in particular social situations; 3- Every society orchestrates the ways in which children participate in particular situations, and this, in turn, affects the form, the function and the content of children's utterances; 4- Caregivers' primary concern is not with grammatical input, but with the transmission of sociocultural knowledge; 5- The native learner, in addition to language, acquires also the paralinguistic patterns and the kinesics of his or her culture Language reflects culture Culture affects the way language is expressed and language may contain many factors of culture in turn Words always reflect attached cultural elements that are practiced by the people who speak the language All the belief, value, attitudes, perception are performed and transmitted via language Language cannot be explained without reference to its cultural context Language is acquired in a cultural-social context and the meaning constructed are the result of interaction between individual, the language and the culture Therefore, while teaching language, it is necessary for teachers to introduce cultural element 1.2 Goals and objectives for treatment of cross-cultural characteristics in English teaching From linguist's ideas and analysis about the relationship of language and culture, we can see that teaching culture needs to be integrated in the curriculum of the foreign language Teachers indeed need to teach students a few critical skills that can help them develop and improve the quality of their intercultural communication that can help them "get their feet wet in the waters of another culture." (Seelye 1993) Here are some goals, devised by Seelye in 1974 and refined in 1993, that will help teachers select cultural data that will increase student skill in intercultural communication: Goal 1: Interest- The student demonstrates curiosity about the target culture and empathy toward its people Goal 2: Who- The student recognizes that role expectations and other social variables such as age, sex, social class, ethnicity, and place of residence affect the way people speak and behave Goal 3: What- The student realizes that effective communication requires discovering the culturally conditioned images that are evoked in the minds of people when they think, act, and react to the world around them Goal 4: Where and When- The student recognizes that situational variables and convention shape behavior in important ways (S/he needs to know how people in the target culture act in common mundane and crisis situations) Goal 5: Why- The student understands that people generally act the way they because they are using options society allows for satisfying basic physical and psychological needs, and that cultural patterns are interrelated and tend mutually to support need satisfaction Goal 6: Exploration- The student can evaluate a generalization about the target culture in terms of the amount of evidence substantiating it, and has the skills needed to locate and organize information about the target culture from the library, the mass media, people, and personal observation The Nostrands (1970) listed nine objectives: students should have the ability to 1) React appropriately in asocial situation 2) Describe a pattern in the culture 3) Recognize a pattern when it is illustrated 4) “Explain” a pattern 5) Predict how a pattern is likely to apply in a given situation 6) Describe or manifest an attitude important for making oneself acceptable in the foreign society 7) Evaluate the form of a statement concerning a culture pattern 8) Describe/demonstrate defensible methods of analyzing a socio-cultural whole 9) Identify basic human purposes that make significant the understanding that is being taught Various versions of these steps have been made, with more or less the same goals and expectations for students 1.3 Some considerations in raising students’ cross-cultural awareness when teaching English as Foreign language Language teachers and students must have a certain awareness of the foreign culture and its effect on the language being taught and learned When developing cross-cultural awareness, both learners and teachers of a foreign language need to understand cultural differences Cultural differences play a very important part in teaching English Teachers often base on their activities to teach students how to use structures, expressions instead of those in the country they are working Although they should get students learn to speak English in the native ways, they should see that it is necessary to be more aware of the cultural differences, so that they can help students understand and use English in a native speaking country Students often meet intercultural encounters in schools which can lead to many perplexities For example, the students at Vinh university complained about an American professor that their American teachers often eat bread and drink milk on the table of the teacher in break and she did not invite their students And the students felt that their teachers did not respect the students Or another example, an American lecturer at Vinh university thought that the students showed their opposition to the teachers from the first lesson, when the teacher gave questions but no one raised their hand or gave ideas She did not understand that most Vietnamese students are unselfconfident We can see that the role of language in intercultural encounters applies entirely to the teaching situation Therefore, developing cross-cultural awareness in EFL classroom is an indispensable thing in teaching and learning foreign language Learning to understand a foreign culture should help students of another language to use words and expressions more skillfully and authentically; to understand levels of language and situational appropriate; to act naturally with persons of the other culture We need to understand that if we want our students to master another language, we have to help them become communicatively competent in that language as much as possible Namely, fluently speaking is not just to master of using grammatically correct words and forms but also knowing when to use them and under what circumstances That is the reason why culture is crucially important in learning and teaching foreign language Interest in culture is linked to the intrinsic motivation of a learner Therefore, if the teacher can get the learner interested in the culture of the L2, then they will hopefully end up with more successful students When considering language learning, it is clear that the learning of both languages would have cultural goals, and that students would be learning these aspects of culture in a comparative process To achieve culture goals, often teacher has to play a role in breaking down cultural barriers prior to initiating teachinglearning activities Student must be receptive to concept of learning about other cultures more than their own In Vietnam, the learners learning the foreign language has a great limit in communication Thus, the easiest way to begin teaching culture or raise students' awareness is to emphasize similarities and differences between members of students' s family, between schools and between cultures 1.4 Speaking skill and the position in English language teaching 1.4.1 Definition of speaking skill Speaking is "The process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998:13) Speaking in a foreign language has been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills It plays a vital role since it is the step to identify who knows or does not know a language When attempting to speak, learners must muster their thoughts and encode those ideas in the vocabulary and syntactic structures of the target language Speaking is the productive skill, is known to have two main types of conversation namely, dialogue and monologue, which are rather different In monologue, you give uninterrupted oral presentation while in dialogue you interact with one or more other speakers for transactional and international purposes In conclusion, for many people, speaking is seen as the central skill The desire to communicate with others, often face-to-face and in real time, drives us to attempt to speak fluently and correctly Speaking is also one of necessary skills that students have to acquire in learning a foreign language It helps people to communicate and exchange information and culture with other countries 1.4.2 The position of speaking skills in English language teaching From the fact, four skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing have certain roles in ELT, but the most important aim of students is using language to communicate with others Thus, it is clear that speaking is the key component to English language teaching According to Pattison (1992): "when people mention knowing or learning a language, they mean being able to speak the language" We cannot deny that we use spoken language more than written language in our lives For students, training speaking skills will help them to feel more confident and to correct grammatical mistakes by themselves in communicative process The mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many foreign language learners The learners often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how well they feel they have improved in their spoken language proficiency Nunan (1991:39) has ever said that: "mastering the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of learning a second language or foreign language, and success is measured in term of ability to carry out a conversation in the language." It can be inferred from Nunan's viewpoint that speaking is very important skill Therefore, having dealt with the importance of oral skills in language teaching and learning, it is essential that language teachers should pay more attention to teaching speaking skills Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency The ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life 1.5 What types of culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom? Culture and language exist in the same relationship as that in which, within language, meaning and expression develop together Today educators have become aware of the importance of cultural factors in the teaching of speaking skills and they also see the influence of inferences between two cultures-target and learner's cultures-on the teaching and learning skills However, what types of culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom in order to be suitable with student's awareness and class environment ?, this has been a problem which many educators care about As Tomalin and Stempleski (1993:7) suggest, it is difficult to identify a detailed syllabus for the study of culture in a language classroom They present three elements of culture: Products Literature Folklore Art Music Artfacts Ideas Beliefs Values Institutions Behaviors Customs Habits Dress Foods Leisure They claim that behavior culture should be systematically treated in every language class It is fact that many language teachers habitually begin their classes with a five-minute presentation in the foreign language of subject that has not been previously announced The content of the topics may be ones that bring out identity, similarity, or sharp differences in comparable patterns of culture Ismail Cakir (2006:155) suggests some topics that can be presented within the course 10 According to the USA's Endangered Species Act, an endangered species is an animal, plant or any other kind of wildlife that is likely to face extinction in its natural habitat The polar bear is the first animal that has been classified as endangered due primarily to global warming Global warming is a form of climate change caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that become trapped in the atmosphere Oil and gas heaters, engines using oil or petrol (or gasoline) and coal-powered electricity plants all require fossil fuels that lead to global warming The polar bear's habitat is more vulnerable to global warming than many other species Polar bears live mainly on the sea ice in the Arctic This is where they hunt for fish and build up fat reserves When the ice melts many polar bears move to land and live off their stored fat The World Wildlife Fund estimates that over 25% of Arctic sea ice has disappeared in the past 30 years It is not only the polar bear that is at risk in the Arctic Every species of plant, animal, and insect there is threatened by global warming Nevertheless, groups of concerned scientists and environmentalists such as the World Wildlife Fund often study large carnivores in order to assess the health of an ecosystem Suggested answers: Habitat: mainly on the sea ice in the Arctic Population: 25,000 Height: 2.4–3 metres Weight: 350–700 kg Reason for decline: global warming Teacher can Vietnam: supply some more information about the endangerd species in Saola – 50 individuals left in Vietnam Black gibbon- 60 individuals left in Vietnam Sarus Crane is the tallest flying bird- 11 individuals left in Vietnam 39 UNIT 11: BOOKS WARM UP: Teacher shows some pictures and asks students to answer the question: What the pictures mean ? g Suggested answer: Reading is a good routine of many people all over the world as it is shortest way to approach enormour knowledge of human Appreciating the importance of reading culture, during the 28th session of the United Nations General Assembly in Paris (October 25 - November 16, 1995), UNESCO (Cultural, Educational and 40 Scientific Organization) The United Nations University) has decided to choose April 23 every year as "World Book and Copyright Day", which clearly states the goals and participants of the day to honor the the value of books and the contributions of the authors to the birth of immortal works To bring the reading culture to a new height, on November 4, 2021, the Prime Minister signed and took April 21 every year as Vietnamese reading culture day UNIT 12: WATER SPORTS WARM UP: Teacher plays a video some popular water sports in America and in Vietnam Teacher devides class into groups The representative of each group will go to the broard and rewrite names of water sports they have seen The team having more correct answers will be winner 41 Suggested answers: Top 10 popular watersport activities in America Kite surfing Scuba diving Snorkeling Windsurfing Parasailing Kayaking Sailing Surfing Stand-up padding 10.Water skiing UNIT 13: Top 10 popular watersport activities in Vietnam Scuba diving Sknorkelling Seatrek Kayaking Surfing Kite Surfing Jet Ski Sub Flyboarding 10 Basket boatsailing THE 22nd SEA GAMES WARM UP: Teacher introduces the macots of Sea Games and host coutries 42 UNIT 14: INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS WARM UP: Guessing game: Which international organization is it? Teacher devides class into groups Teacher will show some information about organizations The group which can give the quickest and correctest answer will be winner United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization th It was founded on November 16 1945 Its head office is in Paris, France One of its aims is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science and culture It is one of the United Nations specialized agencies and this is a part of its symbol UNESCO United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization Founded: 16 November 1945 Head office: Paris, France Aims: + to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science and culture + to secure the world culture and natural heritage + to preserve human rights Activities: + provide international leadership with educational opportunities for all + found and fund projects + promote freedom of expression and freedom of the press as a basis human right WIPO World intellectual Proverty Organization It was founded in 1893 Its head office is in Genever Its aims is promote the protection of intellectual property and supervive administrative cooperation between the Paris, Berne and other intellectual unions regarding agreements on trademarks, patents, and the protection of artistic and literary work 43 UNESO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization It was founded on 16 November 1945 Its head office is in Paris Its mission is contribute to the building of a culture of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and interculture dialogue through education, the sciences,culture, communication and information Activities: create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and people based upon respect for commonly shared values UNIT 15: WOMEN IN SOCIETY POST- SPEAKING ( groups) Students will work in group in 10 minutes Representative of each group will represent their idea You choose one of restrictions on women’s rights around the world , give your point of view about them Women in Saudia Arabia can’t drive In the Arab Republic of Egypt, a married woman “ can leave the house only for purposes allowed by law or custom, otherwwise she needs her husband’s permission or she lose her right to financial support” In Israel, a woman needs her husbands’ permission to get a divorce In Kenya, pregnant women are prohibited from leaving the house at all In India, Women are prevented from working the same night hours as men UNIT 16: THE ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS WARM UP: Traditional costumes are not only the cultural beauty of each country, but also enhance the beauty of the people of each country Below are 10 ASEAN countries’s costumes Matching the pictures about traditional costumes with their countries 44 A C B D 45 E F G H 46 I K Sampot – Campuchia Phasin - Thái Lan Sinh – Lào Nyonya kebaya – Singapore Kebaya – Indonesia Baju Kurung – Malaysia Thummy – Myanmar Áo dài - Việt Nam Baro't Saya – Phillipine 10.Baju Kurung – Brunei Suggested answer: 1.A 5.F 2.B 7.G 3.C 8.H 4.D 9.I 5.E 10.K 47 APPENDIX 3: PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE PARTICIPANTS 48 UNIT 1: HOME LIFE 49 50 UNIT 2: CULTURAL DIVERSITY UNIT 11: BOOKS 51 52 Students are discussing in their groups 53 ... 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. .. by themselves 3.2 Suggestions for treatment of cross- cultural characteristics in the teaching of speaking skill to grade 12 A2 students of English in Nam Dan I high school in Nghe An province... applying in English teaching and learning Lastly, the author gives some suggestions for treatment cross- cultural characteristics into teaching of speaking in English to grade 12 A1 students in Nam