SKKN INTEGRATING SOME CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICA, ENGLAND AND VIETNAM TO ATTRACT 12TH GRADERS IN POST READING ACTIVITY

NGHE AN DEPARMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING NGHI LOC UPPER - SECONDARY SCHOOL ===== ==== TEACHING EXPERIENCE Topic: INTEGRATING SOME CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICA, ENGLAND AND VIETNAM TO ATTRACT 12TH GRADERS IN POST - READING ACTIVITY Field: Language skill Authors: Nguyễn Thị Hồng Anh Nguyễn Thị Phương Loan English Group Phone number: 0399 180 145 Nghi Loc – 2022 PART A : INTRODUCTION Rationale: It cannot be denied that English has nowadays become a common means of communication of human beings all over the world It is the official language in 67 countries and is spoken as a first language by around 400 million people worldwide And in Viet Nam, English is included in the national curriculum as a compulsory subject both in schools and universities Especially, there has been a trend recently that more and more Vietnamese students have chosen to study or work oversea in the hope of a brighter future They believe that it will give them an open door to the world and help them not only communicate with global citizens but also offer them an opportunity to work in large corporations Hence, learning English is particularly significant and that is the reason why most of Vietnamese students are making their great effort to master the language However, it is the fact that many of them can understand English grammar very well, and even score high marks in examinations, but their communicative skills are very poor and they are often not confident enough to strike up a conversation For instance, their conversations are usually initiated by asking the opposite personal questions, such as “How old are you?’, “How many people are there in your family?”, or “Did you get married?”, which can easily make Western visitors annoyed and not eager to continue conversing any more It can be seen from this example that the process of learning a foreign language not only requires an individual to practice linguistic forms but also necessitates to become familiar with the culture of target language In addition, if culture is integrated with the study of language, learners may derive long-term benefits from their language learning experience Thus, culture learning can create motivation for language learning Moreover, learners who gain certain cultural knowledge can come to be more well-informed and develop more positive attitudes towards other cultures They not only acquire the knowledge of other cultures, but also increase their understanding of their own culture Therefore, culture needs to be applied into the teaching of language and skills so that learners can get to know how to speak and write in culturally appropriate ways Besides, Vietnam has a long traditional culture with outstanding and typical customs and practices of a country in the East Many conceptions of life, people, love, happiness, and clothes of Vietnamese people are sometimes a bit traditional and not as liberal and open-minded as people in many Western countries That is why culture shock appears to be a common manifestation when moving to a new country Culture hence needs to be a central focus in language teaching, so that students will be able to communicate to the fullest extent in authentic situations The matter of fact we mentioned above inspired us to choose the topic “Integrating some cultural knowledge of America, England and Vietnam to attract 12th graders in Post- Reading activity” This study is conducted to find out some co-relative cultural knowledge, similarities and differences of those knowledge in the two languages Furthermore, the study can achieve some ways to give practical activities effectively, especially for the high school students who need a lot of skills for a job or further studying in integrating era as a real citizen in the near future Hopefully with the suggested techniques and tools, teachers can use them as a source of reference in their teaching process Aims of the study: The aims of this research are stated as follows: - To investigate whether the cultural knowledge attract the students in post – reading activity - To find out the students’ attitude toward the lessons using the cultural knowledge of America, England and Vietnam Methods of study: - Study of theories - Observation of real lessons - Analysis and Evaluation Research questions The following are the questions that should be answered related to the background of study: Is the cultural knowledge useful and effective to attract the students to well in Post-reading activity? 2.What is the students’attitude toward the lessons using the cultural knowledge? Scope of the study This study focuses on observing and evaluating the effectiveness of using some cultural knowledge in Post-Reading activity, grade 12, carried out at Nghi Loc Upper- secondary School Significance of the study The main goal of the study is how to creat English practising activites to attract students to perform more actively and effectively in Post- Reading activity We will focus on how to carry out post –reading stage using the cultural knowledge of America, England and Vietnam, how to organise its activities and how it impacts to students’ practical ability PART B: MAIN CONTENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Post-Reading Activity in English Reading lesson 1.1.1 Role of Post-Reading Activity in English Reading lesson Post-reading activities are defined tasks done after students have finished reading a text These are usually carried out in order to help the learners more deeply understand what they have read The post-reading stage of a reading lesson is often confused with the closing of a period However, having new information from the while-reading stage should bring about a change such as the students would know more, or think or feel differently from before In other words, at this stage, the students are in a temporary change of state or condition, that is, they now know something they did not know before Teachers should help students connect the new information they are now familiar with and their lives Besides, post-reading activities give students the opportunity to review, summarize, and react to a reading passage, and activities such as debates, roleplays, games, and discussions take place in small and large groups, as well as with the entire class Some post-reading exercises also assess how well the students have comprehended the reading material, and they often consist of a text followed by questions that check the comprehension of specific details, main ideas, and inferences The task of the post-reading stage is to integrate or synthesize the material that has just been read into one's knowledge base of the topic Students need to make their own material This can be achieved through a variety of means employing writing, class discussion, visual representations, and physical demonstration 1.1.2 Types of Post-reading Activities It is suggested that Post-reading activities should tend to focus mainly on two skills: Speaking and Listening The following are some suggestions: - Main ideas list: Students list the main ideas of the text beginning with the most important to the least - Debate: Students can take specific sides of the topic and debate an issue - Hot seat: One student becomes the writer of the text or the character in the text, answer the classs’questions - Summarizing: This activity enables students to identify writer's main ideas or recognize the purpose of the reading text - Role play: Some students act out as the characters in the text, which is one of the best ways to help students memorize the knowledge they have just gained, as well as develop other various skills - Discussing: The class can be divided into groups to discuss several sides of the topic; compare and contrast their ideas toward the issue 1.1.3 Problems with Post-reading activity in class and Solutions: In the process of teaching Post-reading stage, we have encountered some certain difficulties The first problem is that the texbook contains a great deal of knowledge from a huge variety of domains, which takes a lot of time to fulfill And normally, the teacher spends most of the time handling pre- and while-reading stages to make sure that students can perceive the main content of the lesson As a result, it is often complained that there is hardly enough time to organize an interesting activity for the Post stage In addition, students are often watching the clock during the last stage of the reading lesson, because there are not so many post activities that can hold students’ attention They commonly find those designed in the syllabus uneasy or not have much practical value in their life life From this situation, we have tried to find out and design some motivating activities that can be easily applied in the Post-reading part as well as to draw students’ attention so that it can help them to inculcate the content of the Reading lesson 1.2 The cultural knowledge relating to the topic of units 1.2.1 Some cultural knowledge relating to topic of reading lessons The textbook English 12 contains many topics which are familiar with students They are about family life, studying, job and society such as: Home life, marriage, education, ways of socialising, job interview, ect Among those, there are a lot of similarities and differences about cultural knowledge that can be put in comparison between Vietnam and other countries to highlight the content that teachers want to emphasize and widen the student’s practical knowledge as well 1.2.2 Benefits of using these cultural knowledge to improve post-reading activity It is the fact that many of the post-reading activities in the textbook are designed in discussing and giving their opinions about a certain topic Those can hardly create much motivation for students to get involved in, as they are normally quite difficult for them to raise their voice Otherwise, integrating cultural knowledge can be considered an innovative way in teaching the post part It helps learners not only consolidate and memmorize the lesson better when comparing and contrasting the same values in different cultures, but it also elicits or provides them with practical knowledge of life, which must be very beneficial for those who have intention of studying or working abroad In addition, when using these cultural knowledge, the teacher has a wide range of choice in designing and organizing the activities that can make students more eager to learn English such as: games, presentations, quizzes At the same time, taking part in these activities, they also have a good chance to improve other essential skills like using technology or presenting, etc It also helps to improve students’ motivation to practise English in class 1.2.3 Some forms of practising English activities in class: Depending on the topic of the unit, teachers can organize different activities The following are some suggestions: - drawing pictures and storytelling - drawing mindmap to summarize the content of the lesson - collecting pictures and presenting - quiz show - games - designing slides and presentation - using online applications: padlet, quizlet, quizizz - creating or collecting videos CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 Research Questions This study addresses the three following questions: CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 Research Questions This study addresses the three following questions: What cultural specialities should be chosen to integrate in the lessons? How are the cultural features of Vietnam, England and America integrated in the lessons? How effective is this study applied in the lessons? In order to answer the above questions, we chose the data collection method which will be mentioned in the following section 2.2 Data collection 2.2.1 Objects We have chosen 329 students from classes of grade 12th at Nghi Loc Upper Secondary School and 56 teachers of English from Upper Secondary schools in Nghi Loc, Dien Chau and Nan Dan Districts to carry out surveys on integrating Cultural features of Vietnam, England or America in teaching and learning English in classes We have also selected topics in grade 12th syllabus 2.2.2 Data Collection Procedure We have conducted surveys on 329 students of grade 12 th towards the attitude and feelings in English lessons before and after applying the study An online survey A direct survey Here is the link to join the survey on the students: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfN15Am9izNXvDfhvgS27PyYXZ4dWHpdwZwTxEbIOJ_-ltsw/viewform We have also made an online survey on 56 teachers towards integrating the cultural specialities of Vienam, America or England in English lessons Here is the link to join the survey on the teachers: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1u-aJR9wnDwuqlRYiWCmqla4M3p56WlF0g3jajMN7wY/edit An online survey on the teachers of English 2.3 Research Procedure The research procedure can be summarized in the six following steps Firstly, we selected the grade 12th students to work out their attitude and feelings in English lessons Secondly, we collected and selected the suitable features of English,Vietnamese or American culture from books and from other sources Then, we designed the reasonable activities to conduct integrating the cultural understanding in the lessons Next, we carried out the activities chosen in a class After that, we made a survey to check the effect of those activities, we analyzed the data we got and did some necessary adjusts The final step is applying the finding into some reading lessons for post -reading activities in more classes 2.4 Results and Discussion 2.4.1 Results The following table and chart will show out the data of an investigation on 329 students of grade 12 on how they enjoy learning English in class Table 1: The statistic results of the survey on the students before integrating Chart 1: The statistic results of the survey on the students before integrating And the following table and chart will draw out the data of an investigation on 56 teachers of English towards integrating the cultural features of Vietnam, America-England in the lessons Table 2: The statistic results of the survey on the teachers Chart 2: The statistic results of the survey on the teachers Some discussions of the results will be presented in the following section 2.4.2 Discussion We have conducted surveys on the teachers of English and students of the grade 12th Through out the investigation and the statistic result table, we worked out the real state of the topic 2.4.2.1 Advantages: - The rapid development of science, technology, mass media gives students opportunities to acquaint with and widen the social knowledge, including cultural values of the nation and other countries in the world - Students are active and creative people, so they find it easy to comprehend and apply basic knowledge relating to culture into their real life 2.4.2.2 Disadvantages: - Because of the bad influence of market economy as well as globalising trend, especially the unserious attitude in learning and the self-indulgence in lifestyle, the thought of enjoyment, being addicted to game online, etc, many students neglect right motivation, nice dreams and ambitions - Rushing to Europeanizing way of living leads many students to disregard the good values of national culture - The educational content of the topic is a intergrating activity, so the time for discussing and understanding the values and the essences of life skills in many fields is quite short 2.4.2.3 The results of the real state of topic From the figure of the survey on 56 teachers of English, we can see that the number of teachers who frequently apply the cultural specialies of Vietnam, Students presented by slides they had designed 26 CHAPTER 4: EVALUATION AND DISCUSSION 4.1.The Analysis of Observation For the teachers who have already applied the knowledge of culture of Vietnam and some other countries in their lessons, they found that those points of culture are integral and necessary for students, they also felt that the attitude and feelings of the learners have changed Chart 4,5,6: The statistic results of the survey on the teachers' evaluation 27 For the students who have joined a variety of post- reading activities, such as drawing maps, mindmaps, diagrams or posters, designing slides, playing games, These activities support and widen the students not only the knowledge of culture of Vietnam, America- England, but also boost the pride of national culture and rise their awareness of protecting the country's cultural heritages Taking part in those movements, integrated the cultural specialities improves the learners' motivation in learning English in class and develops numerous valuable skills for them Chart 7,8,9,10: The statistic results of the survey on the students' evaluation 28 Table 4: The statistic results of the survey before and after applying the study Chart 11: The results of comparison on the students' expressing their ideas before and after the study 4.2 Discussion After applying the cultural values and necessary skills in English lessons for students in classes 12A1, 12A2, 12A3, 12A4,12A5, 12A6, 12A7, 12A8 in our high school in the first term in school year 2021 – 2022, the study has achieved the following specific efficiencies: - In the learning periods, students have understood and been aware of the values of the national culture That contributes to form right lifestyles and attitudes and in orienting their future career - The number of students who determine the purpose of learning and are keen on learning have increased relatively As a result, the number of students who play truant in school time and violate school rules have already decreased - In orienting future jobs after graduating from high school, students have known how to orient a job on their own They are confident to take part in careerorienting activities Besides, they often refer people’s ideas and advice and care for finding about necessary informations relating to the oriented jobs, beside learning cultural knowledge, students also concentrate on improving their soft skills 29 PART C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation To conclude, culture has a vital and important role in the process of learning English as a foreign language as language and culture are inseparable Integrating some cultural knowledge in Vietnam and other countries in teaching English may be a good way to help students inprove a lot of skills such as speaking, listening, presenting, using modern, etc It cold boost students’ motivation to learn English and feel more confident, free- stressful in English lessons as well From the analyse and the specific evidences, we have realized that my students become more active in the lessons, have clearler understanding about the values of culture They are aware of respecting, conserving, building and promoting the beautiful values as well as forming useful skills to better their lives We hope that through this paper, teachers and students of English have some ideas on how necessary and beneficial the awareness of the integration of cultural knowledge in teaching English in particular and other foreign languages in general We would be really grateful to receive remarks, comments, suggestions and advices from the scientific council, teachers, students and other readers to make the study better Suggestions for further Studies Within the scope of a teaching experience, the limitation of time and materials, this paper can not fulfill all the issues related to cultural knowledge in Vienam and other countries For further studies, some following suggestions are recommended in order to apply this research more effectively 2.1 For teachers: It is necessary that teachers should redesign the activities in the lessons so that they are suitable with students’ abilities and can motivate students in each class Apart from using these games and suggested activities in teaching Postreading stage, we would like to recommend those applied in teaching other lessons of the syllabus such as speaking, listening or writing; and for other grades not only at our school but also others 2.2 For students and parents: Students need to be aware of the importance of English in their real lives, from that to have more active motivation in learning the language Besides, they ought to try their best to practise the language everyday, and develop other important skills such as presentation, or using modern technology, etc as well In addition, parents and family should give as much time as possible and the appropriate care for their children so that they can discover the changes of their children and adjust those timely as well as often exchange information with their teachers 30 2.3 For schools and management agencies: Cultural knowledge is so essential for students when learning the second language Therefore, there should be more activities and forums of cultural knowledge and life skill education for students to learn and exchange The activities of life skill education need implementing more scientifically and methodically Sincerely thank you for your reading and assessment! 31 REFERENCES A Books Neil Campbell (2000) American Youth Cultures Routledge New York Gina Teague (2003) USA- Culture Smart Oxford University Press Gary Atthen (1999) American Ways: A cutural Guide to the United States Oxford University Press Neil Campbell & Alasdair Kean (1998) American Cultural Studies Routledge New York Antje Dallmann, Eva Boesenberg & Martin Klepper (2016) Approaches to American Cultural Studies Routledge New York Susan Bassnett (2004) Studying British Cultures Routledge New York Jonathan Crowther (2005) Oxford Guide to British and American Culture Oxford University Press Phan Ngọc (1999) Bản sắc văn hóa Việt Nam Nhà xuất Văn học Phan Kế Bính (1995) Việt Nam phong tục Nhà xuất Văn học 10 Nguyễn Ngọc Thanh (2018) Đặc trưng Văn hóa vùng miền Việt Nam Nhà xuất Văn học B Websites: http://nam-englishblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/differences-between-americanand.html https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-cultural-differences-betweenVietnamese-and-Americans http://awanderingcasiedilla.com/2018/07/06/america-vs-vietnamese-culture/ https://blablawriting.net/culture-differences-between-americans-andvietnamese-essay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_United_States https://www.livescience.com/28945-american-culture.html https://www.interexchange.org/articles/career-training-abroad/10-things-toknow-about-u-s-culture/ https://www.internationalstudent.com/study_usa/way-of-life/american-culture/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_United_Kingdom 10 https://www.britishcouncil.pt/en/blog/british-traditions-and-culture 32 APPENDIX Questions of the survey on the students SURVEY ON THE 12TH GRADERS QUESTION 1: How much you enjoy learning English? A A great deal B Moderate C A little D Not at all QUESTION 2: How can you express your ideas in English lessons? A Extremely well B Very well C Somewhat well D Not so well QUESTION 3: What you want to learn in English lessons? A Vocabulary and Grammar B language skills C Exercises for tests and examinations D Practical activities on the knowledge of culture and real life QUESTION 4: What is your favourite activity in English lessons? A Sharing general knowledge, playing games, presenting about the cutural features B Playing games on vocabulary and grammar C.Practising exercises D Writing and listening activities QUESTION 5: How much is the cultural understanding important to you? A extremely important C somewhat important B very important D not so important QUESTION 6: How relevant you think the cultural knowledge you get now to what would support you in the future job and life? A A lot B Not so much C A little bit D Not at all QUESTION 7: What is the cultural speciality you want to share and achieve in the English class? A Marriage and family life B Mucic, theatre C Lifestyles D.Homelife, healthy lifestyle, music, ways of socialising , orientation future jobs, QUESTION 8: How you think about the English lesson integrated the cultural features of Vietnam or other countries? A interesting, lively and meaningful B boring C tiring and exhausting D stressful 33 Questions of the survey on the teachers QUESTIONS OF THE SURVEY ON THE TEACHERS OF ENGLISH QUESTION 1: How often you apply the cultural knowledge of America, England or Vietnam in English class? A Frequently B Sometimes C Rarely D Never QUESTION 2: How important you think the cultural understanding to the future life and job of the students? A A great deal B Moderate C A little D Not at all QUESTION 3: How are the lessons integrated the cultural features of Vietnam or America? A Interesting, lively B time consuming C boring D stressful QUESTION 4: What are disadvantages of integrating the cultural specialities of Vietnam, England or America in teaching English? A.Take much time to prepare B make class noisy C lack of high quality equipments D All QUESTION 5: How effective are the lessons applied the cultural knowledge of America- England and Vietnam? A Help Ss to improve alot of skills B Support Ss with multicultural understanding C Provide Ss with useful activities to practise what they have learnt D All 34 Questions of the online quiz game QUIZ GAME ABOUT WEDDINGS AND MARRIAGE IN VIETNAM AND IN AMRICA (designed on Kahoot.com) Question 1: How many ceremonies are there for a wedding in Vietnam? A one B two C three D four Question 2: Where most Vietnamese people celebrate their wedding ceremony? A On the street B At a restaurant C At the groom's house D in the church Question 3: At what age can you get married in Viet Nam? A 20 for boys and 18 for girls B 18 years old C 20 years old D 18 for boys and 20 for girls Question 4: At what age can you get married in America? A 20 for boys and 18 for girls B 18 years old C 20 years old D 18 years old in all states, except in Nebraska, and Mississippi Question 5: What should you bring as a wedding present in America? A Drinks B Cakes C Money D Necessities for a new household Question 6: What wedding present is the most popular for Vietnamese? A Drinks B Cakes C Money D Necessities for a new household 35 More pictures for post- reading activities in classes 36 37 38 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale Aims of the study Methods of study Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study PART B: MAIN CONTENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Post-Reading Activity in English Reading lesson 1.1.1 Role of Post-Reading Activity in English Reading lesson 1.1.2 Types of Post-reading Activities 1.1.3 Problems with Post-reading activity in class and Solutions 1.2 The cultural knowledge relating to the topic of units 1.2.1 Some cultural knowledge relating to topic of reading lessons 1.2.2 Benefits of using these cultural knowledge to improve postreading activity 1.2.3 Some forms of practising English activities in class: CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 Research Questions 2.2 Data collection 2.2.1 Objects 2.2.2 Data Collection Procedure 2.3 Research Procedure 2.4 Results and Discussion 2.4.1 Results 2.4.2 Discussion CHAPTER 3: INTEGRATING SOME CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICA, ENGLAND AND VIETNAM IN POST-READING ACTIVITY 3.1 Cultural Knowledge of America, England and Vietnam relating the lessons in the text book English 12 3.1.1 Home Life 3.1.2 Marriage 3.1.3 Education: 3.1.4 Ways of Socialising 3.1.5 Job Interview 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 6 6 7 11 11 11 11 12 13 13 39 3.2 Application of Cultural Knowledge of America, England and Vietnam in teaching and learning 3.2.1 Unit 1: Home Life 3.2.2 Unit Cultural Diversity 3.2.3 Unit 3: Ways of Socialising 3.2.4 Unit 4: School Education System 3.2.5 Unit 6: Future Jobs 3.3 Comparison the results before and after applying the study 3.3.1 Before applying the study 3.3.2 After applying the study 3.4 Some pictures of Post-reading activities in class 3.4.1 Unit 1: Home life 3.4.2 Unit 2: Cultural Diversity 3.4.3 Unit 3: Ways Of Socialising 3.4.4 Unit 4: School Education System 3.4.5 Unit 5: Future Jobs CHAPTER 4: EVALUATION AND DISCUSSION 4.1.The Analysis of Observation 4.2 Discussion PART C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation Suggestions for further Studies 2.1 For teachers 2.2 For students and parents 2.3 For schools and management agencies REFERENCES A Books B Websites APPENDIX Questions of the survey on the students Questions of the survey on the teachers Questions of the online quiz game More pictures of post-reading activities in classes 14 14 16 17 18 19 21 21 21 22 22 23 24 25 25 27 27 29 30 30 30 30 30 31 32 32 32 33 33 34 35 36 40 ... CHAPTER 3: INTEGRATING SOME CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICA, ENGLAND AND VIETNAM IN POST- READING ACTIVITY 3.1 Cultural Knowledge of America, England and Vietnam relating the lessons in the text... The matter of fact we mentioned above inspired us to choose the topic ? ?Integrating some cultural knowledge of America, England and Vietnam to attract 12th graders in Post- Reading activity? ?? This... The cultural knowledge relating to the topic of units 1.2.1 Some cultural knowledge relating to topic of reading lessons 1.2.2 Benefits of using these cultural knowledge to improve postreading activity