Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS an investigation into the students attitudes towards the cultural contents in the textbook new headway pre intermediate at ho chi minh city university of industry based in thanh hoa

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES **************************************** LÊ THỊ NGA AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE STUDENTS’ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE CULTURAL CONTENTS IN THE TEXTBOOK NEW HEADWAY PRE-IMTERMEDIATE AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY BASED IN THANH HOA ( ĐIỀU TRA THÁI ĐỘ CỦA SINH VIÊN ĐỐI VỚI NỘI DUNG VĂN HÓA TRONG GIÁO TRÌNH NEW HEADWAY PRE-IMTERMEDIATE Ở TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CƠNG NGHIỆP THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH CƠ SỞ THANH HÓA) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 HÀ NỘI, 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES **************************************** LÊ THỊ NGA AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE STUDENTS’ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE CULTURAL CONTENTS IN THE TEXTBOOK NEW HEADWAY PRE-IMTERMEDIATE AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY BASED IN THANH HOA ( ĐIỀU TRA THÁI ĐỘ CỦA SINH VIÊN ĐỐI VỚI NỘI DUNG VĂN HĨA TRONG GIÁO TRÌNH NEW HEADWAY PRE-IMTERMEDIATE Ở TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CƠNG NGHIỆP THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH CƠ SỞ THANH HÓA) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Phan Thị Vân Quyên M.A HÀ NỘI, 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION OF ORINALITY……………………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………… iii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………… …….iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………………….v LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS……………………………………… vi PART I: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………… 1 Rationales……………………………………………………………………… Aims of the study……………………………………………………………… Research questions………………………………………………………………1 Scope of the study…………………………………… .1 Methods of the study…………………………………………………………….1 Design of the study…………………………………………………………… PART II: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………………………… CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………………4 Culture…………………………………………………… Language and the relationship between language and culture…………… Learning Attitudes……………………………………………………… Identifications of British and American cultural elements in New Headway textbooks……………………………………………………… 11 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………… 20 2.1 Current situation of teaching and learning English at the HUI……………… 20 2.2 Research questions…………………………………………………………….22 2.3 Method of the study ………………………………………………………… 23 2.4 Data Collection Instruments………………………………………………… 23 2.5 Data collection procedures…………………………………………………….24 CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS……………………………………………………….25 3.1 Questionnaire for students…………………………………………………….25 3.2 Interviews with students………………………………………………………31 CHAPTER IV: FINGDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS…………………………………….32 Findings……………………………………………………………………….32 Suggestions for improving the situation………………………………………33 PART III: CONCLUSION………………………………………………………… ……35 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………… 35 Limitations of the study……………………………………………………….35 Suggestions for further study………………………………………………….35 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………36 APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES FOR STUDENTS I APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS’ INTERVIEW…………………………III LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE CULTURAL CONTENTS IN THE TEXTBOOK NEW HEADWAY Preintermediate AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY BASED IN THANH HOA PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale • Globalization leads to the remarkable teaching and learning English issue • Besides, there is a dialectical connection between language and culture • However, the students at HUI based in Thanh Hoa often neglect cultural contents while studying English Aims of the study The study focuses on investigating the attitude of students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry based in Thanh Hoa Province towards cultural contents expessed in the textbook Headway to enhance the effect of using them as a means to provide comprehensible input in learning English Research questions This research is carried out to find the answer to the following research questions: Are students interested in learning culture when studying language? Do teachers include cultural contents in their lectures? Are students satisfied with their teacher’s cultural teaching? Scope of the study As it has been stated above, the study is designed to explore students’ attitudes towards cultural contents in the textbook NH Pre in order to make some methodological recommendations for studying English The study is, therefore, explorative by nature Given the aims of the study, I limited myself to focus on the first-year students at the HUI who have studied the textbook NH Pre Methods of the study - Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used - The data for the study are collected from questionnaires and interviews - Discussion with the supervisor Design of the study The study is presented in three parts: introduction, development and conclusion LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Part one INTRODUCTION introduces the rationale, aims, focus, objectives, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study Part two DEVELOPMENT concludes chapters: Chapter one is the literature reviews This chapter intends to set up the framework of the study It focuses on the theory of the relationship between culture and language Chapter two includes two sections The first section presents the local situation in the foreign language group, Ho Chi Minh city University of Industry, the Branch in Thanh Hoa, with a brief description of the learning and teaching conditions, students, teachers and course book used for teaching basic English The second section describes the research methodology that includes the description of the subjects, setting, data collection instruments and procedures Chapter three presents the results collected from the self-observation, questionnaires and interviews in the form of tables and figures This is followed by the discussion and analysis of the data Part three CONCLUSION includes the implications and suggestions for teaching English through teaching culture Recommendations for further research are also mentioned in this part PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1.Culture - Definition of Culture - Elements of Culture Language and the relationship between language and culture Learning Attitudes - Definitions of attitudes - The role of attitudes in language learning Identifications of British and American cultural elements in New Headway textbooks - British cultural elements - American cultural elements CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2.1 Current situation of teaching and learning English at the HUI - Brief introduction of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry based in Thanh Hoa Province - Students and their background Students of HUI come from all parts of Thanh Hoa province (Thanh Hoa city, districts and mountainous areas) Some of them have learned English for years at secondary and high school whereas others have only learned English for years Specifically, some other students have never learned English before Most of students who learned English at school experienced traditional method of English teaching (the Grammar- translation method) the emphasis of which is on the learning of the rules of the language, not on the acquisition of language skills and cutural contents Furthermore, the majority of the students does not have appropriate learning strategies and have passive learning styles Therefore, their General English skills are supposed to be at lower levels - The course book New headway textbooks ( written by Liz and John Soars) consist of six levels which are at beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced However, in my research only New headway at pre-intermediate level is under investigation New headway- pre-intermediate is divided into 14 units Each unit of textbooks is divided into sections such as reading, listening, writing, speaking, vocabulary and grammar The textbooks have been designed according to the miscellany approach It is a type of course books the content of which is eclectic New Headway Pre may satisfy the demands of the communicative approach to language teaching They emphasize the learning of the language for clearly defined purposes and four major skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking in a very systematic way The Teacher’s Book also provides photocopiable progress tests and additional activities as well as detailed answer keys and notes, so that teachers have a wealth of support In addition, we can see some notes and explanations for cultural features of countries, especially English speaking cultures Indeed, if we have a closer look at New Headway Pre, we discover cultural elements in almost every text or activity It would be extremely difficult to cover all the cases in which the course books offer learners information about the target culture The presentation of culture takes various forms: examining everyday life and cultural behaviour, looking into communication styles, norms, values and attitudes, etc The activities focus on particular subject areas like shopping, food, meals, traffic, restaurants, jobs and many more A great advantage of the LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com course book is that it gives not only information and knowledge about the target culture but also other foreign cultures Learners are given an opportunity to deal with various cultural issues The aim is to develop an understanding of English countries in general However, British and American cultures are the most prominently described in the textbook 2.2 Research questions This research is carried out to find the answer to the following research questions: Are students interested in learning culture when studying language? Do teachers include cultural contents in their lectures? Are students satisfied with their teacher’s cultuhral teaching? 2.3 Method of the Study To achieve the aims stated, quantitative method was mainly used The data collected for the study come from 100 first- year students at the HUI based in Thanh Hoa Province who have just finished studying NH Pre Survey questionnaires were used to collect information and evidence for the study with the hope that the research would be reliable and the processing of the data would be manageable within limited time budget In addition, the research also used qualitative method that is the author collected some information based on her informal classroom observations and interviews with 10 students chosen from 100 students The researcher hopes that these methodologies supplement each other and the data are more reliable All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the study are based on the data analysis 2.4 Data Collection Instruments The main instruments, which I have used in this study to collect data, are questionnaire and interviews 2.4.1 Questionaire The research questionaire consists of nine questions that are divided into three parts: the students’attitudes toward the culture, the students’attitudes towards the cultural contents in the textbook NH Pre and the difficulties they enhance when studying the cultural contents in this textbook The questionaire aims to investigate the students’attitudes towards cultural learning in general and their attitudes towards the cultural contents in the textbook NH Pre as well as their attitudes to cultural teaching in their English classes 2.4.2 Interview LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The interview is carried out after finishing the questionaire part 10 out of 100 students are chosen to give further ideas 2.5 Data collection procedures In order to get results showing the differences in attitudes of the students towards the cutural contents, nine questions were delivered to the participants After the questionnaires, students were chosen randomly for the interviews before and after the experiment, and finally collected data is analized CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS This chapter analysed the collected data from the survey questionnaires and the interviews to find the answers for the research questions 3.1 Questionnaire for students 3.1.1 The attitudes of students at HUI based in Thanh Hoa Province towards culture learning when studying language In short, it can be concluded that most of the students answer that they are not very interested in culture because it is also not very important for them in studying English More than a third of studetns suppose that cutural knowledge is not important to them at all in learning English As a result, a very small percentage of them suppose that they are interested in culture and determine its importance Moreover, no one say that they master general cultural knowledge such as its definition and elements very well; and more than half of them not understand these at all 3.1.2 The attitudes of students at the HUI based in Thanh Hoa Province towards the cultural contents in the textbook NH Pre - When these 100 students were asked whether they could identify the cultural elements in the textbook NH Pre after finishing the course, well over a half of students can although it is not much 36% cannot at all - A great number of students at HUI based in Thanh Hoa showed a negative attitude towards the cultural contents in the textbook NH Pre Much more respondents said that the cultural contents were not rich enough (61%), wheares only 39% said that these contents were rich The number of students who supposed that the cultural contents boring were slightly higher than interesting, 41% and 35% Similarly, this happened to the idea whether these contents were obviously expressed or not 3 The students’attitudes towards the cultural teaching LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Most of the students (78%) said that they were not satisfied with the teachers’ cultural teaching in the class None of them felt very satisfied but 22 % of the students have shown good attitudes towards it 3.1.4 Students’ difficulties when learning cultural contents in the textbook NH Pre 72% of the students admitted that they lack background knowledge of British and American culture 28% of respondents were worried about lack of vocabulary to express their ideas said that they had difficulties in expressing ideas because they lacked knowledge about the culture It was difficult for 12% because they had not any visual illustrations Only 8% said that they had no time to acquire cultural knowledge 3.2 Interviews with students After gathering information from the survey questionnaires, the researcher conducted instructional interviews with 10 students out of 100 students under questions 1, in interview part to confirm students’ further ideas about the cultural contents in current textbook All of the interviewed students said that: The things that students unsatisfied are: (1) Their teachers have not emphasized the importance of cultural knowledge when teaching English yet (2) Time allowance for cultural contents in English classes is so limited (3) The cultural contents in the textbook NH Pre are not very obviously expressed to identify them (*) The things that students will be satisfied and can improve students’ cultural knowledge (1) they are reminded about the importance of British and American cultural knowledge in studying English in the first lessons of the course (2) they are transferred the culture definition and its elements as soon as possible during the course so that they can themselves identify the cultural elements in each part of the lesson or discuss with their friends (3) the teachers should tell more stories and give more exercises related to culture as well as use a variety of activities and techniques for integrating the cultural contents into their teaching, (4) the comparison between British and American culture and Vietnamese culture should be done if possible in order that students not only find more interested in cultural contents but they also can memorise these easily and deeply CHAPTER IV: FINGDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Findings LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Firstly, the first year students at the HUI show not very positive attitudes towards culture and studying it Not many of these students see the importance of cultural knowledge for their learning English as well as communication with native speakers Consequently, not all of them are really interested in cultural lessons Secondly, it is clear from the survey that the students are not satisfied because cultural contents are not always integrated into English lessons To be more exact, they want to be taught the basic knowledge of culture that helps them to identify the cultural elements in each unit The students also say that the teaching techniques and activities are not varied enough The students expressed their wish to acquire British and American cultural knowledge through more interesting communicative activities such as games, songs, story telling, picture describing,… It is clear that nowadays there is a tendency to study English for communication, therefore cultural knowledge plays an important role However, a considerable number of the English learners at HUI based in Thanh Hoa Province not focus on this in class This situation is due to the following reasons: 4.2 Suggestions for improving the situation 4.2.1 Suggestions for students Firstly, to be successful in learning English, students ‘attitudes towards English need to change They should consider English as important as other subjects in the curriculum and appreciate the role of culture in studying English Secondly, students’ attitude towards cultural knowledge and cultural learning also should be improved It not only helps them to broaden their knowledge but it is also a vital part of learning English for communication Thirdly, students’ role is no longer passive recipients They can explore the cultural knowledge by themselves from different sources They should feel free to express their own ideas, to put questions to the teachers, to show their disagreements with the teachers 4.2.2 Suggestions for teachers First of all, the teachers should provide the students with the knowledge of the cultures of English-speaking countries which is considered the effective means of mastering English LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com language and gaining good communication In other words, teachers should raise the students’ awareness of and attitudes towards the importance of culture in learning English and make sure that the knowledge of culture which students are exposed to will benefit them For examples, teachers should first invoke interest and curiosity about the target culture Then, they should help their students to recognize the fact that social factors like age, gender, social class, and ethnicity influence how people use the language Teachers also need to help their students understand why people of the target culture choose to behave in certain ways in certain situations Secondly, the teachers ought to help the students understand more about the cultural values and be aware of cultural differences It means that the students may be pointed out that certain behaviors, attitudes, lifestyles, etc are appropriate in English, American cultures but not in Vietnamese culture Students should be encouraged to relate to their native culture and make a comparison between English speaking cultures and their native culture For example, after giving instructions about norm of driving of British, the teacher asks students to relate to Vietnamese’s Or what will you take when you are invited to someone’s home if you are in Britain, in America or in Vietnam? Subsequently, teachers need to plan the cultural lessons and activities as carefully as language activities and integrate them into the language lesson Furthermore, teachers need to encourage students to be more confident in participating in class activities The teachers should stimulate the students to volunteer to give questions, and pay special attention to passive students Lastly, when teaching NH Pre, teachers are advised to create chances of social interactions for students because one of the best ways to teach social English is in social situations Through these activities, teachers may help students recognize which behaviors are accepted in British and American cultures, which are not For example, teachers ask students to imagine some situations and give solutions such as: - Which topics you talk about when chatting with a stranger? Obviously, the British often talk much about the weather, but American often talk much about geography - What time should you expect your foreign business colleagues to arrive when you have arranged a meeting at seven o’clock? If they are American, they’ll probably be 15 minutes early If they’re British, they’ll be 15 minutes late LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com All in all, teaching English can not be separated from teaching its culture In order to help the students in general and the students of HUI based in Thanh Hoa Province in particular master English effectively via the textbook NH Pre, cultural elements should be highlighted by teachers during the language lessons Also, it should be noted gradually that it is necessary to teach culture to the students so that they can overcome all difficulties or culture shock in real-life communication PART III: CONCLUSION Conclusions This study set out to investigate the attitudes of the students towards the cultural contents of the textbook New Headway Pre- Intermediate as well as the difficulties they meet in cultural learning Based on the data collection instruments such as questionnaires and interviews, this research has discovered the significant findings with a view to improve the English studying at HUI based in Thanh Hoa Province The research reveals that students show negative attitudes towards the cultural contents and not have good British and American cultural knowledge Besides, the teachers not often refer to cultural contents in their lectures So, the students suppose that these contents were not rich enough and not obviously expressed Limitations of the study Undeniable the study has certain strengths due to time limits, lack of resources and the researcher’s ability, it is obvious that the study has got a number of drawbacks That is the number of class observation and interviews the researcher carried out is still limited, so the findings may, to some extent, not be generalized to all the students Therefore, this needs further studies Suggestions for further study Whoever interested to this matter or / and have met the same difficulties may continue this study for further improvements Basing on the findings of the study, other researchers will give more helpful suggestions for acquiring cultural knowledge in English classes or adapt the textbook or design a complete syllabus of cultural content for the first year students at the HUI or choose an LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com available textbook that more suitable with the level of the students with approve of the researcher’s college and departments 10 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ... VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS? ?? ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE CULTURAL CONTENTS IN THE TEXTBOOK NEW HEADWAY Preintermediate AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY. .. attitude of students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry based in Thanh Hoa Province towards cultural contents expessed in the textbook Headway to enhance the effect of using them as a means... section presents the local situation in the foreign language group, Ho Chi Minh city University of Industry, the Branch in Thanh Hoa, with a brief description of the learning and teaching conditions,