An investigation into teachers and students attitudes twoards the cultural content in tieng anh 11 at tran khai nguyen high school hcmc m a

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE CULTURAL CONTENT IN “TIENG ANH 11” AT TRAN KHAI NGUYEN HIGH SCHOOL - HCMC A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By DO THI THANH AN Supervised by LE THI THANH, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, OCTOBER 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am greatly indebted to a number of people without whom this thesis would have been impossible First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Le Thi Thanh, my supportive supervisor, for understanding my difficulties, knowing my strengths and weaknesses, sharing useful materials, giving me constructive remarks, and providing me with illuminating insights and invaluable expertise Her patience, encouragement, and support greatly contributed to the completion of my thesis I am also immensely grateful to the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature as well as all my teachers in my MA courses at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities of Ho Chi Minh City for giving me a chance to follow this postgraduate programme, widening my knowledge, developing my language skills, and improving my teaching methods I acknowledge the great contribution of the school administrators, my colleagues in the English group, and 11th graders at Tran Khai Nguyen High school, where I am currently working as a teacher of English Without their help, I could not get valuable information and data that played an extremely important role in this study Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks also go to my beloved parents who always be there for me, love me unconditionally, encourage me endlessly, support me wholeheartedly, and strongly believe in my ability to write the thesis to the end i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE CULTURAL CONTENT IN “TIENG ANH 11” AT TRAN KHAI NGUYEN HIGH SCHOOL – HCMC in terms of the statement of requirements for theses in Master’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee No other person’s work has been used without acknowledgement in the content of this thesis The thesis has not been submitted for a degree or diploma in any other institution Ho Chi Minh City, October 29th , 2016 DO THI THANH AN ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, DO THI THANH AN, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirement of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the originality of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and scholarly research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis Ho Chi Minh City, October 29th , 2016 DO THI THANH AN iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .ix LIST OF TABLES x LIST OF FIGURES xii ABSTRACT xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.1.1 Theoretical issues 1.1.2 Practical issues 1.2 Aim of the study and research questions .5 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study .7 1.5 The organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Language and culture 2.1.1 Definition of culture .9 2.1.2 Cultural components 13 2.1.3 The relationship between language and culture 16 2.1.3.1 Through linguistic areas .18 2.1.3.2 Through non-linguistic areas 20 2.2 The cultural content in EFL textbooks 22 2.2.1 Cortazzi and Jin (1999)’s framework 24 2.2.1.1 Target cultural content 25 2.2.1.2 Source cultural content 26 iv 2.2.1.3 International target cultural content .28 2.2.2 The presentation of the cultural content in EFL textbooks 29 2.2.2.1 Topic .30 2.2.2.2 The cultural content 30 2.2.2.3 Picture 31 2.2.2.4 Task 32 2.2.3 Related studies of the cultural content in EFL textbooks 32 2.2.4 The cultural content in EFL textbooks in Vietnamese context 34 2.3 Strategies for teaching culture in EFL classrooms .36 2.3.1 Valette (1986)’s purposes of culture learning in foreign language classrooms 39 2.3.2 Hughes (1986)’s techniques for increasing learners’ cultural awareness 39 2.3.3 Ryffle (1997)’s activities to teach culture in foreign language classrooms 40 2.3.4 Moran (2001)’s cultural knowings framework 40 2.4 Teachers’ and learners’ attitudes towards culture learning in EFL classrooms 43 2.5 Conceptual framework of the study .46 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .51 3.1 Research site 51 3.2 Sample and sampling procedures 52 3.2.1 Student subjects 52 3.2.2 Teacher subjects 54 3.3 Research design 56 3.4 Research tools 58 3.4.1 Textbook analysis .58 3.4.2 Classroom observation .59 3.4.3 Questionnaire .60 3.4.3.1 Student questionnaire 60 3.4.3.2 Teacher questionnaire 61 v 3.5 Data collection procedure 62 3.6 Framework of data analysis 64 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 66 4.1 Data analysis 66 4.1.1 Textbook analysis .66 4.1.1.1 Topic .67 4.1.1.2 The cultural content 67 4.1.1.2.1 Target cultural content 68 4.1.1.2.2 Source cultural content 69 4.1.1.2.3 International target cultural content 72 4.1.1.3 Picture 72 4.1.1.4 Task 73 4.1.2 Classroom observation .75 4.1.2.1 Class A 75 4.1.2.2 Class B 76 4.1.2.3 Class C 77 4.1.3 Questionnaire .78 4.1.3.1 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards how the cultural content is presented in TA11 78 4.1.3.1.1 The cultural content presented in TA11 78 4.1.3.1.2 Pictures illustrating the cultural content in TA11 80 4.1.3.1.3 Tasks in culturally-loaded units in TA11 82 4.1.3.2 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards culture learning through TA11 84 4.1.3.2.1 Cortazzi and Jin (1999)’s three types of cultural content .84 4.1.3.2.2 Moran (2001)’s stages of cultural knowings 85 4.1.3.2.3 Effects of culture learning through TA11 on students 88 4.1.3.2.4 Difficulties in culture learning and teaching through TA11 90 4.1.3.2.5 Strategies for teaching and learning the cultural content in TA11 93 4.1.3.2.6 Cultural topics that should be included in TA11 96 vi 4.2 Findings and discussion .101 4.2.1 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards how the cultural content is presented in TA11 .101 4.2.1.1 The cultural content presented in TA11 .102 4.2.1.2 Pictures illustrating the cultural content in TA11 .103 4.2.1.3 Tasks in culturally-loaded units in TA11 104 4.2.2 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards culture learning through TA11 105 4.2.2.1 Cortazzi and Jin (1999)’s three types of cultural content 105 4.2.2.2 Moran (2001)’s stages of cultural knowings 107 4.2.2.3 Effects of culture learning through TA11 on students 109 4.2.2.4 Difficulties in culture learning and teaching through TA11 .111 4.2.2.5 Strategies for teaching and learning the cultural content in TA11 .113 4.2.2.6 Cultural topics that should be included in TA11 114 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 115 5.1 Conclusions 115 5.1.1 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards how the cultural content is presented in TA11 .115 5.1.2 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards culture learning through TA11 116 5.1.2.1 Cortazzi and Jin (1999)’s three types of cultural content 116 5.1.2.2 Moran (2001)’s stages of cultural knowings 117 5.1.2.3 Effects of culture learning through TA11 on students 117 5.1.2.4 Difficulties in culture learning and teaching through TA11 .118 5.1.2.5 Strategies for teaching and learning the cultural content in TA11 .119 5.1.2.6 Cultural topics that should be included in TA11 119 5.2 Suggestions 120 5.3 Limitations of the study .125 5.4 Recommendations for further research .126 REFERENCES 128 vii APPENDICES .136 APPENDIX 1: SYLLABUS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING 136 APPENDIX 2: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION 141 APPENDIX 2A: Class room observation form A 141 APPENDIX 2B: Classroom observation form B .145 APPENDIX 2C: Classroom observation form C .150 APPENDIX 2D: A summary of classroom observations .154 APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE 156 APPENDIX 3A: Student questionnaire (English version) 156 APPENDIX 3B: Student questionnaire (Vietnamese version) 159 APPENDIX 3C: Teacher questionnaire (English version) 162 APPENDIX 3D: Teacher questionnaire (Vietnamese version) 165 APPENDIX 4: CRITERIA FOR TEXTBOOK ANALYSIS 168 APPENDIX 4A: Huhn (1978)’s criteria for evaluating treatment of cultural contents in textbook 168 APPENDIX 4B: Kilickaya (2004)’s guideline to evaluate cultural content in textbooks 169 APPENDIX 4C: Kristiawan (2012)’s five principles to evaluate ELT materials 171 APPENDIX 4D: Olajide (2010)’s questions to assess the cultural content of two EFL textbooks popularly used in Nigeria primary schools 172 APPENDIX 4E: Reimann (2009)’s criteria for evaluating examples of cultural information in textbooks 173 APPENDIX 4F: Sercu (1998)’s criteria to evaluate the adequacy of textbooks for teaching intercultural competence 174 APPENDIX 5: THE ENGLISH TEXTBOOK TA11 .177 APPENDIX 5A: Textbook analysis 177 APPENDIX 5B: Culturally-related units in TA11 179 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT Communicative Language Teaching EFL English as a Foreign Language EIL English as an International Language ELT English Language Teaching HCMC Ho Chi Minh City L1 First language L2 Second language MOET The Ministry of Education and Training Sts Students T Teacher TA11 Tieng Anh 11 UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization VTEs Vietnamse teachers of English ix UNIT 8: CELEBRATIONS: LISTENING (continued) + WRITING 194 UNIT 9: THE POST OFFICE: READING 195 UNIT 9: THE POST OFFICE: READING (continued) 196 UNIT 9: THE POST OFFICE: LISTENING 197 UNIT 10: NATURE IN DANGER: WRITING 198 UNIT 12: THE ASIAN GAMES: READING 199 UNIT 12: THE ASIAN GAMES: READING (continued) 200 UNIT 12: THE ASIAN GAMES: SPEAKING 201 UNIT 14: RECREATION: READING 202 UNIT 14: RECREATION: READING (continued) 203 UNIT 16: THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD: READING 204 UNIT 16: THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD: READING (continued) 205 UNIT 16: THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD: SPEAKING 206 UNIT 16: THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD: SPEAKING (continued) + LISTENING 207 UNIT 16: THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD: WRITING 208