Using local cultural heritage to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning english for mountainous students

NGHE AN EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT TUONG DUONG I HIGH SCHOOL - - TEACHING EXPERIENCE “USING LOCAL CULTURAL HERITAGE TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH FOR MOUTAINOUS STUDENTS” School year : 2022-2023 TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS page I INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study II RESEARCH CONTENT PART 1: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACGROUND 1.1 Basic concepts of culture heritage 1.2 Meaning and organizational methods of using cultural heritage in teaching and educating in high schools 1.3 Some cultural features of Tuong Duong district 1.Theoretical background Practical background 2.1 The community 2.2 The teachers 2.3 The pupils 2.4 The students’ learning situation on the education of conservation and development consciousness local cultural values in Tuong Duong district PART 2: THE SOLUTION ABOUT USING LOCAL CULTURAL HERITAGE TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ENGLISH TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AT TUONG DUONG HIGH SCHOOL 10 Raising teachers' awareness in improving the effectiveness of teaching English through local cultural values in high schools 10 What can the teacher to help students preserve local culture heritages and improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning 11 English? 2.1 The process of organizing extracurricular activities through experiences activities 2.2 Organize extracurricular activities in the school 12 PART 3: EFFCIENCY OF THE RESEARCH 24 1.Suitability for students and school 24 Eligibility and applicability 24 Effectiveness 24 3.1 Survey about students' learning attitudes after the lesson 24 3.2 Survey teachers’ opinion about the urgency and feasibility of solutions on using of local cultural heritage to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning English for students in the mountainous areas 25 III CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 30 20 A.Conclusions 30 B Suggestions 31 I INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Nowadays, language teaching concentrates on what students want to learn rather than on what is to be taught It can be said that the attitude and the initiative from the students are the main activity in the classroom The success of students in the classroom is the main goal of teaching and learning activity Many factors influence students in the classroom One of them is culture It is important to relate language to the culture because language must be treated in a social context It means that learning a language cannot be separated from learning the culture Resolution No 29-NQ/TW requires a strong innovation in teaching and learning methods in a modern direction, promotes the positivity, initiative, creativity and application of learners' knowledge and skills; overcoming one-sided imposed communication Moving from studying mainly in the classroom to organizing diverse forms of learning, paying attention to social activities, extracurricular experiences, and scientific research As an English teacher, I think that contributing to the comprehensive renovation of education, towards achieving the aforementioned goals, the use of local cultural heritage in teaching in high schools, is extremely important Through learning English and getting to know about different cultures, students can understand and love the language and culture of their people better Thus, the use of local culture heritages in teaching in the classroom, especially learning at the heritage site, not only helps students develop their foreign language skills, improve their speaking and writing skills but also has an understanding of the local cultural As a result, raising awareness of heritages preservation and patriotism among students could make a contribution to the development of the homeland Such are attractive extracurricular activities for high school students when experiencing local culture sites Aim of these activities is encouraging students to learn more about historical sites, traditional costumes, and indigenous cuisines By these, students could apply experienced lessons into practical life and this is considered as a way which encourages students to efficiently exposure to local culture and history Tuong Duong high school is located in a mountainous district being to the southwest of Nghe An province There is no doubt that teaching and learning English is difficult because the students are mainly ethnic minority Therefore, I believe that combination of experiential activities with teaching projects in teaching English is essential Such learning activities will help students actively and proactively acquire new knowledge, improve their self-study skill, understand and apply the knowledge learned from practice to preserve local cultural heritage, gain the patriotism, and promote positive values of local culture In order to help students to deeply recognize, and have the right attitude and behavior to the issues of preserving the local cultural identity where they live, as well as learning to accumulate knowledge and improve the quality of English teaching in the context of reforming the country's education, I choose the thesis “Using local cultural heritage to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning English for mountainous students” Aims of the study - By including local culture in the teaching and learning process, it is expected that students will be aware of their own culture and able to learn English better since they are asked to describe something they know very well - Educating students to love their hometown and country In addition, students have senses of protecting, promoting local culture to the domestic and international community - From the results of students’ learning, teacher can assess the abilities and qualities of students Scope of the study - The study is concerned about investigating the Local Culture values in Tuong Duong district and the effectiveness of using them in teaching and learning English - The study was going to be conducted at Tuong Duong high school, and class 10C1, 10C2, 10A1 were asked to participate in the study Methods of the study In order to achieve the above- mentioned aim and objectives, the answers to the research questions that are presented below should be found: How does local cultural heritage helps the mountainous students improve their English learning? What are teachers and students’ suggestions for using local cultural heritage to improve students’ English learning? Significance of the study * Theoretical aspect: It is hopefully expected that this study would make a little contribution to help teachers and students realize the essential role of using local cultural heritage in English language teaching * Practical aspect: with the results of the study, it is hoped that teachers and students would make some improvements in the English teaching and learning method The research finding indicated that bringing local culture in English language teaching would build up learner’s cultural knowledge, awareness, and competence II RESEARCH CONTENT PART 1: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACGROUND Theoretical background 1.1 Basic concepts of culture heritage According to the open encyclopedia Wikipedia: Cultural heritage is the heritage of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society inherited from previous generations, maintained to the present and for generations to come Cultural heritage includes cultural property (such as buildings, landscapes, monuments, books, works of art, and artifacts), intangible culture (such as folklore, traditions, languages, and knowledge), and natural heritage (including culturally important landscapes and biodiversity) Cultural heritage can be defined as the legacy of physical artifacts (cultural property) and intangible attributes of a group or society inherited from the past Cultural Heritage is a concept which offers a bridge between the past and the future with the application of particular approaches in the present Due to its attached values for these groups or societies, cultural heritage is maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations + Characteristics of Vietnam's cultural heritage Vietnam's cultural heritage is the values crystallizing from the cultural creativity of the community of 54 ethnic groups, undergoing a long historical process, being transmitted, inherited and recreated from many generations to the present day Vietnam's cultural heritage is a culturally diverse landscape, a valuable asset of the Vietnamese ethnic community and a part of humanity's cultural heritage Vietnam's cultural heritage plays a great role in building and keeping nation of our people Vietnamese cultural heritage is the creative value of learning, exchanging and inheriting from the cultures and human civilization These values are a smooth combination of the culture and culture of humanity with the long-standing indigenous culture of the Vietnamese people Vietnamese cultural heritage, especially intangible cultural heritage, has a strong vitality, which is being preserved and promoted in the life of the Vietnamese ethnic community + Heritage classification Cultural heritage is divided into two categories: tangible cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage Tangible cultural heritage refers to physical artifacts produced, maintained, and transmitted intergenerationally in a society All these heritage sites and monuments are here thanks to human creativity and have a global cultural significance It is important to preserve these cultural sites because of their value to local communities Furthermore, and though they are physical objects, they help shape the aspirations, values, and beliefs of a person’s national identity Intangible cultural heritage is practice, representation, expression, knowledge, Intangible cultural heritage is practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skills, they are considered by UNESCO to be part of a place’s cultural heritage Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property Intangible heritage consists of nonphysical intellectual wealth, such as folklore, customs, belieft, traditions, festival, traditional craft smanship, knowledge, and language, Intangible cultural heritage is considered by member states of UNESCO in realation to the tangible World Heritage focusing on intangible aspects of culture 1.2 Meaning and organizational methods of using cultural heritage in teaching and educating in high schools Significance: Cultural heritages, whether in tangible or intangible form, can be used in the teaching process in the form of creating environment, tools or as a source of materials to build teaching and educational content In the form of the tools and teaching equipment, cultural heritage helps students' learning process become more attractive, they are interested in learning and understanding lessons more deeply, developing creative independent thinking, ideological and moral education for them It can be affirmed that heritage is a source of awareness, a valuable visual medium in teaching in particular and education in general The role and significance of using heritage culture in teaching in high school is specifically reflected in the following aspects: * Contribute to promoting and guiding cognitive activities for students * Help students develop learning skills, self-acquire knowledge *Stimulate students' cognitive interest * Develop students’ intelligence * Educate students’ personality *Contribute to the development of a number of life skills in students such as communication skills, active listening skills, ideas presentation skills, cooperation skills, critical thinking skills, responsibility skills, goal skills, time management skills, skills in searching and processing information * Facilitate for teachers and students to organize the activities in a reasonable way Organization method: • Integrating the content of cultural heritages teaching into education subjects in education program • Build plans and organize teaching related to cultural heritages and lead students to learn and exploit other contents of cultural heritages through materials Choose the appropriate form of teaching organization: - Teaching in the classroom or organizing extracurricular activities at the school; - Organizing English club about local culture - Organizing sightseeing – experiencing cultural heritages; - Teaching through media, multimedia - Choose appropriate teaching, testing and evaluation methods in order to promote the positivity and initiative of students in understanding and exploiting the values of cultural heritage - Popularize and guide the usages of heritage documents in teaching in high schools compiled by the Ministry of Education and Training 1.3 Some cultural features of Tuong Duong district - Tuong Duong mountainous district is a poor district in category 30a of Nghe An province consisting of six ethnic groups: Thai, Mong, Kho mu, O Du, Tay Poong and Kinh living together, creating richness and diversity in tangible and intangible cultural life As recognition that the culture is the background of economic development, local authorities have concerned and focused on improving citizens’ mental life standard in the recent years For example, Van temple festival which is hold in the early spring is recovered with the true mean of custom and minority ethnics groups’ satisfactory in spiritual demand In 2006, Van temple was recognized by Nghe An Provincial Committee to be historical- cultural heritage site and Van temple festival has become cultural feature of Tuong Duong district in which local people organize festivals to pray for favorable rain, peaceful life and organize folk games, cultural exchanges to meet and exchange sentiments The ethnic groups live in Tuong Duong still retain typical identities such as the O Du ethnic group with the new year thunder ceremony, the Thai ethnic group with a special wedding ceremony, the Kho Mu ethnic group with the celebration of the new house, the Mong ethnic group with the early spring buffalo fighting… - Recently, authorities have focused on directing 137 villages to organise mass art teams, to revivify ancient wedding custom of Thai group at Chan village, Thach Giam commune, to research and restore the Xang Khan festival of the Thai people in Cha Luan village, Luan Mai commune and the festival of Van temple Cua Rao, Xa Luong commune Simultaneously, they have researched and developed a number of cultural characteristics of the Kho Mu ethnic group, opened crafting classes and instructed the use of a number of ethnic musical instruments, organized classes to popularize the O Du language in Vang Mon village, Nga My commune - Every year, the district cultural department organizes a contest of folk singing, folk dance and folk games to enhance the community's senses of responsibility and passion - The local authority also invests in building traditional houses, collects and stores all kinds of items, musical instruments and costumes of ethnic groups residing in the area Moreover, models of pure ethnic culture villages were built with aims of creating favorable spatial conditions for the preservation of cultural identities of each ethnic group At the same time, the district also advocates to restore and expand a number of traditional crafts such as brocade, knitting in Thach Giam, Xa Luong, Nga My commune Practical background 2.1 The community The process of regional and global integration has resulted in an increasing demand for English language teaching across Vietnam Before the 1990s little attention was paid to the teaching and learning of foreign languages in general and English language in particular At that time, Russian was the dominated foreign language Today, however, the role of English in Vietnam has undergone considerable changes English has rapidly become the most popular foreign language in the country Like in other provinces and big cities there is a strong support for the learning of English in Nghe An province People need English for purposes such as foreign trade or in order to further their study and to gain access to scientific, technical and literary materials Therefore, they learn English at schools, colleges, extra classes, and training centers etc Concerning the status of English in the curriculum, it is taught as one of several foreign languages available to students within the school system However, in practical terms, it may be recognized as the most important foreign language However, it is worth noticing that despite the support and preference paid to English learning, the students’ only aim of studying a foreign language is to pass the University Entrance Exam If they intend to apply for colleges or universities which not require an English exam for admission, they will naturally ignore English In this case they are forced to learn the language just in order to pass the final exam because in fact the students in Nghe An rarely have a chance to communicate with foreigners, which means not having an environment to use the language Moreover, in recent years, secondary school students’ focus has shifted to sciences, natural sciences in particular, rather than a foreign language In short, English language is not easy to learn for students, and many mountainous students lost motivation to learn this language which they felt difficulties Therefore, educators always investigate the best methods for teaching English language for students In ( Johnson, 2002: 25) states that contextual teaching and learning helps students see meaning in the learning of academic material by connecting academic subject with the context of their daily lives including their personal, social, and cultural circumstances In this case, cultural circumstances as part of students’ daily life should be included in the materials or lesson plan in the teaching of English By including local culture in the teaching and learning process, it is expected that students will be aware of their own culture and able to learn English better since they are asked to describe something they know very well 2.2 The teachers Most of the teachers were graduated from Vinh University, or Ha Noi national university No teacher of English in the school has ever been to an English speaking country and few of them have chances to communicate with native speakers All of the teachers are highly motivated because they neither want to be dismissed by the school nor disappoint their students 2.3 The pupils Most of the students are ethnic minorities They come from the remote area of mountainous districts Their living condition is poor The investment in education from their families, therefore, is not good sufficient The factors contributing to the low result are that the basic of lower secondary school is poor, the students’ skills are not good due to regional characteristics, and especially their personal feeling in English is not good, either Most parents are not aware of the importance of English in the current society, so investing time and money in learning English at an early age is not enough This is also the reason why the results of the General Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations are normally low *The reality, the drawbacks of teaching and learning English and local culture heritage in Tuong Duong high school Tuong Duong high school is the place where many children of different ethnic groups such as Thai, H’Mong, Kho Mu, Thai,… Therefore, ethnic minority students still find difficulties in language barrier; many of them pronounce Kinh unclearly, so communication between them is difficult Thus, many students also feel self-deprecating, not confident enough to communicate with students outside the same age Due to the characteristics of students living away from their families, it requires students to be highly independent, but the number of friends who can so is not much Many students also think that because of difficult family circumstances, the path to starting a career later will be difficult, so they only learn to cope, there is no orientation for the future leading to reduced study results That is a concern, also the worries of teachers and students Besides, a part of teachers is not clearly aware of the Ministry Of Education and Training‘s innovative policy on the use of heritage in teaching, leading to asynchrony in teaching There are some teachers who are afraid to innovate, passive in researching and designing lessons Using heritage in teaching English in particular and subjects in general has become a common trend in the comprehensive renovation, so it receives support and attention from all levels, departments, as well as social organizations, parents and students Moreover, facilities for teaching and learning foreign languages in schools are significantly enhanced such as equipped with language classrooms, projectors, computers, televisions, radio speakers Table 1: Grade 10 students' entrance exam results in school year 2022-2023 Classes Scores Number of Scores from from students 0.5 to 4 to Scores from to Scores from to 10A1 34 25 10C1 42 37 10C2 39 38 0 In this table, we also see that the scores from 0.5 to account for nearly 87 percent The scores from to ranked the second The high scores (from to 9) made up the smallest and then the scores from to Clearly, students don’t learn English well from lower secondary *Chart 1: The students’ learning English attitude in Tuong Duong high school (appendix 1) To get the result of my students' English learning attitude, I conducted a survey in my classes (10CA1, 10C1, 10C2) Look at the following chart; we can see clearly the rate 10 The chart indicates that students in these classes don’t like to learn English The majority (60 %) revealed that they didn’t like learning English because of its difficulty The other students (30 %) said that they found interesting when they learnt English Only 10% found that they like English very much 2.4 The students’ learning situation on the education of conservation and development consciousness local cultural values in Tuong Duong district To draw valid conclusions about the sense of preservation and promotion of cultural values in the district, we conducted a survey to find out the current state of learning of students Specifically, we handed out questionnaires to our students In the area for them to express their feelings and express their opinions about educating the sense of preservation and promoting some cultural values through extracurricular activities in high school Students’ survey: Question Question 1: Answering A A Protection and preservation % select 80% What you think about the B B Not protecttion and preservation preservation of local culture? 20% Question 2: What is your A.Van temple festival local festival? C B Phu Nha Thau Temple Festival 85% D C Cuong Temple Festival Question 3: What is your A A.Thai local national? B B H Mong C Dao 15% 0% 75% 25% 0% Question 4: Do you like A.Yes learning English through local B B No cultural heritage 85% Question 5: 30% A Propaganda and promotion How to preserve and promoteB B Use the product cultural values? C C Make Products Question 6: 15% 20% 10% D D Combine all forms above 40% A A Extracurricular 35% 11 Which conservation and promotion have you been involved in? B B Go on a sightseeing Question 7: A A Relevant agencies C Game In your opinion, who does the responsibility for preserving and promoting cultural values belong to? 20% 45% 50% B Pupils 30% C Local people 20% Through my survey, I found the following: - Most of the students understand how to preserve and promote local cultural values and know the necessity to preserve them Up to 81% of students realize the need to preserve and promote, and 80% of students understand how to preserve and promote cultural values, 85 % of students like learning English through local cultural heritage - They are very interested in preserving and promoting local cultural values - Most of our students have a desire to learn experientially and report back on the results that they collect The survey results are one of the convincing evidence for me to conduct research on the topic: "using local cultural heritage to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning English” PART 2: THE SOLUTION ABOUT USING LOCAL CULTURAL HERITAGE TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ENGLISH TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH EXTRACURRUCULAR ACTIVITIES AT TUONG DUONG HIGH SCHOOL Raising teachers' awareness in improving the effectiveness of teaching English through local cultural values in high schools Student-centered teaching, I myself find it boring, students are sluggish and not interested in learning, learning English becomes a fear for students Since then, I have always wondered, raising a thought to find a way to help students learn English more effectively and make them interest in learning In order to approach the policy of the foreign language project 2020, applying interdisciplinary knowledge I have realized that the use of local culture in teaching English is essential because of the great effects that bring to learners as well as teachers Combining with interdisciplinary integrated teaching methods to develop students' capacity for self-learning, self-experience, and their intellectual discovery to apply to solve practical problems Since then, it helps students have a more comprehensive and knowledgeable view of their homeland Therefore, I have conducted research and implemented a number of solutions such as bringing heritage into classroom teaching, organizing discussions in English about heritage, 12 using heritage in English extracurricular sessions or organizing study tours at heritage To be effective, teachers need to carefully study local cultural heritage (both tangible culture and intangible cultural heritage) When conducting extracurricular activities we should follow these steps: Step 1: Make a detailed plan for the extracurricular session Step 2: Develop an extracurricular program Step 3: Rehearse, evaluate and perfect Step 4: Conduct the official organization at the school Step 5: Learn from experience, get ready for the field trip Step 6: Organize heritage study tours Step 7: Learn from common experience In the process of organizing, I find that teaching method above has the both advantages and disadvantages Advantage: For teachers: Extracurricular sessions that use heritage inside and outside the school have achieved high results Teachers have a sense of researching, learning the material Creating good conditions to build close relationships between teachers and students, helping teachers have a more holistic view when evaluating students For students: The students are very interested in learning, participating in very active and enthusiastic training sessions Students have the opportunity to exchange learning, to practice and show their abilities They find English lessons more engaging, meaningful and therefore set goals for better English learning Through extracurricular hours, their listening and speaking skills have improved markedly, they are much more confident Moreover, using local cultural heritage in extracurricular activities combined with visiting heritage makes students feel more proud and love their homeland Disadvantages: When using local cultural heritage in teaching, teachers must invest more time in researching and understanding content related to heritage The stages of conducting an activity, a lesson or a program are much more elaborate than the old solution, so the teachers must constantly self-study, self-improve and improve knowledge to meet practical requirements What can the teacher to help students preserve local culture heritages and improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning English? Bringing local culture in English language teaching would build up learner’s cultural knowledge, awareness, and competence It is that said that in learning 13 English, bringing the idea of multiculturalism taken from the students’ closest environments promoted them to increase their vocabulary The result of this study showed that the idea of bringing local culture in English writing classroom however attract the students’ interest 2.1 The process of organizing extracurricular activities through experiences activities a Aim Organizing for students to visit and learn about local cultural heritage in order to: + Implementing the goal of "Learning with practice","Theory is associated with practice" helps students understand the local cultural identity + Understand the work of preserving and promoting the value of local cultural identity b Skill: Through experiential activities, students are taught teamwork skills, selfstudy skills, skills in collecting, synthesizing, processing information and data, applying information technology in learning c Attitude: Educating students to consciously participate in the preservation of local cultural heritage d Formative competencies for students: - Collaborative capacity, communication capacity, creative capacity, problem solving , computing capacity 2.1.1 Format: Visit to deepen knowledge 2.1.2 Participants: Students 10A1, 10C1 2.1.3 Steps to conduct a tour Step 1: Teachers clearly state the purpose, requirements and content of the experience tour for students to understand and perform the tasks during the experience trip Step 2: Students visit and learn Step 3: Students process data, collect more information online, reference books proceed to write harvest articles for the experience tour Step 4: Students write harvest papers in English Activity Studying at Van Temple Historical Site - Tuong Duong District The temple is located in Xa Luong commune ( Tuong Duong), standing in the strip of land between Nam Non river and Nam Mo river Every year at the end 14