Cross cultural factors affecting students english reading comprehension at tĩnh gia 1 high school problems and solution

However, to the best teaching experience of the researcher, most of English foreign language learners in Vietnam in general and in Tinh Gia 1 high school in particular lack of cultural b

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghệ An, 2013

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

(NHUNG NHAN TO GIAO VAN HOA ANH HUGNG DEN KY NANG DOC HIEU TIENG ANH CUA HOC SINH TRUONG THPT TINH GIA I: THUC TRANG VA GIAI PHAP)

Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching

Code: 60.14.10

Master thesis in Education

Supervisor: NGO HUU HOANG, Ph.D

Nghệ An, 2013

DECLARATION

I, Nguyén Thi Ha, certify that this thesis is the result of my own research and the substance of this thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution

Nghé An, August 2013

Nguyễn Thị Hà

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor Mr Ng6 Hitru Hoang, Ph.D for his invaluable support, patient guidance, and encouragement he gave me throughout my research I am truly grateful to him for his advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage

Secondly, my special thanks go to all the students of the classes I have visited in order to gather information Without their enthusiastic contribution and cooperation, this research would certainly not have been completed

In the thesis, it is inevitable that the ideas of many other writers in this field are

reflected and developed Their ideas have stimulated my thinking on doing this paper My debt to the authors listed in the references is equally great To all these scholars, I offer my

sincere thanks

Lastly, I am indebted to my family members whose support and encouragements greatly contributed to the completion of my study

ABSTRACT Reading comprehension is a complex process of the interaction between the writer’s language and the readers’ prior background knowledge or memory schemata In the reading

comprehension process, readers’ linguistic elements are very important, but sometimes we can not read behind the lines except by the help of background knowledge of culture, because the meanings of words are often acquired in a certain circumstance of culture However, to the best teaching experience of the researcher, most of English foreign language learners in Vietnam in general and in Tinh Gia 1 high school in particular lack of cultural background knowledge and that is why they have a lot of difficulties in achieving exact reading comprehension This has urged the researcher to carry out the present study

By describing and interpreting the data collected through action research conducted

in Tinh Gia 1 high school, firstly, the researcher managed to investigate cross-cultural factors affecting reading comprehension, from these to find out cross-cultural barriers in English reading comprehension skills, and then, gave some suggestions for both teachers and students to improve the students’ RC skills

With detailed investigations and valid findings, the researcher believes this study is a reliable and useful source of reference for language classes in general and for any Vietnamese English foreign language learners and teachers who share the same concern

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

DF: Degree of Freedom EFL: English Foreign Language

ELT: English Language Teaching M: Means

P: Probability RC: Reading Comprehension SD: Standard Deviation

Terit : Critical Value

TG1: Tinh Gia 1

Teta Statistic value

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS TABLES

Page

Table 4.1: The pre-test scores of the two groups 43

Students’ attitudes of towards the importance of cross-culture in RC

Students’ living place Students’ attitudes towards the importance of things in learning RC Students’ difficulties in learning English RC

Students’ satisfaction with the teacher’s cross-cultural teaching Frequency of the cross-cultural teaching in RC lessons

The causes of cross-cultural obstacles in RC lessons The ways of cross-cultural factors taught in RC lessons The ways students get English cultural knowledge Students’ attitudes towards lectures about cultures

DECLARATION 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS v

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 0 ion 5 1.2 Previous related studies “3 6

IS 0á .e 4 7

IV cáo na 8 1.5 Research questions of the SẦIdy - St 3 3S 3E E3 SE HE Khu 8 1.6 Research methods of the sfUdy ¿c5 5+ St th Hiện 9

IS nh 2 9 1.8 Design of the ion 5 9

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Reading comprehension skills and their position in English language teaching 11

PA No vẽ 11 2.1.2 What is reading comprehernsiOT\? .- c5: 5c x3 v ke re ghrrườy 12 2.1.3 The position of reading comprehension skills in English language teaching and

Ve arming eee ceceeeecee sees ceseeseesrseeeseseessesnesssnsseseesseesnenevsnsesssnsessensesnessnecstneneeseeseees 12 2.2 The relationship between culture and language 5c ScSScsessex‡ 13 2.2.1 Definitions of culture: 2.00 cece cece ccc ee ce ceeeeeseeessceeeeeceneenenseeeceeeetecsneiseneeeeseneeens 13 2.2.2 Language and CuÍfLIF€: 5c 22233 SE S33 EE vn HH Hư 14 2.2.3 The role of culture in language teaching and learning -¿ s55: sẽ 5s +s+x 15 2.3 The cross-cultural background knowledge of and English reading Comprehension 2.2.0.2 446 17

2.3.1 The role of cross-cultural background knowledge ¡in English reading COMPehensiON eee cece cece ee ceeseeeeece cece ce eeeeeeeeeecesesseeeeescscesenecieeeceeesieeesesererensseneneeesieees 17

2.4.1 When should the study of culture beg1n? - -c << 20

2.4.2 What aspects of culture should be taught in the foreign language classrooms? 21

2.4.3 The principles for culture teaching., - + - eeeeeeceeeeeceeeeeeeteeeeeceneeeseeeeeanees 22 2.4.4 Common approaches to the teaching of Culture 20 eeeeeeenenenteteeeeeeee 23 2.4.4.1 The mono-cultural approach -‹ +: 2113 3233 YEx t9 HH Hư 23 2.4.4.2 The comparafIve approach - ¿+ - + 3xx St E3 TT TH HH Hư 23 2.5 Culture-based acfivifies nọ HH HH HH Hư e 25 2.5.1 Cultural 5 25

PS A0) na 26

P19 26

2.5.4 Cultural asSirm1ÏAfOT 5: 5-2252 S222 2E2221238212E125212117112E1E 1 E1 ke 27 P19 ốc 28

PS ôn ee ốố ẻ ẻ ẻ 29

CHAPTER 3 THE STUDY 3.1 The setting of the studÌy cà tr nh HH HH HT ng HH HH ngư 31 KD? 0n 6 “4ddqdg5 31

3.1.2 The teachers and the studenIs - 5à S Sàn SnnH nhe 31 E0 32

3.2 The participants e 33

E SN hố ẻ 34

3.3.1 The rationale for the use of action research 34 3.3.2 The procedures of action research - -:-:c: 2 22222 SE 232121221211 113121 1221 xe2 36

3.4 The instruments of data colÏecfion ‹ -. cành nhe, 37

k1 38

Ev u o 39

3.4.3, The imtervieWS S6 ((((((V€-dđŒđd(3 40

EM) 3) e Ö5 40

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 The in Ố 43

4.2 The questionnaire resullts 0 0.00.00 ccc cece cceeeeceseeeceeeeceeeecessaeeeceavaeceeeeeeeenesereatees 48 4.3 The interVieW reSuÏfS ‹ó-.- cà ST TT HH HH ng HH TH nhiệt 58 CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS AND SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR SOLUTIONS bằnN $35É5Ả 60

5.1.1 Linguistic barriers In relation to cross-culture in the English RC 60

BI NV) ađaaađaaiiiaiaiattiiiiiidiẳẳ 60

5.1.1.2 GTaImTMAT - 5 2E E185E 1213531959515 2251119 111 1 1T HT TT HT ng 63 binh ca n6 66 ddÖ66B6ĂBẰẶ: 63

5.1.2 The causes of the cross-cultural baTTITS - - - 5: 5: 223222322323 3E SE +E+v2vEeEsEsrxrsrvrss 65 5.1.2.1 The external causes 5.1.2.2 The internal Causes cố 66

5.1.3 Other important findings - 5:5: 2222222121 12122E2E2121 11515 68 Š.2 Some implications for a better reading comprehension skiïÏl - 69

b1 (dd 69

5.2.2 To the teachers:

5.2.3 To the textbook cormpI[€TS - -: - - 5 St S32 21E535E 33119151 55351215111712511113E1 x2 72

CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION

6.1 Summary of the Stud y c.ccc cece ceec cece cs ceseeeeeeseeceeesesenececeesanseseeeceesareeeeeeeceenensnseeeeeeeeeas 74 6.2 Limitation and suggestions for further sfUdyy - - - 5+ St S 2222323532122 zxxy 74

S09 on 75

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

Along with the development of Applied Linguistics and Psycholinguistics, the American scholar, Goodman [13] negated the traditional reading theory and posed a

“psycholinguistic reading model”, which considers that reading is not the process of passive decoding and reading literally any more Rather it is the process of active “guessing — confirming” and interaction between the readers and the reading contents In English learning, the linguistic knowledge elements play a vital role in RC, mastering linguistic knowledge of phonetics, vocabulary and grammar is helpful to decode the word symbols However, in the process of reading, many Vietnamese students already possess the above knowledge but they still cannot comprehend the texts completely because the meanings of words are acquired in a certain circumstance of culture “Every stage of comprehension involves reader’s background knowledge of culture (Anderson, [3, pg 14:369]).” Language

is the carrier of culture, people's words and deeds reflect certain cultural connotation

consciously or unconsciously Every social communication possesses its own certain

thought pattern, value, custom, and way of life Therefore, if a Vietnamese student does not know about the English culture, such as histories, values, mode of thinking, customs,

religion and life style, he may fail to understand the exact meaning of the texts so understanding the cultural content of what one reads is a crucial factor in RC

From my personal observation and professional experience as a teacher of English at TGI1 high school for six years, I have realized that, in spite of its importance, the cultural content is not really concerned by both students and teachers while studying reading lessons

in textbooks The cultural knowledge remains unexplored and neglected in English reading learning and teaching process in this school That is why the great efforts made by teachers

to improve the quality of English reading lessons can not help to meet the teaching goals and students have much trouble in comprehending of the reading texts in spite of achieving linguistic elements This can be seen that the marks in reading tests of almost TG1 high school students are rather low and many of them seem not to be interested in learning English reading lessons This has given rise to the question, “How can TG1 teachers improve the quality of reading lessons and help the students to get exact comprehension of reading texts?” And the following answer can be heard, “To teach reading texts in incorporation with the cultural knowledge.” But how can this be done? This issue has brought the researcher a great desire to conduct a research study to try to answer this question The researcher conducts action research in order to examine cross-cultural factors that cause barriers in English RC for students at TG1 high school as well as to give some suggestions for incorporating the cultural knowledge into reading lessons With this study, the researcher hopes to help students at TG1 high school to have a better RC skill

1.2 Previous related studies

Wang Lin [45] carried out a research that examine the cross cultural difficulties in the process of English reading in three aspects: to find out cross cultural barriers in reading English with the aim of answering 2 questions: “What the main difficulties are in English

RC, why these difficulties exist, and how to eliminate them?” Wang Lin conducted a quantitative research by means of questionnaire on 100 second year students, aged 19-20 in Foshan university The students were asked to answer ten questions with four scales: “Yes/ Not really/ No/ Not at all” The questionnaire focused on finding the cultural factors influencing RC For example: “Do you think differences between Chinese and English

culture influence RC skills?”, “Do you often enrich your English cultural knowledge?” etc Then, he made an interview with 20 second year students selected randomly from 100 students who had responded to the questionnaire to have deeply understood the roots of these factors

Despite many valuable findings, Wang Lin’s research has some limitations he didn’t investigate what the exact cultural barriers in relation to the language are and how these cross cultural barriers affected on the students’ RC skills Quantitative and qualitative studies were adopted by Yu-Ling Chang [49] “How cultural background knowledge influences EFL RC and how an EFL teacher facilitates his/her students to raise cultural awareness therefore become the main questions in this study 120 learners of English at the age of 15 and 16 in Taiwan were distributed questionnaires and semi structured interviews were conducted with 30 learners and 10 teachers

On the whole, the written responses of students as well as the interviews with them

have shown a significant relationship between cross-cultural background knowledge and EFL RC Cross-cultural background knowledge was exactly instrumental in connecting the contextual meanings with EFL readers’ comprehension However, the limitation of this study is the small sample Therefore, additional studies with a larger sample should be conducted in the future

Another investigation into cross cultural factors in speaking skills of upper secondary school students, by Nguyén Thi Duong [29] was carried out with the aim at finding the answering to the questions: “How to cope with cultural obstacles to speaking English in the classroom?” In this case, the writer investigated students with the hope to answer three questions: In what ways, do you often get English cultural knowledge? What are frequent cultural obstacles in learning speaking in classrooms? And To what extent, cross cultural background knowledge is obstacle? The findings of this thesis showed many cross cultural factors in English speaking skills However, the researcher needs to have more deep and sophisticated investigation on each factor instead of listing them

In conclusion, those above studies are very helpful in providing the researchers with general views on the study of cross cultural factors in learning English The most popular data collections tools the previous researchers used were the combination of questionnaire and interview to seek information related to cross cultural factors in learning English Most

of them pointed out that cross-cultural knowledge played an important role in learning English, especially in RC However, there has never been any research on cross cultural factors in RC skills carried out by TG1’s teachers With the hope of improving my students’ learning and my teaching, I really want to implement the investigation into the cross cultural factors in English RC skills That is the reason why I do this thesis

1.3 Scope of the study

As mentioned above, to improve students’ RC in the classrooms at TG1 high school

depends on many different factors Because of the limited time, it is impossible to cover all of these in this study The scope of this thesis is limited to a research on cross-cultural factors causing barriers in RC lessons in TG1 high school From these barriers, the internal and external causes are analyzed to give some suggestions for reducing them in order to improve students’ RC The study was conducted on the students of grade 10, 11, 12 at TG1 high school with the textbook “Tiếng Anh 10”, “Tiếng Anh 11”, and “Tiếng Anh 12”

The reason why the researcher chose three grades with three textbooks for this study was that these textbooks are compiled by Vietnamese compilers for Vietnamese students and it seems to be that cultural elements in reading texts are similar to students so the study should be carried out on three textbooks and three classes from three grades to get the reliable data for analysis However, the researcher knows that it is not always feasible to carry out the study with all the students from three classes in the population individually because of the time limitation, expense and accessibility Thus, the participants are 48 students from three classes These participants were not randomly assigned The researcher chose basing on the basis of cluster sampling that is proved to be convenient, inexpensive and time-saving

1.4 Aims of the study

The study aims at improving the students’ RC skills and cross-cultural background knowledge at TG1 high school To complete the overall aim, the following specific ones must be obtained:

- Investigating the attitudes of students at TG1 high schools towards the importance of culture in English RC

- Finding out the cross-cultural factors in students’ English RC process at TG1 high schools

- Discovering students’ cross-cultural barriers to English RC in the classrooms, and suggest some solutions to reduce and eliminate them in order to achieve the exact comprehension 1.5 Research questions of the study

This study is implemented to find answers to the following research questions

1 What are typical cross cultural factors causing barriers in English RC at TG1 high school?

2 What are the causes of these barriers?

3 What are some suggestions for solutions?

1.6 Research methods of the study

In order to get the goals of the study, this study is conducted action research that employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches to collect data With this action research, the quantitative analyses are through the process of data collected from pre-test and post-test, pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire In addition, the qualitative approach

is employed to deal with the data gathered from follow-up interviews that are made to help the researcher interpret the questionnaire data more accurately to collect exact information and evidence for the study

The combination of these data collection methods will help the author achieve the aims of the study All comments, remarks, suggestions, and conclusions provided in the study are based on the results of the data analysis

1.7 Significance of the study

Even though cross-cultural factors in English RC are necessary for most English learners, it is surprising that there is not much investigation into these This research provides an insight into cross-cultural factors that cause barriers in English RC that most of the Vietnamese students who are studying English encounter

* Theoretical aspect: It is hopefully expected that this study would make a small contribution to help teachers and students realize the essential role of the cross-cultural background knowledge in their reading lessons More importantly, the findings of the study are believed to identify cross-cultural barriers from cross-cultural elements From this, to give some suggestions for solutions

* Practical aspect: with the results of the study, it is hoped that teachers and students would find the best ways to incorporate cross-cultural knowledge in their reading lessons

1.8 Design of the study

This study is going to be divided into six chapters, as follows:

* Chapter 1, Introduction, deals with the reasons for the research and the aims, scope

methods, research questions, significance and context of the study The previous studies are also mentioned in this part

*Chapter 2, Theoretical background, reviews the literature relevant to English RC

skills, cultural elements, cross-cultural elements and the relationship between cross-cultural

elements and RC

*Chapter 3, The Study, provides the setting of the study, subjects, instruments and data analysis process

*Chapter 4, Data analysis and discussion, analyses and discusses the data collected

from the tests, survey questionnaires and interviews

*Chapter 5, The findings and some suggestions for solution, focuses on suggestions for teachers as well students about using some activities to get over cross cultural difficulties in English RC and to improve reading skills in the classroom

*Chapter 6, Conclusion, summarizes the main points of the study, some limitations during the process of doing the research and giving some suggestions for further study

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 RC skills and their position in English language teaching

2.1.1 What is reading?

In our daily life, we spend time reading books, newspapers, novels or stories because

we find them interesting and useful When reading, we understand the texts, we analyze and find its meaning, give out meaningful conclusion But no one can define exactly what reading is This question attracts much attention and researchers have defined reading in various ideas According to Goodman [13, pg.135]: “Reading is a psycholinguistics process

by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display” Goodman thought that this act of reconstruction is viewed as “a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming.”

William [47, pg.3] had the same view on reading, especially on the act of

reconstruction as Goodman He argues that: “written texts, then, often contain more than we need to understand them, the efficient reader makes use of this to take what he needs, and no

more, to obtain meaning” His opinion is shared by Nuttall [32] and Grellet [14] The formers asserts that: “reading is getting a message from a text” Smith [39, pg.102] defined

“reading is understanding of the author’s thought’’) It means that the readers “read the author’s mind not the author’s words”

One more definition of reading is offered by Allen [2] and Vallete [44 pg.249] They thought that: “reading is developmental process” We learn reading not only to know how to read, to master the symbols, the language, grammar, etc used in the text but also to understand the ideas, the information expressed in that text or to develop the ability reconstructing its contents in our own words

In short, from these opinions above, it is clear that no one can give all the ideas and features of what reading is Each definition reflects what reading means as seen from the

scholar’s own view However, all definitions reveal their common feature that is the nature

of reading Moreover, the definition “reading is understanding of the author’s thought” seem

to be preferable We- the readers read the author’s mind not the author’s words

2.1.2 What is RC?

RC plays an important part in learning a foreign language RC can be understood as the ability to get the required information from the text as efficiently as possible In the reading process, there are three elements appearing: the text being read, the background knowledge of the reader and the contextual aspects relevant for interpreting the text

Swain [41, pg: 1] stated that: “When we say a student is good at comprehension we mean that he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information a text with the minimum of understanding” In the same view, Richard [36, p.9] claims that:

“RC is best described as an understanding between the author and the reader” Sharing these ideas, Grellet [14] takes the point that “RC or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible”

These above opinions are not exactly the same, but they all show that reading is much more than just pronouncing words correctly or simply knowing what the author intends It is a process in which the readers (as they read) can recognize the graphic form and understand the relation between the writing and the meaning In the other words, after reading, students can find the way to bettering their grammar, words, pronunciation and can understand the content of the text and use it in their real life as effectively as possible

Therefore, it is important for us to understand what RC is For the teachers who teach

reading, a profound understanding about the nature of RC may help them find out the students’ difficulties of learning reading

2.1.3 The position of RC skills in English language teaching and learning

Learning a foreign language is a process which requires learners to integrate many language skills Learners of a second or foreign language may rarely find chances to communicate with native speakers orally, but they can read different texts in different subjects with varying degrees of detail and difficulty It is generally accepted nowadays that reading is a key skill for most students learning a foreign language and that it should, therefore, take place along side the development of oral ability in the school program From time to time, reading itself has proved its importance in daily life as well as in teaching and learning a foreign language And from our experience in real life, we find reading quite important Its importance is also confirmed by many linguistics

It is obvious that reading is a means by which further learning takes place Reading

is, in addition, an important way of expanding the students’ receptive knowledge of a language, and in terms of classroom activities, it is an effective way of stimulating students

to talk, write and listen Being well informed by reading, learners can have stable background knowledge, wide vocabulary and much information so that they will feel self- confident to share opinions and communicate with others Moreover, listening will be easier

if learners listen to the topic they have read because when listening, learners have to face up with many new words of a certain topic Only by reading can they enrich their vocabulary

so that they will not be stuck with new words, and they can understand the listening easily What is more, through reading, learners can practice language in order to reproduce it in their own writing because many reading passages can be regarded as models to practice writing Learners can learn how to make sense of the text in order to extract the information they need from them to make their writing more various and interesting Furthermore, learners are also able to learn the way of expressing ideas and using new words, especially they can be familiar with the writing style of great writer as well as native speakers In short,

RC plays a vital role in teaching and learning a foreign language

2.2 The relationship between culture and language

standards for deciding what can be, standards for deciding how one feels about it, standards

for deciding what to do about it, and standards for deciding how to go about doing it

Clearly, culture is a ubiquitous force, forging our identities and our relationships with other things and individuals

According to Ruth Benedict, cited in Brown [4] “Culture is what binds (people) together.” Culture is all the accepted ways of behavior of a given people belonging to some particular group; it is that part of learned behavior shared with others The concept include a group’s way of thinking, feeling, and acting, and fixed patterns for doing certain things The above definitions seem to mention specific behaviors and beliefs of a general society, which are passed from generation to generation The various definitions of culture provide culture with different values In this study, the researcher would like to emphasize the influence of cultural factors on the teaching and learning of reading skills in classrooms,

so the definition below should be taken to give the foundation for this thesis “Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing It is always in the background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language learners when they expect it least, making evident the limitations

of their hard-won communicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world around them.” (Kramsch, [23, pg 1])

2.2.2 Language and culture

Language is the product of culture One important instrument of cultural expression

is language Language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it On the one hand, without language, culture would not be possible On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture; it reflects culture The relationship between language and culture is deeply rooted Language is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties

“Culture is in language, and language is loaded with culture” (Agar, [1, pg 28]) Brown [4] puts that culture is a “deeply ingrained part of our being and language is the most visible and available feature of culture” The thought and behaving of a society is the aggregate of the thought and behaving of individuals, which itself is shaped by culture; thus on a very practical level culture is the force that makes communication between individuals through language possible “Culture and language are so tightly related that may be regarded as parts

of the same thing No case is known of either a language or a culture existing without the other Obviously, no language can survive in isolation and no civilization can be built up without language Cultural changes tend to occur along with changes in language; the two

proceed reinforcing each other” (Krishnawamy, [26]) Through the study of other languages, students gain a knowledge and understanding of the cultures that use that language; in fact, students cannot truly master the language until they have also mastered the cultural contexts in which the language occurs In other words we can conclude that language and culture are intricately interwoven to one another and cannot be separated 2.2.3 The role of culture in language teaching and learning

Linguistic competence alone is not enough for learners of a language to be competent

in that language (Krasner, [25]) Language is rooted in culture and culture is reflected and passed on by language from one generation to the next From this, one can see that learning

a new language involves the learning of a new culture Consequently, teachers of a language are also teachers of culture (Byram [5])

As Holmes [20, pg 275]:) points out, “Learning another language usually involves a great deal more than learning the literal meaning of the words, how to put them together, how to pronounce them We need to know what they mean in the cultural context in which they are normally used And that involves some understanding of the cultural and social norms of their users” Culture and teaching language cannot be separated, thus culture must

be recognized as an important area in language learning and teaching If languages are taught without their cultures, students are only the strangers who aren’t familiar with the target languages It is important to mention that cultural elements of the target language should be taught carefully

To emphasize the importance of culture in learning and teaching foreign languages Eli Hinkel [16] has said,” Applied linguists and language teachers have become increasingly aware that the second or foreign language can rarely be learnt, or taught, without addressing the culture of the community in which it is used This can be with the idea that culture plays

an important role in teaching and learning language.”

Valdes [43, pg 20] estimates that there is no way to avoid teaching culture when teaching language She argues further that, since every language lesson must be about something, that something will almost invariably be related to culture in one way or another Indeed, she goes on to say, the focus of a lesson may be on syntactic or phonetic features, but the content will be cultural Jiang [21] implies that it is impossible to teach the target

language without teaching the target culture The students can be exposed to an empty frame

of language if they don’t learn cultural aspects of the target culture

According to Barry Tomalin & Susan Stempleski, [42] one of the seven goals of teaching culture in language teaching is to create and encourage learners’ curiosity about the target culture, which is considered one of the motivations for language learners The more they know the target culture, the more they want to explore it and their own culture as well, which helps them find differences and similarities among cultures With an adequacy of cultural knowledge, learners can have deep understanding of the diversity of cultures and adjust themselves to real situations The comparisons among cultures help them not only to have a wider view of culture but also avoid taboos or stereotypes It is true to say that “to know another’s language and not his culture is a very good way to make a fluent fool of one’s self.”(Winston Brembeck cited in Nguyén Quang [30]) Without the study of culture, foreign language instruction is inaccurate and incomplete For foreign language students, language study seems senseless if they know nothing about the people who speak it or the country in which it is spoken

From these above ideas of culture, it can be said that cultural content is a key to

effective teaching and learning a second or foreign language Necessarily, students cannot master the language unless they have mastered the cultural contexts in which the language occurs It is actually hard for language learners to communicate well without knowledge of

culture such as codes of behaviors, and different beliefs, etc The facts have shown that

some breakdowns in communication between inter-collators have been caused just by cultural misunderstandings For example, when an Asian communicates with an American

or Westerner, they take no care of eye contact unless they know direct eye contact is considered as conveying honesty in English cultures What would happen if someone knew the expressions of greetings very well but, with an inadequate knowledge of culture, he didn’t know how to response “how are you?” , or even how to shake hands in business? It is easy to fail in learning English if learners are not provided with cultural values Therefore, teaching and learning language, separated from knowing culture, can not be done properly

As a result, this is the reason why we can come to the conclusion that teaching and learning language are more than teaching and learning a system of syntax and lexicon

2.3 The cross-cultural background knowledge of and the English RC

2.3.1 The role of the cross-cultural background knowledge in English RC

Foreign language learners are generally less proficient in the cross-cultural background information during their reading processes It is assumed that there is a high degree of relationship between reader’s prior background knowledge and the text Schema theory, a psycholinguistic model, emphasizes that RC is an interactive process between the reader’s previous background knowledge and the text According to the theory, EFL readers’ RC is not only due to how easy or difficult a text is for them but more depends on the level of readers’ recall from their culturally familiar background knowledge and from the contextual clues about cultural origins (Carrell, [6])

For a long time, in Vietnam, English teaching has just focused on the language forms such as phonetics, vocabulary and grammar and ignored the effect of background knowledge of culture As the carrier of culture, the cultural background of language is rather extensive Lacking of the necessary cultural background may hinder people from comprehending language For instance, when the president Reagan took up his post, an American wrote to a Vietnamese teacher: “the United States has gone from peanuts to popcorn” The syntax of this sentence is very simple However, the Vietnamese teacher did not understand the sentence at that time until her friend explained to her that former president Jimmy Carter owned a big peanut farm while the present president Reagan is an actor and people eat popcorn while they watch TV She suddenly realized the real humorous meaning of this sentence From this case, we can see that to comprehend the language, not only depends on the comprehension of vocabulary and grammatical structures, but also depends on the comprehension of relevant background knowledge of culture

2.3.2 Cross-cultural factors in English RC

The differences of cross-cultural background in English RC can be classified as the following aspects

* Historical Culture

Historical culture refers to the culture that is formed by the developing process of certain history and social heritage which varies between nations at often times In the process of cross-cultural reading, we often meet the comprehension barriers that are caused

by such differences of historical cultures For example: At a science museum you can feel your hair stand on end as harmless electricity passes through your body The phrase one’s

hair stands on end is an idiom, from a criminal’s expression In 1825, an Englishman named

Probert was sentenced to death by hanging for stealing horses While waiting for his execution at the gallows, Probert was extremely scared, the result of which made his hair stand straight up Therefore, in English, one’s hair stands on end means fear The writer uses this idiom to emphasize that the museum is very weird and strange However, if Vietnamese students do not know this idiom, they may fail to understand its idiomatic meaning over and above the direct meaning

* Regional Culture

Regional culture, here, refers to the culture that can be shaped by natural conditions and geographical environment of an area These effects on culture may lend themselves to creating comprehension barriers to Vietnamese students of English reading For example, Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art lovelier and more temperate This poem

is a part of Shakespeare’s sonnet 18 He compared the lover to a summer’s day, which is difficult for Vietnamese students to understand Only knowing some relevant geographical knowledge, can they get real understanding of this sonnet As Britain is a high latitude country, the average summer temperature is about 20 degrees and the daytime is very long, from about 4 o’clock in the morning to about 10 o’clock at 3 night Therefore, the summer

in Britain is pleasantly cool and delightful It is obviously different from the hot summer of most regions in Vietnam, especially, in the north of Vietnam, where the hot summer is very hard to endure and causes people to feel unhappy

*Social Culture

Language is an important component of culture, the existence and development of language are influenced by society, and the social phenomenon and vocabulary of a certain historical periods reflect the objective history of society Such vocabulary may confuse

foreign readers For instance, when American President Nixon was in his second term of

office, Watergate became a well-established and common term It stands for a political scandal in the Nixon era associated with burglarizing an office of the Democrat Party located at the Watergate Hotel, in Washington Elements within the Nixon administration created a large number of euphemisms to hide the scandal For example, intelligence gathering replaces eavesdropping, plumber for eavesdropper Vietnamese students may have difficulty in understanding these words

*Religious Culture

Religious culture is an important component in the lives of many human beings It refers to the culture that is formed by religious belief of nation and can be embodied in the cultural differences of taboo of different nations Buddhism is the main religion of Vietnam, which deeply influence Vietnamese people On the contrary, many people living in European based and/or founded cultures believe in Christianity or have been seriously influenced by Christian values They believe that a single God created and organized the

world Because of differences of religious culture, Vietnamese students can misunderstand

English reading, at times

For example, a sentence in the article “Why Measure Life in Heartbeats” is that I believe, because of my religious faith, that I shall “return to father” in an after life that is beyond description Many Vietnamese readers comprehend an after life in the sentences as the next life The reason of this misunderstanding is the differences of the two religious

cultures The next life is the term of oriental Buddhism, which refers to the Samsara On the

contrary, Christianity does not have this concept, considering that after the death of human being, his soul will stay in Heaven or Hell and will not disappear Therefore, they do not have the saying of the next life So according to its religious background, an after life refers

to the time after people’s death

Again, there is a need to emphasize cultural differences as being potentially extensive and complex In the process of English reading, at times, we should focus on the understanding of cultural background to get a deeper understanding of the whole text

2.4 Cross-cultural teaching and learning in foreign language instruction

In learning English, especially in learning reading, students are required with not only the knowledge of language system but also the understanding of the culture carried in the target language If not, misunderstanding caused by cultural barriers may occur So the most effective way to avoid this misunderstanding is that teachers should motivate the students’ curiosity and sensitivity over the cross-cultural knowledge in the classroom 2.4.1 When should the study of culture begin?

Should culture be postponed until students can study it in the target language? Will special emphasis upon culture be wasteful of precious class time? Should cultural materials

be postponed until students have greater maturity and greater language competence? Ideally, the study of culture should begin on the very first day of class and should continue every day The concept of culture should be communicated to students in the earliest phases of their instruction in order to lessen their difficulties in mastering the language, and help them communicate effectively

2.4.2 What aspects of culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom?

Language teachers must have a certain awareness of the foreign culture and its effect

on the language being taught They need to understand that language can’t be translated word-for-word Words carry different meanings in different situations and contexts Additionally, all cultures have taboo topics Learners need to be aware of what should or should not, be written or said in different situations This is an important part of knowing a language It is also understood that grammatical components in language are used to indicate different physical parts of the world

When considering language learning, it would follow that the learning of both languages would have the cultural goals, and that students would be learning these aspects

of culture in a comparative process

There are two main components of culture in the language classroom "One component is the anthropological or sociological culture: the attitudes, custom, and daily activities of a people, their ways of thinking, their values, their frames of reference Since language is a direct manifestation of this phase of culture, a society cannot be totally understood or appreciated without knowledge of its language The other component of culture is the history of civilization Traditionally representing the “culture” element in foreign language teaching, it includes geography, history, and achievements in the sciences,

the social sciences, and the arts This second component forms the framework for the first: it

represents the heritage of a people and as such must be appreciated by the students who wish to understand a new target culture" (Valette, [35, pg 179]) It is seen that language and culture are inseparable Growth; refinement; fine arts; patterns of living: and, a total way of life are five meanings of culture Patterns of living are when and what they eat; how they make a living; the attitudes they express towards friends and members of their families, and which expressions they use to show approval or disapproval In this sense, culture is a body

of ready-made solutions to the problems encountered by the group If we provide our

students only with a list of facts of history or geography and a list of lexical items, we have endowed them with an intimate view of what life is really like in the target culture Students need to feel positive about what they are doing and what they are studying Even weak students take pride in their notebooks when they’ ve worked hard to make them presentable Recent studies demonstrate that if students have positive attitudes, they will do well Foreign language teachers should aim at developing high interest in ELT studies through cultural awareness

2.4.3 The principles for culture teaching

Like teaching other aspects in foreign language instruction, culture teaching requires systematic development of its teaching principles Principles for culture teaching are mentioned in a number of studies and Kramsch’s [23] list may be considered one of the most noticeable Her principles of teaching culture led to a new way of looking at the teaching of language and culture These include:

- Establishing a sphere of inter-culture, which means that teaching culture is not transferring information between cultures but a foreign culture should be put in relation with one’s own The intercultural approach includes a reflection on both cultures

- Teaching culture as an interpersonal process, which means replacing the teaching of facts and behaviors by the teaching of a process that helps to understand others

- Teaching culture as difference, which means considering the multi-cultures and multi- ethnicity of modern societies and looking at various factors like age, gender, regional origin,

ethnic background, and social class In other words, cultures should not be seen as monolithic

- Crossing disciplinary boundaries, which means linking the teaching of culture to other disciplines like anthropology, sociology and semiology

Kramsch [35] concludes that: “These lines of thought lay the ground for a much richer understanding of culture than heretofore envisaged by the majority of language teachers”

2.4.4 Common approaches to the teaching of culture

In the history of culture teaching different approaches have been observed Some of them have lost ground, others have had and still have dominant positions Approaches to the

teaching of culture can be classified in different ways Traditionally, they can be divided into two broad groups: the mono-cultural approach (which mostly focuses on the culture of the country whose language is studied) and the comparative approach (which is based on comparing learners’ own and the other culture)

2.4.4.1 The mono-cultural approach

The mono-cultural approach seems to be inadequate today because it does not consider learners’ understanding of their own culture

In Risager’s [37, pg 246]) list of approaches, the mono-cultural approach is called the foreign-cultural approach It is based on the concept of a single culture and puts the stress on the culture of the country where the language is spoken The teaching is aimed at developing native speakers’ communicative and cultural competence This approach was dominant until the 1980s and is criticized nowadays because of the lack of relationships between cultures

Some other examples of the mono-cultural approach are provided by Galloway [11] such as the 4-F approach (folk dances, festivals, fairs and food), Tour Guide approach (monuments, rivers, cities,.) By-The-Way approach (sporadic lectures or bits of behavior selected indiscriminately)

All these approaches focus mostly on factual information of the foreign culture and because of their very limited nature, they should not be encouraged

2.4.4.2 The comparative approach

The comparative approach emphasizes the relationship between the foreign culture

and the learners’ own It draws on the learners’ own knowledge, beliefs and values which

form a basis for successful communication with members of the other culture While the essence of the comparative approach is to provide a double perspective, it does not mean that learners need to evaluate which culture is better The comparative approach should ensure students that there are many ways of doing things and their way is not the only possible one Risager [37, pg 243-252] suggests four approaches to the teaching of culture, two of which — the intercultural approach and the multicultural approach - include a considerable element of comparison and may be characterized as a comparative approach

The intercultural approach pays a considerable attention to the relations between the learners’ own country and the country/countries where the language is spoken The approach is aimed at enabling students to function as mediators between the two cultures by developing their intercultural and communicative competence

The multicultural approach is based on the idea that several cultures exist within one culture It includes a focus on the ethnic and linguistic diversity of the target country/countries as well as the learners’ own Risager [37] also emphasizes that a balanced and anti-racist view of cultures should be involved

Other approaches, such as the theme-based approach, the problem-oriented approach, the skill-centered approach, may be classified as the comparative approach to the teaching

of culture as they deal with an element of comparison during the teaching The theme-based approach is based around certain themes which are seen as typical of a culture, for example: family, education, religion, honor, ceremony Though mono-cultural by nature, it tries to show the relationships and values in a given culture and encourage students to compare it with the other However, it is sometimes supposed that the theme-based approach provides learners with a segmented view of the target culture It might be difficult for them to see individual people and understand social processes and values from this perspective and could lead to stereotyping The problem-oriented approach is aimed at getting learners interested in the other culture and encourages them to do some research on their own According to Seelye [38, pg 47]:), the teacher plays a very important role in defining the problem that interests learners He claims that the more precise a problem is, the easier it is

for a learner to reach the desired outcome The result of student research should be a report,

either written or presented orally

The skill-centered approach differs from the above-mentioned approaches in the sense that it is more practical and might be useful for those who need to live within the target-language community By developing learners’ skills which are needed for managing the issues involved in miscommunication between cultures, the skill-centered approach emphasizes their similarities as well as differences

2.5 Culture-based activities

The aim of culture-based activities is to increase students’ awareness and to develop their curiosity towards the target culture and their own, helping them make comparisons

among cultures These comparisons are not meant to underestimate any of the cultures being analysed, but to enrich students’ experience and to make them aware that although some cultural elements are being globalized, there is still diversity among cultures This diversity should then be understood and respected

Culture-based activities are derived from language material being taught and learnt and constitutes a minor but important part of the language lessons Cultural information may

be introduced to students through different activities such as cultural aside, cultural capsule, quiz, culture assimilator, critical incidents and student research As teaching culture is not the primary objective in English classes in Vietnam and it is aimed at developing students’ cross-cultural awareness, the activities selected in this study are supposed to help integrate culture into reading teaching

2.5.1 Cultural aside

Cultural aside is an item of cultural information presented by the teacher when it arises in the text It is often unplanned and brief culture comment This activity is called by Nostrand ([31, pg; 298]) an incidental comment It helps to create a cultural content for language learning and make mental associations similar to those that native speakers make

In some cases, this activity may provide disordered and incomplete information

An example of “the cultural aside’ may be taken for the teaching of the topic

“National Park” (Reading section, Unit 11; Hoang Van Van [17]) As two other National Parks in Kenya and USA, in addition to Cuc Phuong National Park in Vietnam, are mentioned in the reading task, the teacher may explain to the class some specific cultural features introduced in the passage For example:

+ Explanation of geographical places such as Nairobi, Kenya, Everglades

+ Emphasis on educational purpose of the National Park in Kenya

+ Emphasis on tourism purpose of the National Park in Vietnam

2.5.2 Culture capsule

Culture capsule is a brief description of one aspect of other cultures followed by a discussion of the contrasts between the students’ and other cultures It is also suggested that students prepare a cultural capsule at home and present it during class time The oral presentation may be combined with realia as well as a set of questions to raise discussion

Normally, one capsule does not take more than ten minutes According to Stern [40, pg 240] and Chastain [17, pg 310] the main advantage of using a culture capsule is its “compactness and practical quality’ Furthermore, when conducting this activity, students become involved in the discussion and can consider the basic characteristics of their own culture The activity of “the cultural capsule” may be designed for the teaching of the topic

“The story of my village” (Unit 8, Hoang Van Van [17]) Students are asked to read the reading passage in advance at home and prepare some information which should contain some contrastive features between their own everyday life routine and that of the people in

an English-speaking country Or contrasts may be presented about the traditional model of a Vietnamese village and that of an English-speaking village

2.5.3 Quiz

Quiz is a quite useful activity in learning new information In addition, it may be used to test knowledge that the teacher has previously taught Students may be familiar with this activity in an earlier stage of learning English, even in primary school For Grade 10, the teacher should develop it into a more complicated and attracting activity Along with getting the right answer, students should be encouraged to predict and through that they can become more interested in finding new knowledge

The following example of “the quiz” can be suitable for the teaching of the topic

“The World Cup” (Unit 14; Hoang Van Van [17])

1 The World Cup is held

a every year b every two years c every four years

2 The governing organization for football in the world is

3 The first football championship was held in

4 The first country that has won five times in the World Cup is

a Argentina b Brazil c France

2.5.4 Cultural assimilator

Cultural assimilator, according to Stern ([40, pg 223]) was originally developed to prepare Peace Corp volunteers for life in a foreign environment The activity consists of two parts: a brief description of a critical incident of cross-cultural interaction that may be misinterpreted by students and a suggestion of four possible explanations, from which students are asked to choose the most appropriate one At the end of the activity, students are often given feedback why one explanation is right and the others wrong in certain cultural context The cultural assimilator is advantageous in many ways It seems fun to read and involves cross-cultural problems Furthermore, it helps create tolerance of cultural diversity

- Example of Culture assimilator

The following examples may be used when teaching Unit 1 “A day in the life of ”

or Unit 2 “School talks” ( Hoang Van Van [17])

Situation 1] You are a student at a high school in London Today you are 10 minutes late for the English class When you arrive, the teacher is reading a story to students In this case, you’d better:

1 Knock the door and wait until the teacher lets you come in

2 Go in quietly and take a seat in the class

3 Wait outside the classroom until the break in order not to disturb the class

4 Go to the teacher and apologize

Situation 2 You are a Vietnamese student studying in an English-speaking country During the lecture, you have a question to ask the lecturer What would you do?

1 Raise your hand, stand up and ask your question

2 Wait until the break and ask your question after the lecture

3 Look confused and keep silent

4 Call out “May I ask a question?”

2.5.5 Critical incidents

Critical incidents are developed from the culture assimilator and therefore it looks like the culture assimilator in some way In doing this activity, students are also given a brief description of an incident or a situation which demand them to make some kind of

decision This kind of activity does not provide ready-made solutions and students should read the incident independently and make individual decisions as well as reasoning for those decisions Next, group or class discussion may be organized to see how students’ decisions and reasoning compare and contrast with those of the members from the target culture Like the culture assimilator, critical incidents easily get students involved in doing the activity and promote intellectual understanding of cross-cultural issues Anyway, preparation of both of these activities seems to be time-consuming and require a certain level of familiarizing with the target culture

- Critical incidents: This example may be used when teaching Unit 8 “The story of my village.” (Hoang Van Van [17])

Situation 3 Six years ago Peter was an exchange student and lived in a Vietnamese family

in a small village not far from the university After class, he often went to his room in the evening for an hour or two and did his homework or wrote letters or just relaxed and listened to music He didn't think there was anything wrong with it - to him it was just normal One day his host-Mom came to him and asked if he was OK She said they had thought that he was sad and homesick, or maybe not happy with the host family because he would go to his room and stay there for a couple of hours every evening He was really surprised to hear this

Discuss in groups about what causes the misunderstanding in this situation

Situation 4 When Peter finished his exchange study in Vietnam and was going to leave for his country, he wanted to give his host-Mom a present, but he hesitated to ask her about what present he should give her

Discuss in groups about what Peter should do in this situation

2.5.6 Student research

Student research is considered a more complicated activity which should be used with more advanced students Student research can be carried out as a mini-project on any aspect of the target culture that interests students themselves This kind of activity may be done individually or in group Students should be encouraged to find out a research topic

that seems interesting to them Student research often takes time and effort, but for some

students, it can lead to a long-term interest in the target culture and research skills may stay with them even after they leave school

There are many topics in the textbook that may be used for student research In order

to do some research into cross-cultural comparison, students may be organized in groups of five-ten and choose their favorite topic, for example:

- School routine of students in Vietnam and an English-speaking country

- Vietnamese and American young people’s attitudes towards folk (rock-and-roll, pop, classical, ) music

- Everyday life routines in a Vietnam’s city/village and an English-speaking country’s city/village

In conclusion, through the brief literature review, it is obvious that culture must be

fully incorporated as a vital component of English language learning English language teachers should identify key cultural items in every aspect of the language that they teach Students can be successful in reading comprehension only if cultural issues are an inherent part of the curriculum The chapter has discussed the concepts and ideas relating to culture

as well as language in general and in reading comprehension in particular The following chapter will display the methodology of the research under the light of the above discussed theories

CHAPTER 3: THE METHODOLOGY The previous chapter has presented a literature review on RC, culture, the relationship between them as well as the teaching and learning cross-cultural elements in reading lessons, and provided a necessary theoretical background for the present study This chapter presents the methodology used for the data collection and analysis procedures of the study It starts with a description of the setting and the participants of the study It then describes the method and rationale for choosing this method as well as method procedure It ends with a detail description of data collection instruments and the data analysis procedure 3.1 The setting of the study

3.1.1 The school

The study was conducted at TG1 high school, which was the first one in TG district The school was set up in 1961 with only two classes: one class in math and the other in

literature Today, it is widened There are 40 classes The size of the class in the school is

rather small Each class only has from 35 to 40 students This is a very convenient condition for the students to study foreign languages Such small classes reduce the noise in the class and therefore help students be easier to concentrate in the lesson Despite being the first high school in the district, it is not well-equipped The school only has a small library which doesn’t provide enough reference books Especially, there are no videos, no English magazines and newspaper, which is a big disadvantage for those who like learning English

as well as improve their own cross-cultural background knowledge

3.1.2 The teachers and the students

The school now has 10 English teachers aged between 25 and 53 All of them graduated from the English departments of different universities in Vietnam None of them

completed their post-graduate courses One of them is working toward M.A degree All of them are willing and enthusiastic toward their teaching However, they all meet some difficulties when teaching at the school First, the teachers do not have enough materials, especially supplementary ones which are very necessary for both the teachers and students when learning reading texts containing cultural knowledge The second difficulty is that the teachers do not have chances to contact with native speakers or specialists who can give very precious help and advice

Therefore, the teachers may become less active and to some extent, the students are

bored with their way of teaching in general, reading lessons in particular It’s very necessary

to analyses cross-cultural factors in reading lessons in order to find out cross-cultural problems and then give some recommendations and suggestions on the teachers’ way of teaching

The school has about 1000 students whose age ranges from fifteen to eighteen The majority of students are aged from 16 to 18 They have three periods of English each week and each period lasts only 45 minutes which is rather short Most of them come from rural areas They had 3 to 4 years of learning English at secondary school It should be made clear that they are supposed to have general knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary However, when entering TG1 high school, they seem to be beginners in learning English Almost none of the students have explicit awareness of or experience with English speaking cultures Students have little chances to meet native speakers as well as to be aware of the cross-cultural knowledge The English language teaching for students at TG1 high school thus need to enhance their cultural awareness; English teachers need to stimulate their curiosity about English speaking cultures when learning reading

3.1.3 The syllabus

The study is carried out based on the content of 3 textbooks: “Tiéng Anh 10, 11, 12” which follows the theme-based approach Each theme, in its turn, is broken into sub-

themes/topics which are used as titles for units in the textbooks Each textbook consists of

16 units organized broad topics such as: daily routine, friendship, personal experiences, a

party, celebrations, games, hobbies, recreation, the wonders of the world Each unit

consists of five sections: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, Language Focus and each section is supposed to be taught during one period of forty-five minutes Reading is the

beginning section in each unit It is aimed at introducing the topic and the language content

of the unit and helping students to speak, listen and write about related issues of the next periods and outside classroom The reading passage is presented as a monologue or a dialogue within not more than two hundred and thirty words The teaching of reading is divided into three stages: Before you read, while you read and after you read While you read is the main part of the section and normally includes three or four reading tasks

Although being designed to be flexible and be compiled by Vietnamese authors, these materials, especially in reading texts, have some cross-cultural elements that make teachers and students confused Furthermore, it hardly has any culture-based activities ready made for teaching and learning in order to help students have cultural awareness, an integral part of English reading learning In teaching reading practice, English teachers have not focused serious attention to cultural teaching in order to develop additional teaching and learning materials that take into account English-speaking countries’ cultural values

3.2 The participants

The study is conducted with the participation of students of three grades 10", 11", 12" (10A5, 11A4, 12A7) at TG1 high school It is known that it is not always feasible to carry out the study with all the students from three classes (115 students in all) in the population individually because of the time limitation, expense and accessibility Thus, the researcher, who is in charge of teaching English for these classes, only chose 48 students at the age of 16-18 (6 males and 10 females from one class) as the final sample of the study They took part in data collection instruments: Tests, questionnaire and follow-up interviews Moreover, this selection of these participants was convenient rather than random due

to the fact that these students from the classes have been assigned with a relatively equal proportion of good, average and poor English proficiency students They were learning English under the researcher’s supervision so it was feasible and convenient for the researcher to conduct all the steps of the study

The subjects were divided equally into 2 groups (9 males and 15 females in each) that is the control group and the experimental group 3 males and 5 females from one class were in one group The other students in the three classes still attended the program but no data were collected on these students With the aims at selecting two compatible groups for

the treatment, the subjects in this study were arranged in accordance with their level of English based on the results of their placement test

Hopefully, the participants selected in this study could be the representatives for all

of the students at TG1 high school and give the reliable data for the study

3.3 The research methods

The method employed in this study is action research, with the use of a number of instruments, namely tests, questionnaires and interviews

3.3.1 The rationale for the use of action research

Teachers in general and teachers of English in particular actually carry out action research for most of their time Whenever s/he identifies a problem which is happening in

the class, it is his/her task to find ways to solve that problem Therefore, action research is

inevitably a very common practice

As defined by Mills [27, pg 4]: “ action research is any systematic inquiry conducted

by teacher researchers to gather information about the ways that their particular school operates, how they teach, and how well their students learn The information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes

in the school environment and on educational practices in generals, and improving student outcomes.” Kemmis and Mc Taggart [22] identify three characteristics of action research,

29 6c

which are: “carried out by practitioners”, “collaborative” and “aimed at changing things”

The researcher, as a teacher, decided to choose action research as the best

methodology for this study because action research is classroom-based research in order to reflect upon and evolve the teaching and learning This meets the main purpose of my thesis, that is to find out the cross-cultural factors that causing barriers in RC and then get over them within a certain context The combination of different instruments used in this research would help to gain reliable data and help the researcher have a close investigation into the problems that the students were having to gain a deep understanding of teaching and learning within my own classroom and to use that knowledge to increase my teaching efficacy and improve my own students’ cross-cultural knowledge and RC

Steps in action research vary from different points of view as Creswell [9] asserts that “action research is a dynamic, flexible process” and there is “no blueprint exists for

how to proceed.” Hence, it is really impossible to assert this or that researcher is right with

exact four, five, six, seven or eight steps in their action research Sometimes, it is hard to

define a clear cut between the steps and the number of steps in action research may vary depending on different points of view held by researchers

Nunan [33] defines the framework of a research as consisting of seven steps:

° Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)

° Step 2: Preliminary investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)

° Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research questions)

° Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)

° Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data again and analyze it to work out the findings)

° Step 6: Dissemination (Report the result by running workshops or issuing a paper) Step 7: Follow-up (Find alternative methods to solve the same problem)

The researcher chose Nunan’s model of action research for this study because it is more effective and suitable than the others However, depending of particular situations and education settings, the study was only conducted as the first experiment in a high school, the researcher only used five first steps in the research process The two last steps: Step 6 and step 7 were left out for further study

According to this research process, the first step of this action research is to identify the problem Then, data must be collected through means of tests, questionnaires and interviews Next, the data is analyzed to find out problems and a hypothesis is formulated after reviewing the initial data, from these to develop research questions The fourth step is

to design a plan of action that will allow the researcher to make a change and to study that change In this step, a number of strategies are devised and applied, some innovation will be implemented The last step of this study, after the intervention has been carried out, it is time for the researcher to evaluate its effects in order to justify whether the intervention worked or not Then, the researcher will collect data again and analyze it to work out the findings

This action research is conducted by using both quantitative and qualitative approaches to collect the data The quantitative analysis is used through the process of data

collected from pretest and posttest, pre-questionnaires and post-questionnaire which were administered to students In addition, the qualitative approach is employed to deal with the data gathered from the interviews for both students and teachers, that are made to help the researcher interpret the data more accurately

3.3.2 The procedures of action research

This action research project was carried out as follows

Step 1: Problem identification

When working on reading lessons, the students as well as teachers often focus on so much the linguistic form They took linguistic knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, phonetics into consideration to comprehend the text In fact, they master it but can not get exact comprehension of the reading texts Perhaps, they needed some help to be aware of how important cross-cultural factors are to RC

Step 2: Preliminary investigation

I spent two weeks collecting baseline data through observation and recording behaviors of the students and teachers when they dealt with cross-cultural elements during the reading process to find out their reading behavior and the answer to the questions:

“whether they appreciate cross-cultural elements in the reading process or not ” and “What are the true cross-cultural problems that they encounter? ” I asked them to do a reading test

to measure them I also designed the pre-questionnaire to investigate cross-cultural factors affecting reading process, which factors lead to barriers and the reasons for them

Step 3: Hypothesis

After reviewing the initial data, I formed a hypothesis that the reason for students’ low reading proficiency might be due to some cross-cultural elements causing barriers in reading process That is by giving some approaches, principles and activities to incorporate cross-cultural elements into reading lesson, the researcher gives some suggestions for solutions, it is believed that the RC of my students would be improved

Step 4: Plan intervention

Following the hypothesis, some steps were taken to implement a plan: