A STUDY ON TEACHING CROSS-CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES TO VIETNAMESE STUDY-MAJORED STUDENTS AT SAO DO UNIVERSITY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** PHẠM THỊ HUYỀN TRANG A STUDY ON TEACHING CROSS-CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES TO VIETNAMESE STUDY-MAJORED STUDENTS AT SAO DO UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu việc dạy các yếu tố giao văn hóa trong giờ học nói tiếng Anh cho sinh viên chuyên ngành Việt Nam học, Đại học Sao Đỏ) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.01.11 Hanoi - 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** PHẠM THỊ HUYỀN TRANG A STUDY ON TEACHING CROSS-CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES TO VIETNAMESE STUDY-MAJORED STUDENTS AT SAO DO UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu việc dạy các yếu tố giao văn hóa trong giờ học nói tiếng Anh cho sinh viên chuyên ngành Việt Nam học, Đại học Sao Đỏ) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.01.11 Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Văn Độ Hanoi - 2014 i DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled A STUDY ON TEACHING CROSS-CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES TO VIETNAMESE STUDY-MAJORED STUDENTS AT SAO DO UNIVERSITY is the result of my own research for the course of post-graduate education at ULIS, VNU. I confirm that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees. Student’s signature Phạm Thị Huyền Trang ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In completion of this thesis, I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Do (Thang Long University) for his invaluable guidance and instructive comments throughout my work. I am thankful to all the staff at the post-graduate department for giving me assistance, the teachers who conducted the Master's course for providing me with valuable knowledge. A further acknowledgement goes to my dear friends from the master's course and colleagues for their useful ideas, materials and encouragement. I also wish to thank my students from Faculty of Tourism and Foreign languages (FTF), Sao Do University (SDU) for their valuable help. The final credit must go to my family, who supported me with love and gentle pushing. iii ABSTRACT In recent years, many language teachers are aware of the importance of culture in educational circles. It is important for foreign language teachers to integrate culture in their classes so as to primarily raise the awareness of their students about the differences between cultures, then help them to be culturally competent and convey communication in the society of the target language. The importance of gaining communicative competence and maintaining intercultural interaction has fostered the necessity of integrating cultural elements into language instruction. Any language acquires value and meaning when it is integrated with cultural elements, thereby learning cultures may shed a light to communication/interaction with different cultures. This paper discusses various research findings and opinions on the integration of cross-culture into the teaching of foreign language teaching. The discussion aimed to highlight the important roles of cross-cultural elements, the problems during the education process integrating these elements into the English teaching speaking classes. Furthermore, this study aims at suggesting some practical techniques for cross-culture teaching at FTF, SDU. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv ABBREVIATION - TABLE LIST vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Research questions 2 4. Scope of the study 2 5. Methods of the study 3 6. Design of the study 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5 CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES 5 1.1. What is culture? 5 1.2. What is cross-culture? 6 1.3. The process of communication 7 1.4. Need for cross-culture teaching 9 1.5. Principles for cross-culture teaching 9 1.5.1. Approaches for cross-culture teaching 9 1.5.2. Practical techniques for teaching cross-culture in the EFL classroom 11 1.6. In summary 14 CHAPTER II: RESEARCH DESIGN 16 2.1. Context 16 2.2. Method and Procedure 16 2.2.1. Selection of participants 16 2.2.2. Data collection instruments 16 v CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 19 3.1. Data collection from the survey questionnaires 19 3.2. Data collection from the quiz 25 3.3. Discussion of the findings 26 CHAPTER IV: FURTHER DISCUSSIONS 28 4.1. Suggested framework for cross-culture teaching in English speaking class 28 4.2. Suggested techniques for teaching cross-culture in the EFL classroom 32 4.3. Practical tips 35 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 1. In a nutshell 38 2. Limitations of the study 39 3. Recommendations for further research 39 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 III APPENDIX 3 V APPENDIX 4 VII APPENDIX 5 VIII vi ABBREVIATION SDU: Sao Do University FTF: Faculty of Tourism and Foreign languages TABLE LIST Table 1 Table 2-culture knowledge to English learning Table 3-evaluation of their cross-cultural knowledge Table 4      -culture activities in conversation class Table 5-cultural knowledge Table 6-culture activities to motivate them Table 7ross-cultural elements taught in conversation class Table 8: Test scores interpretation  Measures of central tendency Table 9: Test scores interpretation  Measures of dispersion FIGURE LIST Figure 1    he importance of cross-culture knowledge to English learning Figure 2-evaluation of their cross-cultural knowledge Figure 3      -culture activities in conversation class Figure 4on of resources to obtain cross-cultural knowledge Figure 5-culture activities to motivate them Figure 6: ross-cultural elements taught in conversation class 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale In our global world, where many people from a variety of cultures have to communicate in a way, understanding different cultures have become significantly important to convey the meaning in conversations. Therefore, culture is considered as an essential field in education, especially in language education. It can be said that foreign/ second language learning is comprised of several components, including grammatical competence, communicative competence, language proficiency, as well as a change in attitudes towards one As a result, in recent years, many foreign/ second language teachers have been aware of the importance of teaching the culture of the target language. t  recognize that when the cultural aspects are included in the language teaching  one form or another, culture has, even implicitly, been taught in the foreign/ second language classroom. K Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, so to speak, 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, 1993: 1) It is undeniable that culture plays an important role in language education. Therefore, with an effort to improve the language A study on teaching cross-cultural elements in English speaking classes to Vietnamese study- majored students at Sao Do University” is chosen as the topic for my study. 2 2. Aims of the study The aims of the thesis are: - To investigate the attitudes of students towards the roles of cross-cultural knowledge in language speaking class. - To analyze the problems facing by students in integrating cross-cultural issues in conversational activities. - To suggest some practical methods and techniques to teach cross-cultural integrated speaking lessons. 3. Research questions 1- What are the attitudes of students towards the roles of cross-culture in language speaking class? 2- What are the problems facing by the students in integrating cross-cultural issues in conversational activities? 3- How can the teachers integrate cross-cultural elements in English speaking classes? 4. Scope of the study With the globalization, it has became significantly important for language teachers to integrate culture in their classes so as to primarily raise the awareness of their students about the differences between cultures, then help them to be culturally competent and convey communication in the society of the target language. In an attempt to improve the situation of teaching English speaking skill for students of Vietnamese-study major, SDU, the researcher emphasized the methods and techniques of integrating cross-cultural elements into the speaking classes. The issues to be discussed are the most common and typical ones which are being concerned by most teachers in English teaching. The attitudes of students who are at intermediate level towards the roles of cross-culture in language speaking class are investigated. In addition, the problems that the students face in studying cross-culture in class are analyzed along with the cultural aspects in language [...]... one, which she believes that it is suitable in her context Finally, it can be seen that there are many useful techniques in teaching language and culture together to obtain certain goals Due to the size of the study, cross-cultural activities and classroom interactions are taken in consideration After a term of teaching cross-cultural elements integrated speaking lessons, the researcher now turns to. .. components is one in which students choose a topic that combines their interests with the classroom, collect material about it by searching the internet or library to find information on any aspect of the target-culture that interests them., compile that material into a booklet and give a presentation in the following class Students can explain to the teacher or their group what they have learned and answer... communication, need for cross-culture teaching, and principles for cross-culture teaching are critically discussed Chapter II: RESEARCH DESIGN In this chapter, the context as well as the method and procedure of the study are clearly indicated 3 Chapter III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS The data analysis and findings are also presented with the illustration of data The problems related to teaching cross-cultural. .. consciousness that students bring with them to the classroom so that it can also function as a catalyst for indentify formation and social transformation (Kumaravadivelu, 2001) Being aware of the importance of culture in the foreign language classroom, I am trying applying teaching cultural components in English classes for my students at the Department of tourism and foreign languages, Sao Do University Through... culturally conditioned behavior, 6 Evaluating statements about a society and researching other cultures It is undeniable that there is a need for second language learners to develop cross-cultural awareness (the recognition that culture affects perception and that culture influences values, attitudes, and behavior (Gaston, 1984)) and cross-cultural understanding (the capacity to understand that people‟s.. .teaching The most important issue is the discussion of methods and techniques for assisting cross-cultural teaching 5 Methods of the study In order to achieve the aims stated, an action research is carried out which employs qualitative methods as main methodologies All the considerations and conclusions are largely based on the analysis of the statistic data and references The major approaches are:... experience, I have found that this approach has certain positive effects on learning foreign language, at least, in my case My students are from the Department of tourism and foreign languages, who are familiar with culture, languages and communication According to the curricula, they have separated subjects for these fields to make sure that they will have adequate knowledge about English language, Vietnamese. .. cultural references and meanings of the native speakers Seelye (1993: 26) argued that the language teachers should consider certain goals when introducing culture in the language class: 1 Attitudes toward other cultures and societies, 2 Interaction of language and social variables, 3 Cultural connotations of words and phrases, 4 Conventional behavior in common situations, 5 The sense or functionality... easily arise, even resulting in a total break down of communication This has been shown by research into real life situations, such as job interviews, doctor-patient encounters and legal communication” Thus, cross-cultural communication is the exchange and negotiation of information ideas, feelings and attitudes between individuals who come from different cultural backgrounds 1.3 The process of communication... researcher conducted informal interview with her students during the class breaks Her major concerns were their opinions of the new way of teaching, and how useful they thought it was Obtained information was to reflect regularly their learning process Classroom observation The observation falls on three aspects: students' attendance, classroom behavior, and performances in English speaking class If . VIETNAMESE STUDY-MAJORED STUDENTS AT SAO DO UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu việc dạy các yếu tố giao văn hóa trong giờ học nói tiếng Anh cho sinh viên chuyên ngành Việt Nam học, Đại học Sao Đỏ) . VIETNAMESE STUDY-MAJORED STUDENTS AT SAO DO UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu việc dạy các yếu tố giao văn hóa trong giờ học nói tiếng Anh cho sinh viên chuyên ngành Việt Nam học, Đại học Sao Đỏ) . teaching cross-cultural elements in English speaking classes to Vietnamese study- majored students at Sao Do University” is chosen as the topic for my study. 2 2. Aims of the study The