Integrating American Cultural Studies Into Teaching English To The Grade 11 Students At Tran Phu Gifted High School: An Initial Investigation Trần Thị Tuyết Mai Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English teaching methodology; Mã số: 60 14 10 Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Vũ Thị Thu Thuỷ Năm bảo vệ: 2012 Abstract. Since the new series of English textbook were put into practice throughout the country, a great number of researches have been carried out to investigate its effectiveness and its implementation. Most of the attention was paid to the teaching and learning of the four macro skills, but there has been little research on how the aspect of culture in general and American Cultural studies in particular was treated in the actual classroom under innovation goals. Therefore, this thesis was carried out to explore the reality of teaching and learning of American cultural studies in the classroom at Tran Phu Gifted high school. In order to achieve the aim, three instruments were employed: survey questionnaires, class observation and interview. The data revealed that both the teachers and the students have positive attitudes towards American Cultural studies teaching and learning and that not many of the teachers have integrated American Cultural studies in teaching English, which is so much supported by the students. The study also pointed out some difficulties that the teachers and the students encounter in teaching and learning American Cultural studies in the classroom. The paper concludes with several recommendations by the researchers for more effective integration of American Cultural studies in actual classroom practice. Keywords. Tiếng Anh; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Văn hóa Mỹ; Lớp 11; Hải Phòng; Phổ thông trung học Content 1. Rationale of the study It cannot be denied that English has nowadays become a common means of communication of human being all over the world. Perceiving that trend of the global integration, Vietnam has been more and more active to train active and dynamic Vietnamese, who can use English fluently for communicative purposes. That is the reason why in 2002, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has set out new aims for English language teaching for secondary education as well as introduced new series of English textbooks from grade 6 to grade 12. The new English textbooks for high school students are divided into two sets: the advanced and the standard. Each unit in the new English textbooks consists of five parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus, among which the Language Focus sections are to consolidate students’ pronunciation and grammar. They are claimed to adopt the latest teaching and learning approaches: communicative approach and learner-centered approach and aim at developing both language skills and language knowledge for students. Since their nation-wide implementation in the school year 2006-2007, a great number of researchers have been carried out to evaluate these new textbooks as well as to find out how these textbooks are actually implemented or the difficulties that teachers and students at high schools have to face when teaching and learning with the new textbooks. Most of these studies have dealt with the teaching and learning of the four language skills which are believed to be new for both teachers and students. However, there is still one more indispensable aspect which tends to be depreciated. It is culture that turns out to be the fifth skill in language learning and tacked on to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. It always stays in the background to decide the good language learners when paid enough attention to. It supports learners to achieve their communicative competence. Nevertheless, the number of research on the teaching and learning of culture in general and America studies in particular in the classroom is obviously limited. It is necessary to carry out more research on how teachers and students teach and learn culture in the actual classroom. Besides, national examinations (national examinations for GCSE, university entrance examinations) have currently included some questions related to American cultural studies issues (for example: how to address certain situations, etc.) On the other hand, there are various cultures that English language is getting connected with. Among those, the United States has a leading economic, political and cultural force in the world. Moreover, the United States is also the ideal destination for overseas students, which has resulted from its top-ranking education system. Thus, learning about the culture of the United States appears to be a wise choice. Moreover, after two years of teaching English with the new English textbooks at Tran Phu Gifted High School, the researcher observed that the teachers and learners there faced a number of difficulties in teaching and learning American cultural studies in the classroom. According to Bada (2000: 101), “the need for cultural literacy in ELT arises mainly from the fact that most language learners, not exposed to cultural elements of the society in question, seem to encounter significant hardship in communicating meaning to native speakers.” In addition, nowadays the L2 culture is presented as an interdisciplinary core in many L2 curricula designs and textbooks (Sysoyev & Donelson, 2002). Stimulated by the above reasons, the researcher has decided to conduct this study. It is hoped that this study will discover the reality of teaching and learning American cultural studies at Tran Phu Gifted high school in order to contribute some immediate solutions. 2. Aims of the study The aim of this study is to examine the current teaching and learning of American cultural studies in the high school classroom at Tran Phu Gifted High School. In order to achieve the aim, the study seeks to find out: (1) The teachers’ and students’ perceptions on the importance of American cultural studies teaching and learning (2) How the teachers and the students deal with American cultural studies in the classroom (3) The teachers’ perceived difficulties in teaching and learning American cultural studies in the classroom 3. Research questions: To achieve the aim and objectives of the study, the following research questions were proposed: 1. How do the teachers and the students at Tran Phu Gifted High School perceive the importance of American cultural studies teaching and learning? 2. How do the teachers teach and the students learn / expect to learn American cultural studies in high school classroom? 3. What method and techniques do the teachers and the students use / expect to use? 4. What are the difficulties in teaching and learning American cultural studies as perceived by the teachers? 4. Scope of the study. This study is limited to the teaching and learning reality with regard to teaching and learning American cultural studies in the classroom. This study is a detailed survey at Tran Phu Gifted High School in Hai Phong. Therefore, the findings of the study are not intended to be generalized to other school contexts. Indeed the findings may not apply beyond the actual participants in this particular study. 5. Significance of the study This study helps to identify the problems and suggests ways of improving them; therefore, it is hoped that this study will be beneficial in many ways. First, participants in the study (the teachers and the learners at Tran Phu Gifted High School) will benefit immediately from the experience of reflection. Secondly, the findings of the study will contribute information to textbook writers and educators to determine curricula and program direction. 6. Method of the study The study was designed to use both quantitative and qualitative methods. Then, various instruments were used to collect the data for the study from different sources: - survey questionnaires to investigate the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards American cultural studies, their teaching and learning habits and their difficulties in teaching and learning American cultural studies in the classroom - class observations to get information about both the teachers’ methods of teaching and students’ ways of learning American cultural studies in the classroom. - interviews with the teachers to get in-depth information about the teachers’ and the grade 11 students’ suggestions to improve the teaching and learning of American cultural studies in the classroom. 7. Design of the study The study is divided into three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. The Introduction presents an overview of the study including the rationale, aims, scope, significance, methodology and design of the study. The major part of the study, the Development, is divided into three chapters. Chapter one provides theoretical background for the study. Chapter two presents the methodology of the study and the last chapter is devoted to analyzing and discussing the findings of the study. The Conclusion part provides a brief summary of the findings in correspondence with the four proposed research questions as well as offering some recommendations for better American cultural studies teaching and learning. The limitations of and suggestions for further study are also discussed in this chapter. Besides, the survey questionnaires for the teachers and students and the suggested lesson plan are included in the Appendices. References Ardila-Rey, A. (2008). Language, culture, policy, and standards in teacher preparation: Lessons from research and model practices addressing the needs of CLD children and their teachers. In M. E. Brisk (Ed.), Language, culture, and community in teacher education (pp. 331-351). New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum. Agasild, A. (1998). Teaching Culture in Language Classes. Graduation paper. Tallinn. Allen, W. P. (1973). A Cultural Checklist: A Technique for Selecting Reading Materials for Foreign Students. Portland, Oreg.: English Language Services. Blatchford, C. H. (1986). Newspapers: Vehicles for teaching ESOL with a cultural focus Brooks, N. (1986). Culture in the classroom. In J. M. Valdes (Ed.), Culture bound (pp. 130-136). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Bonvillain, N. (2000). Language, culture, and communication: The meanings of messages. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. M. E. Brisk (Ed.), Language, culture, and community in teacher education. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum. Brooks, N. (1959). Language and language learning. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace & World. Brooks, N. (1986). Culture in the classroom. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Brown, S., & Eisterhold, J. (2004). Topics in language and culture for teachers. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching. New York, NY: Pearson Education. Brown, H. D. (2007a). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. New York, NY: Pearson Education. Byram, M., & Grundy, P. (2003). Context and culture in language teaching and learning. Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual Matters. Byram, M., Morgan, C., & Colleagues. (1994). Teaching-and-learning: Language-and-culture. Bristol, PA: Multilingual Matters. Byram, M. and Planet, M. T. (2000). Social identity and European dimension: intercultural competence through foreign language learning. Graz: Council of Europe Publishing. Byram, M. and Morgan, C. (1994). Teaching-and-learning language-and-culture. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Byram, M. (1989). Cultural studies in foreign language education. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. Byram, M., & Esarte-Sarries, V. (1991). Investigating cultural studies in foreign language teaching: A book for teachers. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. Fox, L. (1999). Reflections on culture. Dialog on Language Instruction Gaston, J. (1984). Cultural awareness teaching techniques. Brattleboro, VT: Pro Lingua Associates. Gleeson, P., & Wakefield, N. (1968). Language and culture. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill. Goodenough, W. H. (1957). Cultural anthropology and linguistics. In P. L. Garvin (Ed.), Report of the Seventh Round Table Meeting on Linguistics and Language Study (pp. 167-173). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Hanna, B. E., & de Nooy, J. (2009). Learning language and culture via public internet discussion forums. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. E. Hinkel (Ed.), Culture in second language teaching and learning. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Kramsch, C. (1991). Culture in language learning: A view from the States. B. Ginsberg, and C. Kramsch (eds), Foreign language research in cross-cultural perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press Krasner, I. (1999). The role of culture in language teaching. Dialog on Language Instruction, 13 (1&2). Kuang, J. F. (2007). Developing students‟ cultural awareness through foreign language teaching. Sino-US English Teaching. Mead, M. (1961). Culture in foreign language teaching: The anthropologist point of view. In Report on a conference on the meaning and role of culture in foreign language teaching. Georgetown University. Peterson, E. & Coltrane, B. 2003. Culture in Second Language Teaching. Digest [Online], 5 pp. [http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0309peterson.html], 23.04.2004. Valdes, J. M. (ed.) 1986. Culture Bound. Bridging the cultural gap in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Valette, R. M. 1986. The culture test. In J. M. Valdes (ed.), Culture Bound. Bridging the cultural gap in language teaching. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Scollon, R. (1999). Cultural codes for calls: The use of commercial television in teaching culture in the classroom. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Culture in second language teaching and learning (pp. 181-195). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Seliger, H. (1988). Psycholinguistic issues in second language acquisition. In L. Beebe (Ed.), Issues in second language acquisition: Multiple perspectives. New York, NY: Newbury House. Sercu, L. 1998. In-service teacher training and the acquisition of intercultural competence. In M. Byram and M. Fleming (eds.), Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective. Approaches through drama and ethnography. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) Stern, H. H. 1992. Issues and Options in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . Integrating American Cultural Studies Into Teaching English To The Grade 11 Students At Tran Phu Gifted High School: An Initial Investigation Trần Thị Tuyết. How do the teachers and the students at Tran Phu Gifted High School perceive the importance of American cultural studies teaching and learning? 2. How do the teachers teach and the students. study is to examine the current teaching and learning of American cultural studies in the high school classroom at Tran Phu Gifted High School. In order to achieve the aim, the study seeks to find