DSpace at VNU: Cultural elements in English textbooks Tiếng Anh 3, Tiếng Anh 4, Tiếng Anh 5. A preliminary evaluation tà...
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE - - DO THI TO NGA CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS “TIẾNG ANH 3”, “TIẾNG ANH 4”, “TIẾNG ANH 5” A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION ĐÁNH GIÁ BƯỚC ĐẦU CÁC YẾU TỐ VĂN HOÁ TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA “TIẾNG ANH 3”, “TIẾNG ANH 4”, “TIẾNG ANH 5” M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201 HA NOI, 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE - - DO THI TO NGA CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS “TIẾNG ANH 3”, “TIẾNG ANH 4”, “TIẾNG ANH 5” A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION ĐÁNH GIÁ BƯỚC ĐẦU CÁC YẾU TỐ VĂN HOÁ TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA “TIẾNG ANH 3”, “TIẾNG ANH 4”, “TIẾNG ANH 5” M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Van Do HA NOI, 2015 DECLARATION I hereby state that I, Do Thi To Nga, being a candidate for the Degree of Master of Arts, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of M.A Thesis deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis Hanoi, July 2015 i ACKNOWLEGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Assoc Prof Nguyen Van Do, my supervisor, for thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable suggestions, various sources of reference and precious corrections on my writing Furthermore, I am grateful to his close guidance and generous help, which have been great encouragement to me during the process of writing up the thesis I, hereby, would like to express my sincere thanks to lecturers of Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies of Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lessons and suggestions, which aroused the thesis for this study to be realized My appreciation is also extended to the authors of English primary textbooks Tiếng Anh 3, Tiếng Anh 4, Tiếng Anh for their assistance in data analysis Finally, I would like to thank my family, especially my parents and my husband for their constant source of love, support and encouragement in times of difficulty and frustration ii ABSTRACT The study on “Cultural elements in English textbooks “Tiếng Anh 3”, “Tiếng Anh 4”, “Tiếng Anh 5” A preliminary evaluation” is a Minor Programme Master thesis It is aimed at examining the cultural elements presented in the textbooks Tiếng Anh 3, Tiếng Anh 4, Tiếng Anh and suggesting some hints to improve it in the future Based on quantitative methods, the study gives a brief account of how culture is treated according to the modified checklists designed by two groups of authors Adaskou, Britten and Fahsi and Cortazzi and Jin, Hirsch et al The main findings reveal that both local and non-local cultural references are presented in the textbooks and among the four cultural dimensions disseminated in the textbooks, sociological sense is the most dominant dimension From the findings, some suggestions are given with the hope that they might be a reliable source of reference for English teachers and English textbook authors to have general view about how cultural element is presented in the English primary textbooks and provide some hints on how to improve it in the future iii iv PART A INTRODUCTION RATIONALE In this 21st century, when the world has become “flat” and closely integrated, effective communication seems to be one of the crucial concerns In order to communicate well and successfully, people need to understand not only each other’s language, but also each other’s culture This can open the door to better international understanding and ensure successful relations Language and culture are indivisible elements in the field of language teaching According to Peck (2012), “language learning should be more than the manipulation of syntax and lexicon” It means that just learning four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) may not lead to the proper understanding of the hidden meanings of a language Thanasoulas (2001) also confirms that “teaching a foreign language is not tantamount to giving a homily on syntactic structures or learning new vocabulary and expressions, but mainly incorporates or should incorporate, some cultural elements which are intertwined with language itself.” Inevitably, the role of textbooks in English Language Teaching cannot be underestimated and cannot be separated from language learning in classroom They are considered the key component in most TEFL programs, which is essential for both teachers and learners (Tok, 2010) It is the visible heart of any English Language program (Sheldon 1988) McGrath (2002) also states that a textbook is like oil in cooking, it is a useful base ingredient Cortazzi and Jin (1999) confirm that: A textbook can be a teacher, a map, a resource, a trainer, an authority, a de-skiller and an ideology Hence textbook can be a major source of cultural elements beside providing linguistic and topical contents … In accordance with the National Foreign Languages 2020 Project, on 12 August 2010, Ministry of Education and Training issued Decision No 3321/QĐBGDĐT on the Promulgation of the Pilot English Curriculum for Elementary, and one of its objectives is providing a basic knowledge of English-speaking countries, their peoples and cultures; as well as fostering pupils’ love and respect of their own language and culture Hence, it can be seen clearly that the English syllabus explicitly emphasizes the development of pupils’ cross-cultural awareness right at the beginning of learning English It may be supposed that, in foreign language textbooks used in primary schools, whether the teaching of culture is implicit or explicit, cultural aspects of textbook content as well as the improvement of pupils’ cultural awareness should be given adequate attention Since 2011, the Vietnam Education Publishing House, in line with the Decision No 3321/QĐ-BGDĐT, has introduced a new set of English textbooks for primary students which provides a good opportunity to include cultural content into the teaching syllabus, and thus enriching pupils’ cultural knowledge along with developing their four language skills AIMS OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate the cultural elements in three English textbooks Tiếng Anh 3, Tiếng Anh 4, Tiếng Anh used at primary school level in Vietnam, compiled by Hoang Van Van et al., published by Vietnam Education Publishing House This study is hoped to assist teachers, educators and English textbook authors to have general view about how cultural element is presented in English primary textbooks and provide some hints on how to improve it in the future RESEARCH QUESTIONS The concept of “cultural analysis and evaluation” may not attain a unique understanding and differ in different studies according to different researchers In this study, the cultural analysis of the textbook is supposed to answer the following questions: Research question 1: Are both local culture and non-local culture disseminated in the English primary textbooks Tiếng Anh 3, Tiếng Anh 4, Tiếng Anh 5? Which is the most prominent culture presented in the textbooks? Research question 2: What is the most prominent cultural dimension presented in the textbooks? How is culture disseminated in the textbooks? METHODS OF THE STUDY In this study, quantitative method is much resorted to To collect data for analysis and evaluate, two checklists focusing on the kinds of cultural categories are designed The collected data is be analyzed using comparing and contrasting techniques to find out the quantitative account of references to different cultural categories in the textbooks SCOPE OF THE STUDY In Vietnam, there exist two official sets of English textbooks for primary level compiled by Vietnamese authors They are Let’s learn English 1, Let’s learn English 2, Let’s learn English and Tiếng Anh 3, Tiếng Anh 4, Tiếng Anh The initial set was first published about 10 years ago and the latter has just been developed in line with the Project 2020 since 2011 In this study, I just focus on the contents in the second set The study just makes an attempt to conduct a preliminary evaluation about cultural elements in the primary English textbooks It is believed that a good cultural evaluation of a textbook can be made only when the goal of cultural instructions is clearly stated in the syllabus In the national primary school English syllabus there are no appropriate guidelines for cultural instructions although the stress on pupils’ cross-cultural awareness is emphasized REFERENCE Adaskou, K., Britten D and Fahsi B (1990) Design decisions on the cultural content of a secondary English course for Morocco ELT Journal, 44, (1), pp 3-10 Canh, Le Van (2014) A Critical Analysis of Moral Values in Vietnam-Produced EFL Coursebooks for Upper Secondary Schools Cortazzi, M & Jin, L (1999) Cultural Mirrors Materials and Methods in EFL Classroom In E Hinkel (ed.), Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cunningsworth, A (1995) Choosing Your Course Book, Oxford: Heinemann Dunnet, S C., Dubin, F & Lezberg, A (1986) English Language Teaching from an Intercultural Perspectives, In Valdes, J M (ed.), Culture Bound, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Duranti, Alessandro (1997) Linguistic anthropology Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Halverson, R J (1985) Culture and vocabulary acquisition: A proposal Foreign Language Annals, 18/4, 327-32 Hien, Do Thi Ngoc (2007) A Cross-Cultural Analysis of English Textbook for Grade 10 and Suggestion of Supplementary Activities for Students’ Cross-Cultural Awareness Master thesis University of Languages and International Studies Hu, G (2002) Potential cultural resistance to pedagogical imports: The case of communicative language teaching in China, Language, Culture and Curriculum 15/2, 93–105 10 Hutchinson, T & Torres, E (1994) The Textbook as Agent of Change ELT Journal, 48(4), 315-28 11 Kilickaya, F Guidelines to Evaluate Cultural Content in Textbooks, Retrived from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kilickaya-CulturalContent/ on September 21st, 2014 12 Kramsch, C (1998) Language and culture Oxford: Oxford University Press 13 Lebrun, J, et.al (2002) Past and current trends in the analysis of textbooks in a Quebec context Curriculum Inquiry, 32 (1), 51-83 14 Lustig Myron W., Koester Jolene (1999) Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures Longman 15 McDonough, J & Shaw, C (1993) Materials and methods in ELT: a teacher’s guide Oxford: Blackwell Pub 16 McGrath, I (2002) Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching Edinburgh University Press 17 Peck, D (2012) Teaching Culture: Beyond Language, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute 18 Pervan, A (2011) The view of culture in two textbooks for English Master thesis, University of Malmö 19 Phê, Hồng (2004) Từ điển Tiếng Việt, Viện Ngơn ngữ 20 Ririn, Bernadeta (2012) Cultural elements in Indonesian Language Textbooks Indonesia University of Education 21 Rogers Everett M., Steinfatt Thomas M (1999) Intercultural Communication Waveland Press 22 Samovar Larry A, Porter Richard E, Stefani Lisa A (1998) Communication between cultures Wadsworth Publishing Company 23 Sheldon, L E (1988) Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials, ELT Journal, 42, pp 237-246 24 Sơn, Bùi Hoài (2012), Vietnam, An introduction to national cultural policy, WorldCPInternational Database of Cultural Policies, Retrived from http://culture360.asef.org/magazine/vietnam-an-introduction-to-national-culturalpolicy/ on September 21st, 2014 25 Stray, C.(1994) Paradigms regained: towards a historical sociology of the textbook Journal of Curriculum Studies, 26 (1) 24 26 Thanasoulas, D (2001) The Importance Of Teaching Culture In The Foreign Language Classroom, Radical Pedagogy, Retrived from http://www.radicalpedagogy.org/radicalpedagogy1/The_Importance_of_Teaching _Culture_in_the_Foreign_Language_Classroom.html on September 21st, 2014 27 Tok, H (2010) TEFL textbook evaluation: From teachers’ perspectives, Educational Research and Review, (9), pp 508-517 28 Vân, Hoàng Văn (Tổng Chủ biên): Tiếng Anh 3; Tiếng Anh 4; Tiếng Anh 5, Nhà xuất Giáo dục Việt Nam, 2014 29 Ý, Nguyễn Như, (1998) Đại từ điển Tiếng Việt, Trung tâm ngơn ngữ văn hóa Việt Nam, Bộ giáo dục đào tạo 30 Yasemin; Agcam, Reyhan (2011) Exploring culture in locally published English education in Turkey - In: CEPS Journal 31 http://www.britannica.com/topic/local-culture Retrived on September 22nd, 2014 I ... in English textbooks “Tiếng Anh 3”, “Tiếng Anh 4”, “Tiếng Anh 5” A preliminary evaluation is a Minor Programme Master thesis It is aimed at examining the cultural elements presented in the textbooks. .. ANH 4”, “TIẾNG ANH 5” A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION ĐÁNH GIÁ BƯỚC ĐẦU CÁC YẾU TỐ VĂN HOÁ TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA “TIẾNG ANH 3”, “TIẾNG ANH 4”, “TIẾNG ANH 5” M .A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English linguistics...VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE - - DO THI TO NGA CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS “TIẾNG ANH 3”, “TIẾNG ANH