DEVELOPING LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE BY INTERACTION WITH FOREIGN STUDENTS USING SKYPE IN ENGLISH CLASSES

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LE THUY NGA DEVELOPING LOWER-SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE BY INTERACTION WITH FOREIGN STUDENTS USING SKYPE IN ENGLISH CLASSES (Phát triển lực liên văn hóa học sinh bậc THCS thơng qua tương tác với học sinh nước sử dụng Skype dạy tiếng Anh) M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN – 2019 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LE THUY NGA DEVELOPING LOWER-SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE BY INTERACTION WITH FOREIGN STUDENTS USING SKYPE IN ENGLISH CLASSES (Phát triển lực liên văn hóa học sinh bậc THCS thông qua tương tác với học sinh nước sử dụng Skype dạy tiếng Anh) M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Thanh Long THAI NGUYEN – 2019 DECLARATION ***** -I certify that the minor thesis entitled “Developing lower-secondary school students’ intercultural competence by interaction with foreign students using Skype in English classes” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Foreign Language Faculty, Thai Nguyen University Thai Nguyen, July 15, 2019 Le Thuy Nga Approved by SUPERVISOR Dr Nguyen Thanh Long ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those who gave me the possibility to complete this thesis First and foremost, my gratitude goes to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thanh Long for his patient guidance and insightful advice throughout the duration of the study despite his busy schedule Without his assistance, motivation, enthusiasm and immense knowledge, this study would not have been completed However, shortcomings and errors, if any, in this thesis are my own Second, I’m especially thankful to teachers from School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University for their valuable advice and spiritual support in the preparation and completion of this study I also would like to thank Ms Hoang Thi Hai Yen (English Teacher, Doan Thi Diem Ha Long School), Ms Bui Thi Kim Ngan (English Teacher, Doan Thi Diem Ha Long School) and five students of Doan Thi Diem Ha Long School who participated in the pilot study, contributing greatly to the finalization of the interview and as a result, to the completion of the research I am so grateful to Ms Ha Thi Trang (Head of English Department, Doan Thi Diem Ha Long School) for contacting the participants for my research I am also indebted to all of the participants for their invaluable responses to my interview Without them, this research would not have been possible Last but not least, I dedicate this thesis to my loving family, my husband, my daughter and my son for their ongoing support and love ABSTRACT Language teaching and learning can be seen as a great means to develop the intercultural awareness of language learners, which is the ultimate goal of language education in this era English, as widely accepted, has become an international language and the number of non-native English speakers has outnumbered native ones by twice In this sense, English language teaching and learning must include in itself the development of intercultural awareness in the learner One key purpose of English teaching is to develop learners’ awareness of cultural differences reflected in languages Therefore, the teacher’s role needs to include that of helping learners to realize that thoughts and views of different nationalities and different types of societies about nature and human society are quite different Therefore, it is of great importance to address culture as an integrated part of the language teaching and learning process, so as to help students to have a good command of necessary cultural knowledge, to develop intercultural skills, and to raise their intercultural awareness TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv ABSTRACT v Abbreviations viii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ix PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Research topic area The study context Focus of the study Rationale of the study Structure of the thesis PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Intercultural competence 1.2 Motivation 11 1.3 Technology, CALL and ICT, and Skype in ELT 12 1.3.1 Technology 12 1.3.2 CALL and ICT 15 1.3.3 Skype 17 1.4 Conclusion 20 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 21 2.1 Field site and participants 22 2.2 Data collection methods 23 2.2.1 Interviews 23 2.2.2 Classroom Observation .25 2.2.3 Participants’ diaries and reflections 26 2.3 Data analysis methods 27 2.4 Ethical considerations and data reliability 28 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 30 3.1 Students’ conceptualizations of intercultural competence 30 3.2 Students’ motivation on learning English by interactions in English using Skype 33 3.2.1 A proactive approach to learning tasks .33 3.2.2 Students’ emotional reactions in interactive lessons 35 3.3 Components of intercultural competence developed from interactions with culturally different people 37 3.4 Discussion 39 PART C: CONCLUSION 41 Summary of the key findings 41 Pedagogical implications of the study 42 Limitations of the study 43 Recommendations 44 REFERENCES 46 APPENDIXES I Appendix 1: Interview guide I Appendix 2: Classroom observation protocol III Appendix 3: Diaries and/or reflection instructions V Abbreviations CALL: Computer Assisted Language Learning CEFR: The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages ELT: English Language Teaching IC: Intercultural Competence ICC: Intercultural Communicative Competence ICT: Information and Communications Technology FL: Foreign Language PPT: PowerPoint LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure Byram’s model of five components of intercultural communicative competence, from Byram Table 2.1 Demographic information about participants Table 2.2 Interviews Table 2.3 Classroom observations PART A: INTRODUCTION This thesis examines how interactions on Skype with culturally different peers using English help lower-secondary school students’ development of intercultural competence This first section, Research topic area is followed by the other four sections including Study context, Focus of the study, Rationale for the study, and Structure of the thesis Section introduces the research topic area of the present study Section of the chapter describes the study context with a summary of the history of language education in Vietnam in general and foreign language teaching and learning in Doan Thi Diem Ha Long School in particular Section describes the focus of the study, which states the overarching research question and sub-research questions The rationale for the study will be presented in section The last section reveals the structure for the presentation of the thesis Research topic area In this day and age, mobility has become a part of every student’s life Most students now have a chance to visit other countries for educational purposes and learn more about other cultures Therefore, learning foreign languages has become the norm in the globalized world It is inevitable that students need a certain level of intercultural knowledge and competence to be able to survive in new cultures and educational contexts In this respect, one’s understanding of the new cultures, as well as his/her own culture, has a central role to become a globalized citizen Learning a language without culture is a recipe for becoming what Bennett (1993) calls a “fluent fool” A fluent fool is someone who speaks a foreign language well, but does not understand the social and philosophical content of that language Hence, the foreign language teachers’ role has become increasingly important since they serve as a medium to teach both the language and the culture of the foreign language In this regard, Jiang (2000) states: "Language and culture are inseparable." Moreover, over time, more and more English teachers realize that when the lesson is of Skype from the students’ point of view so that this powerful and ubiquitous pedagogical technology can be used properly A variety of suggestions have been proposed with an emphasis on the content of Skype collaboration and the teachers’ teaching techniques More importantly, it is suggested that the exclusive dependence on this application should be avoided Skype should be viewed as a tool that helps make lessons more interesting, encourage and motivate learners, get them engaged in the classroom activities, and especially, facilitate their learning of culture Limitations of the study Although an appropriate methodology was employed and helped generate meaningful results, it is necessary to consider limitations remaining in this study First, there was a low possibility of generalizing the research findings to other context of EFL education Since this was a case study of grade 6, Doan Thi Diem Ha Long School, the results of the study may not be generalized beyond the specific participants and context of the study Further, the number of participants is quite small Therefore, it might also be difficult to generalize the findings for a bigger group of students Second, the results of the study were likely to be limited by the inherent limitations of the qualitative approach and the instrument, of which was limiting the generalization of the investigation The limitation of qualitative methods is its subjective feature when interpreting and selecting data (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007), because researchers are directly involved in the data collecting process (for example, they will be the interviewers of the study) According to Dornyei (2007), the interview method also reveals other disadvantages First, because it is a direct dialogue, it is likely that the interviewee will try to express differently from what is usual or give a different answer but they think will make the interviewer pleased In other cases, the interviewee may be too shy and timid to give an answer, leading to insufficient data for the study At the same time, in the other extreme, the interviewees may give a lengthy answer that is not necessary and make the data useless The deductive thematic analysis also affects the flexibility of analysis that can bias and limit the interpretation of the data Finally, the researcher is also one of the teacher in the Skype project at the field study; therefore, the study may be affected more or less by the teacher’s perspective Recommendations From the findings of the study, I provide some recommendations in order to promote the positive impact of using Skype in developing students’ intercultural competence The evidence from the study shows that Skype is a feasible application for language classes to improve many skills and competences including intercultural competence To make the language lessons more effective, teachers can suggest topics for students to choose; these topics needs to be authentic, close to real life and related to culture so that students find their language learning more meaningful and provide them with opportunities to develop their intercultural competence In order to promote the effectiveness of using Skype in developing students’ intercultural competence, teachers need to regularly review, respond to and evaluate the work of learners according to their participation in the learning activities Teachers should also encourage and create a favorable environment for students to receive feedback and evaluations from their interactive friends through Skype The study also shows that, in fact, using Skype to develop students’ intercultural competence, teachers need to spend more time and effort on learners because they need to find a suitable collaborative class with time difference and the content of the lesson Therefore, to reduce the load for teachers and to promote the positive aspects of this application, classes should not have more than 20 students In addition, teachers should be trained on using this application effectively so that they can plan their own teaching plan during the semester Due to the aforementioned limitations, a further research could adopt mixed methods with addition of a questionnaire to enhance the reliability and validity of findings of the study It should be noted that several recommendations have been provided in the previous chapters of this research paper, of which is to further investigate what time students should be allowed to access the internet using Skype to find their interactive classmates so that they can have better academic performance In conclusion, the importance of interaction with foreign students by using Skype in developing students’ intercultural competence has been confirmed in this study However, teachers should fully acknowledge its drawbacks and students preferences for the content of Skype lesson and teaching techniques to achieve higher level of integration of this application into the development of intercultural competence and especially, to create favourable conditions for the learning of English language to take place REFERENCES Bax, S (2003) CALL – Past, Present and Future System 31 p 13-28 Bennett, J M (1993) Cultural marginality: Identity issues in intercultural training In R M Paige (Ed.), Education for the intercultural experience (2nd ed., pp 21-71) Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press Berg, B.L 2009 Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences 7th ed Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon Byram, M (1997) Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence Cleverdon, UK: Multilingual Matters Byram, M., Gribkova, B., & Starkey, H (2002) Developing the Intercultural Dimension in Language Teaching A Practical Introduction to Teachers Retrieved from: http://lrc.cornell.edu/rs/roms/507sp/ExtraReadings/Section0/Section0/uploads/File1235 272745204/InterculturalDimensionByram.pdf Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K (2007) Research Methods in Education London: RoutledgeFalmer Craig, R.J & Amernic, J.H (2006) PowerPoint Presentation Technology and the Dynamics of Teaching Innovation Higher Education 31.p 147-160 Creswell, J (2002) Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall Dang, X.T, Nicholas, H., & Lewis, R (2013) ICT Training and ICT Use among Vietnamese Foreign Language Teachers Ubiquitous Learning: An International Journal (3) p 13-24 Davis, F.D., Bagozzi, R.P & Warshaw, P.R (1989) User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models Management Science.35 (8) p 982-1003 Dolly J Y (1990) An Investigation of Students’ Perspectives on Anxiety and Speaking University of Tennessee Dornyei, Z & Taguchi, T (2010) Questionnaires in Second Language Research: Construction, Administration, and Processing 2nd Ed New York: Routledge Dudeney, G & Hockly, N (2007) How to Teach English with Technology Harlow: Pearson Education Limited Eaton, S.E (2010) How to use Skype in the ESL/ EFL classroom The Internet TESL Journal, 16 (11), 1-14 Fitzpatrick, A & Davies, G (eds.) 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Uninterested? Others?) Skype collaboration lesson? Q2 What motivated you during the interactive lesson using Skype?  Did you have chances to meet foreign students through Skype in class?  How did you feel about the content of the lesson?  How was your language skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing) improved? Q3 “Intercultural competence” is a term that is widely used, for example in talking of language learning In your setting of English as a foreign language learner, how you personally define this term?  What you think of first when you hear or see the word “intercultural competence”?  What is conveyed by this word for you?  Which you attach this word to? An individual person, a group of people, nation, or ? Vietnamese version: Câu hỏi Gợi ý C1 Em cảm thấy sau tham gia (Thú vị? Không thú vị? khác?) buổi học tương tác Skype? C2 Điều tạo động lực học tiếng Anh  Em có hội gặp gỡ học sinh cho em lớp học tương tác Skype? nước ngồi thơng qua lớp học Skype?  Em cảm thấy nội dung buổi học?  Các kỹ ngôn ngữ em cải thiện (Nói, Nghe, Đọc, Viết) C3 “Năng lực liên văn hóa” thuật  Em nghĩ đến điều nghe ngữ sử dụng rộng rãi, ví dụ nói đến thuật ngữ “Năng lực liên văn việc học ngôn ngữ Với vai trò học sinh hóa?” học tiếng Anh ngoại ngữ, em định nghĩa thuật ngữ nào?  Từ mang nội dung gì?  Em gắn nội dung với từ này? Một cá nhân, nhóm người, dân tộc, ? Appendix 2: Classroom observation protocol OBSERVATION PROTOCOL (Used for classroom observations) Project title: Developing lower-secondary school students’ intercultural competence by interaction with foreign students using Skype in English classes  Observer’s role: Non-participant The observer does not take any active part in the class that is observed The observer’s activities are litmited to observing the students’ learning activities and taking notes of their perceptions towards the intercultural competence  What to be observed: During classroom observations in this project, observed are students’ learning activities and behaviour Teachers’ teaching activities are not observed and recorded  Who to be observed: In classroom observations, only the students are observed The teachers are not observed  What to be collected: The data to be collected include students’ learning activities and behaviour in the observed classes Evidence of teachers’ teaching practices and materials is not collected  What to be recorded: In classroom observation the students’ learning activities and behaviour are recorded The focus is on students’ attitudes towards the intercultural competence and their motivation on Skype collaborations Teachers’ teaching activities are not recorded  How to record: Recording of students’ learning activities and behaviour are conducted in form of run-on note-taking in an A4 notebook and video-taping on a computer Notes on the teacher’s practices and video-tapes are to be taken in silience and in a manner that is as unobstructive as possible Appendix 3: Diaries and/or reflection instructions INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING DIARIES/ REFLECTION (Provided by Teachers) At the end of the Skype collaboration, each student is required to write a diary or reflection report page (either in English or Vietnamese) and submit it The report should present what has been learned, obtained during the lesson, the contributions of individuals to the group's common work, as well as difficulties, advantages, and remedies, in the process of interacting with students from other countries via Skype In the report, students should also state, if there is an opportunity to another similar Skype collaboration lesson, what changes will students make to achieve better results than this lesson Vietnamese version: HƯỚNG DẪN VIẾT BÁO CÁO PHẢN HỒI (Do Giáo viên cung cấp) Khi kết thúc buổi học, học sinh tham gia nghiên cứu yêu cầu viết trang báo cáo phản hồi (có thể tiếng Anh tiếng Việt) nộp cho giáo dự Báo cáo cần trình bày điều học được, thu suốt trình tham gia buổi trao đổi qua Skype, đóng góp cá nhân vào cơng việc chung nhóm, khó khăn, thuận lợi, biện pháp khắc phục,… trình tham gia tiết học Trong báo cáo, học sinh cần nêu rõ, có hội tham dự buổi trao đổi khác tương tự, học sinh có thay đổi để đạt kết tốt tiết học trao đổi ... UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LE THUY NGA DEVELOPING LOWER- SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE BY INTERACTION WITH FOREIGN STUDENTS USING SKYPE IN ENGLISH CLASSES (Phát... that the minor thesis entitled Developing lower- secondary school students intercultural competence by interaction with foreign students using Skype in English classes is my own study in the fulfillment... lower- secondary school students intercultural competence through interaction with foreign students using Skype in English classes and hopefully to propose suggestions for improving English speaking classes