TEACHING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE (ICC) TO BUSINESS ENGLISH STUDENTS - A CASE STUDY AT A COLLEGE IN VIETNAM

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES HỒ THỊ PHÙNG DUYÊN TEACHING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE TO BUSINESS ENGLISH STUDENTS- A CASE STUDY AT A COLLEGE IN VIETNAM DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUẾ - 2020 i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES HỒ THỊ PHÙNG DUYÊN TEACHING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE TO BUSINESS ENGLISH STUDENTS - A CASE STUDY AT A COLLEGE IN VIETNAM DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 14 01 11 Supervisors: Dr Tôn Nữ Như Hương Assoc Prof Dr Phương Hoàng Yến HUẾ - 2020 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP The thesis entitled “Teaching Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) to Business English students- A case study at a college in Vietnam” has been submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy I, the undersigned, hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis I have fully acknowledged and referenced the ideas and works of others in my thesis My thesis does not contain works extracted from any theses, dissertations or research papers previously presented for other degrees or diplomas at this or any other institutions Signature Hồ Thị Phùng Duyên i ABSTRACT Among various studies on Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in Foreign language Teaching (FLT), there has been little empirical research on teachers’ perceptions of ICC in Business English teaching (BET), their ICC practices and factors influencing their integrating ICC into BET In order to fill in such a gap, this case study research was carried out with six Business English (BE) teachers working in a selected college specializing in business in the southern part of Vietnam The research aimed at exploring the teachers’ perceptions of ICC in their BET, their ICC practices and factors influencing their integrating ICC into BET The data were collected through three research instruments, namely in-depth interview, document analysis of three course syllabi, twelve lesson plans and three BE textbooks in current use and classroom observation The research findings revealed that the teachers neither perceived ICC adequately nor taught it comprehensively to their BE students In their view, language competence was the first priority in BET while ICC came the second in importance This led to their limited ICC teaching with the dominance of intercultural knowledge dimension through teacher-centeredness Intercultural skills dimensions were touched upon either incidentally when the cultural contents were explicit or spontaneously with the aim to facilitate or enliven the language teaching and learning Multiple opportunities potential for teaching ICC throughout the interculturalized BE textbooks were not fully exploited The findings also unveiled several barriers influencing their decision to teach and not to teach ICC in their BE classes They were the teachers’ insufficient ICC knowledge and pedagogy, the students’ low language proficiency and inadequate self-study ability, the absence of explicit ICC objectives in the teaching syllabi and assessment as well as the lack of facilities and experiential learning ii In spite of some limitations in the research scope and data gathering tools, the research findings shed more light on teaching ICC in BE education at tertiary level in Vietnam and provided empirical evidence for practical implications to BET iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my whole-hearted gratitude to my chief supervisor, Dr Tôn Nữ Như Hương for her advice, support and encouragement from the very start of my PhD journey I am also deeply grateful to my associate supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Phương Hoàng Yến who gave me a lot of enthusiastic guidance and sincere sharing whenever I was lost in confusion I particularly would like to express my thankfulness to Assoc Prof Dr Trần Văn Phước, Assoc Prof Dr Phạm Thị Hồng Nhung, Dr Bảo Khâm, Assoc Prof Dr Trương Viên, Assoc Prof Dr Lê Phạm Hoài Hương, Dr Trương Bạch Lê, Dr Hồ Thị Mỹ Hậu, Dr Nguyễn Hồ Hoàng Thủy, Dr Nguyễn Thị Bảo Trang, Dr Trần Quang Ngọc Thúy and Dr Nguyễn Văn Huy who supported me with practical advice and philosophical direction Their comments on my thesis generated a plenty of meaningful ideas to fulfill my research I am indebted to the research site for allowing me to conduct this research, and to all of the participants who enthusiastically joined my research and provided me with a very valuable source of data Last but not least, this dissertation could not have been completed without the boundless love and encouragement from my whole family Thank you for your unconditional love and care for me My deepest thanks go to my loving husband, son and daughter for being patient with me and always by my side throughout the hard journey iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .x LIST OF FIGURES xi LIST OF TABLES .xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Research aims and research questions 1.3 Research design overview 1.4 Research scope 1.5 Significance of the research 1.6 Structure of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of key terms 2.2 Theories of Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) 13 2.2.1 Models of ICC in Foreign language teaching (FLT) 13 2.2.1.1 Deardoff’s model 14 2.2.1.2 Byram’s model 14 2.2.2 ICC-What to teach 20 2.2.3 ICC-How to teach 20 v 2.2.3.1 Culture-static view and dynamic view 21 2.2.3.2 Culture teaching approaches 22 2.2.3.3 Liddicoat’s Interacting Processes of Intercultural Pedagogy 23 2.2.3.4 Newton and Shearn’s ICLT approach 24 2.2.3.5 Techniques and activities for developing ICC in ELT 24 2.3 Inter-relationship among teachers’ perceptions, practices and influential contextual factors 27 2.4 ICC in English language teaching (ELT) and Business English teaching (BET) 31 2.4.1 ICC in ELT 31 2.4.2 ICC in BET 32 2.5 Review of previous studies 33 2.5.1 Teachers’ perceptions of culture/ ICC teaching and contextual factors 33 2.5.2 Teachers’ culture/ICC teaching practices 37 2.5.3 Studies on ICC in business 41 2.6 Research gaps 42 2.7 Summary 43 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 44 3.1 Constructivist worldview 44 3.2 Qualitative approach 45 3.3 Research design 45 3.4 Research site 46 3.5 Participants 48 3.6 Researcher’s role 49 3.7 Data gathering methods 50 3.7.1 In-depth interview 51 3.7.2 Documentation 54 vi 3.7.3 Direct observation 55 3.8 Data analysis methods 57 3.8.1 Analysis of the interview data 58 3.8.2 Analysis of the teaching documents 60 3.8.3 Analysis of the classroom observation data 60 3.8.4 Triangulating 61 3.9 The analytical framework of the research 61 3.10 Trustworthiness 63 3.11 Research ethics 64 3.12 Summary 65 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS & DISCUSSIONS 66 4.1 Teachers’ perceptions of ICC in BET 66 4.1.1 Teachers’ understanding of culture 66 4.1.2 Teachers’ understanding of ICC and ICC teaching 69 4.1.3 Teachers’ awareness of the significance of ICC 74 4.1.4 Teachers’ attitudes toward interculturalizing BET 79 4.1.4.1 Willingness 79 4.1.4.2 Reluctance and reasons 81 4.2 Teachers’ ICC practices 82 4.2.1 Priority of language competence with syllabus and textbook-oriented teaching 82 4.2.2 ICC teaching contents- the dominance of intercultural knowledge dimension 86 4.2.2.1 Knowledge dimension 86 4.2.2.2 Awareness and attitude dimensions 88 4.2.2.3 Skills dimensions 90 4.2.3 Teacher-centered culture teaching approach vii 92 4.2.4 Student-centered culture teaching approach 96 4.2.5 Missing many opportunities potential for developing the students’ ICC 101 4.3 Factors influencing teachers’ integrating ICC into their BET 103 4.3.1 Learner profile- students’ low English language proficiency and lack of self-learning ability 104 4.3.2 Institutional context 106 4.3.2.1 Absence of explicit ICC in the teaching syllabi and assessment 106 4.3.2.2 Lack of facilities 108 4.3.2.3 Absence of after-class activities and foreignness in the studying environment 108 4.3.3 Improvisational teaching acts 110 4.3.4 Teachers’ knowledge- teachers’ inadequate ICC knowledge and ICC teaching method 111 4.4 Summary 115 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 119 5.1 Summary of the key findings 119 5.1.1 Teachers’ perceptions of ICC and ICC teaching in BET 120 5.1.2 Teachers’ ICC practices in BET 120 5.1.3 Factors influencing the teachers’ integrating ICC into BET 121 5.2 Implications of the research 122 5.2.1 Implications for in-service BE teachers 122 5.2.2 Implications for Vietnamese BE teacher educators 123 5.2.3 Implications for policy makers 123 5.2.3.1 At macro level 123 5.2.3.2 At micro level 124 5.3 Research contributions 125 viii APPENDIX K: APPENDIX J: SUMMARY OF THE CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE TEXTBOOK: PROFILE ICC objectives: v Cultural content Unit 1: A New Job - Reading - Listening - Language for introduction - Speaking - Writing: writing a notice Unit 2: Organizations & Roles - Talking business - Reading - Language for describing roles - writing a business letter Unit 3: Quality - Talking business - Reading: ISO Unit 4: Money - Reading - Language for telephoning Unit 5: Import – Export - Talking business - Language for telephoning: Form of address Unit 6: Travel - Talking business - Listening Explicit culture teaching instructions Implicit culture teaching instructions V V V V V V Countries mentioned Britain & Vietnam England & Vietnam v v V Spain England America & Britain Vietnam V v v v v V v V 170 The USA UK, Germany & Vietnam Britain & Vietnam Britain, the USA & Vietnam Britain, France &Vietnam France & Italy Unit 7: Career prospects Listening - Making contacts - Language for giving advice and warnings v V V Britain Britain Britain & Japan 171 APPENDIX L: SUMMARY OF THE CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE TEXTBOOK: MARKET LEADER ICC objectives: v Cultural content Unit 1: Careers - Talk about your career plan - Listening: An interview with the Finance Director of a TV company - Reading: Facebook profile - Speaking: TelephoningMaking contacts Unit 2: Companies - Talking about companies - Reading: India- Taka searching for a new CEO Unit 3: Selling - Talking about shopping habits - Listening: An interview with the director of Marketing of a TV shopping channel - Reading: Women on top Explicit culture teaching instructions Countries mentioned UK & Vietnam v UK v UK, US, France V Vietnam V Vietnam & other countries V India v Vietnam v v - Negotiating WORKING ACROSS CULTURES Saying No politely Unit 4: Great ideas Implicit culture teaching instructions v v V Vietnam & other countries Vietnam & other countries Vietnam & other countries v - Listening: An interview UK 172 with a researcher - Reading: Safer cycling V v - Language for telephoning Unit 5: Import – Export - Talking business - Successful meetings v Unit 5: Stress - Discussing stressful situations - Listening: An interview with a Director of Marketing at a health consultancy - Reading: Web articles v Unit 6: Entertaining - Discussing corporate entertaining - Listening: An interview with a CEO - Socializing WORKING ACROSS CULTURE Doing business internationally Unit 7: New Business - Discussing new businesses and business sectors - Reading: Help with exports - Dealing with number v v Vietnam & other countries Britain & Vietnam Britain, the USA & Vietnam Vietnam & other countries v UK v Vietnam & other countries Vietnam & UK V V Vietnam & other countries Vietnam & other countries V v 173 Vietnam & other countries APPENDIX M: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET Physical setting Code: Lesson: Duration: Teaching content Teaching activities Teaching foci (ICC/ language) Field note: (Cultural contents, teaching procedure, teaching focus, activities incorporating ICC teaching if any, approach) 174 Date: APPENDIX N: INFORMATION OF CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS Teachers’ Observed contents Observations Date & duration (CO) CO1 T1 Unit 3: Could I leave a message? - Nov 28, 2018 (English for Business Communication) (morning) - Preparing to make a call (p.24) - 01 periods - Receiving calls (p 25) CO2 Unit 3: Could I leave a message? - Nov 30, 2018 (English for Business Communication) (morning) - Taking and leaving a message (p.26) - 02 periods - Practice CO3 Unit 3: Could I leave a message? - Dec 5, 2018 (English for Business Communication) - 02 periods - Asking for & giving repetition (p.28) - Role play (p.29) CO1 Unit 1: Building a relationship - Nov 28, 2018 (English for Business Communication) (afternoon) - Welcoming visitors (p.8) - 02 periods - Small talk (p.10) T2 CO2 Unit 2: Culture and entertainment (English for - Nov 30, 2018 Business Communication) (afternoon) - Cross-cultural understanding (p.14) - 03 periods - Inviting, accepting or declining (p.15) CO3 Unit 3: Could I leave a message? - Dec 03, 2018 (English for Business Communication) (afternoon) 175 - Taking and leaving a message (p.26) - 02 periods - Practice CO1 T3 Unit 7: Career prospects - Dec 3, 2018 (Profile 1) - 01 period - Language for giving advice and warnings (p 46) CO2 Unit 8: Time is money - Dec 7, 2018 (Profile 1) (morning) - Talking business (p.48) - 03 period - Vocabulary (p.48) - Listening: How the people manage their time (50) CO3 Unit 9: The customer - Dec 9, 2018 (Profile 1) (morning) - Talking business (p 54) - 02 period - Listening (p 56) CO1 T4 CO2 Unit 10: Business online - Dec 7, 2018 (Profile 1) (afternoon) - Language for explanations (p.64) - 02 period Unit 12: Problem solving - Dec 9, 2018 (Profile 1) (afternoon) - Talking business (p 72) - 02 period - Vocabulary (p 72) CO3 Unit 12: Problem solving (con.) - Dec 11, 2018 (Profile 1) - 01 period - Listening: Problem-solving methods (p.73) CO1 Unit 4: Great ideas - Oct 2, 2018 (Market leader) - 02 periods 176 - Skills: Successful meetings, part A (p.40) CO2 T5 Unit 4: Great ideas (con.) - Oct 11, 2018 (Market leader) (morning) Skills: Successful meetings, parts B, C & D - 01 periods (p.41) CO3 CO4 Unit 4: Great ideas (con.) - Oct 11, 2018 (Market leader) (afternoon) -Skills: Successful meetings, part E (p.41) - 01 periods Unit 4: Money - May 27, 2019 (Profile 1) - 02 periods - Discussion: ways to pay for goods/services (p.26) - Listening (p 26) CO5 Unit 5: Import- Export - June 1, 2019 (Profile 1) - 02 periods - Discussion: ways to pay for goods/services - Listening (p.31) CO1 T6 Unit 3: Selling - May 21 2019 (Market leader) - 02 periods - Listening: Selling on TV (p.24) CO2 Unit 3: Selling (con.) - May 24, 2019 (Market leader) - 02 periods - Skills: Negotiating (p.27) CO3 Unit 5: Stress - June 12, 2019 (Market leader) - 02 periods - Starting up: stressful situations (p.44) Vocabulary: Stress in the world place (p.45) 177 APPENDIX O: SAMPLE OF OBSERVATION DATA CODING AND THEMING Code : T5 (5.5) Duration: 50 minutes Date: June, 2019 Subthemes Unit : Import-Export (Profile 1) Physical setting: 40 students with 2-3 students at a table and bench in rows, black board, laptop for listening, micro phone Teaching contents: Listening (p.31): - cultural content - language skills (speaking & In part B, Natalia gives advice to companies which are thinking about listening) exporting their products Work in groups What you think Natalia will say about help from the government, where to meet new customers in new markets, language, culture, sales brochures? Listen to part B Listen to part B and compare what Natalia says with your answers in section Teaching activities: - Teaching vocabulary - The teacher asks the students the meanings of “sales brochures”, “trade - Teaching pronunciation fairs”; emphasizes the pronunciation of “word” vs “world” - Teaching ICC via group discussion - The teacher explains the situation and asks the students to discuss in groups: & presentation “What should people learn about culture when they think about exporting to - Teaching speaking skill other countries?” - Teaching listening skill - The teacher asks one representative from each group to present their ideas and another student to write the words or phrases on the board (habits, customs, regional language, communication skill, traditional dishes, communication culture, behaving culture, lifestyle, dressing and so on) After 178 that, he checks the list, explains some words and asks the students to pronounce the vocabulary loudly before moving to the listening activity - The teacher explains the instruction of the listening part and asks the students to listen to the CD Culture/ ICC teaching activities: The teacher asks the students to discuss: - student-centeredness: Discussion “What should people learn about culture when they think about exporting to other countries?” (10 minutes) Teaching foci: Vocabulary, pronunciation, and listening and speaking skills Note 5.5: The teaching content is potential to teach ICC regarding culture in export The teacher focused on vocabulary, pronunciation and listening and speaking/ presenting skills There is one moment when he creates opportunities for the students to discuss and explore what exporters should know about culture before exporting This culture teaching activity takes about 10/50 minutes and is done via student-centeredness The final aims of the discussion are vocabulary, pronunciation and language skill instruction 179 Language elements APPENDIX P: SAMPLES OF CLASS OBSERVATION TRANSCRIPTS OBSERVATION EXTRACT #1- CO1-T1 (Unit 3: Could I leave a message? English for Business Communication; p.24) To facilitate readers’ understanding of the extracted class observation transcript, the following conventions were employed: #1 number of extract T Teacher S1, S2, … Particular students Ss more than one student speaking (Preparing to make a call; p.24) T: Now, please look at page 24 The lesson today is “Could I leave a message?” Trong học số điều Thứ nhất, preparing to make a phone call, học cần chuẩn bị trước gọi điện; thứ hai, receiving calls, nhận điện thoại nói nào; thứ ba, taking and leaving messages, tức cách nhận để lại tin nhắn; tiếp tục asking for and giving repetition, cách yêu cầu người nói lặp lại cách lặp lại ý cuối phần the secretarial barrier áp dụng role play Now, please look at the picture, the cartoon and tell me what problem you can see in this picture Ss: The time (the students look at the picture of two people talking on the phone from the two different countries) 180 T: Ah, the time zone is different between the caller and the receiver Right? Ss: Yes T: You can see that it’s 11 o’clock in the morning at the caller’s place while it’s one o’clock in the morning at the receiver’s place It’s very early So, how can we deal with this problem? Or what should you before you make a phone call? Ss: Need to check the time T: Right We need to check the time before we call someone How often you check the time before you call someone? What time should you call someone and what time shouldn’t you call someone? Ss: (the answers vary) T: Should we call someone at any time we like? At break? At lunch time? S2: No It depends T: Right Now, please work in group and tell me what you need to prepare before making a phone call (The students work in group in three minutes After that, the teacher calls some students to stand up and share their ideas This activity serves as the pre-listening step leading to the listening to a director of Inter Marketing suggesting ways to prepare for telephone calls) 181 OBSERVATION EXTRACT # 2- CO3-T3 (Unit 9: The customer; Profile 1; p.56) To facilitate readers’ understanding of the extracted class observation transcript, the following conventions were employed: #2 number of extracts T Teacher S1, S2, … Particular students Ss more than one student speaking (5 In part B, Ralph discusses the future of the retail trade What you think are the main differences between buying clothes in the past and now/in the future?) T: Now, tell me if you want to buy clothes or shoes, will you go to the shop or market? S1: Market S2: Supermarket S3: Shop and supermarket T: So, at present you usually go the shops and supermarkets for your clothes Now, please compare and tell me the differences between buying clothes in the past and now Let’s think about your grandparents Các bạn nghĩ ơng bà mình, hệ trước How did they go shopping for clothes? Did they go to the supermarkets? Ss: No Market 182 T: Right They went to the market or used made-to-measure clothes Do you remember the phrase “made-to-measure” I told you before? (The teacher shows the phrase on the slide) Now, repeat after me: “made-to-measure” Ss: (repeat in chorus) T: What does it mean? S4: Đo lường… T: No, not đo lường Its meaning is “may đo theo yêu cầu khách hàng” How about now and in the future? How people buy clothes? Ss: Go to the supermarket, go to the shop… T: Well, now you can go to the shop to buy clothes, and in this lesson, some shops can scan your size and send to their supplier for made-to-measure clothes (The teacher shows a power point slide showing how people shopped for clothes in the past (green column) and how they it now/ in the future (yellow column) She asks some students to stand up and read aloud each sentence, corrects their pronunciation and explains the meaning in Vietnamese) T: Can you read the first sentence in the green column? TA (S5), please? S5: “Clothes were made-to-measure” T: /kləʊz/ (The teacher corrects the student’s pronunciation of “clothes”) Now, can you read the second sentence on the yellow column and translate it into Vietnamese, H (S6), please? S6: Some shops will now scan your body on to their computer and email your details to their factory or supplier 183 T: /ʃɒps/ (The teacher corrects the student’s pronunciation of the sound /ʃ/ and the final sound /s/ The teacher helps the students translate the sentence into Vietnamese) (The teacher asks the students to look at the sentences on the slide again to remember the differences between buying clothes in the past and now/in the future Then she tells the students to listen to part B and compare what is shown on the slide) 184 ... project "Teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system in the period of 200 8-2 020”, advocating the teaching and learning of ICC to enable Vietnamese graduates to use a foreign... HUẾ - 2020 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP The thesis entitled ? ?Teaching Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) to Business English students- A case study at a college in Vietnam? ?? has been submitted... for Languages EFL: English as a foreign language ELT: English Language Teaching FLT: Foreign Language Teaching IC: Intercultural competence ICC: Intercultural communicative competence ICLT: Intercultural