Integrating vietnamese culture into teaching english as a foreign language teacher’s beliefs and practices

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION THESIS INTEGRATING VIETNAMESE CULTURE INTO TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: TEACHER’S BELIEFS AND PRACTICES SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS (ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION) Supervisor: Vu Hai Ha (Ph.D.) Student: Pham Le Phuong Mai Class: QH2016.F1.E2 Ha Noi, May 2020 i TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA, HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP LỒNG GHÉP VĂN HOÁ VIỆT NAM TRONG VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH: NIỀM TIN VÀ THỰC HÀNH CỦA GIÁO VIÊN Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Vũ Hải Hà (Ph.D.) Sinh viên: Phạm Lê Phương Mai Lớp: QH2016.F1.E2 Hà Nội, tháng 05 năm 2020 ii Signature of Approval: _ Supervisor’s Comments & Suggestions _ _ _ _ _ iii I hereby state that I, Pham Le Phuong Mai, students of class QH2016.F1.E2, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts Teaching English as a foreign language accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature: Date: 11/06/2020 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Vu Hai Ha, for his academic supervision I feel fortunate and honored to have had him as my supervisor It was his expertise and research experience that provided me with practical knowledge and constructive comments during the thesis writing process Furthermore, I am immensely grateful to teachers in lower secondary schools in Hai Duong city for their support In particular, I would like to thank 19 teachers for finishing the questionnaire and participating in the interviews I must express my sincere appreciation to each of these teachers for their encouragement throughout the research In addition, I want to thank all of my beloveds, without whom I could not have been able to complete this research Thank my family members for their unconditional love and care My heartfelt thanks go to my mother, who has been an unfailing source of encouragement, advice, and reassurance I aspire to become a conscientious educator like her Last but not least, my gratitude is also extended to Linh Giang, Anh Dung, Quynh Chi, Bao Trinh, Phuong Anh, Ha Trang, Thuy Vi for their endless support An exceptional thank you goes out to Trang Doan for proofreading my translation My acknowledgments would not be complete without thanking sister Duong, Thu Uyen & Hoai Linh for valuable advice throughout v ABSTRACT Integrating culture is a classic problem in research about foreign language teaching methodology As English has been widely acknowledged as a global lingua franca, there has been an interest in investigating the integration of local culture in English as a foreign language teaching However, there still exist spaces for further study into this concerning issue, particularly in the context of Vietnam EFL teaching Fully perceiving the significance of Vietnamese cultural integration, the researcher carried out a study titled “Integrating Vietnamese culture into teaching English as a Foreign Language: Teacher’s beliefs and practices.” The principal objective of this project was to investigate teachers’ beliefs, the extent, and the techniques teachers employed to teach Vietnamese culture in the English classrooms The method adopted in this study was case study design with a combined qualitative and quantitative approach Specifically, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were chosen as the two data collection instruments It is evident in the data collected from 19 questionnaires and interviews that English teachers participating in the research are well-aware of the importance and benefits of the integration of Vietnamese culture in their EFL teaching However, the integration mostly happens within formal EFL classes rather than being extended to extracurricular activities In a 45-minute lesson, less than 10 minutes is allocated for Vietnamese culture content Regarding the techniques employed by teachers, while teacher-centered techniques are used more frequently, some teachers have utilized the project activity to shift the lesson focus to students The research also identified three constraints on the further integration of Vietnamese culture in EFL teaching, namely teachers’ lack of cultural knowledge, unvalidated sources of information about Vietnamese culture, and overloaded content in textbooks This study should, therefore, be of value to teachers, curriculum designers, and education policymakers wishing to assess and further promote the integration of Vietnamese culture into EFL teaching vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT v ABSTRACT vi LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and rationales for the study 1.2 Aim and research questions of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Conceptualization of culture 2.2 Relationship between culture and language 2.3 Culture in EFL classroom 2.4 Culture teaching 10 2.5 Teachers’ beliefs and practices 13 2.6 Related studies 13 2.7 Chapter summary 15 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 16 3.1 Research design 16 3.2 Setting of the study 16 3.3 Participants 17 3.4 Data collection instruments 18 3.4.1 Questionnaire 18 3.4.2 Interview 20 3.5 Data analysis method and procedure 21 vii 3.5.1 Quantitative data 21 3.5.2 Qualitative data 21 3.6 Chapter summary 22 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23 4.1 Research question 23 4.1.1 Questionnaire result 23 4.1.2 Interview result 25 4.2 Research question 29 4.2.1 The extent to which Vietnamese culture is integrated 30 4.2.1.1 Questionnaire result 30 4.2.1.2 Interview result 33 4.2.2 Techniques to integrate Vietnamese culture 34 4.2.2.1 Questionnaire result 34 4.2.2.2 Interview result 37 4.3 Discussion 42 4.3.1 Constraints on Vietnamese culture integration 42 4.3.2 Suggestions for further integration 44 4.3.3 Teacher-centered and knowledge-based techniques 45 4.3.4 The limited extent of Vietnamese culture integration 46 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 47 5.1 Summary of findings 47 5.2 Implications 48 5.2.1 Methodological contribution 48 5.2.2 Pedagogical contribution 48 viii 5.3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 49 APPENDICES 51 REFERENCES 64 ix LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES List of tables Page Table Participants’ years of teaching experience 17 Table Summary of questionnaire items 19 Table Table Table Table Table The importance of Vietnamese culture in EFL teaching, as perceived by teachers The fluency with which participants mentioned the benefits (times) Cultural aspects mentioned by teachers Techniques employed by teachers to integrate Vietnamese culture, grouped by cluster Coding of teachers’ technique to integrate Vietnamese culture List of figures Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov’s onion model of culture (2010) Culture triangle (National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project (U.S.), 1996) Approaches to teach culture in foreign language education Data collection procedure Places where teachers integrate Vietnamese culture into EFL teaching Time allocated for the integration of Vietnamese culture Mean value ranking of techniques employed by teachers to integrate Vietnamese culture x 23 25 32 34 38 Page 11 18 30 31 36 II VIETNAMESE VERSION 57 58 59 60 61 62 APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS VIETNAMESE VERSION Phần 1: Quan điểm thầy cô tầm quan trọng việc lồng ghép văn hoá Việt Nam việc giảng dạy Tiếng Anh ngơn ngữ nước ngồi Theo thầy/cơ, việc lồng ghép văn hố VN vào giảng dạy TA có quan trọng khơng? Vì sao? Việc lồng ghép có mang lại lợi ích cho việc giảng dạy TA khơng? Nếu có lợi ích gì? Việc lồng ghép có ảnh hưởng tiêu cực đến việc giảng dạy TA khơng? Nếu có ảnh hưởng gì? Thầy/cơ nghĩ lồng ghép, văn hoá Việt Nam hay văn hố nước nói Tiếng Anh quan trọng bối cảnh tồn cầu hố nay? Phần 2: Thực tế việc lồng ghép văn hoá Việt Nam việc giảng dạy Tiếng Anh ngơn ngữ nước ngồi Việc lồng ghép văn hố VN có phải phần chương trình giảng dạy TA khơng? Nó thể chương trình giảng dạy? Cơ thường lồng ghép văn hố VN vào việc giảng dạy TA cách nào? Cô cảm thấy lồng ghép văn hố VN? Cơ thích điểm lồng ghép văn hố VN? Cơ có gặp phải khó khăn lồng ghép văn hố VN khơng? Đó khó khăn gì? 10 Học sinh phản ứng tham gia tiết học Tiếng Anh có lồng ghép văn hố VN? 11 Cơ có đề nghị để cải thiện việc lồng ghép văn hoá VN giảng dạy TA không? 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