Using culture based activities to enhance cross cultural awareness for the students at do luong 2 high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY BÙI THỊ MỸ HẢO USING CULTURE-BASED ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE CROSSCULTURAL AWARENESS FOR THE STUDENTS AT ĐÔ LƯƠNG HIGH SCHOOL MASTER'S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghệ An , 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY BÙI THỊ MỸ HẢO USING CULTURE-BASED ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE CROSSCULTURAL AWARENESS FOR THE STUDENTS AT ĐÔ LƯƠNG HIGH SCHOOL Major: THEORY AND METHODS OF TEACHING ENGLISH Code: 1660140111840052 MASTER'S THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: Assoc.Prof NGƠ HỮU HỒNG, Ph.D Nghệ An , 2018 DECLARATION Bùi Thị Mỹ Hảo, an M.A student of the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies of Vinh University hereby declare that this study is my own work The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have not been published elsewhere Author Bùi Thị Mỹ Hảo ABSTRACT The objective of this research is to enhance the cross-cultural awareness for the students at Đô Lương high school by using culture-based activities During conducting this research, the researcher applies Experimental Research as the method of the study To collect data, the researcher uses the instruments of the questionnaire answers and the students’ achievement in a Pre-treatment test and a Post-treatment test of the same content The research findings show that the culturebased activities were effective in improving students' cross-cultural awareness Culture-based activities help to motivate students to learn English and confidently use English in real life situations This effectiveness can be seen from the improvements of experimental students at the end of the school year basing on the mean scores in the test results The improvement is also expressed basing on the result from the questionnaire that show positive and good responses from the students ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to heartily express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my thesis supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Ngơ Hữu Hồng, for giving me a lot of invaluable guidance, knowledge and encouragement, without which my thesis could not be successfully completed I am also grateful to the Management Board, lecturers and staff members of Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, Vinh University for their precious support and giving me a chance to carry out the study My special thanks also go to the students at Đô Lương high school who enthusiastically took part in my small survey Their contributions motivated me to finish the research despite some arising obstacles during conducting process Finally, I would like to convey my great gratitude to my beloved family and colleagues for providing me endless companionship and assistance throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing the thesis Vinh, June 2018 Bùi Thị Mỹ Hảo TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 The significance of the study 1.5 Method of the study………………………………………………………… 1.6 Organization of the study…………………………………………………… CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of culture 2.2 The relationship between language and culture 2.3 The role of culture in language teaching 2.4 Principles for teaching Culture in the second language classroom 11 2.5 Categories of cultural topics 13 2.6 Culture-based activities towards teaching culture 17 2.7 Cultural awareness and Cross-cultural awareness 20 2.7.1 Cultural awareness 20 2.7.2 Cross-cultural awareness 21 2.8 Related studies 21 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 24 2.1 Research questions 24 2.2 School's setting 24 2.3 The English Language syllabus 25 2.4 Participants 25 2.5 Research instruments 25 2.5.1 Assessment test 25 2.5.2 Survey questionnaire 28 2.6 Research procedure 28 2.7 Data collection 30 2.8 Data analysis 30 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 32 3.1 Data collected from the cultural-awareness assessment tests 32 3.2 Data collected from the survey questionnaire 37 3.3 Findings 46 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 50 Summary of the study 50 Implications 50 Limitations of the study 52 Suggestions for further study 52 REFERENCES I APPENDIX V APPENDIX XIII INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Language and culture have an inseparable connection Thus, it is impossible to learn a language without learning culture Researchers claim that foreign language learning is comprised of several components, including grammatical competence, communicative competence, language proficiency, as well as a change in attitudes towards one’s own or another culture Therefore, culture of the target language needs to be emphasized because not only it is unavoidable part of language teaching, but it also plays an essential role in reaching the goal communicative competence and it brings learners many benefits In modern FLT/SLT materials, emphasis is put on the close relationship between learning a language and learning its culture It is suggested that just learning four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) may not lead to the proper understanding of the hidden meanings of a language As Bremberk (1977:14) rightly puts it, “to know another’s language and not his culture is a very good way to make a fluent fool of one’s self” Many methods and activities have been designed as useful recommendations for language teachers to adapt for presenting the target culture like class discussion, problem solving, role-play, etc At present, the goal of teaching foreign languages is to develop effective communicative skills The integration of the target language into the teaching process becomes extremely important Although the benefits of learning culture in foreign languages have been recognized, cultural education has not yet become a vital part of the textbook program in many schools Recently, when starting to become aware of the role of culture in teaching foreign languages, the selection of appropriate and effective methods is a matter of primary concern In addition, the appropriate use of cultural activities with appropriate environment and conditions will certainly be effective in teaching the language in general and teaching culture in particular However, how can we “teach” culture to the students who not have a close contact with native speakers of English and have little opportunity to discover how these speakers think, feel and interact with others in their own peer group? How can we stimulate their curiosity about the target culture when, sometimes, they not even have sufficient time to learn the formal properties of the language? One of the ways of doing so should be to apply culture-based activities, which focus on culturally behaviors arising out of the language material being study, so that students can be helped to move beyond the classroom into the living culture of English-speaking countries In my case, as a teacher of English at Đô Lương high school, I observe that students rarely have a chance to talk to foreigners to understand different cultures Living far from the city center, they not meet foreign tourists very often and consequently they are not exposed to cultural experiences in real life Besides, there is no separated part for teaching culture in the textbook It thus is not easy for students to absorb cultural knowledge if their teachers not provide them further information As a matter of fact, the students at my school often focus on studying grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation They consider cultural aspects less important because they only care about what appear in the tests or examinations To meet students' demand, the teachers here usually try to teach the knowledge in textbook that helps students to get good marks in their tests or exams They not use culture-based activities in their lectures Thus, the students seem to lack cultural awareness which is very important in their real life Because of the pressure from their studying purpose for exams, the students here are eager to experience new activities Therefore, the researcher thinks that culture-based activities seem to bring new learning atmosphere to them and enhance their cultural awareness All the reasons mentioned above have driven the author to her study thesis, namely “Using culture- based activities to enhance cross-cultural awareness for the students at Đô Lương high school” The author hopes that it may contribute to the quality of teaching and learning culture at Đô Lương high school REFERENCES Nguyễn Văn Đỗ.(2006), English teaching to Vietnamese through American culture Hội thảo khoa học giáo viên khoa đào tạo chức, 29.6.2006, pp.59-61 Đỗ Thị Ngọc Hiền (2001) A Cross-Cultural Analysis of English Textbook for Grade 10 and Suggestion of Supplementary Activities for Students’ CrossCultural Awareness (Unpublished MA thesis), Hanoi University Vũ Thị Lý (2010) A cross-culture study on using gestures of Vietnamese and American people (Unpublished MA thesis), Hải Phòng University Nguyễn Quang (2004), Một số vấn đề giao tiếp nội văn hóa giao văn hóa Nhà xuất Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội Hoàng Văn Vân (chủ biên), (2006), Tiếng Anh 10, Nhà Xuất Giáo dục, Hà Nội Adaskou, K., Britten, D., & Fahsi, B (1990), Design decisions on the cultural content of a secondary English course for Morocco ELT Journal, 44(1), pp.3-10 Barry Tomalin &Susan Stempleski (1993), Cultural awareness Oxford: Oxford University Press Brindley, G “Language Testing and Evaluation.” (1999), Lecture given at Macquarie University August 28, 1999 Brooks, Nelson (1983), “Teaching Culture in the Foreign Language Classroom,” Foreign Language Annals, Volume 16 New York: ACTFL, Inc 10 Brown, H.D.(1994) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (3rd ed.) Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall Regents 11 Brown, H.D.(2001) Teaching by Principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy Newyork: Longman 12 Burn, A (1999) Collaborative Action Research For English Language Teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 13 Byram, M (1993) Cultural Studies and foreign language teaching In S.Bassnett (ed.), Studying British Cultures: An Introduction (London: Routledge), 53-64 14 Byram, M (1997) Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence 15 Byram, M and Fleming, M (Eds.) (1998) Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective Approaches through drama and ethnography Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 16 Chastain, K 1988 Developing Second Language Skills Theory and Practice Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace Janovich Publishers Damen, L (1987), Culture learning: The fifth dimension in the language classroom Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, p.121 17 Emitt and Pollock (2007) Language and Learning: An Introduction for Teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press 18 Fantini, A (2006), New ways in teaching culture Alexandria, VA: TESOL 19 Hammerly, H (1982), Synthesis in language teaching Blaine, WA: Second Language Publications 20 Hasselgreen, A 2003 Towards the assessment of intercultural competence In A Hasselgreen (ed.), Bergen ‘Can do’ project (Graz: Council of Europe Publishing), 45- 55 21 Henninger, T (1999), Book reviews The Newsletter for Busy, Innovative ESL/EFL Teachers, Volume 2, Number 1, May/June 1999 22 Henrichsen, L E (1998) Understanding Culture and Helping Students Understand Culture http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling577lh/culture.html 23 Hinkel, E (ed.), 1999 Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 24 Holland, D & Quinn, N (1987) Culture and cognition In N Quinn & D Holland (Eds.), Culturalmodels in language and thought (pp 3-42) New York: Cambridge University Press 25 Jiang, W (2000) The Relationship between Culture and Language ELT Journal Vol 54 No 4, 328-334 26 Kramsch, C (1993), Context and culture in language teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press 27 Kramsch, C (1998) Language and Culture Oxford: Oxford University Press 28 Krasner, I (1999), The role of culture in language teaching Dialog on Language Instruction, 13(1-2), pp.79-88 29 Kroeber, A., & Kluckhohn, C (1954), Culture: A critical review of concepts and definitions New York: Random House 30 Moran, P R 2001 Teaching Culture: perspectives in practice Massachusetts: Heinle & Heinle 31 Peterson, E & Coltrane, B (2003) Culture in Second Language Teaching http://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/0309peterson.html Robinson, G (1988), Cross-cultural understanding New York: PrenticeHall 32 Seelye, H (1993), Teaching culture: Strategies for inter-cultural communication, Third Edition Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company 33 Stern, H.H (1983a), Fundamental concepts of language teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press 34 Street, B (1993), Culture is a verb: Anthropological aspects of language and cultural process In D Graddol, L Thompson, & M Byram (Eds.), Language and culture (pp 23-43) Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters and BAAL 35 The CEF (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment Case Study French Edition 36 Tomlinson, B and Masuhara, H 2004 Developing Cultural Awareness Modern English Teacher 13 (1), 5-11 37 Trivonovitch, G J (1980) Culture Learning and Culture Teaching In K Croft (Ed.), Readings of English as a Second Language Cambridge, Mass: Withrop Publisher Inc 38 Valdes, J (Ed.) (1986), Culture bound: Bridging the cultural gap in language teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 39 Valette, R (1986), The culture test In J.M Valdes (Ed.), Culture bound (pp 179-197) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 40 Yakup Doganay The Impact of Cultural Based Activities in Foreign Language Teaching at Upper-Intermediate (B2) Level Education Journal Vol 2, No 4, 2013, pp 108-113.10.11648/j.edu.20130204.11 APPENDIX THE TEST Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions Question 1: A typical breakfast in Britain nowadays includes: A rice and milk B chocolate and bread C a bowl of cereal, a slice of toast, orange juice and a cup of coffee D bread and beer Question 2: Imagine that the situation below take place in the UK or the US You’re 20 minutes late for class The teacher is explaining something to the class when you arrive What would you do? A Go in, walk up to the teacher and apologize B Wait outside the classroom until the class is over and then apologize to the teacher C Knock on the door and wait for the teacher to tell you it’s OK to come in D Go in as quietly as you can and take a seat Question 3: The thing you should NOT when visiting a Japanese home is: A Not bringing a gift for the host B Taking off your shoes before entering C Offering to help out after eating D Not inviting others without asking Question 4: What time does secondary school start and end in the UK? A about 8:45 to 3:30 B about 8:00 to 3:00 C about 7:30 to 4:30 D about 9:00 to 5:00 Question 5: In addition to Facebook, Instagram; popular social networking sites in the US are : A Twitter, Linkedln B Cyworld, Naver C QQ, Sina Weibo D all of the above Question 6: How many weeks British school pupils get off at Christmas? A days B week C or weeks D weeks Question 7: Which country below uses English as an official language? A Vietnam B Thailand C South Korea D Singapore Question 8: When did England win the men's World Cup? A in 1962 B in 1966 C in 1970 D in 1974 Question 9: In Scotland, the legal age for marrying is from : A 14 B 15 C 16 D 19 Question 10: J.K Rowling is the author of the : A Hunger Games series B Divergent series C Lord of the Ring D Harry Potter series Question 11: In Newzeland, people greet each other by: A kissing on two cheeks B pressing their noses together C kissing on hands D sticking the tongue out Question 12: In many Western countries, Friday the 13th is considered: A a lucky day B an unlucky day C a festival D a day off Question 13: Which country has the most UNSCO heritage sites? A Vietnam B France C Brazil D Italy Question 14: What is the English proverb that has similar meaning as "Nhập gia tùy tục"? A Diamond cut C In Roma as the Romans D So far so good Question 15: What is the most commonly used response to "Thank you" in informal situations? A Sorry B You are welcome C Me too D That's kind of you to say so Question 16: Ruffling a kid’s hair or patting someone for a job well done is avoided in which country below? A Laos B Vietnam C Britain D Thailand Question 17: Which country has the highest population in the world? A India B America C China D Russia Question 18: What kind of music was Michael Jackson famous for? A classical music B pop music C rock ballad D country music Question 19: Bollywood is a famous film industry in A America B India C France D Korea Question 20: The first time Apple was launched was in : A February 2004 B April, 1976 C April 1975 D July, 1994 KEYS FOR THE TEST Question 1: A typical breakfast in Britain nowadays includes: A rice and milk B chocolate and bread C a bowl of cereal, a slice of toast, orange juice and a cup of coffee D bread and beer Question 2: Imagine that the situation below take place in the UK or the US You’re 20 minutes late for class The teacher is explaining something to the class when you arrive What would you do? A Go in, walk up to the teacher and apologize B Wait outside the classroom until the class is over and then apologize to the teacher C Knock on the door and wait for the teacher to tell you it’s OK to come in D Go in as quietly as you can and take a seat Question 3: The thing you should when visiting a Japanese home is: A Not bringing a gift for the host B Taking off your shoes before entering C Offering to help out after eating D Not inviting others without asking Question 4: What time does secondary school start and end in the UK? A about 8:45 to 3:30 B about 8:00 to 3:00 C about 7:30 to 4:30 D about 9:00 to 5:00 Question 5: In addition to Facebook, Instagram; popular social networking sites in the US are : A Twitter, Linkedln B Cyworld, Naver C QQ, Sina Weibo D all of the above Question 6: How many weeks British school pupils get off at Christmas? A days B week C or weeks D weeks Question 7: Which country below uses English as an official language? A Vietnam B Thailand C South Korea D Singapore Question 8: When did England win the men's World Cup? A in 1962 B in 1966 C in 1970 D in 1974 Question 9: In Scotland, the legal age for marrying is from : A 14 B 15 C 16 D 19 Question 10: J.K Rowling is the author of the : A Hunger Games series B Divergent series C Lord of the Ring D Harry Potter series Question 11: In Newzeland, people greet each other by: A kissing on two cheeks B pressing their noses together C kissing on hands D sticking the tongue out Question 12: In many Western countries, Friday the 13th is considered: A a lucky day B an unlucky day C a festival D a day off Question 13: Which country has the most UNSCO heritage sites? A Vietnam B France C Brazil 10 D Italy Question 14: What is the English proverb that has similar meaning as "Nhập gia tùy tục": A Diamond cut diamond B Better safe than sorry C In Roma as the Romans D So far so good Question 15: What is the most commonly used response to "Thank you" in informal situations? A Sorry B You are welcome C Me too D That's kind of you to say so Question 16: Ruffling a kid’s hair or patting someone for a job well done is avoided in which country below? A Laos B Vietnam C Britain D Thailand Question 17: Which country has the highest population in the world? A India B America C China D Russia Question 18: What kind of music was Michael Jackson famous for? A classical music B pop music C rock ballad D country music 11 Question 19: Bollywood is a famous film industry in A America B India C France D Korea Question 20: The first time Apple was lauched was in : A February,2004 B April, 1976 C April,1975 D July, 1994 APPENDIX BẢNG KHẢO SÁT LẤY Ý KIẾN HỌC SINH Các em thân mến! Tên Bùi Thị Mỹ Hảo làm nghiên cứu việc sử 12 dụng hoạt động dựa văn hóa dạy học Tiếng Anh cho đề tài luận văn thạc sĩ Một phần nghiên cứu bao gồm việc khảo sát lấy ý kiến học sinh hoạt động việc dạy văn hóa Tơi mong em dành thời gian trả lời câu hỏi khảo sát cách đánh dấu vào năm lựa chọn đưa bên cạnh Tôi xin cảm ơn hợp tác em! Bạn đồng ý với tuyên bố sau mức độ nào? Rất đồng ý Đồng ý Không Lựa chọn (%) Rất (%) đồng ý không (%) Tuyên bố Các hoạt động dựa văn đồngý (%) hóa thú vị hấp dẫn Các hoạt động dựa văn hóa giúp tơi cải thiện nhận thức đa văn hóa Các hoạt động dựa văn hóa làm cho học tiếng Anh sống động hơn, thú vị kích thích tơi học tiếng Anh Các hoạt động văn hóa truyền cảm hứng cho tơi để khám phá so sánh văn hóa Việt Nam với văn hóa khác giới Sau thực hoạt động dựa văn hóa, tơi cảm thấy tự tin sử dụng tiếng Anh lớp học tình thực tế 13 Không biết (%) Theo tôi, nâng cao nhận thức văn hóa phần quan trọng việc học tiếng Anh Các hoạt động dựa văn hóa nên phần bắt buộc để dạy sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh Tôi muốn hoạt động dựa văn hóa tích hợp học tiếng Anh hai năm học tới 14 15 ... 11 2. 5 Categories of cultural topics 13 2. 6 Culture- based activities towards teaching culture 17 2. 7 Cultural awareness and Cross- cultural awareness 20 2. 7.1 Cultural awareness. .. atmosphere to them and enhance their cultural awareness All the reasons mentioned above have driven the author to her study thesis, namely ? ?Using culture- based activities to enhance cross- cultural awareness. .. suggests, the research’s purpose is to use some culture- based activities to enhance cross- cultural awareness for the students at Đô Lương high school In order to fulfil this aim, the study tries to