A STUDY ON THE INTERCULTURAL CONTENTS IN THE COURSE BOOKS “ENGLISH 10, 11, 12’’

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGVINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN VĂN LUÂN A STUDY ON THE INTERCULTURAL CONTENTS IN THE COURSE BOOKS “ENGLISH 10, 11, 12’’ Major: Teaching English to Speakers of O

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN VĂN LUÂN

A STUDY ON THE INTERCULTURAL CONTENTS IN THE COURSE

BOOKS “ENGLISH 10, 11, 12’’

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL)

Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Tran Ba Tien, Ph.D.

Nghệ An, 2017

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis entitled “A study on the intercultural contents of the course books English 10, 11, 12” is the result of my own work The data and findings

discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been submitted

to any university or institution

Nghệ An, August 2017

Author’s signature

Nguyễn Văn Luân

First of all, I would like to acknowledge and express my deep gratitude andsincere appreciation to my supervisors, Dr Tran Ba Tien, for his intensive revisions,patient guidance, encouragement, insightful suggestions and kind support throughout

my research

Secondly, I truly wish to thank Prof Ngo Dinh Phuong, Dr Tran Thi Ngoc Yen,

Dr Nguyen Gia Viet who gave me some precious guidance at the beginning of myresearch I would also like to thank the teachers of English at High Schools at NongCong where my interview and my questionnaires were carried out for their willingness

to answer all my questions

Last but not least, my sincere thanks are due to my dear family and my friendswho always stand for me with their consideration and encouragements

My study aims are to get the teachers’ evaluation of the intercultural contents inthe course books English 10,11,12 and how the intercultural contents presented in thecoursebooks as seen from the EIL perspective

The study adopts the qualitative ethnographic method with interpretiveorientation combined with a survey, making use of triangulation methods of datacollections: questionnaires, document reviews and interviews The study shows thatEIL and the teaching of EIL seemed still connected with the native-English-speakingcultures in some ways In addition, in the context under investigation Vietnameseteachers perceived English as a language used for intercultural communication Withsuch perceptions of EIL, the teachers at high schools approached the establishment of

a sphere of interculturality in the classroom from different perspectives In general,they aimed to mediate the course books to overcome what they considered asshortcomings in the cultural contents of the textbooks: the course books present apicture of cultures rather Western centric, which does not reflect a diversified use ofEIL nowadays However, under the structural and functional constraint of thetextbooks, culture was treated as a means of reinforcement or development skillsrather than a priority in the EIL classroom The study suggests practical implications tothe issue of language and culture education in the context of high schools at NongCong of Thanh Hoa province

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ……….…ii

ABTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF CHARTS ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3.The significance of the study 3

1.4.The organization of the thesis 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 English as an international language 5

2.2 Characteristics of EIL 7

2.3 Rationale for culture teaching in EIL teaching 8

2.3.1 Definition of culture 8

2.3.2 Definition of interculture 9

2.3.3 The relationship between language and culture 9

2.4 Rationale for culture teaching in EIL education 10

2.5 Culture contents in EIL materials 12

2.5.1 Source culture in EIL textbooks versus textbooks based solely on source culture 15

2.5.2 Target cultures in EIL textbooks versus textbooks based solely on target culture .17

2.5.3 Textbooks with international target culture 20

2.6 Culture teaching 20

2.6.1 An overview of culture teaching 20

2.6.2 Culture teaching as seen from the perspectives of the teacher, the text books and

the students 23

2.6.3 The use of English as an International language in Viet Nam 23

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 30

3.1 Research Methods 30

3.1.1 Triangulation 30

3.1.2 Building an audit trail 31

3.1.3 Member checking 31

3.2 Data collection tools 31

3.2.1 Document review 31

3.2.2 Questionnaires 32

3.2.3 Ethnographic in-depth interviews 32

3.3 Participants 33

3.4 Description of the content analysis card 33

3.5 Applying the content analysis card 33

3.6 Procedures of the study 33

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33

4.1 Document review 36

4.2 The teachers’perceptions of cultural contents in EIL and EIL teaching 38

4.3 The teachers’ priority in English learning and teaching and their evaluation toward culture in the EIL classroom 39

4.3.1 The teachers’ priority in English learning and teaching 39

4.3.2 The teachers’ evaluation toward culture in the English language classroom 41 4.4 The teachers’ evaluation towards the cultural contents in the course books 45

4.5 Culture teaching and learning in the classroom 49

4.6 Culturally oriented contents in the course books 50

4.7 Cultural representation in the course books 51

4.8 Cultural distribution in the text books 52

4.8.1 Vietnamese culture in the text books 52

4.8.2 International culture in the course books 54

4.8.3 Target culture in the course books 55

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 57

5.1 Conclusions 57

5.2 Implications 58

5.3 Recommendations 59

5.4 Limitations of the study 61

5.5 Suggestions for further research 61

REFERENCES 62

APPENDIX 1 66

APPENDIX 2 70

APPENDIX 3 71

APPENDIX 4 72

APPENDIX 5 73

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1 ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations

2 CLT Communicative Language Teaching

3 EFL English as a Foreign Language

4 EIL English as an International Language

5 ELF English as a Lingua Franca

7 ESL English as a Second Language

9 MOET Ministry of Education and Training

10 SLA Second Language Acquisition

11 TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

12 WTO World Trade Organization

14 FDI Foreign Direct Investment

Table 1.3 10 countries and areas leading in FDI in Vietnam in 2017 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs collected) 28Table 4.1 The structure of each unit in the textbook English 10, 11, 12 35

Table 4.5 What culture to talk about in cross-cultural communication (Some participants circled more than one choice in their

the whole contents of the text books English 10,11,12 50

Table 4.11 Frequency and percentage of Anglo-Saxon culture and non- Anglo-Saxon culture in the course books English 10,11,12 51Table4.12 Frequency and percentage of three types of cultures in the course books English.10,11,12 51Table 4.13 Frequency and percentage of Vietnamese culture in the course books English10,11,12 52Table 4.14 Frequency and percentage of International culture in the course books English 10,11,12 53Table 4.15 Frequency and percentage of the Target culture in the course

LIST OF FIGURES AND CHART List of figures

Figure 1 Kachru’s concentric circles where English is used 7

Figure 4 International target culture in EIL teaching 25

Figure 5 The dialogue between Vietnamese teacher, Anglo-American

target culture textbook and Vietnamese students 48

List of chart

Chart 1 The teachers’ evaluation of the intercultural contents in the

course books English 10,11,12

47

ix

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

In the trend of globalization in the world nowadays, English has become aninternational language in cross-culture communications between not only nativespeakers and non-native speakers but between non-native speakers and non-nativespeakers

Observing intercultural communication in English between people from differentbackground, we could see culture-shocks tend to occur due to culture rather than due

to language competence For example, an American or any Western tourist come toVietnam may be shocked to hear a resident ask him/her personal questions: “How oldare you?”, “Are you married?”, “How much is your salary?”, and so on Languagecompetence seems not to help anything in this kind of dissatisfaction or shock whetherthe communicator has a low or high level of English That is to say that it is important

to include culture teaching in language teaching but it seems that culture has notreceived an adequate treatment in many ways: textbooks, teaching methods and so on

In the circumstance of English as an International Language, it has new features andthe spread and development of English into an international language has also givenrise to several implications in the teaching of this language in terms of curriculumdesign, material development and teaching methodology To do this, it would benecessary first to understand how cultural aspects could be treated in the EILclassroom, including in the EIL course books

During the pass decade, Vietnam has been an attractive land for foreign directinvestment (FDI) The notable point is whether any foreign country invests inVietnam, English is the language required by the owners when recruiting employers

To work for FDI projects or joint venture companies, staffs are required to have a goodEnglish competence whether the owner or the partner is from native-English or non-native-English country English is a common communication means between

Vietnamese employees and non-native English partners such as Korea, Japan, Chinaand so on It is one among reasons that English is considered as an internationallanguage, especially in the integrating period.

On the ground of arguments, EIL course books should reflect a wide range of culturalcontexts and intercultural elements However, in fact, course books often used to beteaching materials in Vietnam tend to be biased towards a particular country, usuallyAmerica or UK Alptekin (1993) and Phillipson (cited in Kim, 2002) criticize coursebooks authors who transmit the values and beliefs of their own English – speakingcountries and thus they are devoid of comparative insight and critical perspectives

The set of English 10,11,12 by The group of authors Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi Xuan

Hoa, Dao Ngoc Loc, Do Tuan Minh, Hang Quoc Tuan are popularly used in most highschools in Vietnam The course books have published from 2005 It includes threelevels: Students at grade 10,11,12 with 16 units for each level Each unit is organized

by a set pattern of skills: Reading, speaking, listening, writing and Language focus Itcovers a wide range of topics which includes social expressions and relationships,activities and entertainment, food and health, education and careers, friendship andlove, and etc

These themes recur in all the three sets with progressively difficult levels As a teacher

at a high school, I see that, the course books are the ones which attract the moststudents Therefore, I would like to choose these books to investigate the culturalcontents and to find out whether they are biased to any countries and satisfies teachersusing them or not

1.2 Aims of the study

The present research is to study the teachers’ evaluation towards the inerculturalcontents and analyse the intercultural contents of the set of course books English 10,

11, 12 , additionally, the researcher wants to figure out whether or not it provides

students with adequate intercultural instruction in EIL context and how they couldteach interculture in the context of EIL classrooms at high schools at Nong Cong of

Thanh Hoa where the researcher is teaching Accordingly, the study was designed tofind answers to the following overarching research questions:

1 What is the teachers’ evaluation of the intercultural contents in the course books

English 10,11,12?

2 How are the intercultural contents presented in the coursebooks as seen from the EIL (English as an international language) perspective?

1.3 The significance of the study

Practically, this study is carried out with the hope that the findings of this researchwill be very useful for all the people concerned, including the researcher, the teachers,the syllabus designers and the students of at high schools at Nong Cong, Thanh Hoaprovince in particular and those in Vietnam in general, the researcher hopes to giveimplications for curriculum and material development as well as teachingmethodology at as well as other high schools in Vietnam from the findings

Theoretically, the research will make a partly contribution to the field of interculturalcommunication materials in language teaching To another extent, the researcher hopesthat the study will encourage educators to concern more the choice of languagematerials regarding cultural content and culture learning/teaching

1.4 The organization of the thesis

This thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1, Introduction, provides the background to the study, the statement of theproblems, the aims and the significance and the outline of the study

Chapter 2, Literature Review, presents the theories on EIL (English as an internationallanguage) including characteristics of EIL, rationale for culture teaching in EILteaching, cultural content in EIL materials as well as an overview of culture teaching

It also reviews EIL situation in Vietnam

Chapter 3, Methodology, describes the research methods, data collection and thesubjects of the study.

Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, describes the teaching context and teachingmaterials, discusses the teachers’ evaluation of the intercultural contents in the coursebooks English 10,11,12 and analyse the intercultural contents presented in thecoursebooks as seen from the EIL perspective and EIL teaching and the cultureteaching and learning in the context studies

Chapter 5, Conclusions, Implications and Suggestions offers the overview of majorfindings and interpretation, the implications for curriculum and material development,teaching methodology, professional development and suggestions for further studies

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 consists of six sub-sections The first section introduces the perspective ofEnglish as an international language The second section states characteristics of EIL.The third section gives rationale for culture teaching in EIL teaching The forth sectionreports kinds of culture contents in EIL materials And the fifth section reviews cultureteaching and culture learning through course books

2.1 English as an international language

The term English as an international language (EIL) is first introduced by Smith(1976) as a replacement of the terms ESL and EFL He defines EIL as “one which isused by people of different nations to communicate with one another.” (1976, p.38).This perspective has gained more support in recent years Mauranen (2003, p.513)describes the special status of EIL as “a vehicle spoken by people who do not share anative language.” Crystal (1997, p.2) explain that English achieves that status because

it is “recognized in every country.” It has spread to every corner of the world and hasbecome the property of all people using it, including both non-native and native-English-speakers

The domination of English globally is undeniable and the first cause of thisdomination, according to many scholars, is the historical role as a colonial power Inthe nineteenth century, the British Empire ruled one-third of the world and as it wassaid that the sun never set on her land The waves of English–speaking immigrants toother lands helped to spread English The second reason is the rising of America as apowerful country in economy in the twentieth century also strengthened the status ofEnglish as the language for communication in every country including the mass media,entertainment, transport and so on

Nowadays, English is the language of diplomacy and international communications,business, tourism, education, science, computer technology, media and Internet

English is a compulsory in schools in many countries such as Vietnam, China,Thailand, etc Over 85-90% of academic research papers being published in English on

a global level (Ammon, 2006; Hamel, 2007 cited in Carey, 2009) 80% information ofthe world electronically stored is in English Approximately 85% of internationalorganizations make English an official language About 85% of the world film market

is controlled by the United States in the mid-1990s (Crystal, 1997)

With the spread of English globally, the non-native speakers in the world is estimated

to outnumber the native speaker Graddol (1999, p.92) claims that the balance betweennative and non-native speakers will change dramatically within the next 50 years andthe number of English speakers as their second language will grow from 235 million

to around 462 million This seems to be in line with suggestion drawn from Kachru’sdiagram (1989, cited in Crystal, 1997) He classifies the English-speaking population

in the world into three concentric circles: Inner Circle, Outer Circle and ExpandingCircle

The Inner Circle refers to English as it originally took shape and was spread across the

world in the first diaspora In this transplantation of English, speakers from Englandcarried the language to Australia, New Zealand and North America The Inner Circlethus represents the traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regionswhere it is now used as a primary language: the United Kingdom, the United States,Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, anglophone Canada and South Africa, and some ofthe Caribbean territories The total number of English speakers in the inner circle is ashigh as 380 million

The Outer Circle of English was produced by the second diaspora of English, which

spread the language through imperial expansion by Great Britain in Asia and Africa

In these regions, English is not the native tongue, but serves as a useful lingua francabetween ethnic and language groups Higher education, the legislature and judiciary,national commerce and so on may all be carried out predominantly in English Thiscircle includes India, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya, non-Anglophone South Africa, the Philippines and others The total number of Englishspeakers in the outer circle is estimated to range from 150 million to 300 million

Finally, the Expanding Circle encompasses countries where English plays no historical

or governmental role, but where it is nevertheless widely used as a medium ofinternational communication This includes much of the rest of the world's populationnot categorized above, including territories such as China, Russia, Japan, non-Anglophone Europe (especially the Netherlands and Nordic countries), SouthKorea, Egypt, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc The total in this expanding circle is the mostdifficult to estimate, especially because English may be employed for specific, limitedpurposes, usually in a business context The estimates of these users range from 100million to one billion The three circles of Englishes are represented in the figurebelow:

Figure1: Kachru’s concentric circles where English is used

It can be seen that English has no longer been the sole property of sovereignswhich owns it as a native language It is also the language of non-native speakers whouse it regardless its purposes of using Thus, it is an international language

2.2 Characteristics of EIL

On the perspective of EIL, Smith (1997) suggests English now has more newcharacteristics Firstly, English is the property of every nation in the world that uses it.

That is to say its ownership has become denationalized Second, the cultural norms of

native speakers are not standards that learners of English as an international languagehave to conform and forms of non-native English should be got positive attitudes byEnglish-native speakers Finally, learners of EIL should be encouraged tocommunicate their ideas and cultures to others as well as taught to expect and acceptdifferences not only in the language spoken by different countries but also in their ownculture It is the educational goal of English teaching

McKay (2002) draw conclusions from Kachru’s three circles of world Englishes and it

seems to be in line with Smith’s assertions She elaborates characteristics of EIL

regarding the relationship of an international language and culture:

 As an international language, English is used both in a global sense forinternational communication between countries and in a local sense as alanguage of wider communication within multilingual society

 As it is an international language, the use of English is no longerconnected to the culture of Inner Circle countries

 As an international language in a local sense, English becomes embedded

in the culture of the country in which it is used

 As English is an international language in a global sense, one of itsprimary functions is to enable speakers to share with others their ideas andculture

(p.12)

These features of English as an international language have led significant changes forlearning and teaching English Many scholars such as Kramsch and Sullivan (1996),McKay (2002), Alptekin (2002), have recently given suggestions and implications forthis issue in terms of pedagogy, teaching material development and curriculum design

2.3 Rationale for culture teaching in EIL teaching

2.3.1 Definition of culture

Culture is believed one of the most complicated word and extremely difficult todefine Many scholars try to give their own definition of this term

Kramsch (1998, p.127) gives one definition of this word which is accepted and quoted

by many scholars According to him, culture is “membership in a discourse communitythat shares a common social space and history, and a common system of standards forperceiving, believing, evaluating and acting”

Levine and Adelman (1993) suggest that culture consists of two parts like of aniceberg The part above the water surface refers to things visible namely geography,history, food or any product of a system The part under the water is composed ofbehaviour, attitudes, values, beliefs, perceptions, communication styles, etc Thehidden-underwater-part seizes a big proportion of the iceberg that means a lot incommunication However, it is invisible and is not commonly aware At the same way,

Stapleton (2000) names two parts of culture overt culture and covert culture and Hinkel (2001) classifies culture into visible and invisible culture.

The current study adopts this definition as it is related to foreign languageeducation

2.3.3 The relationship between language and culture

More and more researches believe that there is a close relationship betweenlanguage and culture and this relationship is inseparable

Brown (2000, p.177) claims that “A language is part of a culture, and a culture is part

of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one can not separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture”

Fishman on several occasions (1985, 1991, 1996, cited in Risager, 2006, p.12) has

asserted three “links” between language and culture: “language as a part of culture, language as an index of culture, and language as symbolic of culture” He draws

attention to the fact that language and culture are “intimately associated” with eachother

Similarly, Kramsch (1998, p.3) also suggests three connections: “language expresses cultural reality; language embodies cultural reality; language symbolizes cultural reality” Kramsch says that words express facts, ideas, event and attitudes, viewpoints

as well as beliefs of those who utter Thus, “language expresses cultural reality” Interms of the second connection, she explains that “members of community or socialgroup … also create experience through language They give meaning to it through themedium they choose to communicate with one another … Through all its verbal andnon-verbal aspects, language embodies cultural reality” Regarding to the third point,she interprets language as a system of signs having itself a cultural value and speakersthrough using language identifies themselves and others

In short, it seems that language and culture has an inseparable connection This leadsmany scholars to concern teaching culture in teaching language more and more

2.4 Rationale for culture teaching in EIL education.

Although the close relationship between language and culture seems apparent,there are two conflict perspectives that teaching EIL could be free from culture orwealthy of culture Some researcher like Gonzalez (1995, cited in McKay, 2002, p.84)argues teaching because English is “uprooted from its culture”, then teaching EILmeans teaching English for specific purpose and can be culture-free

Nonetheless, this perspective has to counter a lot of objection from many scholars andresearchers such as Valdes (1986), Byram and Morgan (1994), Kramsch (1998)

Byram and Morgan (1994), McKay (2002) Valdes (1986, p.121) says “it is virtuallyimpossible to teach a language without teaching cultural content” Similarly, Byramand Morgan (1994, vii) claim that “Since language and culture are inseparable, we cannot be teachers of language without being teachers of culture – or vice versa” WhileKramsch (1998) confirms the inextricable connection between language and cultureand affirms teaching language must involve teaching culture McKay (2003) alsocontends that culture influences language teaching linguistically and pedagogically.Linguistically, culture has an effect on the semantic, pragmatic and discourse level ofthe language Pedagogically, it influences the choice of the language materials becausecultural content of the language materials and the cultural basis of teaching should betaken into account before making any decision.

Such researches as Brutt-Griffler (1998), Brown (1990), Kim (2002), Pulveness (2003,2004), also strongly dispute the viewpoint of free-culture English teaching Brown andPulverness interpret that the fear of cultural bumps and the commercialization of thematerials is the only excuse for culture-free teaching materials Pulveness (2003)confirms that due to the undeniable growth of EIL, language teaching programs mustinclude cultural content and culture-free-English teaching is inadequate

Recently, the concept of integrating culture in language teaching and learning iswidely recognized Genc and Bada (2005, p.74, cited in Le, 2005, p.9) list the benefits

of teaching culture in language teaching, which are supported by evidence from otherstudies on culture teaching:

 Studying culture makes the study of a foreign language meaningfuland it gives the learner a reason to study it

 Learning culture would help the learner relate the abstract sounds andforms of a language to real people and places

 Since learners like culturally-based activities, learning culture givesthem good motivation

 Learning culture helps to develop “understanding and tolerancetowards other ways of life” and more insight into the learner’s culture

 Learning culture helps to implement general education: learning aboutthe geography, history of the target cultures.

 Learning culture helps to realize the educational aim: educating

 Global citizens how to behave inter-culturally (p.9) Though these scholars and researchers do not mention benefits of integration ofteaching culture in EIL teaching explicitly, what listed well fits for the EILcharacterizations which Smith (1976) and McKay (2002) suggest

2.5 Culture contents in EIL materials

The aim of teaching culture in teaching EIL is to raise the students’ cultureawareness by making them aware of how their own culture differs from other cultures(McKay, 2002) And teaching materials primarily including textbooks are efficienttools to do that EIL and EFL/ESL textbooks should reflect a wide range of culturecontexts and include intercultural elements Thus, culture contents in EIL textbooksget a lot of concern of researchers

Byram (1994) states a list of criteria for textbook evaluation focusing on culturecontents so that evaluation how culture is treated in textbook is easier:

 Social identity and social groups: groups within the nation-state which

are the basis for other than national identity, including social class, regionalidentity, ethnic minority, professional identity, and which illustrate thecomplexity of individuals’ social identities and of a national society (NB theissue of national identity is dealt with under “stereotypes”);

 Social interaction: conventions of verbal and non-verbal behavior in

social interaction at different levels of familiarity, as outsider and insiderwithin social groups;

 Belief and behavior: routine and taken-for-granted actions within a

social group _national or sub-national_ and the moral and religious beliefswhich are embodied within them; secondly, routines of behavior taken from

daily life which are not seen as significant markers of the identity of the

group;

 Socio-political institutions: institutions of the state_ and the values and

meanings they embody_ which characterize the state and its citizens and

which constitute a framework for ordinary, routine life within the nationaland sub-national groups; provision for health-care, for law and order, forsocial security, for local government, etc.;

 Socialization and the life-cycle: institutions of socialization_ families,

schools, employment, religion, military service _ and the ceremonies whichmark passage through stages of social life; representation of divergentpractices in different social groups as well as national auto-stereotypes ofexpectations and shared interpretations;

 National history: periods and events, historical and contemporary,

which are significant in the constitution of the nation and its identity_ bothactually significant and, not necessarily identical, perceived as such by itsmembers;

 National geography: geographical factors within the national

boundaries which are significant in member’ perceptions of their country;other factors which are information (known but not significant to members)essential to outsiders in intercultural communication (NB nationalboundaries, and changes in them, are part of “national history”);

 National cultural heritage: cultural artifacts perceived to be emblems

and embodiments of national culture from past and present; in particularthose which are “known” to members of the nation _ e.g Shakespeare inBritain, the Impressionists in France, Wagner in Germany _ through theirinclusion in curricula of formal education; and also contemporary classics,not all of which have reached the school curriculum and some of whichmay be transient but significant, created by television and other media _e.g.Truffaut’s films in France, Agatha Christie in Britain, Biermann’s songs inGermany;

 Stereotypes and national identity: for example, German and English

notions of what is “typically” German and British national identity; theorigins of these notions _ historical and contemporary _ and comparisonsamong them; symbols of national identities and stereotypes and theirmeanings, e.g famous monuments and people (p.51-52)

Huhn (cited in Le, 2005,) also suggests criteria to make basis for evaluating thetreatment of cultural contents in textbooks:

 Factual accuracy and contemporanity of information in cultural studies– a priori point which raises immediately the question of keeping books up

to date

 The avoidance / relativisation of stereotypes by making pupils

conscious of them

 The presentation of a realistic picture, not one which implies theforeign society is problem-free

 Treedom from, or at least the questioning of, ideological tendencies inthe material – pupils should not be encouraged to accept the dominantimage of society, whether foreign or their own, but rather to question it,partly through comparison

 The comparative dimension further requires that phenomena bepresented in their structural, functional contexts rather than presented asisolated facts, and of significance for the view taken of the appropriatemodel of cultural analysis

 The sixth and seventh criteria are concerned with the presentation ofhistorical material: its relevance to understanding contemporary societyshould be explicit and where presented through personalities it should bemade clear that they are products of their age (p.14)

However, investigations conducted by Stapleton (2000), Pulveness (2004), Cortazziand Zin (1999), etc reveal some dissatisfaction regarding teaching materials andteaching methodology

Many researches contend that culture is treated superficially in textbooks Stapleton(2000) states that ‘covert culture’ information is rarely covered in textbooks Kramsch(1996) points out that culture is not treated equally in comparison with language formsand functions in textbooks It is not the priority of book writers Pulveness (2003,2004) also realizes that and adds that authentic materials in textbooks are employedsimply to facilitate the development of language skills irrespective of culture context

He criticizes that culture teaching is only something as “now write about yourcountry” or the fact textbooks often represent information but do not require learners

to response to it “in terms of their own experience or integrating it into new structures

of thought and feeling” At most, in textbooks, learners need only “comment onsuperficial differences at the level of observational behaviors” What is more, theselection of a lot of incidental cultural information is quite arbitrary

For commercial reasons, material design seldom includes the learner’s cultural identity

as part of the learning process According to Pulveness (2004), materials need toprovide more than a token acknowledgement of cultural identity and address the kind

of cultural adjustment to develop learners’ cultural awareness And literary textsshould introduce experiences of cultural estrangement

Cortazzi and Jin (1999, p 200-201) contend textbook and curriculum evaluation seems

to pay no attention to culture evaluation or take little notice of culture and interculturalcommunication Robetaz (2001) considers the importance of intercultural competenceequal and sometimes even higher than grammatical accuracy in internationalrelationships In EIL competence, intercultural competence is recommended to be asone component of communicative competence which is defined by Canale (1983) asbeing composed of grammar, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence.Nunn (2007, cited in Acar, 2010, p.17) explains “intercultural competence for EIL isnot based on the knowledge of one other culture for successful communicationbetween two languages It means the ability to adjust to unpredictable multiculturalcommunication”

Deciding on the cultural content of materials and course books has been an importantmatter in ELT Cortazzi and Jin (1999) classifies cultural information that can be used

in language textbooks and materials into three types:

 source culture materials that draw on the learners own’ culture as content

 target culture materials that use the culture of a country where English isspoken as a first language and,

 international target culture materials that use a great variety of cultures inEnglish- and non-English-speaking countries around the world.(p 204-5)

2.5.1 Source culture in EIL textbooks versus textbooks based solely on source culture

Despite some scholars like Steward (cited in Kim, 2002) believe that sourceculture is useless in English language teaching, there has been a tendency fortextbooks to aim at the source culture For instance, the Moroccan Ministry ofEducation conducted a textbook project aiming at Moroccan culture rather than target

culture in the early 1990s More recently, Chile has implemented an entire series of

textbooks named Go for Chile that includes a great deal of source culture content

The advantage of using source culture is that such content may help students learnmore about their own culture and learn the language needed to explain visitors thesecultural elements in English Furthermore, in such a situation, local bilingual teacherscan explain particular cultural events or cultural behavior to students that may be notfamiliar with them

The textbook designers who make source culture form the basis for textbook contentbelieve that until learners’ first cultural identity is established, it may be harmful tolearn other cultures However, it is not convincing enough Cortazzi and Zin (1999)show that Lebanese students’ ethnic identity is not under threat although most schooltextbooks in Lebanon are imported from English-speaking countries with the target-cultural-based content

However, if textbooks concentrate more on declarative knowledge than on thedevelopment of intercultural skills or procedural knowledge, learners are unable todevelop intercultural skills as demonstrated by Cortazi and Jin (1999) They examinedtextbooks from Venezuela, Turkey and Saudi Arabia and realized that most textbooksfrom these countries just give information about source cultures Textbook charactersfrom a source culture talk to each other in English or with English-speaking visitorswithin the source-cultural framework Consequently, the learner has little opportunity

to engage in intercultural negotiation with a text of another culture and they are unable

to identify and confirm their own cultural identity as well as to learn how their ownculture differs from other cultures

In the other side, according to Risager (1991), and Cortazzi and Zin (1999), sourceculture textbooks tend to give a generalized Western Europe Characters in thesetextbooks are Hanly middle class, young people, isolated individual tourists to urbancenters Topics in conversations are often leisure activities or consumer situations.Conversationalists rarely reveal their feelings and opinions Interactions are neverabout social, moral or philosophical problems and “most cultural information is

bland” Especially, historical background or cultural comparison is seldom covered Insuch a situation, target countries are considered in isolation.

To use these materials more effectively, a technique suggested by Cortazi and Jin(1999) is that the teachers should point out aspects of the source culture that would beinteresting or problematic for the target language speaker That is teachers need haveintercultural knowledge, skill and awareness

Though Byram (1989, p.137) criticizes textbooks based solely on source culture, hestrongly advocates the teaching materials that includes the source culture McKay(2002, 2003a, 2003b) is in line with Byram’s assertion She asserts that one of themajor goals of teaching EIL is to facilitate the communication of the learners’ ideasand cultures in an English medium Therefore, using the materials including sourceculture is obvious And local educators should recognize the value of including topicsthat deal with the local culture and select the cultural content most appropriate for thelocal education context so that learners will be able to use English to tell others abouttheir own cultures

2.5.2 Target cultures in EIL textbooks versus textbooks based solely on target culture

Traditionally, target cultural topics are used fundamentally in many Englishlanguage textbooks because textbooks are often published in the Inner countries anddesigners of such textbooks believe that target cultural information will be motivating

to English language learner (McKay, 2003)

Some researches reveals students’ desire of learning target culture For instance,Prodromou’s study (1992) demonstrates that 86% of 300 Greek students surveyedwanted to focus on Anglo-American cultures Timmis’s survey (2002) of learners andteachers of English from a large range of countries also shows a similar result Theyespressed a wish to work towards native English speaker norms Thus, it may bereasonable that textbooks should mirror target cultures

However, the idea of textbooks bases solely on target culture encounters a lot ofobjection Some scholars Alptekin (1993), Prodromou (1992), McKay (2002) criticizetarget culture bias in teaching materials and blame for de-motivating learners.Prodromou explains that one of reasons students are not motivated in culture learning

is the way culture is presented in many ELT textbooks In these global designedtextbooks, culture content is stubbornly Anglo-centric He says: “Appealing to a worldmarket as they do, they can not by definition draw on local variety and have not gonevery far in recognizing English as an international language either” (Prodromou, 1988,cited in McKay, 2002, p.87) McKay (2002) also argues that:

Whereas it is possible that target culture content is motivating to somestudents, it is also quite possible that such content may be irrelevant,uninteresting, or even confusing for students Furthermore, if one of theprimary reasons for learners to acquire English today is to provideinformation to others about their own community and culture, there seemslittle reasons to promote target cultural content in the English languageclassroom, particularly when such content can result in bilingual teachers ofEnglish feeling insecure because they lack specific knowledge aboutparticular target cultures (p.99)

Based on Byram’s framework, Cortazi and Zin (1999) evaluate a range of targetculture course books from elementary to advanced level They point out that several ofthem meet with Byram’s culture criteria though it seems easier to present the richculture content to advanced learners

Meanwhile, Alptekin (1993) and Phillipson (cited in Kim, 2002) disapprove authorswho transmit their own English-speaking countries’ values and beliefs into theirtextbooks Saville-Troike (1996) contends the target cultures can become irrelevantand unwanted in the circumstance of English as a lingua franca Stapleton (2000)states teachers’ opinion that textbooks tend to be biased towards a particular country,usually United States Brumfit (cited in Le, 2005) strongly criticizes and calls them

“masses of rubbish that is skillfully marketed”

Whether the target culture content is motivating or alienating to students, according toMcKay (2003), it can be established “a sphere of intercultrality” if the teacher knowshow to handle the culture content effectively in a certain context In the same line of

thought, Gray (2000) contends that critical engagement with the cultural content in thetarget culture textbook helps develop learners’ intercultural competence AndPulveness (2004) emphasizes the reconciliation of differences between English-speaking countries in teaching language depends on political and economic priorities,the geographical location of the institution, its policy, the parents’ preference, thecontent of the course materials, the teacher’s background and the students’ interests.

2.5.3 Textbooks with international target culture

When teaching English as an international language which involves cultural communication among speakers from different cultural background, it seemsinadequate to teach learners the cultures of the inner circle native speakers as Mckay(2002) asserts:

cross-It can not be assumed that the culture of any particular country, especially

an inner circle country should provide the basis for cultural content whenteaching EIL…and … that if one of the goals of using culture in EILteaching is to help individuals interact in cross-cultural encounters, thenmerely knowing about a culture will not be sufficient to gain insight intohow to interact in these encounters (p.82)

Accordingly, there are also textbooks with various cultures including both native-speaking-cultures and English-non-native-speaking cultures

English-Rationale for an inclusion of such a wide of cultures in textbooks is explained byexperts with the framework of EIL But in general, they have a common point of view,that is English is used in international situations by non-native speakers but with non-native speakers as well

According to Smith (1976) who is one of the first scholars considering English as atool in cross cultural situations, there is no reason for learners should internalize theculture norms of the native speakers of that language Similarly, Alptekin (2002, p.62)points out in a world English is taught as a lingua franca “whose culture becomes theworld itself”, students should be exposed to the international culture, not just thenative speaker or the home culture McKay (2002) shares the same view She contendsEIL speakers need not “acquire the pragmatics rules of another culture but rather to

mutually seek ways to accommodate to diversity” and the culture of speakers whereEnglish is locally spoken can not be neglected

McKay’ survey (2003) on teachers of English’s attitudes in the Chilean context showsthat the majority of teachers want to include the life and culture of various countries inthe textbook because this type of textbook reflects a variety of cultures and a realisticpicture of how English is actually used in the world And they also support topics thatdeal with the local culture though such a culture divergence may cause difficulties forboth teachers and students As stated by McKay (2002, p.143), “students may beuninterested or puzzled by the information needed to explain some of the culturalreferences.”

It is necessary to include native-English-speaking countries in EIL teaching materialsbecause students should know the origin of the language But according to thenationalist philosophy, young students need keep alive and reinforcing the localculture It is the reason why textbooks need source culture What is more, textbooksshould deal with various cultures because students need expose to wide range ofsituations and accordingly have a global vision of the world

2.6 Culture teaching

2.6.1 An overview of culture teaching

Traditionally, culture has often been taught through transmission of facts aboutculture in courses that concern with presenting information about the target culturesuch as history, geography, institutions, the arts, traditions and way of life (Tomaln andStempleski, 1993) However, a more interpretive approach towards culture teachinghas been broadened Instead of concerning with the facts of one culture, cultureteaching emphasizes more on cross-cultural understanding, involving comparisons andcontrasts with a learners’ native culture and the culture of the language they arestudying (Valdes, 1986) This view is shared by many well-known scholars such asByram (1994), Kramsch (1993) and other researchers

Kramsch (1993) sketches a dialogic framework involving in four aspects of culture inkeeping with this view of cultural acquisition:

1 Establishing a sphere of interculturality - relating C1 to C2 and reflecting

on perceptions of C1 (the students’ own culture) and C2 (the foreignlanguage culture)

2 Teaching culture as an interpersonal process - going beyond thepresentation of cultural facts and moving towards a process ofunderstanding foreignness ('macro-features' such as cultural specific valuesand attitudes)

3 Teaching culture as difference - culture should not be viewed as onlynational traits, many other aspects of culture such as age, race, gender,social class need to be considered

4 Crossing disciplinary boundaries - Teachers need to have someunderstanding of a wider range of subjects such as sociology, ethnography,and sociolinguistics (p.205-206)

According to her, culture teaching aims to establish a sphere of interculturality for thelearner to reflect on their own culture in relations to others And culture teaching isconsidered as an interpersonal process which may help the learner develop toleranceand understanding of differences between cultures and within a culture If the process

is successful, the learner may communicate effectively with English-native speakersand also reflects their own local cultures and personal beliefs Underlying thisapproach, foreign language learning takes place in a “third place” that lies in betweenC1 and C2 Kramsch (1993) argues:

The only way to start building a more complete and less partialunderstanding of both of C1 (one’s own) and C2 (the foreign) is to develop

a third perspective, that would enable learners to take both an insider’s and

an outsider’s view on C1 and C2 It is respectively that cross-culturaleducation should seek to establish (p.210)

Byram (1994) shares the same view of third place He contends the teachers

of language and culture should be concerned with four dimensions:observing the cultural other and observing how the others see themselves,seeing ourselves as others see us and seeing how we see ourselves

As a co-learner with learners in the dialogic process of teaching and learning culture,the teacher can develop cultural awareness Cultural awareness involves anunderstanding not only of the culture of the language being studied but also of thelearners' own culture According to many scholars and researchers supporting

Kramsch’s approach, the teacher should take a more reflective stance toward culturalcontent in order to raise their awareness of intercultural issues

Such scholars as Tomalin and Stempleski (1998), Kramsch (1993, 1998), Kramsch andSullivan (1996), Cotazzi and Jin (1999) and McKay (2002) contend that the teachershould be more conscious of intercultural competence if textbooks include explicitintercultural competence It helps to develop communicative competence and developone’s own identity and awareness of others’ identities As regards target culturetextbooks, Kramsch and Sullivan (1996) suggest the teacher adapt them to helpstudents works towards intercultural competence

In terms of the moment teaching culture, many scholars agree with Kramsch’s view(1993 ) that when learners start their first lesson in a second language, they should betaught culture:

Culture in language teaching is not an expandable fifth skill, tackled on, or

so to speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing It isalways in the background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the goodlanguage learners when they expect it least, making evident the limitations

of their hard-won communicative competence, challenging their ability tomake sense of the world around them (p.1)

Hinkel (2001) shares the same view with Kramsch He suggests that culture teachingshould be addressed at all level of proficiency to build cultural awareness and showhow culture impacts language use Porto (cited in Pulveness, 2004) claims that theteacher should teach lexical phrases as a foundation for developing socio-awarenessfrom the earliest stages of language learning before dealing with rhetoric structures.Prodromou (1992) and Guariento & Morley (2001) emphasize the use of authenticmaterials when teaching culture at post-intermediate and advanced level

Pulveness (2004) even proposes dealing with authentic materials in L1 when teachingthe source culture since language itself is the culture and cultural meaning isembedded in language Besides that, he states the level the teacher should encouragelearners to assume the behavioral patterns of target culture depends on their attitudesand desires

However, even when cultural authentic texts are brought into the classroom, they tend

to be treated as “vehicles for developing language skills in a cultural vacuum” asPulveness (1995, 2003) states Kramsch (1996) criticizes the fact that culture is oftenconsidered the fifth skill after speaking, listening, reading and speaking in languageteaching within the strict structural or functional bounds Teachers incorporates culture

in language teaching because they think that teaching culture reinforces or enriches thelanguage skills, not that it is one component of intercultural communication Similarly,Pulveness (2004) judges that teachers of English commonly treat culture teaching asmarginal and dispensable This happens although most teachers as statistics ofLessard-Clouston (1996) and Stapleton (2000) believe in the importance of cultureaspects in language teaching He admits that it takes a long time to change thisattitude

There are several reasons for this fact as Kim (2002) stated The teacher may not bewell-prepared for culture teaching In addition, they are short of available insights,sources of information and the conceptual tools to integrate culture teaching into theirlanguage lesson effectively Moreover, teachers can not but reduce teaching to Hanlyfactual knowledge and “if time permits, extend that teaching to some culturalactivities”

As regards culture teaching, more and more experts like Byram (1989, 1994) andPulveness (2004) highlight the role as educators of foreign language teachers Inaccordance with EIL pedogagy Smith and McKay propose, this is perfect attuned.Especially in rapidly increasing integration and globalization, Hantaining theeducational values of foreign language learning: broadening learners’ horizons,understanding and appreciating differences is more important than ever before

2.6.2 Culture teaching as seen from the perspectives of the teacher, the textbook and the students

As regards culture teaching and learning in the classroom context, Cortazzi andJin (1999, p.211) assert that intercultural competence takes place in situations whenlearners can negotiate meaning and identity in the context of other cultures Develop

dialogic framework sketched by Kramsch, they see culture learning through textbooks

as a process of dialogue in which learners negotiate meaning and identity directly withthe author of the textbook and its cultural content The way the learner sees the culturemirrored in the textbook and their own culture is managed by the teacher who is seen

as an ambassador

Cortazzi and Jin present three-party (the teacher, the textbook and the students)dialogue diagrams illustrating contexts in which information about cultures can beintroduced in an EIL classroom The point here is no matter what context happens, asphere of interculturality should be encouraged

These diagrams are reproduced and elaborated by McKay (2002, p.89-92) as follows:

target culture

textbooks

teachers students

source culture source culture

target culture

textbooks

teachers students target culture source culture

Figure2: Target culture in EIL teaching

Figure 2 illustrates two possible contexts in which information about a target culturecan be introduced in teaching of EIL

First is one very common context today, especially in Expanding Circle countries inwhich teachers and students have the same cultural background and the culturalcontent in the textbooks is target culture based For example, in Vietnam classroom,the Vietnamese teacher and students use the material dealing with American culture.This cultural content may be motivating to some students In contrast, some students

may feel uninterested in it while the teacher may not access additional information toexplain some cultural references

Second, the context happens when the teacher comes from the target culture andlearners are from the source culture It is apparently a better opportunity for students tolearn the target culture However, the teacher should encourage learners to reflect ontheir own culture in relation to the target and supply more information about the targetculture upon request

teachers students target culture source culture

Figure 3: Source culture in EIL teaching

Figure 3 shows two other contexts in which textbooks are source culture based In thefirst context, the teacher, students, and the textbook share the same culture which is thesource culture To establish a sphere of interculturality and to teach culture asdifference in this context, the teacher may have students explain some of their culturalaspects to representatives from other cultures or he/she may get individual student toreflect cultural aspect and then emphasize the variance that exists in any culture In thesecond context, the students and the textbooks share the same source culture but theteacher comes from the target culture The teacher can establish a sphere ofinterculturality by reflecting on the cultural content in the textbook and asking students

to explain certain problematic cultural elements

international target culture

textbooks

teachers students

source culture source culture

international target culturetextbooks

teachers studentstarget culture source culture

Figure 4: International target culture in EIL teaching

Figure 4 demonstrates two contexts in which international target culture might be used

in an EIL classroom In the first context, the teacher and students are from the sourceculture In the second context, the students are from the source culture but the teacher

is from the target culture In both contexts, the textbook could illustrate how English isused internationally in diversified context and accordingly students could beencouraged to talk about how they themselves use English locally and internationally.However, sometimes no one in the classroom is able to comment on some culturereference presented in the textbook

2.6.3 The use of English as an international language in Vietnam

During the pass decade, Vietnam has been an attractive land for foreign directinvestment (FDI) And the notable point is whether any foreign country invests inVietnam, English is the language required by the owners when recruiting employers

To work for FDI projects or joint venture companies, staffs are required to have a goodEnglish competence whether the owner or the partner is from native-English or non-native-English country English is a common communication means betweenVietnamese employees and non-native English partners such as Korea, Japan, Chinaand so on It is one among reasons that English is considered as an internationallanguage, especially in the integrating period According to the statistics of Viet NamGovernment in the recent years, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore are always thegreatest investors in Vietnam in terms of the capital and the number of projects

Table 1.1: Total FDI in Vietnam from 2011 to 2016

(Source: sau-gan-30-nam.html)

Table 1.2: Sources of Vietnam’s FDI in 2016

Order Country, area Number of projects Registered Capital

As it can be seen from Table 1.1, 1.2 and Table 1.3, Vietnamese employees exposure avariety of cultures and English with different accents Accordingly, to co-operateeffectively with foreigners, workers should understand their culture Not all workerswork with Korea is required to know Korean as well as working with Japanesepartners, you are required know Japanese But using English fluently is almost acompulsory requirement Therefore, when learning English, textbook is a means toassess cultures of countries in the world and Vietnamese learners should work towards

a “sphere of interculturality” to find out “the third place” in cross-culturalcommunication rather than to see Vietnamese culture or native-English cultures such

as English, American or Australian cultures

Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the methodology employed in the thesis It starts withthe presentation of research methods, then the data collection tools with theprocedures The description of subjects is included

3.1 Research Methods

To conduct this study the researcher aimed to understand what Englishinstructors thought about the cultural content in the English language teachingmaterials they used at high schools in Vietnam The nature and aims of the study leadthe researcher to adopt the qualitative ethnographic method with interpretiveorientation as defined by Denzin and Lincoln (2000 cited in Larazaton 2003, p 2)

Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in theworld It consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that make theworld visible These practices transform the world They turn the world into

a series of representations, including field notes, interviews, conversations,photographs, recordings, and memos to the self At this level, qualitativeresearch involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world Thismeans that qualitative researcher studies things in their natural settings,attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of themeanings people bring to them

… Accordingly, qualitative researchers deploy a wide range ofinterconnected interpretive practices, hoping always to get a better fix onthe subject matter at hand It is understood, however, that each practicemakes the world visible in a different way Hence there is frequently acommitment to using more than one interpretive practice in any study

To enhance the reliability and validity (trustworthiness and credibility) of thequalitative research, several measures were employed

3.1.1 Triangulation

Triangulation is a means to increases the internal validity of the study It can bedone by combining methods This can mean employing different kinds of methods ordata, involving both quantitative and qualitative approaches Creswel and Miller (cited

in Golafshani, 2003, p.604) states triangulation as “a validity procedure where

researchers search for convergence among multiple and different sources ofinformation to form themes or categories in a studies”.

In the present research, the data was collected by various methods adopting qualitativeand quantitative approaches, namely document analysis and questionnaires Suchvarious methods employed could strengthen trustworthiness of the research

3.1.2 Building an audit trail

According to Ary et al (2000), building an audit trail can enhance thedependability of the research In the present research, an audit trail of materials wasbuilt by giving line numbers the field notes and interviews transcription That helps theresearcher track down the behaviors of participants and their thoughts and feelingduring the process of data analysis and discussion Owing to the audit trail, memberchecking is also facilitated

3.1.3 Member checking

All of the findings were shared with the participants involved in the process ofdata collection and analysis Full detail of the aims, procedures and progress of theresearch were provided to the participants All the findings were made available tothem and subject to discussion before they were reported

Member checking makes the research more trustworthiness because the participantshave opportunity to correct errors and challenge what are perceived as wronginterpretations It also provides respondents the opportunity to assess adequacy of dataand preliminary results as well as to confirm particular aspects of the data

3.2 Data collection tools

3.2.1 Document review

The document review presented relevant documents with the type of syllabus,overall aims of the course and form of the course books