Teachers and students attitudes towards the cultural content in the texbook motivate at vus in ho chi minh city ma

As a result, this study has come into existence to shed light on prominent issues related to the attitudes of 24 teachers and 144 young learners at VUS to the representation and delivery

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE CULTURAL CONTENT IN THE TEXTBOOK

"MOTIVATE! 2" AT VUS IN HO CHI MINH CITY

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

NGUYEN KHANH VAN

Supervised by

NGUYEN DUY MONG HA, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, OCTOBER 2021

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my greatest gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Duy Mộng Hà, for all of her devotion, diligent supervision, and constant encouragement together with invaluable advice on my thesis writing Without her insightful recommendations and constructive comments, it would have been impossible for

me to accomplish my thesis

I also owe my thankfulness to all the lecturers who are always conscientious in delivering worthy knowledge to me throughout 2 years studying the TESOL program at USSH, directly or indirectly contributing to the completion of this thesis Besides, my sincerest thanks also go to the Board of Administrators and other members of the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, who gave me an opportunity to defend this thesis

Simultaneously, I am also immensely indebted to my colleagues and friends working at the language center - VUS, especially Ms Lan Hương, Ms Trúc Mai, Ms Bảo Quyên, and

Ms Diệu Vy, whose permanent assistance and precious experience in teaching English have furnished me with worthful data and information that played an essential role in this research

Last but not least, my heartfelt gratitude is sent to my family, whose devoting care and constant support have encouraged me to accomplish the predetermined goals as well as overcome the time of discouragement and tiredness Without their standby support, there

is virtually impossible that this thesis will be completed in time

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby citify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE

CULTURAL CONTENT IN THE TEXTBOOK "MOTIVATE! 2" AT VUS

IN HO CHI MINH CITY

in terms of the statement of requirements for the Thesis in Mater’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee No other person’s work has been utilized without

acknowledgement in the content of this thesis The current thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other situation

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2021

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, NGUYEN KHANH VAN, being the candidate for the degree of Master

in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis

Ho Chi Minh City, October, 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY II RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS III TABLE OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VII LIST OF TABLES VIII LIST OF PICTURES AND FIGURES X ABSTRACT XI

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 B ACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1

1.2 A IMS OF THE STUDY 4

1.3 R ESEARCH Q UESTIONS 5

1.4 S IGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 5

1.5 S COPE OF THE STUDY 6

1.6 O RGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 A TTITUDE 9

2.1.1 The components of attitude 10

2.1.2 The relationship between attitude and motivation in language teaching and learning 11

2.1.3 Factors affecting attitude in English learning process 13

2.1.3.1 Learner’s personality 13

2.1.3.2 Educational context 13

2.1.3.3 Social context 14

2.1.3.4 Other factors 15

2.1.4 The role of attitude in English teaching and learning process 15

2.2 C ULTURE 16

2.2.1 The relationship between culture and language 17

2.2.2 Culture in language teaching and learning 18

2.2.3 Categories of culture 18

2.2.4 Sources of cultural information 21

2.2.5 Forms of cultural representation 21

2.3 C ULTURAL CONTENT REPRESENTATION IN CURRENT EFL TEXTBOOKS 22

2.4 T EXTBOOK EVALUATION 23

2.4.1 Cultural content representation 23

2.4.1.1 Layout and design 25

2.4.1.2 Activities 26

2.4.1.3 Subject and content 26

2.4.2 The cultural content delivery 27

2.4.2.1 Goals of culture teaching 27

2.4.2.2 Culture teaching strategies 28

2.4.3 Criteria for evaluating cultural content representation in EFL textbooks 29

2.5 R ELATED STUDIES 29

2.6 C ONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 32

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 35

3.1 R ESEARCH QUESTIONS 35

3.2 R ESEARCH SITE AND PARTICIPANTS 35

3.2.1 Context of the study 35

3.2.2 Participants 36

3.2.2.1 Student participants 36

3.2.2.2 Teacher participants 37

3.3 R ESEARCH DESIGN 40

3.4 R ESEARCH INSTRUMENTS 42

3.4.1 Textbook analysis 42

3.4.2 Pilot questionnaires 43

3.4.2.1 Student pilot questionnaire 44

3.4.2.2 Teacher pilot questionnaire 47

3.4.3 Questionnaire 52

3.4.3.1 Student Questionnaire 53

3.4.3.2 Teacher Questionnaire 53

3.4.4 Interview questions 54

3.4.5 Classroom observation 56

3.5 D ATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE 57

3.5.1 Textbook analysis 57

3.5.2 Classroom observation 58

3.5.3 Questionnaire 58

3.5.4 Interview to teachers 59

3.6 D ATA ANALYSIS 60

3.6.1 Textbook analysis 60

3.6.2 Classroom observation 60

3.6.3 Questionnaire 60

3.6.4 Interview to teachers 62

3.7 S UMMARY 62

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 63

4.1 D ATA ANALYSIS 63

4.1.1 Data analysis from textbook evaluation 63

4.1.1.1 Layout and Design 64

4.1.1.2 Activities 65

4.1.1.3 Subject and Content 65

4.1.2 Data analysis from classroom observation 68

4.1.2.1 Class A 68

4.1.2.2 Class B 69

4.1.2.3 Class C 70

4.1.3 Data analysis from the questionnaire 71

4.1.3.1 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes to the cultural content representation in “Motivate! 2” 72

4.1.3.2 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes to the cultural content delivery through “Motivate! 2” 83

4.1.3.3 Factors motivate students to learn the cultures of different countries in the world 87

4.1.4 Data analysis from teacher interviews 90

4.1.4.1 Teachers’ perception of the importance of culture teaching 90

4.1.4.2 Teachers’ perceptions of the cultural content in “Motivate! 2” and the use of supplementary materials to support culture teaching in class 91

4.1.4.3 Teachers’ perceptions of the topic’s relation to learners’ culture when teaching the Target cultural background 93

4.1.4.4 Teachers’ perceptions of class activities for culture learning 94

4.2 DIS CUSSION 95

4.2.1 Students and teachers’ attitudes to the cultural content representation in “Motivate! 2” 95

4.2.1.2 Activities 95

4.2.1.3 Subject and Content 96

4.2.2 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes to the cultural content delivery through “Motivate! 2” 97

4.2.2.1 Goals achievement related to cultural competence 97

4.2.2.2 Culture Teaching Strategies 98

4.2.3 Factors motivate learners to learn the cultures of different countries in the world 99

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 101

5.1 C ONCLUSIONS 101

5.1.1 Teachers and students’ attitudes to cultural content representation in “Motivate! 2” 101

5.1.1.1 Layout and Design 101

5.1.1.2 Activities 101

5.1.1.3 Subject and Content 102

5.1.2 Teachers and students’ attitudes to the cultural content delivery through “Motivate! 2” 103

5.1.2.1 Goals achievement related to cultural competence 103

5.1.2.2 Culture teaching strategies 104

5.1.3 Factors motivate students to learn the cultures of different countries in the world 104

5.2 S UGGESTIONS 105

5.2.1 Suggestions for teachers 105

5.2.2 Suggestions for VUS 107

5.2.3 Suggestions for textbook authors 107

5.3 L IMITATIONS 108

5.4 R ECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 109

REFERENCES 110

APPENDIX 1 119

APPENDIX 2 126

APPENDIX 3 144

APPENDIX 3A: ITEM-TOTAL STATISTICS’ RESULTS OF STUDENT PILOT QUESTIONNAIRE 144

APPENDIX 3B: ITEM-TOTAL STATISTICS’ RESULTS OF TEACHER PILOT QUESTIONNAIRE 146

APPENDIX 4 148

APPENDIX 4A: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FORM A 148

APPENDIX 4B: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FORM B 153

APPENDIX 4C: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FORM C 159

APPENDIX 4D: A SUMMARY OF 3 CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS AT VUS 164

APPENDIX 5 168

APPENDIX 5A: STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE IN ENGLISH 168

APPENDIX 5B: STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE IN VIETNAMESE 173

APPENDIX 5C: TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRE IN ENGLISH 178

APPENDIX 5D: TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRE IN VIETNAMESE 183

APPENDIX 6 188

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

VUS Vietnam USA Society English Centers

EFL English as a Foreign Language

USSH University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Ho Chi Minh City

EF The Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature

TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

SPSS 26 Statistical Package for the Social Science)

CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Eight forms of cultural representation in English textbooks 21

Table 2.2 Lee (2009)’s framework of Big “C” and small “c” cultural themes 130

Table 2.3 Themes under Big “C” culture in “Motivate! 2” 131

Table 2.4 Themes under small “C” culture in “Motivate! 2” 133

Table 2.5 The synthesis of culture teaching goals 134

Table 2.6 The synthesis of culture teaching strategies 136

Table 2.7 The synthesis of criteria for evaluating cultural content in EFL textbooks 138

Table 2.8 Criteria for evaluating cultural content representation in “Motivate! 2” 142

Table 2.9 Eight guiding principles of EFL materials design 143

Table 3.1 Demographic characteristics of student participants 36

Table 3.2 Demographic characteristics of teachers in the survey process 38

Table 3.3 Demographic characteristics of teachers in the interview process 39

Table 3.4 The brief summary of student pilot questionnaire items 44

Table 3.5 Reliability statistics’ results for “Layout and Design” 45

Table 3.6 Reliability statistics’ results for “Activities” 45

Table 3.7 Reliability statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the first run 46

Table 3.8 Reliability statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the second run 46

Table 3.9 Reliability statistics’ results for “Culturally oriented goals” 47

Table 3.10 Reliability statistics’ results for “Culture teaching strategies” 47

Table 3.11 The brief summary of teacher pilot questionnaire items 48

Table 3.12 Reliability statistics’ results for “Layout and Design” 49

Table 3.13 Reliability statistics’ results for “Activities” 49

Table 3.14 Reliability statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the first run 49

Table 3.15 Reliability statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the second run 50

Table 3.16 Reliability statistics’ results for “Goals achievement related to cultural competence” for the first run 51

Table 3.17 Reliability statistics’ results for “Goals achievement related to cultural competence” for the second run 51

Table 3.18 Reliability statistics’ results for “Culture teaching strategies” 52

Table 3.19 The brief summary of main research questionnaire items for surveyed student 53

Table 3.20 The brief summary of main research questionnaire items for surveyed teachers 53

Table 3.21.Item-total statistics’ results for “Layout and Design” 144

Table 3.22 Item-total statistics’ results for “Activities” 144

Table 3.23 Item-total statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the first run 144

Table 3.24 Item-total statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the second run 144

Table 3.25 Item-total statistics’ results for “Goals achievement related to cultural competence” 145

Table 3.26 Item-total statistics’ results for “Culture teaching strategies” 145

Table 3.27 Item-total statistics’ results for “Layout and Design” 146

Table 3.28 Item-total statistics’ results for “Activities” 146

Table 3.29 Item-total statistics’ results for “Subject and Content” for the first run 146

Table 3.31 Item-total statistics’ results for “Goals achievement related to cultural competence” for the

first run 147

Table 3.32 Item-total statistics’ results for “Goals achievement related to cultural competence” for the second run 147

Table 3.33 Item-total statistics’ results for “Culture teaching strategies” 147

Table 4.1 Sources of Culture in “Motivate! 2” 65

Table 4.2 Themes under Big “C” and small “c” cultures in “Motivate! 2” 66

Table 4.3 Students’ attitudes to the layout and design in “Motivate! 2” 72

Table 4.4 Teachers’ attitudes to the layout and design in “Motivate! 2” 72

Table 4.5 Students’ attitudes to class activities for culture learning 73

Table 4.6 Teachers’ attitudes to class activities for culture learning 73

Table 4.7 Students’ preferences for the forms of culture learning activities 74

Table 4.8 Students’ attitudes to the use of supplementary materials for culture learning 74

Table 4.9 Teachers’ attitudes to the use of supplementary materials for culture teaching 75

Table 4.10 Students’ and teachers’ preferences for outside sources of information 75

Table 4.11 Students’ attitudes to the subject and content in “Motivate! 2” 76

Table 4.12 Teachers’ attitudes to the subject and content in “Motivate! 2” 76

Table 4.13 Students’ attitudes to the study of Source, Target and International cultures 77

Table 4.14 Teachers’ attitudes to the study of Source, Target and International cultures 78

Table 4.15 Students’ and teachers’ preferences for learning and teaching the cultural information of native English-speaking countries 78

Table 4.16 Students’ and teachers’ preferences for learning and teaching the cultural information of non-native English-speaking countries 79

Table 4.17 Students’ attitudes to the learning of visible and invisible aspects of culture 80

Table 4.18 Teachers’ attitudes to the teaching of visible and invisible aspects of culture 80

Table 4.19 Students’ and teachers’ preferences for themes under Big “C” culture 81

Table 4.20 Teachers’ reasons for teaching themes under Big “C” culture 82

Table 4.21 Students’ and teachers’ preferences for themes under small “c” culture 82

Table 4.22 Teachers’ reasons for teaching themes under small “c” culture 83

Table 4.23 Students’ evaluation of the goals achievement related to cultural competence 83

Table 4.24 Teachers’ evaluation of the goals achievement related to cultural competence of students 84

Table 4.25 Students’ attitudes to culture teaching strategies employed in language classrooms 85

Table 4.26 Teachers’ attitudes to the culture teaching strategies employed in language classrooms 85

Table 4.27 Strategies for teaching cultural information inside and/or outside “Motivate! 2” 86

Table 4.28 Hindrances of imparting cultural information in “Motivate! 2” 86

Table 4.29 The reasons for students’ intrinsic motivation to learn the cultures of different countries in the world 87

Table 4.30 The reasons for students’ extrinsic motivation to learn the cultures of different countries in the world 88

Table 4.31 The effect of gender on students’ selection of native English speaking countries 88

Table 4.32 Teachers’ perception of culture teaching’s advantages 91

Table 4.33 The occurrences of native and non-native English speaking countries in “Motivate! 2” 166

LIST OF PICTURES AND FIGURES

Picture 1.1 4 levels of the Student’s Book 119

Picture 1.2 The introduction of “Motivate! 2” 120

Picture 1.3 An example of The Progress check in “Motivate! 2” 121

Picture 1.4 An example of The Revision Sections in “Motivate! 2” 122

Picture 1.5 An example of The Vocabulary and Grammar Guide in “Motivate! 2” 123

Picture 1.6 An example of The Culture and CLIL rubric in “Motivate! 2” 124

Picture 1.7 Examples of Descriptive texts 125

Picture 1.8 Examples of Dialogues for habitual action 126

Picture 1.9 Examples of Contextualized writing tasks 127

Picture 1.10 An example of Cultural note 128

Picture 1.11 Examples of Realia 129

Figure 1 Conceptual framework 33

Figure 2 Data collection procedure at VUS 59

ABSTRACT

It is widely acknowledged that there is an undeniably interwoven and inseparable relationship between language and culture, on the other hand, language is a reflection of culture If learners of a certain language only pay heed to its grammatical and lingual proficiency without cultivating the cultural background of different countries, they might not perform effectively in increasingly multicultural and multilingual world On account

of this reason, learning different cultures is extremely necessary in the age of globalization where English is used internationnally Hence, EFL teachers should deliver not only the Target culture (e.g the UK, the USA, Australia, etc.) but also the International cultures (e.g Vietnam, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, etc.) However, despite the necessity of culture learning in EFL materials and classrooms, the matters concerning cultural content delivery and acquisition did not receive much attention in Vietnamese educational setting As a result, this study has come into existence to shed light on prominent issues related to the attitudes of 24 teachers and 144 young learners at VUS to the representation and delivery

of the cultural content in an in-use textbook “Motivate! 2” by means of textbook evaluation,

questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations

It is reported that “Motivate! 2” has a strong preference for the Target culture, particularly the cultures of the UK and the USA, while International ones are rarely mentioned Moreover, Big “C” culture is found to be the supreme source of culture in “Motivate! 2” with reference to a variety of topics (e.g history, food, leisure activities, etc.) whereas small

“c” cultural themes are mentioned with a much lower recurrence Apparently, the structure

of cultural contents in “Motivate! 2” was basically designed to foster students’ knowledge

of native English speaking countries’ cultures Consequently, in teachers’ view, “Motivate! 2” is not regarded as a good source of cultural content to better learners’ knowledge of different cultures and intercultural communicative competence

Besides, according to teachers’ and students’ evaluation of goals achievement related to cultural competence, surveyed students could remember and recall prior knowledge based

on good results of quizzes, tests or games However, a rather high number of them could not relate the native English speaking countries’ cultures to their own one and compare the similarities and differences between them as well as practice culturally appropriate phrases

or sentences in simulated dialogues in the textbook Hence, it is immensely essential for teachers at VUS to set up culture-based pedagogical strategies that can provide students with ample chances to be exposed to real or simulated communicative contexts for applying useful language use into different situations

At the final stage, in conformity with the aims and findings of this study, some pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research were proposed to ameliorate the quality of language and culture teaching through the target textbook in the context of the study, and concurrently, create the foundation for those who are interested in the aforementioned matters

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides an introduction to the study, including (1) background to the study, (2) aims of the study, (3) research questions, (4) significance of the study, (5) scope of the study and (6) its overall structure

1.1 Background to the study

Language, without doubt, pervades in every aspect of our daily life It plays as a powerful means of shaping the way a person perceives about the world and defining culture of a society (Krauss & Chiu, 1998) In other words, language embraces not only the thoughts or beliefs of an individual but also diverse information in all over the world Hence, there are always certain cultural values of a society to be found in every daily use of language This perspective has been supported by some researchers and scholars Thanasoulas (2001), for

example, stated that “language is a social institution, both shaping and shaped by society at

large or in particular the cultural niches” Sharing the same view, Kramsch (2008) stressed

that “language is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value” So

obviously, there is a close-knit relationship between culture and language As a result, the importance of acquiring cultural imformation and values in language classrooms were accentuated by McKay (2000) and Jourdini (2007) when they considered teaching culture

as important as teaching other four skills of language, and culture should be integrated into English teaching and learning materials

However, due to the lack of materials promoting cultural diversity and the matter of time limitation, ELT in Vietnam tend to pay much more attention to four language skills development and linguistic components (grammatical, lexical and phonological) but does not notice much the cultural background and values of different countries (Hoang, 2010; Nguyen V H., 2016; Ton & Pham, 2010) Additionally, several teachers believe that culture teaching can come after language teaching (Nguyen T M., 2008; Ho, 2011) Nevertheless, learning a foreign language is not just about gaining knowledge in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar (Hymes, 1972) If a foreign language learning is viewed in that

way, it considers the use of that language in different communicative contexts as fixed and limited Besides, when a person acquires a foreign language, he or she also acquires the worldview and cultural values of the native speakers of that language (Toohey, 2000; Savignon, 2007) To use the target language as naturally as a native speaker does, learners need to understand the intricate cultural connotations behind the language they are saying;

so that they can appropriate their speech in accordance with specifice communicative contexts Especially, in today’s globalized world, Vietnamese people have more opportunities to work in multicultural or multilingual environments and interact with others coming from different cultures; as a result, the need to better cross-cultural understanding among Vietnamese learners of English has become more urgent For these reasons, the ability to use a foreign language flexibly and effectively in social, academic or communicative contexts requires more than knowing its grammatical, semantic rules or being native-like pronunciation; but calls for certain cultural knowledge in the use of that language for purposeful communication

Thereby, more and more culture-integrated English textbooks have been introduced to the educational environment in Vietnam (Chau & Truong, 2019) The textbooks titled

“Motivate!”, in particular, have been applied in the English teaching process for young

learners at a language center in Ho Chi Minh City

Although a great number of studies into cultural content presented in EFL textbooks have been conducted, most of them centered on evaluating textbooks used in their own educational context which are not appropriate for the educational environment in Vietnam

as well as the linguistic competence of Vietnamese learners Ihsan (2014); for instance,

investigated the cultural content of an English textbook for senior high school entitled “Look

Ahead” in Indonesia This study paid its attention on revealing the cultures presented

predominantly in the analyzed textbook based on the categorization of Cortazzi and Jin

(1999) (the Source culture, the Target culture and the International culture) Besides, the

study also disclosed how the cultural content is represented in the textbook predicated on

Adaskou, Britten and Fahsi’s classification (1990) (the aesthetic sense, the sociological

sense, the semantic sense, and the pragmatic sense) Eventually, the study, on the basis of

the findings, offered some suggestions to English materials developers about the integration

of more Source culture and International culture contents together with the delivery of cultures in a non-judgmental way This study provided a good theory reference for cultural content analysis; however, was not suitable for the practical ELT since it did not examine the aspects related to EFL teachers and learners

Besides, there are other foreign studies directing its gaze to the investigation into attitudes

of language learners towards culture or culture teaching and learning Serap (2018); for instance, explored the attitudes of Turkish university students towards culture and its incorporation into language teaching and simultaneously, investigated whether the birthplace, gender, experience abroad and high school graduated had any influence on their attitudes Data yielded by the questionnaires revealed positive attitudes of target participants towards culture and its incorporation in language teaching through teachers, teaching aids, and course books regardless of the aforementioned factors With regard to gender, female informants expressed more positive attitudes towards culture than males However, the lack

of the study laid at the neglectfulness of thoroughly evaluating the textbook content, resulting in the suggestions and implications for ELT being too general and too vague to be put into function In brief, the necessity and importance of culture learning is highlighted in these two foreign studies but generally neglected when it comes to be put into practice

In the context of Vietnam, there is a study of Tran (2014) on EFL teachers’ beliefs about the role of culture teaching in ELT and their classroom practices Data collected from the questionnaires and semi-structured interviews unveiled that EFL teachers expressed positive attitudes to the culture teaching and believed that culture instruction held an essential role

in aiding EFL learners to attain target learning outcomes The findings of this study contributed to a better comprehension of the current practice of culture teaching in language classrooms for enhancing the quality of ELT in Vietnam and in other similar contexts

Beside Tran (2014)’s study, there is also a study of Do (2016) delving into the attitudes of

teachers and students towards the cultural content in “Tieng Anh 11” at Tran Khai Nguyen

high school - HCMC The findings yielded by the data of the questionnaire, classroom observation and interview discovered that a majority of informants expressed their positive

attitudes towards the way cultural content is represented in the English textbook “Tieng Anh

11” (TA11) In addition to the authentic theories in the study, the researcher also made some

beneficial suggestions and implications for further studies with the aim of boosting students’ motivation in learning the cultural content integrated in TA11 and ameliorating the quality

of culture teaching in the context of the study

Based on previously-mentioned studies, it is easy to perceive that only a small proportion

of recent studies evaluated the cultural content in EFL textbooks used in Vietnam Moreover, none of them has not examined the attitudes of teachers and students towards the cultural content in “Motivate! 2” and the factors influencing learners to acquire the cultures of different countries before Besides, the practice of culture teaching mentioned in these studies was solely suitable for their own contexts and the in-use textbooks, but not for VUS and “Motivate! 2” Also, the relationship between culture teaching and language improvement of student participants was neglected or mentioned in a vague way Therefore, the aforementioned issues altogether became a research gap that drove the researcher to conduct the current study aiming at the attitudes of teachers and students at VUS to the cultural content in “Motivate! 2” in Ho Chi Minh City

1.2 Aims of the study

The study centers on enlightening how the cultural content is presented in “Motivate! 2” and investigating the attitudes of teachers and students at VUS towards the cultural content representation and delivery through the target textbook

Simultaneously, intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors influencing students’ attitudes

in learning the cultures of different countries around the world are also scrutinized Besides,

in light of the obtained results, some useful and appropriate culture teaching techniques are

expected to be found to help students at VUS overcome the difficulties of culture and English learning as well as enhance their motivation and consciousness about the importance of language learning from cultural dimension for the purpose of consolidating their basic cultural competence and mastering English skills at the same time

1.3 Research Questions

In order to accomplish the aims stated above, the study addressed the following research questions:

1 How is the cultural content presented in “Motivate! 2”?

2 What attitudes towards the cultural content representation and delivery through

“Motivate! 2” do teachers have?

3 What attitudes towards the cultural content representation and delivery through

“Motivate! 2” do students have? Which factors motivate students to learn the cultures

of different countries in the world?

1.4 Significance of the study

With those aims achieved by shedding light on recently-stated research questions, the current study has its own significance which lies in the cultural content evaluation and the scrutiny of teachers and students’ attitudes towards cultural content representation and delivery through “Motivate! 2”

Firstly, in terms of theoretical values, the study provided a thorough review of literature on

relevant aspects of three main subjects, namely attitude, culture and textbook evaluation in

order to set the foundation for the conceptual framework and pave the way for elaborating the cultural content representation in “Motivate! 2”

Secondly, with the application of questionnaire, classroom observation and semi-structured interview as research instruments, a clearer view concerning the attitudes of teachers and students at VUS to the cultural input and culture teaching through “Motivate! 2” along with

the factors motivating students in learning different countries’ cultures was also demonstrated

Last but not least, on the basis of the accumulated findings, the study drew some pedagogical implications and recommended some flexible strategies for teaching cultural information inside and/or outside “Motivate! 2” so as to furnish students with valuable knowledge of different cultures, potential opportunities to practice culturally appropriate phrases or sentences in specific communicative situations similar to those presented in the in-use textbook, which hopefully contribute to the enhancement of their culture learning motivation and cultural awareness; and thereby, help them perceive the importance of language learning from cultural dimension as well as sharpen their cultural competence together with English proficiency for effective intercultural communication

1.5 Scope of the study

This study paid heed to the attitudes of teachers and students at VUS towards the cultural content representation and delivery through “Motivate! 2” The scope of the study, however, still needs clarification

First of all, it was mentioned that this study confined itself to the attitudes of teachers and young learners at VUS Thus, the study took into account three components of attitudes including affect, behavior and cognition (Eagly & Chaiken, 1998; Schiffman & Kanuk, 2004; Van den Berg, Manstead, Van der Pligt, & Wigboldus, 2006) Besides, the study also delved into intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors affecting learners’ attitude which in turn influence their language and culture learning

Secondly, this study was expected to evaluate the cultural content in “Motivate! 2” The researcher; thereby, placed an emphasis on two aspects of textbook evaluation including the representation and delivery of cultural content In evaluating the cultural content representation in “Motivate! 2”, three main criteria were selected based on the widely-used

checklists of Litz (2005), namely layout and design, activities and subject and content, while

the sub-criteria were synthesized and picked out from various checklists of such different

scholars as Risager (1991), Cunningsworth (1995), Reimann (2009), etc to be in accordance with three main criteria The cultural content delivery, on the other hand, scrutinized goals achievement related to cultural competence and culture teaching strategies to aid the researcher in clarifying what, when and how to impart the cultural information

1.6 Organization of the study

The study consists of five main chapters, including (1) Introduction, (2) Literature Review, (3) Methodology, (4) Findings and Discussion and (5) Conclusion and Recommendations, apart from the Acknowledgements, Abstract, References and Appendices

Chapter 1 includes background of the study, aims of the study, research questions,

significance of the study, scope of the study and the organization of the study

Chapter 2 provides a detailed review of theories and concepts relevant to attitude,

culture and textbook evaluation to generate a conceptual framework for the research

Chapter 3 describes the methodology employed in the study, including a description

of the research context, target participants, research design, research instruments, and data collection with data analysis procedures

Chapter 4 comprises the analysis and discussion of collected data as well as the

major findings of the study according to research instruments

Chapter 5 presents a brief summary of the findings, proposes some pedagogical

implications and recommendations for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter critically reviews and discusses major concepts and literature necessary for constructing the conceptual framework of the study Firstly, the concepts associated with attitude and its relationship with motivation are investigated and summed up Secondly, internal and external motivational factors influencing learners’ attitudes in language learning are also examined painstakingly Thirdly, the conceptual definitions of culture are reviewed and presented Fourthly, the relationship between language and culture together with the importance of culture in language teaching and learning are also reexamined carefully Fifthly, the attitudes of teachers and students to culture teaching and learning in EFL classrooms are taken into account along with the synthesis and selection

of appropriate criteria and sub-criteria for evaluating the cultural content in EFL textbooks Finally, based on these theories and concepts, the conceptual framework is established as the guideline for the research

2.1 Attitude

Attitude plays an essential role in shaping the world view of a person It affects our

perception of the surrounding world and determines the way we react to different entities around us With the critical role played by attitude, it is not surprising that attitudinal studies possess a long historical background (Oppenheim, 1998) Hence, the term “attitude” has been defined and discussed by numerous researchers

Attitude from different views of psychologists is defined as a psychological inclination that

is shown by assessing or evaluating things in a certain way In early definitions, Fishbein

and Ajzen (1975) stated that “an attitude is a learned predisposition to respond favorably

or unfavorably to an attitude object” Sharing the same view, Eagly and Chaiken (1993),

in their influential book “The Psychology of Attitudes”, regarded attitude as “a

psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree

of favor or disfavor” Being developed in light of previous theories, the term “attitude” in

the view of Hogg and Vaughan (2005), was considered as “a relatively enduring

organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies towards socially significant

objects, groups, events or symbols” Turning to a more recent definition, Crano and Prislin

(2006) accentuated the evaluative judgment about a stimulus object when conceptualizing

attitudes as “an evaluative integration of cognitions and affects experienced in relation to

an object Attitudes are the evaluative judgments that integrate and summarize

cognitive/affective reactions” This definitional perspective embraces three characteristics

of attitude – affect, cognition and behavior – which have been used for generating a

number of conceptual models of the attitude concept Moreover, Olson and Kendrick (2008), holding a similar view as Crano and Prislin (2006), considered attitudes to

“encapsulate positive and negative feelings, beliefs, and behavioral information about all

ranges of “attitude objects,” from people to frozen pizza”

Simply put, a holistic view derived from these definitions suggests that attitude is a state

of mental approval that guide individuals’ behaviors toward facts, entities or different situations based on experience, prior knowledge, feelings and motives On the other hand, with an established knowledge foundation including earlier experiences, relevant cognitive and affective information, an individual’s attitude is formed

2.1.1 The components of attitude

Based on the theoretical foundations mentioned above, it is perceived that there are three components of attitude repeated multiple times to shed light on one of the most influential

models of attitude – the multicomponent model According to Eagly and Chaiken (1993),

multicomponent model of attitude is “a model of attitude that conceptualizes attitudes as

summary evaluations that have cognitive, affective and behavioral components” The

three components of attitude are linked internally and interconnected to constitute a person’s attitude In other words, a change in one component is likely to result in a change

in other components for maintaining the internal consistency within the attitudinal structure (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975)

The cognitive component involves the beliefs, thoughts and attributes a person associates

with an attitude object (Rosenberg & Hovland, 1960; Baker, 1992; Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; George, 2004) These beliefs can alter in number from one person to another (Triandis, 1971) On the basis of earlier experiences with the attitude object or observation of the environment, people develop their cognitive patterns in order to pave the way for subsequent behavior and such beliefs usually come before the feeling of “for or against” attached to an object (Summers, 1977)

The affective component, from the view of Baker (1992) and George (2004), involves

positive or negative feelings or emotions toward an attitude object, which may be the

expressions of love or hate, approval or disapproval

The behavioral component reflects how a person’ cognitions and/or affects influence the

way he/she behaves or reacts to an attitude object (Breckler, 1984) This overt based evaluative component is one of the most efficient ways to enlighten and predict the preparedness of an individual’s actions

behavior-2.1.2 The relationship between attitude and motivation in language teaching and learning

According to the evidence proposed by some researchers, attitude and motivation are important factors affecting the success or failure in language teaching and learning (Dörnyei, 2001; Boyd, 2002; Frey & Fisher, 2010) Concretely, high level of motivation and positive attitudes to the lessons can ease the learning process and make students actively engage in class activities while the deficiency of motivation and the existence of negative attitudes can hinder or make students alienate the learning process (Dörnyei, 2001; Lennartsson, 2008) Hence, deficient attention to these two factor can lead to the inefficiencies in general learning and teaching of a certain language

However, comprehending the term “motivation” thoroughly is not easy since motivation

itself is “a very complex phenomenon with many facets” (Gardner, 2006) and has been

viewed from different schools of thought For example, many psychologists interpreted

motivation as “a process or a series of processes that will stimulate, guide, maintain and

finally ends at certain target-directed behavior succession” (cited in Chen, 2012) Or

Harmer (2007) conceptualized motivation as “some kind of internal drive which pushes

someone to do things in order to achieve something” Those aforementioned views have in

common the view that motivation is a reflection of certain inner forces such as willingness, want or desire that ignite, direct and maintain a person’s behavior to achieve intended goals

Nevertheless, motivation, in the perspective of Dörnyei and Otto (1998), was not viewed

in that way; instead, it was conceptualized as “the dynamically changing cumulative

arousal in a person that initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritized, operationalized and successfully or unsuccessfully acted out Motivation includes biological, emotional, social and cognitive powers These factors result in the formation of behavior” (cited in Kayalar, 2016) This definitional perspective was then

consolidated by Malik (2017)’s dictum that motivation through the current cognitive approaches put the emphasis on individual’s feelings, thoughts and beliefs that are later transformed into action Derived from afore-stated views, not only affective factors but also various mental processes lead to the generation and maintenance of all choices and actions of a person Therefore, the key to motivate students in language learning process and fulfill their needs is to comprehend and find out what motivates them

By taking learners’ motivation into account, researchers often mention two widely-known

types of motivation, namely intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Kong,

2009) Two motivational categories are correlated with the attitudes and learning outcomes

of students (Geary, 2008) Moreover, they are also inseparable in a way that assist and complement each other when it comes to language acquisition (Kong, 2009) Although they are different from the nature itself, they can build upon one another to constitute an individual’s attitudes and in turn affect how a person relate to the surroundings

In particular, according to Ryan and Deci (2000), intrinsic motivation is the self-desire to

knowledge Holding the same view, Dörnyei (2001) simply interpreted intrinsic motivation

as an action that is carried out by the influence of one’s inner desire for experiencing satisfaction Clearly, this type of motivation exists when a person perform a certain action without any obvious external rewards or just try to obtain an opportunity to explore, learn, and improve their potentials (Coon & Mitterer, 2010; Gardner, 2006)

Contrary to intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an

activity in order to attain a desired outcome that comes from an outside source (Ryan & Deci, 2000) Brown (2007), holding the same perspective as Ryan and Deci (2000),

emphasized that “extrinsic motivation refers to our tendency to perform activities for

known external rewards, whether they are tangible (e.g., money) or psychological (e.g., praise) in nature” In short, extrinsic motivation is formed when people engage in the work

for their own sake to attain something that can be anticipated such as money, health insurance, praise, awards, bonuses, etc

2.1.3 Factors affecting attitude in English learning process

It is evidenced that the factors affecting language learners’ attitude which successively

affect their language and culture learning involving personality factors, educational

factors, social factors, and others like age and gender (Ehrman, 1996; McDonough &

Shaw, 1993; Spolsky, 1989)

2.1.3.1 Learner’s personality

An individual’s personality is characterized by his/her multi-traits that “account for

consistent patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving” (Pervin & John, 2001) Thus, the

inner factors of a person’s personality in terms of cognition, affect and behavior influence the way learners acquire the target language (Shahila & Meenakshi, 2012)

2.1.3.2 Educational context

According to Conteh (2002), there are some factors in terms of educational context

affecting learners’ attitudes to language learning, namely “the general atmosphere of the

learning, classroom dynamics, opportunities for student-student and student-teacher

interaction, and the students’ perception of the teacher’s commitment to their learning”

Aside from the learning situation and physical conditions of classroom (e.g class size, temperature, functioning equipment, etc.), the aspects related to teachers in terms of their personality, professional knowledge, enthusiasm, dedication, and classroom management skill all have direct and multiple influences on the success of learners’ learning process and their attitudes to foreign language learning On the other hand, learners who have frequent interaction with teachers might develop a positive attitude to the target language than those have less interaction

2.1.3.3 Social context

According to Spolsky (1989), language is acquired in social contexts; and thereby, it is undoubtedly a system of a society Language learning and language use must be taken place and understood in social contexts During those processes, social factors may not have direct influences; still have their own effects on the learners’ affects, beliefs and their shaped behavior (Spolsky, 1989; Van Lier, 1996) The social context, in Spolsky (1989)’s

view, consists of (1) learners’ parents, (2) learners’ peer groups, (3) the community or

target language speakers and their cultures

Having considered various factors associated with learners’ parents such as their education, religion, culture, socioeconomic status, place of birth, and the knowledge of the target language, Spolsky (1989) indicated that these factors affect not only learners’ attitudes towards the target language but also their achievements in the language learning process Several studies investigating the parental role in language learning also supported Spolsky (1989)’s view when finding out that learners acquire some behaviors by imitating what they observe from their parents In similar processes, learners adopted their parents’ attitudes towards the target language which successively affects their attainment in language learning (Ettiger & Robert, 1994; Larsen & Long, 1991; Brown D H., 2000) Similar to the parental role, learners, on the basis of their prior experience cumulated in the interaction with their peer groups, develop similar interest, and either positive or negative attitudes to the target language learning

Apart from two aforementioned factors, community where target language learners live in

or from their own culture can affect their attitudes and motivation towards the foreign language and that language acquisition (Spolsky, 1989) Particularly, culture, in the view

of Alptekin (1993), is regarded as “socially acquired knowledge” which serves as the basis

for learners to perceive things and in turn triggers diverse responses to different entities Simultaneously, Fredricks (2007)’s findings discovered that learners of a certain language are prone to express positive feelings or attitudes to the target language learning if pedagogical materials and techniques presented to them is nearer to their culture Hence, when students are exposed to the first or foreign language communities, they might have ample opportunities to observe and acquire practical knowledge and experiences to develop their attitudes and motivation to the target language and concurrently, enhance the level of language proficiency together with communicative competence

2.1.3.4 Other factors

Gardner (1985) found out other influential factors such as gender and age on learners’ attitudes to foreign language learning More specifically, several studies examining the influences of learners’ gender on their attitudes pointed out that females express more positive attitudes to learning the target language than males (Lambert & Gardner, 1972; Spolsky, 1989; Ellis, 1994) Besides, learners’ ages and gender are also considered as one

of the characteristics that can predict their attitudes, learning preferences and learning outcomes (Montgomery & Groat, 1998; Bamber & Tett, 2000; O’Donnell & Tobbell, 2007) For instance, young learners are often exposed to the target language in various ways and for several hours a day through media, games, music, social network, etc., leading

to their strong preference for learning the target language related to leisure activities in daily life (Lightbown & Spada, 2013)

2.1.4 The role of attitude in English teaching and learning process

Attitude is regarded as an integral factor affecting the language performance of learners (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Eagly & Chaiken, 1998; Wardhaugh, 2002) In other words, not only do learners’ intellect and language proficiency account for the achievement in the

target language but their attitude to that language learning also plays a significant role

Tella, Indoshi and Othuon (2010) proved that “negative attitude toward English is the most

affective and psychological factor that results in the students’ poor performance in English” Besides, Abidin and his co-workers (2012) also confirmed that learners’

capability to master a foreign language is influenced by not only their mental competence but aslo their attitude and perception toward the target language As a result, learners’ attitudes should be considered in the process of foreign language teaching and learning since it may affect their performance and behavior in the target language acquisition

In the process of language teaching, teachers’ attitudes also have a great impact whether it’s positive or negative on the teaching process and students’ performance, attitudes and beliefs (Phillips, 1993; Agne, Greenwood, & Miller, 1994) It is evidenced that teachers’ positive attitudes can denote the willingness to teach the language, to flexibly implement different pedagogical materials and techniques to increase students’ motivation and help them overcome the difficulties in learning English (Gürsoy, 2013) While teachers with negative attitudes often fail to inspire students to learn English or cannot meet their academic and social needs (Valdes, 2001) Apparently, teachers’ attitudes play a crucial role in determining the educational outcomes for students

2.2 Culture

As the term “culture” is conceptualized through more than 160 definitions of various

researchers and professionals (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952), its concept is notoriously regarded as something that is very difficult to define. Thompson (1990), for example,

defined culture as “the pattern of meanings embodied in symbolic forms, including actions, utterance and meaningful objects of various kinds, by which individuals communicate

with one another and share their experiences, conceptions and beliefs” Or in the view of

Matsumoto (2000), it is conceived as “a dynamic system of rules, explicit and implicit,

established by groups in order to ensure their survival, involving attitudes, values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors, shared by a group but harbored differently by each specific unit within the group” Moving to a more recent definition, Kim (2017) simply regarded culture

as the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, including language, cuisine, social habits, music, etc Derived from those standpoints, the definition of “culture”

in this study is adapted as a set of visible and invisible forms that are constituted by a particular group of people and thus, influence but do not shape a person’ behavior

2.2.1 The relationship between culture and language

In human society, it is an undoubted fact that language plays an important role in communication since language shapes the view of community about the world through texts, which in turn shape the language systems Without language, it is hard for people to interact or exchange their ideas and feelings to each other Moreover, because of each person’s different ways in communicating and expressing ideas and thoughts, it is so obvious that every language in the world has its own characteristics Language is; therefore,

a vehicle of “conveying traditions and values related to group identity” (Sirbu, 2015) More specifically, Sapir (1970) proved that “language does not exist apart from culture,

that is, from the socially inherited assemblage of practices and beliefs that determines the texture of our lives” In addition, Brown (2000) also backed up the aforesaid perspective

by expressing his viewpoint to that “culture is really an integral part of the interaction

between language and thought Cultural patterns of cognition and customs are sometimes explicitly coded in language” Simultaneously, he also stressed the interrelatedness of

language and culture that “one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of

either language or culture The acquisition of a second language [ ] is also the acquisition

of a second culture” In light of these standpoints, Wardhaugh (2002) proposed a claim to

the relationship between language and culture: “The culture of people finds reflection in

the language they employ: because they value certain things and do them in a certain way, they come to use their language in ways that reflect what they value and what they do” In

short, language and culture are interwoven and inextricable, which means people from different cultures use their language to reflect their particular cultural values

2.2.2 Culture in language teaching and learning

When a teacher instructs their students in a certain language, he/she also imparts the culture

at the same time; on the other hand, students acquire the culture of that language during the learning process If language and culture are not taught together, EFL learners may assume that the foreign language is similar to their own language and it can be utilized the same way in the same situations as their first language, which is obviously not always the case (Byram & Esarte-Sarries, 1991) Hence, teachers should bear in mind that culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom implicitly or explicitly and one’s own culture along with foreign culture should be placed together in order for learners to comprehend the background of different cultures and culturally appropriate behaviors in communicative contexts (Kramsch C , 2008) Moreover, culture can influence the foreign language teaching linguistically and pedagogically (McKay S , 2003) Thus, when delivering culture to learners, teachers should be mindful of its impact on the meaning, discourse and pragmatic; and the process of selecting educational materials and setting up instructional methods in accordance with cultural content

Besides, “culture learning is the process of acquiring the culture specific and

culture-general knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for effective communication and interaction with individuals from other cultures It is a dynamic, developmental, and

ongoing process which engages the learner cognitively, behaviorally, and affectively”

(Paige, Jorstad, Paulson, Klein, & Colby, 1999) Apparently, understanding the cultural context of daily conversational conventions means more than just being able to form grammatical sentences (Sarıgül & Ashton-Hay, 2005)

2.2.3 Categories of culture

Most researchers, in their studies of cultural content in EFL textbooks, have showed a relatively high preference to one of the most widely used categorization of culture; namely Big “C” culture and small “c” culture (Chastain, 1988; Tomalin & Stempleski, 1993; Pulverness, 1995; Lee K.-Y , 2009; Paige, Jorstad, Paulson, Klein, & Colby, 1999)

In the study of Tomalin and Stempleski (1993), Big “C” culture consists of history, institutions, literature, art and music Small “c” culture, on the other hand, has been

extended to comprise “culturally-influenced beliefs and perceptions, especially expressed

through language, but also through cultural behaviors that affect acceptability in the host community” Sharing the same view, Paige and his co-workers (1999) explained that Big

“C” culture highlights the most tangible types of culture, involving some easily-observable facts and statistics related to holidays, festivals, history, art, literature, etc While small “c” culture circles on more intangible types of culture associated with customs, sociocultural values, norms, beliefs, assumptions Turning to a more recent perspective, Lee (2009) developed his own model with references from Paige and his co-workers (1999) together with Hinkel (2001) In Lee (2009)’s view, Big “C” culture is characterized by a set of easily-seen and easily-memorized facts and statistics related to arts, history, geography,

festival, etc In contrast, small “c” culture places its emphasis on “invisible and deeper

sense of culture such as way of life, daily living, socio-culture, values, norms and beliefs, way of thinking, etc.”

Apparently, Big “C” culture is easier to be learned by language learners as it encompasses such tangible aspects as literature, music, sculpture, etc (Chlopek, 2008) However, these tangible forms of culture are not sufficient for both teachers and learners to understand the target culture comprehensively since they solely contain the accumulation of general fixed information and do not provide ample chances to deal with the underlying sociocultural values occurring in different settings Also, it would be a serious mistake if teachers and learners underestimated the indispensability of small “c” cultural values in intercultural communication because this type of culture could affect the way people perceive, behave

or use the target language appropriately and effectively within the target community through valuable sociocultural values, beliefs, norms and assumptions Hence, it is considered significant to have teachers incorporate further information of small “c” culture into educational materials and pedagogical strategies as these knowledge more strongly

correlate to the development of intercultural competence than Big “C” one, especially in the era of globalization (Wintergerst & McVeigh, 2010)

In light of previous concepts, different researchers designed their own categories to examine different aspects of cultural content in EFL textbooks The reason that prompted researchers to categorize their own cultural themes was because some cultural facets under Big “C” and small “c” cultures in the examined textbooks did not consult any specific countries, causing a slight problem when adapting the framework of Cortazzi and Jin (1999)

in the actual analysis For example, Chen (2004)’s cultural framework, based on Clouston (1996)’s model, proposed seven themes under Big “C” (e.g music, economy, history, politics, etc.) and nine themes under small “c” (e.g daily routine, lifestyle, customs, values, etc.) Or Lee (2009)’ framework, with references to Paige and his co-workers (1999)’s model of cultural specific aspect of culture learning, was designed to examine how culture was taught through Korean EFL textbooks consisting of 22 themes for Big

Lessard-“C” (e.g arts, transportation, food, sports, music, etc.) and 26 themes for small “c” (e.g

freedom, competition, self-improvement, equality, etc.) (See APPENDIX 2)

Apparently, Lee (2009)’s cultural framework involves a set of more concrete themes which are more comprehensive and detailed in terms of intercultural, sociological, ethnographic and sociolinguistic perspectives Hence, Lee (2009)’s framework was chosen as a model

to compare and contrast with the cultural content presented in “Motivate! 2” in order to select and adapt themes under Big “C” and small “c” cultures appropriate with the context

of this study Still, this framework is too lengthy and some themes are relatively unintelligible and abstract which; for instance, novelty-oriented, high involvement, regulations-oriented or result-oriented As a result, after having scrutinized approximately

245 texts and tasks integrated with cultural information and values in “Motivate! 2” and adapted suitable themes for the in-use textbook based on Lee (2009)’s cultural framework, the researcher only used 16 themes for Big “C” culture and 6 themes for small “c” culture

(See APPENDIX 2)

2.2.4 Sources of cultural information

One of the widely-used classification for the materials in English textbooks relevant to their cultural contexts was based on the idea of Cortazzi and Jin (1999), namely source culture materials, target culture materials, and international culture materials

(1) Source culture materials refer to the content of English textbooks that presents

learners’ own culture

(2) Target culture materials usually draw on one or two target cultures of countries where

English is spoken as the first language, such as the US, the UK or Australia Still, exposure

to Target cultures is not enough for learners to develop intercultural competence due to the limited knowledge of native English-speaking countries’ cultures, which might lead to meaningless utterances or miscommunication (Erfani, 2014)

(3) International culture materials contain a wide variety of cultures of countries where

English is spoken as an international language

Shortly, each type of cultural materials has its own significant role in the development of learners’ intercultural communicative competence and the insufficiency of each source of cultural information might negatively influence that development

2.2.5 Forms of cultural representation

In suggesting how the three types of cultural materials conceived by Cortazzi and Jin (1999) should be presented in English textbooks, the study of Adaskou and his co-researchers (1990) pointed out at least eight forms of cultural representation

Table 2.1

Eight forms of cultural representation in English textbooks

No Forms of cultural representation Definition

1 Descriptive text Informative texts depict and display what a particular

person, place or thing is like

2 Cultural note Notes or texts primarily describe one’s opinion, belief ot

attitude to particular issues

3 Dialogues on daily conversation Simple daily-life conversation in the form of speech or

6 Realia Real life objects or images referring to any particular

culture (e.g post card, e-mail, invitation, etc.)

7 Recordings Video/Audio of conversations, songs, accent, etc

8 Visual illustration Visuals accompanying textual materials to illustrate the

contents

2.3 Cultural content representation in current EFL textbooks

In today’s globalized world, the foreign language education primarily aims at equipping learners with not only linguistic knowledge but also necessary skills and information to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds and social identities since the number of intercultural encounters people facing nowadays has been higher than ever before On account of these reasons, to better learners’ intercultural communicative competence, cultural content in EFL textbooks needs to be considered as an important issue towards educators (Allwright & Bailey, 1991)

However, culturally-related contents in EFL textbooks are in fact mostly limited to “titles,

unit chapters, and arbitrary content or tourist information” (Reimann, 2009) Previously,

Risager (1991) also stated that cultural background in EFL textbooks is indeed often very superficial and overgeneralized while values, personal feelings and historical perspectives are left out In other words, when cultural background is integrated in EFL textbooks, they are usually oversimplified, omitted, and subjective or placed in inappropriate contexts Consequently, the topics and textual materials presented in EFL textbooks are often one-side and favored towards a specific cultural group

In short, the limited nature of cultural content is a general problem of most EFL textbooks

in the context of multicultural and multilingual world (Aliakbari, 2005; Reimann, 2009;

Sitoresmi, 2017) Despite a large number of culturally-integrated textbooks in the market, their contents only introduce very few international cultures, rarely mention learners’ own culture or just describes simplified information of culture The unsuitable or deficient cultural representation in recent EFL textbooks have highlighted students’ needs for learning the cultures of different countries in the world aside from those of native English-speaking countries so as to extend their knowledge of different cultures and improve their intercultural communicative competence

2.4 Textbook evaluation

According to Usaquén (2012), textbooks can offer teachers a clearly-structured framework

to follow and assist them in the process of building lesson plans as well as introducing a wide selection of authentic resources and class activities to students; whereas students, with the aid of textbooks, can foster their interest in learning, maintain their engagement during the lesson and promote their curiosity about the surrounding world

Owing to the strong association between textbooks and teaching-learning process, textbook evaluation is very significant for EFL materials selection to find out the ones that are compatible with students’ needs and expectations; and educational program expectations

In Tomlinson (2003)’s view, materials evaluation is generally defined as “a procedure

that involves measuring the value (or potential value) of a set of learning materials It involves making judgments about the effect of the materials on the people using them”

More specifically, textbook content evaluation involves the process of examining,

describing and evaluating a textbook for understanding what suppositions and beliefs lie below the surface and taking account of the need and value of teaching (McGrath, 2002)

2.4.1 Cultural content representation

As explained above about the significance of textbook evaluation, it is necessary to find out effective ways to analyze a textbook and appropriate criteria to follow in the evaluation process However, different situations will demand its own criteria since textbooks vary considerably in terms of physical appearance, content and approach to learning process; in consequent, no one can set up general criteria for all situations (Sheldon, 1988) Hence,

researchers can merely place limits on their checklists Still, their checklists should be systematic, comprehensible as well as cost and time effective (McGrath, 2002)

Briefly, all the aforementioned matters pushed the researcher to look for a standardized checklist that can be applicable to this study and comprehensible to everyone As a result, the widely-used checklist for textbook evaluation of Litz (2005), involving seven standard criteria for textbook evaluation namely, practical consideration, layout and design, activities, skills, language type, subject and content, and overall consensus, was selected For further elucidation, the researcher took a closer look into the criteria and checklists suggested by different scholars (Cunningsworth, 1995; Kilickaya, 2004; Khodabakhshi,

2014; Daneshfar & Abdollahi, 2018) and recognized that “Practical consideration”

examined such aspects as the up-to-dateness and attractiveness of the textbook’s outlook; the easiness in obtaining the textbook; the inclusion of teacher’s book, workbook and CDs

or the reasonability of its price, etc (Cunningsworth, 1995) Also, “Layout and Design”

scrutinized some facets such as the captivation and clarity of layout and design; the

appropriateness and content relevance of illustrative materials, etc

Besides, “Activities” investigated into the sufficiency and distribution of communicative

practice and four language skills exercises; the incorporation of individual, pair, and

group work; the introduction of grammatical points and vocabulary items in realistic

contexts; the possibility of modifying or supplementing activities in the textbook, etc.;

whereas “Skills” paid heed to the balanced integration of four language skills; the

consistency between the complexity and difficulty of skills work progress and grammatical and lexical progression; the incorporation of four skills in realistic contexts, etc

Apart from four afore-stated criteria, “Subject and Content” is also taken into account since

it covers such issues as the variety of information and values embedded in textual materials; the relevance of topics and contents to learners’ interests, learning needs or expectations; the representation of biased assumptions or negative stereotype; or the interestingness

of topics and contents, etc With regard to “Language type”, this criterion probed the

authenticity and appropriacy of a certain language to learners’ language proficiency levels; the balanced progression between vocabulary and grammar; the exemplification of grammatical points; or the use of language functions in real life, etc

Last but not least, “Overall consensus” circled around such facets as the appropriateness

of the textbook to the language learning aims of the institute in which it is used; the suitability for class size; the role of the textbook in promoting learners’ interest in further language study; teachers’ reselection to use the textbook, etc

Especially, since one of the focuses in this study was on the cultural representation in

“Motivate! 2”, Litz (2005)’s checklist served as a framework to compare and contrast with eight forms of cultural representation suggested by Adaskou and his co-researchers (1990) for selecting the criteria that are applicable to this research Also, it is evidenced that cultural information and values are either implicitly or explicitly presented in the form of not only illustrative materials but also textual materials and teaching-learning activities (Sugirin, Sudartini, Suciati, & Nurhayati, 2011; Endah, et al., 2017) Besides, such criteria

as “Practical consideration”, “Language type”, and “Overall consensus” have no or little

relevance to culture as described above through their investigated matters; while the

criterion - “Skills” is penetrated into the teaching-learning activities As a result, the criteria

for evaluating the cultural content representation in “Motivate! 2” centered on three criteria

namely, Layout and Design; Activities; Subject and Content

2.4.1.1 Layout and design

In this aspect, the study focused on illustrative materials since a text combined with visuals

is far better comprehended in comparisons with a text devoid of any images (Ametller & Pinto, 2002) Concurrently, these illustrations are crucial to all levels of language acquisition because they may have either positive or negative influences on teaching and learning process (Kuen, 2010) More particularly, good illustrations enlighten and add value to the content, enabling learners to quickly understand the gist of textual materials

and simultaneously extract information from images which “help learners visualize the

Bad illustrations, in contrast, can destroy and distort the flow of learners’ thoughts and intended meanings that the texts convey Hence, it can be assumed that good and content-relevant illustrations make the content more captivating and facilitate the teaching-learning process (Kristiawan, 2012); whereas poor and content-irrelevant images mar the intended meanings and demotivate learners to acquire the knowledge (Lambert & Noel, 2015)

2.4.1.2 Activities

Cultural content is also reflected through a wide range of activities provided in the in-use textbooks or designed by teachers To put these culture learning activities into function, four out of eight principles for designing learning tasks proposed by Widodo and Pusporini

(2010) were taken into consideration in this study (See APPENDIX 2); particularly, the

use of learners’ prior background knowledge or experience; the relevance to learners’ current level of English proficiency, interests, learning styles, affective domains and learning needs; the incorporation with language skills; and the application of authentic materials

2.4.1.3 Subject and content

According to Kirkgöz and Ağçam (2011), one of the effective ways to impart cultural information in English classrooms is the incorporation of interesting and intriguing topics and content It is; therefore, essential to highlight the relation of textual materials to not only learners’ needs and interests but also daily life (Litz, 2005) In the era of globalization and technology explosion where learners have ample chances to approach different entities around them, the majority of topics in EFL textbooks nowadays are updated to become

more congruent with the taste of new generation; and thus, the textual materials – “carrier

of cultural knowledge” - are adopted genuinely from different sources to “convey comparatively greater amount of cultural information” and “reflect some aspects of culture, whether it is target culture or native culture” (Zu & Kong, 2009) Clearly, it is of great

demand to incorporate a wide range of topics and textual materials related to learners’ interest and the cultures of different countries in the world into EFL textbooks for satisfying learners’ needs and expectations as well as captivating their attention (Lee W Y., 1995)

Overall, three afore-discussed criteria examine not only the cultural content representation but also the cultural content delivery since the goals of culture teaching in the curriculum

of a certain language course are set up primarily based on the content given in the in-use textbook while the culture teaching strategies are manifested through the employed teaching aids or materials and learning activities

2.4.2 The cultural content delivery

2.4.2.1 Goals of culture teaching

The concept of culture is regarded to be very difficult to define thereby requiring more efforts and causing more troubles for teachers to determine what to instruct in class Still, defining a clear set of culture teaching goals can aid educators in elaborating what to teach, when and how to transmit cultural information and values in EFL materials to language learners As a result, different scholars have developed and proposed their own goals of

cultural instruction (See APPENDIX 2)

Howver, despite the clarity of each set of goals in terms of the need and usefulness, teachers still have to deal with problems related to the suitability of each goal to their own educational settings and language learners For this reason, the three culturally-oriented goals proposed

by Lafayette and Schulz (1989), namely knowledge, understanding and behavior, were

selected since they are regarded to be more reliable to pursue and largely adapted in most

language classrooms (Khemies, 2015) More specifically, Knowledge refers to one’s

capability to recall, recognize, and depict cultural information or pattern(s); while

Understanding relates to one’s ability to understand and enlighten cultural information or

pattern(s) in terms of its meaning, source, and interrelationships within the larger cultural

situation Also, Behavior pertains to one’s ability to use cultural information or pattern(s) to

form meaningful and appropriate behaviors in real or simulated communicative contexts

In brief, all the three aforementioned goals are cognitive objectives which strive for building

up greater cultural consciousness of learners, broadening their knowledge of cultural information and values of different countries in the world and allowing them to identify the

similarities and differences between their own culture and others, thereby making them more competent language users

2.4.2.2 Culture teaching strategies

According to Cortazzi and Jin (1999), the success of culture learning in EFL classrooms is also contingent on how the cultural content in the in-use textbooks or teaching materials is delivered to learners However, different educational situations will demand their own approaches to the cultural content representation

Apparently, there is a great variety of culture-based pedagogical strategies developed for achieving culturally-oriented goals and incorporating culture in language teaching (See

APPENDIX 2) Aside from those strategies, other scholars also proposed their own

instructional ones in conformity with their educational contexts For example, Peterson and Coltrane (2003) circled around the use of common proverbs and such real objects as statuettes, tools, models, etc., the invitation of exchange or immigrant students, the organization of field trips, and the exploitation of films and television segments to observe behaviors that are not obvious in texts Along the same vein, Usaquen (2012) also highlighted the employment of videos, and cultural resources familiar with learners’ lives that can stimulate their curiosity about the cultures of different countries in the world; while

Zu and Kong (2009) accentuated the importance of dialogues, texts and cultural notes in reflecting a great amount of information related to different aspects of various cultures

Generally speaking, all the strategies stated in this section and in Appendix 2 offered a

holistic view about the importance of flexibly integrating diverse authentic visual and textual materials in accord with learners’ interest, intellect and English proficiency as well

as implementing appropriate strategies to transmit cultural facts and patterns of different

countries to learners so that they can “feel, touch, smell and see the foreign people, not just

hear their language” (Purba, 2011; Chastain, 1988) With the appropriate employment of

teaching materials and culture-based pedagogical strategies in language classrooms, not only can students recognize the differences among various cultural groups but also act probably in cross-cultural situations, comprehend the explicit aspects and hidden values of