TO WHAT EXTENT DO STUDENTS PERCEIVE THE CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN “LIFE” TAUGHT AT HCE?...30 4.2.1.. Students’ emotion at cultural elements in “Life” taught at HCE.... Final test analysis for
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
English is widely recognized as a lingua franca due to its extensiveusage worldwide (Fang, 2017) It is the most popular foreign language in Vietnam and a required subject in Vietnam’s educational system Mastering grammar,vocabulary, and fourskillsare the primary goals of the school curriculum since it is still a subject that students need to learn, take tests, and achieve excellent grades, not communication However, simply acquiring proficiency in grammar and vocabulary may not be adequate for learners, as they also require intercultural competenciesandunderstanding (Ariawan & Sumardi, 2022) In the
21st century, globalization has led to a significant silift in language learning and instruction, with a growing emphasis on the cultural dimension (Cao, 2020) Proficiency in English is cincial for effectiveintercultural conununication, as it selves as a common medium for individuals from diverse backgrounds.
In countries where English is not the first language, such as Vietnam, there should be a strong emphasis on mastering English skills and intercultural communicative competence (ICC: henceforth) to enhance global career opportunities and professional success In class, there are various ways of integrating ICC into the teacher’s teaching. One ofthem is that cultural content should be included in English textbooks, not onlyof American orBritishculture but also ofmany countries in the outercircle and expanding circle, because it can provide students with a broad view and knowledge of world Englishes, as well as how to interact appropriately in any situation Indeed, there is a growing acknowledgment of the interconnectedness between language and culture, highlighting then interdependence within social life Languages offer intricate and comprehensive insights into the multifaceted nature of every society's culture (Alshenqeeti, 2019).
At Ho Chi Minli City College of Economics (HCE: henceforth), English is a compulsory subjectfor students across all majors Beforedelvinginto English for specific purposes, students are required to complete two general English terms, which comprise six credits This serves as a foundation, ensuring students attain a basic proficiency in English Previously, textbooks like New English File and Market Leaderwere utilized in HCE before Life was introduced Life, Vietnam edition - second edition, a six-level integrated-skills series with grammar andvocabulary for young adult and adult English language learners, includes astudent book with webapp code and online workbook This series was written by John Hughes, Helen Stephenson and PaulDummett and published by National Geographic Learning,a Cengage Company.
Since 2015, Life has been endorsed by the Ministry of Education and Training as the English textbook for 26 universities, aiming to enhance students’ language proficiency. The adoption of Life is attributed to its focus on global issues, integration with technological advancements, and its emphasis on fostering essential 21st century skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and cross-cultural understanding Recognizing these benefits and the fact that cultural content is important when choosing an EFL textbook and bringingmulticultural awareness in the minds of EFL students (Bahraini, 2015), the college has decided to implement Life as the textbook fornon-English majoredstudents at the elementary English level (A1-A2) since 2018.
However, cultural aspects are often overlooked in language teaching within HCE Many linguistic-focused curricula neglect cultural factors due to time constramts,prioritizinglanguageproficiency over culturalunderstanding Additionally, teachers may lack training in integrating ICC into their lessons, further hindering the incorporation of cultural elements in the classroom There appears to be a lack of research into the representation of cultural elements in Life (A1-A2), students’ perceptions of the cultural elements in the textbook taught at HCE This research initiative was created to address this shortage.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
There are significant previous studies about the representation of cultural elements inEnglish textbooks Most of the findings show classified cultures and perceptions of teachers or students on cultural elements taught in class Reading texts, dialogues, exercises, and pictures were analyzed to find all cultural components based on related frameworks or theories The imbalanced cultures in the textbook prevent students from being successful intercultural communicators (Azimzadeh, 2020) There is a huge difference between locally written books with an emphasis on source culture and internationallypublished English textbooks withpriority over the target or international culture Incorporating local cultural content into English language textbooks helps students recognize the diversity of regional cultures and fosters a positiveunderstanding of cultural differences among nations (Qodriani & Kardiansyah, 2018) Meanwhile, exposure of target and international cultures is also importantfor students toenhancethen- knowledge of countries from inner, outerand expanding circles.
The study on culture-loaded English textbooks promotes the awareness for curricula planners, teachers and students to pay attention to cultural teaching and learning to enhance intercultural communicative competence Investigating cultural representationis an interesting topic for researchers because it opens up a new approach to acquhing language, not only the language itself but also the language used in intercultural enviromnents It is intended that by raising awareness ofcultural learning, teachers will gam insight into English teaching and students will be able to gain ICC both within and outside the classroom.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The pui-pose ofthis study is to investigate the representation of cultural elements inLife (A1-A2) It also discovers students’ perceptions of the cultural elements in the textbook taught at HCE Hopefully, this researchwill help raise curriculum plaimers’ and teachers’ awareness of incorporating cultural elements into English textbooks and language teaching to help students enhance theirICC in diverse contexts.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This study seeks the answers to the two following research questions:
1 What are cultural elements represented in Life (A1-A2)?
2 Towhat extentdo studentsperceive the cultural elements in“Life” taught at HCE?
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study is intended to explore the representation of cultural elements in “Life (Al- A2)” Students’ perceptions of cultural elements taught at HCE are also examined The researcher uses EFL classrooms as the primary context for the study and collects data from HCE first-yearnon-Englishmajored students.
To achieve the goals ofthe study, theresearcher adopted mixed methods that focus on calculatingthenumerical data andexplaining, understanding thenon-numerical data The researcher only focuses on students’ perceptions of cultural elements in the “Life (Al-A2)”textbookused at HCE Smcethis is only a single aspect of theproblem, there areno perceptions or attitudes ofteachers taken about the research Otherresearch may address this topic inthe future.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
As notedearlier, the aim ofthis study is to investigate cultural elements in “Life (Al- A2)” and students’ perceptions of these elements taughtat HCE The target participants are college first-yearnon-English majorswith a limited English level and little interest in studying English for daily purposes other than exams The researcher hopes that the findings will contribute to the effectiveness of culturalteaching and learning in the EFL classroom The Endings may help teachers have a clear vision of appropriate teaching methodology to help students enhance then ICC and use English as an intercultural communication tool Moreover, thefindingshelp to raise curriculum planners’ awareness of the need to design more activities to create stimulating intercultural envhomnents for students in college The cultural content ofthis study should be fully taken into account.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The important terms used throughoutthis study are as follows:
Culture is a society’s collective system of ideas, norms, values, conventions, behaviours, and tangible goods used by its people to navigate then- envhomnent and interact with one another (Bates & Plog, 1980) There are two primary sorts of culture: big c and little c Big c culture includes easily observed and remembered facts, sometimes referred to as objective or intellectual elements like geography, history, and architecture (Peterson, 2004) On the otherhand, little c culture refers to the way of life, including the daily patterns and routine elements such as food, holidays, lifestyles, customs, and values(James & Aziz, 2020).
Cultural elements encompass various facets including culture, history, geography, politics, and familiarity with daily practices, contributing to a holistic comprehension of a country, its society, and every facet of life In this context, cultural elements denote all aspects relevant to any societywhose language is taught in foreign language education (Aiabacioglu & Balkaya, 2023) Moreover, Baker (2001) defmes cultural elements as source-language words that express concepts unknown to the target culture.
Cultural element learning involves the acquisition of both culture-specific and culture-general knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for successful conununication and interaction with people from different cultures through topics, themes or situations used in textbooks This process is continual, evolving, and engages the learner intellectually, behaviourally, and emotionallyover time (Paige et al., 1999).
Intercultural communicative competence is defined in themostcitedworkof Byram
(1997) as “the ability which enables one to interact effectively and appropriately with people from different cultures in a foreign language, and it involves many components including linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and intercultural competence” (p.53) Other scholars share similar conceptsofICC, Lazar et al (2007) define ICC as the capacity for appropriate intercultural communication and relationalbehaviour in a rangeof cultural contexts.
Cognition is the process of developing information and insight in the mind (Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, n.d.) It is also defined as a process that requires students to analyze phenomena, make inferences, assess arguments and think critically (Human- Vogel, 2004) According to the American Psychological Association (2000), cognition refers to the mental processes related to acquiring, processing, storing, and using information, encompassing perception, attention, memory, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making.
Emotion refers to the positive or negative feelings that are formed in a particular situation (Finestone, 2004) Emotion is a multidimensional psychological state that involves subjective experiences, physiological changes, and behavioural expressions, such as internal feelings like happiness or sadness, body responses, and external acts (American Psychological Association, 2000).
Behaviour indicates the way aperson, an animal, a plant, a chemical, etc behaves or functions in a particular situation (Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, n.d.) It may also be defined as anindividual’sactions and reactions to stimuli, includingbothobservable acts and internal processes, and is influenced by biological, psychological, and enviromnental factors (American Psychological Association, 2020).
2.2 CULTURE IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
According to Brown (2007), “languageisa partof a culture, andculture isa part of the language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannotseparate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture” (p.164) Corbett (2003) states that the teaching of culture holds significant importance in modern foreign language education, as one of themain goals oflanguage instruction is to foster understanding and tolerance between cultures Presently, students are learning English not only to communicatewith native speakers but also to become intercultural speakers capable of navigating multicultural environments (Byram & Wagner, 2018) Moreover, Risager
(2012) argues that education promotes cross-cultural dialogue, embraces diversity, and emphasizes individual students’ qualifications, personal experiences, attitudes, and abilityto navigate diversecultural contexts.
In today’s globalized world, it is evident that learning a second or foreign language necessitates engaging with its cultural aspects Incorporating cultural elements in EFL classrooms can help teachers create realistic scenarios, allowing learners to develop into proficient intercultural communicators (Alshenqeeti, 2019) Using cultural topic knowledge in language classes can help students confront commonly held cultural attitudes about themselves and others (Kumaravadivelu, 2008) Students must possess both communicative and intercultural skills to effectively interact with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds To promote efficient conununication among people from various cultural backgrounds, learners must have cultural knowledge of the target language to avoid cultural misunderstandings and overcome barriers to cross-cultural conununication (Chi & Vu, 2024) Teaching withan interculturalfocus aims to enhance learners’ interculturalcompetence, enablingthemto establish mutual understanding with individuals from various social identities and interact with them as multifaceted individuals with unique identities and characteristics (Chaouche, 2016).
2.3 THE ROLES OF CULTURE IN TEXTBOOKS
Numerous scholars emphasizethe significance of textbooks in language education and training According to Dweik and Kawar (2018), textbooks are essential tools in EFL classrooms, playing a pivotal role in enriching the teaching and learningprocess High- quality textbooks are crucial for enhancing the overall effectiveness and quality of education They should enable flexible and creative teaching methods, motivating and aiding students in acquiring proficient conununication skills in foreign language classes(Arabacioglu & Balkaya, 2023) Furthermore, textbooks serve not only as educational materials but also as social and cultural artifacts, encompassing various themes like culturalvalues, societal norms, national ideologies, and more (Widodo, 2018).
Culture is an important aspect ofEFL textbooks Cortazzi & Jin (1999) identify three primarycategories of culture addressed in ESL/EFL textbooks: (1)source culture, which corresponds to the learner’s native culture; (2) target culture, referring to the cultures of English-speaking countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia; and (3) international culture, which represents cultures ofother countries besides source and target cultures.
Several scholars have observed a predominance of English-speaking countrycultures in ESL/EFL textbooks, with minimal representation of other cultures Bahrami (2015) states a lack of conformance to intercultural learning norms in textbooks, with a major emphasis on Western culture Cao (2020) points out an imbalance in the representation of cultures from different regions, with a bias towards Western cultures over others Similarly, Hilliard (2015) confirms an overemphasis on Western cultures in ELT textbooks, resulting inthe marginalization of cultures from regions like Asia and Africa.
In textbooks, another framework for categorizingcultures is proposed by Yuen (2011) which includes four distinct elements, commonlyreferred to as the 4Ps These elements include product, representing tangible cultural artifacts such as food, literature, and tourist attractions; practice, which encompasses customs, daily activities, and sports; perspective, involvingintangible aspects like myths, worldviews, and beliefs;and person, referring to notableindividuals who have influenced the culture.
The representation of culturalelements in textbooks has been the subjectof numerous empiricalresearchstudies For example,in a mixed-method studyexamining 50 male and female teachers working at Kish Language Institute in Esfahan, Bahrami (2015) investigatedteachers’ perceptionof the cultural elements of the Total English book series and studied the techniques and strategies that teachers usually used in teaching these elements A questionnaire and class observation were used to collect and analyze data The studyfindings indicate that the TotalEnglishbooks did not adhere to the criteria for intercultural learning, with apredominant emphasis on Western culture Additionally, it was observed that teachers oftenoverlooked culturalelements in their classes, employing a limitedrangeof teclmiques for teaching theseelements This lackof attention to cultural topics was attributed to potential gaps in teachers’ cultural awareness.
A study by Qodriani and Kardiansyah (2018) aimed to explore the representation of culture-related contents embodied in the Indonesian English electronic textbook 2013 curriculum andhowculturewas preserved anddisseminated inthe textbooks.The study’s methodology was described as descriptive qualitative, focusing on analyzing data extracted from the electronic English textbook titled “When English Rings a Bell”, revisededition (2014) by Kemdikbud RI The analysis involved a systematic approach to examining the textual and illustrative content accompanying the reading passages. Utilizing content analysis, the study aimed to identify and categorize cultural content present in the textbook This process involved analyzing readingpassages to assess the inclusion of cultural content and then classifying and coding these findings for presentation intables The findings of the studyindicate that incorporating local cultural content into English language textbooks helped students recognize the diversity of Indonesian cultures and fostered apositive understanding of cultural differences among nations Additionally, the studysuggested that culture-based English language textbooks were beneficial for authors, teachers, and scholars in developing materials that incorporate local and regional cultures Such textbooks had the potential to increase awareness among both teachers and students regarding the interconnectedness of language and culture Furthermore, the study suggested that integrating local culture into English language education might influenceteaching methodologies, material selection, and content development to better alignwith the goals of English language education in a global context.
METHODOLOGY
This chapter consists of the following elements:
This study adopted the descriptive design to delve into the representation of cultural elements in “Life (A1-A2)” and students’ perceptions ofthe cultural elements in “Life” taught at HCE by using mixed methods approach The purpose of using mixed methods is that it is becoming increasingly popular in a variety offields, and it has long been advocated as a tool for improving knowledge of research challenges (Molina-Azorin,
2010) Additionally, the quantitative research focuses on quantifying and measuring phenomena with large sample sizes from the questionnaire Meanwhile, qualitative research focuses on explaining and understanding the nature, perspectives with smaller sample sizes from the content analysis Integrating findings from both subjects allows a more detailed and nuancedanalysis inthe study (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2017; Fetters, Curry, & Creswell, 2013).
First, the content of the twelve units in “Life” was under analysis Each unit consists of nine parts, includmg three fundamental pillars of English (grammar, vocabulaiy, pronunciation), fourskills (listening, reading, speaking,writing), real life (fiinctions)and critical thinking All topics cover different aspects of life and cultural elements are integrated m some sections in eachunit These elementswere classified using Cortazzi & Jin(1999)’s and Yuen (201 O’s frameworks.
Source Learners’ own culture The source culture in this study is
Vietnam culturewhich is participants’ own culture.
Target Cultures of English-speaking countries like the United States, the
International Cultures of othercountries besides source and target cultures.
Product Tangible cultural artifacts such as places, historical sites, songs, books, food, literature, and tourist attractions
Practice Daily activities, rituals, and cultural practices that relate to a certain culture such as customs, sports, holidays, celebrations, ceremonies
Perspective Theviewpointof a specific group ofpeople that distinguishes them from other cultures and intangible aspects like myths, worldviews, and beliefs
Person Notable individuals who have influenced the culture such as smgers, poets, writers, national figures, artists, heroes
Table3.3: Diverse topics in “Life”
(Cultural element analysisfor “Life” can be seen in Chapter 4 andAppendix)
Theresearcher alsoanalyzed the content of the final test Itconsists of seven partswith eighty multiple-choice questions that students need to answer within sixty minutes Not all parts contain cultural elements, onlysixteen cultural element occurrences were shown in this test These elements were also classified using Cortazzi & Jin (1999)’s and Yuen
Table 3.4: Cultural elements in the final test
Part Requirement Sentences Cultural element occurrences
Pronunciation: Choose the word whose underlined partis pronounced differentlyfromthe others.
II Choose the mostcorrect optionto complete each sentence 6-45 5
Choose the most conect response to the first statement ineach question
IV Choose the underlined part that needs correcting 51-60 3
VI Cloze-text: Choose the most con-ect option to fill in each gap 68-74 4
MI Choose the mostcorrect sentence 75-80 0
Second,thepopulationforaquestionnaire analysis wasfirst-year non-English majored students at Ho Chi Minh City College ofEconomics in Vietnam As reported by HCE Department of Academic Affairs (2023), there were 2668 first year students in the academic year 2023 - 2024 Due to the scope of the study, 2501 students from various majors, except for English language (167 students), were chosen as thepopulation In the first-year, all non-English majors study English course with “Life (A1-A2)” as the main textbook Most of them had limitedEnglish proficiency, even some students did not study English in then- high schools because the curriculum of their Continuing Education
Centers did not have an English subject Therefore, teaching English to these students was a challenge that required teachers to create more attractive and mteresting English environments, withcultural immersion being a trending solution.
Table 3.5: Participants from non-English majors
No Majors The number of students
Due to time constraints,the researcher could not collectall2501 students’ responses, hence identifymg the sample was essential The sample size was calculated using Taro Yamane’s formula which is simplified, convenient, flexible, universally accepted and used Wliere n is the sample size, N is thepopulation size, and e is the margin of error.
In this study, N is 2501 and e is 5% Adoptmg a 5% margin of error indicates that out of 100%, the study has a 95% confidence level, with just 5% possible mistakes.
Following this formula, the sampled participants were a cohort of 345 first-year non English majors However, the actual chosen participants were 333 because twelve participants’ answers were removed afterascreening question of the questionnaire They have not spent the same amount of tune learning English because they are from different educational backgrounds and origins.
No Majors The number o f students
Table 3.7: Sampled participants’ years of learning English
No Years of learning English The number of students
The study’s survey using a questionnaire was conducted in the middle of June 2024.
At that time, most of the students did not go to school because they were inpreparation time for the final exam Due to time constraints andconvenience, students were givenan online questionnaire via Google Forms Samples were chosen accordmg to convenience in a non-probability sampling design because non-probability sampling is more cost- effective and faster to deploy than probability sampling (Battaglia, 2011) The samples were selected most easily for the researcher and appropriate for the study at that time. Since theresearcherwas not able to meet all students in person, theresearcher forwarded the Google Forms link to the Deans of Departments ofnon-Englishmajors for providing it to their first-year students who have recently completed the English course using the
Ho Chi Minh City College ofEconomics which was established in 1989 is a public institution located in the center of Ho ChiMinh City, Vietnam Every year, nearly 1,000 students graduate from HCE and jom the labor force HCE believes that every student deserves a proper education with 202 committed teachers and staff, and HCE believes each student has a claim to a decent education It aims to widen their understanding of international relationships and intercultural communication, allowing for an inspiring academic environment within which it offers world-class facilities.
For 35 years now, HCE has consistently remained on course, giving its promise to boost academics and make sure learners succeed in every field Beginning simply as a merger of four vocational training establishments in Ho Chi Minh City, HCE is now a distinguished name in the industry due to its rigorous training programs that focus on skills that are competitive and marketable The students who emoll at HCE are provided with advanced equipment and personnel and are also linked to an ever-expanding community of around 40,000 graduates who live and workworldwide.
HCE offers 16 full-time college-level degree programs to equip students with the proper competencies to succeed in today’s industry The duration of each curriculum is two years and a half, consisting of in-class training, work placements, and seminars The highly skilled instructors at HCE come from seven faculties and strive to provide an inclusive and effective learning environment while sharing their own talents and experiences tliroughlectures, assignments, and mentoring HCE isproud to boast a 90% job placement rate immediately after graduation, thanks to its excellent education, reputation, and emphasis on employable and marketable skills.
Since their fust year, students have been taught English in addition to their major studies The English classes are constantly designed to help students improve their English skills and learn about different cultures The college has formed a separate Foreign Languages Faculty, which is in charge ofteaching majors and teaching basic English to other majors The research took place in seven departments of non-English majors at HCE These departments include many majors such as Busmess Administration, Accounting-Auditing, Logistics, Marketing, Korean language, Information Technology, which offer 2-year and a half training courses for students By targeting this specific group, the researcher could easily distribute the questionnahe to the exact sampled participants.
A structured questionnaire, the textbook “Life” and final test were analyzed to collect data Regarding questionnaires, they are often paperor computer-based instruments that ask respondents for their opinions rather than measuring learning (Brown, 1995, p 50; West, 1994, p 7) It has two types: structured questionnaire and semi-structured questionnaire In thisstudy,astructured questionnaire with closed questions wasselected. Closed questions limit a respondent’spossible responses Respondents are usually given a list of possiblerepliesto choose from For all items of thequestionnaire, the researcher used a five-point Likert scale: “Strongly disagree”, “Disagree”, “Neutral”, “Agree”,
“Strongly agree” The respondent could select the best answer from a scale of closely related items (Buckingham,2016) The22-item five-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect 333 students’ answers It was developed from Kilickaya (2004)’s guidelines to evaluate cultural content in textbooks It included 22 questions in three clusters: (1.) Students’ cognition of cultural elements in “Life” taught at HCE, (2.) Students’ emotion at cultural elements in “Life” taught at HCE and (3.) Students’ behaviour towardstheir cultural learning at HCE.
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
4.1 WHAT ARE CULTURAL ELEMENTS REPRESENTED IN “LIFE (A1-A2)”?
The first research question is about cultural elements represented in “Life (A1-A2)”. Content analysis and frequency calculation were conducted to answer this question. According to the Cortazzi & Jin (1999) framework, cultural elements were categorized into three types including source culture, target culture and international culture They were also classified into four dimensions using the Yuen (2011) framework, which are product, practice, perspective and person Resultsthat concern the dominant presence of the international culture, the lack of the source culture; the first rank of the product dimension, thefollow-up of the practice, personand perspective dimensions and the ICC enhancement were discovered after analyzing the textbook.
Table 4.8: Cultural categories in “Life”
4.1.1 The dominant presence of the international culture
According to Cortazzi and Jin (1999), the learner’s native culture is known as source culture; English-speaking nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia are known as target cultures; and cultures from countries other than these are known as international cultures.
Table 4.8 shows the frequencyof cultural elements represented in source, target and international types International culturehadthe largest percentage at 68.1%, followed by target cultureat 31.7% and source culture at0.2% In many previous related studies, target culture was mainly highlighted, such as theworks of Bahrami (2015), Cao (2020), James
& Aziz (2020) Conversely, international culture was the dominant, accounting for more thanhalfof alltypes inthis textbook Thistextbook provided students with a wide range of cultures around the world For example, the place names “South Africa, South America, Botswana, Chile, Kenya”, festival “Chinese New Year in Singapore”, lifestyle
“this modern no-car zoneis very popular and people like shopping there (Tokyo)”.
In the Ginza area of Tokyo there are no cars This modern no-car zone is very popular and people like shopping there, so it's always crowded with hundreds of people.
Figure 4.2: Examples of the international cultures
(the picture above: no-car zone in Tokyo, the picture below: a festival in Singapore)
From this finding, there was an imbalance of culture types with the emphasis on international culture It approached students with a new trend of language teaching:intercultural languagelearning.Itaims to assist students in interpreting and understandmg other cultures This strategy incorporates a diverserange ofcultures into the curriculum ratherthan focusing on a specific one (Kilickaya, 2004) Students are expected toacquire not only linguistics but also cultural knowledge After graduation, students are ready to join the workforce, so cultural understanding is critical if they want to stand out among their classmates.
4.1.2 The lack of the source culture
In contrast, the lack of source culturewas recognized in all units Although theversion of “Life (A1-A2)” used at HCE is the Vietnam edition, source culture appeared in an exercise and only reached 0.2%of alltypes, whichwas a modest proportion Therewere no informative reading texts or dialogues about Vietnam, meanwhile, the textbook mentioned certain Asian countries, such as Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Thailand This book was written by international authors to provide students with a globalperspective, therefore source culture was less relevant than other cultures as compared to locally written Englishtextbooks.
2 You were onaten-dayvisitto a universityin Vietnam Someone attheuniversity showed you round Ho Chi MinhCityatthe weekend and helped youduring your visit.
Figure 4.3: Example of the source culture
In fact, source culture in the textbook is important to students According to Byram
(1997), a person with ICC has the knowledge of cultures in their own and in other countries and the abilityto interpret a document fromanother culture, explain and relate it to theirownculture It highlights the importanceof one’sowncultureinacquiring other cultures and in their ICC development Moreover, incorporating local cultural content into English languagetextbooks helps studentsfoster a positive understanding of cultural differences among nations (Qodriani & Kardiansyah, 2018).
Table 4.9: Cultural dimensions in “Life”
4.1.3 The first rank of product dimension
Yuen(2011) identifiesfourculturaldimensions: product, representing tangiblecultural artifacts such as food, literature, and tourist attractions; practice, which encompasses customs,daily activities, and sports; perspective, involving intangible aspects likemyths, worldviews, and beliefs;and person,referring to notable individuals who haveinfluenced the culture As seen from Table 4.9,product dimension appeared the most frequently and led the first rank with 86% Practice and person dimensions shared almost identical percentages of 7.7% and 5.7%,respectively The lastrank was forperspective with only 0.7%.
Cultural elements categorized under product dimensionrange from place names and languages to movies and cuisine These elements were represented through pictures, reading texts,listening texts, dialogues, exercisesand videos All units start with a picture ofone location in the world Eveiy part ofa unit has a picture to illustrate the content of this part The use of pictures can stimulate learners’ curiosity and lead to their creative and critical engagement in L2 learning (Curtis and Bailey, 2001) Pictures alsoprovide a rich context for L2 situationsand cultures,facilitatmg numerous methodsin L2 education (Wang & Hemchua, 2022).
Table 4.10: Examples of two units’ first background pictures
Table 4.1 J: Examples of product dimension
Inthis text, the USA, Milne Bay and Papua NewGuinea were mentioned They are all unit 1
I What’ s your name? p David Doubilet.
I Where are you from? p The USA I'm a photographer for National Geographic
| 1 really like this photo p; Yes, it's in Milne Bay.
| And who's the diver in the photo? What’s her name? p: Her name's Dinah Halstead.
| Where’ s she from? p: She's from Papua New Guinea She's a diver and she's
Fortune cookies are nice at the end of a meal in a Chinese restaurant and they're easy to make
You need the following pieces of paper three eggs sugar salt and flour
First of all write your messages on the pieces of paper Next mix the eggs sugar salt and flour and pour the mixture onto a tray
This textprovided studentswith information about how to make a Chinese cuisine — fortune cookies.
4.1.4 The follow-up of practice, person and perspective dimensions
The practice whichcovers some countries’ daily activities, lifestyle, customs reached the second rank Since unit 4, many famous and influential people in the world were mentioned, so the person dimension was atthe thirdrank Theywere also embedded in pictures, reading texts and exercises as the formerdimension Moreover, the perspective was depicted as the least, indicating religions in unit 1 “Cluistian”, “Muslim”, “Hindu” which refer to people’s beliefs, same as in the findings of English textbook analysis of Ariawan & Sumardi, 2022.
All four dimensions in this textbook were sorted into both big c and little c Big c culture includes easily observedand remembered facts, which are also known as objective or intellectual aspects, such as geography, history, and architecture (Peterson, 2004). Meanwhile, little c culture refers to a wayof life, which includes everyday patterns and routine components including food, holidays, lifestyles, rituals, and values (James & Aziz, 2020). Ĩốibỉe 4.12: Example of practice dimension
Alistening text in Unit 3 clocks inFlinders Street train station in thecenterof Melbourne It mentioned the times of the trains which areon these clocks The people in Melbourne
Flinders Street train station is in the centre of Melbourne, in Australia The times of the trains are on these clocks
Every day of the week, over 100,000 people walk under
(hem It's thc most famous place in the city When people in Melbourne say, 'Meet me under the clocks' everyone knows where this is. say “Meetme underthe clocks” toclarify where they are Itis abouttheir distinct lifestyle.
Table 4.13: Example of person dimension
The reading text mentioned many famous people:
George Washington, Frida Kahlo andDiego Rivera.
1 WMhiiiqton p.^-* '' • the uằ1*d Sufe* T of Ameôn* He WM bO' n ^ 1712 zotmg On "IW^T' ■^•CWCu 1 Q c
Augutt 21 1929 the married □ u J LJ- the artnt Diego Hneea and they ^ lived and worted in Mcxo Cm
During the nineteen thirtiri they travelled around the wor d k
Their paint men over famou VI men, cowMue Today, ’ raja ant
Diego * face* ate on the Mo-an pew note
Table 4.14: Example of perspective dimension
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Research question 1: What are cultural elements represented in “Life (A1-A2)” ?
As for cultural categories, the data reveal a noticeable imbalance in the cultural elements of “Life”, with a predominant emphasis on international culture through intercultural language learning This approach enhanced students’ appreciation of other cultures By arranging a diverserange of cultures into the curriculum, ratherthan focusing on a specific culture, students not only developed their linguistic skills but also cultural awareness, which was essential for them to be outstanding in the global workforce As same as many previous related studies, the source culture was not focused on balance with otherculture types Although “Life” used at HCE is the Vietnam version, it does not provide students with then own culture Understanding one’s own culture is crucial for developing ICC (Byram, 1997), which enables students to comprehend and relate from different cultures to then own Local culture also broadens students’ comprehension of cultural distinctions and fosters a positive attitude towards international diversity Therefore, this demonstrates the significance of integrating source culture into the textbook.
Regarding cultural dimensions, there was also an imbalance with the product on the first rank and followed by the practice, person and perspective All dimensions were represented in all grammar, vocabulary, four skills sections through pictures, texts, dialogues and multimedia in the textbook The product had a dominant place to provide students with the knowledge of a wide range of cultures through place names, languages and cuisine The practice including daily activities, customs and lifestyle had the second rank andthe person which refers to the influential peoplerankedthethird The perspective dimension which addresses religious beliefs such as Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism received less attention, so it was ranked last among the four dimensions Destinations,languages, food, daily activities, customs and people were visible and easy to accept rather than understanding one’s own perspectives This was appropriate for students at theelementary English level Moreover,the textbook focusedon enhancing students’ ICC by designing related tasks such as planning a tour of one’s hometown or introducing oneself in native and English languages These tasks asked students to comprehend and reflect on both their own and targetcultures, this developed theircultural awareness and reduced the misunderstandings of other cultures Generally, integrating these cultural categories, dimensions and ICC tasks into languageeducation was important for students to understand not only local but also global cultures.
Research question 2: To what extent do students perceive the cultural elements in
The analysis of students’ responses to cultural elements in their textbooks reveals a deep understanding and appreciation of these elements Although students could recognizecultural elements in “Life”, they straggledto identify the cultural diversity and differentiate the perspective dimension with an “agree” mean of 73.8% of general recognition and a belief that English-speaking cultures were dominant In addition, students had positive feelings about cultural elements taught at HCE, they thought the cultural language was comprehensible and suitable for their English level The textbook also conveyed a neutral perspective on cultural elements without a positive or negative towards any specific culture However, there was a significant difference in students’ emotional responses, with a 31.9% gap between those who agreed and disagreed about their selection of statements related to their emotions To be more specific, 24.1% of students disagreed with incorrect statements such as stereotypes and culturally inappropriate problems, while 56% agreed with the correct statements in the textbook. This shows that students paid much attention to the survey and thoughtfully considered their responses.
In terms ofcultural learning behaviour, 65.2% of students agreed that the integration of cultural exercises and activities was useful for creating a dynamic learning environment and enhancing theirICC Although many students had not experienced this type of class, they still thought that the textbook was the best resource, and that the teacher’s efforts improved their language skills and enhanced their cultural awareness.
Thisprepared them to interact and work effectivelyon a global scale Last but not least, the final test was examined if students perceived the cultural elements hl the final test with ease, so it indicates thatthe cultural learningoutcomematched the learningprocess.
It wasdesignedtohavea balanced cover oftarget and international cultures, with fourteen cultural elements of product dimension and only one each of practice and personal dimensions This test contained sixteen cultural elements in eighty sentences, standing at 20% of thetestcontent This demonstrates that cultural componentswere not themajority, but they were presented and evaluated Students’ high recognition of cultural elements (85.8%) indicates that they were well-prepared to engage with these elements in the final test, and incorporating cultural elements into the textbook and final test effectively supported students’ cultural awareness during their learning.
The study is about students’ perceptions of cultural elements in “Life(A1-A2)” at Ho Chi Minh City College of Economics The purpose of this study is to investigate the representation of culturalelements in this textbook It also discovers students’ perceptions ofthe cultural elements in the textbook taught atHCE The results ofthis research will increasecurriculumplanners’ and teachers’ awareness of incorporating cultural elements into English textbooks and language teaching to help students enhance then ICC in diverse contexts.
Withregard to dataanalysis, this researchwas conducted in three phases For research question one, the researcher collected cultural elements in “Life” and classified them using Cortazzi &Jin’s and Yuen’s frameworks For research question two, theresearcher distributed an online questionnafre to students via Google Formsto gathertheir answers about then perceptions of cultural elements taught at HCE Finally, the researcher examined cultural elements from the final test based on Cortazzi & Jin’s and Yuen’s frameworks to examine if the cultural learning outcome matched the cultural learning process.
The study used a descriptivedesign to discover patterns and trends inthe data.Cultural aspects in “Life” were quantified, conveiled to percentages, and accompanied by extensive explanations The questionnaire data was evaluated by first filtering out irrelevant responses, then showing demographic information with bar graphs, and then summarizing responses on a 5-point Likert scale as percentages in MicrosoftExcel The final test data was assessed for cultural components, classified by types and dimensions using the frameworks and given with frequency for explanation.
Regarding the study’s results, the first research question focused on cultural elements represented in the “Life” textbook The study investigated an imbalance of cultural categories with a greater emphasis on intercultural cultures and languages than on students’ own cultures This approach improves students’ understanding of global cultures while failing toaddress theneed to integratethe local culture which is crucial for ICC development The textbook’s cultural dimensions also had an imbalance of presentation: theproduct dimension, which included place names, languages, and cuisine, was most prominent, followed by the practice including dailyactivities and customs, the person referring influential people, and theperspective indicating religious beliefswhich was the least covered This distribution was appropriate for students’ English limited level However, the balance is better to equip students with general aspects of life, so it emphasizes the need for better integration oflocal, target and international components and four cultural dimensions as well as ICC tasks to increase cultural understanding to reduce misunderstanding of othercultures.
The second research question found how students perceived these analyzed cultural elements in “Life” Students recognized the cultural elements, but they struggled to identify and differentiate cultural diversity and perspective dimension, consideringEnglish-speaking cultures as dominant Most of themthought the cultural language was comprehensible and the textbook’s authors maintained a neutral attitude towards all cultures They all believed that cultural exercises increased their ICC and generated an engagmg learning enviromnent Many students showed then- disagreement with some given statements in the questionnaire related to stereotypes or cultural differences The final test, which included 16 cultural element occurrences, reveals that, while cultural elements were not the majority, students perceived the cultural elements in the final test with ease because most of students were familiar with them from the textbook, so it indicates thatthe cultural learning outcome matched the learning process Studentswere well-prepared to engage with them, meaning that incorporating cultural elements into boththe textbookand assessment effectivelysupported students’ cultural awareness.
This study draws some recommendations for English cultural learning The results show that itshould be a balanceof source, target, international culturesand fourcultural dimensions including product, practice, perspective and person hl the textbook This provides studentswithawide range ofdiverse cultures all around theworld Apart from using the main textbook, teachers need to use additional teaching materials to assist students in understanding their own culture and studying different ones Teachers who teach and interact with students in class directlyplayan important role ininfluencingand guiding students towards culturallearning Therefore, the following ideas are intended to be recommendations for emerging intercultural language teaching which focuses on enliancing students’ ICC.
In a non-English context, it is quite hard to provide students with authentic language. Using films and videos in the classrooms can develop students’ intercultural knowledge and communicative skills Smce they have beenacknowledged as a significant source of real-world language input, movies can become a crucial component of a communicative English classroom (Chaya & Inpin, 2020) The languageused in real life is derived from movies They contain many conversational styles from peoplewith various origins.
These styles are occasionally excluded in textbooks, which onlypresent afewgeneral structures If students just learn from textbooks, there is only one way to use language in any circumstances and it may not always be appropriate foreveryone Teacherscanshow films and videos ofreal-life talks to students and encourage them to take notes on new structures thatcan replace theexisting onesin textbooks but are morerealistic andnatural in real life Teachers then correct and comment onthem Students have more varied ways of using language that is appropriate for cultural conununicationcircumstances It canbe noted thatthe use of movies in EFL lessons has unproved students’ authenticity, diversity, realism, and adaptability (Sari & Sugandi, 2015).
Moreover, teacherscan adjust then teaching methodology to developstudents’ ICC. They should integrate the cultural content into activities in class Cultural problem solving is likely a useful exercise First, teachers provide them with intercultural communicative knowledge, then propose some scenarios and require students to analyze and find outthe solutions For example:
Fang, a Chinese, and Jane, an American, are classmates After several years apart, they meet again at a party.
Fang: Hi, Jane Are you doing well? Do you receive a high pay recently?
Fang: wiry are you so silent?
Jane: I find this question quite annoying.
Fang: Oh, why? I don’t understand whatyou’re saying.
What's the problem? How do I resolve the conununication breakdown?
