Luận văn a cross cultural analysis of english textbook for grade 11 and suggestions of supplementary activities for students’ cross cultural awareness

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRAN THI HAT A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH TEXTBOOK FOR G

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRAN THI HAT

A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH TEXTBOOK

FOR GRADE 11 AND SUGGESTIONS OF

SUPPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS’ CROSS-CLLTURAL AWARENESS

PHIÂN TÍCH SÁCH GIÁO KIEOA TIẾNG ANIELOP 11

TU KITiA CANTI GTAO VAN TIOA VA DE XUAT CAC HOAT BONG BO TRO DE PHAT TRIEN NHAN THUC GIAO VAN

HÓA CỦA HỌC SINH

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Codc: 60.140.111

HANOI—2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRAN THI HAI

A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF ENGLISIT TEXTBOOK

FOR GRADE 11 AND SUGGESTIONS OF

SUPPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS’ CROSS-CULTURAL AWARENESS

PHÂN TÍCH SÁCH GIAO KHOA TIFNG ANH LỚP 11 TỪ KHÍA CANE

GIÁO VĂN HÓA VÀ ĐÈ XUẤT

CAC HOAT BONG BO TRG DE PHAT TRIEN NHAN THUC GIAO VAN

HÓA CỦA HỌC SINH

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.140.111

Supervisor: Prof Nguyén Quang, Ph.D

HANOI - 2014

DECLARATION

Thereby certify that the minor thesis entitled:

“A cross-cultural analysis of English textbook for grade 11 and suggestions

of supplementary activities tor students’ cross-cultural awareness”

Ihave provided fully documented zeterences to the work of others The material

in this thesis has not been submitted for any other university or institution wholly and partially

Hanoi, 2014

Trần Thi Hai

completing the thesis

1 wish to take this opportunity to cxpress my heart felt thanks to the lecturers of

the Faculty ot Post - Graduate Studies who help me a lot during the Master Course Last but not least, | owe my parents and my husband their continuous support

‘Their patience and love have helped me go beyond what sometimes looks like an

insurmountable task.

to varivus kinds of cultures such as world culluc, informational culture and Vietnamese culture, (2) the textbock reveals elements of cross-cultural comparison that promote students’ cross-cultural awareness, (3) the research suggests some supplementary activities among a number of activities used for culture teaching in classrooms that may be used to develop students’ cross-cultural awareness

‘The author hopes that the findings of the research may support teachers to adjust their cultural teaching content and help textbook editors in the next reform of Tigh school textbooks

ABBREVIATIONS

ELT: foreign language teaching

SLT’: second language teaching

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Rationale of the atudy

2 Objectives of the study

3 Methods of the study

6 Structure of the study

11 Foreign language textbooks and treatment of culuaral content LLL Classification of cultural content in foreign language textbooks

£42 Cultural topics and categories in foreign language textbooks

LLB Checklists for anabzing the cultural dimension m foreign language

textbooks

1.2 Culture teaching in foreign language teaching

13.1 Principles for culture teaching

2.5 Checklists for the cross-cultural analysis in the study

2 Implications and recommendation

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Vista Is been a member of World Trade Organivation (WTO) sincs

2006 This integration is both opportunity and challange Thanks lo this decision, Vietnamese people are casy to sock a jab and gain higher salay Tt, however, requires Iabour sowee with high level and effective communication in an intemational language In order to understand each other, people need to understand not only each other’s language, but also each othet’s culture This can open the door

to better intemational understanding and ensure peaceful relations between nations

Language and culture are interdependent and interactional Language may reflect many factors of cullure and cultwws affeets the way language is used in tum,

As Bremberk (1977:14) states “lu know anollx’s language and not his cultwe is a very good way to make a fluent fool of one’s self”, Thus, leaming culture is obviously a vital factor for Vietnamese students for success in communication because second language learmng is second culture leaming Without the study of culture, foreign language instruction is inaccurate and incomplete, In modem ELIYSLY materials, texthook editors rightly emphasize the close relationship between leaming a language and leaming its culture It is suggested that just Tearing four skills (spedking, listening, reading and writing) may cause the iraproper understanding of the memings of a language

In 2006, a new cuniculum which defines Fngtish as a compulsory subject, is

“instrumental to the access of world science and technology as well as world cultures” was developed by Ministry of Education and ‘Training (MOET, 2006) MOET designed new English textbooks for high schools to foster students’ four skills and provide students with overall knowledge of English-speaking countries, their people and cullures in 2002 One of the objectives of English teaching and loarting is 10 cnbanec shunts’ cross-cultural awareness Since their wation-wids inoplewertation in the school year 2007-2008, a great deat of rescarch have been

carried oul 1g svaluatz English lextbook of grade 10 as well as to find out how the textbook are actually implemented or the difficultics that tcachzrs and students have

to thee when teaching and leaming by the new textbook However, most of these studies have dealt with the teaching and learning of the four language skills which are believed to be new for both teachers and students at grade 10 and grade 11, And ong research on cross-cultural factors for grade 10 was conduxted Hence, there is stilt a lack ofrascarch on crass-cultural factors in English textbook of grade 11

For the aforementioned isasons, the author bas decided to condnet this study It is hoped that this study will help students and teachers realize cross- cultural factors which may be implicit or explicit in the textbook, contribute some immediate activities to develop students! cross-cultural awareness

2 Objectives of the study

‘This research was cartied out to serve the following objectives

‘fo identify cultural treatment and categories revealed in the textbook

To suggest supplomentary activities for Grads 11 students” eross-cullaral awaroness

so that English leaming and teaching become more interesting and cffoctivc

3 Research questions

In this research, the cross-cultural analysis of the textbook is carried ont to answer the following questions:

1 How are cultural and cross-cultural contents treated in Grade 1] English

‘Textbook? Which cultwres are represented in the nationally developed Grade 11

Lnglish textbook and to what extent?

2 What type of cultural catcgorics docs Grade 11 English textbook introduce

and to what extent?

3 What type of supplementary activities should be used to umprove Grade 11 students’ cross-cultural awareness?

4 Scope of the study

The thesis focuscs on Reading and Listening passages in Grade 11 English textbook (developed by Hoang Van Van et al, Vietnam Education Publishing House, 2007) The tasks in Reading and Listening sections and the content of Speaking, Writing and ‘The Language Mocus sections (including illustrations) are also employed for analysis when and if appropriate

In the national high school Tnglish syllabus, there are no appropriate guidelines for cultural instructions allhough the stress on students? cross-cultural awareness is cmphasized It is beheved that a good cross-cultural cvaluation of a textbook can be made when the goal of cultural instructions is clearly stated in the syllabus, Therefore, the study just makes an attempt to conduct a small-scale cross- cultural analysis of the Grade 11 textbook It does not provide a general assessment

of the whole set of Grade 10, Grade 11 and Grade 12 English textbooks for Vietnamese high schools

5, Methods of the study

in order to achieve the objectives of the rescarch, the study resorts to quantitative method, The analysis is conducted according to the two modified checklists proposed by Cortazzi and Jin, Hiresh et al., Chastain

6, Structure of the study

‘The thesis consists of three main parts

Part A: INTRODUCTION — All the avademiy routines required for am MA thesis are presented

PART B: DEVELOPMENT — This is the focus of the study and consists of 3 chapters

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

Chapter 2: Methodology of the study

Chapter 3: Results and discussions

Part C: CONCLUSION: Revicw of the findings, implications and litnitations af

the study and some suggestions for further rescarch are given.

PART B DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Foreign language textbooks and treatment of cultural content

LL Classification af cuitural coment in foreign language textbooks

‘Textbooks and instruction materials are often used by teachers and language instructors since they are considered essential constiments in EFI/SIT As

Hutchinson & Torres (1994:315) suggest “ihe textbook is an almost universal

clement of English language leaching.” They suggest thal lexthouks cm support teachers through potentially disturbing and threatening change processes, demonstrate new and/or untried methodologies, introduce change gradually, and create scaffolding upon which teachers can build a more creative methodology of their own A very indispensable assumption about using textbooks in L'I/SLT is

that they reflect the culture through their cultural content Dunnel, Dubin and

1

erg (1986) posit thers are Iwo types of lexthooks: one-dimensional and two- dimensional One-dimensional textbooks foens on the target language culture and

Isave few possibilitics for comparison, “unless the teacher injects a question, such

as, ‘This is what American do What do you do?’ or ‘This is the American view

What is your view?” (Dunnet, Dubin and Lezberg (1986: 153) While two

dimensional textbooks encourage cross-cultural understanding, they treat culture- velated thernes from two different perspectives, [hus stirmuating both comparison

and contrast between the tagel and the source cultures Later on Moran (2001; 15-

18) offers four calegories of culiural coment that should be introduced to students where cultural content is identified as:

- Knowing about, relating to cultural information facts about products, practices and perspectives of the target culture as well as students’ own;

- Knowing how, referring to cultural practices in the everyday lite of the people of

the target culture;

- Knowing why, constituting an understanding of fundamental cultural perspectives

— beliefs, values and attitudes;

- Knowing oneself, concerning the individual learners? sclfawareness In other words, students need to understand themselves and their own culture as a means to comprehend the target language culture

Regarding culture-related teaching materials and textbooks in English classroom, Cortazzi and Jin (1999) provide a novel look at the sources of cultural information They dussified the sources of culture textbooks into source cultsaz textbook (learner's own eultize), target oultuse textbook (any English-spealdng

courses where English is spoken as a first language), and international target

culture textbook (English-speaking or non-speaking English countrics around the

world where English is not used as a first language) They distinguish three types of cultural information to be presented in foreign language textbooks:

- Source culture textbooks refer to the textbooks which present language leamers’ own culture Usually, these are the textbooks that are produced at a national level for a particular country Preparation of the language helps learners to introduce their

own culture 10 English-speaking visitors is the main purpose of this kind of

textbooks

- Target culture textbooks usually foous on one or two target cultures, such as the

United Kingdom, United States The textbooks of this category are the most popular

instruction matenals in the EFL context The reason for integrating target culture

into English classroom lies in firstly that leaming a target culture will nurture student motivation and develop their attitudes toward langnage leaming Students using such textbooks might lave more competence when talking to people frorn the target culiure or visiting the tagel country They could also he aware of cultural

differences between their own culture and the targel culture, so students’ awarcniess

of the target culture is thus enhanced

- International target culture textbooks involve textbooks that include a wide

variety of cultures set in English-speaking countries or in countries where English is

not a first or a second language, but is used as an international language, namely lingua franca Students not only lear the target culture from such textbooks but

also learn about more than onc culture, Their knowledge of other cultures umy enhance studcnt’s motivation, develop their attitudes toward language learning, and raise their awareness of other cultures,

1.1.2, Cultural topics and categories in foreign language textbooks Researchers have made many attempts to find out relevant cultural issues to deliver in forcign language textbooks Tl mainly focuses on investigating whal

aspects of culture sludents should learn in order to be able to function in that culture

or interact with people ftom that culture They proposed some frameworks to

deseribe specific catcgorics of cultural knowlcdge that should be taught to students

Brooks (1986: 124-128, first published in 1964) compiled 62 possible

cultural topics which could be used as the contents of brief cultural presentations in

the language classroom He also draws a considerable attention to a comparison of a student’s view of life with that of an individual in the new speech community

Under each topic he provides some example questions so that teachers could

elaborate the topic according to students" age and experience For example, under

the Lopic “Sofl dinks and alcohol” he presents the following questions:

What types of nonaleshotic beverages are usually consumed by young

people and adults? What is the attitude towards becr, wine, and spirits? What

alcoholic drinks are in frequent use at home and in public?

(Brooks 1986: 126)

Similar to Brooks, Chastain (1988:303-304), based on the idea of

anthropological definition of culture, proposes thitly-seven categories of cults

thermos for forcign language Ieamers, Ta develop students’ camprehension of the

valucs behind the cat2gories, Chastain suggests using comparison and contrast whert introducing these cultwe themes, There are 37 topics in his list, including Geography, Contemporary Science, Commonly Known History, Clothing, Transportation, Home, Economic System, Earning a Living, Retirement, Money, Services, Health and Welfare, Family, Courtship and Marriage, Population, Politics, Death, Crime, Humor, Holidays, Leisure Activities, Correspondence, Language,

Fducation, Courtesy Phrases, Good Mame

Communication, Religion, Ecology, Vacations, Travel, Daily Routines, Pets, The Press, Meeting Personal Needs

Durant (1997:31) also emphasizes the comparative approach, He details list

Zaling, Social Tnteraetion, Non-verbal

of cultural topics which comprise food, customs, the legal and judicial system,

holidays, housing and gardens, social altitudes, and forms of political expression

He also posits there i

sational conventions) and ritml behavior (¢.g., birth, mariage snd death)

Stem (1992) focuscs on six categories which an avcragc language student is likely to require: places, individual persons and way of life, people and society m general history, institutions and, finally, art, music, literature and other achievements Ile claims that a student needs to have

me sense of physical location to which relate the Largel language” To teachers, he suggests thal they cant overoome tho vasiness of material by careful selection and differcutinted approaches

1.1.3 Checklists for analyzing the cultural dimension in foreign

lunguage texthouks

In order to help teachers to pick up teaching materials that best meet the demand of the course and students’ needs, there have been various checklists for analyzing foreign language textbooks However, some scholars such as Byram

(1997:71), Cortazzi and Jin (1999:201) and Skopinskaja (2003:44) contend that in some checklists the cultural studies dimension is missing Cortazzi and Jin (1999:202) add that other checklists address only certain aspects of culture (for

example, stereotypes) or varieties of target cultures (for example Britain or the USA).Still others put aside uncomfortable social realities such as unemployment,

poverty and racism

Byram (1989) and Cortazzi and Jin (1999) offer Huhn’s (1978) list There are seven criteria to deal with the cultural content of foreign language textbooks in his list:

Cultural information must be accurate and contemporary;

The question of stereotypes must be handled critically;

& It must provide a realistic picture of the foreign society;

3 It must be free from ideologies;

4 Facts should not be presented in isolation;

$& The historical material should be presented explicitly;

Later on Cunningsworth (1995), the social and cultural context in foreign language

course must be understandable to students and they should be able to interpret “the

relationships, behavior, intentions, etc of the characters portrayed in the book” He asks the following questons”

v Are the social and cultural contexts in the textbook comprehensible to the

students?

Y Can students interpret the relationship, behaviours, intentions etc of the

characters portrayed in the book?

v Are women given equal prominence to men in all aspects of the textbook?

v What physical and character attributes are women given?

¥ What professional and social positions are women shown as occupying?

v What do we learn about inner lives of the chracters?

¥ To what extent is the language of feeling depicted?

v Do the textbook characters exits in some kind of social setting, within a

social network?

¥ Ate social telationships portrayed realistically?

‘Thanks to Huhn’s (1978) list of criteria, Cumningsworth’s (1995) checklist or recent checklists like Sercu’s (1998) set of questions, Kilickaya (2004), it can be seen that scholars have developed them in a more systematic way, However, it cannot be denied that the textbook assessment is more or less subjective, difficult to answer and time-consuming for researchers who want to develop a questionnaire based on

those chacklists

1.2 Culture teaching in foreign Janguage teaching

1.2.1 Principles fur culture teaching

When students leam a foreign language, their ultimate aim is to understand the ways people do things and why they do them With traditional teaching methods, students are focused on the improvement of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills as well as the teaching of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar ‘These may lead to misunderstanding in some real situation or commumicate less effectively, or even cause culture shock to students Scholars have been ongeing concerns about the teaching of cullure in forcign tanguage

instructions Like leaching other aspects in foreign language instruction, culty teaching requires organized devclopment of its teaching principles Kramsch’s

prmeiples may be considered the most noticeable one Kramsch (1993: 205-206)

wams against a simple “transmission of information” about the foreign cnlture and its members’ worldviews She highlights what she calls “new way of looking at the teaching of language and culture” These include:

- Establishing a sphere of interculturality, which cans that teaching cuttin:

is nul Iransftrring tmformalion between cultures bul a foreign culture should

be put in relation with one’s own The intercultural approach includes a

teflection on both cultures

- Teaching culture as an interpersonal process, which means replacing the

teaching of facts and behaviors by the teaching of a process that helps to

understand others.

- Teaching culture as difference, which weans considering tha

multiculturality and nmulticthnicity of modern socictics and looking at various

tactors like age, gender, regional origin, ethnic background, and social class

In other words, cultures should not be seen as monolithic

- Crossing disciplinary boundaries, which means linking the teaching of culture Lo other disciplines like anthropology, sociology and semiclogy

Kramsch (1993) concludes that these “lites of thought lay the ground for a much richer wnderstanding of cultwe than heretofore envisaged hy the mayortty of Janguage teachers”

1.2.2 Common approuches ta the teaching of culture Researchers or scholars have observed, researched and classified approaches

to the teaching of culture in different ways in which some of them have lost ground, others have had dominant positions In very broad terms, they divided ways to teach culture into two: those focusing only on the culture of the country whose language studied is called the mono-cultural approach, and those based on comparing learners’ own and the other culture is called ths comparative approach:

L220 The mono-cultural approach

Risager (1998:246) calls the mono-cultural approach the forcign-cultural

approach It focuses on the culture of the country where the language is spoken and

is based on the concept of a single culture It seems to be a shortcoming today

because it is lack of the relationship between cultures ‘The aim of the teaching is to

develop native speaker communicative and cullural competence This approach was

prevalent unt the 1980s and is looked down nowadays since it does not consider

Jeamers’ understanding of their own culture

1322 The comparative approach The comparative approach puts the stress on the relationship between the foreign cultwe and the leamers’ own Buttjes and Byram (1991:13, cited m

Edginton 2000: 136) state that instead of providing leamers with “a one-way flow

of cultural information” they should be encouraged to refleci on their own and

11

forcign culture With the comparstive øpproach, siudenls leam thai people can do things by many ways, and their way is not the only possible onc, Leamer’s knowledge, belief and values combining with those of other culture are addressed

to form a successtid communication Byram and Planet (2000:189) state that “the comparative approach does involve evaluation but not in terms of comparison with something which is better, bul in fens af improving what is all tao farniliar.” Comparison gives Icamers a new perspective of their own Iimguage and vulture

dlartios and differences of their own and other cultures As a result, they can enhance knowledge, understanding and

acceptance

Tough Unis, students discover both sĩ

1223 Other approaches

- The theme-based approach

‘Theme-based or thematic approach to the teaching of culture relies on certain themes, for example, family, humour, beauy, liberty, value, religion, symbolism, ceremony, love and education, which are seen as typical of a culture, This approach endcavours to indicate the valucs and rclationslrips in a given culture and helps Ienmers to understand i better Nevertheless, it might be difficult for them to see individual pcople and understand social processes and values from this perspective and could lead to stereotyping (Visniewska-Brogowska 1999; 61) Theme-based approach has some flaws because it provides students with an unsystematic view of

the target culture

- The task oriented approach

‘This approach is based on learners” awn Tesuarch, Different from the previous ene,

it is characterised by co-operative tasks Learners work in pairs or small groups on various aspects of the other culture They share and discuss their findings with others in order to form a more complete picture Finally, leamers interpret the information within the context of the other culture and compare it with their own

The skill-centered approach

The skill-centred approach aims ai developing learners’ skills, which they may need

to deal with issucs related to communication among cultures, Therefore, this approach is beneticial for people needing to live in the targetlanguage community

It does not merely mean knowledge of the other culture, The skill-centered approach addresses awareness and skills as much as content, their sintlarities as

well as differences.