Luận văn integrating american cultural studies into teaching english to the grade 11 students at tran phu gifted high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IIANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRAN THI TUYET MAI INTEGRATING AMERICAN CULTURAL STUDIES INTO TEAC

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IIANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRAN THI TUYET MAI

INTEGRATING AMERICAN CULTURAL STUDIES

INTO TEACHING ENGLISH TO THE GRADE II

STUDENTS AT TRAN PHU GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL:

AN INITIAL INVESTIGATION

Bước đầu nghiên cứu việc tích hợp day kién thive van hod Mp

trong tiệc day tiéng Anh cho hoc sinh khối 11 Trường THPT chuyên Trần Phú, Hải Phòng

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology] Code: 60.14.10

HANOI -2012

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRAN THI TUYET MAI

INTEGRATING AMERICAN CULTURAL STUDIES

INTO TEACHING ENGLISH TO THE GRADE 11 STUDENTS AT TRAN PHU GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL:

AN INITIAL INVESTIGATION

Bước đầu nghiên của việc tích hợp dạy kiến tức văn hoá Mỹ

trong việc dạy tiếng Anh cho hoc sinh khôi 1I

Truong THPT chuyén Tran Phi, Mai Phong

M.A MINOR TIIESIS

Ficld: English Language Teaching Mcthodology

Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: VU THI THU THUY, M.A

ILANOL - 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Method of the study

Design of the stucy

PART I: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .:0:::::seeeeeeeeeeeee cece arene aeaaneneee a

1 Language and Culture

1.3, Cultural studies in language teaching, HH tees 8

2 What are the main goals for teaching American cultural stuởies? 9

3 What are the prinoiples for teaohing American culture studies? 1Ô

4 What are the most common approaches to the teaching of American Cultural

5 What are some techniques and activities for teaching American Cultural

6 Evaluating materials for teaching American Cultural studie 14

2.1, Overview of the current silualion of teaching and learmumg American Cultural studies

2.3 Conclusion

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Findings from questionnaires for the teachers 224

3.1.1 The teachers’ perceptions on the definition of American

3.1.2 The teachers’ pereeplions on the importance of leaching

American cultural studies in the classroom 34 3.1.3 Erequency of teaohing the culture-related issus 25

3.1.4 The teachers’ way of teaching American Cultural studies in the

3.1.7 The teachers’ opinions about difficulties in teaching American Cultural

3.2 Findings from questionnaires for the students 31 3.3.1 The students” perception of the importance of leaming American

3.2.2 The students’ opinions of the ways of teaching American Cultural

3.2.3 The students’ choice of lupies for American Cultural stuches in the

3.2.4 The students’ ways of gaining American Cultural studies knowledge

135

3.5 Discussion of the findings duc seo sec 38

1, Summary of the study 41

vi

2, Pedagogical implioatidhs cà cà ni neo

4 Suggestions for further study 44

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Characteristics of the teachers

Table2: Difference between the teachers’ and students’ opinions about the ways of teaching

American Cultural studies in the classroom

Table 3: Difference between the teachers’ and students’ scores for topics of teaching, American Cultural studies in the classroom

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 The teachers’ scores for the ways of teaclang Americans studies in the classroom

Figure 2, The leachers' scores for the lopice of teaching American Cullural studies in the

classroom

Figure 3; ‘The leachors’ scores for malcrials for teaching American Cultural studies in the

classroom Figure 4 Difficulties in teaching American Cultural studies in the classroom

Figure 5: ‘The students’ score for the ways of teaching American Cultural studies in the

dlassroom

Figure 6: The students’ score for the topics of teaching American Cultural stndies in the

dlassroom

viii

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Tt cannot be denicd that English has nowadays become a common means of communication of human being all over the world Perceiving that trend of the global inlegralion, Vietnam has been more and more active to [rain active and dynamic Vietnamese, who can use English fluently for communicative purposes ‘That is the reason why in 2002, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has set out new aims for English language teaching for sccondary education as well as introduced new series of nglish textbooks from grade 6 to grade 12

The new English textbooks for high school students are divided into lwo sets:

the advanced and the standard Lach unit in the new English textbooks consists of five parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Feous, among which the Language Focus sections are to consolidate students’ pronunciation and grammar They are claimed to adopt the latest teaching and leaming approaches: communicative approach and Ieamer-cenlered approach and aim al developmg bollt language skills and language knowledge for students

Since their nation-wide implementation in the school year 2006-2007, a great

number of researchers have been carried out to evaluate these new textbooks as well as

to find oul how these textbooks are actually implemented er the difficulties that

teachers and students at high schools have to face when teaching and Iearmmg with the

new textbooks Most of these studies have dealt with the teaching and learning of the

four language skills which are believed Lo be new for both teachers and students

However, there is still one more indispensable aspect which tends to be depreciated It

is cullure that turns oul to be the fifth skill m language learning aru] tacked on to the

teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, It always st

ys in the background

to decide the good language leamers when paid enough attention to It supports lcamers to achieve their communicative competenec Nevertheless, the number of research on the teaching and leaming of culture in general and America studies in particular in the classroom is obviously limited It is necessary to carry out more

tesearch on how (cachers and students teach and learn culture in the aclual classroom

Besides, national exammmations (national examimalions for GCSE, universily entrance examinations) have currently included some questions related to American

cultural studies issues (for example: how to address certain situations, etc.)

On the other hand, there are various cultures that Lnglish language is getting connected with Among those, the United States has a leading economic, political and

cultural foree in Ihe world Moreover, the Uiuited States 1s also the ideal destimation for

overseas students, which has resulted from its top-ranking education system Thus,

learning about the culture of the United States appears to be a wise choice

Moreover, after two years of teaching linglish with the new Linglish textbooks at

Tran Phu Gifled High School, the researcher observed thal the teachers and learners

there faced a mimber of difficulties in teaching and learning American cultural studies

in the classroom

According to Bada (2000: 101), “the need for cultural literacy in ELT arises

mainly from the fact that most language learners, not exposed to cultural elements of

the society in question, seem (0 encounter significant hardship in communicating

meanmg to native speakers.” In addition, nowadays the L2 culture is presemed as an interdisciplinary core in many 1.2 curricula designs and lexthooks (Sysoyev &

Donelson, 2002)

tò

Stimulated by the above reasons, the researcher has decided to conduct this study It is hoped that this study will discover the reality of teaching and learning American cultural studies at Tran Phu Gifted high school in order to contribute some

immediate solutions

2 Aims of the study

The aim of this study is to examine the current teaching and learning of American

cultural studies im the Iigh school elassroom al Tran Phu Gified High School

In order to achieve the aim the study seeks to find out:

(1) The teachers’ and students’ perceptions on the importance of American cultural

studies Leaching and learungr

(2) low the teachers and the students deal with American cultural studies in the

2 How do the teachers teach and the students leam / expect to learn American

cullural sludies in Ingh school classroom?

3 What method and techniques do the teachers and the students use / expect to

use?

4 What are the difficulties in teaching and leaning American cultural studies as perceived by the teachers?

4 Scope of the study

This study is limited to the teaching and learnmg reality with regard 1o teaching

and learning American cultural studies in the classroom

This study is a detailed suvey at Tran Phu Gifled High School in Hai Phong

‘Therefore, the findings of the study are not intended to be generalized to other school contexts Indeed the findings may not apply beyond the actual participants in this

particular study

5 Significance of the study

‘This study helps to identify the problems and suggests ways of improving them, therefore, it is hoped that this study will be beneficial in many ways First, participants

in the study (the teachers and the leamers at Tran Phu Gifted High School) will benetit immediately from the experience of reflection Secondly, the findings of the study will contribute information to textbook writers and educators to determine curricula and

program direction

6 Method of the study

‘The study was designed to use both quantitative and qualitative methods ‘Then,

various instruments were used to collect the data for the study from different sources:

- survey questionnaires to investigate the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards American cultural studies, their teaching and learning habits and their difficulties in teaching and learning, American cultural studies in the classroom

- class observations to get information about both the teachers’ methods of teaching, and students’ ways of leaming American cultural studies in the classroom

- interviews with the teachers to get in-depth information about the teachers’ and the

grade 11 students’ suggestions to improve the teaching and leaming of American

cultural studies m Ihe classroom

7, Design of the study

‘the study is divided into three parts: Introduction, Development and

The Conclusion part provides a brief summary of the findings in correspondence wilh the four proposed research questions as well as offering some recommendations for better American cultural studies teaching and leaming, The limitations of and suggestions for further study are also discussed in this chapter

Besides, the survey questiomaires for the teachers and students and the suggested lesson plan are included in the Appendices

PART IT: DEVELOPM!

CIIAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 WILAT IS LANGUAGE?

Language has been around since human beings started to communicate with one another for their daily life needs The term language is so familiar that few people would ever by to define il This superficially not hard to define il, but in fact to have a comprehensive definition of language is an extremely daunting task Definitions for language run the gamut from very simple lo extremely complex Patrikis (1988) simply defined language as signs that convey meanings Language is also “a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value” (Kramsch, 1998, p 3) From a linguistic perspective, Sapir (1968), a renowned Imgurst, defined language as an entirely human and non-intrinsic method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols Generally speaking, language can be regarded

as a system of verbal and nonverbal signs used to express meanmgs Besides language,

another closely related concept that is sometimes mentioned in the literature of

language teaching is culture

1 2 WULAT IS CULTURAL STUDLES?

Cultural studies is an exciting and “hot” field of study It has become the rage amongst progressive of all sorts — not least because culture as a theme or topic of study has replaced sovicty as the gencral subject of inquiry among progressive Cultural studies has made its presence felt in academic work within the arts, the humanities, the social sciences and even science and technology It appears to be everywhere and

everyone seems to be talking about it And being aware of what exactly cultural studies

involves being conscious of what culture is

Culture is a multidimensional concept Concerning the terms “culture”, several researchers have attempted to define it The very term culure seems rather controversial, Cullure, can be viewed from a variely of angles, depending on whether

we take into account tits aral, or written aspects, whether we look at highbrow, or popular culuure, and whether we focus special events or everyday life and practices

One of the well-known definitions of culture is Goodenough’s (1957, p 167)

«a soci¢ly’s cullure consists of whatever il is one has lo know or believe im order lo

operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and to do so in any role that they accept for any one of themselves

Brown (2007, p 188), however, delined culture as a way of life, as the context

within which people exist, think, feel, and relate to others, as the “glue” that binds

groups of people together Moreover, culture, as Brown (2007) suggested, can also be

defined as the ideas, customs, skills, arts, and tocls that characterize a certain group of

people in a given periad of time

Additionally, Mead (1961, p 90) postulated thal culture can be learned, whereas

Fox (1999) noted that “oulture is relative and changeable in space and time” Like language, culture may seem to be another concept that is not easy to define In fact, Tang (2006) rightly observed that despite the continued ctforts in various disciplinary

fields to find a definition for the term culture, at the present time there is no single definition that satisfies everyone

In conclusion, culture is a powerful human tool for survival, but it is a fragile phenomenon It is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our

minds Our wrillen languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are

merely the products of culture They are not culture in themselves In other words, it

can be noted that culture seems to be (almost) everything, and cultural studies the study

of (almost) everything Thus, the definition of cultural studies cannot be misconstrued

on the assumption that it is not simply the study of different cultures, Actually, it uses many other studies to analyze different cultures such as philosophy, theology, literature, etc Cultural studies helps discover how and why cultures are formed and the

reason groups ol’ people acl the way they de

1.3 CULTURAL STUDIES LY LANGUAGE LEARNING

Both language and culture are concepts that seem to have posed great

dilficulues for scholars to define Besides, there seems to be an inevitable relationship

between these two concepts Shaul and liurbee (1998) stated that languages and cultures are systematic to a large degree, and are thus observable and desoribable Furthermore, many authors have pointed out that language and culture are closely

related (Ardila-Rey, 2008; Brown, 2007, Damen, 1987; Kuang, 2007; Kramsch, 1998;

Tang, 1999) For example, Ardila-Rey (2008, p 335) maintained thal: “Tamguage and

culture are inextricably linked with cach other.” Likewise, Brown (2007) pomted out

the interrelatedness of language and culture:

Language is ct part of a culture, and culture is a part of ihe language; the two

are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing

the sigmiftcance of either language or culture The acquisition of a second language, except for specialized, instrumental acquisition (as may be the case, say, in acquisition of reading knowledge of a language for examining scientific

iexts), is also the acquisition of a second culture” (p 189-190)

‘The dialectical correlation between language and culture has always been a

concem of L2 teachers and educators There are a number of studies aiming at the

seamless relationship between 1.2 teaching and target culture teaching Over the last

decade, there are also a number of the scholars such as Byram (1989, 1994a, 1994b,

1997a, 1997) and Kramsch (1988; 1993; 1996, 2001) who have begun to realize the

intertwined relation between culture and language teaching It can be hard to learn a language without knowing its culture Leaming a language has in fact been considered

as “inseparable from learning its culture” (Kuang, 2007, p.81)

More than two decades ago, Brown (1986) remarked that second language

learning m some respecls involves acquiring a second identity, and thal second language leaming is often equal to second culture learning Brown (2007) again clearly

averred thai acquiring a second language is acquiring a second culture

Similarly, Scliger (1988) noted that culture is among the various factors that will

affect the rate and degree af second language teaching He reasoned that because

language 1s employed in social exchanges, the feclings, atliludes, and motivations ol”

leamers in relation to the target language, to the speakers of the language, and to the culture will have an influence on how leamers respond to the input to which they are exposed

To sum up, it has been emphasized that without the study of culture, teaching

L2 is inaccurate and incomplete There exists a widespread consensus among scholars

that language and culture should not be treated as separate entities and culture should

be integrated into the language classroom Language is seen as part of culture and cnlure as park of lamguage, which is why they canmot be separated and should be

taught together (Brown 2000:177) For L2 students, language study seems senseless if

they know nothing about the people who speak the target language or the country in

which the target language is spoken Acquiring anew language means a lot more than the manipulation of syntax and lexicon ‘hat is to say, an analytic look at the native

cullure is as important as the learmng el the target cullure

3 What are the main goals for teaching American cultural studies?

When the main aim of foreign language teaching is to develop students’ ability

lo communicals effectively and appropriately in various situations, the teaching of

culture should facilitate imtercultural communication and understanding And, the

teaching American cultural studies in English classes doesn’t make an exception

According to Valette (1986), its cultural goals can be classified into four categories: (1)

developing a greater awareness of and a broader knowledge about American the

target culture, (2) acquiring a command of the etiquette of American culture, (3)

understanding the dilTerences between American cullure and Vietnamese culture, (4)

understanding the values of American culture

Additionally, Peterson and Coltrane (2003) indicated that cultural aclivities as

well as objectives should be carefully and clearly organized and incorporated into

lesson plans These two authars even asserted that culture must be included as a vital

component of language learning

3 What arc the principles for teaching American culture studies?

Based on Kramsch’s study (1993: 205 - 206), in which she highlights what she calls “new ways of looking at the teachmg of language and culture”, here are the ptinciples for teaching American cultural studies:

¢ Eslablishing a "sphere oƒ interculturality”, which means that teaching English

is not transferring information between cultures but culture should be put in relation with its own The intercultural approach includes a reflection on beth cultures

Teaching culture as an interpersonal process, which means replacing the

teaching of facts and behaviours by the teaching of a process that helps to understand

others

¢ Teaching culture as difference, which means considering the multi-culturality

and multi-ethnicity of modem societies and looking at various factors 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

to other disciplines ike anthropology, sociology and semiology

10

In addition, there are some more aspects that might be considered while teaching culture, for example, the teacher needs to be objective, get rid of clichéd images and stereotypes, introduce are clement of discovery Icammg, consider the

‘American dimension, and present cultural information in a non-judgemental fashion

4 = What are the mast common approaches to the teaching of American

cultural studies?

Factors influencing the choice of methodology:

v The situation in which the language is taught,

¥ — Leamers’ age and command of English;

w The teacher

‘The approaches van be classified in different ways

In very broad terms, they can be divided into two: the mone-cultural approach which focuses on (or mostly) on American cultural studies and the comparative approach which are based on comparing Amencan cullural studies and Vietnamese studies ‘Ihe first one is considered inadequate nowadays because it does not consider learners’ understanding of their own culture The second one appears more

conventional fer it tends to relate American cullure to learners’ own, The comparative

approach does involve evaluation but not in terms of comparison with something

which is beter, but in Lenns of improving whal is all loo familiar (Byram and Planet,

2000, p.I82) The comparative approach may begin cither with the strange or the

familiar, yet some authors emphasize the need to deal with the familiar first and then

In addition to the above-discussed approaches, there are a number of approaches that are centered around various aspects of American cultural studies or concentrate on developing certain skills in learners The following approaches concentrate on both giving knowledge and understanding of American culture and encourage students to compare it with their own

The theme-based or thematic approach to the teaching of American cultural

studies is based around certain themes, for examples, synbolinn, value, ceremony,

love, honour, beauty, intellectuality, the art of living, realism, common sense, familv, liberty, patriotism, religion, and education

The topic-based approach concentrates on more general and cross-sectional

topics which involves various cultural issues

The problem-oriented approach aims at getting leamers interested in

American cultural studies and encourages them to do some research on their own

The task-oriented approach is also based on students’ own research Differently from the previous one il is charac

crized by co-operative tasks

The skill-centered approach differs from the above-given approaches in a

sense thal ils more pracheal and might be useful for those who need to hve within the

target-language community It aims at developing learners’ skills, which they may need

to manage the issues mvolved in (nis)commounication between cultures

5 What are some techniques and activities for teaching American cultural studies?

‘There is a great variety of techniques and activities developed for integrating American cultural studies into English teaching Many authors have proposed some viable ways or approaches to teaching American to students Blatchford (1986) argued

that newspapers could be vehicles to teach American cultural studies with the teachers’

help and guide Literature has also been considered a useful source for upper-

immediate and advanced students to have greater insight inte the culture (Valdes,

1986) Scollon (1999) convincingly noted that commercial television can provide a rich

source to bring unconscious cultural cades to the level of conscious perception

Krasner (1999) recommended some beneficial techmques and methods of

teaching American cultural studies: observation (through films, news broadcast, maps

or menus), having sluderts visil ethic sections or restaurants of cries, mint drama

(which provides an example of miscommunication in the fonn of dramatization and the students are asked to discover the cause of the miscommunication), culture capsule

(which olfer brie! explanations of foreign language cusloms, and culture capsule cant also be in the form of oral presentation, reading, writing, or visual aids or realia), and role play (which gives the students opportunities to demonstrate and rehearse appropriate cultural behavior)

According to Stem (1992), some instructional strategies to teach English and

American cultural studies that may seem helpful for teachers looking for some

practical ways to integrate American cultural studies in their English lessons

¢ croatng an authentic classroom environment (techniques include, for cxample, displays and exhibitions of realia);

¢ providing cultural information (for example, cultural aside, culture capsule and culture cluster);

v cultural aside: an item of cultural mlormation offered by the teacher wher

it arises in the text

¥ — culuwal capsule) a brief description of one aspect of American cultural studies followed by a discussion of the contrasts between two cultures

¥ cultural cluster: a combination of conceptually related culture capsules

© cultural problem solving (for example, culture assiimilator);

13

Y cultural assimilator: similar to culture capsule, but assigned as a silent reading exercise

¢ behavioural and affective aspects (for example drama and mini-crama);

© cognitive approaches (for example, student research);

© the role of Hierahme and humanitics (for example, literary readings and watching films);

© real-life exposure to the target culture (for example, visits to the class by native

speakers, pen-pals and visits to other countries),

¢ making tse of cultural community resources (for example, when a foreign language learning lakes plase in the largel-language commumity, the everyday

envionment can be used as a resource)

6 Materials for teaching American cultural studies

Checklist for evaluating the cultural dimension in materials for teaching Anterican cultural studies

Evaluating materials is a complicated process Therefore, various materials

evaluation checklists have been provided to help teachers te choose teaching materials

that best meet the purposes of the teachers as well as the needs of students Of all the

thorough checkhsts dealing wilh the culiural aspecls in a more systematic way, Hulm’s (1978) is considered as a typical example Based on his lists, the following criteria are

included:

¢ Factual accuracy and up-to-date information;

¢ Avoidance (or relativisation) of stereotypes:

e Presentation of a realistic picture,

* Freedom lrom (or questioning) ideological tendencies;

Presenlaliem oŸ phenomera Trì context rather than isolaLed lacts,

Relevance of historical material lo contemporary society;

14

© Presentation of personalities as products of their age

In addition, Sercu (1998), who also considers representativeness and realism as

the most important factors, suggests some questions for (he leachers Le focus on

© What image is presented: a royal or a realistic one?

De the materials only presenta Lourist point of view?

* Are negative and problematic aspects of American cultural studies touched

upon?

De the matenals offer an authentic reflection of lhe mullicullural character of the American society?

* De situations occur in which someone with a good mastery of English 1s not

understood because of differences in culture-specific reference frames?

© Are teachers and learners encouraged to consult additional material on the topics dealt with?

* Are the materials written by members of the different nationalities living in the foreign country or do they maizily presont the white male point of view?

© Are mentality, values, ideas dealt with?

¢ Isa historical perspective presented and used to explain certain present-day features of mentality or national character?

Ts the information on Atncrican

tllural studies integrated in the course or is iL

added at the end of every lesson or even in presented in a separate chapter at the end of

the course?

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Overview of the current situation of teaching and Icarning English at ‘Tran Phu Gifted Iligh School

Tran Phu gifted high school was founded twenty six years ago as a result of the increasing demand of a gifted high school in the city Despite the short period of foundation, the school soon becomes one of the top schools in the country with regard

to the outstanding achievements of the intemational Olympiad and the education quahty as well The schoo! has buill up ils own prestige, which 1s the reason il.has now

been the destination school of all the students in the city

Besides, the school recently started to recognize the increasingly important role

of English, so afternoon English classes taught by the foreign teachers for all the classes have been olfered for three years Plus, the gifted students pay much attention

to Linglish not only as a foreign language but also as an indispensable tool for them to reach their aim to study abroad of 60% students

Conceming the students, the school is the gifted one; therefore, beside two non-

majored classes, the rest are the subjecl-majored ones which are classified mlo two

streams: the Natural Science Stream (Maths, IT, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and

Science classes) and Social Science Stream (Literature, English, French, Chinese,

Russia, and Social classes) Except for tie classes with other foreign language, cach

class has three English lessons a week,

In terms of teaching materials, the new textbock was developed based on the new national curriculum, The book is claimed to adopt a theme-based syllabus However, this syllabus may be more appropriately described as a ‘multi-strand’ one since there is almost everything int it: pics, tasks, [unctions, notions, skills, grammar,

vocabulary and sounds The methodologies the book is claimed to follow are the

16

“leamer-centered approach and the communicative approach with task-based teaching, being the central teaching method” (English 11, Teacher's Manual, p.12) This

textbook 1s accompanied with cassette tapes, student’s workbook and teacher’s manual

There are 16 teaching units and six review units in the hook Each teaching unit

covers one lopic and is structured into five scclions: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus Lach section is supposed to be taught in one period of 45 minutes The sixteen Lopics are derived from six themes: You and me, Education,

Commmunuty, Health, Recreation, The world around us However, they seem net to be

designed in a really oulture-logical way The aspect of culture is not treated equally to

the am at developing sludents’ communicative competence as the textbook is

Overall, 12 English teachers and 136 students completed the questionnaires

Although the queslionmaires were anonymous, lhe respondents were asked Ly

provide some information about their sex, age, educational background (both groups)

as well as work experience, in-service training and location of schools (the teachers)

The teachers 12 respondents were from the school The distribution of the

teachers according to the size of towns is presented in ‘Table 1

All respondents were female Nearly 17% of thei were more (han 50 years old

and 41% were young teachers between 20 and 30 years of age One fifth of the teachers

had a Bachelor’s degree ‘fhe number of those who teach Hnglish-majored students is four (36%)

The more detailed characteristics of the teachers are given in Table I

Table 1 Characteristics of the teachers

The student There are 502 students of the eleventh form at Tran Phu Gifted

High School in Hai Phong However, the target population of the students consisted of

264 grade 11 students of 7 classes, whose stream is not the Social Science The

researcher employed a cluster random sampling technique to select the sample for the

study The reason was that il was difficult and ime-vonsuming to select a random sample of individuals and gather these subjects because they had been already assigned

to different classes with different timetables In this case, according to Fraenkel and

18

Wallen (2003), cluster random sampling was more feasible Besides, with regard to the sample size, Fraenkel and Wallen (2003) noted that “samples should be as large as researcher can obtain with reasonable expenditure of time and energy A recommended minimum number of subjects is 100 for a descriptive study” ‘Lhey also pointed out that

a common error made by beginning researchers is randomly selecting only one cluster

as a sample, which provides unrehable results With the above reasons, the researchers

decided to select four classes randomly The classes chosen were 11 Maths, 11 IT, 11

Physics, 11 Chemistry The total numbers of students from these four classes were 136

students There were 49 male respondents (36%), and 87 female respondents (64%)

2.2.2 Data collection instruments

‘The researcher intended to collect the same information about the reality of teaching and learning American cultural studies in the classroom at Tran Phu Gifted School from three sources: questionnaire, classroom observation and interview with the

hope to guarantee the reliability and the objectiveness of the study

3.2.2.1 Survey questionnaire

To gather data for this study, two questionnaires wore admunistered to the respondents; one for the students and the other for the teachers After analyzing the data in the piloted study the final and formal questionnaires were established

‘The questionnaire for the teachers

‘The questionnaire for the teachers (see appendix 1) was designed with the aim

of finding answers to the following questions

1 Low do teachers define culture and what importance do they attribute to the teaching of it? (QI & 2)

2 How often are cultural issues discussed in their classes and do these issues motivate students” language learning? (Q3&)

3 What method and techniques do they use? (5)

4, What topics and which cultures do they consider important to teach? (Q6&7)

S What teaching materials and other sources do they use and do they offer enough

material for the teaching of American cullurat studies? (Q8, 9 & 10)

6 What are the difficulties in teaching American cultural studies in the classroom?

The questionnaire included ten questions of different types Open-ended questions were included for the definition of culture (Ql) and for the list of the most frequently used loxlbooks (Q10) Multiple-choice questions were used in order lo (md out how important the teachers considered the teaching of culture (Q2), the frequency

of teaching, it (Q3), whether it motivated students’ learning (Qd) and to what extent the

textbooks contain culture-related materials (Q9) Ihe teachers were also asked to

assess the ways (methods and techniques) (QS) as well as topics for the teaching of

culture (Q6) on a five-point Tikert scale, ranging from ‘1’ being the least

useful/important to ‘5’ the most usctul/important Question 7 aimed at finding out which country the teachers mostly focused on and in question 8 the respondemts had ta tick the sources they used for the teaching of culture

‘The questionnaire for the students

The questionnaire for the students (see appendix 2) consisted of lwo separate

parts, One part aimed at finding out the students’ opinions about the learning of

American cultural studies Ihe other was compiled in the form a test Its aim was to find out how much the students knew about America

‘The questionnaire focused on the following, questions

1 Tlow important do students consider the learning of culture and should it be

es? (Q1 & 2)

taught m English cla

2 What ways (activities, techniques) do they consider the most useful for the learning of culture? (Q3)

3 What aspects/topies of culture are they most interested in? (Q4)

4 Where have they acquired knowledge about the USA? (Q5)

5 Would they be interested in learning more about the USA and other English-

speaking countries? (Q6 & 7)

All in all, the questionnaire included seven questions As a common part with

the teachers’ queshiommairs, a five-point Likert scale was used for gelling the

respondents’ judgments about the ways of teaching culture (Q3) and topics of interest (Q4) Questions 1, 2, 6 and 7 were multiple-choice questions In question 5, the students had lo Lick the appropriate box about where they had acquired the most recent Imowledge about Britain

The questionnaires were directly distributed to the students by the author and they were filled in during an English class After students had completed the

questionnaires, a discussion followed

2.2.2.2 Classroam observation

Along with two survey questionnaires for the teachers and the students,

classroorn observation was also apphed The purpose of observation in the context of

the present study was not to evaluate the teaching and learning Rather, observing the

teachers in action in this study was aimed at discovering how the teachers and students

taught and learnt Amencan cultural studies in the actual classroorn This ean help the

researcher to double check the validity and reliability of the data that was collected

through the questionnaires and also gain more information conceming the research

questions The observation was carried out in English lessons of four random classes

before and after the questionnaires Tach class was observed in two lesson The

researcher acted as a non-participant in the class and took notes about the teachers’ and students’ activities during the lessons

2.2.2.3 Interview

The formal imerviews used im this study were semi-structured ones The interviews

were carried out with a group of the six teachers ‘he language of the interviews was

Vietnamese with the belie? that the participants would feel more corforlable 1o express

their opinions and judgments ‘I'he questions in the interviews which were mainly based

on those in the questionnaires were open-ended questions to get information about the teachers’ suggestions lo improve the waching and leaming American cultural studies in

the classroom

2.2.3 Data collection procedure

All the participants were informed in both English and Viemamese about the purposes, methods and requirements of the collection of data to make sure they were clear about whal they would have to do and were willing to parlicipale in the study

Two set of questionnaires - ane for teachers and one for students - were distributed to 136 students and 12 teachers of English at ‘Iran Phu Gifted high school

To reduce the pressure of time, the participants were allowed to finish the questiormaires al home in one week Aller one week of delivering, all 136 copies were

collected

The classroom observation was also implemented in four random classes for

over one month, both before and after the delivery of the questionnaires

‘The interviews were conducted with the teachers at the staff room when they had free time

2.2.4, Data analysis procedure

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Data collected from three different sources were analyzed under four main

items: (1) the teachers’ and the students’ perceptions on the importance of American cultural studies teaching and learning, (2) the ways the teachers teach American cultural studies in the classroom, (3) the ways the students learn American cultural

studies, () the difficulties that the teachers face in teaching and learning American

culiural studies in the classroom The quantitative dala were presented in the form of! tables and charts while the qualitative data collected from open-ended questionnaires

were presented by quoting relevant responses Then the dala were analyzed both

descriptively and interpretively

2.3 Conclusion

This chapler presented the comlexL and the methodology of the study

Conceming the context of the study, the overall information and some characteristics

of the school such as the teaching and learning conditions, the students and the

teaching staff were mentioned Tr the methodology parl, the research questions, the subjects, the instruments, and data collection and data analysis procedures were

described in detail To obtain the aim and objectives of the study, two queslionraires,

classroom observation and interview were used

CIIAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is divided into four main parts The first part presents the findings

from questionnaires for the teachers and the students while the second part analyzing

the findings from class observation The third part is devoted to discussing the findings

of the study in correspondence with the proposed research questions The last part is an

overall conclusion of this chapter

3.1, Findings from questionnaires for the teachers

3.1.1 Definition

The question about the defimtion of American cullural studies was placed first

in the questionnaire The respondents were given a space of 3-4 lines to provide

answers As aforesaid American cultural studies is not a very difficult word to spell

oul, but to Cully explain il docs not scent to be casy This was also proved by the fact that the teachers got their own answer, but not all offered the precise ones

The provided definitions can be very broadly divided into two groups:

1 those which apply to the so-called small ‘c’ culture and concentrate on the American way of life and their beliefs and perceptions (1 definitions},

2 those which claim that culture embraces both people's way of life (small ‘c”

culture) and American history, gcography and arts (capital *C’ culture) (8 definitions)

Insum, it can be conchuided that the teachers who answered the question mostly

defined American cultural slucies by listing 1s various clements Both the observable

aspects of culture (art, customs, traditions, way of life and behaviours) and invisible

features (beliefs, values and attitudes) were mentioned, but not all in the same answer

3.1.2 Importance of teaching American culLural studies in the classroom

Most of the teachers did not deny the importance of teaching American cultural

studies They either considered it very important or important More than a half of the

teachers also believed that integrating culture-related issues in their classes significantly increased students’ interest and motivation in language leaming There is

only one teacher that reckons that American cultural studies should be taught on a

separate course

3.1.3 Frequency of the culture-related issues

Onc of the teachers (21%) claimed that they discussed cullure-relaled issues

“often”, which is in almost every lesson Three teachers stated that they included

America-cullural issues im ther lessons “sometimes” Right teachers chose ‘rarely’

(once a month) as an answer

And, no one had participated in courses on teaching culture before

3.1.4 Ways of teaching American cultural studies in the classroom

‘The teachers considered discussions on cultural differences and similarities most

useful for the teaching of American cultural studies The average score on a five-point

scale was 4.4] (see Figure 1)

Such a high score reveals that the teachers understand the importance of the

comparative approach, which is inkee ping with most theories about how culture

should be taught in foreign language classes Projects were also rated highly 4.33, followed shortly by watching videos (4.25) and talking about current events (1.00) Lectures received a comparatively low score — 2.25 This is an expected result as delivering lectures is not common at high school Also, there is hardly any time in

English classes for lectures Another time-consuming technique, the drama, rated the

lowest — 2.08 Besides, listening to songs and discussing the lyrics and listening to radio programmes were not popular choices of most of the teachers At the same time, the role-play was considered quile usclul (3.25)

‘Teachers were also asked to rate a technique that has been specially developed

for the teaching of American culture — the culture capsule This was considered a useful technique, wilh the average score being 3.75

Although some space was left for the teachers to add some ways of teaching culture,

very few did it The following was suggested: students’ presentations, organizing

displays, meeting with native speakers, student exchange, and writing letters

Teachers were also asked to indicate which topics they considered the most

important to teach A list of 16 topics was provided for assessment The teachers rated

“rules of behavior” and “patterns of politeness” the highest (see Figure 2) They were

both considered very important to teach, with the average score of 4.66 This reveals

that most teachers understand that besides presenting background information about

the other culture, the development of students’ intercultural communicative skills is equally important ‘Customs and traditions’ as well as ‘national stereotypes’ scored

highly — 4.58 and 4.33 accordingly “Non-verbal communication” also ranked high —

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4.25 The topics connected with people’s everyday life, such as ‘family life’, ‘youth

life’, and ‘education’ all scored higher than 4.0 At the same time, the topics which

refer to the so-called capital “C’ culture were rated comparatively low This might be

considered a slightly surprising result as it is often assumed that topics like ‘history’,

‘geography’, ‘literature’, ‘art and music’ get the most attention in foreign language classes

Not unexpectedly, the lowest scores were given to the topics ‘government and

political institutions’ (2.58) and ‘law and order’ (2.5), It is possible that the teachers are

not well prepared to teach these topics

The teachers added only two topics to the list: ‘film’ and ‘tourism’

3.1.6 Materials for teaching culture

Although English language textbooks are the main source for the teaching of

foreign language at high school, the teachers who want to teach America studies in the

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classroom have to make use of various other sources (see Figure 3) Only one

correspondent (8%) used school textbooks for teaching American cultural studies in the

classroom The reason simply is the current textbooks do not contain enough America-

cultural elements The two most frequently mentioned sources were the Internet (9

teachers, 75%) and videotapes (7 teachers, 58%)

Realia was used by 5 teachers (50%) 4 teachers (33%) maintained that they used newspapers While the use of cultural studies textbooks (for example, American

ways) was mentioned by 2 teachers (17%), folklore and literature was not exploited

Also, no one used recordings There might be two reasons for this First, the audiocassettes and CDs that come together with textbooks do not contain enough culture related material Second, less time in English classes is devoted to listening

activities than developing the other skills

Teachers were also asked to list the textbooks they were currently using and to

say whether these textbooks contained enough culture-related material Only a few

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