Luận văn treatment of cross cultural characteristics in the teaching of speaking to grade 12a1 students of english in nam dan 1 high school in nghe an province

The attitudes of the teachers and learners towards the impoitance of culture Chapter 3: Suygestions for treatment cross-cultural churacteristies into teaching of speaking in English to

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HO THI] MY HANH

CHARACTERISTICS IN THE TEACHING

OF SPEAKING SKILL TO GRADE 12A1 STUDENTS

OF ENGLISH IN NAM DAN 1 HIGH SCHOOL IN

NGHE AN PROVINCE

Xử ly các yếu tố giao văn hoá trong giờ dạy nói tiếng Anh

cho học sinh lớp 12A1 Trường THPT Nam Đàn 1,

tỉnh Nghệ An

M.A MINOR - THESIS

HA NOT, 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

HÒ THỊ MỸ HẠNH

TREATMENT OF CROSS-CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE TEACHING

OF SPEAKING TO GRADE 12A1 STUDENTS OF ENGLISH IN NAM DAN | HIGH SCHOOL IN

NGHE AN PROVINCE

Xử lý các yếu tố giao văn hoá trong giờ đạy nói tiếng Anh

cho học sinh lớp 12A1 Trường THPT Nam Dan 1,

tinh Nghé An

M.A MINOR - THESIS

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Ngé Đình Phương

HA NOI, 2010

3, Scope of the study

4, Research questions

2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter I: Literature review

1.1 The importance of crass cultural knowledge in foreign language learning

LL1 Definitions of term “culture” and “cross-culture”

1.1.12 Whalis cross-cullure?

1.1.2 The relationship between language and culture

12 Goals and objectives for treatment cross-cultural characteristics in English

1.4, Speaking skill und the position in EF language teaching

1.4.2.'Phe position of speaking skills in lznglish language teaching 13 1.5 What types of culture shoukd be taught in the foreign Linguage classroom? 13

Chapter 2: The stredy

2.2, Data collecting instruments

2.3 Data analy six

2.3.1 The attitudes of the learmers towards the target culture

2.3.1.1 Positive attitudes towards the target culture - - 18

2.3.1.2 Negative altitudes lowards the target culture Tả 30

2.3.2 The attitudes of the teachers and learners towards the impoitance of culture

Chapter 3: Suygestions for treatment cross-cultural churacteristies into teaching of speaking in English to grade 12A1 students in Nam Dan I high school

3.1 Implications

3.11 Tote

be 3.2 Suggestions for treatment cross- cultural characteristics into teaching of speaking In

20

English fa grade 12A1 students in Nam Dan T high schoo!

3.2.1 Teachers and students’ sources in Nam Dan I high school for enriching cross- cultural information - - - 31 3.2.2 Activities for improving cross-cultwe teaching methods in NDI hinh sehool 32 PART C: CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

‘Table 1: Positive attitudes toward the target language - - - 19 Table 2: Negative attitudes loward the targel language - 20 Table 3: The attitudes of the students toward the rank of skills in order of importance

Table 4: The altitudes of the teachers toward the rank of skills in order of importance

in learning speaking skill

‘Table 5: The attitude of students toward the importance of speaking skill

Table 6: The change in students’ test result after treating English culture-tcaching activitics

Figure 2: The altitudes of the students toward the tank of skills in order of importance im

Figure 3: The attitudes of the teachers toward the rank of skills in order of importance in

Figure 4: the attitudes of teachers and students toward influence of the difference between Vietnamese and English culture om their teaching and learning spoken English 23 Figure 5: The studonts’ cvaluation ơn (lo appcđ culure loaching activitios 24 Figure 6; The change in students’ test result aller tieating English culture-teaching activities

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English, the most popular foreign language in Vietnam, has been taught from the cady: age (at the age of six or even younger) in most of schools throughout the country as a compulsory subject Thus, many Vietnamese, especially the young people, van speak English; however, not many of them have intelligible cultural knowledge

Personally, I think that cultural gaps are one of the most important keys lead us to success in commmunicating genuinely and understanding the real world outside the classroom

In order to use the language effectively, language teachers should realize that knowledge of the world’s language and culture is increasingly important Language leamers need to have

Nowadays, in teaching and leaming English as a foreign language in Viemam, speaking has received a great deal of attention Nonetheless, English is leat and taught in a normative cnvirorment, students usually de iol have close contact with native spaskers of English and have little opportunity to discover how thesc speakers think, fool, and interact with others That is the reason why they do not feel confident enough to converse with English lgachers or native speakers

It proves everything clear that cultwe and language can not be separated and the teaching and leaming of a foreign language should always be a culture- based course, So as 10 improve sinden's coromunicative competence, leacher should insert cross-cultural

knowledge into the learning and teaching of speaking skills From my teaching experience, cultural challenges in spzaking-class have become a great source of inspiration for my thesis, which deals with the problem: "Treatment of cross-cultural characteristics in the teaching

uf speaking skill to grade 12A1 students of English." This study is, henec, to aim al treating cross-cultural characteristics into teaching of speaking in English for the teacher and students

at Nam Dan Lhigh school

2, Àirns of the study

The major airns af th

3 Scope of the study

To develop speaking skill and the commuricative compotence for students at Nam Dan I high school, teachers has made a lot of etftut to motivate the students to participate in speaking class effectively, However, in the thesis, the researcher wants to find out the attitudes, as well as the cross-culture awareness in teaching and learning spoken English The scope of this study is Limited to the raising of studcnts’ cross-cultwal awareness through speaking only

The subjects of the siudy are grate 12A1 studenls of English at Nam Dan T high school in Nehe An province, The research is confined to English and American cultures as the cultures of the target language ‘Ihe suggestions and recommendations are all centered on a combination of task-based of activily- hased syllabuses

4, Research questions

‘This study is implemented to find answers to the following questions:

1 Whats the students’ perception of the role of cultural understanding in Is

5 Methods of the stutly

Because the purpose of this study is to investigate the teachers’ and students’ perception

of the role od cultural understanding in learning English, a questionnaire was used as the key

instrument of data collection Data were analysised quantitatively by means of descriptive

stati:

6 Organization of the study

‘The study is divided into three main parts

Part A is the INTRODUCTION In this part, the rationale, the aims, research questions, the scope of the study, method, and design of the study are presented

Part Bis DEVELOPMENT There are three chapters in this part

Chapter 4 reviews the related knowledge that helps to give the theoretical foundation for this study ‘This review consists of the literature on the role of cross-cultural understanding ,

technigucs That can be used to raise studonis’ eross-

Chapter 3 contains the summary of findings, the suggestions for (treatment of cross-cultural charactetistics into speaking lesson and the recommendation for further studies

Part C is CONCLUSION

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITKRATURE REVIEW

1.1 The importance pf crass- cultural knowledge in foreign language learning

‘When students lean a foreign language, their ultimate aim should be directed towards the understanding of the ways people do things and why they do them At the same time language teachers also feel that while this goal is the most ideal, 1f is not very eazy to handle,

due partly to our immbatanced knowledge of more than onc dicipline, parlly also to lime limitation in the classrooms Students also have to face a unique problem of not being able to get themselves exposed to the natural environment while pursuing their language study Therefore, they have to be equipped with cross-cultural knowledge to Jeam forcign languag> more effectively

1.1.1 Definitions of term “culture” and “cross-culiure”

1.1.4.1 What is culture?

‘There are many definitions and ways of understanding term " culture", Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1954) found aver throc hundred definitions of culture in their study, which underlines the difficulty and scope of issues involved in comnnaticating and teaching about

culture "Culture" has many aspects, it ineludes behavior, attitudes, and the social knowledge

thal porson use to interpret cxporiznee Th other words, culture should he

ideas, and belief that are used to interpret other's action, words, and thinking,

According to Klnckhohm (cited in Christopher Early1993:42): Culture is the patterned

as assumplions,

ways of thinking, feeling and reacting required and transmitted mainly hy symbals,

constituling the distinctive achievements of iaanan groups, inclading ther embodinents of artifacts, the essential care of culture consists of tradHianal ideas and especially their

attached values

Benedict, R.(1934:16) thinks "Cultue is what really binds men together" Culture is all

accepted and collaborated ways of behavior of a given people It is that facet of human life

Tom behavior shared with others.

‘Takdir Alisjahbana ( Indonesia) (cited in Soenjono Dardjowidjojo 1973) defined culture

as that which is left when all has heen forgotten He understood the culture of the individual

10 be that hard-to-isolate element that distinguishes the "cultivated" man,

In Levine's definition (1993), culture is like an ” iceberg", the exposed parts are those which are easy to recognize such as language, food, ec Meanwhile the others, most of which are hidden under water, are not easy to be recognized, Such hidden aspects are the influence

of culture on indivicnal, the ways of behavior and interactions with each other, which cannot

nã

Nguyen Quang's point of view about cnHure: " Culre is the whole complex of tangible

and intangible expressions that are created and adapted by society or a2 social group as well

as the ways it functions and reacis in given situations, this helps distinguish one society or

social group from anotler not only in term of the availability of those expressions and behaviors, but also in terms of their proportionality and manifestability" (Nguyen Quang

2006:24)

Language lcarning is culture leaming Brooks (1975) defincs that " Culéure learning is

the process of acquiring the culture- specific and culture-general knowledge, skills, and

attitude required for effective communication and interaction with individuals from other cultures, ti is a dynamic, developmeniul, and ongomy process which engages the learner

cognitively, behaviorally, and affectively."

Monigometry and Reid-Thomas (1994:5), anthropologists define culiure as " The

whole way of life af people or a group In this context culture includes all the social practices

thai bond a group of people together and distinguish them from other." From point of view’s Montgometry and Reid'Thơmas, we can see that the language classroom context is an

example of a cultural group and by being so is an excellent phenomenon Lo be analyzed and

observed,

As seen from these views, culture can be understood as something, which was and has

been ercated through the history of human development through their social activitics in the

forms of materials and spiritual values in a society, Culture does not belong to a single person but fo all people who share a culture.

‘cc the similarities bolwoon them

their influences on the people's behaviors but also s

Effective cross-cultural conmnmication is concemed with overcoming cultural differences across nationality, religion, borders, culture and behavior Cross-cultural

communication compelency can only be truly achicved through cross cultural awareness

‘training, language acquisition, foreign travel and cultural immersion

Cross-cultural understanding reters to the basic ability of people to recognize,

interpret and correctly react to people, incidences or situations that are open to misunderstanding duc to cultural differcnecs It is said that cross-culture understanding is

recognition of the ways in which two cultures resemble one another as well as the ways in which they differ

Mastering cross-culture knowledge opens great vista for the teacher and provides a

basis for better understanding of persons from other backgrounds, as well as supplying new insights inl approaches lo teaching a second language

According to Meyer (ciled in FH Hinkel:1991:37), intercullurat competence has been

defined in foreign language learning as "the ability of a person to behave adequately in a

flexible manner when confronted with actions, attitudes, and expectations of representatives

af foreign cultures"

1.1.2 The relationship between language and culture

Culture, unlike language, docs not consist of specific rules that apply to all peopte in one culture, Nevertheless, Culture and language have a close relationship Many Linguists have been discussed a question for a long time: how do the language and culture relate to each olher? Onc of the most well known sources is Sapir-Whorfs hypolhosis (cited in Pinker 1994:50) state: "We cu! nature up, orgamize il into concepts and as we do, largely because we

are parties to an agreement to arganice it in this way an agreement that holds throughaut

our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language The agreement is, of

course, an implicit and unstated one, hut tts terms are absolutely obligatary." Pinker shows

that Whorf did not do his research properly to prove his hypothesis However, it cannot be

denied that language and culture are profoundly connected, or rather, that language is inseparable from culture

According to Claire Kramch (1998:3) "They give meaning to if through the medium

they chaose to communicate with ane another, for example on the telephone or face to face,

writing a letter or sending an e-mail message, reading the newspaper or interpreting a graph

or chart The way it whick people use the spoken, written, or visual median itself to creates

meanings that are understandable to the group they belong to, for example, through a

speaker's tone of vaice, accent, conversation style, gestures and facial expressions.” Through

Clair Krameh's idea, we find that language embodies cultural reality As Nguyen Van Do (2006) has said: "Language and culture can be seen ay the faces of a sheet of paper"

Language cannot exist outside the social context, language is a social institution

Buttes (1990:55) points out the reason why language and culture arc inscparably connected that:

1+ Language acqnisition does nol follow a universal sequence, but differs across cullures;

2- The process of becoming a competent member of society is realized through exchanges of

Janguage in particular social situations;

culirre Therefore, while teaching language, it is necessary for teachers to introduce cultural

in the waters of another culture." (Seelye 1993) Here are some goals, devised by Seelye in

1974 and rofined in 1993, thal will help tcachors select cultural dala thal will imercase student

skill in intercultural communication:

Goal 4: Interest- The student demonstrates curiosity about the target culture and empathy toward its people

Goal 2: Who- The student recognizes that role expectations and other social variables such as

ago, scx, social class, cltmicily, and plice of residence allfect the way poople speak and

behave

Goal 3: What- ‘he student realizes that effective communication requires discovering the

cullurally conditioned images thal arc evoked in the minds of people when they think, acl, and

react to the world around them

Goal 4: Where and When- The student recognizes that situational variables and convention shape bchavior in important ways (S/he necds to know how pcopic in the target culture act in common mundane and crisis situations)

Goal §: Why- ‘he student understands that people generally act the way they do because they arc using options socicty allows lor satisfying basic physical and psychological needs, and that cultural patterns are interrelated and tend mutually to support need satistaction

Goal 6: Exploration The student can evaluate a generalization about the target culture 1n

terms of the amount of evi substantiating it, and has the skitls needed to locale and organize information about the target culture from the library, the mass media, people, and personal observation

‘The Nostrands (1970) listed nine objectiv

students should have the ability to

1) React appropriately in asocial situation

2) Describe a pattern in the culture

3) Recognize a pattern when it is illustrated

4) “Explain” a pattern

5) Predict how a pattern is likely to apply in a given situation

6) Describe or inanifest ar attitude imporiant for making oneself accoplable

in the foreign sosiety

7) waluate the form of a statement concerning a culture pattern

8) Deseribevdernonstrate defensible methods of anatyzing a socio-cultural whole

9) Identity basic human purposes that make significant the

understanding that is being taught

Various versions of those steps have bccn made, with more or less the same goals and

expectations for students

1.3 Some considerations in raising siudents’ cross-cultural awareness when teaching

English as Forcign language

Language teachers and students must have a certain awareness of the foreign culture

loping cross-cultural

and ils offecl on the language being taught and Icarnod When ¢

awareness, both learners and teachers of a foreign language need to understand cultural differences, Cultural differences play a very important part in teaching Linglish ‘Teachers often base on their activities to teach students how to use structures, expressions instead of those in the country they arc working, Although they should gct students lcarn to speak English in the native ways, they should see that it is necessary to be more aware of the callurat differences, so that they can help students understand and use DnglisH in a native

speaking eountry.

Students often mest inferoultural encounters in schools which can lead to many plexitics For example, the students al Vinh university complained aboul an American professor that their American teachers often eat bread and drink milk on the table of the teacher in break and she did not invite their students, And the students felt that their teachers

did not respect the students Or another example, au American Isclurer al Vinh university thought that the students showed their opposition to the teachers fiom the first lesson, when the teacher gave questions but no one raised their hand or gave ideas She did not understand thal most Victnaries

studonts are umsel {confident We can sco thal the role of language in intercultural encounters applies entirely to the teaching situation, Therefore, developing cross- cultural awareness in KEL classroom is an indispensable thing in teaching and leaming foreign language Tcaming to understand a forcign eultuxe should hetp students of smother language to use words and expressions more skillfully and authentically, to understand levels

of language and situational appropriate; to act naturally with persons of the other culture

We need to understand that if we want our students to master another language, we have to hefp them become communicatively competent in that language as much as possible Namely, duently speaking is not just to master of using grammatically comect words and forms but also knowing when to use them and under whal circumstances Thal is the reason why culture is crucially important in learning and teaching foreign language

Interest in culture is linked to the intrinsic motivation of a leamer ‘Therefore, if the teacher can get the learner interested in the culture of the 12, then they will hopefidly end sp with

more successful students

When considering language learning, it is clear that the learning of both languages would have cultural goals and that students would be learning these aspects of culture in a comparative process To achieve vudiure goals, often teacher has to play a role in breaking down cultural barriers prior to initiating teaching-leaming activities Student must be receptive to concept of learning about other cultures more than their own, In Vietnam, the Icamers learning the forcign language has a great limit in communication, Thus, the casicst way to begin teaching culture of raise students’ awareness is to emphasize similarities and differences between members of students! s family, between schools and between cultures

According fo Valotic, R.M (1986:179), thore are two main compencuts of culture in

the language classroom: "one component is the anthropological or sociological culture: the

attitudes, custom, and daily activities af a people, their ways of thinking, their values, their

frames of reference Since language is a direct manifestation of this phrase of culture, a soctaty cannot he totally understoad or appreciated without knowledge af tts language The

other component of culture is the history of civilisation Traditionally representing the

“culture” element in foreign language teaching, it includes geography, history, and

achievements in tha sciences, the sacial sciences, and the arts This secand component forms

the framework for the frrsi: it presents the heritage of a people and as much must be appreciated by the students wha wish to understand a new target language."

is to resull ren tha

Linguislics and Language Teaching: "As language teachers we must he interested in the study

of culture fin the social scientist's science af te world) noi because we necessarily want to

teach the culture of the other country but because we have to teach: it If we teach language

without teaching at the same time the culture in which it operates, we are teaching meaningless symbols or symbols ta which the student attaches the wrong meaning."

Kor foreign language students, language study seems senseless if they know nothing abou! the people who speak the target language or the country in which the largel language is

spoken Tomalin and Stampleski (1993:9) say:

"When students have understood the language being used in a situation and then go on ta gain an understanding of the cultural factors at work, this is far them one of the most

absorbing and exciting parts of any language lesan."

In summary, the aim of increasing students’ awareness and of developing their

curiosity towards the target language and their own, help student to have the correct apprcaation about, simtlarilics and differences between cullures, help them lo feel more

confident in communication The comparison among cultures are not meant to underestimate

any of the cultures being analyzed, but to enrich students’ experience and to make them aware

‘that although some culture clements arc being globalized, there is still diversity among cultures.

14 Speaking skill and the position in E language teaching

1.4.1, Definition of speaking sktil

Speaking is "The process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal

and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998:13) Speaking in a foreign Janguage has been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills Il plays a vital role since

it is the step to identify who knows or does not know a language When attempting to speak,

learners must muster their thoughts and encode those ideas in the vocabulary and syntactic

slructures of Ihe large! fanguage

According to Brown, (1994); Burn and Joyce, (1997): "Speaking is an interactive

process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing

information." Its form and meaning ars dependent on the context in which it occurs, including

the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the

‘purposes for speaking

Speaking is the productive skill is known to have two main types of conversation

namely, dialogue and monologue, which arc rather different In monologue, you give

uninterrupted oral presentation while in dialogue you interact with one or more other speakers for transactional and infernalional purposes

Martin Bygate (1987:11-12) shows that " First, spoken language is affected by the time

limitations, and the associated problems of planning, memory, and production under pressure Second, it is reciprocal activity, which has a crucial affect on the kinds of decisions

to he made." TL can be understood that speaking is nol spoken writing Tl is different from

other skills in the teaching and learning of language It needs to limit time in response and it is

not easy to correct when an utterance is made ‘Ihe speakers must be responsible for their

ullzrances in a tinited tims and make sense with what they arc saying During speaking,

speakers are responsible for making themselves understandable to listeners through selected and adapted messages based on listeners’ understanding feedback This means that speakers usc devices in order to facilitate production

In conchusion, for many people, speaking is seen as the central skill ‘fhe desire to communicate with others, often fice-to-faee and in real time, drives us to attempt to speak Alucutly and concelly Speaking is also ane of necussary skills that students have to acquire in leaming a foreign Janguage It helps people to comnmunicate aud exchange information and culture with other countries

1.4.2 The position of speaking skills in English language teaching

From the fact, four skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing have certain roles in ELY, but the most important aim of students is using language to communicate with others

‘Thus, itis clear thal speaking is the key component to English Fanguage leaching

According to Pattison (1992): "when people mention knowing or learning a language, they mean being able to speak the language" We cannot deny that we use spoken language more than wrillon Janguige in our lives For students, training speaking skilts will help thers

to feel more confident and to courect grammatical mistakes by themselves in communicative process,

When talking about the role of speaking, Bygats (1987-7) claims that: " it is she

vehicle of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement and of business.”

‘The mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many foreign language learners The Jeamers often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how well they feel they have improved in their spoken language proficiency

Nurian (1991 :39) has ever said (hal: "mastering the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of learning « second language or foreign language, and success is measured

in term of ability to carry out a conversation in the language.” it can be inferred fom Nunan’s viewpoint (lat speaking is very imporlanl skill Therefore, having deall with the importance af

onal skills in language teaching and loarning, il is ossential that Jangunge leach

shonitd pay

more attention to teaching speaking skills

‘Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning, ‘Ihe goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency The abitity lo communicaic in a sccond language clearly and efliciently contributes to the success of the leamer in school and success later in every phase of life

15 What types of culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom?

Culture and language exist in the same relationship as that in which, within language, meaning and oxprossion devetop logethar Today educators have become aware of the importance of cultural factors in the teaching of speaking skills and they also see the infiuence

of inferences between two cultures-target and leamer’s cultures-on the teaching and learning

skills Llowever, what types of culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom in

of the most noticeable Her principles of teaching culture has led to a new way of looking at the teaching of language and cullure, They ars

- Establishing a sphere of interculturality, which means that teaching culture is not uansferring information between cultures but a foreign culture should be put in relation with one’s own The intercultural approach includes a reflection 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 means considering the multicultrality and mrulticthnicity of modem sovictics and looking at various factors like agc, gender, regional origin, ethic background, and social class In the other words, cultures should not be seen as monolithic

- Cross disciplinary boundaries, which means linking the teaching of oultwe to other disciplines like anthropology, sociology and semiology,

As Tomalin and Stermpleski (1993:7) suggest, it is difficult to identify a detailed syllabus for the study of culture in a language classroom, They present three clements of

Praducts Literature

Folklore

Art Music Artfacts

Institutions

Behaviors

Customs Habits

Dress

Foods Leisure

‘They claim that behavior culture should be systematically treated in every language class Tt is fact thal many Inmignage lcachers babilually begin their classes with # five-minute presentation in the foreign language of subject that has not been previously announced The content of the topics may be ones that bring out identity, similarity, or sharp differences in comparable patterns of culturs

Ismail Cakir (2006:155) suggests some topics that can be presented within the course

Dobson (1992) shares Oxford's view that students arc apt to be fascinated by the ways

in which their culture is similar to or different from an English-speaking one, He proposes a series of aspects of life in an English-speaking country that student are especially interested They are:

From the ideas above, it is clear that each researcher has an individual opinion about

problem: teaching culture in classroom In my opinion, the above cultural elements to be used

to teach the tirgel language should be presented in the contexts, and doponding on sindenlss leval and knowledge, the teacher can choose types of suitable culture to teach in classroom

CHAPTER 2 THE STUDY

2.1, Situation analysis

2.1.4, Setting of the study

The study is carried oul al Nam Dan T high school where English is oue of the compulsory subjects in the curriculum and it is the subjects students have to pass at the national examination by the end of grade 12th to be qualified for the secondary school diploma, English curriculum for grade 12th students is divided into two scmesters with a total

105 periods, 3 periods per week, Hach period is 45 minute long

‘the ‘Textbook which our school are using for grade 12th is ” English 10" with a new curriculum which was designed following communicative approach, "English 12" textbook consist of sixteen units Each unit focuses not only on four different language skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing but also such language elements as pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary

Speaking is the second ong in each mnit introduced just after reading lesson, All in all, the topics and activities in each speaking lesson are very multiform with the aim of helping stndznls improve their speaking skill

It is believed that to develop speaking skill for student, the most effective way is inserting various cross-cultural issues in the safe environment of classroom When having a thorough grasp of cross-cultural knowledge of the language which students are learning, they will feel more confident in communication

2.1.2, Participants and Classroom context

‘The study is carried out with the participation of grade 12 Al forty students at Nam Dan 1 high school, most of whom are 17-18 years of age and 10 Lnglish teachers at Nam Dan Thigh school During the ycars al sceandary school, the studonls lcamt the old textbook with curriculum concentrating on grammar They are almost beginners in English speaking because they were only exposed to the language in classroom before They had no chances to 1eam listening and speaking skills and the only knowledge they have is structures and theories

of grammar Therefore, along with their difficulties in acquiting any effective language skills,

a majority of the students did not have chances to know about what we call “culture” and

d how ip use oross-culture knowledge into speaking skill, The English teachers need to stimulate their curiosity about English -speaking cultures

2.2 Data collecting instruments

‘the researcher designed survey questionnaire as main tools to collect necessary data

‘The questions arc designed as nmultiple choices The questionnaire is collected from both teachers and students of NDI ‘The students were asked to answer the questionnaires in fiflesn minutes, Besides, informal class observations, inlarviews and discussions were of groal help or research,

‘The un-struchwed interviews with students and teachers of NDI were conducted for inore information, These inlerviews were aimed lo clarify some information gained from the questionaire responses

2.3 Data analysis

This section deals with the data collected trom a survey on the teachers and students This study was set up to investigate the changes in students’ cross-cultural knowledge after a period of integrating cultural information into the speaking lessons

1.3.1 The attitudes of the learners towards the target culture

2.3.1.1 Positive allitudes towards the target cullure

‘The first statements dealt with students’ attitudes towards the leaming of the target culture as

part of their language class We cam soc the resull in the table below

separaled from learning

thai target culture

your leamming spoken

Yable I: Positive attitudes toward the target language From (he lable, we can sce thal the first statement shows thal more than two-Utirds of

students (85%) understand that leaming a foreign language means to learn another culture

‘the remaining students have no idea about this issue It suggests that they have no awareness

about culture of a language in learning thal language

For the second statement of the survey, 30% of the students appreciated the

importance of cross-cultural knowledge to effective English usage 50% strongly agree with the idea 20% disagree and have no idea with the importance of cross-cultural knowledge in

communication It indicates that they did not know English cross-cultural knowledge is

essential if one wants to use English effectively It is easily understandable that in Hnglish

learning provsss in secondary school, communication and language usage are being ignored and when students do not care the relationships between culture and communication, they will know the importance of good cultural knowledge to a foreign language leamer

2.3.1.2, Negative attitudes towards the target culture

leaning English have to

behave like English native

Table 2: Negative attitudes toward the target language Although most students think that cultural knowledge plays an important role in

foreign language learning, they realize that learning other culture does not mean changing

their own value and behavior 57% students agree with this idea they said that culture

knowledge will help them to improve English communicative competence, they only want

that they are Vietnamese to use English language fluently and 30% strongly agree that

learning English does not mean learning to be a native speaker

2.3.2 The attitudes of the teachers and learners towards the importance of culture ELT

5.- What do you think of the role of culture in English learning? (Students)

- What do you think of the role of culture in English learning? (Teachers)

Figure 1: The students’ perception of the role of culture in English learning

In overview, it can be seen that the teachers and students at NDI high school share

different opinions that all of the teachers hold positive ideas about the position of culture in

ELT With knowledge and experience, 100% of the teachers (60% suggests that culture is very important and 40% thinks culture is important) realize that cultural factors are very

important to ELT Besides, students have clear difference 42% of the students consider

cultural factors very important in ELT, 37.5 % of the students take it important 10% of the

students think that culture is rather important in ELT The percentage of the students thinks

culture is not very important is 10%, It means that almost students are aware of the

importance of the culture However, a small number of students take no care of the position of

culture Therefore, it is easy to see that their English level is too low to use culture knowledge

Table 3: The attitudes of the students toward the rank of skills in order of importance

in learning speaking skill

Figure 2: The attitudes of the students toward the rank of skills in order of importance

in learning speaking skill

- Can you rank these things in order of importance in learning speaking skill? (Teachers)

Table 4: The attitudes of the teachers toward the rank of skills in order of importance

in learning speaking skill

Figure 3: The attitudes of the teachers toward the rank of skills in order of importance

in learning speaking skill

For the teachers, the rates of the teachers suggest that the cultural knowledge takes the first, second, and third position is equal with 20% each 40% of the teachers thinks

thatcultural knowledge takes the fourth position

For the students, they have different ideas about importance of grammar, vocabulary,

pronunciation and cultural knowledge in speaking skill Only 12.5 % puts cultural knowledge

at the fourth position 42.5 % of the students thinks that cultural knowledge takes the third

position, and 37.5 % considers cultural knowledge to be number one

From the chart, we can see that the students feel quite interesting and have motivation when inserting cultural knowledge into training speaking skill This result of survey will help teachers find suitable methods to teach English more effectively.

7- Do you think difference between Vietnamese and English culture influence your

teaching spoken English in classroom? (Students)

- Do you think difference between Vietnamese and English culture influence your

teaching spoken English in classroom? (Teachers)

Figure 4: The attitudes of teachers and students toward influence of the difference between

Vietnamese and English culture on their teaching and learning spoken English

The chart shows that the attitudes towards the influence of Vietnamese culture on the teaching and learning of speaking skill are complicated Most teachers think that Vietnamese culture effect greatly on teaching of speaking skills and none of the teachers think that

Vietnamese has no effect on teaching of speaking skills Half the teachers suggests that

Vietnamese influences their teaching

Besides, the students have quite different ideas about the influence of culture on their

learning 30% students strongly agree that Vietnamese culture effects on their learning of speaking skills but 32.5% agree partly It means that they are aware of the impact of their own

culture on their learning of speaking skills However, a little number of students (12.5%)

suggests that speaking competence does not relate to cultural element, so they blame their lack of proficiency of speaking skills on other factors.

2.3.4 The students’ evaluation on the applied culture teaching activities

8.- What do you think of culture teaching activities used during the English lesson?

interesting and effective interesting _ interesting

and effective and effective and effective

Figure 5: The students’ evaluation on the applied culture teaching activities

Half of the students (50%) agree that the activities used in the class are very

interesting 30% of the students said that these activities are interesting and effective From

students’ answers, we can understand that the activities comfort students a lot, they can bring

students many chances to practice English during the time of doing the tasks, these activities

will help students to act as they are taking part in a game and they forget that they are

studying 7.5% of the students think that the activities are not interesting and effective, which

means that some students is not competent in English, they do not have enough knowledge to join the activities naturally

Speaking as the best way of enhancing cross- cultural knowledge

Strongly | Disagree | No idea | Strongly | Agree

đisagree(%) | (%) (%) | agree(%) | (%)

9 Speaking are the best 77.5%) | 377.5%) | 120%) | 1845%)

way to enrich students’

cross-cultural

knowledge

10 When having 40%) | 17(42.5%) | 1947 5%)

chances to discuss or

talking the similarities

and differences between

my cultwe and other

cultures = with = my

classmates T understand

better not only other

cultures but also my own

cullure

Table 5: The attitude of students toward the importance of speaking skill

in enhancing cross-cultural knowledge

As depicted in the table above, for the statement 9, most student (87%) ticked

"strongly agree and agree" thal speaking are the best, way fo enrich students’ cross-cullurat

knowledge This proves that actually, many students knew how fo enrich oress-cultural

imowledge through speaking skill during English leaming process Beside 7.5 % of the sindznts had no idea and 17.5% of the students disagreed with this staternenl May be, they

think that there are more effective ways to enrich cultural knowledge They can get

information from internet, book but they do not understand that enriching cultural

knowledge here is nol only enrich social knowledge bul also develop commumicative

competence through cross-cultural knowledge

The statement 10 investigated that 90% of the students suggest that talking together

or discussing the similarities and difference between Vietnamese culture and English culture, they have chanec to understand morc about both culturcs It means that culture is an

interesting topic, therefore students will frequently discuss this topic, this is the effective way

to nol only improve speaking skilt but also enrich enllure knowledge

2.3.6 The change in NDI students’ test result after inserting and treating English culture-teaching activities into the teaching of speaking at ND) high school

Al the first Lime of the first term, a test is given Lo all students 12a] (40 students) and then the teachers apply cultural activities into lesson plans at 12al At the end of the first term, another test in culture is given to the same students

‘The resulls are found different us follow

Table 6: The change in students’ test result after treating English culture-teaching activities

into the teaching of speaking skill

activities into the teaching of speaking skill

From the table, it is very easy to see that test 2 gets higher results as compared with results of test 1 After inserting cross-cultural knowledge into English teaching, cultural knowledge of the students improve distinctly From 0% of the student gets excellent mark in

test 1, in test 2, 10% of the students get excellent mark Similarly, 7.5 % of the students get

good marks in the test 1 but it increases 10% in test 2 12.5% gets fair marks in test 1 while in test 2, the number of students getting fair marks is more double(27.5%) and 10% gets medium marks in test 1 but 17.5 % in test 2 The remarkable thing here is the rate of students get weak marks and bad marks decreases sharply after applying cultural activities in English teaching 70% of the students get weak and bad marks in test | but in test 2, only 35% This means the teaching methods mentioned above to be effective in English teaching in Nam Dan I high school.

2,4, Discussion of the findings

‘Though the survey is conducted by a small population of students and teachers, it can help the author have a deeper insight into the situation of English learning and teaching, From

the resull of questionnaires and tesis, tt is quite clear that treatment of cross-cultural

charactetisties into speaking lesson is beneficial and feasible The positive effets of cross- cultural integration on motivating student to communicate confidently as it is strongly approved by the majority of students who diroctly take part in the teaching and learning process

First of all, all the students have realized the importance of cross-cultural knowledge

im English tearning and tcaching They nearly have the sam idea thal cultural clements ars inserted into the lesson, it makes diem feel the lessons more interesting and mote attractive Furthermore, the students are motivated if they have chance to understand about not only theiz own culture but also the culture of target language

The students arc supposed to be aware of cultural knowledge, the difference and similarities between cultures that helped them make progress in leaming English and feel confident, in using #, The knowledge makes them love lo Tsar English By way of consequences, the tzaching of cultures should become an integral part of English teaching,

Secondly, the results of the questionnaires and tests have shown that we can not teach language and culture separately They have to be combined together as the cross-culture

issuos could be laugh! through the toaching and tearning speaking skills or another skills With a quiz or discussion used in pre-post speaking, a motivating learning, environment is qreated to regain theiz interest in learning and then help improve the speaking skill better Understanding culture of a eounby, fearning tha language of this country is very important as

it helps foreign language learners communicate effectively in the target language Without the study of English-speaking cultures, English instruction is inaccurate and incomplete

Thirdly, it can be cleally

important element to raise cross-cultural awareness Conversely, cross-cultural knowledge

eon from the data analysis that spcaking is a crucially

helps students develop communicative competence more perfectively

Lastly, nowadays with the development of technology and the Infernal, we can acess public libraries with enormous information with graceful images about culture of different

cotmties Thus, there are no reasons for not taking advantage of such a useful and potentiat source of teaching matcrial

In summary, cultural understanding is very important in EFL Communication is the

way to raise intercultural awareness However, a culture is so enormous that the teachers

cannot cover everything, Furthermore, the studenis cannol be expected to grasp everything about a culture, What the teachers need to do is to encourage students think about cross- cultural issues fram various perspective without judging them