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 = xử lý các yếu tố giao văn hóa trong giờ dạy nói tiếng anh

SUGGESTED LESSON PLANS LIST OF TABLE Table 1: Positive attitudes toward the target language ...19 Table 2: Negative attitudes toward the target language...20 Table 3: The attitudes of t

Vietnam national university, ha noi

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- o0o -

HỒ THỊ MỸ HẠNH

TREATMENT OF CROSS-CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE TEACHING

OF SPEAKING SKILL TO GRADE 12A1 STUDENTS

OF ENGLISH IN NAM DAN 1 HIGH SCHOOL IN

Vietnam national university, ha noi

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- o0o -

HỒ THỊ MỸ HẠNH

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

Xử lý 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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION……… … i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… ……… ii

ABSTRACT……….……… iii

TABLE OF CONTENT iv

LIST OF TABLE v

LIST OF FIGURE iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Research questions 2

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review 1.1 The importance of cross- cultural knowledge in foreign language learning 1.1.1 Definitions of term “culture” and “cross-culture” 1.1.1.1 What is culture? 4

1.1.1.2 What is cross-culture? 6

1.1.2 The relationship between language and culture 6

1.2 Goals and objectives for treatment cross-cultural characteristics in English teaching 8

1.3 Some consideration in raising students` cross-cultural awareness when teaching English as Foreign language 9

1.4 Speaking skill and the position in E language teaching 1.4.1 Definition of speaking skill 12

1.4.2 The position of speaking skills in English language teaching 13

1.5 What types of culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom? 13

Chapter 2: The study

2.3.1 The attitudes of the learners towards the target culture

2.3.1.1 Positive attitudes towards the target culture 18

2.3.1.2 Negative attitudes towards the target culture 20

2.3.2 The attitudes of the teachers and learners towards the importance of culture ELT 20 2.3.3 The attitudes of the learners and teachers towards cross-cultural characteristics in speaking skills 21 2.3.4 The students' evaluation on the applied culture teaching activities 24 2.3.5 Speaking as the best way of enhancing cross- cultural knowledge 25 2.3.6 The change in NDI students' test result after inserting and treating English culture-teaching activities into the teaching of speaking at NDI high school……… 25

2.4 Discussion of the findings ……… 27

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

3.1 Implications

3.1.1 To teachers 29 3.1.2 To students 31

3.2 Suggestions for treatment cross- cultural characteristics into teaching of speaking in English to grade 12A1 students in Nam Dan I high school

3.2.1 Teachers and students` sources in Nam Dan I high school for enriching cultural information 31 3.2.2 Activities for improving cross-culture teaching methods in NDI high school 32

SUGGESTED LESSON PLANS

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1: Positive attitudes toward the target language 19 Table 2: Negative attitudes toward the target language 20

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

in learning speaking skill 21

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

in learning speaking skill 22

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

in enhancing cross-cultural knowledge 24

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

into the teaching of speaking skill 26

LIST OF FIGURE

Figure 1: The students` perception of the role of culture in English learning 20 Figure 2: The attitudes of the students toward the rank of skills in order of importance in learning speaking skill 21 Figure 3: The attitudes of the teachers toward the rank of skills in order of importance in learning speaking skill 22 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 23

Figure 5: The students` evaluation on the applied culture teaching activities 24 Figure 6: The change in students` test result after treating English culture-teaching activities into the teaching of speaking skill 26

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English, the most popular foreign language in Vietnam, has been taught from the early 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, can 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 communicating 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 learners need to have mastery of not only the language itself but also the culture in which the language is used Therefore, it is suggested that language teachers should focus on the integration of culture in language classroom, which serves as a tool for helping students understand and appreciate other cultures

Nowadays, in teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam, speaking has received a great deal of attention Nonetheless, English is learnt and taught in a non-native environment, students usually do not have close contact with native speakers of English and have little opportunity to discover how these speakers think, feel, and interact with others That is the reason why they do not feel confident enough to converse with English teachers or native speakers

It proves everything clear that culture and language can not be separated and the teaching and learning of a foreign language should always be a culture- based course So as to improve student's communicative competence, teacher should insert cross- cultural knowledge into the learning and teaching of speaking skills From my teaching experience, cultural challenges in speaking-class have become a great source of inspiration for my thesis,

which deals with the problem: "Treatment of cross-cultural characteristics in the teaching

of speaking skill to grade 12A1 students of English." This study is, hence, to aim at treating

cross-cultural characteristics into teaching of speaking in English for the teacher and students

at Nam Dan I high school

2 Aims of the study

The major aims of the study are as follows:

- To investigate the teachers' and students' attitudes towards the importance of cross- cultural knowledge to the learning of a foreign language

- To find out the attitudes of teachers and students at Nam Dan 1 high school toward the importance of culture in learning speaking skills in English language teaching

- To find out the effective ways of treatment cross-cultural characteristics into teaching

of speaking in English

3 Scope of the study

To develop speaking skill and the communicative competence for students at Nam Dan I high school, teachers has made a lot of effort 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 students' cross-cultural awareness through speaking only

The subjects of the study are grade 12A1 students of English at Nam Dan I high school in Nghe An province The research is confined to English and American cultures as the cultures of the target language The suggestions and recommendations are all centered on a combination of task-based of activity- based syllabuses

4 Research questions

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

1 What is the students' perception of the role of cultural understanding in learning English?

2 How do teachers and students at NDI high school appreciate the role of culture in speaking skills?

3 How does students' cultural understanding change through the treatment of cultural characteristics in speaking lessons?

cross-5 Methods of the study

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 statistics

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 B is DEVELOPMENT There are three chapters in this part

Chapter 1 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 , techniques that can be used to raise students' cross- cultural awareness, the role of speaking skill in English language teaching and important factor in cross-cultural communication

Chapter 2 can be seen as case study in real situation This chapter discusses the context of the

study, data collection methods and analyses the data collected to answer specifically the research questions for the study It provides the detailed results of the instruments for data collection and discussion of the finding

Chapter 3 contains the summary of findings, the suggestions for treatment of cross-cultural

characteristics into speaking lesson and the recommendation for further studies

Part C is CONCLUSION

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 The importance of cross- cultural knowledge in foreign language learning

When students learn 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, it is not very easy to handle, due partly to our imbalanced knowledge of more than one dicipline, partly also to time 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 learn foreign language

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

ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, required and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments of artifacts, the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values

Benedict, R.(1934:16) thinks "Culture 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 learned behavior shared with others

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

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

to 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, ect 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 individual, the ways of behavior and interactions with each other, which cannot

be seen

Nguyen Quang's point of view about culture: " Culture is the whole complex of tangible

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

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

social group from another 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 learning is culture learning Brooks (1975) defines that " Culture 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, it is a dynamic, developmental, and ongoing process which engages the learner

cognitively, behaviorally, and affectively."

Montgometry and Reid-Thomas (1994:5), anthropologists define culture as " The

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

that bond a group of people together and distinguish them from other." From point of view's

Montgometry and Reid-Thomas, we can see that the language classroom context is an

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

observed

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

been created through the history of human development through their social activities in the

forms of materials and spiritual values in a society Culture does not belong to a single person

but to all people who share a culture

1.1.1.2 What is cross-culture?

Cross-culture can be seen as cultures in contact or cultures encounters The term

"cross-culture" usually refers to the meeting of two cultures or languages across the political boundaries of nation-states ( Claire Kramsch) They are predicated on the equivalence of one nation-one culture-one language In foreign language, teaching a cross-cultural approach seeks ways to understand the other on the other side of the border by learning his or her national language Cross-cultural communication does not only study cultural differences and

their influences on the people's behaviors but also see the similarities between them

Effective cross-cultural communication is concerned with overcoming cultural

differences across nationality, religion, borders, culture and behavior Cross-cultural communication competency can only be truly achieved through cross cultural awareness training, language acquisition, foreign travel and cultural immersion

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

interpret and correctly react to people, incidences or situations that are open to misunderstanding due to cultural differences 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 into approaches to teaching a second language

According to Meyer (cited in Eli Hinkel;1991:37), intercultural 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

of foreign cultures"

1.1.2 The relationship between language and culture

Culture, unlike language, does not consist of specific rules that apply to all people 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 other? One of the most well known sources is Sapir-Whorf's hypothesis (cited in Pinker

1994:59) state: "We cut nature up, organize it into concepts and as we do, largely because we

are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way an agreement that holds throughout

our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language The agreement is, of course, an implicit and unstated one, but its terms are absolutely obligatory." 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 it through the medium

they choose to communicate with one 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 in which people use the spoken, written, or visual medium itself to creates meanings that are understandable to the group they belong to, for example, through a speaker's tone of voice, accent, conversation style, gestures and facial expressions." Through

Clair Kramch's idea, we find that language embodies cultural reality As Nguyen Van Do

(2006) has said: "Language and culture can be seen as the faces of a sheet of paper"

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

Buttjes (1990:55) points out the reason why language and culture are inseparably connected that:

1- Language acquisition does not follow a universal sequence, but differs across cultures; 2- The process of becoming a competent member of society is realized through exchanges of language in particular social situations;

3- Every society orchestrates the ways in which children participate in particular situations, and this, in turn, affects the form, the function and the content of children's utterances;

4- Caregivers' primary concern is not with grammatical input, but with the transmission of sociocultural knowledge;

5- The native learner, in addition to language, acquires also the paralinguistic patterns and the kinesics of his or her culture

Language reflects culture Culture affects the way language is expressed and language may contain many factors of culture in turn Words always reflect attached cultural elements that are practiced by the people who speak the language All the belief, value, attitudes, perception are performed and transmitted via language Language cannot be explained without reference to its cultural context Language is acquired in a cultural-social context and the meaning constructed are the result of interaction between individual, the language and the

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

1.2 Goals and objectives for treatment of cross-cultural characteristics in English teaching

From linguist's ideas and analysis about the relationship of language and culture, we can see that teaching culture needs to be integrated in the curriculum of the foreign language Teachers do indeed need to teach students a few critical skills that can help them develop and

improve the quality of their intercultural communication that can help them "get their feet wet

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

1974 and refined in 1993, that will help teachers select cultural data that will increase student

skill in intercultural communication:

Goal 1: 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

age, sex, social class, ethnicity, and place of residence affect the way people speak and behave

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

culturally conditioned images that are evoked in the minds of people when they think, act, and react to the world around them

Goal 4: Where and When- The student recognizes that situational variables and convention

shape behavior in important ways (S/he needs to know how people in the target culture act in common mundane and crisis situations)

Goal 5: Why- The student understands that people generally act the way they do because they

are using options society allows for satisfying basic physical and psychological needs, and that cultural patterns are interrelated and tend mutually to support need satisfaction

Goal 6: Exploration- The student can evaluate a generalization about the target culture in

terms of the amount of evidence substantiating it, and has the skills needed to locate and organize information about the target culture from the library, the mass media, people, and personal observation

The Nostrands (1970) listed nine objectives: 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 manifest an attitude important for making oneself acceptable

in the foreign society

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

8) Describe/demonstrate defensible methods of analyzing a socio-cultural whole

9) Identify basic human purposes that make significant the

understanding that is being taught

Various versions of these steps have been made, with more or less the same goals and expectations for students

1.3 Some considerations in raising students` cross-cultural awareness when teaching English as Foreign language

Language teachers and students must have a certain awareness of the foreign culture and its effect on the language being taught and learned When developing cross-cultural awareness, both learners and teachers of a foreign language need to understand cultural differences Cultural differences play a very important part in teaching English Teachers often base on their activities to teach students how to use structures, expressions instead of those in the country they are working Although they should get students learn to speak English in the native ways, they should see that it is necessary to be more aware of the cultural differences, so that they can help students understand and use English in a native

speaking country

Students often meet intercultural encounters in schools which can lead to many perplexities For example, the students at Vinh university complained about 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, an American lecturer at Vinh university thought that the students showed their opposition to the teachers from the first lesson, when the teacher gave questions but no one raised their hand or gave ideas She did not understand that most Vietnamese students are unselfconfident We can see that the role of language in intercultural encounters applies entirely to the teaching situation Therefore, developing cross-cultural awareness in EFL classroom is an indispensable thing in teaching and learning foreign language Learning to understand a foreign culture should help students of another 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 help them become communicatively competent in that language as much as possible Namely, fluently speaking is not just to master of using grammatically correct words and forms but also knowing when to use them and under what circumstances That 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 learner Therefore, if the teacher can get the learner interested in the culture of the L2, then they will hopefully end up 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 culture goals, often teacher has to play a role in breaking down cultural barriers prior to initiating teaching-learning activities Student must be receptive to concept of learning about other cultures more than their own In Vietnam, the learners learning the foreign language has a great limit in communication Thus, the easiest way to begin teaching culture or raise students' awareness is to emphasize similarities and differences between members of students' s family, between schools and between cultures

According to Valette, R.M.(1986:179), there are two main components of culture in

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

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

frames of reference Since language is a direct manifestation of this phrase of culture, a society cannot be totally understood or appreciated without knowledge of its language The other component of culture is the history of civilization Traditionally representing the

"culture" element in foreign language teaching, it includes geography, history, and achievements in the sciences, the social sciences, and the arts This second component forms the framework for the first: it presents the heritage of a people and as much must be appreciated by the students who wish to understand a new target language."

The teacher must relate language to culture if a coordinate system is to result from the learner's efforts Robert Politzer (1959:100-1) (cited in Akarim Benlaayouni) have ever had conclusion in the Georgetown University Report of the Fifth Annual Round Table Meeting on

Linguistics and Language Teaching: "As language teachers we must be interested in the study

of culture (in the social scientist's science of the world) not 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 to which the student attaches the wrong meaning."

For foreign language 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 Tomalin and Stempleski (1993:9) say:

"When students have understood the language being used in a situation and then go on to

gain an understanding of the cultural factors at work, this is for them one of the most absorbing and exciting parts of any language lesson."

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 appreciation about similarities and differences between cultures, help them to 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 elements are being globalized, there is still diversity among cultures

1.4 Speaking skill and the position in E language teaching

1.4.1 Definition of speaking skill

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

language has been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills It 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

structures of the target language

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 are 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 are rather different In monologue, you give uninterrupted oral presentation while in dialogue you interact with one or more other speakers for transactional and international 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 effect on the kinds of decisions

to be made." It can be understood that speaking is not spoken writing It 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 The speakers must be responsible for their utterances in a limited time and make sense with what they are 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 use devices in order to facilitate production

In conclusion, for many people, speaking is seen as the central skill The desire to communicate with others, often face-to-face and in real time, drives us to attempt to speak fluently and correctly Speaking is also one of necessary skills that students have to acquire in learning a foreign language It helps people to communicate and 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 ELT, but the most important aim of students is using language to communicate with others Thus, it is clear that speaking is the key component to English language teaching

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 written language in our lives For students, training speaking skills will help them

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

When talking about the role of speaking, Bygate (1987:7) claims that: " It is the

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 learners 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

Nunan (1991:39) has ever said that: "mastering the art of speaking is the single most

important aspect of learning a 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 from Nunan's

viewpoint that speaking is very important skill Therefore, having dealt with the importance of oral skills in language teaching and learning, it is essential that language teachers should pay more attention to teaching speaking skills

Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency The ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life

1.5 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 expression develop together Today educators have become aware of the importance of cultural factors in the teaching of speaking skills and they also see the influence

of inferences between two cultures-target and learner's cultures-on the teaching and learning

skills However, what types of culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom in order to be suitable with student's awareness and class environment ?, this has been a problem which many educators care about

Like teaching other aspects in foreign language instruction, culture teaching requires systematic development of its teaching principles Principles for culture teaching are mentioned in a number of studies and Kramsch's (1993:205,206) list may be considered one

of the most noticeable Her principles of teaching culture has led to a new way of looking at the teaching of language and culture They are:

- Establishing a sphere of interculturality, which means that teaching culture is not transferring 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 multiculturality and multiethnicity of modern societies and looking at various factors like age, gender, regional origin, ethnic background, and social class In the other words, cultures should not be seen as monolithic

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

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

Behaviors

Customs Habits Dress Foods Leisure

They claim that behavior culture should be systematically treated in every language class It is fact that many language teachers habitually begin their classes with a 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 culture

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

Clothing Money

Crime Non-verbal communication

Eating Pets

Education Population

Family life Religion

Geography Social occasions

Dobson (1992) shares Oxford's view that students are 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:

1 Family relationship 11 Influence of the media

2 The generation gap 12 Sport

3 Dating customs 13 Worship

4 Courtship and wedding customs 14 Holiday

5 Drinking customs 15 Festival

6 Eating habits 16 Leisure activities

7 Features of etiquette 17 Time

8 A typical school week 18 Superstitions

9 Student-teacher relationship 19 Students' life

10 Contemporary fashions 20 Humor

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 target language should be presented in the contexts, and depending on students's level and knowledge, the teacher can choose types of suitable culture to teach in classroom

CHAPTER 2 THE STUDY

2.1 Situation analysis

2.1.1 Setting of the study

The study is carried out at Nam Dan I high school where English is one 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 semesters with a total

105 periods, 3 periods per week Each 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 one in each unit introduced just after reading lesson All in all, the topics and activities in each speaking lesson are very multiform with the aim of helping students 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 A1 forty students at Nam Dan I high school, most of whom are 17-18 years of age and 10 English teachers at Nam Dan

I high school During the years at secondary school, the students learnt 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 learn listening and speaking skills and the only knowledge they have is structures and theories

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

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

"cross-culture" and how to use cross-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 for study, ( See the Appendix) There are 10 questions and 2 tests All the questions and tests are clear and short to make sure students fully understand them before answering The questionnaire mainly focuses on 3 parts: The attitudes of the learners towards the target culture, the attitudes of the teachers and the students towards the importance of culture ELT, the attitudes of the learners and teachers towards cross-cultural characteristics in speaking skills The tests are given to see if there is any change in the participants' English culture achievement after applying cross-culture teaching activities in ELT

The questions are designed as multiple choices The questionnaire is collected from both teachers and students of NDI The students were asked to answer the questionnaires in fifteen minutes Besides, informal class observations, interviews and discussions were of great help or research

The un-structured interviews with students and teachers of NDI were conducted for more information These interviews were aimed to clarify some information gained from the questionnaire responses

2.3 Data analysis

This section deals with the data collected from 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

2.3.1 The attitudes of the learners towards the target culture

2.3.1.1 Positive attitudes towards the target culture

The first statements dealt with students' attitudes towards the learning of the target culture as part of their language class We can see the result in the table below

Strongly Disagree(%)

Disagree (%)

No idea (%)

Strongly Agree(%)

Agree (%)

1 Learning a foreign

language cannot be

separated from learning

that target culture

your learning spoken

English in class rooms

3(7.5%) 2(5%) 10(25%) 25(62.5

%)

Table 1: Positive attitudes toward the target language

From the table, we can see that the first statement shows that more than two-thirds of students (85%) understand that learning 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 that 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 English learning process 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 learner

2.3.1.2 Negative attitudes towards the target culture

Strongly Disagree (%)

Disagree (%)

No idea (%)

Strongly agree (%)

Agree (%)

4 It is unjust when

Vietnamese students

learning English have to

behave like English native

speakers

5(12.5%) 12(30%) 23(57.5%)

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)

important

not veryimportant

studentsteachers

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?

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?

students 50

30

12.5

7.5 0

and effective

interesting and effective

quite interesting and effective

not interesting and effective

students

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

2.3.5 Speaking as the best way of enhancing cross- cultural knowledge

Strongly disagree(%)

Disagree (%)

No idea (%)

Strongly agree(%)

Agree (%)

9 Speaking are the best

way to enrich students'

cross-cultural

knowledge

7(17.5%) 3(7.5%) 12(30%) 18(45%)

10 When having 4(10%) 17(42.5%) 19(47.5%)

chances to discuss or

talking the similarities

and differences between

my culture and other

cultures with my

classmates I understand

better not only other

cultures but also my own

culture

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" that speaking are the best way to enrich students' cross-cultural knowledge This proves that actually, many students know how to enrich cross-cultural knowledge through speaking skill during English learning process Beside 7.5 % of the students had no idea and 17.5% of the students disagreed with this statement 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 not only enrich social knowledge but also develop communicative 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 chance to understand more about both cultures It means that culture is an interesting topic, therefore students will frequently discuss this topic, this is the effective way

to not only improve speaking skill but also enrich culture 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 NDI high school

At the first time of the first term, a test is given to all students 12a1 (40 students) and then the teachers apply cultural activities into lesson plans at 12a1 At the end of the first term, another test in culture is given to the same students

The results are found different as follow

Marks Test 1(%) Test 2(%)

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

into the teaching of speaking skill

Figure 6: The change in students` test result after treating English culture-teaching

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 1 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 result of questionnaires and tests, it is quite clear that treatment of cross-cultural characteristics into speaking lesson is beneficial and feasible The positive effects of cross-cultural integration on motivating student to communicate confidently as it is strongly approved by the majority of students who directly take part in the teaching and learning process

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

in English learning and teaching They nearly have the same idea that cultural elements are inserted into the lesson, it makes them feel the lessons more interesting and more attractive Furthermore, the students are motivated if they have chance to understand about not only their own culture but also the culture of target language

The students are supposed to be aware of cultural knowledge, the difference and similarities between cultures that helped them make progress in learning English and feel confident in using it The knowledge makes them love to learn English By way of consequences, the teaching 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 issues could be taught through the teaching and learning speaking skills or another skills With a quiz or discussion used in pre-post speaking, a motivating learning environment is created to regain their interest in learning and then help improve the speaking skill better Understanding culture of a country, learning the 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 clearly seen from the data analysis that speaking is a crucially important element to raise cross-cultural awareness Conversely, cross-cultural knowledge helps students develop communicative competence more perfectively

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

countries Thus, there are no reasons for not taking advantage of such a useful and potential source of teaching material

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 students cannot be expected to grasp everything about a culture What the teachers need to do is to encourage students think about cross-cultural issues from various perspective without judging them