english teachers’ cultural dimension of collectivism and its impact to teachers’ oral interaction in english classes in ho chi minh city

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “English Teachers' cultural dimension of collectivism and its implication to teacher oral interaction in English speaking clas

ENGLISH TEACHERS’ CULTURAL DIMENSION OF COLLECTIVISM AND ITS IMPACT TO TEACHERS’ ORAL INTERACTION IN ENGLISH

CLASSES IN HO CHI MINH CITY

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master

NGUYEN THI THANH HIEN

ENGLISH TEACHERS’ CULTURAL DIMENSION OF COLLECTIVISM AND ITS IMPACT TO TEACHERS’ ORAL INTERACTION IN ENGLISH

CLASSES IN HO CHI MINH CITY

Major: Master of Arts (TESOL)

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “English Teachers' cultural dimension of collectivism and its implication to teacher oral interaction in English speaking classes in Ho Chi Minh City Open University” is my own work

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution

Ho Chi Minh City, 2017

Nguyen Thi Thanh Hien

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor,

Dr Le Hoang Dung for his continuous support of my thesis His patience, suggestion, and guidance are valuable to my thesis Without his insightful comments as well as his coaching and mentoring sessions, I could not successfully complete this thesis

My deepest thanks also go to all the teacher participants in the study Without their precious help, I could not have such a rich data to finish the research as planned

I would also like to express my thanks to my family for the great spiritual support Without their encouragement and love, I could not have courage to finish this journey

ABSTRACT

The cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism is one popular cultural trait that has been considered in the educational setting across cultures It significantly influences the oral interaction between teachers and students in class Individualism helps shape directness, person-orientation, verbal-based style, and self-enhancement Collectivism promotes indirectness, status-orientation, context-based style, and self-effacement In the Vietnamese context where collectivism is dominant, it is argued that there is a negotiation process of individual EFL teachers

on the polar of collectivism when they orally communicate with students This study includes five EFL teachers who are identified as collectivistic on the cultural continuum This study applied questionnaire and observation as the tools for data analysis The study shows that there is a positive correlation between collectivism and indirectness in the teachers‟ responses in class, between collectivism and self-effacement through the practice of praises in class Also, there is a negative correlation between collectivism and person-orientation and between collectivism and context-base style The study also draws out some unexpected but significant matters in the classroom oral interaction of these EFL teachers

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

Page iv

LIST OF FIGURES vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

ABBREVIATIONS 1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Statement of the problem 5

1.3 Significance of the study 6

1.4 Organization of the thesis 7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 8

2.1 Individualism and collectivism at the cultural level 8

2.2 The negotiation process of individuals in the individualism-collectivism dimension in social settings 9

2.3 Individualistic and collectivistic oral interaction styles 10

2.3.1 Components of oral communication 10

2.3.2 The framework of individualistic and collectivistic oral interaction styles 11

2.3.2.1 Direct versus indirect style and its logic 13

2.3.2.2 Person- versus status-oriented style and the verbal or context-based language use 14

2.3.2.3 Self-enhancement versus self-effacement style 15

2.3 The framework of collectivistic interaction style in the Vietnamese context 15 2.4 The discourse in the English communicative classroom 17

2.4.1 The interaction pattern 17

2.4.2 EFL teachers‟ instruction, questions and feedback 18

2.4.2.1 Teachers‟ instruction 18

2.4.2.2 Teachers‟ questions 19

2.4.2.3 Teachers‟ feedback 20

2.5 The challenges of EFL teachers‟ talk in the communicative English classroom 21

2.6 The impact of Vietnamese EFL teachers‟ cultural dimensions on the teachers‟ oral interaction in the English classes 23

2.7 Hypotheses of EFL teachers‟ cultural dimensions on their oral interaction styles in their class 24

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 28

3.1 Research design 28

3.2 Sampling 30

3.2.1 Population 30

3.2.2 Sample 30

3.2.2.1 The sampling process 31

3.2.2.2 The classroom context of the research 32

3.3 Data collection 34

3.3.1 Questionnaire 34

3.3.2 Classroom Observation 37

3.4 Data collection process 40

3.5 Data analysis approaches 42

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 44

4.1 Results 44

4.1.1 Results from the questionnaire 44

4.1.1.1 Data from the questionnaire 44

4.1.1.2 Data from the open-ended questions 48

Students as Ingroup 48

The role of verbal and vocal cues in the oral interaction in class 49

4.1.2 Results from the classroom observation 50

4.1.2.1 Indirectness-directness 50

4.1.2.2 Self-effacement 52

4.1.2.3 Status-oriented style 53

4.1.2.4 Context-based style 55

4.1.2.2 The field notes 60

Observation for the frequencies of teacher talk 60

4.1.3 Results from the voice analysis data 67

4.1.4 Summary of the data analysis 78

4.2 Discussion 79

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 85

5.1 Conclusion 85

5.2 Recommendations 86

5.3 Limitations and recommendations for further research 87

5.3.1 Limitations 87

5.3.2 Recommendations for further research 88

REFERENCES 89

APPENDIX 1 95

APPENDIX 2 102

LIST OF FIGURES

Page Figure 4.1a – Distribution of the cultural dimension of the respondents 45 Figure 4.1b – Distribution of the cultural dimension of the participants 45 Figure 4.2 – Individual frames of oral interaction style 58 Figure 4.3 - Distribution of the participants on the four domains of verbal

communication 60

LIST OF TABLES

Page Table 2.1 The framework of the low-context communication and high-context

communication (Adapted from Ting-Toomey (1999)) 13

Table 2.2 Framework of verbal interaction of EFL teacher individualists and collectivists 24

Table 3.1 Participant Profile 32

Table 4.1 Summary of the questionnaire result of the five participants 47

Table 4.2 Scores of Directness 51

Table 4.3 Scores of Self-enhancement 53

Table 4.4 Scores of Person-orientation 54

Table 4.5 Scores of Verbal-based style 56

Table 4.6 Participants‟ scores for the four indicators 57

Table 4.7 Frequencies of teacher instruction, questions and feedback 62

Table 4.8a Teacher 1‟s voice analysis 68

Table 4.8b Teacher 2‟s voice analysis 70

Table 4.8c Teacher 3‟s voice analysis 72

Table 4.8d Teacher 4‟s voice analysis 74

Table 4.8e Teacher 5‟s voice analysis 76

ABBREVIATIONS

EFL : English as Foreign Language

HCC : High-context Communication

LCC : Low-context Communication

IRF : Initiate – Response – Feedback

IRE : Initiate – Response – Evaluation

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The chapter provides the study background and the research gap from the literature and the aims of the research Then, the research questions, and the significance of the research were addressed

1.1 Background to the study

In the English language teaching in several Asian countries, there are beliefs that teachers are the only ones who mainly negotiate the learning activities in class while students tend to passively involve in the teaching and learning process (Liu, 1998) The author argues that traditions and authority are maintained consciously and unconsciously in the classroom and being a teacher is being a “fount of knowledge” However, all teachers and students come to class with their own expectation and needs Littlewood‟s (2000) research addresses that students are actually not that passive but rather independent and proactive in their learning journey They expect their teacher to guide and provide useful advice to meet their learning expectation Nowadays, the perception of teachers as the sole source of knowledge is no longer appropriate In Vietnam, given the globalization, the role of the English language teachers has changed They are not only the model for students to mirror but also the guide to language knowledge Phan (2004) provides evidence that Vietnamese teachers are truly facilitators, friends, and instructors who support the growth of their students No matter how different the beliefs toward the second language teaching and learning are, there is one shared important fact that the teachers‟ interaction in class, which includes instruction and different types of responses, plays a primary role in class in order to engage and encourage student learning

In fact, how a teacher interacts in class depends a lot on their cultural background It

is because teachers, as human beings, bring to class their own cultural values and beliefs toward teaching and learning that they cherish They have their own belief

on how instruction and responses should be made to help their students learn Hinkel (2014) states the socio-culturally determined beliefs, assumptions, and expectations of a teacher can impact their views on how students learn and behave From which, they opt to communicate in terms of the explicitness (directness) or implicitness (indirectness) in verbal communication (Jandt, 2007) Such a way of relation to students in this particular social setting is reflected through instruction and responses This somehow proves that the strong impact of “non-teaching” factors to the classroom interaction in general and in giving instruction and responses in particular Thus, the teachers‟ beliefs toward how oral interaction should happen become a critical role Their beliefs are formed and shaped by socio-cultural factors which they have experienced in their personal and professional life Thus such cultural beliefs, assumptions, and expectations are reflected through the way they instruct and respond to their students in class

The cultural factors are various but the spectrum of individualism-collectivism is one popular trait that has been investigated in the teaching and learning context Cross-cultural studies have been done focusing on the dissimilarities in the classroom teaching between individualism and collectivism (Hofstede, 1986; Nguyen, Terlouw and Pilot, 2006; Vo, 2014) Hofstede (1986) investigates classroom interaction between teachers and students from different societies under the umbrella of the individualism-collectivism dimension It shows that different expectations on student learning process lead to different interaction styles of teachers in class In EFL teaching, Nguyen et al (2006) examines the cultural dimension and its influence on the teaching/learning style and expectation From which, the mismatching of applying the “individualistic” pedagogy in the

“collectivistic” classroom is addressed Further to this issue, Vo‟s (2014) study

addresses the difficulties native English teachers may face when conducting the English language teaching in three Asian countries - Vietnam, China and Japan Differences in the cultural dimensions may cause different expectations and practice toward English teaching and learning in terms of pedagogical choice and teacher interaction style

The matter of classroom interaction with the influence of cultural factors in particular has also been covered Hofstede (1986) argues that in individualistic societies, students freely and publicly express their opinion and argument and the teacher consider confrontation and competition as benefits for the sake of learning

In the collectivistic cultures, the author highlights the authority of the teacher and states that student talk in front of class, confrontation and competition are less observed In EFL classroom interaction, such different features significantly impact

on teachers‟ communication style have been recorded across cultures (Khan, 2014) The study raises awareness toward different communication styles among teachers and students across cultures, who in some way involve in the same classroom of EFL teaching and learning It reveals that individualistic cultures have a direct and informal style of communication while an indirect and formal style is applied in collectivistic cultures Such findings indicate a direct link between the cultural dimension and the EFL classroom oral interaction in general and between a typical set of cultural values and a set of consequent acts in oral interaction of EFL teachers across cultures

This, however, does not mean the individualism and collectivism only exist in different societies and cultures In fact, they both can exist in every culture and in every individual person with the domination of one over the other depending on social settings Depending on a certain social situation, one of the dimensions is more emphasized (Triandis, 1993; Triandis, McCusker, and Hui, 1990) At an individual level within a culture, they are on a continuum (Green, Deschamps and

Páez, 2005; Triandis and Gelfand, 2012) with the unequal distribution of the two tendencies This tends to reveal that there could be differences among collectivists

in collectivistic cultures and individualists in individualistic cultures and the communication style of those individuals within a specific culture may vary on the continuum of individualism-collectivism This variation is determined by the contexts where their social interactions happen (Triandis, Bontempo, Villareal, Asai, and Lucca, 1988) When a specific social context regulates the individualism and collectivism tendencies of a person in a specific social setting, it is possible that there are individualistic teachers who interact with their students in a more direct style in collectivistic cultures Conversely, there is a possibility of collectivistic teachers who give instruction to their students in a more indirect way in individualistic cultures Thus, although Vietnam is seen as a collectivistic society, there is also a probability of having both styles of oral interaction of individualistic and collectivistic teachers in the EFL teaching context in Vietnam

Additionally, given the globalization all around the world, the cultural dimensions are surely influenced Beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of individuals may change when cultures meet cultures As a result, such beliefs, attitudes and practice in connection with the spectrum of individualism and collectivism are changeable It is true as there exists “a shifting nature of individualism and collectivism” (Ting-Toomey, 2010, p 175), in which the tendency of individualism has been increased recently (Greenfield, 2009; Triandis et al., 2012) and therefore, it tends to dominate collectivism In Vietnam, where collectivism is considered as the dominant orientation (Do and Phan, 2002), the current trend may create some impact when the country exposes to the current flow This poses a question of how a Vietnamese EFL teachers negotiate their own cultural dimension to interact with students in class and a further question of how the individual EFL teachers‟ individualistic or collectivistic factors impact on their classroom oral interaction in the current time Thus, an investigation to the current situation of cultural dimensions of individual

Vietnamese teachers of English and its relation to the teachers‟ oral interaction in EFL classroom will be relevant in order to gain more understanding regarding the phenomenon in Vietnam

1.2 Statement of the problem

In the context of language teaching and learning in Vietnam particularly and in some Asian countries in general, traditions, obedience and authority are overwhelmingly maintained in classrooms (Liu, 1998; Le, 2011) The classroom interaction tends to be more on power distance between the teacher and students The expectation from the teacher to students regarding the correct decoding of spoken message is quite high Being in collectivistic cultures, teachers in these Asian cultures may apply collectivistic approach to their communication As such, the language of instruction of the teacher tends to contain implied meaning that requires students correctly interpret to take action This likely causes misinterpretation, misunderstanding, and/or confusion in classroom communication This leads to the less success of students in the learning process as research shows that unclear instruction in class is a factor leading to lack of effectiveness in English teaching and learning in higher education (Nguyen, Warren, and Fehring, 2014) Giving instruction based on the superior-inferior relationship may create negative effects on students‟ task implementation as the instruction providers tend to require information receivers to understand the implied message

Vietnam is collectivistic-oriented and its style of communication tends to link with high-context communication where spiral logic and indirect style are used (Ting-Toomey, 1999) Vietnamese teachers when using English to instruct their students

on classroom activities may face difficulties on how to use English to provide proper instruction that is properly interpreted by students Thus, in the Vietnamese context of EFL teaching where English is used as the language of interaction in

classroom, the matter of how to use English to give instruction and responses in English may become problematic

The main objectives of this research is to see how the collectivism dimension impacts a group of Vietnamese teachers of EFL in Ho Chi Minh City, who teach English speaking/listening classes when these teachers deliver their oral interaction

in the classroom With the mentioned purpose, the current research aims to answer the question:

In what way does the collectivistic orientation of Vietnamese teachers of EFL affect their oral interaction in their English class?

1.3 Significance of the study

Currently, there is little literature about how the cultural dimensions do impact on the oral interaction of EFL teachers in Vietnam In this particular English teaching and learning context, understanding the tendencies of Vietnamese teachers of English will foster a deeper understanding of how their language of instruction and responses is partly shaped and/or reshaped and how their oral instruction is performed Through this, a more thoughtful process of giving instruction and responses will be perceived and the interpretation of the teachers‟ oral instruction is more appropriate This is particularly important given the modern education focuses

on student-centered learning and teaching where the learner autonomy is more concentrated and the role of students and teachers has gradually changed in the society Teachers are focused on this study because their role has been changing over time from that of a “sage” or “guru” through to a learning facilitator This evolution may lead to struggle between the teacher‟s cultural dimension and the way they conceive themselves in the student-teacher interaction Teachers‟ oral instruction and responses and student interpretation are significant in the classroom

communication, which then affects student performance and learning outcomes Consequently, the teachers‟ oral interaction in relation to the cultural dimensions may be of question

1.4 Organization of the thesis

The thesis is formed by five chapters Chapter One presents the overview of the current research including the background, the gap, the research aim and questions, and the significance of the study Chapter Two is the literature review where the conceptual framework of oral interaction in EFL classroom under the umbrella of the individualism-collectivism dimension in the Vietnamese classroom context is shaped In details, the chapter focuses on the key aspects of the individualism-collectivism dimension, the verbal communication styles derived from the polar of individualism and collectivism and its relation to the EFL classroom interaction Relevant previous studies are also included in this second chapter Later in the chapter, the hypotheses for the impact of collectivism on EFL teachers‟ oral interaction are provided Chapter Three follows with the research design, a description of the population, the sampling, the research tools, and the procedure for data collection and analysis Chapter Four describes the data analysis, result discussion and key findings Lastly, Chapter Five covers the conclusion for the findings, research implication and limitations, and also recommendations for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In the section, the argument of the individualism-collectivism dimension at both cultural level and individual level is provided The verbal communication styles in the cultural dimension are also discussed They are followed by what constitutes classroom oral interaction and the context of EFL in Vietnam The hypotheses of the impact of EFL teachers‟ cultural dimension to their oral interaction in class are included The theories are synthesized and a conceptual framework is thus produced

2.1 Individualism and collectivism at the cultural level

There are many ways to define the terms individualism and collectivism At cultural

level, they could be identified as the matter of people‟s self-image, the “I” or “we” (Hofstede, 1984, p 83), the centrality on either the autonomous individual or the collective (Triandis, 1993; Triandis, Chan, Bhawuk, Iwao, and Sinha, 1995), or the self-perception of either being unique and independent or conforming and being interdependent (Schmidt et al, 2007, cited in Samovar et al, 2012) In individualistic cultures, a person tends to focus on their personal needs, goals, beliefs and values of

an autonomous and unique self (Matsumoto, Weissman, Preston, Brown, and Kupperbusch, 1997), which means their personal rights and responsibilities, privacy, personal opinion, freedom, innovation, and self-expression are emphasized (Andersen, Hecht, Hoobler, and Smallwood, 2003) This is a negotiation of individuals to be more person-oriented As such, individualism can be linked to the characteristics of person-orientation, independence, autonomy and uniqueness of each individual in the individualistic societies

In contrast, in collectivistic cultures, people tend to adhere to the ingroup‟s norms or practice as they prioritize collaboration, shared interest, harmony, and tradition

(Andersen et al, 2003) The adjustment is needed to make sure individual behaviors are consistent with that of the ingroup Thus, interdependence and relationship-orientation are dominant among collectivists‟ thinking and behaviors in daily interactions in the society (Triandis, 1989) The alignment between personal and group attitudes and behaviors turns the individuals in the collectivistic societies to

be more harmonious and cooperative in their relation to others Their identity is merged with the group‟s identity By this way, being collectivistic means that one‟s connection to the ingroup become stronger and prioritized Their sense of belonging

to an ingroup will drive their thinking and behaviors Therefore, individuals in the collectivistic societies place their focus on the relationship-orientation and act on their ingroup‟s values, beliefs and goals

2.2 The negotiation process of individuals in the individualism-collectivism dimension in social settings

The cultural dimension not only exists at cultural level but also at individual level Triandis (1993) claims that both individualistic and collective elements are reflected

in most cultures and the two patterns do exist in most individuals‟ cognitive systems This means an individual can choose to become individualistic or collectivistic based on their reasoning However, this choice is not random In many ways, the decision making of either being individualistic or collectivistic relies on social situations (Triandis & Suh, 2002) and this leads to specific consequences on individual emotion and motivation (Markus and Kitayama, 1991), which then drive their specific attitudes and behaviors To define one‟s cultural orientation, it is necessary to put that person into a social context where he or she interacts with other people in that context The larger degree of one orientation compared to the other firstly comes from one‟s cognitive system as there is the probability of the activation of either individualism or collectivism in particular situations (Triandis, 1993) Thus, it is not exaggerated to say that it is the social interaction that

determines whether individualism or collectivism will dominate the person‟s attitudes and behaviors Within a culture, this is in fact the individuals‟ negotiation process in order to be more independent or interdependent, and to value and act based on logic or relationships, on person- or group-orientation One‟s reasoning and ways of thinking are changeable depending on the social situations and the people engaged in such interactions

2.3 Individualistic and collectivistic oral interaction styles

In face to face interactions, the negotiation process of individualists and collectivists

is either more on “me” or “us” respectively It is not black-and-white process Rather, it is the degree of flexibility in the negotiation process during the interaction with other interlocutors Therefore, individualism and collectivism lead to different ways of verbal communication At individual level, together with the impact of other cultural factors and life experience, the cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism help create individual uniqueness and differentiate the way individuals interact in specific social settings In order to examine the difference of the verbal interaction between the two communication styles of individualists and collectivists, components of verbal communication and each interaction style should

be firstly considered

2.3.1 Components of oral communication

The verbal language includes words, phrases and sentences (Rosengren, 2000) It is mainly shaped by three factors - what is spoken, how it is spoken, and why it is spoken in a certain way These elements can be understood through the expression

of verbal and non-verbal cues The verbal component of spoken messages is about the choices of words and the way these words put together to create meaning That

is the physical appearance of the messages As it is about wording, verbal

component includes words and syntax while voice firmness, tone, pitch (high or low), and loudness (or softness) belong to the vocal component Let‟s take an example In the sentence “You need to take this matter seriously.”, if the word

“you” is emphasized, that means “you” is the very person that needs to take the action But if the word “seriously” is stressed, the level of seriousness should be taken into consideration As a result, if words, phrases, and sentences are considered

as the “skeleton” of the verbal communication, the nonlinguistic means including voice quality, speed, pitch, intonation, and so on, in most cases, can be seen as the soul of the message as they create different meanings of spoken words

Accordingly, in order to utter a completely and adequately meaningful utterance in

a certain situational conversation, speakers need to do two jobs – making choices for words and message structures and selecting the appropriate tone, pitch, modulation, and volume to encode their messages As the communication style of individualists is different from that of collectivists (Samovar, 2007), the selection process of verbal and vocal cues, which form the oral interaction styles, turns different

2.3.2 The framework of individualistic and collectivistic oral interaction styles

The difference between individualistic and collectivistic interaction styles has been recorded (Nishimura, Nevgi and Tella, 2008) The interaction styles are believed to

be influenced by the characteristics of low-context communication (LCC) and context communication (HCC), which relate to low- and high-context cultures (Nishimura et al., 2008) In the LCC, the meaning of a spoken message is clearly expressed through verbal cues while in the HCC, the meaning is context based and the nonverbal cues are stressed (Nishimura et al., 2008) In order to understand an HCC‟s message, background knowledge is needed and the verbal communication style in HCC typically requires the stronger connection between interlocutors rather

high-than that in LCC Thus, basically, the verbal interaction styles operate in and influenced by a cultural framework of high- and low-context communication In this framework, the styles can be identified through different manifestations of spoken messages The messages, which are impacted by the individualistic and collectivistic cultures, could be direct or indirect, verbal- or context-based, and/or person- or status-oriented

The framework of the LCC and HCC become significant in verbal interaction among individualists and collectivists as it regulates and shapes how a spoken message is uttered by each individual In literature, Ting-Toomey‟s framework of HCC and LCC is worth to mention In this framework, the LCC promotes the self-enhancement, direct, linear, person-oriented, and verbal-based style and speakers‟ self-perception is influenced by their desire of self-expression They have a will to express their emotion, feeling, and opinion explicitly and directly They have the tendency to promote the self-esteem of other interlocutors by appreciating one‟s achievements and abilities Thus, the conversation is more person-oriented and achievement-oriented This is in contrast to the HCC where the focus is on “verbal restraints, hesitations, modest talk, and self-deprecation toward one‟s effort or performance” (Ting-Toomey, 1999, p 107) As such, in LCC, direct talk, person-oriented verbal interaction, verbal self-enhancement and talkativeness are emphasized whereas in HCC, indirect talk, status-oriented verbal interaction, verbal self-effacement and silence are dominant (Ting-Toomey, 1999) These characteristics of LCC and HCC are stated in the table 1 below

Table 2.1 The framework of the low-context communication and high-context communication (Adapted from Ting-Toomey (1999))

LCC characteristics HCC characteristics

Direct style Indirect style Linear logic Spiral logic Person-oriented style Status-oriented style

Self-enhancement style Self-effacement style

Verbal-based understanding

Context-based understanding

2.3.2.1 Direct versus indirect style and its logic

Individualism promotes person-orientation and fact emphasis, which features the directness in verbal communication whereas collectivism supports group-orientation and relationship focus, which results the indirectness in oral interaction By this way, there are two approaches for message encoding and decoding They are either direct and straightforward or indirect and spiral Jandt (2007) explains that the direct style in associated with individualism (and LCC) encodes the wants, the needs, and desires of the speaker through words and that indirect style, which links to collectivism (and HCC), implicitly encodes the wants, the needs, and goals of the speaker in utterances In direct talk of the LCC, the intentions and needs of the individualistic speaker are straightforward and clearly communicated through words This is the “straight to the point” logic where everything should be transparent and direct Meanwhile, the indirect style of the HCC employs hidden meaning and implicit intention, which require the listener‟s internalization and interpretation Due to the indirectness, the speakers have no other ways to express their meaning rather than a spiral way to express their meaning

2.3.2.2 Person- versus status-oriented style and the verbal or context-based language use

Individualists and collectivists treat the matter of message delivery differently With the characteristic of focusing on the self, individualists perceive the process of encoding a message as a responsibility to clearly communicate their message (Ting-Toomey, 1999) These people place expressive, explicit language on top when communicating to others They see the importance to spread out the personal wants and goals and they expect to have a direct conversation Hence, their talk in many situations is informative, detail-oriented, and fast Given that explicitness, the language is more verbal-based and words are the basic elements for listeners to easily decode the message

In contrast, the collectivists, who set courtesy as the primary element in oral interaction, value the harmony and subtlety in talking (Liu, 2016) They communicate with the awareness of the listeners as social beings who have a certain level of social background and knowledge as well as play a certain role in the society With that perception in mind, they tend to appropriate themselves in the interaction with the listeners In return, as a social member with a social status, the listeners will interpret between the lines (Ting-Toomey, 1999) to make themselves understood Moreover, as one‟s sense of social connection in general or ingroup affiliation in particular is also important to enhance an interpersonal relationship (Roberts and Burleson, 2013), collectivists may heavily depend on the context to convey meaning between interlocutors Consequently, the language they use is normally implicit and meaning is often implied as face saving should be conformed

in social interactions Using context based approach is believed to be a subtle way

to express one‟s idea and show the social harmony through the sense of belonging The listeners have to work hard to make sense of the meaning through context and thus maintain the conversation properly

2.3.2.3 Self-enhancement versus self-effacement style

Self-enhancement places the importance role of encouragement and enhancement of one‟s achievements and success Ting-Toomey (1999) informs that self-efficacy will be enhanced through conversations with individualists as their appreciation language and focus on positive outcomes help to promote good self-image of individuals As such, the language used is appreciation words and accomplishment-oriented language and the frequency of praises will probably appear regularly in one‟s sayings Conversely, self-effacement highlights one‟s modesty and humbleness toward their ability, which Liu (2016) names as a way to strengthen interlocutors‟ face The sayings of “good wine needs no bush” can be seen as a key message in the self-effacement style That explains why appreciation language is lack in collectivists‟ communication The regular talks include modest talks, hesitations and humble language

2.3 The framework of collectivistic interaction style in the Vietnamese context

When the framework of individualistic and collectivistic interaction styles is investigated in the Vietnamese context, it is necessary to address that in this culture, collectivistic interaction style is a popular trait Vietnam is considered as a collectivistic country and the social hierarchy or social status is preferred (Nguyen, 2016) The communication style in the country in general is more collectivistic and thus has high-context communication characteristics In this culture, the oral interaction much relies on social relationships and the verbal language is flexibly selected based on the interlocutors involved (Tran, 1999) This leads to a practice of oral interaction where status- and context-orientation are promoted The conversations should cause no harm to the interlocutors‟ relationship and must reveal the accountability of the listeners in the exchanges Accordingly, the speakers

assume that the listeners have all the background knowledge and thus need to correctly interpret the message

In the context-based interactions, indirect way of speaking is regularly performed

In the society, age and social status are the most influences in verbal interaction (Nguyen, 2009) When speaking, in order to show respect, care and harmony to the others, indirect way of speaking is an appropriate choice as exposing with direct talk and expressive language are believed as impoliteness and may hurt the listeners Understated sayings are then used with the main support of vocal cues to avoid confrontation and competition and to boost the cooperation and harmonious relationship Moreover, the assumption that the listener is an insider (Galois & Callan, 1997) drives the speakers to hide factual information (as it is known as extra information) and express meaning in an implicit way Indirect talk stems from face saving, harmonious atmosphere, and social status respect There is also a strong connection between social relationships and the way interlocutors shape spoken messages in face to face communication

Within the framework, Vietnamese interaction style can be typically categorized as collectivistic interaction style It explains why Vietnamese people tend to speak indirectly and expect listeners to understand embedded meaning behind the words (through the context and vocal cues) The spoken language therefore represents the collectivistic characteristics where verbal language tends to be overwhelmed by non-verbal cues or the vocal component of oral communication The non-verbal communication highly focuses on the interlocutors‟ role in social situations, on harmony and face saving, on understated sayings, and on richness in tone of voice

As a result, understated sayings are often used and detailed information usually becomes extra elements in one‟s statements, which then probably lays ambiguity and misunderstanding in some interaction situations where explicit meaning should

be made in the speakers‟ verbal messages such as classroom discourse

2.4 The discourse in the English communicative classroom

2.4.1 The interaction pattern

Providing the EFL teaching context in Vietnam is examined in this study, a deeper look at the EFL classroom discourse is essential Classroom communication occurs

in patterns (Farrell, 2004), which is similar to human interactions in daily life Rosengren (2000) categorizes human interaction into four patterns - (1) Interlocutor

A interacts to Interlocutor B, (2) Interlocutor B initiates interaction to Interlocutor A and Interlocutor A responds, (3) Interlocutor A initiates interaction to Interlocutor B and Interlocutor B responds, and (4) Interlocutor B interacts to Interlocutor A In the same interaction, there may have more than one pattern occurred as human communication is not always simple with one way direction In EFL classroom, interaction patterns vary depending on the goals of each teaching session The interaction patterns happen between teacher-students, student-student, and students-students In which, the teacher interaction toward students is seen through many forms Typically, all the activities in class can be generalized into three forms of instruction, questions and feedback

The interaction modes, as discussed, happen in patterns The traditional pattern of classroom interaction is Initiate – Response – Feedback (IRF) (Cazden, 1988) or Initiate – Response – Evaluation (IRE) (Farrell, 2004) In the traditional approach, teachers normally give instruction and pose questions to initiate the interaction with their students Based on the student responses, the teachers also provide feedback or evaluation In reality, this pattern is not fixed but can vary as human interaction is unpredictable, which Zhang (2008) categorizes as traditional and non-traditional classroom discourses In which, the non-traditional discourses is based on the real events happening in class, EFL teachers may have to repeat their questions and student responses will be evaluated by another teacher question, which is

considered as indirect evaluation In English classroom teaching, these two traditional and non-traditional classroom interaction patterns can be considered the classroom interaction model where EFL teachers‟ oral interaction will be observed and identified

2.4.2 EFL teachers’ instruction, questions and feedback

2.4.2.1 Teachers’ instruction

Due to the special requirement of English language teaching which focuses on language skills, each skill may have different oral instruction in order to boost students‟ language ability in specific language skills Given the current study focusing on English communicative teaching context, teaching English speaking and listening is concentrated on in this paper Kayi (2006) defines teaching speaking

as an activity of instructing students how to produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns in selected words and sentences appropriate with social settings with stress, intonation, and rhythm The instruction language is thus explicit and clear enough for students to follow

From which, students‟ listening skill is also improved based on the recognition of English sounds, the proper use of language, the understanding of the context of interaction This means teaching speaking English is not only about teaching students on vocabulary and pronunciation but also how to produce them in a proper manner, which is about instructing verbal and nonverbal language elements Nunan (2003) indicates teaching speaking is to teach students how to use English confidently and naturally through meaningful ideas and logical sequence in order to express themselves Magna (2008) indicates that students‟ oral interaction seems to

be better in a more confident and open teacher/students relationship To teach a student to successfully perform English speaking ability means to teach that person

successfully use verbal and vocal components in English language That means the instruction should focus on how to produce words correctly, select words properly and put stress and intonation appropriately to make meaningful utterances

2.4.2.2 Teachers’ questions

The idea of learning through social constructivism is not new (Vygotsky, 1978) The way the teacher responds to student would contribute to the student learning progress Teacher responses are important to students as it can help students to grow, to foster their speaking skills through constantly interacting with others (their peers or the teacher) Questioning is a necessary tool for EFL teachers to call for student contribution and participation in class This is also a way for EFL students

to improve their communicative skills in the second language EFL teachers normally used questions to double check for student knowledge, to test their level of understanding, and to engage students in the lesson

Currently, the requirement that students should have the language competence allows more practical questions Liu and Zhu (2012) categorize the teacher questions into two types, display questions and referential questions Display questions are used to extract student knowledge about a learning point, for example,

“what is the adjective of the word “beauty?” Referential questions are also what, why and how questions but require individualized informative answers (Liu and Le, 2012) As the purpose of asking referential questions is to collect personal sharing, the types of questions should not be restricted within wh-questions It could be any type of questions including yes/no questions as long as students are given space to express their ideas more and more Each student will have an individual answer for the same question As the communicative competence is one of important goals in EFL teaching, referential questions are expected to help boost the student practice and their motivation in engaging in the classroom interaction The students are

aware of the space for them to contribute to the teaching session through open ended questions Unlike display questions which function as testing student knowledge, referential questions facilitate students‟ involvement and personal sharing, which in return promote student interaction in English classes By this way, questions should be asked to individual students to enquire direct, personal answers

2.4.2.3 Teachers’ feedback

Feedback is a chance for the language instructors to add on more values to students‟ improvement process by giving space for students to reflect on what they have done and how they should do to improve their language competency Nunan (1991) identifies feedback in two ways, positive and negative feedback In which, the author emphasize the power of positive feedback as it can help students grow in the language learning journey Positive feedback forms are praises, praises plus comments or repetition, questions to other students, and guidance for self-correction (Liu et al., 2012) “Automatic” praises like good, very good, ok, and so forth are of concern as its effectiveness on student learning is unclear (Nunan, 1991) Additionally, as classroom is a simulation of social interaction where interlocutors‟ comment can be seen as a type of feedback, teachers‟ comments may need to be included in the item of teacher feedback This brings to the idea that feedback from EFL teachers in class should be real and appropriate to embrace student growth and success

From what have been discussed, the teacher talk or teacher interaction in EFL classroom is actually the language of low-context communication in terms of directness, verbal-based style, self-enhancement and person-orientation This framework of individualistic interaction style in EFL classroom context may pose some concerns for Vietnamese EFL teachers, who belong to a collectivistic culture,

in their daily classroom interaction

2.5 The challenges of EFL teachers’ talk in the communicative English

classroom

Given that Vietnam is a collectivistic society and the requirements regarding teachers‟ talk, Vietnamese EFL teachers are placed in a challenging position As the collective classroom setting embraces the harmony and cooperation (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, and Roy, 2010), self-enhancement is not a priority and the language used in daily life is based on non-verbal signals such as tone, pitch, and figure of speech to convey implied message (Tran, 1999) The dilemma firstly is on the appropriate way of how English language is used in the interaction between the teacher and students in class Vietnamese teachers, who are familiar with interaction

in the HCC in daily life, use English to give instruction in such a oriented environment This may be a tough situation because English belongs to a different language system from the Vietnamese language system in terms of syntax, intonation, phonology, to name a few Teachers accordingly need to use English not only to model of English language user to promote the language competence but also comprehensible for the learning environment As such, the difference between the ideal manner of teacher talk and the actual manner of talking of Vietnamese EFL teachers, provided the impact of the oral interaction of the collectivistic culture

collectivistic-Second, the teacher speech is featured by factors such as the rate of speech (higher

or lower), extremely clear pronunciation, simple vocabulary, short sentences and repetition in order to make it more comprehensible for student to acquire (Liruso and Villanueva de Deb, 2003) The nature of oral instruction in class where there is

an unequal of student language ability and talents, which requires directness and transparency at all levels of meanings in order for EFL teaching and learning successfully to happen For example, in EFL classrooms at university level, the

number of students in each class is quite large, which is about 30 to 40 students In the classes, especially non-English major classes, the level of English among students is distributed unequally Therefore, it is a challenge on the degree to which the instruction and feedback should be delivered clearly and straightforwardly so that different students with different English language and academic backgrounds can comprehend Although there are contradict comments regarding the dominance

of teacher talking time in class, it is undeniable the critical role of teacher talk Their way of using the English language in delivering instruction affects the level of task/lecture understanding of students

Thirdly, the oral interaction in this context is also the teacher monologue Le (2009) addresses cultural barriers to the learning and teaching work by pointing out the passiveness and lack of competition and conflict in classroom interaction This lack

of competition and conflict comes from the face saving and harmony in classroom communication The author explains that the face saving/perfectionism leads to less improvised lessons and quiet/monologue language classrooms (good speakers should speak and the not good speakers should listen) In this case, teachers are as the authority and the source of knowledge and thus, they should speak more than students As this happens from the early years of the education system (Tran, 2015),

it is too rigid to change at the later educational stages As a result, EFL students keep silent in class and this makes the teacher talk dominant There is a lack of student talking time which leads to lack of student questions, student interactions and involvement, and most importantly student debates from which learning will happen

2.6 The impact of Vietnamese EFL teachers’ cultural dimensions on the

teachers’ oral interaction in the English classes

From what have been discussed so far, the classroom oral interaction with the consideration of the cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism varies depending on how verbal and vocal cues are performed The verbal selection is reflected through the use of syntax, vocabulary, and grammar in classroom which can be analyzed through the spoken words of teacher instruction, questions and feedback Specifically, they are the structure of sayings, the type of vocabulary the EFL teachers use in class, and how grammar is applied to convey meaning Meanwhile, the vocal component represented by voice firmness, speed, and loudness is the one to complete the full meaning of the spoken message These factors can be detected through the pitch, speed rate, and intensity which can be identified thanks to voice analysis programs From which, either LCC (individualistic) or HCC (collectivistic) approach in oral communication can be looked through

For verbal cues, it is indicated through the language use in the LCC and HCC that reflects the difference between direct and indirect styles of teacher instruction and responses It is actually the difference of the level of straightforwardness of the content message Direct communication promotes the verbal precision and self-expression and the indirect style, however, maintain harmony and save face (Neuliep, 2011) When the interaction style is direct, there is an equality of interlocutors as individuals and the language is thus free from the social hierarchy The teacher (speaker) is responsible for clearly express their meaning through words to make sure the meaning is conveyed and understood correctly Conversely, when the verbal interaction style is more on status orientation, it tends to focus on the social relationships of the interlocutors For this reason, there is a selection of vocabularies and paralinguistic features that are used to draw attention to the social

roles of the teacher and students (listeners) in order to save face for interlocutors and maintain their relationship As a result, the language used is more in a spiral way of expression The argument above can be concluded in the table 2.2

It has been argued that there is a negotiation of EFL teachers on the continuum of individualism and collectivism reflected through their interaction style in EFL classes In the Vietnamese context as mentioned, EFL teachers may be more on the collectivistic orientation, given the country‟s original culture As such, their oral interaction style in class is perhaps closer to collectivism A framework of verbal interaction styles of EFL teachers with the two different cultural approaches has been adapted From this framework, four hypotheses are made to examine the phenomenon in the Vietnamese context

Table 2.2 Framework of verbal interaction of EFL teacher individualists and collectivists

Verbal interaction among individualists

Verbal interaction among collectivists

Directness Indirectness Person-orientation Status-orientation

Verbal based style Context-based style Self-enhancement style Self-effacement style

2.7 Hypotheses of EFL teachers’ cultural dimension on their oral interaction styles in their class

The EFL teachers who are collectivism-oriented tend to talk in an indirect way, which may result spiral sayings and ambiguity for the meaning making and their

conversations are more social context-based which means the social relationship between them and students, including their social status, is taken into consideration for how the conversations should be made Such an implicit way of talking may emphasize student listeners‟ interpretation and a complicated process of decoding Consequently, in the EFL teaching context within a culture, the verbal interaction style of collectivistic teachers is more on implicitness, circularity, social status-based interaction, group harmony, face saving, and students‟ interpretation

Hypothesis 1 – Teachers who are collectivistic will talk in an indirect/spiral style Given the continuum of individualism and collectivism, the probability is those who are collectivistic may communicate in an indirect way With the fear of losing a relationship and the social norm of being subtle in communication, straightforwardness should be avoided in conversations As this collectivistic group

of EFL teachers prefers interdependence and their sense of belonging to their ingroup to students, the individual teachers choose to talk indirectly As loud voice

is considered as rudeness, they tend not to raise voice as much as they can to maintain the harmonious atmosphere in class When giving instruction or responses, the teachers therefore may perform a fine tone of voice As harmony is promoted in the interaction, a soft and clear voice is preferred Their instruction, therefore, is blurred in terms of meaning because they tend to imply the message through wording, rather than express it through verbal cues With that approach in communication, the teachers tend to use vocabulary and sentences structure which may cause ambiguity in meaning

Hypothesis 2 – Teachers who are collectivistic will interact on status-orientation

As social relationship is important to collectivistic teachers, they tend to act based

on the social role of the interlocutor(s) Their logics and facts are not as important

as building relationship among the interlocutors As those teachers are familiar with the social status involvement in conversation, their conversation may focus on

students‟ interpretation and thus the social relationship between them and their students is well maintained In this way, the harmony spirit is nurtured quite well in the class Hence, the classroom environment seems to be quiet Additionally, the language use is hierarchical and the classroom interaction reveals a more orderly management Although the relationship is well established and maintained, personal expression seems to be limited in teacher talk to remain the good management in class Their personal attitudes are hence limited, which means the language intensity

is less diverse Thus, the stress and intonation falls and rises depending on the judgment of the teachers toward the lesson/lecturing requirement and the classroom atmosphere

Hypothesis 3 – Teachers who are collectivistic will speak in a context-based style Those who are collectivistic will attach to context-based interaction When teachers provide oral instruction in class, they may include not only the course content but also the institution and student needs into their instruction (Hiep, 2005) Hence, they put themselves in relation to students, making assumptions about students‟ knowledge and background They have a tendency to use that assumption (which may be right or wrong) to communicate in class Their oral interaction, as a result,

is lack of factual details This brings to the case where “collectivistic” teachers tend

to speak very implicitly to instruct their students in class They assume that their students should know anything which relates to the context and expect them to make some interpretation without speaking out loud Their speed may be slow as the collectivistic orientation allows silence

Hypothesis 4 - Teachers who are collectivistic will promote self-effacement style

As being influenced by the characteristics of high-context communication, the teacher feedback may lack praises and recognition of student contribution and development progress Modest talks and humbling conversations are applied in oral interaction of the collectivistic teachers Teachers would try to avoid giving

compliment to specific students on their contribution, participation or learning achievements For collectivistic teachers, it would be harder as it is not familiar for them to speak out (publicly) recognition of student progress as the focus would be

on the group, not individual

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

The chapter provided a full picture of the research design of the study In which, the questionnaire, observation and voice analysis were the three instruments for data collection The questionnaire was to diagnose the cultural dimension of each teacher participant Verbal cues were also detected through classroom observation Vocal cues were analyzed by the Pratt program

3.1 Research design

The literature has shown that the cultural dimensions do impact educational systems and that there is a possibility that individual teachers‟ cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism affect the classroom oral interaction Given the research question posed at the beginning, the writer used the explanatory correlational research to carry on the work to explain human behaviors Correlational research, according to Simone and Goes (2011), allows writers to examine the correlation between two or more than two variables by looking at the nature of behaviors in natural social settings This completely matched with the purpose of the current research as it needs the raw data from the natural context of classroom interaction where teachers naturally interact with their students To have

a closer look at the cultural dimension and its implication in the context of oral interaction in EFL classroom, the writer applied questionnaire, classroom observation, and voice analysis in this study

The questionnaire was delivered to EFL teachers who are the writer‟s acquaintances and were introduced by the writer‟s friend There were only five participants of collectivism agreed to participate in the classroom observation This group of collectivistic teachers was seen as a relevant approach to the Vietnamese context as Vietnam is a collectivistic culture Also, in the classroom teaching context,

especially the EFL classroom teaching, direct and transparent communication style should be applied to facilitate for learning All of these factors may affect the collectivistic teachers in their oral interaction style in class Doing research on this topic could help the writer to understand more about the phenomenon in the Vietnamese context The study used the questionnaire to assist identifying the cultural dimension of the individual teacher participants in the context of EFL classroom merely, which cannot be applied in any other social contexts This is solely to recognize the degree of the participants‟ cultural dimension in their classroom interaction with students From which, the questionnaire result facilitated for further elaboration on the meaning of the cultural dimensions in connection to the participants‟ oral interaction in their communicative English class

The data for the oral interaction of the teacher participants was collected through classroom observation As the purpose of the study is to look at the verbal and vocal uses of EFL teachers in class, the frequency and the way EFL teachers use instruction, questions and feedback were observed with a notice of language use Also, vocal cues including pitch, speed and intensity used in class were recorded for the data analysis process The observation focused on the verbal and vocal cues of the teacher talk In details, during the observation, field notes were used It focused

on the continuity of talking turns of teacher and students to examine the degree of interaction and mutual understanding between the teacher and students to see whether there was an obstacle in terms of language use that prevented the students‟ meaning making from the teacher‟s instruction and responses Impressive verbal and non-verbal cues were noted during the observation time The writer also used a voice recorder to assist recording the verbal language and vocal cues used by the teacher participants in class The recordings were transcribed to analyze the words and sentences the teacher used and the voice recordings were uploaded on a voice analysis software program (the Pratt program in this study) to identify the pitch and intensity