A STUDY ON HA LONG GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS’ ADDRESSING OF INTERCULTURAL ASPECTS IN THEIR CLASSES

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LE THI NGA A STUDY ON HA LONG GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS’ ADDRESSING OF INTERCULTURAL ASPECTS IN THEIR CLASSES Nghiên cứu v

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

LE THI NGA

A STUDY ON HA LONG GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS’ ADDRESSING OF INTERCULTURAL ASPECTS

IN THEIR CLASSES

(Nghiên cứu về việc xử lý các khía cạnh liên văn hóa trong lớp học

tiếng Anh của giáo viên ở Trường Chuyên Hạ Long)

ATTESTATION OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby declare that this submission of the minor thesis entitled “ A study on

Ha Long gifted high school English teachers’ addressing of intercultural aspects

in their classes” is my own work To the best of my knowledge, it contains no

materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree

or diploma at SFL or any other educational institutions The thesis has not been submitted to any other examining body and has not been published Any contribution made to the research by others is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis

Thai Nguyen, July 2019

Le Thi Nga

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Dr Nguyen Thi Hang

My special thanks are also sent to my colleagues and my beloved students at Ha Long high school for gifted students for their enthusiastic participation in my study Their devoted and sincere contribution helped shape the validity and reliability of this study

Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude towards my family and my friends for their endless care, support and faith in me

Thai Nguyen, July 2019

Le Thi Nga

ABSTRACT

This study examines the practice of teaching culture among English teachers at high school in Vietnam with practical experience in English as a foreign language It focuses on the forms of intercultural learning provided by teachers and teachers’ utility

of culture input to develop students’ intercultural competence

Teachers of English at Ha Long high school for gifted students are considered a cultural group, which is the reason for me to apply an ethnographic method in the study The data for analysis is collected from two sources: class observations and post-observation interviews with the teacher participants

The findings show that culture teaching is now integrated closely with linguistic competence in the curriculum The teachers exploit different forms of intercultural learning to provide students with intercultural knowledge, among which project-based learning activity, discussion on cultural differences and role plays are of extreme preference, enabling students to self-discover the culture aspects assigned Noticeably, most of those forms are based on the input available in the set English textbook Teachers had little opportunity to use supplementary material In the practice of culture teaching, the factors preventing both students and teachers from achieving their culture-intaking were also explained, among which time constraint was the key reason

Based on the findings of the study, recommendations are provided for both English teachers and educational administrator for improving the quality and quantity of culture teaching at high schools in Vietnam

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Rationale 2

1.3 Aims of the study 4

1.4 Research questions 4

1.5 Significance of the study 4

1.6 Scope of the study 5

1.7 Design of the study 5

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Conceptualisations of culture 6

2.2 Culture in language education 7

2.2.1 Relationship between language and culture 7

2.2.2 Intercultural competence 8

2.3 Cultural content in language teaching materials 9

2.4 Previous studies of IC teaching 10

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 13

3.1 Ethnography 13

3.2 Field site and participants 14

3.3 Data collection procedure 16

3.3.1 Classroom observation 16

3.3.2 Semi-structured interviews 17

3 4 Data analysis 19

3.4.1 Step 1 19

3.4.2 Step 2 20

3.4.3 Step 3 20

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 21

4.1 Forms of intercultural learning provided by the teachers 21

4.1.1 Project-based learning 22

4.1.2 Discussion on cultural differences 25

4.1.3 Role-play 27

4.2 Teachers’ utility of culture input to develop students’ intercultural competence 30

4.2.1 Teachers’ use of set teaching materials 31

4.2.2 Teachers’ use of supplementary culture input 36

4.3 Summary 40

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION 41

5.1 Summary of the findings 41

5.1.1 Forms of intercultural learning provided by the teachers 41

5.1.2 Teacher’s utility of culture input 42

5.2 Recommendations for more effective integration of culture into English lessons 42

5.2.1 Physical dimension 42

5.2.2 Professional dimension 43

5.2.3 Providing teachers with more professional support 43

5.3 Limitations of the study 44

5.4 Suggestions for further study 44

5.5 Conclusion 45

REFERENCES 46 APPENDICES I

APPENDIX 1: CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET I APPENDIX 2: THE INTERVIEW GUIDE II

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as a foreign language

IC: Intercultural competence

ICC: Intercultural communicative competence

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

LIST OF TABLES`

Table 3.1: Demographic information about participants ……… 16

Table 4 1: Summary of intercultural learning forms……… … 22

Table 4 2: Summary of project-based learning activities……… ………… 23

Table 4 3: Summary of discussion activities……… ………… 27

Table 4 4: Summary of role-play activities……… ……… 29

Table 4 5: Summary of how culture input utilized……… ……… 32

Table 4 6: Culture input provided in set teaching materials……… ……… 36

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction

In the age of globalization with its resulting economic, technological, social and educational transformation, there is an increased need for the development of intercultural competence (IC) This ability to communicate across cultural boundaries and mediate between cultures should be an important goal of language education (Byram, 1997, 2009) In order to develop learners’ IC, culture is regarded a core element and strongly linked with language In this sense, culture plays a critically important part in language teaching which is acknowledged by the English teaching circle (Wang, 2011) Language is both a part of culture and at the same time the deepest cultural reflection The linguist Robert Lado defines the goal of learning a foreign language as “the ability to use it, understanding its meanings and connotations in terms

of the target language and culture, and the ability to understand the speech and writing

of natives of the target culture in terms of their great ideas and achievement” (Lado, 1964) Therefore, the English teaching inevitably involves culture teaching

In Vietnam, the traditional perspective that teaching the language simply means providing students with an understanding of the nature of the foreign language, asking the student to do lexical and grammatical exercises or developing one or two language

skills such as reading or writing has become out of date Hoang (2016) stated that the

purpose of learning the language in modern time is using language elements like pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar and four language skills to reach the target of developing students’ intercultural competence (IC) This enables students to

understand foreigners and communicate with them in real life

From Hoang’ perspectives, to address IC, which is a new focus of English curriculum, culture must be explicitly taught as a central element and integrated with the teaching of language (Crozet & Liddicoat, 1999, 2000; Liddicoat, 2002; Newton

& Shearn, 2010b) In fact, the IC objectives have been highlighted by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) when compiling new English teaching syllabus The introduction of a newly added section - Communication and Culture- is a good example

of overt intercultural integration of the new English textbooks It is confirmed that the integration of culture into EFL teaching in Vietnam has been recognized from macro level with the evidence of IC objectives in the curriculum and the representation of intercultural contents and activities in the new English textbooks However, to enact this reformation comprehensively, EFL teachers should take active roles as the main implementers, who integrate culture into their teaching appropriately to their students and teaching contexts

The widespread of this modern approach has led to some positive changes in foreign language education in Vietnam One noticeable change is the teachers’ positive attitudes towards culture teaching Interestingly, more and more high schoolteachers

in foreign language education have realized they need to devote more efforts so as to facilitate language learners to develop their intercultural communication competence, (Zhang, 2017) Gifted high school teachers who are in charge of training brilliant students should be pioneers in integrating culture into the teaching and learning of foreign language for the development of learners’ IC

However, it is a fact that there is still a heavy focus on only linguistic knowledge, while culture has not received enough attention and devotion as observed by Ho (2011), as well as in my own experience This is also the case in Ha Long high school for gifted students where I am currently teaching Regarding the need to investigate culture teaching in the context of foreign language teaching at high school, the study explores the relevance of implementing the cultural aspects of Ha Long high gifted schoolteachers in the teaching and learning English

1.2 Rationale

There are three main reasons why I conducted this present study

Firstly, I carried out this study based on my great passion for cultural aspects in language education and my awareness about the importance of integrating culture into language teaching for the development of language learners’ IC It was the most important driving force that motivated me to engage in conducting this study From the findings of the study, I can gain insights into the realities of teaching and learning

culture in a gifted high school where I am working The findings were expected to broaden my professional knowledge about the culture teaching practices so that I can apply it into my own teaching for better learning outcomes for my students in terms of developing their ability to communicate across cultures in intercultural settings Secondly, in the Vietnamese context of foreign language education, there is superficial knowledge about the issue of addressing IC There have been limited numbers of studies thoroughly investigating Vietnamese language teachers’ beliefs and practices in integrating culture in their language teaching, except for Nguyen (2013) study His study extensively or comprehensively examines how EFL teachers in a Vietnamese university EFL teaching context address culture However, as a high school teacher, I would like to investigate this issue in a high gifted school where I am currently teaching to become more aware of my colleagues’ teaching practices, which

is useful for my professional development

Thirdly, the study aimed at offering recommendations for making positive change

in foreign language education in Vietnam, particularly at the high school level of education This critical element will help language teachers as well as my colleagues

at my school to make changes in their teaching practices These changes might include more supportive policies produced by foreign language education policy makers, teachers’ awareness of the important role of culture in language teaching, teachers’ pedagogical learning and knowledge, teachers’ own IC, and teachers’ ability to teach and assess IC Such changes, when made in the Vietnamese teachers’ language education context, will ultimately enable learners develop their ability to communicate across cultures in intercultural situations, thus meeting the requirements of the new government foreign language education policy

As a teacher of English at Ha Long high school for gifted students, who is aware

of the fact and wish to contribute some suggestions for possible improvements in

learners’ IC, I decided to do the research entitled “a study on Ha Long gifted high school English teachers’ addressing of intercultural aspects in their classes.”

1.3 Aims of the study

This study is aimed at exploring how the teachers of English at Ha Long high school for gifted students address cultural aspects in their classes in terms of the inter-cultural learning opportunities they provided, and the culture input they utilized Moreover, the study is also targeted at examining some obstacles facing the teacher participants whilst teaching culture to propose practical pedagogical solutions

1.5 Significance of the study

The study is expected to raise language teachers’ awareness of the cultural components in EFL teaching and learning for the development of learners’ IC From the findings of this study, some pedagogical recommendations will be provided to help EFL teachers address cultural aspects in their classroom more effectively

Moreover, I would like to share my understanding about this interesting and useful issue with my colleagues who have the same enjoyment of teaching English in different cultures

1.6 Scope of the study

The study was carried out with the participation of five teachers of English teaching 12th grade students at Ha Long high school for gifted students in the academic year 2018-2019

The study focuses on the reality of teaching and learning English at Ha Long high school for gifted students It centers on the teachers’ provision of culture learning opportunities for the students, especially teachers’ explanation of cultural components, teachers’ setting and managing of tasks and activities that foster students’ culture learning, teachers’ use of teaching materials and other teaching aids

1.7 Design of the study

The study consists of five chapters as follows:

Chapter I: Introduction: This chapter includes the rationale of the study, the aims

and scope of the study as well as the research questions

Chapter II: Literature review: This chapter presents some key definitions related

to IC and a review of previous studies conducted by both foreign and domestic researchers to give the whole picture of the matter

Chapter III: Methodology: This chapter describes my methodology including

research method, field sites and participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis

Chapter IV: Data analysis and discussion: This chapter analyses and discusses

the data obtained from classroom observation and post-observation interviews

Chapter V: Conclusion: The final chapter summarizes the key findings of the

study, puts forward some recommendations based on these findings and gives suggestions for further study and the limitations of this thesis

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Culture and teaching culture in a language class have been of great attention from language researchers and teachers Culture has been viewed from various perspectives

In order to provide the basic theoretical framework for the study, this chapter begins with a review of culture in general The next part gets closer to culture in language teaching, followed by an overview of culture teaching practices This chapter ends with

a review of related previous studies on culture teaching

2.1 Conceptualisations of culture

There are various ways in defining culture For example, Bates and Plog (1990)

view culture as “a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning”; More specifically, Robertson (1981) defines culture as “Culture consists of all the shared products of human society” (Robertson, 1981, p 67) That is, culture not only includes

visible property like organizations, companies but also non-material concepts like languages, ideas, customs, etc To make it simple, culture is related to the whole lifestyles of a community, “the ways of a people.”

According to Bate (1990, p 84), “culture is a complex of beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artifacts that are passed on from generation to generation through

learning." Hudson (1990) states that "culture is a kind of knowledge that we learn from others through direct instruction or by monitoring their behaviour.”

Sir Edward B Tylor is said to be the one giving the definition of culture as “That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”(Cited in Yue

(1994, p 112)) This concept of culture is all-embracing, and includes the behavioural, the creative material, the institutional, and the cognitive

In this study, “culture” refers to the perception that a professional community, like EFL teachers in a school share In this case, EFL teachers in school might be considered a cultural group In this cultural group, the teachers share certain beliefs in

2.1 Culture in language education

2.1.1 Relationship between language and culture

There are different views on the relationship between language and culture For many, language and culture are inseparable and interwoven (e.g., Crozet & Liddicoat,

1999, 2000); for others, these two are separable in certain respects depending on the point of departure in viewing them (e.g., Risager, 2006) Risager (2006) argues that when language and culture are considered at the generic level (i.e., human language and human culture) these two are inseparable However, at the differential level that distinguishes languages and cultures, it can be observed that language and culture can

be separated because “languages spread across cultures, and cultures spread across languages” (Risager, 2006, p 2)

Despite these different points of view, it is a point of consensus that human language and culture are inseparable, specifically in the sense that “culture is embedded in language as an intangible, all-pervasive and highly variable force” (Crozet & Liddicoat, 1999, p 116) This all-pervasive embedded-ness of culture in language is represented by what Crozet and Liddicoat (1999) term “points of articulation between language and culture” (p 116): culture in context, in general textual structure, in text units, in organizations of text units, and in linguistic structures, words, syntax, and nonverbal behaviors These interrelationships are central features

of the process of human communication and can be found at all levels of human communication, specifically intercultural communication (Liddicoat, 2009) These links between culture and language are indicated in the following situations: culture as

context, culture in text structure, culture and pragmatics and interactional norms, culture and linguistic form

Thus, culture and language are inseparable Culture is in language and language encodes and constitutes culture In the context of language education, how to address culture has always been of great attention The section below (section 2.3) discusses the approaches to culture in language education

2.1.2 Intercultural competence

In modern foreign language education, IC has received due attention to, and in certain context, has become the goal of language teaching According to Byram,

intercultural competence is “the ability to interact in their own language with people

from another country and culture, drawing upon their knowledge about intercultural communication, their attitudes of interest in otherness and skills in interpreting, relating and discovering” (Byram, 1997, p 70)

Meanwhile, Deardorff (2006) defines this competence as “the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations based on one’s intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes” (pp 247-248)

According to Deardorff (2006), the process in which IC is acquired begins at the individual level and with the individual’s positive attitudes (e.g., respect in valuing other cultures, openness, and curiosity) From that point, the individual gains knowledge and understanding (including cultural self-awareness, deep cultural knowledge, and sociolinguistic awareness) and develops skills in listening, observing and evaluating others, as well as in analyzing and interpreting Equipped with such knowledge and skills, an internal outcome, embodied by a shift in his/her frame of reference, is then developed in the individual The informed frame of reference shift is represented by empathy, adaptability, flexibility, and an ethno-relative view At the interactional level, the individual presents an external outcome, i.e effective and appropriate communication and behavior in an intercultural situation This external outcome then becomes a driving force for the development of the individual’s positive attitudes, which function as the starting point for another cycle of the development of IC

In this study, the term IC refers to the capacity of Vietnamese high school students

to interact with people from foreign countries in different real-life situations In such situations, the students can use the language input, culture input, and the skills they have learnt to be communicative

2.3 Cultural content in language teaching materials

Culture tends to be relegated to a specific section in textbooks or to be the subject

of readers The teachers can argue that every photo, drawing, reading package and dialogue is the subject not just of linguistic exploitation but of cultural discussion and debate Nowadays our textbooks contain print, audio, CDROM and DVD components and even dedicated websites which are better avenues for teaching cultural awareness Several different factors may have an impact on the success and failure of culture teaching in language classrooms Teachers, curricula, and textbooks are among the most important factors to take into consideration Damen (1987, p 5) postulated that there are reasons for the limitations of teachers’ efficiency as cultural guides

Lafayette (1988) points out that among the three main components of the language curriculum (language, literature, and culture), the greatest amount of time and energy is still directed to the grammatical and lexical aspects of language;

nonetheless, culture remains the weakest component “due to its uneven treatment in textbooks and to the lack of familiarity, among teachers, with the culture itself and with the techniques needed to teach it.”

Textbooks can serve as one of the decisive factors in culture learning Wandel (2003) suggests that textbooks should contain materials allowing and provoking diverging opinions and discussions on cultural stereotyping Cortazzi and Jin (1999) stated that it is often expected that second or foreign language textbooks should contain elements of the target culture These authors also clearly articulated that English as a foreign language textbook can have seven different roles in culture learning Textbooks can be a teacher, a map, a resource, a trainer, an authority, and an ideology

In order to get a comprehensive picture of the target culture from many angles,

we need to present our students with different kinds of information Some possible sources of information which can be used as materials for teaching culture are videos, CDs, TV, the internet, stories, realia, interviews, etc By using a combination of visual, audio and tactile materials, we are also likely to succeed in addressing the different learning styles of our students, (Cullen, 2010)

2.4 Previous studies of IC teaching

There have been a number of studies on culture, the role of culture in language teaching, culture input, and techniques of teaching culture This section provides a review on the findings of some prominent researches on this topic, both domestic and international context

In his study named “The Role of Culture in Second or Foreign Language Teaching: Moving Beyond the Classroom Experience”, Marilyn Fleet (2006) emphasizes on the necessity of teaching culture together with linguistic knowledge in language education, regardless of the students’ age This viewpoint was previously proposed by Peck (1998), who insisted that culture must be taught from the first language teaching and not be terminated

However, Jerrold Frank (2013), although well aware of the urge to provide language students with certain culture knowledge, is concerned about how we could combine knowledge and cultural understanding in the context of a language class He means, in class, the focus is on the linguistic competence, including grammar, syntax, phonetics and some social conventions associated with the language they are learning, not the authentic situations with real foreigners Therefore, according to Palmer (2007), there is a need to incorporate socio-cultural elements into language classes

Concerning practices of teaching culture, it is found out by a number of researchers that most of the cultural content comes from the course books One typical finding is presented in a study by Sercu et al (2005) He states that most of culture input the teacher resorts to is provided in the set textbook and and high-ranking domains of culture such as values and beliefs are almost avoided In other words, activities developing students’ intercultural knowledge and attitudes were more prominent than intercultural skills In the context of Vietnam, Chau and Truong (2018),

Ho (2011), also confirm that the most common practice of teaching cultures among Vietnamese teachers is transmitting intercultural knowledge from the course books They explain that teachers’ intercultural integration is topic-dependent and peripheral due to their considerable concerns of language objectives This is understandable as

the target of teaching language in Vietnam is language competence rather than culture knowledge This practice is different from that shared by Thelma Perso in the study

“Cultural Responsiveness and School Education” in 2012 He finds out that teaching

of culture includes multicultural education, cultural differences and diversity, which are provided through authentic situations and other supplementary input

In order to teach culture effectively, researchers believe suitable techniques play

an important role Krasner (1999) presents some useful techniques and methods of teaching culture to foreign language students: observation through films, news broadcasts, maps, or menus, having students visit ethic sections or restaurants of cities, mini drama, which provides an example of miscommunication in the form of dramatization and the students are asked to discover the cause of the miscommunication, culture capsule, which offer brief explanations of foreign language customs, and culture capsule can also be in the form of oral presentation, reading, writing, or visual aids or realias, and role play, which gives the students opportunities

to demonstrate and rehearse appropriate cultural behaviour

Peterson and Coltrane (2003) suggest some instructional strategies to teach language and culture that may seem helpful for teachers looking for some practical ways to integrate culture in their language lessons: (a) using authentic materials such

as films, news broadcasts, television shows, websites, photographs, magazines, newspapers, restaurant menus, travel brochures, and other printed materials to engage the students in discussion of cultural issues; (b) using proverbs as a way to help students to explore the target culture; (c) having students act out a miscommunication based on cultural differences; (d) presenting objects such as figurines, tools, jewellery,

or images that originate from the target culture to serve as a foundation from which the teachers can discuss other cultural, historical, and linguistic factors, or the students can

be asked to do further research to find more information about the items presented; (e) using exchange students, immigrant students, or students who speak the target language at home as expert sources for classroom discussion; (f) sending students into the community of the native speakers of the target language to find information about

films and television segments to provide students with an opportunity to witness behaviours which are not obvious in texts

Consulting the findings of the mentioned research in this section, this study is carried on with a hope to have an insight in the practice of teaching culture among Vietnamese teachers, more specifically those teaching at high school The study hopes

to shed light on the techniques and forms of culture input that Vietnamese teachers use

in teaching intercultural knowledge to their students

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter reports the methodology which shapes the study It involves a brief theoretical description of Ethnography as the methodology adopted, driving the researcher all appropriate aspects to carry out the study These aspects include the participants, data collection procedure and data analysis, and are, in turn, presented

3.1 Ethnography

In order to find out the forms of intercultural learning and the teachers’ utility of culture input to develop students’ IC, the author adopted ethnography methodology as the theoretical framework for her study Ethnography is a qualitative research approach where behaviour is observed in its natural setting for an extended period of time It looks at people in their cultural setting; their deed as well as their words; the implicit

as well as the explicit; the way in which they interact with one another and with their social and cultural environment; what is not said as much as what is said; their language, and the symbols, and shared meanings that populate their world, with the object of producing a narrative account of that particular culture, against a theoretical backdrop (Singh, 2002)

A key term in ethnography, according to authors such as LeCompte and Schensul (1999), Walford (2008) and Creswell (2008) is culture For these authors, ethnography focuses on an understanding of a culture by engaging and interacting with its members,

as well as by observing these members in their daily activities

In the present study, I consider Vietnamese EFL teachers who work in the same school over a certain period of time to be a cultural group These teachers share a cultural behavior: teaching culture to their students

One of the advantages of ethnography is that it allows for multiple data collection methods Therefore, in this study I used two methods: class observations and semi-structured interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the practice of teaching culture in a language class

My data sources comprise both individual interviews with the teachers of

interviewing is to capture the teachers’ perspectives on teaching culture in the English subject and to obtain in-depth and rich information about the teacher behaviors whereas the observation is to investigate teachers’ practice in dealing with cultural aspects The combination of these two data collection methods presents an accurate reflection of participants’ perspectives and practices

The data from class observation notes and post-observation interviews were qualitatively analyzed also to discover the forms of intercultural learning and teachers’

utility of culture input to develop students’ IC

In short, adopting ethnography methodology with rigorous qualitative research methods is an appropriate choice for me to find out the answers to the following research questions:

1 What forms of inter-cultural learning do gifted high school teachers of English provide for their students?

2 How do gifted high school teachers of English utilize culture input to develop their students’ intercultural competence?

3.2 Field site and participants

The field site in my study is a High school for gifted students, located in Ha Long city, Quang Ninh province where I am currently teaching This gifted high school was founded in 1990 When the study was carried out, the school had about 1400 pupils, among whom 350 were students of grade 12 Admission into this gifted high school was selected according to their academic records in the junior high school and a special exam for gifted students and a compulsory admission subject is English Therefore, the overall English level of the 12th form students is relatively high However, that level is not even in different specialized classes Students at English major classes are at the highest in terms of English level The first reason for me to select this school as the research field site was that it was well-known for its quality of teaching and learning Another reason was that this school is also where I have been working, and thus it was

a familiar research site for me This familiarity was also useful for my fieldwork as well as my rapport with the participants

Within the limited scope of this study as a qualitative research design, it was natural that only a limited number of participants were in need The participants involved in this study were five female teachers of English who were teaching grade

12th students, ranging from 29 to 46 years old All of the teacher participants have had

a Master degree and at least seven years of English teaching experience and come from different backgrounds, have very different life experiences and substantially differing personalities and attitudes to teaching Interestingly, they all gained their first-hand experience abroad for at least three weeks and at most two years, resulting in their perspectives on their teaching beliefs and decision making that underlie their classroom practice These participants were also those who were willing to allow me to observe their classes and answer my interview questions All these teacher participants seemed enthusiastic, contributive to their professional development Therefore, they were expected to provide insightful and valuable responses

The table below provides demographic information about the participants, appearing in their pseudonyms

Table 3.1 Demographic information about participants

Participant

pseudonym

Teaching experience

Gender Class in charge

I was aware that if I had interviewed a large number of students and teachers, I would have more data to analyze However, since this study was conducted as a qualitative research, more focus was put on data richness and depth rather than on data quantity Therefore, I believed that the proposed sample of participants could provide sufficient and reliable data for me to cast a comprehensive look into my research issue

3.3 Data collection procedure

In this study, the data were collected from two different sources: classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with teachers of English Of the two data collection methods, classroom observations help the researcher in understanding accurately the teachers’ implementation in the natural setting, whereas post observation interviews help to provide more in-depth and rich information about how and why teachers taught cultural integration lessons in the way they did In other words, interviews help to cross-check what the researcher observed with what the teachers said These direct observations and insights gleaned from interviews strongly reinforced the findings of the research All these instruments are described in detail below

3.3.1 Classroom observation

Class observation was employed as the major source for data collection It has been proved that observation is a simple, easy-to-use data collection and presents an opportunity to see real-life teachers in real-life teaching situations It has been widely accepted that the results of observational data are obvious, intuitive, and relatively accurate In this study, observation aims to record the culture-related teaching activities

of the teacher participants

To well obtain the information for analysis, for every class hour I observed, I used observation sheets ( see Appendix 1), in which I focused on information such as the class observed, time, location, facilities, teaching materials,classroom management, lesson outcomes and most importantly, the teachers’ culture-related activities Also, I took notes all around teachers’ teaching practice, for instance, the teachers’ and students’ mood and behaviours, the classroom climate, participants’ mental and physical appearance, etc To make the observed teachers feel comfortable, I asked for

their permission before entering the class and took the role of the observer, which was non-participant observation, during the time in class I was therefore free to take detailed notes of what was happening in the classroom As far as I know, classroom observation by colleagues has been a common practice in any schools Therefore, I believe that my presence was of no, or at least little, effect on participants’ behavior and activities in the classroom Each English class session lasted 45 minutes and the observation was carried out full-time of their teaching and learning To ensure that the students and teacher work naturally, the observation was made without the perception

of students Two classes per participating teacher were carried out and in total, there are ten samples for observation activities

The focused classroom observation, therefore, helped to get better insights into the research questions

3.3.2 Semi-structured interviews

Another crucial tool to gather information in this study was semi-structured interviews with the teachers of English The researcher applies the method since it could explore in greater detail and in depth some particularly important aspects and address other closely related topics that other tools, for example, questionnaire could not pull out (Brenner, 1981, cited in Verma& Mallick, 1999, p.122)

Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather information in the present study because of its flexibility and efficiency This form of flexible interviewing was chosen because it can help the interviewer to reword questions, provide prompts, adjust language, clarify points when necessary and answer questions, if any, from participants (Berg 2009) In this study, the interviewees were interviewed in a friendly and natural setting so that no sense of discomfort and/or burden could be placed on the subjects They were encouraged to express their opinions freely as much as possible and avoid response bias The interviews could be conducted in English or in Vietnamese depending on the respondents’ preference to ensure mutual understanding between the interviewees and the researcher The interviews included three main questions and some possible probes with both open-ended questions and close-ended ones designed

in accordance to the research questions and guided by an interview guide (see Appendix 2) to keep them focused on the desired line of action The interviewees were prompted by probing questions when the researcher felt the participants had more to

say or when she needed additional information for clarification To minimize the

biases, all of the interviews used an informal conversational style, and discussions started at a broad level The first two questions of the interview aim to introduce the research topic Then, the participants were introduced with more focused questions relating to their exploitation of culture input and the forms of inter-cultural learning they provided for their students Each interview lasted around 15-20 minutes and was carried out after class observations The respondents were offered adequate time to express their individual opinions, to support their points and add extra information when needed The interviews were elaborately audio-taped for two main advantages: accurate and complete information recorded with no time consuming notetaking; later reviews for subjects to add more information and then transcribed for data analysis afterwards

Concerning the participants, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five teachers in charge of teaching English for different 12th classes including two major English classes, one literature class, one physics class and one maths class The purpose

of selecting these participants is that I can consider the responses of each interviewed teacher and make a meaningful comparison between their perspectives and practice, their teaching techniques adopted for different classes

It is obvious, post-observation interviews are a good source for providing additional information about the teachers’ perspectives and an extensive understanding

of the issues

In short, the present study made use of class observations and semi-structured interviews in order to:

 discover teachers’ perspectives and attitudes to teaching culture

 explore what forms of inter-cultural learning provided by Ha Long

school teachers in their English classes to develop their students’ IC

 find out how culture input utilized to develop students’ IC

 cross-check the information found in their actual classroom practices

and what they stated in the interviews

 to consult their ideas and expectations in culture teaching

3.4 Data analysis

The data analysis should help the researcher going from description of the data,

to a systematic presentation of patterns and meaning (Twining et al., 2016), based on the theoretical framing (see Chapter 2) In this study, I have used two approaches to analyze my data The qualitative analysis of the interviews and class observation (note takings) were somewhat deductive and somewhat inductive, where some categories were pre-existing, based on theory, and some categories emerged from the data The data analysis for this study was done in three procedural steps, beginning with analysis

of class observation (step 1), then the analysis of the teacher interviews (steps 2), and ending with an integration of the two data sources (step 3) The procedures of collecting data took me a year but it took me nearly a month and a half to analyze the data Followings were the steps that I implemented after collecting the data

3.4.1 Step 1

During a school year, I observed two lessons per participating teacher and in

total there were ten samples for observation activities For the first step, I scrutinized

my note takings from class observations and identified the parts that were relevant for

my research questions As my study was limited to the teaching of culture, I drew my attention to what forms of cultural learning opportunities the teachers provided and how they exploited culture input to develop students’ IC This focus gave me the

enlightening information for the two research questions posed in Chapter 2

3.4.2 Step 2

The second step of my analyses was examining the teacher interviews To analyze these, I listened through the interviews first, then transcribed them in their entirety, then I listened through them again to ensure that I had captured everything that was being said The transcriptions were then be given to the interviewees to add extra information if desired In analyzing the interviews, I focused on:

 teachers’ perspectives and attitudes to teaching culture

 intercultural learning opportunities they provided

 the culture input exploited for teaching culture

The data obtained from the class observations and the interviews enabled me to compare the teachers’ perspectives and their real practice and shed light on the research questions Time and effort were equally devoted to seeking a thorough discussion of each data source

3.4.3 Step 3

The third step was to integrate the data that I had found in the first two steps The triangulation of two data sources helped to answer the two research questions raised in chapter 2 As Gay (1996) remarks that triangulation is a common strategy to enhance the ability to assess the validity and reliability of the data adequately Since the main content of this study focused on high gifted schoolteachers’ exploitation of cultural aspects in their English class, the observation of their implementation in conjunction with the collection of as many opinions and comments from the subjects on practicality

of the work as possible was essential As a typical qualitative research, the data collection, data analysis and research questions all affected each other (Maxwell, 2013) This meant that step 3 also consisted of revisiting and readjusting some of the analytical concepts I had used in steps 1-2 and considered new topics of interest emerged during the steps of analysis

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter discusses the major findings based on my analysis of ten classroom observation notes and five post-observational interviews It mainly deals with the forms of inter-cultural learning that gifted high school teachers of English provide for their students and the way the teachers use culture input to develop their students’ IC Also, certain difficulties and obstacles in teaching culture are considered alternately to gain understanding of the reasons why culture teaching sometimes does not meet the teachers’ expectations

4.1 Forms of intercultural learning provided by the teachers

Through the classroom observations, it was noticed that the teachers used different forms of intercultural learning to assist the students’ learning of culture The table below summarizes three forms employed most frequently by five teacher participants

Table 4 1 Summary of intercultural learning forms

No Forms of intercultural learning No of lessons

They also confirmed that they preferred project-based learning, discussion on cultural differences; role-play activities and utilized them more often than others for

the benefits they expected to bring to their students In addition, they reported that their choice of which form to use varied due to curriculum requirements, topics of the lesson, time allocation, students’ motivation and level, teaching facilities available, and teachers’ command of cultural aspects, etc

4.1.1 Project-based learning

The Grade 12 English Textbook used for students of Ha Long high school for gifted students is structured with one section for culture learning followed by one for project plan for every unit This fact explains why project-based learning was the most popular form of intercultural learning in English classes

The popularity of project was clearly observed in half of the class hours (five out

of ten) that I attended To make it more specific, the summary of the project-based learning activities related to culture is presented below

Table 4.2 Summary of project-based learning activities

Project-based learning

1 12 A1 Unit 5 Cultural identity A poster presentation on cultural

identity of ethnic groups in Vietnam

5 12 L Unit 2 Urbanization A presentation on an international city

8 12 T Unit 6 Endangered species Presentation on an endangered