Intercultural competence of ELF teachers at university of economic and technical industries when teaching the course book new headway, pre intermediate, third edition

This study examines the intercultural competence of ELF teachers atUniversity of Economic and Technical Industries, their self-report in teachingpractice and the reflection of their inte

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-

GRADUATE STUDIES ************************

LƯƠNG THỊ THANH THẢO

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE OF EFL TEACHERS AT UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC AND TECHNICAL INDUSTRIES WHEN TEACHING THE COURSE BOOK “ NEW HEADWAY, PRE-

INTERMEDIATE, THIRD EDITION”

Năng lực liên văn hóa của giáo viên Tiếng Anh Trường Đại học Kinh Tế Kỹ Thuật Công Nghiệp trong việc giảng dạy giáo trình “ New Headway, Pre-

intermediate, Third edition”

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-

GRADUATE STUDIES ************************

LƯƠNG THỊ THANH THẢO

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE OF EFL TEACHERS AT UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC AND TECHNICAL INDUSTRIES WHEN TEACHING THE COURSE BOOK “ NEW HEADWAY, PRE-

INTERMEDIATE, THIRD EDITION”

Năng lực liên văn hóa của giáo viên Tiếng Anh Trường Đại học Kinh Tế Kỹ Thuật Công Nghiệp trong việc giảng dạy giáo trình “ New Headway, Pre-

intermediate, Third edition”

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Prof Nguyen Quang

I, Lương Thị Thanh Thảo, hereby certify that the thesis “Intercultural Competence of EFL teachers at University of Economic and Technical Industries whenteaching the course book “New Headway, Pre-intermediate, Third Edition”

” is submitted for the partial fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Arts at theFaculty of Post Graduate Studies – University of Languages and InternationalStudies – Vietnam National University, Hanoi I also declare that this thesis is result

of my own research and efforts and that it has not been submitted for any otherpurposes

Hanoi, 2016Signature

Lương Thị Thanh Thảo

First of all, I would like to express my indebtedness and sincere gratitude to mysupervisor Prof Assoc Nguyen Quang for his invaluable guidance and greatsupport without which this thesis would not have been completed

Besides, I am heartily thankful to all the lecturers and teachers of the Faculty ofPost Graduate Studies – University of Languages and International Studies –Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable and interesting lectures andassistance during my study at the university

Many thanks would go to all the teachers of English at University of Economicand Technical Industries whose active participation and cooperation helped me tofulfill this study

Last but not least, I send my special thanks to my family and my friends whoprovided abundant assistance and encouragement while this work was in progress

This study examines the intercultural competence of ELF teachers atUniversity of Economic and Technical Industries, their self-report in teachingpractice and the reflection of their intercultural competence on their teaching Thisstudy adopts a mixed methods research design Quantitative data are collectedthrough a survey questionnaire from seventeen EFL teachers at University ofEconomic and Technical Industries Among them, four teachers participate in thefollow-up interviews The findings of this study suggest that participating teachers’perceive cultural teaching objectives reflect various aspects of an interculturalperspective toward culture teaching They are aware of the importance ofintercultural competence in teaching however they have not applied frequently inteaching practice yet English language teachers concentrated on the factualknowledge and skills parts of teaching the language most of the time, which could

be categorized within the pedagogy of information and the pedagogy of preparationrespectively; either when they were presenting culture; when they were representingtheir teaching objectives; when they perceived the teaching of the ICC; or whenthey were using activities in their classrooms Less concentration was paid to actualteaching of culture, which could be categorized within the pedagogy of encounter;despite their realization of the importance of it to their students and their openness

to other cultures

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

LIST OF APPENDIXES x

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

2.1 Aims of the study 2

2.2 Objectives of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Significance of the study 3

5 Research Methodology 3

5.1 Research Questions 3

5.2 Research methods 4

6 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Language and culture correlation 5

1.2 Intercultural competence 7

1.3 Byram’s perception of intercultural competence 10

1.4 Review of related studies 12

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 14

2.1 Setting and participants 14

2.1.1 Setting 14

2.1.2 Participants 14

2.2 Data collection instrument 14

2.2.1 Questionnaire 14

2.2.2 Interview 16

2.3 Data collection procedure 16

2.4 Data analysis 17

2.4.1 Questionnaire Analysis 17

2.4.2 Interviews Analysis 17

Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19

3.1 From quantitative data 19

3.1.1 Teachers’ perceptions of culture and intercultural competence 19

3.1.2 EFL teachers self-report their intercultural competence in teaching practice 23

3.1.3 Teachers’ IC reflected in their practice of teaching 28

3.2 From qualitative data 30

3.2.1 Teachers’ perceptions of culture and intercultural competence 30

3.2.2 Teaching objectives 34

3.2.3 How teachers perceive the teaching of intercultural competence in their classrooms 36

3.2.4 Teacher’s intercultural competence reflected in their self-report pedagogical practice 38

PART C: CONCLUSION 40

1 Summary of the Research and Main Findings 40

2 Limitations of the study 43

3 Suggestions for further studies.

44

REFERNCES 45 APPENDIX A: I APPENDIX B: X

vi

ELT English language teaching

FLT Foreign language teaching

IC Intercultural competence

ICC Intercultural communicative competence

ILTLP Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning in Practice

SD Standard Deviation

UNETI University of Economic and Technical Industries

Table 3.6: Frequency of applying intercultural competence teaching 26Table 3.7: Means for items showing a positive attitude to teaching 29about culture

Table 3.8: Means for items showing a negative attitude to teaching 30about culture

LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 1 : Byram’s model of intercultural communicative competence 11

LIST OF APPENDIXES

Page

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

As a result of globalization, the growing popularity of English as foreignlanguage learning (EFL) has been put an emphasis on both linguistic proficiency andcompetence Due to the worldwide trend of globalization, the opportunities tocommunicate and interact in English have increased and English is considered as thegateway that makes communication possible across cultures In order to achieve thegoal of successful communication, English language teaching has been viewed asimperative way to reach the goal However, being influent in the target language doesnot guarantee that the transmitting messages will be successful It can result inmisinterpretation and miscommunication Therefore, foreign language educationshould integrate diverse worldwide culture and relate to learners’ cultural background

In other words, cultural knowledge and linguistic knowledge play an equal role in

communication According to Byram (1997) and Smith et al (2003, p.89-126)) “in order to enhance English language learners’ intercultural communicative competence, understanding other background is the foundation of making possible assumptions.”

Moreover, many scholars such as Byram and Morgan (1994), and Secru (2005) havepointed out the important of intercultural competence (IC) in foreign languageeducation noting that teaching English as a foreign or second language is not merely

language teaching, but more importantly “the teaching of global culture.”

Since culture plays such an important role in English language teaching,teachers should be considered as a major instructional tool to transmit knowledge andconsequently to convey cultural aspects to their students In recent years, VietnameseEFL teachers and educators are beginning to understand the greater role of cultureplays in foreign language learning and beginning to address the need to integrate acultural dimension into classrooms (Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa, 2007, Nguyen Thanh Long,

2014) Despite the fact that the importance of culture teaching has gained attentionfrom Vietnamese EFL teachers and scholars, classroom teaching still falls behindtheoretical expectation: linguistic teaching still dominates mostly in universities inVietnam and culture teaching has not been very effective in terms of promotingstudents’ acquisition of intercultural competence and preparing them for interculturalcommunication This makes teaching intercultural competence a significant and heavyresponsibility on language teachers’ professional development, which requiresadditional objectives and focus for teacher education and training programs.

Additionally, it is initiated by my own interest in the topic which inspires me to

have a further insight into “Intercultural Competence of EFL teachers at University

of Economic and Technical Industries when teaching the course book “New Headway, Pre-intermediate, Third edition”.

2 Aims and objectives of the study

2.1 Aims of the study

The aim of this study is to investigate intercultural competence of EFL teachers

at University of Economic and Technical Industries and their self-report in cultureteaching

2.2 Objectives of the study

- To assess the intercultural competence of EFL teachers at University of

Economic and Technical Industries

- To find out EFL teachers’ self-report in culture teaching practices

- To find out how EFL teachers’ intercultural competence is reflected in their self-reported pedagogical practice in classroom

3 Scope of the study

Within the framework of this minor thesis, the study only focuses on universityEFL teachers’ attitude of intercultural competence in teaching for non-English majorstudents

4 Significance of the study

The researcher finds it necessary to explore how English language teachersthink about teaching culture in their classroom The need of using English as a means

of communication with people from other countries is more and more increasingbecause of the globalization,

Firstly, this study helps to provide teachers and educators with a framework totrain English language teachers to incorporate culture into the English languageteaching, and also provide an in-depth understanding of the theoretical background oflanguage and culture teaching

Secondly, the study provides the insights into English language teachers’intercultural competence and their application in practice

3, How is teachers’ intercultural competence reflected in their self-reported

pedagogical practice in classroom?

5.2 Research methods

The study adopts a mixed methodology combining both quantitative andqualitative methods for data collection and data analysis Seventeen teachers areinvestigated so as to compare and contrast their understanding and attitudes towardsintercultural competence Two collection instruments are employed includingquestionnaire, and semi-structured interview

6 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three parts, namely Introduction, Development andConclusion

Part A, Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the method and

the design of the study

Part B, Development, consists of three chapters Chapter 1, Literature Review,

reviews the key constructs and related works Chapter 2, Methodology, introduces theparticipants, the data collection instruments and data analysis procedure Chapter 3,Findings and Discussions, deals with the results and the discussions concluded fromthe data analysis

Part C is Conclusion of the study In this part, the major findings, some

recommendations, limitations of the research as well as suggestions for further studyare presented

The appendixes are the last part of the study following the reference

“Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas,emotions and desire by means of voluntarily produced symbols” Thompson (2008)defines language as a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables

us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas and experiences” The definition of language

is also supported by Salzman (1993, p.15) as a part of human genetics endowment, andlanguage, which is one of the several systems of communication used by variouspeople

Culture can also be interpreted as “the complex whole, which includesknowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities, and habitsacquired by humans as members of a society (Tylor, 1874) According to Hubernere(1965, p.78) culture is divided into three categories the sociological or social sciencesdimension of culture, which includes the history, geography, economics, and politicaldevelopment of a nation; the artistic dimension of culture, which consists of literature,music, art, etc.; and the anthropological oriented dimension of culture, which coversaspects such as the behavioral patterns of the people e.g customs, daily life, standard

of living and religion And there is a most widely accepted definition of culture: culture

is the total accumulation of beliefs, customs, values, behaviors, institutions andcommunication patterns that are shared, learned and passed down through thegeneration in an identifiable group of people Also, another categorization places

culture as a “large or capital-C culture” and a “small-c culture” (Chastain, 1976,

p.338& Doyé, 1999, p.19)

Krech（1962）explained the major functions of language from the following three aspects:

1 Language is the primary vehicle of communication;

2 Language reflects both the personality of the individual and the culture of his history In turn, it helps shape both personality and culture;

3 Language makes possible the growth and transmission of culture, thecontinuity of societies, and the effective functioning and control of social group It is oftenheld that the function of language is to express thought and to

communicate information Language also fulfills many other tasks such as greetingpeople, conducting religious service, etc It is obvious that language plays a paramountrole in developing, elaborating and transmitting culture, enabling us to store meaningsand experience to facilitate communication The function of language is so important incommunication that it is even exaggerated by some scholars

However, the definition alone cannot provide us with a clear understanding onthe relationship between language and culture Therefore, we should take a dialecticalpoint of view on the relationship between language and culture As is mentioned at thebeginning, language and culture are inextricably intertwined This approach issupported by Crozet & Liddicoat (2000) and other researchers and language educatorssuch as Risager (2005), Carr (2007) Kramsch (1991, p.217) argues that “language andculture are inseparable and constitute a single universal or domain of experience” Onthe one hand, language is a part of human being It reflects people’s attitudes, beliefs,and worldviews Language both expresses and embodies cultural reality On the otherhand, language is a part of culture It helps perpetuate the culture and it can influencethe culture to a certain extent According to Saint-Jacques (2012, p.53), language can

be seen as a window into the culture of people speaking that language Therefore, it is

difficult to communicate without understanding of culture in spite of masteringthousands of words There is a need to know about the people and the country of thetarget language Several authors (Seelye, 1974; Lafayette, 1975; Starkey, 1996;McKay, 2000) have stressed the importance of culture in teaching and learning aforeign language The relationship between language and culture in second languagelearning and teaching is also discussed widely by many authors, for example, Byram,Morgan et al (1994) and Higgs (1990).

To sum up, language and culture have an interdependent relationship According

to Bennett & Allen (2003, p.237) “the person who learns language without learningculture risks becoming a fluent fool” Therefore, there is a need for the teacher to beaware of the cultural differences to help their students get rid of inappropriatebehaviors when engaging with native speakers

1.2 Intercultural competence

Language education has experienced from a focus of “linguistics competence”

to communicative competence” and then to “intercultural competence” Chomsky(1965) has investigated the acquisition of “linguistic competence” Students areexpected to develop the understanding of a language correctly only by learning itslinguistics system which includes grammatical structures, vocabulary andpronunciation At that time the socio-cultural context is less of significance in languageacquisition As the pragmatic reform appears at the second half of the 20nd centurywhich emphasizes on the performance of speech acts, language teachers realize that it

is not enough for students to communicate effectively with only well-structuredsentences if they lack the knowledge of how to use these sentences in a real context

The term “communicative competence” is investigated in different ways bymany scholars It is first introduced by Hymes (1972) with several systems of rulesunderlying communicative behaviors Then Van Ek (1986) who originally applies CC

to FLT also presents six partial or super-ordinate abilities in his research Thiscompetence usually consists of four elements: grammatical competence, sociolinguisticcompetence, discourse competence, and strategic competence (Savignon, 1983 &Alptekin, 2002) However, CC has been criticized by scholars because of focusing onspeech acts and discourse competence instead of cultural competence Meanwhile theculture of the target language often differs from the first language As argued by Crozetand Liddicoat (1999), communicative language teaching is not able to link betweenlanguage and culture so it does not enhance intercultural understanding Therefore,there is a need to entail a shift in the overall aim of FL instruction from CC to IC.

There are different definitions of intercultural competence Theconceptualization of intercultural competence mainly deals with the ability tocommunicate and interact across culture of language learners According to Byram(1997) intercultural competence is defined as “the ability to communicate and interactacross culture boundaries” As presented in her work, Deardoff (2004, p.194) proposesthat intercultural competence include “the ability to communicate effectively andappropriately in intercultural situation based on one’s intercultural knowledge, skillsand attitudes” This definition is also supported by Paige et al (2003) who refer tointercultural competence as the ability of a person to “interact and communicateeffectively with person from other cultures and in culturally diverse settings’

In addition to the ability to communicate and interact, the sense of culturalidentity is another important feature in the notion of intercultural competence Byram,Gribkova & Starkey ( 2002, p.10) has shown that it is “ the ability to ensure a sharedunderstanding by people of different social identities, and the ability to interact withpeople as complex human beings with multiple identities and their own individuality”

Intercultural competence emphasizes learners’ mediation between differentcultures Risager (1998, p.244) has shown that intercultural competence is the abilitythat allows learners to “function as mediators between their home culture and the target

culture and to use the target language as contact language with people who use thislanguage as first language” According to Byram& Zarate (1997) it helps learners tolook at themselves form an external perspective, then analyze and adapt their ownbehaviors, values and beliefs They can interpret and understand other perspectives aswell as decide what is taken for granted in their society as mediators between languageand culture Therefore, they can “engage with complexity and multiple identities andavoid stereotyping which accompanies the act of perceiving someone through a singleidentity” (Byram et al., 2002, p.9) The “reflective capacity to deal with culturaldifferences and to modify behavior when needed” was also taken into consideration byDellit (2005, p.17)

However, intercultural competence of language learners cannot be achievedonly through policies, materials, or even residence abroad as argued by Byram &Zarate (1997) Therefore, teachers’ awareness and understanding of interculturalcompetence are necessary to ensure students’ progress (Sercu, 2002) Teachers haveresponsibilities to help learners realize the relationship between their own culture andother cultures Teachers can inspire their students’ interest and their curiosity about

“otherness”, and an awareness of themselves and their own culture from other people’sperspectives

To sum up, culture is seen as the core in the concept of intercultural competence

in language education It is insufficient for language learners to study and work inmulticultural setting only by “linguistics competence” and “communicativecompetence” In consequence, there are a wide range of definitions of “interculturalcompetence” due to its complexity These definitions all focus on people’s capacity tocommunicate effectively and appropriately in the intercultural situations and theirability to mediate between languages and cultures The next section describes the fivewell-known models of intercultural competence

1.3 Byram’s perception of intercultural competence

Byram (1997) offers a model of IC, which includes five “savoirs” acquired by

language learners The elements of this model are attitudes, knowledge, skills ofinterpreting and relating, skills of discovery and interaction, and critical culturalawareness or political education, linked to the values a person acquires as a result ofbelonging to several social groups in a society These five savoirs are defined asfollows:

1 Savoirs (Knowledge): of social groups and their products and practices in

one's own and in one's interlocutor's country, and of the general processes of societal andindividual interaction

2 Savoir être (Attitudes): curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief

about other cultures and belief about one's own

3 Savoir comprendre ( Skills of interpreting and relating): ability to interpret a

document or event from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents from one'sown

4 Savoir apprendre/ faire (Skills of discovery and interaction): ability to

acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operateknowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time communication andinteraction

5 Savoir s’engager (Critical cultural awareness/political education): an ability

to evaluate critically and on the basis of explicit criteria perspectives, practices and products

in one's own and other cultures and countries

Figure 1 Byram’s model of intercultural communicative competence

Figure 1 shows the relationship between five elements Byram’s model (1997)values key dimensions in relation to culture: cultural relativism, critical awareness,empathy, curiosity, and cultural identity It also presents the inter-relationship oflinguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and

intercultural competence For Byram, intercultural competence involves an individual’sactivity to interact with people in other cultures using foreign language as well as acts

as a mediator between people of different culture

Through the five saviors proposed by Byram (1997), language learners canidentify misunderstandings while interacting with people from other cultures, explaintheir conflicting interpretations, define the need for further learning, and take action toavoid such misunderstandings

IC offers an invaluable opportunity to engage language learners in learningabout other cultures It gives language teachers a chance to integrate the teaching oflanguage and culture.

1.4 Review of related studies

In Europe, Australia, and North America, the importance of interculturalcompetence teaching has been widely recognized in second and foreign languagecurricula and educational policies (Sercu, 2006; Liddicot, 2004;) For instance, inEurope, the acquisition of intercultural competence has been addressed in the Council

of Europe's (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:Learning, teaching, assessment The framework provides a structure for

intercultural competence development based on Byram’s (1997) model Moreover, itprovides a common basic for language syllabuses, curriculum guidelines, andassessment Knowledge and skills for language learners to reach the six levels ofcommunicative proficiency are identified in the CEFR Culture as one of the main

aspects of the CEFR is put an emphasis to help language learners become plurilingual and develop interculturally (Council of Europe, 2001)

In the United States, the National Standards in Foreign Langauge EducationProject is a framework for second language learning Five national standards forforeign language education which are referred to as the five Cs (Standards, 1996) havebeen proposed, including communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, andcommunities, Teachers are encouraged to adjust their current communicativecompetence oriented teaching practices in order to help students to acquire interculturalcompetence Although many countries’ national curricula for language teaching havebeen following the intercultural shift in theory, Garrido & Alvarez (2006); Sercu(2006) argue that both cultural teaching in the broad sense and interculturalcompetence teaching have not yet become a common practice in second and foreignlanguage classrooms

Studies conducted by European researchers, regarding cultural teachingpractices, suggest that most language teachers’ current cultural teaching practices donot yet have desired outcomes as specified in the theoretical literature ( Sercu, 2006;Sercu, Mendez Garcia & Castro Prieto, 2005).

In Australia, the Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning in Practice (ILTLP) (University of South Australia, 2007) was further developed in Australia The

ILTLP helps teachers increase their knowledge of intercultural language teaching andlearning Furthermore, it helps language teachers able to integrate them into classroompractice and assessment

Some researchers have investigated foreign language teachers’ perception ofICC and its implementation in the language classroom Sercu (2005) conducted a studythat surveyed teachers of English, German, and French and investigated to what extentthe teachers’ beliefs, levels of instruction, and teaching practices could be promotingICC as opposed to mere communicative competence He finally found that the majority

of foreign language teachers who participated in the study had “not yet adoptedstudent-centered strategies for teaching intercultural competence” (p 103) because oflacking of preparation and of appropriate teaching materials and not having sufficienttime, resources, or training Teacher’s beliefs and practices regarding ICC have beeninvestigated by other researchers such as Paige, Jorstad, Siaya, Klein, and Colby,(2003); Sercu, (2005)

The lack of curricular support, suitable textbook materials, and ICC testingraises concerns about the integration of intercultural competence into languagecurricula were concluded in the researches of Duff & Uchida, (1997); Lazaratton,(2003); Young et al., (2009)

In Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa is one of the researchers who highlight theimportance of intercultural competence Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa (2007) also considersthe lack of guidelines, insufficient time, class sizes and lack of intercultural capability

as the reasons of communication failure

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Setting and participants

2.1.1 Setting

The study is carried out at Faculty of Foreign language, University of Economicand Technical Industries (UNETI) Faculty of Foreign language provides the Englishlearning programs for non-major English students Every classroom is equipped with aprojector, and other teaching as well as learning aids There are 44 teachers of English

at the Faculty of Foreign language There is no foreign teacher working at the faculty

2.1.2 Participants

The participants in the research are 17 teachers of Basic English Departmentteaching Basic English for second year students They have different degree levels,their minimum level is MA and others have BA degree in English language teaching.Their English proficiencies are at least C1 according to Common European Framework

of References for Languages (CEFR) They have experience in teaching English atleast 2 years

2.2 Data collection instrument

Dörnyei (2001a) claims “a combination of qualitative and quantitative designmight bring out the best of approaches while neutralizing the shortcomings and biasesinherent in each paradigm” (p 242) Therefore, a mixed-methods approach is adopted

in this study Survey questionnaire and semi-structured interview are used as the maininstruments of collecting data

2.2.1 Questionnaire

Survey questionnaire is used to examine teacher’s understanding of interculturalcompetence, their self-report in teaching practice and find out the relationship betweenteacher’s intercultural competence and their application in teaching English Because

questionnaire are self-administrated and data can be collected from a large group ofparticipants within a short period of time according to Seliger and Shohamy (1989), it

is considered to be one of the major advantages of questionnaire Moreover, teachercan be confident to express their viewpoints

The survey questionnaire consists of three main parts in order to cover the mainresearch issues following Cohen et al (2007) recommendations, which suggest that thedesign of the questionnaire should move from objective facts to subjective attitudesand opinions through justifications The sequence of the parts and the sequence of theresearch questions follow the recommended pattern The focus is on designing thequestionnaire with mainly closed questions and short and clear instructions for ease ofanalysis and to give more responses to each question (Redline et al., 2002) Also, open-ended questions were added to give in depth data regarding what teachers think There

is no need to translate the questionnaire into Vietnamese, since the participants areEnglish language teachers

The questionnaire used in this study, is inspired and adapted from Sercu et al.’s(2005) international survey This study uses part of Sercu et al (2005) internationalquestionnaire for different reasons; first its topic similarity with this research study; itsorganization and presentation of each theme in a realistic and systematic way; and theappropriateness of most of the statements used in her questionnaire to answer myresearch questions Part A consists of four questions The first two questions focuses onteachers’ definitions of culture and IC The third question is designed to explore howteachers perceive the teaching of culture Participants’ intercultural competence isevaluated in the last question

Part B consists of four questions which aim to explore what kind of culturalactivities they use in their classrooms; if they are creating a multicultural environment

in their classes; what are the cultural aspects they present; and finally, how theyimplement culture teaching in their classrooms

Part C explores the reflection of teachers’ IC and their teaching practice byquestion 9 The final question contains 20 statements about teachers’ perception of IC

in teaching practice The participants are asked to indicate their degree to theimportance of cultural teaching in practice

2.2.2 Interview

Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions are designed to offerinterviewer and interviewees, more freedom and flexibility in delivering questions andproviding information respectively Interviews help the researcher get “closer to anindividual’s perspective” (Kayrooz & Treviit, 2005, p.110) because the researchers canhear the interviewees express in their own words As a result, interview with open-ended questions can fulfill the important information that survey questionnaires cannotcover The semi-structured interview with nine question (See Appendix B) Questions

1 to 4 explore teacher’s definitions of culture, intercultural competence, theirunderstanding of culture teaching and their intercultural competence in Englishteaching The next four questions explore the awareness of teacher in the importance ofintercultural competence in teaching The remaining questions explore the reflection ofteachers’ intercultural competence on their teaching practice

2.3 Data collection procedure

Quantitative data are collected through a survey questionnaire (Appendix A) inthe first phase of this study Participants are asked to complete the surveyquestionnaires and invited to participate in follow-up interviews Those who arewilling to be interviewed are asked to leave their contact information In the secondphase, qualitative data are collected from follow-up face-to-face semi-structuredinterviews I contact those who have indicated their willingness to participate in aninterview In the end, four participants agree to be interviewed An interview is

conducted at a time convenient for each participant The interviews are audio taped andtranscribed.

2.4 Data analysis

This section is going to describe the data analysis stage for this study tools:questionnaire and interviews The results of the questionnaire and the interviews arerespectively presented and organized

2.4.1 Questionnaire Analysis

Data is checked for completeness to ensure there is an answer to most questions.Questions are checked to ensure they have been understood correctly by respondentsfor accuracy Data from the completed questionnaires is entered into the computerusing Statistical Package for Social Science Software (SPSS) The entered data is savedand thorough data analysis subsequently undertaken This stage involves potential steps

to insure that its design accomplish its validity and reliability

A descriptive analysis of the data gains from the questionnaires’ closedquestions is carried out using frequencies and percentages There are two open-endedquestions which call for another data analysis approach to fulfill the purpose of thequestionnaire The participants’ responses are noted down and categorized similar onestogether Performing counts and ranking responses according to the most frequentlymentioned ones are followed by the categorization steps

consistently Individual themes are categorized into group themes to identify thematicpatterns that emerged in the interview data A list of all themes identified in thetranscripts is created Meaningful analytical units from the original transcripts arecategorized into corresponding theme Finally, data are analyzed and synthesized togain an insight into English language teachers’ intercultural competence and theirapplication in practice.

Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION3.1 From quantitative data

Quantitative data are analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences(SPSS) Teachers’ intercultural competence and their established beliefs about andpractices of cultural teaching are described and the relationships between them we arediscussed

3.1.1 Teachers’ perceptions of culture and intercultural competence

3.1.1.1 Culture

nation (e.g history, geography,

(e.g Customs, daily life, standard 5,9% 5,9% 17,7% 29,4% 35,3%

of living, religion, etc.)

d All three of the above 0% 0% 11,8% 17,7% 70,5% 4,570

Table 3.1 Definition of Culture from the Respondents’ Point of View

Table 3.1 shows that the respondents think that the definition of culture includesall of the three points given (Mean of 4.570) The other rankings indicate that teachersseem to give more credit to the geo-political aspect (Mean 4.419) and behavioralaspects of culture (Mean 4.364), which is hoped to be introduced to their students.Although there are some teachers who give their own definitions of the term “culture”

19

c A field of research that studies how

people understand each other across

group boundaries 5,9% 5,9% 11,8% 52,9% 23,5% 3,895

d It is how two different cultures relate

to each other in terms of differences

and similarities 5,9% 11,8% 17,7% 29,4% 35,3% 3,964

e Analyzing and adapting ones behavior

when interacting with others 5,9% 11,8% 17,7% 35,3% 29,4% 3,806

Table 3.2 Definition of IC from the Respondents’ Point of View

The table shows that the most important aspect for respondents is to teach theirstudents how to communicate with others (Mean 4.304) However, understanding thestudents’ own culture is not ranked highly (Mean of 3.806) A space is left in thisquestion intentionally, so the respondents could express their views about how theydefine IC Respondents stress understanding and being familiar with other cultures’beliefs and attitudes, and how the individuals of those cultures behave in their dailylives, which will help teachers teaching their students how to express their own culture.ICC to most of them is a way of how two or more cultures work together alongsideeach other, and try to live peacefully by mutual understanding

In order to explore how participating teachers perceive cultural teachingobjectives from an intercultural perspective, eight objectives are listed which reflect the

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believe the objectives are important on a 4-point scale from 1 (Not Important) to 4(Very Important) Participants’ responses are presented below in Table 3.3 Mostparticipating teachers believe that all of the eight objectives for promoting students’intercultural competence are important Teachers report that the most importantobjective is to develop students’ skills of interaction dimension, namely, to “promotethe ability to conduct effective communication with English speaking people” (29, 4%reporting it Important and 58,8% Very important) The awareness and attitudesdimensions are also regarded as important cultural teaching objectives, such as to

“promote awareness and understanding of different values, beliefs, and ideologies ofboth Vietnamese and English speaking people,” and “develop acurious/tolerant/respectful/open attitude towards other cultures and culturaldifference.”

3.1.1.3 Cultural teaching objectives

Providing information about daily life 5,9% 17,7% 41,1% 35,3%(e.g social/political conditions) in

English speaking countries

Promoting understanding of different 5,9% 17,7% 52,9% 23,5%process of individual and social

interactions in English and Vietnamese

culture

Developing a curious/ tolerant/ 5,9% 11,8% 35.3% 47%respectful/open attitude towards other

cultures and cultural difference

Promoting the ability to acquire new 5,9% 17,7% 41,1% 35,3%cultural knowledge from

documents/events from English

cultures

Promoting the ability to conduct 0 11,8% 29,4% 58,8%effective communication with English

beliefs, and ideologies of both

Vietnamese and English speaking

people

Fostering students’ respect for world 5,9% 11,8% 41,1% 41,1%cultural diversity

Table 3.3 Teachers’ beliefs about cultural teaching objectives

Comparatively speaking, the three least important objectives are believed to bethe following: “provide information about daily life (e.g social/political conditions) inEnglish speaking countries,” “promote the ability to acquire new cultural knowledgefrom documents/events from English cultures,” and “the ability to understand andcritically interpret documents/events from English speaking culture.” These objectivesreflect the knowledge, skills of discovery, interpreting, and relating dimension ofintercultural competence teaching It is interesting to note that most aspects of the skillsdimension of intercultural competence are deemed to be less important

3.1.1.4 Teachers’ Intercultural Competence

The participating teachers are asked to rate their ability, knowledge, orwillingness related to intercultural competence on the modified 20-item instrumentwhich is set up on a 6-point scale from 0 (Not at All) to 5 (Very High) A single,composite intercultural competence score is also generated for each participant byadding up and then averaging the score of all the 20 items, which range from zero tofive The mean score of 3.24 indicates that teachers’ perceive intercultural competence

is slightly above Average in the 6-point scale The instrument measures fourdimensions of intercultural competence, namely, knowledge, awareness, skills, andattitudes An individual score is calculated for each of the dimensions by adding up andthen averaging the score of the items that measure the dimension The score of the fourdimensions of teachers’ intercultural competence all fall slightly above Average, whichindicates that teachers demonstrate average intercultural knowledge, awareness, skills,and attitudes Among the four dimensions of intercultural competence, the participantsdemonstrate highest level for attitudes (M = 3.51) and lowest level for knowledge (M =3.02).

3.1.2 EFL teachers self-report their intercultural competence in teaching practice

3.1.2.1 Frequency of Dealing with Particular Cultural Aspects

Question 5 asks the respondents to indicate how extensively they deal withparticular cultural aspects of cultural teaching according to frequency of use from (1)never to (3) often

Mean

Table 3.4 Frequency of Dealing with Particular Cultural Aspects

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