An action research project on enhancing student’s awareness of british culture in speaking lessons at a secondary school in quang binh

DECLARATION I, Hoang Thi Thu Giang, certify my authorship of the MA thesis entitled “An action research project on enhancing students’ awareness of British Culture in speaking lessons a

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

HOÀNG THỊ THU GIANG

AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON ENHANCING STUDENT’S AWARENESS OF BRITISH CULTURE IN SPEAKING LESSONS AT

A SECONDARY SCHOOL IN QUANG BINH

(Nghiên cứu hành động về việc nâng cao nhận thức của học sinh về Văn hóa Anh quốc trong giờ dạy nói ở một trường trung học cơ sở tại Quảng Bình)

M.A THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01

Hanoi – 2020

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

HOÀNG THỊ THU GIANG

AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON ENHANCING STUDENT’S AWARENESS OF BRITISH CULTURE IN SPEAKING LESSONS AT

A SECONDARY SCHOOL IN QUANG BINH

(Nghiên cứu hành động về việc nâng cao nhận thức của học sinh về Văn hóa Anh quốc trong giờ dạy nói ở một trường trung học cơ sở tại Quảng Bình)

DECLARATION

I, Hoang Thi Thu Giang, certify my authorship of the MA thesis entitled “An

action research project on enhancing students’ awareness of British Culture in speaking lessons at a secondary school in Quang Binh” The substance of the MA

thesis has not, wholly or in part, has been submitted for a degree in any other university or institution

Hanoi, July 2020

Hoang Thi Thu Giang

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On the completion of this MA thesis, I would like, first of all, to express my deepest gratitude and indebtedness to my supervisor- Dr Huynh Anh Tuan who has always been most willing and ready to give me valuable advice, inspiration and supervision

I also wish to express my sincere thanks to the teachers of English and students

in the secondary school in Quang Binh for their great assistance and support during the process of conducting this MA thesis, without which my thesis cannot have been accomplished

It is a big mistake if I would not acknowledge here my special thanks to the authors of methodology and cultural works whose ideas have inspired and stimulated my thinking and my writing of this thesis

Ultimately, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my family, my friends for their encouragement and inspiration

This MA thesis has been completed to my best knowledge, however, mistake and short-comings are unavoidable Hence, I look forward to receiving comments and suggestions from teachers, students and any readers, for the perfection of the thesis

Hanoi, July 2020

Hoang Thi Thu Giang

ABSTRACT

Regarding the importance of intercultural competence in second language acquisition, progressive scholars today believe that culture and language are inseparable and culture elements must be an integral part of language learning The study aims to

investigate the extent to which the applied techniques of teaching culture enhance the students’ awareness about British Culture It also explores the students’ attitude towards the applied techniques The eight stated cultural elements in the intensive course, the typical technique of teaching culture, namely cultural practices together with supportive activities like presentation, group works and role play have been

proved effectively after the project The most noticeable merit for students is that they could have more opportunities to enhance their awareness of British Culture in speaking lessons via many cultural experiences They showed their positive attitude towards the course The research concludes that enhancing students’ awareness of culture of the target language is new to the teaching context in Quang Binh It should be widely introduced to secondary schools there for such kind of methods directly and highly benefit the teaching and learning English

LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS

Figure 2.1 The cultural iceberg 7

Figure 3.1: Types of action research 20

Chart 4.1: Percentage of correct answers in Pre Intervention test 28

Chart 4.2: The data of questions 1 in the pre-intervention test 29

Chart 4.3: The data of questions 2 in the pre- intervention test 30

Chart 4.4: The data of questions 3 in the pre- intervention test 31

Chart 4.5: The summary of opened questions number 4 in the pre-intervention test 33

Chart 4.6: Percentage of correct answers for three closed questions in the posttest 36

Chart 4.7: The summary data of the opened questions in the posttest 36

Chart 4.8: The data of correct answers in closed questions of the pretest and posttest 37 Chart 4.9: The percentage of correct answers to questions number 2 & 3 in the posttest 38

Chart 4.10: The data of opened questions number 4 of the pretest and posttest 39

Chart 4.11: The data of the presentation part 40

Chart 4.12: The data of the practice part 41

Chart 4.13: The data of the production part 41

Chart 4.14: The summary data of the event observation 42

Chart 4.15: The summary data in the questionnaire 43

Chart 4.16: Further information from students in the questionnaire 45

LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Methods to enhance the students’ awareness of British Culture 34

ABBREVIATIONS

(in Tables and Charts)

- DoE - The Duke of Edinburgh Award

- BSC - The Bog Snorkelling Championship

- FH The Fox- hunting

- PGA - Participating in group activities

- V - Volunteering to make presentation WC/D - Wearing custumes/ disguising BAtV - Being attentive to the video JG/D - Joining the games/ dance

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS iv

LIST OF TABLES iv

ABBREVIATIONS v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

CHAPTER: I INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and Objectives 2

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Methods of the study 4

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 Structure of the thesis 5

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Culture and language teaching 6

2.1.1 Culture and its components 6

2.1.2 The relation of culture with cross-cultural, inter-cultural communication 8

2.1.3 Importance of culture in language teaching 9

2.2 An overview of Teaching Speaking and Teaching Culture 10

2.2.1 Goals of teaching culture in language classes 10

2.2.2 Classroom speaking activities 11

2.2.4 Applying cultural teaching techniques in speaking lessons 14

2.2.5 Some productive guidelines for teaching culture 15

2.3 Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis 16

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 Research approach: Action research 18

3.1.1 Why Action research? 18

3.2 An action research project 21

3.3 Research context 24

3.4 Data collection instruments 24

3.4.1 Tests 24

3.4.2 Observation 25

3.4.3 Questionnaire 25

3.5 Data collection procedure 25

3.6 Data analysis procedure 26

3.6.1 Quantitative analysis 26

3.6.2 Qualitative analysis 27

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 28

4.1 The extent to which the applied techniques of teaching culture enhance the students’ awareness of British culture 28

4.1.1 General pretest findings 28

4.1.2 Applied teaching techniques and practicing activities 33

4.1.3 Initial information of posttest 35

4.2 The students’ attitudes towards the applied techniques 39

4.2.1 Observation interpretation 40

4.2.2 Questionnaire interpretation 43

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 46

5.1 Recapitulation 46

5.2 Concluding remarks 46

5.3 Limitation 48

5.4 Suggestions for further studies 48

5.4 Reflection 49

REFERENCES 51 APPENDICES I

CHAPTER: I INTRODUCTION

Knowledge of the world’s languages and cultures is more vital than ever In order to compete in the global community, we must be able to communicate effectively and to appreciate, to understand and to work effectively in the framework of other cultures It seems obvious enough that to penetrate another language, one must understand what its people are saying and make oneself understood

1.1 Rationale

One naive assumption occasionally made by teachers is that a mastery of the linguistics patterns of a foreign culture leads itself to “thinking like a native” As Lewald (1968) properly points out, this belief is unwarranted Unless the student is learning the language in the target culture, the cultural referents necessary to understanding a native speaker must be learned in addition (cited in Seelye, 1974) Learning a language in isolation of its cultural roots prevents one from becoming socialized into its contextual use Knowledge of linguistics structure alone does not carry with it any special insight into the political, social, religious, or economic system

Today, for educators and teachers of English, the culture of target language has been put much consideration in second language teaching The expected outcomes, however, seem to be far from satisfactory

Although aware of the role of culture as the key to a success in second language

acquisition, there are times when it is difficult for a guest in a new culture to adapt

the cultural norm of the host country As a result, sometimes, the terms culture shock or conflicting value systems have been much mentioned for appropriate

explanation of the failure in communication and social interaction

The way success works is not really easy to discover Obviously, the culture elements have not been thoroughly exploited in language lessons To be purposeful, teaching activities should integrate cultural elements in a reasonable way In other

words, teacher as an instructor must be purposeful to lead learners to somewhere It should be apparent- at least to the instructor- what the reason is for doing any given cultural activities

Fortunately, the important role of culture in mastering a second language has been acknowledged by most teachers everywhere, yet regrettably, they have not

benefited from much studies on the What, for better understanding about culture and the How, for further understanding on how to teach culture effectively in language

lessons, this shows a need for my research on British culture elements in language teaching and learning

In fact, building productive language lessons in which both ensure language skills and nurture as well as support intercultural communication is a difficult process for most teachers Methodologists and experienced teachers who have skills

in working with the alterable aspects of second language acquisition often emphasize that there is actually no list of “things to do”, no single dramatic event that facilitate all the language lessons Instead, as with so many of the executive function of teaching culture, success depends on a lot of “little things” well As a teacher of English, this fact stimulates my ambitions to undertake the thesis entitled

“An action research project on enhancing students’ awareness of British Culture

in speaking lessons at a secondary school in Quang Binh” in order to work-out

what the so-called “little things” are so that I will enhance my students’ awareness

of British culture and simultaneously improve their speaking skills

1.2 Aims and Objectives

These days, the distinction between content and methodology are no longer as sharp as they previous were How and why learners learn become as important as what they learn And it is the learners who are the sources of information on and insight into educational process

This MA thesis aims to find out the effectiveness of the applied techniques on enhancing the students’ awareness of British culture In order to reach the main aim, the two objectives are given simultaneously in detail by steps Firstly, the researcher

investigates the extend to which the applied techniques enhance students’ awareness

of British culture In the intensive speaking course designed for 7th grade of the school year 2019-2020, I would like to apply the techniques to enhance the students’ awareness of British Culture Obviously, some typical methods of teaching culture through speaking activities help to stimulate the motivation of students in experiencing British Culture Secondly, the students’ attitudes towards the applied technique is uncovered To make it clearer, how the students react towards the methods is put in my deep concern through the working on the data of questionnaire and observation

1.3 Research questions

The research purports to address the following questions:

1 To what extent can the applied techniques enhance the students’ awareness

of British Culture?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards the applied techniques?

1.4 Scope of the study

In the hope of fulfilling my purpose, I would like to focus on providing a set of wide-angle viewing and understandings the close relation between language and culture in general and findings techniques for integrating culture in language lessons

to enhance students’ awareness of British Culture

To find out detailed information, I would like to specify my research only with the 7th form students At this age, students have ability of proper cognition In addition, most of them have high learning motivation as they have just started the new school level Therefore, it is easy for teacher to stimulate and enhance their awareness of culture

Moreover, in order to make it easy to generalize the findings in my study, the course book is Solutions, Pre-intermediate student’s book, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Express Actually, this course book is used in the extensive English lesson, namely speaking project, alongside with the new English text book of Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training In fact, the structures and contents of

the new English text book is systematic as to move from practice to theory and back

to practice in a cycle of development of understanding of the topic in each unit However, the culture realization is not very clear and sufficient enough to bring essential knowledge to students

The four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing are all interconnected Proficiency in each skill is necessary to become a well-rounded communicator, however, the ability to speak skillfully provides the speaker with several distinct advantages The capacity to put words together in a meaningful way

to reflect thoughts, opinions, and feelings provides the speaker a perfect image Therefore, I choose speaking lessons to conduct my study

1.5 Methods of the study

To successfully and effectively reach the aims of the thesis, I adapt steps in Nunan (1992)’s action research cycle The action project was proceeded in five main steps, namely problem identification, preliminary investigation, hypothesis, intervention, and evaluation Research data was collected with a number of instruments including, pre-test, post-test, questionnaire and observation After a preliminary investigation had been carried out, an intensive speaking course was designed, and then implemented with the participation of 38 7th grade students at a secondary in Quang Binh After finishing the course, to gain the multiple perspective for the study, the students were requested to finish the posttest and questionnaire to check the outcome of the technique implement

1.6 Significance of the study

This thesis has its significance in many ways Firstly, the thesis would provide

information on the intensity and understanding of knowledge of language and

culture Secondly, it will give readers and teachers significant insights about the importance of enhancing students’ awareness of British culture Thirdly, the thesis

has immense possibility to offer teachers with some techniques to enhance students’ awareness of British culture The most significance is that all these benefits will develop learners’ communicative competence in English and other areas of language learning

Furthermore, findings from the study would also be a reliable source of track for other studies on language and culture in all major area which are involved in learning a second language

1.7 Structure of the thesis

Within the aforementioned scope, the thesis is divided into five chapters

Chapter one is the introduction to the thesis In this part, I would like to give a

glimpse at language and culture in second language acquisition, the reason to conduct this thesis The aims and objectives, the scope, the methods and the structure of the thesis are also included in this chapter

Chapter two, literature review, refers to theoretical background for further steps

of the thesis

The next chapter is the methodology This chapter deals with detailed

information about the research questions, the research approach, the research context, the data collection instruments, the data collection procedure and the data analysis procedure

Chapter four is findings and discussion in which shows the results from the tests,

observations, questionnaire and findings discussion

Chapter five is the conclusion which summarizes the major findings of the

thesis along with its limitations, proposes suggestions for further studies and reflection This part gives an overview of the results and assists them in recognizing the significance of the thesis

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter refers to theoretical background for further steps of the thesis in which three related areas will be presented: culture and teaching culture through in-class speaking activities In addtion to this, the researcher will review results of the previous studies related to the research area, which helps the researcher have a better understanding about the issue

2.1 Culture and language teaching

2.1.1 Culture and its components

Culture is a far- reaching dynamic concept and an elaborate, ever-changing

phenomenon The word culture has many different meanings As a matter of fact, to

set precise definition for what is to be abstract and universally different perception

is sometime out of question Personally, I adopt some ways of defining Culture as

follows:

“…that complex whole which include knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Edward B Tylor, 1871)

“Culture is an intergrated system of learned behavior patterns that are characteristic of the members of any given society Culture refers to the total way of life of particular groups of people It includes everything that a group of people thinks, says, does and makes – its systems of attitudes and feelings Culture is learned and transmitted from generation to generation” (Robert Kohls (1996) “Culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, life style, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs” (The United Nations Educational Scientific

and Cultural Organization, 2002)

“Culture is the totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions and all other products of human work and thought” (Peterson, 2004)

It can be seen that the aforementioned definitions sufficiently cover the content of

the concept “Culture” Each definition has brought its own perspective to the way that people think about culture These days, the term culture has acquired new meanings

over time without losing the older meaning along the way Knowledge based on analyzing collected materials paves me way to interpret culture as detailed below: Culture is a full range of learned human behaviour patterns In other words, culture incorporates multiple elements Very often what people see culture is only

the surface of the culture “Comparing culture with an iceberg, that part people can observe of others’ culture is usually the tip of the iceberg, which include the language, architecture, food, population, music, clothing, art and literature, peace

of life, emotional display, gestures, leisure activities, eye contact and sports”

(Peterson, 2004) Below, there are still some hidden aspects like opinion, viewpoints, attitudes, philosophies, values, beliefs, assumptions, all of which cannot

be perceived with our senses, but they are foundation for what people see at the top

Figure 2.1 The cultural iceberg

Obviously, culture does not contain fixed rules It varies among individuals or

societies Learning to communicate well across cultures means being aware of the hidden parts of the culture regarded as the submerged part of the iceberg (Levine

and Adelman, 1992)

The in - depth knowledge of culture that shall be gained from the analysis of its components Stephen Moore (1985) claims the components of culture as the followings:

- Beliefs: These are general, vague opinions held about the world and about the

nature of society They vary by society and sometimes by subcultures

- Values: These are vague beliefs about what is right and correct in the world They

imply that there are certain appropriate forms of action which ought to be taken

- Norms: These are socially expected patterns of behavior

- Roles: Social roles are patterns of behavior expected of certain people

according to the occupation or position they hold in society

- Role conflict: There are innumerable social roles All of us occupy a number of

roles, which are generally complementary, but sometimes they may conflict

- Status: This refer to the position of a person or social role in society according

to the amount of prestige received from others In different societies/ cultures, status varies

2.1.2 The relation of culture with cross-cultural, inter-cultural communication

“Culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what and how the communication proceeds, it also helps

to determine how people encode massages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may

not be sent, noticed, or interpreted…Culture is the foundation of communication

(Samovar, Porter & Jain, 1981, cited in Abisamra, 2009)

Crucially, speakers of different languages perceive and express the world around them differently because of the ways in which language influences a person’s thinking and behaviour Language serves as a filler of its speaker’ perception and influences the way that a cultural group categorizes experience The term cross-culture refers to the study of a particular idea or concept within many cultures For better understanding, cross-cultural communication relates to a comparison of interactions among people from the same culture to those from

another culture Consequently, cross-cultural comparisons are very useful for understanding cultural differences

The term inter-culture, used to describe the endpoints of the continuum, denotes the presence of at least two individuals who are culturally different from each other

on such important attributes as their value orientations, preferred communication codes, role expectations, and perceived rules of social relationship To make it clearer, the term intercultural communication closely relates to the degree of differences that can occur among people from dissimilar cultures Intercultural communication is specified as a symbol process in which the degree of difference between people is large and important enough to create dissimilar interpretations and expectations about what are regarded as competent behaviors that should be used to create shared meaning

Therefore, competent interpersonal communication in intercultural interactions

is a worthy and often elusive goal Interpersonal competence is difficult objective to achieve, as because cultural differences create dissimilar meanings and expectations that require even greater levels of communication skills Hence, for the sake of improving language competence, the main purpose of the second language class is

to have the students’ chances to communicate with different hue of target culture

2.1.3 Importance of culture in language teaching

It is commonly acknowledged that language and culture is closely related Language used in certain society reflects the values shared by the people in that society Precisely understood, culture finds its expression in language Therefore, learning a target language without familiarity with its culture remains incomplete Considering the importance of culture in language teaching, it is also meant the consideration of the relation between language and culture According to Bennet (1993) learning a language without its culture is said to be turning people into a

“fluent fool”, or someone who speaks a language well but does not understand the social or philosophical content of the language Gao (2006) shares the same opinion

“when it comes to the realm of teaching and learning, the independence of language learning and cultural learning is so evident that one can conclude that language learning is culture learning and consequently, language teaching is cultural teaching” He means that foreign language teachers should be aware of the place of cultural studies in foreign language classroom and attempt to enhance students’ cultural awareness and improve their communication competence

The history of language education in Vietnam has experienced numerous changes in what and how foreign language to be taught and learnt In 2008, the government of Vietnam launched a national foreign language education policy known as “teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system from 2008 to 2020” (government of Vietnam, 2008) This policy advocates the teaching and learning foreign language for communicating across culture in a multicultural context

2.2 An overview of Teaching Speaking and Teaching Culture

2.2.1 Goals of teaching culture in language classes

To set the light for teaching culture, Seelye (1993) present culturally relevant skills that can be developed in the classroom Especially, these skills are closely related with six goals which help students to develop intercultural communication and understanding Further, students will develop sophistication in evaluating some cultural elements Below are these goals and skills:

(3) Goal 3 - What:

The student realizes that effective communication requires discovering the

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

(4) Goal 4 - Where and When:

The student recognizes that situational variables and convention shape behavior

in important ways

(5) Goal 5 - Why:

The student understands that people generally act the way they do because they are using options their society allows for satisfying basic physical and psychological needs, and that cultural patterns are interrelated and tend mutually to support need satisfaction

(6) Goal 6 - Exploration:

The student can evaluate a generalization about the target culture in terms of the amount evidence substantiating it, and has the skills needed to locate and organize information about the target culture from the library, the mass media, people, and personal observation

2.2.2 Classroom speaking activities

Speaking skills are a vitally important method of communication When it comes to classroom activities, the real-life situation, authentic activities and meaningful tasks pertinently promote communication To develop these productive skills, students need intensive and constant practice during the lesson Obviously, there are some popular speaking activities in classroom which meet the aforementioned requirements such as pair/group work, role play, debate and student presentation

2.2.2.1 Pair/group work

Working in pairs/ groups is the most-loved set ups in language classroom It is learners working together in pair/ groups Working with others gives students more time and the opportunity to interact with a variety of people and learn from one another It also encourages cooperation which will help students get along in class and could reduce the number of student outbursts too

There are three kinds of pair/ groups work which are open teacher/ student pair/ groups work, open Student/ student pair/ groups work and closed pair/ group work

In order to get effective pair/ group work, the following tips shall be considered:

- Choosing the right sort of activity

- Giving clear instructions

- Choosing partners creatively

There shall be some tips for teacher to keep in mind when using role- play for students:

- Bring situational to life

- Keep role real and relevant

- Feed-in language in need

In classroom, there are four main types of roles plays which often overlap each other or being combined together in particular situations

There are four kinds of role – play, namely the conflict role play, the cooperative role plays, information gap role play and task- based role play

2.2.2.3 Debate

A debate is a structured argument Two sides speak alternately for and against a particular contention usually based on a topical issue It is a formal information exchange where only two opposing sides of students participate in

There are three kinds of debate which are public forum debate, spontaneous argumentation and roundtable Discussion

Debate is like an intellectual sport where students have to learn skills to win It

is the activity that brings the art of reading, critical thinking and speaking together

in one place

2.2.2.4 Student presentation:

A presentation is the process of presenting a topic to an audience It is a great way to have students practice all language competence and skills It actually builds confidence Students who are good presenters are better communicators all round, since they are able to structure and express their ideas clearly Presentations come in

a lot of different forms basing on a variety of purposes

There are six kinds of presentation which are providing information, teaching a skill, reporting progress, selling a product or service, making a decision and solving problem

2.2.3 Cultural teaching techniques

To be purposeful, the activities can be made goal-related Following are some typical cultural teaching techniques suitably with speaking activities as shown in the books teaching culture (Seelye, 1993; Moran, 2001; Ann C and Joe McVigh, 2011)

(1) Cultural mini-drama: Consisting of three or five brief episodes, each of which

contains one or more examples of miscommunication Additional information is made available with each episode, but the precise cause of the misunderstanding does not become apparent until the last scene Each episode is followed by a discussion led by the teacher

(2) Culture assimilators: The students are provided with many episodes of target

cultural behavior Each episode describes a “critical incident” of cross- cultural interaction, a puzzling or conflictful situation that they are likely to misinterpret or can be interpreted in a fairy unequivocal manner The students are asked to choose the correct response from some plausible explanations After that, the teacher provides feedback then gives sufficient knowledge about the others’ culture mentioned in the episode

(3) Cultural practices: Practices tend to be ritualized and followed a certain

procedure Indeed, cultural practices can be seen as an art form, a play, a dance, a public speech The two typical components of cultural practices are scenarios and lives

- Scenarios: They are considered as extended communicative practices,

following an expected sequence of practices within particular settings and social circumstances According to Moran (2001) there are five types of scenarios: time-based, event-based, group- based, institution- based, life-cycle-based

- Lives: They are stories of members of the culture which can be looked through

biography and drama

To a certain extend, all of the above techniques are productive They offer suggestions on engaging students in culture-oriented lessons With regard to my

lessons in the study, the main technique will be cultural practices

2.2.4 Applying cultural teaching techniques in speaking lessons

In order to aspire my students to function effectively in their new culture of target language, I mainly apply scenarios/ lives in cultural practices technique, that

productively promote discussion in the speaking lessons

In the presentation part, the teacher uses video/ slides to introduce the stated cultural element The students can be set cuturally conditioned images of the cultural element via the content of video/ slides After watching video/ slide the students are requested to answers some questions relating to the video/ slides’ contents or simply to share their feelings This is a guided/ controlled activity in speaking lesson

In Practice part, the students continue to explore the stated cultural element

in the text book Considered as the cultural context, the further information in the textbook help students widely understand about the culture The students work in pairs/ groups to discuss and finish the selected tasks in the text book The speaking activities are less controlled and students feel free to disscuss and practice speaking skills

In Production part, the students make presentation This is a free/ productive activity However, in some lessons, the students will also role play or debate It depends on the content of the stated cultural elements

2.2.5 Some productive guidelines for teaching culture

The important point about teaching culture through speaking activities is that culture elements are at the core of life in the lesson process and influence greatly both the behavior and decision of speaking activities of teacher for learners Knowledge based on the theoretical framework of various scholars like Bock (1970), Seelye (1975), Hall (1990) and Moran (2001) enlighten me as to some productive guidelines that the teachers should bear in mind as follows:

Firstly, the teacher needs to identify culture learning outcomes Outcomes vary

greatly depending on the educational context Essentially, the intended outcome is that the learners be able to recognize then exhibit certain attitudes toward a specific cultural phenomenon

Secondly, teaching culture targets to guiding learners through the cultural

experience to develop their cultural knowing Actually, cultural experience shall be considered the practices or even ritualized practices where learners immerse themselves in the culture of the target language to gain their cultural knowing

Thirdly, every learner goes through the culture learning process in a unique way

Because of these individual variations, the teacher should be versatile enough to enter learners’ worlds by listening, empathizing, and sharing his/her own experiences as culture learners which urge learner to step out of their worlds into another language, another culture

Lastly, the teacher needs to be learners of culture He/She need to go through

the cultural experience that he/she proposes for learners in his/her language classes Such experiences will help teacher to be able to present or elicit cultural information, coach and model cultural behaviors, guide and conduct cultural research and analysis in the most effective ways

2.3 Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis

In foreign language learning, learners need to have much understand about the cultural background knowledge of the target language Over two dacates, Agar (1994)

proposed the term languaculure Each language consists certain cultural elements

that are universal to all languages and other cultural elements that are particlar only to that specific language In the world, there are countless number of studies on culture issue in second or foreign language learning

In Turkey, Genc and his colleagues (2003) conducted a study on culture in language learning and teaching The researchers tried to find down what students think about the effects of the culture class they attented in the fall semester of 2003-2004 academic year The findings of the study suggest that a culture class is significantly beneficial in terms of language skills, raising culture awareness, changing attitudes towards native and target sociaties, and contribution to the teaching profession

In Albani, Egmen (2016) examined the impact of culture in language teaching

in EFL classes The study analysed the New Headway Advanced text book about the cultural context The seven - question survey about the cultural context in the book was done by high school students The researcher concluded in his study that language learners, starting from the very early level, should be aware of the impact

of culture on language learning in order to understand the proper meanings of the language they learn

In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Caoudhury (2014) undertook a study on the role of culture in teaching and learning of English as a foreign language The study found out to what extent cultural background knowledge influences language learning and teaching To account for the essential roles culture palys in second language aquision, the researcher demonstrated the functions it may perform in the components of language learning and teaching, such as listening, speaking, reading and traslating The reseacher concluded that the teachers should keep in mind

theimportance of culture and must have a prior knowledge of the cultural knowledge of the chapter or lesson he/she is going to teach the students

Given the teaching and learning situations, the researcher is fully aware of the importance of culture in foreign language learning Consequently, the researcher decided to conduct a study to enhance student’s awareness of British culture in speaking lessons at a secondary school in Quang Binh

In conclusion, in the first chapter, the literature on the research topic was reviewed for the theoretical basis of the whole study On a more practical side, the next chapter will provide a detailed picture of the methodology as the research context, participants, instruments as well as the procedure of data collection, data analysis are also discussed in detail

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

As it is indicated in the title, this chapter will introduce the research questions, research approach, research context, data collection instruments, the data collection procedure as well as the data analysis procedure

As mentioned, and discussed in the introduction chapter, the study aims at investigating the answers to two research questions below:

1 To what extent can the applied techniques enhance the students’ awareness

of British Culture?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards the applied techniques?

In order to find the most reliable answers to the above research questions, the following research approach was applied

3.1 Research approach: Action research

3.1.1 Why Action research?

3.1.1.1 What is action research?

Action research is deliberate, solution- oriented investigation that is group or personally owned and conducted It is characterized by spiraling cycles of problem identification, systematic data collection, reflection, analysis, data -driven taken, and, finally, problem redefinition The linking of the terms “action” and “research” highlights the essential features of this method: trying out idea in practice as a means of increasing knowledge about and/or improving curriculum, teaching, and learning (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1982)

As the name implies, action research includes “action” meaning to change/ improve and “research” leading to understand

Action Research

Action + Research

Change/ Improve Understand

In this sense, action research is a professional strategy to achieve both action (change or improve) and research

3.1.1.2 Types of action research

Action research is a process in which participants examine their own educational practice systematically and carefully, using the techniques of research Basing on the participants involved, Ferrance (2000, p.6) categorized action research into four types

(1) Individual teacher research: There is an individual teacher seeking solutions to

educational problems It usually focuses on a single issue in the classroom

(2) Collaborative action research: It may include few teachers or a group of several

teachers sharing the common educational matters which may address to a specific classroom or many classrooms

(3) School- wide research: It requires team work of the whole schools’ staffs and

teachers, leaders to overcome the educational problems It focuses on issues common to all classes

(4) District- wide research: It utilizes more resources outside a specific school

In details, these types are described in terms of main sections as follows:

Individual Teacher Research

Collaborative Action Research

School- wide Action Research

District-wide Action Research

Focus Single

classroom issue

Single classroom or several classrooms with common issue

School issue, problem, or area of collective interest

District issue Organizational structures

Substitute teachers Release time

School commitment Leadership

District commitment Facilitator

Assistance with

data organization and analysis

Close link with administrators

Communication External partners

Recorder Communication External partners

Potential

impact

Curriculum Instruction Assessment

Curriculum Instruction Assessment Policy

Potential to impact school restructuring and change policy

Parent involvement

Evaluation of programs

Allocation of resources Professional development activities Organizational structures Policy

Side

effects

Practice informed by data

Information not

always shared

Improved collegiality

Formation of partnership

Improved collegiality

Collaboration, and communication

Team building

Disagreements

on process

Improved collegiality, Collaboration, and communication Team building Disagreements

on process Shared vision

Figure 3.1: Types of action research

3.1.1.3 Steps in action research

Action research is situational, the research is initiated by practitioner and derived from a real problem in the classroom Therefore, action research is an on-going cycle which consists of several steps Nunan (1992) specifies seven steps

as follows:

- Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)

- Step 2: Preliminary investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)

- Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research questions)

- Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)

- Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data again and analyze it to work out the findings)

- Step 6: Dissemination (Report the result by running workshop or issuing a paper)

- Step 7: Follow-up (Final alternative methods to solve the same problem)

3.1.1.4 Advantages of Action research

In fact, action research is undertaken in a school setting and it can be used to investigate any issue of concern Often, it is a collaborative activity as well as reflective process among colleagues searching for real problems happened daily at schools, finding educational solutions to improve students’ achievement

In addition to this, action research does not deal with the theoretical, it leads the participants to address the matters that are the most concerns to them, over which they can exhibit certain influence and make innovation

Moreover, action research is carried out within the context of the teacher’s environment or a specific school environment in other words, so it is more likely to succeed as the participants deal with educational matter at hand

Implicit in the term of action research is the educational circles that teachers start a cycle by posing questions, gathering data, and decide a series of actions When the actions change the classroom environment, a different concerning issue appears, which requires a new look, innovative solutions and may lead into other areas of study

3.2 An action research project

The study was conducted during 8 weeks of the first semester of school year 2019-2020 Adapting steps in Nunan (1992)’s action research cycle, the action project was proceeded in five mains steps as follows:

Step 1: Problem identification

The school where this thesis was carried out belongs to a multilevel educational institution English has been considered the main subject as well as the second language in the institution The students here are familiar with English lessons with both native and Vietnamese teachers As a teacher of English at the school, I have realized that my students are good at written test, but hardly get high evaluation from the foreign examiners With the purpose to improve students’ result in speaking skills, some native teachers have shared their view with me In their opinion, almost of our students have difficulties in developing the conversation with the examiners, they normally get stuck after a few minutes with the topics relating

to culture and society of the target language Regardless their fluency in English speaking skills, it is the fact that the students have not much understanding about the topics to share

Recently, the institution has welcomed some groups of foreign students, and I saw my students’ demerits in speaking skills revealed via exchanging activities Obviously, it is the same problem that they face with in speaking test with foreign examiners For a more in-depth consideration, the students need to be well-educated

in cultural competence in the international integration time

The students’ unsatisfying result in speaking seriously urged me to work out the reasonable solutions as for intensive speaking course in the school year 2019-2020

My students really need some food for thought

Step 2: Preliminary investigation: Using pretest

Admittedly, the root cause of the problem in students’ speaking skills is the lacking of sufficient understandings of the target culture And the question raised in the step 1 above is “What can be done to enhance the students’ awareness of British culture?” To find out the reliable answer to the question, the students were requested to do a pretest including thirty-two closed and opened questions about eight different cultural features of British For each closed question, the students were asked to choose the correct answer among four options Whereas, for each opened question, the students felt free to give their answer

The result from the participants’ responses in the pretest was analyzed quantitatively in terms of frequency The information from the pretest result was used to form a hypothesis in the next step

Step 3: Hypothesis

The students were asked to realize only eight British cultural features and some

of which are quite popular, however, the percentage of correct answer was not very high Actually, the students have not got sufficient knowledge about the British culture because they had not seen the essential role and close relation between language and culture in improving their communication competency Consequently, they were not aware of the importance of cultural and social information in learning

the language Furthermore, the method of teaching culture may not be effective enough Obviously, in culture sections, the form and content are designed appropriately for communication with lots of speaking and listening activities, that how the teacher designs the lesson creatively in order to change a dry text on British culture into a lively cultural feature is crucial If students have chances to study and experience culture themselves, they will be more motivated and aware of British culture The students’ ability to communicate cross- culturally is much developed as well Basing on the reliable findings in the first three steps, I designed a trial intensive speaking course for the students in which some culture sections in their extra book namely Solutions pre- intermediate were introduced with the distinctive teaching techniques In order to verify the cultural fields, the students were also

introduced two cultural elements outside their book (Please see Appendix 6 for the details of an intensive speaking course)

Step 4: Intervention: How to conduct a trial intensive speaking course

The trial intensive speaking course lasted eight weeks The students had a lesson per week During the time of implementing the syllabus, the teacher acted like a guide Hence, the students were unconsciously more active before and during the lesson Rather, the teacher applied some cultural teaching techniques combined with students’ speaking practice activities which stimulates students much in lessons Especially, there were two events of months, namely Halloween festival and Christmas for the student to enjoy the cultural elements relating to festival

Step 5: Evaluation

At the end of intervention, the students were required to finish a posttest The form

of the posttest is like the pretest and the content also relates to eight cultural features in the intensive speaking course In addition, the students finished a questionnaire for further information about their attitude towards the teaching activities Besides, during the the culture- oriented lessons were also observed

The data collected from the pretest, posttest, observation and questionnaire was quantitatively analyzed Consequently, the information on the students’ awareness

of British culture and their attitude toward the applied techniques were worked out

The data analysis is obviously the reliable source for discussion of research questions

3.3 Research context

The study is conducted at a private secondary school in Quang Binh province Established in 2010, the school is equipped with modern teaching and learning facilities It has 08 classes with over 20 teachers of all subjects Regarding to its educational orientation, the school immerse its students in an educational community that develops the essential qualities of passion, gratitude and humanity Especially, the board of leader put much consideration on constructing a curriculum that encourages learners to engage the world as global citizens valuing international connections and an appreciation for diverse viewpoints In this sense, English has been considered the main subject here In this school, 150 students ranged from grade 6 to grade 9, have five English lessons every week Currently, there are 4 teachers of English and 2 native teachers

In accordance with the targeted research questions and instruments of data collection, there is one group of 38 participants involving in this research These students are from class 7A1 and 7A2 at aforementioned private secondary school in Quang Binh province These participants are supposed to be in the age range from

12 to 13 and their English competence is Intermediate level

3.4 Data collection instruments

3.4.1 Tests

Pretest: The pretest makes great contribution to the initiation and preliminary

investigation steps of my research problem definition

A ninety-minute pretest with thirty-two multiple choice questions had been designed to investigate the students’ awareness of eight stated British cultural elements before these elements were officially taught to students The content of the pretest’ questions was around the main cultural items in the book Solutions (pre-intermediate) The perception of students about the eight stated cultural elements was uncovered from students’ respond to the questions The findings from

the pretest were used as the constructive tool to design a trial intensive speaking course

Posttest: After eight British cultural elements had been officially taught for

students, a ninety- minute posttest was designed to investigate the students’ awareness of these eights British culture In the posttest, the content was much widened in comparison to those in the pretest The students were asked not only about the cultural hue in the textbook, but also further cultural information relating

to eight stated cultural elements Thankfully, viewed as a panorama, the posttest placed the extent to which the awareness of students being enhanced the most

noteworthy position

3.4.2 Observation

An observation checklist for in-class lesson was designed with different

assessment criteria for two colleagues to observe three main parts, namely presentation, practice and production of my speaking lessons in two classes to explore the students’ attitude towards the teaching activities

Besides, another observation checklist for events of months was also designed and carried out by myself The students were observed through the participation in the cultural activities during the events

3.4.3 Questionnaire

Basing on the Likert scale, the questionnaire was designed with seven guided questions and an opened question The questions directly investigated students’ ideas about the intensive course content and teaching activities via the scales from unuseful to very useful It helps the researcher to carefully double check the information collected from the quantitative data and supports the research findings

3.5 Data collection procedure

Data collection endured two months Firstly, the students took part in the pretest Then during eight weeks, they learnt eight intensive speaking lessons relating to the eight stated British cultural elements The observation was proceeded in all lessons The data collection ended with the posttest and questionnaire done by 38 participants after finishing eight intensive lessons

3.6 Data analysis procedure

3.6.1 Quantitative analysis

Pretest: Served as the first constructive tool to the preliminary investigation, the

result of pretest was analyzed question by question in term of the percentage of correct and incorrect answers The first three closed questions uncovered the students’ general understanding of the eight stated cultural elements The percentage of correct and incorrect answers for each closed question was presented in chart and compared among cultural elements Basing on the percentage of giving information or left behind each item to consider, the last opened questions explored the further understanding among students about the stated British cultural hue The major findings were written basing on the frequencies of each item response

Posttest: Its data is the reliable tool in illustrating the extent to which the

applied techniques of teaching culture enhance students’ awareness of British culture The first closed questions in the posttest were the summary of all the students’ general understanding in the first three closed questions of the pretest The percentage of correct answers of these first closed questions was worked out to reveal the positive change in the students’ awareness The next two closed questions were analyzed in order to find out the percentage of correct answers for the additional cultural information in each culture element The number of correct responses to these questions showed the enrichment in students’ awareness of British culture The last opened questions were analyzed in percentage of students sharing opinion and left behind in comparison with those in the pretest

Questionnaire (close- ended questions): In an attempt of soliciting information

about the students’ attitude toward the applied teaching techniques, the

questionnaire was designed with seven closed questions in which scales range from very useful to unuseful and an opened question The percentage analysis of response

to different scales made a great help in generalizing the students’ certain attitude towards the checked items The last opened question, like in the pretest and posttest, was analyzed in term of the percentage of sharing opinion or leaving it blank The

information provided by students was also beneficial to the researcher in generalizing the major findings

3.6.2 Qualitative analysis

Observation: In accordance with the questionnaire, observation was a

purposeful and selective way of watching the students’ real attitude towards the applied teaching activities Since the observation was conducted, the researcher had converted the qualitative activities and interactions between the teacher and students during a class lesson into robust quantitative data In order to explore students’ attitude toward the applied techniques, the set of assessment criteria was made to observe the students’ involvement in three main parts of speaking lessons

For presentation part, the data was analyzed in terms of the percentage of students raising hand to answer the questions and being attentive to the video/ slide For practice part, the data was analyzed basing on the number of students who finish the task in time and have correct answers to the cultural content

At last, for production part, the data collected from the number of students participating in the group activities, volunteering to make the presentation and being attentive to their friends’ presentation Ultimately, the students’ attitude to the applied teaching activities was interpreted, analyzed and generalized

The observation was also proceeded in two events of months The number of students involving in the events’ activities revealed the effectiveness of the applied cultural teaching techniques to students

Questionaire (open- ended question): The students felt free to give their

opinion towards the intensive speaking course The majority of them gave comments

In conclusion, this chapter has presented in some detail the methodological framework of the study to seek the answer for the two researched questions mentioned again at the beginning of this chapter

In the next chapter, there will be a presentation of the findings of the study and

a discussion of the two researchs question in detail

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is the presentation of data collection, its analysis and interpretation

4.1 The extent to which the applied techniques of teaching culture enhance the students’ awareness of British culture

4.1.1 General pretest findings

The researcher gains a reliable result from the pre-intervention test With both opened and closed questions, the pretest reveals the students’ general knowledge of eight cultural elements Hopefully, the realization of their knowledge would help the researcher of this thesis to apply techniques with effective results To serve the purpose of a successful research, it is necessary to explore the data of correct answers in the pre-intervention test shown below:

Chart 4.1: Percentage of correct answers in Pre-Intervention test

As can be seen from the table, there is a significant gap among the percentage

of correct answers among the eight cultural elements Let's have a look at the following analysis for more details

4.1.1.1 Common information about the eight cultural elements

With regards to the first questions, the statistics received from the students shows the need to consider

Chart 4.2: The data of questions 1 in the pre-intervention test

For all closed questions number 1, the data indicates the significant tendency among the rate from 37% to 84% of the respondents giving the correct answers Surprisingly, the percentage for the correct answers is less than 50% for items I, II, III, VI, VII (accounting for 37%; 32%; 39%; 42% and 47% respectively) Meanwhile, the number of students giving the correct options for items IV, V and VIII is quite high (accounting for 74%; 84% and 66% respectively) These findings could be explained that these students may not have full knowledge about all the stated cultural elements Actually, all of these first closed question aim at testing the general understanding of respondents The percentage which is less than 50% for items I, II, III, VI, VII could be interpreted that some respondents may not familiar with the cultural elements like the Duke of Edinburgh award, Fox hunting or the Snorkeling championship The students who gave incorrect options (over 60% for

all items I, II, III) may have never heard about those things before In this sense, 42% and 47% for the correct answers of items VI and VII respectively are noteworthy These respondents may hear about Robin Hood or William Shakespeare somewhere from series film about Robin Hood or the famous plays of William Shakespeare like Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet, for instant Whereas, the percentage of correct answer for items IV, V, VII is high which are 74%; 84% and 66% respectively The data collected from the pre-intervention test reveals favor tendency in festival and music fields of students The students show their better understanding about the Halloween and Christmas festivals as well as the famous music band namely The Beatles In short, the results of questions number 1 show that the general understanding of students about eight cultural elements is insufficient Consequently, the incorrect options outnumber the correct ones

4.1.1.2 The popularity of the eight cultural elements among learners

For the purpose of working out further understanding of students about the eight stated cultural elements, it is expected to be provided the most reliable answers from questions number 2 and 3 of all items Chart 4.3 and Chart 4.4 below show the constructive results:

Chart 4.3: The data of questions 2 in the pre- intervention test

Chart 4.4: The data of questions 3 in the pre- intervention test

On considering, the data of the questions number 2 and 3 for the items I, II, III, VI,VII confirm the aforementioned conclusion for questions number 1 that the students actually do not have sufficient understanding about the unfamiliar cultural elements of the target language For these items, the percentage of correct options does not exceed 40% Item II, for instance, relating to the place and the content of the Bog Snorkeling tournament, the respondents who chose option c (correct answer) for question number 2 account for 34% and option a (correct answer) for question number 3 make up 29%

In addition, for item III, the question about the date of the banning fox- hunting in

UK receive only 26% correct responds, and the percentage 37% correct responds for the next question relating to the reasons for not banning fox-hunting A deeper understanding of the legend of Robin Hood (Item VI) or Shakespeare (Item VII), such as the living place, the main reason for the fight against the Sheriff of Robin Hood or the amount of plays and sonnets by Shakespeare through the lens of 7 grade students would not satisfy the researcher In details, for item VI, the correct options are 32% and 24% for questions number 2 and 3 respectively In addition, for item VII, the amount is 39% for question number 2 and followed by 24% of correct responds for question number 3