A study on the intercultural contents in the course book english 10, 11, 12

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN VĂN LUÂN A STUDY ON THE INTERCULTURAL CONTENTS IN THE COURSE BOOKS “ENGLISH 10, 11, 12 Major: Teaching English to Speakers o

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN VĂN LUÂN

A STUDY ON THE INTERCULTURAL CONTENTS IN

THE COURSE BOOKS “ENGLISH 10, 11, 12

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghệ An, 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN VĂN LUÂN

A STUDY ON THE INTERCULTURAL CONTENTS IN

THE COURSE BOOKS “ENGLISH 10, 11, 12

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL)

Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Tran Ba Tien, Ph.D

Nghệ An, 2017

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis entitled “A study on the intercultural contents of the course books English 10, 11, 12” is the result of my own work The data and findings

discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been submitted

to any university or institution

Nghệ An, August 2017

Author’s signature

Nguyễn Văn Luân

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all, I would like to acknowledge and express my deep gratitude and sincere appreciation to my supervisors, Dr Tran Ba Tien, for his intensive revisions, patient guidance, encouragement, insightful suggestions and kind support throughout

my research

Secondly, I truly wish to thank Prof Ngo Dinh Phuong, Dr Tran Thi Ngoc Yen,

Dr Nguyen Gia Viet who gave me some precious guidance at the beginning of my research I would also like to thank the teachers of English at High Schools at Nong Cong where my interview and my questionnaires were carried out for their willingness

to answer all my questions

Last but not least, my sincere thanks are due to my dear family and my friends who always stand for me with their consideration and encouragements

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ABTRACT

My study aims are to get the teachers’ evaluation of the intercultural contents in the course books English 10,11,12 and how the intercultural contents presented in the coursebooks as seen from the EIL perspective

The study adopts the qualitative ethnographic method with interpretive orientation combined with a survey, making use of triangulation methods of data collections: questionnaires, document reviews and interviews The study shows that EIL and the teaching of EIL seemed still connected with the native-English-speaking cultures in some ways In addition, in the context under investigation Vietnamese teachers perceived English as a language used for intercultural communication With such perceptions of EIL, the teachers at high schools approached the establishment of

a sphere of interculturality in the classroom from different perspectives In general, they aimed to mediate the course books to overcome what they considered as shortcomings in the cultural contents of the textbooks: the course books present a picture of cultures rather Western centric, which does not reflect a diversified use of EIL nowadays However, under the structural and functional constraint of the textbooks, culture was treated as a means of reinforcement or development skills rather than a priority in the EIL classroom The study suggests practical implications to the issue of language and culture education in the context of high schools at Nong Cong of Thanh Hoa province

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ……….…ii

ABTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF CHARTS ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3.The significance of the study 3

1.4.The organization of the thesis 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 English as an international language 5

2.2 Characteristics of EIL 7

2.3 Rationale for culture teaching in EIL teaching 8

2.3.1 Definition of culture 8

2.3.2 Definition of interculture 9

2.3.3 The relationship between language and culture 9

2.4 Rationale for culture teaching in EIL education 10

2.5 Culture contents in EIL materials 12

2.5.1 Source culture in EIL textbooks versus textbooks based solely on source culture 15

2.5.2 Target cultures in EIL textbooks versus textbooks based solely on target culture 17

2.5.3 Textbooks with international target culture 20

2.6 Culture teaching 20

2.6.1 An overview of culture teaching 20

2.6.2 Culture teaching as seen from the perspectives of the teacher, the text books and the students 23

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2.6.3 The use of English as an International language in Viet Nam 23

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 30

3.1 Research Methods 30

3.1.1 Triangulation 30

3.1.2 Building an audit trail 31

3.1.3 Member checking 31

3.2 Data collection tools 31

3.2.1 Document review 31

3.2.2 Questionnaires 32

3.2.3 Ethnographic in-depth interviews 32

3.3 Participants 33

3.4 Description of the content analysis card 33

3.5 Applying the content analysis card 33

3.6 Procedures of the study 33

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33

4.1 Document review 36

4.2 The teachers’perceptions of cultural contents in EIL and EIL teaching 38

4.3 The teachers’ priority in English learning and teaching and their evaluation toward culture in the EIL classroom 39

4.3.1 The teachers’ priority in English learning and teaching 39

4.3.2 The teachers’ evaluation toward culture in the English language classroom 41 4.4 The teachers’ evaluation towards the cultural contents in the course books 45

4.5 Culture teaching and learning in the classroom 49

4.6 Culturally oriented contents in the course books 50

4.7 Cultural representation in the course books 51

4.8 Cultural distribution in the text books 52

4.8.1 Vietnamese culture in the text books 52

4.8.2 International culture in the course books 54

4.8.3 Target culture in the course books 55

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 57

5.1 Conclusions 57

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5.2 Implications 58

5.3 Recommendations 59

5.4 Limitations of the study 61

5.5 Suggestions for further research 61

REFERENCES 62

APPENDIX 1 66

APPENDIX 2 70

APPENDIX 3 71

APPENDIX 4 72

APPENDIX 5 73

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1 ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations

2 CLT Communicative Language Teaching

3 EFL English as a Foreign Language

4 EIL English as an International Language

5 ELF English as a Lingua Franca

6 ELT English Language Teaching

7 ESL English as a Second Language

8 FLT Foreign Language Teaching

9 MOET Ministry of Education and Training

10 SLA Second Language Acquisition

11 TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

12 WTO World Trade Organization

13 WEs World Englishes

14 FDI Foreign Direct Investment

Table 1.3 10 countries and areas leading in FDI in Vietnam in 2017

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs collected) 28

Table 4.1 The structure of each unit in the textbook English 10, 11, 12 35

Table 4.5

What culture to talk about in cross-cultural communication (Some participants circled more than one choice in their questionnaire)

38

Table 4.6

Priority in teaching and learning communication (Some participants circled more than one choice in their questionnaire)

40

Table 4.7

The teachers’cultural preference in classroom (Some participants circled more than one choice in their questionnaire)

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Table 4.8 T he teachers’ thought about the students’ cultural

Table 4.9 The teachers’ evaluation towards the cultural contents in the

Table 4.10 Frequency and percentage of the cultural contents related to

the whole contents of the text books English 10,11,12 50

Table 4.11 Frequency and percentage of Anglo-Saxon culture and

non-Anglo-Saxon culture in the course books English 10,11,12 51

Table4.12 Frequency and percentage of three types of cultures in the

Table 4.13 Frequency and percentage of Vietnamese culture in the

course books English10,11,12 52

Table 4.14 Frequency and percentage of International culture in the

course books English 10,11,12 53

Table 4.15 Frequency and percentage of the Target culture in the course

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LIST OF FIGURES AND CHART List of figures

Figure 1 Kachru’s concentric circles where English is used 7

Figure 3 Source culture in EIL teaching 25 Figure 4 International target culture in EIL teaching 25

Figure 5

The dialogue between Vietnamese teacher, Anglo-American target culture textbook and Vietnamese students 48

List of chart

Chart 1 The teachers’ evaluation of the intercultural contents in the

course books English 10,11,12

47

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1

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

In the trend of globalization in the world nowadays, English has become an international language in cross-culture communications between not only native speakers and non-native speakers but between non-native speakers and non-native speakers

Observing intercultural communication in English between people from different background, we could see culture-shocks tend to occur due to culture rather than due

to language competence For example, an American or any Western tourist come to Vietnam may be shocked to hear a resident ask him/her personal questions: “How old are you?”, “Are you married?”, “How much is your salary?”, and so on Language competence seems not to help anything in this kind of dissatisfaction or shock whether the communicator has a low or high level of English That is to say that it is important

to include culture teaching in language teaching but it seems that culture has not received an adequate treatment in many ways: textbooks, teaching methods and so on

In the circumstance of English as an International Language, it has new features and the spread and development of English into an international language has also given rise to several implications in the teaching of this language in terms of curriculum design, material development and teaching methodology To do this, it would be necessary first to understand how cultural aspects could be treated in the EIL classroom, including in the EIL course books

During the pass decade, Vietnam has been an attractive land for foreign direct investment (FDI) The notable point is whether any foreign country invests in Vietnam, English is the language required by the owners when recruiting employers

To work for FDI projects or joint venture companies, staffs are required to have a good English competence whether the owner or the partner is from native-English or non-native-English country English is a common communication means between

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Vietnamese employees and non-native English partners such as Korea, Japan, China and so on It is one among reasons that English is considered as an international language, especially in the integrating period

On the ground of arguments, EIL course books should reflect a wide range of cultural contexts and intercultural elements However, in fact, course books often used to be teaching materials in Vietnam tend to be biased towards a particular country, usually America or UK Alptekin (1993) and Phillipson (cited in Kim, 2002) criticize course books authors who transmit the values and beliefs of their own English – speaking countries and thus they are devoid of comparative insight and critical perspectives

The set of English 10,11,12 by The group of authors Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi

Xuan Hoa, Dao Ngoc Loc, Do Tuan Minh, Hang Quoc Tuan are popularly used in most high schools in Vietnam The course books have published from 2005 It includes three levels: Students at grade 10,11,12 with 16 units for each level Each unit is organized by a set pattern of skills: Reading, speaking, listening, writing and Language focus It covers a wide range of topics which includes social expressions and relationships, activities and entertainment, food and health, education and careers, friendship and love, and etc

These themes recur in all the three sets with progressively difficult levels As a teacher

at a high school, I see that, the course books are the ones which attract the most students Therefore, I would like to choose these books to investigate the cultural contents and to find out whether they are biased to any countries and satisfies teachers using them or not

1.2 Aims of the study

The present research is to study the teachers’ evaluation towards the inercultural contents and analyse the intercultural contents of the set of course books

English 10, 11, 12 , additionally, the researcher wants to figure out whether or not it

provides students with adequate intercultural instruction in EIL context and how they could teach interculture in the context of EIL classrooms at high schools at Nong Cong

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of Thanh Hoa where the researcher is teaching Accordingly, the study was designed

to find answers to the following overarching research questions:

1 What is the teachers’ evaluation of the intercultural contents in the course books

English 10,11,12?

2 How are the intercultural contents presented in the coursebooks as seen from the EIL (English as an international language) perspective?

1.3 The significance of the study

Practically, this study is carried out with the hope that the findings of this research will be very useful for all the people concerned, including the researcher, the teachers, the syllabus designers and the students of at high schools at Nong Cong, Thanh Hoa province in particular and those in Vietnam in general, the researcher hopes to give implications for curriculum and material development as well as teaching methodology at as well as other high schools in Vietnam from the findings

Theoretically, the research will make a partly contribution to the field of intercultural communication materials in language teaching To another extent, the researcher hopes that the study will encourage educators to concern more the choice of language materials regarding cultural content and culture learning/teaching

1.4 The organization of the thesis

This thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1, Introduction, provides the background to the study, the statement of the problems, the aims and the significance and the outline of the study

Chapter 2, Literature Review, presents the theories on EIL (English as an international language) including characteristics of EIL, rationale for culture teaching in EIL teaching, cultural content in EIL materials as well as an overview of culture teaching

It also reviews EIL situation in Vietnam

Chapter 5, Conclusions, Implications and Suggestions offers the overview of major findings and interpretation, the implications for curriculum and material development, teaching methodology, professional development and suggestions for further studies

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Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 consists of six sub-sections The first section introduces the perspective of English as an international language The second section states characteristics of EIL The third section gives rationale for culture teaching in EIL teaching The forth section reports kinds of culture contents in EIL materials And the fifth section reviews culture teaching and culture learning through course books

2.1 English as an international language

The term English as an international language (EIL) is first introduced by Smith (1976) as a replacement of the terms ESL and EFL He defines EIL as “one which is used by people of different nations to communicate with one another.” (1976, p.38)

This perspective has gained more support in recent years Mauranen (2003, p.513) describes the special status of EIL as “a vehicle spoken by people who do not share a native language.” Crystal (1997, p.2) explain that English achieves that status because

it is “recognized in every country.” It has spread to every corner of the world and has become the property of all people using it, including both non-native and native-English-speakers

The domination of English globally is undeniable and the first cause of this domination, according to many scholars, is the historical role as a colonial power In the nineteenth century, the British Empire ruled one-third of the world and as it was said that the sun never set on her land The waves of English–speaking immigrants to other lands helped to spread English The second reason is the rising of America as a powerful country in economy in the twentieth century also strengthened the status of English as the language for communication in every country including the mass media, entertainment, transport and so on

Nowadays, English is the language of diplomacy and international communications, business, tourism, education, science, computer technology, media and Internet

is controlled by the United States in the mid-1990s (Crystal, 1997)

With the spread of English globally, the non-native speakers in the world is estimated

to outnumber the native speaker Graddol (1999, p.92) claims that the balance between native and non-native speakers will change dramatically within the next 50 years and the number of English speakers as their second language will grow from 235 million

to around 462 million This seems to be in line with suggestion drawn from Kachru’s diagram (1989, cited in Crystal, 1997) He classifies the English-speaking population

in the world into three concentric circles: Inner Circle, Outer Circle and Expanding Circle

The Inner Circle refers to English as it originally took shape and was spread across the

world in the first diaspora In this transplantation of English, speakers from England carried the language to Australia, New Zealand and North America The Inner Circle thus represents the traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regions where it is now used as a primary language: the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, anglophone Canada and South Africa, and some of the Caribbean territories The total number of English speakers in the inner circle is as high as 380 million

The Outer Circle of English was produced by the second diaspora of English, which

spread the language through imperial expansion by Great Britain in Asia and Africa In these regions, English is not the native tongue, but serves as a useful lingua franca between ethnic and language groups Higher education, the legislature and judiciary, national commerce and so on may all be carried out predominantly in English This circle includes India, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya, non-Anglophone South Africa, the Philippines and others The total number of English speakers in the outer circle is estimated to range from 150 million to 300 million

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Finally, the Expanding Circle encompasses countries where English plays no historical

or governmental role, but where it is nevertheless widely used as a medium of international communication This includes much of the rest of the world's population not categorized above, including territories such as China, Russia, Japan, non-Anglophone Europe (especially the Netherlands and Nordic countries), South Korea, Egypt, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc The total in this expanding circle is the most difficult to estimate, especially because English may be employed for specific, limited purposes, usually in a business context The estimates of these users range from 100 million to one billion The three circles of Englishes are represented in the figure below:

Figure1: Kachru’s concentric circles where English is used

It can be seen that English has no longer been the sole property of sovereigns which owns it as a native language It is also the language of non-native speakers who

use it regardless its purposes of using Thus, it is an international language

2.2 Characteristics of EIL

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On the perspective of EIL, Smith (1997) suggests English now has more new

characteristics Firstly, English is the property of every nation in the world that uses it

That is to say its ownership has become denationalized Second, the cultural norms of

native speakers are not standards that learners of English as an international language

have to conform and forms of non-native English should be got positive attitudes by

English-native speakers Finally, learners of EIL should be encouraged to

communicate their ideas and cultures to others as well as taught to expect and accept

differences not only in the language spoken by different countries but also in their own

culture It is the educational goal of English teaching

McKay (2002) draw conclusions from Kachru’s three circles of world Englishes and it

seems to be in line with Smith’s assertions She elaborates characteristics of EIL

regarding the relationship of an international language and culture:

 As an international language, English is used both in a global sense for

international communication between countries and in a local sense as a

language of wider communication within multilingual society

 As it is an international language, the use of English is no longer

connected to the culture of Inner Circle countries

 As an international language in a local sense, English becomes embedded

in the culture of the country in which it is used

 As English is an international language in a global sense, one of its

primary functions is to enable speakers to share with others their ideas and

culture (p.12)

These features of English as an international language have led significant changes for

learning and teaching English Many scholars such as Kramsch and Sullivan (1996),

McKay (2002), Alptekin (2002), have recently given suggestions and implications for

this issue in terms of pedagogy, teaching material development and curriculum design

2.3 Rationale for culture teaching in EIL teaching

2.3.1 Definition of culture

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Culture is believed one of the most complicated word and extremely difficult to define Many scholars try to give their own definition of this term

Kramsch (1998, p.127) gives one definition of this word which is accepted and quoted

by many scholars According to him, culture is “membership in a discourse community that shares a common social space and history, and a common system of standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating and acting”

Levine and Adelman (1993) suggest that culture consists of two parts like of an iceberg The part above the water surface refers to things visible namely geography, history, food or any product of a system The part under the water is composed of behaviour, attitudes, values, beliefs, perceptions, communication styles, etc The hidden-underwater-part seizes a big proportion of the iceberg that means a lot in communication However, it is invisible and is not commonly aware At the same way,

Stapleton (2000) names two parts of culture overt culture and covert culture and Hinkel (2001) classifies culture into visible and invisible culture

The current study adopts this definition as it is related to foreign language education

2.3.3 The relationship between language and culture

More and more researches believe that there is a close relationship between language and culture and this relationship is inseparable

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Brown (2000, p.177) claims that “A language is part of a culture, and a culture is part

of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one can not separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture”

Fishman on several occasions (1985, 1991, 1996, cited in Risager, 2006, p.12) has

asserted three “links” between language and culture: “language as a part of culture, language as an index of culture, and language as symbolic of culture” He draws

attention to the fact that language and culture are “intimately associated” with each other

Similarly, Kramsch (1998, p.3) also suggests three connections: “language expresses cultural reality; language embodies cultural reality; language symbolizes cultural reality” Kramsch says that words express facts, ideas, event and attitudes, viewpoints

as well as beliefs of those who utter Thus, “language expresses cultural reality” In terms of the second connection, she explains that “members of community or social group … also create experience through language They give meaning to it through the medium they choose to communicate with one another … Through all its verbal and non-verbal aspects, language embodies cultural reality” Regarding to the third point, she interprets language as a system of signs having itself a cultural value and speakers through using language identifies themselves and others

In short, it seems that language and culture has an inseparable connection This leads many scholars to concern teaching culture in teaching language more and more

2.4 Rationale for culture teaching in EIL education

Although the close relationship between language and culture seems apparent, there are two conflict perspectives that teaching EIL could be free from culture or wealthy of culture Some researcher like Gonzalez (1995, cited in McKay, 2002, p.84) argues teaching because English is “uprooted from its culture”, then teaching EIL means teaching English for specific purpose and can be culture-free

Nonetheless, this perspective has to counter a lot of objection from many scholars and researchers such as Valdes (1986), Byram and Morgan (1994), Kramsch (1998)

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Byram and Morgan (1994), McKay (2002) Valdes (1986, p.121) says “it is virtually impossible to teach a language without teaching cultural content” Similarly, Byram and Morgan (1994, vii) claim that “Since language and culture are inseparable, we can not be teachers of language without being teachers of culture – or vice versa” While Kramsch (1998) confirms the inextricable connection between language and culture and affirms teaching language must involve teaching culture McKay (2003) also contends that culture influences language teaching linguistically and pedagogically Linguistically, culture has an effect on the semantic, pragmatic and discourse level of the language Pedagogically, it influences the choice of the language materials because cultural content of the language materials and the cultural basis of teaching should be taken into account before making any decision

Such researches as Brutt-Griffler (1998), Brown (1990), Kim (2002), Pulveness (2003, 2004), also strongly dispute the viewpoint of free-culture English teaching Brown and Pulverness interpret that the fear of cultural bumps and the commercialization of the materials is the only excuse for culture-free teaching materials Pulveness (2003) confirms that due to the undeniable growth of EIL, language teaching programs must include cultural content and culture-free-English teaching is inadequate

Recently, the concept of integrating culture in language teaching and learning is widely recognized Genc and Bada (2005, p.74, cited in Le, 2005, p.9) list the benefits

of teaching culture in language teaching, which are supported by evidence from other studies on culture teaching:

 Studying culture makes the study of a foreign language meaningful and it gives the learner a reason to study it

 Learning culture would help the learner relate the abstract sounds and forms of a language to real people and places

 Since learners like culturally-based activities, learning culture gives them good motivation

 Learning culture helps to develop “understanding and tolerance towards other ways of life” and more insight into the learner’s culture

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 Learning culture helps to implement general education: learning about

the geography, history of the target cultures

 Learning culture helps to realize the educational aim: educating

 Global citizens how to behave inter-culturally (p.9) Though these scholars and researchers do not mention benefits of integration of

teaching culture in EIL teaching explicitly, what listed well fits for the EIL

characterizations which Smith (1976) and McKay (2002) suggest

2.5 Culture contents in EIL materials

The aim of teaching culture in teaching EIL is to raise the students’ culture

awareness by making them aware of how their own culture differs from other cultures

(McKay, 2002) And teaching materials primarily including textbooks are efficient

tools to do that EIL and EFL/ESL textbooks should reflect a wide range of culture

contexts and include intercultural elements Thus, culture contents in EIL textbooks

get a lot of concern of researchers

Byram (1994) states a list of criteria for textbook evaluation focusing on culture

contents so that evaluation how culture is treated in textbook is easier:

 Social identity and social groups: groups within the nation-state which

are the basis for other than national identity, including social class, regional

identity, ethnic minority, professional identity, and which illustrate the

complexity of individuals’ social identities and of a national society (NB

the issue of national identity is dealt with under “stereotypes”);

 Social interaction: conventions of verbal and non-verbal behavior in

social interaction at different levels of familiarity, as outsider and insider

within social groups;

 Belief and behavior: routine and taken-for-granted actions within a

social group _national or sub-national_ and the moral and religious beliefs

which are embodied within them; secondly, routines of behavior taken from

daily life which are not seen as significant markers of the identity of the

group;

 Socio-political institutions: institutions of the state_ and the values and

meanings they embody_ which characterize the state and its citizens and

which constitute a framework for ordinary, routine life within the national

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and sub-national groups; provision for health-care, for law and order, for social security, for local government, etc.;

 Socialization and the life-cycle: institutions of socialization_ families,

schools, employment, religion, military service _ and the ceremonies which mark passage through stages of social life; representation of divergent practices in different social groups as well as national auto-stereotypes of expectations and shared interpretations;

 National history: periods and events, historical and contemporary,

which are significant in the constitution of the nation and its identity_ both actually significant and, not necessarily identical, perceived as such by its members;

 National geography: geographical factors within the national

boundaries which are significant in member’ perceptions of their country; other factors which are information (known but not significant to members) essential to outsiders in intercultural communication (NB national boundaries, and changes in them, are part of “national history”);

 National cultural heritage: cultural artifacts perceived to be emblems

and embodiments of national culture from past and present; in particular those which are “known” to members of the nation _ e.g Shakespeare in Britain, the Impressionists in France, Wagner in Germany _ through their inclusion in curricula of formal education; and also contemporary classics, not all of which have reached the school curriculum and some of which may be transient but significant, created by television and other media _e.g Truffaut’s films in France, Agatha Christie in Britain, Biermann’s songs in Germany;

 Stereotypes and national identity: for example, German and English

notions of what is “typically” German and British national identity; the origins of these notions _ historical and contemporary _ and comparisons among them; symbols of national identities and stereotypes and their meanings, e.g famous monuments and people (p.51-52)

Huhn (cited in Le, 2005,) also suggests criteria to make basis for evaluating the treatment of cultural contents in textbooks:

 Factual accuracy and contemporanity of information in cultural studies – a priori point which raises immediately the question of keeping books up

to date

 The avoidance / relativisation of stereotypes by making pupils

conscious of them

 The comparative dimension further requires that phenomena be presented in their structural, functional contexts rather than presented as isolated facts, and of significance for the view taken of the appropriate model of cultural analysis

 The sixth and seventh criteria are concerned with the presentation of historical material: its relevance to understanding contemporary society should be explicit and where presented through personalities it should be made clear that they are products of their age (p.14)

However, investigations conducted by Stapleton (2000), Pulveness (2004), Cortazzi and Zin (1999), etc reveal some dissatisfaction regarding teaching materials and teaching methodology

Many researches contend that culture is treated superficially in textbooks Stapleton (2000) states that ‘covert culture’ information is rarely covered in textbooks Kramsch (1996) points out that culture is not treated equally in comparison with language forms and functions in textbooks It is not the priority of book writers Pulveness (2003, 2004) also realizes that and adds that authentic materials in textbooks are employed simply to facilitate the development of language skills irrespective of culture context

He criticizes that culture teaching is only something as “now write about your country” or the fact textbooks often represent information but do not require learners

to response to it “in terms of their own experience or integrating it into new structures

of thought and feeling” At most, in textbooks, learners need only “comment on superficial differences at the level of observational behaviors” What is more, the selection of a lot of incidental cultural information is quite arbitrary

For commercial reasons, material design seldom includes the learner’s cultural identity

as part of the learning process According to Pulveness (2004), materials need to provide more than a token acknowledgement of cultural identity and address the kind

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of cultural adjustment to develop learners’ cultural awareness And literary texts

should introduce experiences of cultural estrangement

Cortazzi and Jin (1999, p 200-201) contend textbook and curriculum evaluation seems

to pay no attention to culture evaluation or take little notice of culture and intercultural

communication Robetaz (2001) considers the importance of intercultural competence

equal and sometimes even higher than grammatical accuracy in international

relationships In EIL competence, intercultural competence is recommended to be as

one component of communicative competence which is defined by Canale (1983) as

being composed of grammar, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence

Nunn (2007, cited in Acar, 2010, p.17) explains “intercultural competence for EIL is

not based on the knowledge of one other culture for successful communication

between two languages It means the ability to adjust to unpredictable multicultural

communication”

Deciding on the cultural content of materials and course books has been an important

matter in ELT Cortazzi and Jin (1999) classifies cultural information that can be used

in language textbooks and materials into three types:

 source culture materials that draw on the learners own’ culture as content

 target culture materials that use the culture of a country where English is

spoken as a first language and,

 international target culture materials that use a great variety of cultures in

English- and non-English-speaking countries around the world (p 204-5)

2.5.1 Source culture in EIL textbooks versus textbooks based solely on source

culture

Despite some scholars like Steward (cited in Kim, 2002) believe that source

culture is useless in English language teaching, there has been a tendency for

textbooks to aim at the source culture For instance, the Moroccan Ministry of

Education conducted a textbook project aiming at Moroccan culture rather than target

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culture in the early 1990s More recently, Chile has implemented an entire series of

textbooks named Go for Chile that includes a great deal of source culture content

The advantage of using source culture is that such content may help students learn more about their own culture and learn the language needed to explain visitors these cultural elements in English Furthermore, in such a situation, local bilingual teachers can explain particular cultural events or cultural behavior to students that may be not familiar with them

The textbook designers who make source culture form the basis for textbook content believe that until learners’ first cultural identity is established, it may be harmful to learn other cultures However, it is not convincing enough Cortazzi and Zin (1999) show that Lebanese students’ ethnic identity is not under threat although most school textbooks in Lebanon are imported from English-speaking countries with the target-cultural-based content

However, if textbooks concentrate more on declarative knowledge than on the development of intercultural skills or procedural knowledge, learners are unable to develop intercultural skills as demonstrated by Cortazi and Jin (1999) They examined textbooks from Venezuela, Turkey and Saudi Arabia and realized that most textbooks from these countries just give information about source cultures Textbook characters from a source culture talk to each other in English or with English-speaking visitors within the source-cultural framework Consequently, the learner has little opportunity

to engage in intercultural negotiation with a text of another culture and they are unable

to identify and confirm their own cultural identity as well as to learn how their own culture differs from other cultures

In the other side, according to Risager (1991), and Cortazzi and Zin (1999), source culture textbooks tend to give a generalized Western Europe Characters in these textbooks are Hanly middle class, young people, isolated individual tourists to urban centers Topics in conversations are often leisure activities or consumer situations Conversationalists rarely reveal their feelings and opinions Interactions are never about social, moral or philosophical problems and “most cultural information is

Though Byram (1989, p.137) criticizes textbooks based solely on source culture, he strongly advocates the teaching materials that includes the source culture McKay (2002, 2003a, 2003b) is in line with Byram’s assertion She asserts that one of the major goals of teaching EIL is to facilitate the communication of the learners’ ideas and cultures in an English medium Therefore, using the materials including source culture is obvious And local educators should recognize the value of including topics that deal with the local culture and select the cultural content most appropriate for the local education context so that learners will be able to use English to tell others about their own cultures

2.5.2 Target cultures in EIL textbooks versus textbooks based solely on target culture

Traditionally, target cultural topics are used fundamentally in many English language textbooks because textbooks are often published in the Inner countries and designers of such textbooks believe that target cultural information will be motivating

to English language learner (McKay, 2003)

Some researches reveals students’ desire of learning target culture For instance, Prodromou’s study (1992) demonstrates that 86% of 300 Greek students surveyed wanted to focus on Anglo-American cultures Timmis’s survey (2002) of learners and teachers of English from a large range of countries also shows a similar result They espressed a wish to work towards native English speaker norms Thus, it may be reasonable that textbooks should mirror target cultures

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However, the idea of textbooks bases solely on target culture encounters a lot of objection Some scholars Alptekin (1993), Prodromou (1992), McKay (2002) criticize target culture bias in teaching materials and blame for de-motivating learners Prodromou explains that one of reasons students are not motivated in culture learning

is the way culture is presented in many ELT textbooks In these global designed textbooks, culture content is stubbornly Anglo-centric He says: “Appealing to a world market as they do, they can not by definition draw on local variety and have not gone very far in recognizing English as an international language either” (Prodromou, 1988, cited in McKay, 2002, p.87) McKay (2002) also argues that:

Whereas it is possible that target culture content is motivating to some students, it is also quite possible that such content may be irrelevant, uninteresting, or even confusing for students Furthermore, if one of the primary reasons for learners to acquire English today is to provide information to others about their own community and culture, there seems little reasons to promote target cultural content in the English language classroom, particularly when such content can result in bilingual teachers of English feeling insecure because they lack specific knowledge about particular target cultures (p.99)

Based on Byram’s framework, Cortazi and Zin (1999) evaluate a range of target culture course books from elementary to advanced level They point out that several of them meet with Byram’s culture criteria though it seems easier to present the rich culture content to advanced learners

Meanwhile, Alptekin (1993) and Phillipson (cited in Kim, 2002) disapprove authors who transmit their own English-speaking countries’ values and beliefs into their textbooks Saville-Troike (1996) contends the target cultures can become irrelevant and unwanted in the circumstance of English as a lingua franca Stapleton (2000) states teachers’ opinion that textbooks tend to be biased towards a particular country, usually United States Brumfit (cited in Le, 2005) strongly criticizes and calls them

“masses of rubbish that is skillfully marketed”

Whether the target culture content is motivating or alienating to students, according to McKay (2003), it can be established “a sphere of intercultrality” if the teacher knows how to handle the culture content effectively in a certain context In the same line of

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thought, Gray (2000) contends that critical engagement with the cultural content in the target culture textbook helps develop learners’ intercultural competence And Pulveness (2004) emphasizes the reconciliation of differences between English-speaking countries in teaching language depends on political and economic priorities, the geographical location of the institution, its policy, the parents’ preference, the content of the course materials, the teacher’s background and the students’ interests

2.5.3 Textbooks with international target culture

When teaching English as an international language which involves cultural communication among speakers from different cultural background, it seems inadequate to teach learners the cultures of the inner circle native speakers as Mckay (2002) asserts:

cross-It can not be assumed that the culture of any particular country, especially

an inner circle country should provide the basis for cultural content when teaching EIL…and … that if one of the goals of using culture in EIL teaching is to help individuals interact in cross-cultural encounters, then merely knowing about a culture will not be sufficient to gain insight into how to interact in these encounters (p.82)

Accordingly, there are also textbooks with various cultures including both native-speaking-cultures and English-non-native-speaking cultures

English-Rationale for an inclusion of such a wide of cultures in textbooks is explained by experts with the framework of EIL But in general, they have a common point of view, that is English is used in international situations by non-native speakers but with non-native speakers as well

According to Smith (1976) who is one of the first scholars considering English as a tool in cross cultural situations, there is no reason for learners should internalize the culture norms of the native speakers of that language Similarly, Alptekin (2002, p.62) points out in a world English is taught as a lingua franca “whose culture becomes the world itself”, students should be exposed to the international culture, not just the native speaker or the home culture McKay (2002) shares the same view She contends EIL speakers need not “acquire the pragmatics rules of another culture but rather to

It is necessary to include native-English-speaking countries in EIL teaching materials because students should know the origin of the language But according to the nationalist philosophy, young students need keep alive and reinforcing the local culture It is the reason why textbooks need source culture What is more, textbooks should deal with various cultures because students need expose to wide range of situations and accordingly have a global vision of the world

2.6 Culture teaching

2.6.1 An overview of culture teaching

Traditionally, culture has often been taught through transmission of facts about culture in courses that concern with presenting information about the target culture such as history, geography, institutions, the arts, traditions and way of life (Tomaln and Stempleski, 1993) However, a more interpretive approach towards culture teaching has been broadened Instead of concerning with the facts of one culture, culture teaching emphasizes more on cross-cultural understanding, involving comparisons and contrasts with a learners’ native culture and the culture of the language they are studying (Valdes, 1986) This view is shared by many well-known scholars such as Byram (1994), Kramsch (1993) and other researchers

Kramsch (1993) sketches a dialogic framework involving in four aspects of culture in keeping with this view of cultural acquisition:

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1 Establishing a sphere of interculturality - relating C1 to C2 and reflecting

on perceptions of C1 (the students’ own culture) and C2 (the foreign language culture)

2 Teaching culture as an interpersonal process - going beyond the presentation of cultural facts and moving towards a process of understanding foreignness ('macro-features' such as cultural specific values and attitudes)

3 Teaching culture as difference - culture should not be viewed as only national traits, many other aspects of culture such as age, race, gender, social class need to be considered

4 Crossing disciplinary boundaries - Teachers need to have some understanding of a wider range of subjects such as sociology, ethnography, and sociolinguistics (p.205-206)

According to her, culture teaching aims to establish a sphere of interculturality for the learner to reflect on their own culture in relations to others And culture teaching is considered as an interpersonal process which may help the learner develop tolerance and understanding of differences between cultures and within a culture If the process

is successful, the learner may communicate effectively with English-native speakers and also reflects their own local cultures and personal beliefs Underlying this approach, foreign language learning takes place in a “third place” that lies in between C1 and C2 Kramsch (1993) argues:

The only way to start building a more complete and less partial understanding of both of C1 (one’s own) and C2 (the foreign) is to develop

a third perspective, that would enable learners to take both an insider’s and

an outsider’s view on C1 and C2 It is respectively that cross-cultural education should seek to establish (p.210)

Byram (1994) shares the same view of third place He contends the teachers

of language and culture should be concerned with four dimensions: observing the cultural other and observing how the others see themselves, seeing ourselves as others see us and seeing how we see ourselves

As a co-learner with learners in the dialogic process of teaching and learning culture, the teacher can develop cultural awareness Cultural awareness involves an understanding not only of the culture of the language being studied but also of the learners' own culture According to many scholars and researchers supporting

In terms of the moment teaching culture, many scholars agree with Kramsch’s view (1993 ) that when learners start their first lesson in a second language, they should be taught culture:

Culture in language teaching is not an expandable fifth skill, tackled on, or

so to speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing It is always in the background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language learners when they expect it least, making evident the limitations

of their hard-won communicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world around them (p.1)

Hinkel (2001) shares the same view with Kramsch He suggests that culture teaching should be addressed at all level of proficiency to build cultural awareness and show how culture impacts language use Porto (cited in Pulveness, 2004) claims that the teacher should teach lexical phrases as a foundation for developing socio-awareness from the earliest stages of language learning before dealing with rhetoric structures Prodromou (1992) and Guariento & Morley (2001) emphasize the use of authentic materials when teaching culture at post-intermediate and advanced level

Pulveness (2004) even proposes dealing with authentic materials in L1 when teaching the source culture since language itself is the culture and cultural meaning is embedded in language Besides that, he states the level the teacher should encourage learners to assume the behavioral patterns of target culture depends on their attitudes and desires

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However, even when cultural authentic texts are brought into the classroom, they tend

to be treated as “vehicles for developing language skills in a cultural vacuum” as Pulveness (1995, 2003) states Kramsch (1996) criticizes the fact that culture is often considered the fifth skill after speaking, listening, reading and speaking in language teaching within the strict structural or functional bounds Teachers incorporates culture

in language teaching because they think that teaching culture reinforces or enriches the language skills, not that it is one component of intercultural communication Similarly, Pulveness (2004) judges that teachers of English commonly treat culture teaching as marginal and dispensable This happens although most teachers as statistics of Lessard-Clouston (1996) and Stapleton (2000) believe in the importance of culture aspects in language teaching He admits that it takes a long time to change this attitude

There are several reasons for this fact as Kim (2002) stated The teacher may not be well-prepared for culture teaching In addition, they are short of available insights, sources of information and the conceptual tools to integrate culture teaching into their language lesson effectively Moreover, teachers can not but reduce teaching to Hanly factual knowledge and “if time permits, extend that teaching to some cultural activities”

As regards culture teaching, more and more experts like Byram (1989, 1994) and Pulveness (2004) highlight the role as educators of foreign language teachers In accordance with EIL pedogagy Smith and McKay propose, this is perfect attuned Especially in rapidly increasing integration and globalization, Hantaining the educational values of foreign language learning: broadening learners’ horizons, understanding and appreciating differences is more important than ever before

2.6.2 Culture teaching as seen from the perspectives of the teacher, the textbook and the students

As regards culture teaching and learning in the classroom context, Cortazzi and Jin (1999, p.211) assert that intercultural competence takes place in situations when learners can negotiate meaning and identity in the context of other cultures Develop

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dialogic framework sketched by Kramsch, they see culture learning through textbooks

as a process of dialogue in which learners negotiate meaning and identity directly with the author of the textbook and its cultural content The way the learner sees the culture mirrored in the textbook and their own culture is managed by the teacher who is seen

as an ambassador

Cortazzi and Jin present three-party (the teacher, the textbook and the students) dialogue diagrams illustrating contexts in which information about cultures can be introduced in an EIL classroom The point here is no matter what context happens, a sphere of interculturality should be encouraged

These diagrams are reproduced and elaborated by McKay (2002, p.89-92) as follows:

target culture

textbooks

teachers students

source culture source culture

Figure2: Target culture in EIL teaching

Figure 2 illustrates two possible contexts in which information about a target culture can be introduced in teaching of EIL

First is one very common context today, especially in Expanding Circle countries in which teachers and students have the same cultural background and the cultural content in the textbooks is target culture based For example, in Vietnam classroom, the Vietnamese teacher and students use the material dealing with American culture This cultural content may be motivating to some students In contrast, some students

teachers students target culture source culture

Figure 3: Source culture in EIL teaching

Figure 3 shows two other contexts in which textbooks are source culture based In the first context, the teacher, students, and the textbook share the same culture which is the source culture To establish a sphere of interculturality and to teach culture as difference in this context, the teacher may have students explain some of their cultural aspects to representatives from other cultures or he/she may get individual student to reflect cultural aspect and then emphasize the variance that exists in any culture In the second context, the students and the textbooks share the same source culture but the teacher comes from the target culture The teacher can establish a sphere of interculturality by reflecting on the cultural content in the textbook and asking students

to explain certain problematic cultural elements

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international target culture

textbooks

teachers students

source culture source culture

international target culture

textbooks

teachers students

target culture source culture

Figure 4: International target culture in EIL teaching

Figure 4 demonstrates two contexts in which international target culture might be used

in an EIL classroom In the first context, the teacher and students are from the source culture In the second context, the students are from the source culture but the teacher

is from the target culture In both contexts, the textbook could illustrate how English is used internationally in diversified context and accordingly students could be encouraged to talk about how they themselves use English locally and internationally However, sometimes no one in the classroom is able to comment on some culture reference presented in the textbook

2.6.3 The use of English as an international language in Vietnam

During the pass decade, Vietnam has been an attractive land for foreign direct investment (FDI) And the notable point is whether any foreign country invests in Vietnam, English is the language required by the owners when recruiting employers

To work for FDI projects or joint venture companies, staffs are required to have a good English competence whether the owner or the partner is from native-English or non-

native-English country English is a common communication means between Vietnamese employees and non-native English partners such as Korea, Japan, China and so on It is one among reasons that English is considered as an international language, especially in the integrating period According to the statistics of Viet Nam Government in the recent years, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore are always the

greatest investors in Vietnam in terms of the capital and the number of projects

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Table 1.1: Total FDI in Vietnam from 2011 to 2016

(Source: sau-gan-30-nam.html)

Table 1.2: Sources of Vietnam’s FDI in 2016

Order Country, area Number of projects Registered Capital

(bil $) Registered Capital( bil $)) Realized Capital( bil $))

As it can be seen from Table 1.1, 1.2 and Table 1.3, Vietnamese employees exposure

a variety of cultures and English with different accents Accordingly, to co-operate effectively with foreigners, workers should understand their culture Not all workers work with Korea is required to know Korean as well as working with Japanese partners, you are required know Japanese But using English fluently is almost a compulsory requirement Therefore, when learning English, textbook is a means to assess cultures of countries in the world and Vietnamese learners should work towards