Using culture based activities to enhance cross cultural awareness for the students at do luong 2 high school

The objective of this research is to enhance the cross-cultural awareness forthe students at Đô Lương 2 high school by using culture-based activities.. All the reasons mentioned above ha

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

MASTER'S THESIS IN EDUCATION

SUPERVISOR: Assoc.Prof NGÔ HỮU HOÀNG, Ph.D.

Nghệ An , 2018

Bùi Thị Mỹ Hảo, an M.A student of the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies ofVinh University hereby declare that this study is my own work The data andfindings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, andhave not been published elsewhere

Author

Bùi Thị Mỹ Hảo

The objective of this research is to enhance the cross-cultural awareness forthe students at Đô Lương 2 high school by using culture-based activities Duringconducting this research, the researcher applies Experimental Research as themethod of the study To collect data, the researcher uses the instruments of thequestionnaire answers and the students’ achievement in a Pre-treatment test and aPost-treatment test of the same content The research findings show that the culture-based activities were effective in improving students' cross-cultural awareness.Culture-based activities help to motivate students to learn English and confidentlyuse English in real life situations This effectiveness can be seen from theimprovements of experimental students at the end of the school year basing on themean scores in the test results The improvement is also expressed basing on theresult from the questionnaire that show positive and good responses from thestudents

My special thanks also go to the students at Đô Lương 2 high school whoenthusiastically took part in my small survey Their contributions motivated me tofinish the research despite some arising obstacles during conducting process.

Finally, I would like to convey my great gratitude to my beloved family andcolleagues for providing me endless companionship and assistance throughout myyears of study and through the process of researching and writing the thesis

Vinh, June 2018

Bùi Thị Mỹ Hảo

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 The significance of the study 3

1.5 Method of the study……… 4

1.6 Organization of the study……… 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Definition of culture 5

2.2 The relationship between language and culture 6

2.3 The role of culture in language teaching 8

2.4 Principles for teaching Culture in the second language classroom 11

2.5 Categories of cultural topics 13

2.6 Culture-based activities towards teaching culture 17

2.7 Cultural awareness and Cross-cultural awareness 20

2.7.1 Cultural awareness 20

2.7.2 Cross-cultural awareness 21

2.8 Related studies 21

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 24

2.1 Research questions 24

2.2 School's setting 24

2.3 The English Language syllabus 25

2.4 Participants 25

2.5 Research instruments 25

2.5.1 Assessment test 25

2.5.2 Survey questionnaire 28

2.6 Research procedure 28

2.7 Data collection 30

2.8 Data analysis 30

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 32

3.1 Data collected from the cultural-awareness assessment tests 32

3.2 Data collected from the survey questionnaire 37

3.3 Findings 46

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 50

1 Summary of the study 50

2 Implications 50

3 Limitations of the study 52

4 Suggestions for further study 52

REFERENCES I

APPENDIX 1 V

APPENDIX 2 XIII

1.1 Rationale

Language and culture have an inseparable connection Thus, it is impossible

to learn a language without learning culture Researchers claim that foreignlanguage learning is comprised of several components, including grammaticalcompetence, communicative competence, language proficiency, as well as a change

in attitudes towards one’s own or another culture

Therefore, culture of the target language needs to be emphasizedbecause not only it is unavoidable part of language teaching, but it also plays anessential role in reaching the goal communicative competence and it brings learnersmany benefits In modern FLT/SLT materials, emphasis is put on the closerelationship between learning a language and learning its culture It is suggested thatjust learning four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) may not lead tothe proper understanding of the hidden meanings of a language As Bremberk(1977:14) rightly puts it, “to know another’s language and not his culture is a verygood way to make a fluent fool of one’s self” Many methods and activities havebeen designed as useful recommendations for language teachers to adapt forpresenting the target culture like class discussion, problem solving, role-play, etc

At present, the goal of teaching foreign languages is to develop effectivecommunicative skills The integration of the target language into the teachingprocess becomes extremely important Although the benefits of learning culture inforeign languages have been recognized, cultural education has not yet become avital part of the textbook program in many schools Recently, when starting tobecome aware of the role of culture in teaching foreign languages, the selection ofappropriate and effective methods is a matter of primary concern In addition, theappropriate use of cultural activities with appropriate environment and conditionswill certainly be effective in teaching the language in general and teaching culture

in particular

However, how can we “teach” culture to the students who do not have aclose contact with native speakers of English and have little opportunity to discoverhow these speakers think, feel and interact with others in their own peer group?How can we stimulate their curiosity about the target culture when, sometimes, they

do not even have sufficient time to learn the formal properties of the language? One

of the ways of doing so should be to apply culture-based activities, which focus onculturally behaviors arising out of the language material being study, so thatstudents can be helped to move beyond the classroom into the living culture ofEnglish-speaking countries

In my case, as a teacher of English at Đô Lương 2 high school, I observe thatstudents rarely have a chance to talk to foreigners to understand different cultures.Living far from the city center, they do not meet foreign tourists very often andconsequently they are not exposed to cultural experiences in real life Besides, there

is no separated part for teaching culture in the textbook It thus is not easy forstudents to absorb cultural knowledge if their teachers do not provide them furtherinformation As a matter of fact, the students at my school often focus on studyinggrammar, vocabulary or pronunciation They consider cultural aspects lessimportant because they only care about what appear in the tests or examinations Tomeet students' demand, the teachers here usually try to teach the knowledge intextbook that helps students to get good marks in their tests or exams They do notuse culture-based activities in their lectures Thus, the students seem to lack culturalawareness which is very important in their real life Because of the pressure fromtheir studying purpose for exams, the students here are eager to experience newactivities Therefore, the researcher thinks that culture-based activities seem to bringnew learning atmosphere to them and enhance their cultural awareness

All the reasons mentioned above have driven the author to her study thesis,namely “Using culture- based activities to enhance cross-cultural awareness for thestudents at Đô Lương 2 high school” The author hopes that it may contribute to thequality of teaching and learning culture at Đô Lương 2 high school

1.2 Aims of the study

As the title suggests, the research’s purpose is to use some culture-basedactivities to enhance cross-cultural awareness for the students at Đô Lương 2 highschool In order to fulfil this aim, the study tries to answer the two questions:

1 What are the difference in the cultural awareness of the students who areprovided with culture-based activities and those who are not?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards the use of culture-based activities

in English lessons?

1.3 Scope of the study

The study limits its scope within the English teaching and learning context at

Đô Lương 2 high school Moreover, it just makes an attempt to conduct a smallsurvey to explore students’ attitudes towards the use of culture-based activities inEnglish lessons and evaluate the effectiveness of these activities 151 student-participants in the survey are the ones who were studying at grade 10 of Đô Lương

2 high school during the research time in the school year 2017-2018 Also, theculture-based activities in this study are based on the textbook Tiếng Anh 10designed by Hoàng Văn Vân (2006)

1.4 The significance of the study

Doing this research, the researcher expects to improve herself and better hercultural awareness as well as teaching skill The researcher also hopes that theresults are useful for the English teachers at Đô Lương 2 high school in particularand other high schools in general in teaching culture, so that English teachers cancreate more communicative and active activities for the students and encouragethem to explore, compare and contrast different aspects of culture Hopefully, in thefuture, with new steps in teaching method, this thesis will make a small contribution

to the teaching of English in our country

1.5 Method of the study

In order to reach the goals mentioned above, the study is implemented in themost common procedure of experimental method (See Chapter 2- Page 24)

1.6 Organization of the study

Introduction: Present the rationale of the study, the aims of the study, scope

of the study, significance of the study, methods of the study, and organization of thestudy are presented

Chapter 1: Literature Review: Provide the theoretical background related to

the study

Chapter 2: Methodology: Present the research questions, school's setting,

participants, research instruments and procedures of data collection

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions: Provide an analysis of the data as

well as the interpretation of the results

Conclusion and Implications: Summarize the study and give pedagogical

implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for further study

References and Appendices are presented in the last pages of the study

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of culture

A brief discussion of “culture” is necessary before we can proceed withfurther study of the barriers The English word “CULTURE” come from Romanword “cultura” which had securely survived in Latin, the learned language ofEurope, almost unchanged for roughly two thousand years Around 1800, this wordsuddenly acquired new and important meaning with which it came to pass intocommon use in the several European languages such as “ la cultura”, “die kultur”,

“la culture”, “the culture”, “de cultura” In some societies, the word culture is used

to mean “society” or “civilization”

Culture may mean different things to different people In the anthropologicalsense culture is defined as the way people live (Chastain 1988:302) Trivonovitch(1980:550) defines culture as “ an all-inclusive system which incorporates thebiological and technical behavior of human beings with their verbal and non-verbalsystems of expressive behavior starting from birth, and this “all-inclusive system” isacquired as the native culture This process, which can be referred to as

“socialization”, prepares the individual for the linguistically and non-linguisticallyaccepted patterns of the society in which he lives

According to Brown(1994:170) culture is deeply ingrained part of the veryfiber of our being, but language –the means for communication among members of

a culture- is the most visible and available expression of that culture And so aperson’s world view, self-identity, and systems of thinking, acting, feeling, andcommunicating can be disrupted by a change from one culture to another.Similarly, Henrichsen (1998) propounds the view that culture is language andlanguage is culture He suggests that to speak a language well, one has to be able tothink in that language, and thought is extremely powerful Language is the soul ofthe country and people who speak it Language and culture are inextricably linked,and as such we might think about moving away from questions about the inclusion

or exclusion of culture in foreign language curriculum, to issues of deliberateimmersion versus non-deliberate exposure to it.

The above definitions seem to mention specific behaviors and beliefs of ageneral society, which are passed from generation to generation The variousdefinitions of culture provide culture with different values In this paper the authorwould like to emphasize the influence of cultural factors on the teaching andlearning of speaking skills in classrooms, so the definition below should be taken togive the foundation for this thesis

“Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, so tospeak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing It is always in thebackground, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language learners whenthey expect it least, making evident the limitations of their hard-woncommunicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the worldaround them.” (Kramsch, 1993:1)

In a word, culture is a way of life (Brown, 1994:163) It is the context withinwhich we exist, think, feel and relate others It is the “glue” that binds a group ofpeople together It can be defined as a blueprint that guides the behavior of people

in community and is incubated in family life It governs our behavior in groups,makes us sensitive to matters of status, and helps us to know what others expect of

us and what will happen if we do not live up to their expectations Thus, culturehelps us to know how far we can go as individuals and what our responsibility is tothe group

2.2 The relationship between language and culture

When writing about the relationship between language and culture, manyattempts have been made to describe this complicated and sophisticatedrelationship; the exact answer has not been found Nevertheless, it is agreed thatlanguage is a reflection of culture Words, of course, always reflect detachedcultural elements but the relationship between the form of language and the

form of cultural elements (thought and activity) is practically impossible todetect.

Claire Kramsch (1993: 3) asserted that language is the principal meanswhereby we conduct our social lives When it is used in contexts ofcommunication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways Thewords people utter relate to common experience They express facts, ideas orevents that are communicable because they refer to a stock of knowledge aboutthe world that other people share Words also reflect their authors’ attitudes andbelief, their point of view that are also attitudes, belief and point of view of

others In both cases, language expresses cultural reality.

But members of a community or social group do not only expressexperience; they also create experience through language According toKramsch (1998:3) “They give meaning to it through the medium they choose tocommunicate with one another, for example on the telephone or face-to-face,writing a letter or sending an e- mail message, reading the newspaper orinterpreting a graph or chart The way in which people use the spoken, written,

or visual medium itself to create meanings that are understandable to the groupthey belong to, for example, through a speaker’s tone of voice, accent,conversational style, gestures and facial expressions.” Through all its verbal and

non-verbal aspects, language embodies cultural reality Thus, language and

culture can be seen as the faces of a sheet of paper (Nguyễn Văn Đỗ, 2006).Language cannot exist outside the social context; language is a socialinstitution, both shaping and shaped by society at large

If culture is something that can be learned and communicated fromgeneration to generation through human activity or through languagecommunication, language is inevitably part of culture Language is not only a part

of culture but also a means through which culture is communicated One willnaturally express his culture through the language he uses: Every time we uselanguage we express a cultural action On the other hand, culture is also part of

language, as language embodies the products, practices, prospects, communities,and people of a culture (Moran, 2001:7) Thus, language and culture are closelyintertwined: " they are so intertwined in a complex relationship that one can notcompletely divide them without losing the meaning of culture or language".

Emitt and Pollock (2007) also argue that learning a language means learningthe culture of that language: In fact, learners can not fully understand the language

if they have not yet recognized and understood the cultural context in whichlanguage appears (Peterson & Coltrane, 2003) Therefore, in teaching and learning alanguage, being aware of the close relationship between language and culture is ofutmost importance

2.3 The role of culture in language teaching

To emphasize the importance of culture in learning and teaching foreignlanguages Eli Hinkel (1999) has said,” Applied linguists and language teachers havebecome increasingly aware that the second or foreign language can rarely be learnt,

or taught, without addressing the culture of the community in which it is used Thiscan be with the idea that culture plays an important role in teaching and learninglanguage.” (Eli Hinkel, 1999: 56)

In fact, language is part of a culture; language is deeply embedded in aculture; as a result we cannot teach a language without teaching a culture It meansthat teaching language is teaching culture Therefore, teaching culture has beenintegrated into language teaching programs and teaching materials in one way oranother Many educators have applied these programs into real classroom activitiesand teaching materials This has been done, also, with the aim of bringing the mosteffective ways to teach foreign languages

Brooks (1983) stated that, “As language teachers we must be interested in thestudy of culture “the social scientists’ sense of the word not because we necessarilywant to teach the culture of the other country but because we have to teach it If weteach language without teaching at the same time the culture in which it operates,

we are teaching meaningless symbols, or symbols to which the student attaches the

wrong meanings Unless he is warned or he received cultural instruction, the studentwill associate American concepts or objects with the foreign symbols.” (Cited inNguyễn Văn Đỗ: 2007)

According to Kramsch (1998), language plays a crucial role not only in theconstruction of culture, but in the emergence of cultural change Culture shapes ourview of the world And language is the most representative element of any culture

It is true to say that “to know another’s language and not his culture is a very goodway to make a fluent fool of one’s self.”(Winston Brembeck cited in Nguyễn Quang(1983) Without the study of culture, foreign language instruction is inaccurate andincomplete For foreign language students, language study seems senseless if theyknow nothing about the people who speak it or the country in which it is spoken

From these ideas of culture, it is actually hard for language learners tocommunicate well without knowledge of culture such as codes of behaviors, anddifferent beliefs, etc The facts have shown that some breakdowns incommunication between inter-collators have been caused just by culturalmisunderstandings For example, when an Asian communicates with an American

or Westerner, they take no care of eye contact unless they know direct eye contact isconsidered as conveying honesty in English cultures What would happen ifsomeone knew the expressions of greetings very well but, with an inadequateknowledge of culture, he didn’t know how to response “how are you?” , or evenhow to shake hands in business? It is easy to fail in learning English if learners arenot provided with cultural values

According to Barry Tomalin & Susan Stempleski (1993) one of the sevengoals of teaching culture in language teaching is to create and encourage learners’curiosity about the target culture, which is considered one of the motivations forlanguage learners The more they know the target culture, the more they want toexplore it and their own culture as well, which helps them find differences andsimilarities among cultures With an adequacy of cultural knowledge, learners canhave deep understanding of the diversity of cultures and adjust themselves to real

situations The comparisons among cultures help them not only to have a widerview of culture but also avoid taboos or stereotypes

Students can distinguish the differences of, for example, what is

“appropriate” in their own culture but may be “inappropriate” in another They paymore respect to the target culture instead of devaluing it because there is no cultureconsidered superior or inferior

Culture denotes a body of shared knowledge, that is, what people must doand follow to make it easier to interpret or make sense of another’s utterance oractions “This is true also of the change that we might want to bring about byteaching people how to use somebody else's linguistic code in somebody else'scultural context Teaching members of one community how to talk and how tobehave in the context of another discourse community potentially changes the socialand cultural equation of both communities, by subtly diversifying mainstreamcultures” (Kramsch, 1993:4)

Another thing which should be mentioned here is that the aim of Englishlearning is to be able to communicate in the language and use the language properly.The capacity of making oneself understandable is thus taken into consideration.Cultural knowledge offers a range of distinct options and patterns related todifferent areas of everyday life So students not only get information about cultures,but also practical use in appropriate situations When students get deepunderstanding of both English cultures and their own, they are better ready to speakEnglish or encounter real situations

Facts have shown that culture and language are two sides of a piece of paper.Language expresses, embodies, and symbolizes cultural reality and in returncultural knowledge makes language alive Therefore, they co-exist and support eachother The idea of the world is captured by culture And language is the most typicalcomponent reflecting culture Therefore, teaching and learning language, separatedfrom knowing culture, cannot be done properly As a result, this is the reason why

we can come to the conclusion that teaching language is more than teaching asystem of syntax and lexicon

Culture is not static It is constantly changing because it depends on manysocial factors As Hinkel (1999) wrote, “culture denotes a body of sharedknowledge, that is, what people “must know in order to act as they do, make thethings they make, and interpret their experience in the distinctive way they do”.According to Quinn & Holland (1987: 4), "everyone should easily realize thatsuccessful communication is determined not only by shared language but also bysocio-cultural factors"

In conclusion, language teaching requires much more than words andgrammatical structures It goes without saying that culture is regarded “as mereinformation conveyed by the language, not as a feature of language itself, cultureawareness becomes an educational objective in social practice, and culture becomesthe very core of language teaching.” (Kramsch, 1993:8)

2.4 Principles for teaching Culture in the second language classroom

According to Kramsch (1993), traditionally, in the teaching practice in manycountries, FLT/SLT materials have put main focus on the improvement of speaking,listening, reading and writing skills as well as the teaching of pronunciation,vocabulary and grammar The teaching of culture in foreign language instructionsbegan to receive more attention from the middle of the twentieth century, when theAmerican government realized the needs of cross-cultural communication duringand after World War II The communication failures of American soldiers and laterPeace Corps volunteers led to changes in training techniques related to culturaltreatment The new idea of the benefit of teaching culture which contributed togeneral education was firstly introduced by the Modern Language Association in

1953

Like teaching other aspects in foreign language instruction, culture teachingrequires systematic development of its teaching principles Principles for cultureteaching are mentioned in a number of studies and Kramsch’s list (1993: 97-98)

may be considered one of the most noticeable Her principles of teaching culture led

to a new way of looking at the teaching of language and culture These include:

- Establishing a sphere of interculturality, which means that teaching culture

is not transferring information between cultures but a foreign culture should be put

in relation with one’s own The intercultural approach includes a reflection on bothcultures

- Teaching culture as an interpersonal process, which means replacing theteaching of facts and behaviors by the teaching of a process that helps to understandothers

- Teaching culture as difference, which means considering themulticulturality and multiethnicity of modern societies and looking at variousfactors like age, gender, regional origin, ethnic background, and social class Inother words, cultures should not be seen as monolithic

- Crossing disciplinary boundaries, which means linking the teaching ofculture to other disciplines like anthropology, sociology and semiology Kramsch(1993) concludes that these “lines of thought lay the ground for a much richerunderstanding of culture than heretofore envisaged by the majority of languageteachers”

2.5 Categories of cultural topics

The CEF (2001: 102-103) offers a list of seven categories that are consideredcharacteristic of a culture These include everyday living (e.g., food and drink,holidays and working practices), living conditions (e.g., housing conditions),interpersonal relations (e.g., class structure, family structures and relations betweengenerations), values, beliefs and attitudes (e.g., social class, wealth, regionalcultures, minorities and arts), body language, social conventions (punctuality, dressand behavioral and conversational conventions) and ritual behavior (e.g., birth,marriage and death)

Hasselgreen (2003: 47-52) suggests a list of categories based on those in theCEF The categories have been regrouped and supplemented on the basis of

students’ essays and, therefore, consider their interests The topics are centered onlearners’ intercultural abilities Below are the details of the cultural categories:

 Category 1: Ability of coping with daily life activities, traditions and

living conditions (e.g., in home, school, at festivals etc.)

Everyday family life:

• Meals, variety of food

• Daily routine, housing, family size, housework

• Pets and other animals

• TV, internet

School:

• System, class size, grades

• Routines, meals, breaks, uniforms

• Social needs

Leisure time:

• Going out with friends

• Sport, keeping fit

• Holidays

Festivities (focus on food and rituals, occasionally costume):

• Christmas, birthdays

• National festivals and feast days

• Other international feast days

• Youth festivals

Country generally – living conditions:

• Location, demography, occupations, farming activities

• Nature, geography, climate, language

• Urban-rural communities, regional differences

• Social classes

Category 2: Ability to deal with social conventions (e.g., ‘good manners’,

dressing and meeting people)

Roles and relationships:

• Boys – girls, men – women

• Younger – older generation

• Family – society

• Family circles and cohesion

• Women’s working situation

• Helping each other

• Dress code – general – formal for going out

Category 3: Confidence with the values, beliefs and attitudes of the foreign

language users (e.g., what they are proud of, worry about and find funny)

Concerned with:

• Family life, friends, school success

• Economy, prices, unemployment

• Sport, keeping fit, diseases

• Pollution, housing problems, gossip

Characterization:

• Friendly, simple, polite

• Sincere, caring, open-minded, tolerant

• Rude, bad-tempered, hypocritical

• National history and independence

• Country, nature, population

• National heroes, athletes, sportsmen, singers

National stereotypes and reality:

• Ethnic identities and conflicts

• War, terrorism, emigration

Sense of humor:

• Direct humor, irony

• Telling jokes about other people and nations

• Own and others’ misfortune

Category 4: Ability to use verbal communication means (e.g., greeting,

apologizing, expressing gratitude, embarrassment and love)

Addressing people:

• Degrees of politeness and distance

• Greetings

• Apologizing

Striking up conversation:

• Talking to friends and strangers

• Being noisy, quiet, turn-taking, interrupting

• Talking to small children – adults

• Using thank you, please

Sayings, proverbs:

• Animal references (i.e as stupid as)

Emotions – feelings:

• Expressing love, impulsiveness, shyness, embarrassment, taboos

Category 5: Ability to use non-verbal language (e.g., body language and

2.6 Culture-based activities towards teaching culture

As defined by Henrichsen (1998: 17), "culture-based activities are theactivities used to increase students’ cultural awareness and to develop their curiosity

towards the target culture and their own, helping them make comparisons amongcultures" These comparisons are not meant to underestimate any of the culturesbeing analyzed, but to enrich students’ experience and to make them aware thatalthough some cultural elements are being globalized, there is still diversity amongcultures This diversity should then be understood and respected.

Culture-based activities are derived from language material being taught andlearnt and constitutes a minor but important part of the language lessons They arecharacterized by co-operative learning tasks in which students

- work together in pairs or small groups to gather precise segments ofinformation;

- share and discuss what they have discovered, in order to form a morecomplete picture;

- interpret the information within the context of the target culture and incomparison with their own culture

In their own teaching the teachers and researchers have found that, whenstudents have understood the language being used in a situation and then go on togain an understanding of the culture at work, this is for them one of the mostabsorbing and exciting parts of any language lesson Studying culture with culture-based activities and co-operative learning approach may adds a new dimension ofachievement and understanding of the students and teachers as well

In general, activities that can be used to teach culture during language hoursare not limited to the activities mentioned above There are many methods andstrategies for teachers to apply the target culture in teaching foreign languages.However, the choice of method depends on each learner Teachers carefullyconsider teaching goals to select and adjust available, innovative activities Itteaches the culture of its own, from which to bring the cultural elements of thatlanguage into the classroom to be most effective

Below are some common types of culture-based activities suggested byHenrichsen (1998):

• Visuals / media: movies, short videos, photo magazines, TV shows, etc are

interesting sources of interesting materials that can be used for cultural instructions.Movies, videos or pictures are also useful for teaching the culture of nonverbalcommunication such as gestures, attitudes, facial expressions

• Class discussion: Teachers divide classes into groups of three to four Each

group will discuss a cultural center provided by the teacher

• Lecture and readings: Lecture and readings: The teacher simply introduces

the points of culture and their differences to the culture of the learner Or the readermay be provided with a reading related to that cultural content

• Problem solving: The teacher presents one or several situations related to

the culture and asks the learner to think through the solution Each student can readhis or her own decision, and then they can group together to exchange ideas

• Culture assimilators: Teachers make short paragraphs describing cultural

situations that may mislead students Students will choose one of the four answersthat they think best suits each situation and then explain their choices

• Cultoons: Cultoons are similar to culture assimilators but use pictures He

described: Teachers prepare learners for a series of paintings, each of whichcontains four depictions of a cultural misunderstanding in communication Learnersevaluate the actions of the characters, explaining the situations in the picture tounderstand why there is misunderstanding

• Role play: The most effective role-playing activity is after a student has

learned a conversation In this activity, the participant imagines himself in acommunication situation that is related to real culture Example after learning toname and call someone else's name He or she can play a role in a situation wheresomeone's name is not called The other students sat and observed the wrong thing

• Culture capsules: Students briefly present one or more differences between

their culture and the culture they are learning (e.g food, wedding invitations), oftenaccompanied by illustrations and then a series of questions for the class

• Quiz: Quizzes can be used to test your knowledge and provide additional

information related to culture Teachers can provide answers, or students can findanswers themselves through television, books, etc Whether the learner gives thecorrect answer or not is not important, but the key is to find the answer that willinspire them

2.7 Cultural awareness and Cross-cultural awareness

2.7.1 Cultural awareness

"Cultural awareness is a term we have used to describe sensitivity to theimpact of culturally-induced behavior on language use and communication" (BarryTomalin and Susan Templeski, 1993: 5)

Cultural awareness is based on knowledge of the other as well as one’s ownculture However, it should not be simply seen as replacing one-way view with atwo-way view as the concept is much larger Tomalin and Stempleski (1993: 5)define cultural awareness as "sensitivity to the impact of culturally inducedbehavior on language use and communication.” They add that it includes awareness

of one’s own culturally-induced behavior, awareness of the culturally-inducedbehavior of others and lastly, an ability to explain one’s own cultural standpoint

Byram (1997a: 60) explains more thoroughly what abilities are involved incultural awareness According to him, it may be seen as an ability to reflect on one’sown cultural identity, question taken-for-granted values and beliefs and compareone’ own culture with that of the interlocutor’s Comparison forms a basis forunderstanding and helps learners to “perceive and cope with difference” (Byram1998: 4)

Tomlinson and Masuhara (2004: 6) characterize the nature of culturalawareness contrasting it with cultural knowledge They claim that it consists ofperceptions of one’s own and other people’s cultures which are internal, that is theydevelop in the mind; dynamic, that is they are constantly being added and changed;variable, that is modified from experience; multi-dimensional, that is representedthrough sensory images and mental pictures; and, lastly, they are interactive, that is

they are interrelated and influence each other While cultural knowledge is mostlygained from other people, cultural awareness is gained from personal experienceeither directly through visits to foreign countries or indirectly through music, filmsand literature.

2.7.2 Cross-cultural awareness

Depending on how culture is defined and which discipline one comes from,various terms are used to refer to communication between people who don’t sharethe same nationality, social or ethnic origin, gender, age, occupation, or sexualpreference

The term “cross-culture” usually refers to the meeting of two cultures or twolanguages across the political boundaries of nation-states (Claire Kramsch,1998:81) They are predicated on the equivalence of one nation-one culture-onelanguage, and on the expectation that a “culture shock” may take place uponcrossing national boundaries In foreign language teaching, a cross-culturalapproach seeks the ways to understand the other in the other side of the border bylearning his/her national language and culture

Being aware of the differences that exist between cultures and knowing how

to act when we are faced with puzzling cross-cultural situations are important skillsfor harmonious intercultural relations In other words, cross-cultural awareness isvery important in helping language students lessen the difficulties in mastering thelanguage and communicate effectively

2.8 Related studies

In a study titled “New ways in teaching culture”, Fantini, A (2006), thecollection of essays and ideas for exploring culture in the English-as-a-second-language (ESL) classroom presents contributions by teachers around the world Anintroductory section contains five articles that offer a theoretical and conceptualframework for including culture and intercultural dimensions in ESL instruction.The subsequent four sections contain 50 classroom activities grouped in four areas:activities to explore the nexus of language and culture; activities for sociolinguistic

exploration; activities for culture exploration; and activities for interculturalexploration Each includes information about appropriate instructional level,instructional aims, and needed class time, preparation time, and resources as well asspecific procedures Some include handouts and worksheets Most also include one

or more references for further reading

In another study, Yakup Doganay (2013) implemented an experimentalresearch study on the impacts of culture-based activities in foreign languageteaching at upper- intermediate (B2) level The study was conducted 10 weeks inLanguage School at Süleyman Demirel University in Kazakhstan The participants,consisting of 80 students, were divided in to four groups, 2 control and 2experimental Experimental groups consisting of 18-22 students and control having20-20 students in each group They chose two groups both for experiment andcontrol To get more reliable and valid results about their progress, students weregiven exams pre and post-experiment and total averages of their results werepresented After applying culture-based activities, a questionnaire was given to thestudents to check their attitudes towards these activities Having analyzed the data,the author showed the effectiveness of culture-based activities on the teaching andlearning a language

In Vietnam, some studies have been made about culture teaching Đỗ ThịNgọc Hiền (2007) in her unpublished MA thesis also did a thorough research on thecultural aspects in Tiếng Anh 10 textbook By exploring some factors affecting thechoice of activities when teaching culture to Grade 10 students in Vietnam, shesuggested supplementary activities for teaching culture

Vũ Thị Lý (2010) refered to an aspect of culture - the using of gestures

of Vietnamese and American people- in her MA thesis In this study, shementioned different types of gestures and how they are used by Vietnameseand American people She also figured out what the differences are in usingthem in different countries with the hope that it will be of some help for

Vietnam learners of English to avoid culture shocks when being abroad or incommunication with foreigners.

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology of the study It covers researchquestions, school's setting, participants, research instruments, research procedure,data collection and data analysis Each of the point will be explained as follow

2.1 Research questions

The study is carried out to find out how effective culture-based activities are

to the development of cultural-awareness for the students at Đô Lương 2 highschool It aims to answer two questions as specified at the beginning of the thesis:

1 What are the difference in the cultural awareness of the students who areprovided with culture-based activities and those who are not?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards the use of culture-based activities

in English lessons?

2.2 School's setting

Founded in 1965, Đô Lương 2 high school is a school with a long tradition ofteaching and learning With a team of enthusiastic and experienced teachers, strongexpertise, good coordination between administrators, the Youth Union and students'parents' Society, Đô Lương 2 high school has gradually overcome difficulties toimprove the quality of education and achieve significant achievements For morethan 50 years, the school has developed an excellent reputation in the community

At present, there are 87 teachers, 36 classes with over 1400 students, divided intothree different levels: 10th, 11th, and 12th grades

Đô Lương 2 high school is located in the mountainous area of the district.Therefore, there are many difficulties in the teaching and learning in general and theteaching and learning of English in particular Most of the students at Đô Lương 2high school live far from the district center and come from low-income families,which is a big interference to their study of English subject They do not haveenough condition to get exposed to the practice of English such as meeting andtalking to native English tourists Another big obstacle is that the students here donot have much assistance or guidance of English from their parents at home because

most of their parents are farmers Not many families have a computer connected tothe internet - an useful device for students to study Moreover, the students at ĐôLương 2 high school learn English with the only aim to pass the national GCSEexam, so they mostly focus on studying grammar, vocabulary and grammar andnearly neglect cultural aspects That is why many of them lack cultural awarenesswhich is very useful in their real life.

Understanding these difficulties, the school’s Board of Directors have alwaysencouraged and supported the teaching and learning of the English Language at ourschool The classrooms are well-equipped with modern facilities for learningEnglish, such as computers and projectors There are two specialized rooms whereEnglish learners can develop their language skills more effectively

However, it is not easy to change the deep-seated idea from the students intheir ways and aims of studying English The challenge to the ten teachers ofEnglish here is how to create suitable activities and environment for them todevelop their English, especially their cross-cultural awareness

2.3 The English Language syllabus

Our school’s 10th Grade English Language textbook Tiếng Anh 10 is atraditional textbook structured with a priority towards theme-based or topic-basedlearning models The textbook has desirable aims of providing students with afoundational knowledge of numerous fields, a favorable attitude towards theEnglish Language, and the four skills generally recognized as building proficiency

in language study: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing In order to achievethese objectives, the content of the book is designed to utilize themes with which allstudents will be familiar Included are topics related to the student’s social lives, tosports, to work, and to leisure activities—universal experiences For each topic,related vocabulary and word studies are presented communicatively The bookcontains sixteen units, with each unit presenting five lessons with four differentskills and a language focus Reading is the first unit in each lesson, guiding students

to key words and phrases of the related topic—which then become “buildingblocks” that enable them to learn additional skills

Some tasks in the text book are difficult while some others are not reallychallenging This disparity requires teachers to creatively motivate students byadapting exercises to their interest levels Being effective at this adaptive skill iswhat sets teachers apart (average from excellent) worldwide

There is no separate part for teaching culture Therefore, teaching culture isnot compulsory

2.4 Participants

To conduct this research, the researcher have asked for the permission fromthe school’s Board of Directors and the English Group with the affirmation that theexperimental students are provided with required knowledge in the textbook andbenefit from the culture-based activities

The study is conducted with the participation of 151 grade-10 students at ĐôLương 2 high school including 10B1 (38 students), 10B2 (37 students), 10B3 (38students), 10B4 (38 students) (See Appendix 1) They are aged around 15, bothmale and female They are supposed to be at the similar level of English languageability basing on the results of the entrance exam to Đô Lương 2 high school.Students in four classes belong to two groups: the experimental (classes 10B1 and10B2) with 75 students and the control (10B3 and 10B4) with 76 students

In the whole school year 2017-2018, the experimental classes are taught withthe integration of culture-based activities and the control ones are taught withoutthese activities

by the two groups at the beginning of the school year and as the Post-treatment testcompleted at the end of the school year.

The student’s score obtained is calculated by the following formula:

* Total score: 10

* Number of questions: 20

* Student's score = Number of correct answers x 0.5

(Student's test score is rounded off from mark 1 to mark 10 For example:Mark 2.5 is rounded off to mark 3)

* Mean score:

XM=

N

�

Where : M = Mean score

∑ X = The sum of the total scores

N = The total number of the students

* The scales of scores:

Poor: Scored below mark 1 to 4

Average: Scored marks 5 and 6Good: Scored marks 7 and 8Excellent: Scored marks 9 and 10

2.5.2 Survey questionnaire

A survey questionnaire including eight statements with five optionsfrom which the students choose their answer (See appendix 2 for Vietnameseversion of the questionnaire) is conducted to find out the experimental students’attitudes towards culture-based activities and culture learning after finishing theschool year The questionnaire focuses on finding out the students’ generalcomments on culture-based activities, the role of culture-based activities towardstheir cross-cultural awareness, the effectiveness of culture-based activities inEnglish lessons, the role of culture-based activities towards students’ curiosity anddesire to explore and compare Vietnamese culture with other cultures in the world,the students' self-evaluation of their own cultural ability after doing culture-based

activities, the role of culture learning in English learning and the students'expectations towards the integration of culture-based activities in English lessons.

Only the experimental students are required to give their responds to thequestionnaire

Below are the details of the survey questionnaire:

To what extent do you agree with the following statements?

Options

Statements

Strongly agree (%)

Agree (%)

Disagree (%)

Strongly disagree (%)

Don’t know (%)

1 Culture-based activities are

interesting and attracting

2 Culture-based activities help

me improve my cross-cultural

awareness

3 Culture-based activities make

English lessons livelier, interesting

and stimulate me to learn English

4 Culture-based activities inspire

me to explore and compare

Vietnamese cultures with other

cultures in the world

5 After doing culture-based

activities, I feel more confident

when using English in class and in

7 Culture-based activities should

be a compulsory part to be taught

- Step 2- Identify the research problem: Given the topic or subject, theresearcher must now identify specific problems or questions that relate to thesubject

In this step, the researcher carefully looks into the real research problems inthe context of teaching and learning English at Đô Lương 2 high school Whenasking other colleagues about their teaching method, the researcher receives asimilar response that they often focus on teaching basic knowledge in textbook tofulfill students' need for their tests and exams Students, by this way, passively gainknowledge from their teachers and they seem to neglect cultural knowledge Theresearcher realizes that how to help the students get necessary knowledge for theirexam purpose and accumulate cultural awareness is a big problem

- Step 3- Conduct a literature search: Once the research problem is identified,

a literature search should be conducted before proceeding to design the experiment

In this step, the researcher tries to review all the theoretical background related tothe topic of the thesis It helps to provide an overview of the definition of culture,the relationship between language and culture, the role of culture in languageteaching, principles for teaching culture in the second language classroom,categories of cultural topics, culture-based activities towards teaching culture,cultural awareness and cross-cultural awareness The researcher also refers to somerelated studies

- Step 4- Construct a hypothesis: In this step, the researcher states theresearch questions as a hypothesis This provides the basis for all other decisions inthe process and therefore, it is a critical step The research questions will lead theresearcher to carry out her study in the right way Finding the answers to theresearch questions means that the researcher finds out solutions to the researchproblems that she is interested in

- Step 5- Determine the design of the research: In this step, the researcherreviews the hypothesis and verify that an experimental design is the appropriateresearch design needed to answer the question The design is a scientific frame forthe researcher to follow

- Step 6- Determine the research methods: In this step, the researcher willidentify and plan the details necessary to conduct the research This includesidentifying the test subjects, materials, data collection instruments and methods, andthe procedures for the conducting the experiment

- Step 7- Conduct the research and test the hypothesis: The experimentalprocedures will be carried out in this phase The researcher designs differentculture-based activities which are appropriate for the students' level and appliesthem in teaching from the beginning of the school year During the whole schoolyear, the experimental group is taught English with the integration of thirty culture-based activities These activities are introduced in many ways: Warm-up activities,

homework, in- class- tasks, video watching, picture discussions, group discussions,outdoor activities After each activity, and the researcher notes down some detailssuch as the students' attitudes while doing the activity, the atmosphere of the lesson,the effectiveness of the lesson For the control group, the researcher only uses theactivities and tasks available in textbook to teach without the introduction ofcultural knowledge by means of culture-based activities.

- Step 8- Analyze the data: Experimental research data lends itself to avariety of potential statistical analyses The appropriate analysis is determined bythe research questions and the types of data which include a test, which was done bythe two groups at the beginning and at the end of the school year, and aquestionnaire answered by the experimental group at the end of the school year

In this step, the researcher uses the scores gained by the two groups in thePre-treatment test and the Post-treatment test, counts the mean score for each group,put the scores in scales, draw tables and diagrams to compare their culturalawareness The researcher also carefully analyzes the experimental students'responses in the survey questionnaire to find out the students' attitudes towards theusing of culture-based activities