Using local cultural heritage to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning english for mountainous students

NGHE AN EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT
TUONG DUONG I HIGH SCHOOL
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TEACHING EXPERIENCE
“USING LOCAL CULTURAL HERITAGE TO IMPROVE THE
EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH FOR
MOUTAINOUS STUDENTS”

School year : 2022-2023

0


TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS

page

I. INTRODUCTION

1

1. Rationale of the study

1

2. Aims of the study

2

3. Scope of the study

2

4. Methods of the study

2

5. Significance of the study

2

II. RESEARCH CONTENT

2

PART 1: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACGROUND

2

1.1 Basic concepts of culture heritage

3

1.2. Meaning and organizational methods of using cultural heritage in
teaching and educating in high schools
1.3. Some cultural features of Tuong Duong district

4

1.Theoretical background

3

2. Practical background

6

2.1. The community

6

2.2 The teachers

7

2.3 The pupils

7

2.4. The students’ learning situation on the education of conservation
and development consciousness local cultural values in Tuong Duong
district.

9

PART 2: THE SOLUTION ABOUT USING LOCAL CULTURAL
HERITAGE TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ENGLISH

TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AT TUONG DUONG 1
HIGH SCHOOL

10

1. Raising teachers' awareness in improving the effectiveness of
teaching English through local cultural values in high schools

10

2. What can the teacher do to help students preserve local culture
heritages and improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning

11

5

1


English?
2.1. The process of organizing extracurricular activities through
experiences activities
2.2 Organize extracurricular activities in the school

12

PART 3: EFFCIENCY OF THE RESEARCH

24

1.Suitability for students and school

24

2. Eligibility and applicability

24

3. Effectiveness

24

3.1. Survey about students' learning attitudes after the lesson

24

3.2 Survey teachers’ opinion about the urgency and feasibility of
solutions on using of local cultural heritage to improve the
effectiveness of teaching and learning English for students in the
mountainous areas

25

III. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

30

20

A.Conclusions

30

B. Suggestions

31

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I. INTRODUCTION
1 Rationale of the study
Nowadays, language teaching concentrates on what students want to learn
rather than on what is to be taught. It can be said that the attitude and the initiative
from the students are the main activity in the classroom. The success of students in
the classroom is the main goal of teaching and learning activity. Many factors
influence students in the classroom. One of them is culture. It is important to relate
language to the culture because language must be treated in a social context. It
means that learning a language cannot be separated from learning the culture.
Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW requires a strong innovation in teaching and
learning methods in a modern direction, promotes the positivity, initiative,
creativity and application of learners' knowledge and skills; overcoming one-sided
imposed communication. Moving from studying mainly in the classroom to
organizing diverse forms of learning, paying attention to social activities,
extracurricular experiences, and scientific research.
As an English teacher, I think that contributing to the comprehensive
renovation of education, towards achieving the aforementioned goals, the use of
local cultural heritage in teaching in high schools, is extremely important. Through

learning English and getting to know about different cultures, students can
understand and love the language and culture of their people better. Thus, the use
of local culture heritages in teaching in the classroom, especially learning at the
heritage site, not only helps students develop their foreign language skills, improve
their speaking and writing skills but also has an understanding of the local cultural.
As a result, raising awareness of heritages preservation and patriotism
among students could make a contribution to the development of the homeland.
Such are attractive extracurricular activities for high school students when
experiencing local culture sites. Aim of these activities is encouraging students to
learn more about historical sites, traditional costumes, and indigenous cuisines. By
these, students could apply experienced lessons into practical life and this is
considered as a way which encourages students to efficiently exposure to local
culture and history.
Tuong Duong 1 high school is located in a mountainous district being to the
southwest of Nghe An province. There is no doubt that teaching and learning
English is difficult because the students are mainly ethnic minority. Therefore, I
believe that combination of experiential activities with teaching projects in
teaching English is essential. Such learning activities will help students actively
and proactively acquire new knowledge, improve their self-study skill, understand
and apply the knowledge learned from practice to preserve local cultural heritage,
gain the patriotism, and promote positive values of local culture.
In order to help students to deeply recognize, and have the right attitude and
behavior to the issues of preserving the local cultural identity where they live, as
well as learning to accumulate knowledge and improve the quality of English
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teaching in the context of reforming the country's education, I choose the thesis
“Using local cultural heritage to improve the effectiveness of teaching and
learning English for mountainous students”.

2. Aims of the study
- By including local culture in the teaching and learning process, it is
expected that students will be aware of their own culture and able to learn English
better since they are asked to describe something they know very well.
- Educating students to love their hometown and country. In addition,
students have senses of protecting, promoting local culture to the domestic and
international community.
- From the results of students’ learning, teacher can assess the abilities and
qualities of students.
3. Scope of the study
- The study is concerned about investigating the Local Culture values in
Tuong Duong district and the effectiveness of using them in teaching and learning
English.
- The study was going to be conducted at Tuong Duong 1 high school, and
class 10C1, 10C2, 10A1 were asked to participate in the study.
4. Methods of the study
In order to achieve the above- mentioned aim and objectives, the answers to
the research questions that are presented below should be found:
1. How does local cultural heritage helps the mountainous students improve
their English learning?
2. What are teachers and students’ suggestions for using local cultural
heritage to improve students’ English learning?
5. Significance of the study
* Theoretical aspect: It is hopefully expected that this study would make a
little contribution to help teachers and students realize the essential role of using
local cultural heritage in English language teaching.
* Practical aspect: with the results of the study, it is hoped that teachers and
students would make some improvements in the English teaching and learning
method. The research finding indicated that bringing local culture in English
language teaching would build up learner’s cultural knowledge, awareness, and

competence.

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II. RESEARCH CONTENT
PART 1: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACGROUND
1. Theoretical background
1.1. Basic concepts of culture heritage
According to the open encyclopedia Wikipedia: Cultural heritage is the
heritage of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society
inherited from previous generations, maintained to the present and for generations
to come. Cultural heritage includes cultural property (such as buildings,
landscapes, monuments, books, works of art, and artifacts), intangible culture (such
as folklore, traditions, languages, and knowledge), and natural heritage (including
culturally important landscapes and biodiversity). Cultural heritage can be defined
as the legacy of physical artifacts (cultural property) and intangible attributes of a
group or society inherited from the past. Cultural Heritage is a concept which
offers a bridge between the past and the future with the application of particular
approaches in the present. Due to its attached values for these groups or societies,
cultural heritage is maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future
generations.
+ Characteristics of Vietnam's cultural heritage
Vietnam's cultural heritage is the values crystallizing from the cultural
creativity of the community of 54 ethnic groups, undergoing a long historical
process, being transmitted, inherited and recreated from many generations to the
present day. Vietnam's cultural heritage is a culturally diverse landscape, a
valuable asset of the Vietnamese ethnic community and a part of humanity's
cultural heritage. Vietnam's cultural heritage plays a great role in building and
keeping nation of our people.

Vietnamese cultural heritage is the creative value of learning, exchanging
and inheriting from the cultures and human civilization. These values are a smooth
combination of the culture and culture of humanity with the long-standing
indigenous culture of the Vietnamese people.
Vietnamese cultural heritage, especially intangible cultural heritage, has a
strong vitality, which is being preserved and promoted in the life of the
Vietnamese ethnic community.
+ Heritage classification
Cultural heritage is divided into two categories: tangible cultural heritage
and intangible cultural heritage.
Tangible cultural heritage refers to physical artifacts produced, maintained,
and transmitted intergenerationally in a society. All these heritage sites and
monuments are here thanks to human creativity and have a global cultural
significance. It is important to preserve these cultural sites because of their value to
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local communities. Furthermore, and though they are physical objects, they help
shape the aspirations, values, and beliefs of a person’s national identity.
Intangible cultural heritage is practice, representation, expression, knowledge,
Intangible cultural heritage is practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or
skills, they are considered by UNESCO to be part of a place’s cultural heritage.
Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property.
Intangible heritage consists of nonphysical intellectual wealth, such as folklore,
customs, belieft, traditions, festival, traditional craft smanship, knowledge, and
language, Intangible cultural heritage is considered by member states of UNESCO
in realation to the tangible World Heritage focusing on intangible aspects of
culture.
1.2. Meaning and organizational methods of using cultural heritage in
teaching and educating in high schools

Significance: Cultural heritages, whether in tangible or intangible form, can
be used in the teaching process in the form of creating environment, tools or as a
source of materials to build teaching and educational content.
In the form of the tools and teaching equipment, cultural heritage helps
students' learning process become more attractive, they are interested in learning
and understanding lessons more deeply, developing creative independent thinking,
ideological and moral education for them. It can be affirmed that heritage is a
source of awareness, a valuable visual medium in teaching in particular and
education in general. The role and significance of using heritage culture in teaching
in high school is specifically reflected in the following aspects:
* Contribute to promoting and guiding cognitive activities for students
* Help students develop learning skills, self-acquire knowledge
*Stimulate students' cognitive interest
* Develop students’ intelligence
* Educate students’ personality
*Contribute to the development of a number of life skills in students such as
communication skills, active listening skills, ideas presentation skills, cooperation
skills, critical thinking skills, responsibility skills, goal skills, time management
skills, skills in searching and processing information.
* Facilitate for teachers and students to organize the activities in a
reasonable way
Organization method:
•
Integrating the content of cultural heritages teaching into education
subjects in education program.
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•
Build plans and organize teaching related to cultural heritages and

lead students to learn and exploit other contents of cultural heritages through
materials.
Choose the appropriate form of teaching organization:
- Teaching in the classroom or organizing extracurricular activities at the
school;
- Organizing English club about local culture
- Organizing sightseeing – experiencing cultural heritages;
- Teaching through media, multimedia...
- Choose appropriate teaching, testing and evaluation methods in order to
promote the positivity and initiative of students in understanding and exploiting the
values of cultural heritage.
- Popularize and guide the usages of heritage documents in teaching in high
schools compiled by the Ministry of Education and Training.
1.3. Some cultural features of Tuong Duong district
- Tuong Duong mountainous district is a poor district in category 30a of
Nghe An province consisting of six ethnic groups: Thai, Mong, Kho mu, O Du,
Tay Poong and Kinh living together, creating richness and diversity in tangible and
intangible cultural life. As recognition that the culture is the background of
economic development, local authorities have concerned and focused on
improving citizens’ mental life standard in the recent years. For example, Van
temple festival which is hold in the early spring is recovered with the true mean of
custom and minority ethnics groups’ satisfactory in spiritual demand. In 2006, Van
temple was recognized by Nghe An Provincial Committee to be historical- cultural
heritage site and Van temple festival has become cultural feature of Tuong Duong
district in which local people organize festivals to pray for favorable rain, peaceful
life and organize folk games, cultural exchanges to meet and exchange sentiments.
The ethnic groups live in Tuong Duong still retain typical identities such as the O
Du ethnic group with the new year thunder ceremony, the Thai ethnic group with a
special wedding ceremony, the Kho Mu ethnic group with the celebration of the
new house, the Mong ethnic group with the early spring buffalo fighting…

- Recently, authorities have focused on directing 137 villages to organise
mass art teams, to revivify ancient wedding custom of Thai group at Chan village,
Thach Giam commune, to research and restore the Xang Khan festival of the Thai
people in Cha Luan village, Luan Mai commune and the festival of Van temple Cua Rao, Xa Luong commune. Simultaneously, they have researched and
developed a number of cultural characteristics of the Kho Mu ethnic group, opened
crafting classes and instructed the use of a number of ethnic musical instruments,
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organized classes to popularize the O Du language in Vang Mon village, Nga My
commune.
- Every year, the district cultural department organizes a contest of folk
singing, folk dance and folk games to enhance the community's senses of
responsibility and passion.
- The local authority also invests in building traditional houses, collects and
stores all kinds of items, musical instruments and costumes of ethnic groups
residing in the area. Moreover, models of pure ethnic culture villages were built
with aims of creating favorable spatial conditions for the preservation of cultural
identities of each ethnic group. At the same time, the district also advocates to
restore and expand a number of traditional crafts such as brocade, knitting in
Thach Giam, Xa Luong, Nga My commune.
2. Practical background
2.1. The community
The process of regional and global integration has resulted in an increasing
demand for English language teaching across Vietnam. Before the 1990s little
attention was paid to the teaching and learning of foreign languages in general and
English language in particular. At that time, Russian was the dominated foreign
language. Today, however, the role of English in Vietnam has undergone
considerable changes. English has rapidly become the most popular foreign
language in the country.

Like in other provinces and big cities there is a strong support for the
learning of English in Nghe An province. People need English for purposes such as
foreign trade or in order to further their study and to gain access to scientific,
technical and literary materials. Therefore, they learn English at schools, colleges,
extra classes, and training centers etc. Concerning the status of English in the
curriculum, it is taught as one of several foreign languages available to students
within the school system. However, in practical terms, it may be recognized as the
most important foreign language.
However, it is worth noticing that despite the support and preference paid to
English learning, the students’ only aim of studying a foreign language is to pass
the University Entrance Exam. If they intend to apply for colleges or universities
which do not require an English exam for admission, they will naturally ignore
English. In this case they are forced to learn the language just in order to pass the
final exam because in fact the students in Nghe An rarely have a chance to
communicate with foreigners, which means not having an environment to use the
language. Moreover, in recent years, secondary school students’ focus has shifted
to sciences, natural sciences in particular, rather than a foreign language.
In short, English language is not easy to learn for students, and many
mountainous students lost motivation to learn this language which they felt
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difficulties. Therefore, educators always investigate the best methods for teaching
English language for students. In ( Johnson, 2002: 25) states that contextual
teaching and learning helps students see meaning in the learning of academic
material by connecting academic subject with the context of their daily lives
including their personal, social, and cultural circumstances. In this case, cultural
circumstances as part of students’ daily life should be included in the materials or
lesson plan in the teaching of English. By including local culture in the teaching
and learning process, it is expected that students will be aware of their own culture

and able to learn English better since they are asked to describe something they
know very well.
2.2 The teachers
Most of the teachers were graduated from Vinh University, or Ha Noi
national university. No teacher of English in the school has ever been to an English
speaking country and few of them have chances to communicate with native
speakers. All of the teachers are highly motivated because they neither want to be
dismissed by the school nor disappoint their students.
2.3 The pupils
Most of the students are ethnic minorities. They come from the remote area
of mountainous districts. Their living condition is poor. The investment in
education from their families, therefore, is not good sufficient. The factors
contributing to the low result are that the basic of lower secondary school is poor,
the students’ skills are not good due to regional characteristics, and especially their
personal feeling in English is not good, either. Most parents are not aware of the
importance of English in the current society, so investing time and money in
learning English at an early age is not enough. This is also the reason why the
results of the General Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations are
normally low.
*The reality, the drawbacks of teaching and learning English and local
culture heritage in Tuong Duong 1 high school
Tuong Duong 1 high school is the place where many children of different
ethnic groups such as Thai, H’Mong, Kho Mu, Thai,… . Therefore, ethnic minority
students still find difficulties in language barrier; many of them pronounce Kinh
unclearly, so communication between them is difficult. Thus, many students also
feel self-deprecating, not confident enough to communicate with students outside
the same age. Due to the characteristics of students living away from their families,
it requires students to be highly independent, but the number of friends who can do
so is not much. Many students also think that because of difficult family
circumstances, the path to starting a career later will be difficult, so they only learn

to cope, there is no orientation for the future leading to reduced study results. That
is a concern, also the worries of teachers and students.

9


Besides, a part of teachers is not clearly aware of the Ministry Of Education
and Training‘s innovative policy on the use of heritage in teaching, leading to
asynchrony in teaching. There are some teachers who are afraid to innovate,
passive in researching and designing lessons.
Using heritage in teaching English in particular and subjects in general has
become a common trend in the comprehensive renovation, so it receives support
and attention from all levels, departments, as well as social organizations, parents
and students. Moreover, facilities for teaching and learning foreign languages in
schools are significantly enhanced such as equipped with language classrooms,
projectors, computers, televisions, radio speakers.
Table 1: Grade 10 students' entrance exam results in school year 2022-2023
Classes

Scores
Number of Scores from
from
students
0.5 to 4
4 to 5

Scores
from
5 to 7

Scores
from
7 to 9

10A1

34

25

5

3

1

10C1

42

37

4

1

0

10C2

39

38

0

0

1

In this table, we also see that the scores from 0.5 to 4 account for nearly 87
percent. The scores from 4 to 5 ranked the second. The high scores (from 7 to 9)
made up the smallest and then the scores from 5 to 7. Clearly, students don’t learn
English well from lower secondary.
*Chart 1: The students’ learning English attitude in Tuong Duong 1
high school (appendix 1)
To get the result of my students' English learning attitude, I conducted a
survey in my classes (10CA1, 10C1, 10C2). Look at the following chart; we can
see clearly the rate.

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The chart indicates that students in these classes don’t like to learn English.
The majority (60 %) revealed that they didn’t like learning English because of its
difficulty. The other students (30 %) said that they found interesting when they
learnt English. Only 10% found that they like English very much.
2.4. The students’ learning situation on the education of conservation
and development consciousness local cultural values in Tuong Duong district.
To draw valid conclusions about the sense of preservation and promotion of

cultural values in the district, we conducted a survey to find out the current state of
learning of students. Specifically, we handed out questionnaires to our students. In
the area for them to express their feelings and express their opinions about
educating the sense of preservation and promoting some cultural values through
extracurricular activities in high school.
Students’ survey:
Question
Question 1:

Answering
A. A. Protection and preservation

% select
80%

What do you think about the
B. B. Not protecttion and preservation
preservation of local culture?

20%

Question 2: What is your A.Van temple festival
local festival?
C. B. Phu Nha Thau Temple Festival

85%

D. C. Cuong Temple Festival
Question 3: What is your
A. A.Thai

local national?
B. B. H Mong
C. Dao

15%
0%
75%
25%
0%

Question 4: Do you like A.Yes
learning English through local
B. B. No
cultural heritage

85%

Question 5:

30%

A. Propaganda and promotion

How to preserve and promoteB. B. Use the product
cultural values?
C. C. Make Products

Question 6:

15%

20%
10%

D. D. Combine all 3 forms above

40%

A. A. Extracurricular

35%
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Which conservation and
promotion have you been
involved in?

B. B. Go on a sightseeing

Question 7:

A. A. Relevant agencies

C. Game

In your opinion, who does the
responsibility for preserving
and promoting cultural values
belong to?

20%
45%
50%

B. Pupils

30%

C. Local people

20%

Through my survey, I found the following:
- Most of the students understand how to preserve and promote local
cultural values and know the necessity to preserve them. Up to 81% of students
realize the need to preserve and promote, and 80% of students understand how to
preserve and promote cultural values, 85 % of students like learning English
through local cultural heritage
- They are very interested in preserving and promoting local cultural values.
- Most of our students have a desire to learn experientially and report back
on the results that they collect.
The survey results are one of the convincing evidence for me to conduct
research on the topic: "using local cultural heritage to improve the effectiveness
of teaching and learning English”.
PART 2: THE SOLUTION ABOUT USING LOCAL CULTURAL
HERITAGE TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ENGLISH
TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH EXTRACURRUCULAR
ACTIVITIES AT TUONG DUONG 1 HIGH SCHOOL.
1. Raising teachers' awareness in improving the effectiveness of teaching

English through local cultural values in high schools
Student-centered teaching, I myself find it boring, students are sluggish and
not interested in learning, learning English becomes a fear for students. Since then,
I have always wondered, raising a thought to find a way to help students learn
English more effectively and make them interest in learning. In order to approach
the policy of the foreign language project 2020, applying interdisciplinary
knowledge. I have realized that the use of local culture in teaching English is
essential because of the great effects that bring to learners as well as teachers.
Combining with interdisciplinary integrated teaching methods to develop
students' capacity for self-learning, self-experience, and their intellectual discovery
to apply to solve practical problems. Since then, it helps students have a more
comprehensive and knowledgeable view of their homeland. Therefore, I have
conducted research and implemented a number of solutions such as bringing
heritage into classroom teaching, organizing discussions in English about heritage,
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using heritage in English extracurricular sessions or organizing study tours at
heritage. To be effective, teachers need to carefully study local cultural heritage
(both tangible culture and intangible cultural heritage).
When conducting extracurricular activities we should follow these steps:
Step 1: Make a detailed plan for the extracurricular session
Step 2: Develop an extracurricular program
Step 3: Rehearse, evaluate and perfect
Step 4: Conduct the official organization at the school
Step 5: Learn from experience, get ready for the field trip
Step 6: Organize heritage study tours
Step 7: Learn from common experience
In the process of organizing, I find that teaching method above has the both
advantages and disadvantages

Advantage:
For teachers: Extracurricular sessions that use heritage inside and outside the
school have achieved high results. Teachers have a sense of researching, learning
the material. Creating good conditions to build close relationships between
teachers and students, helping teachers have a more holistic view when evaluating
students.
For students: The students are very interested in learning, participating in
very active and enthusiastic training sessions. Students have the opportunity to
exchange learning, to practice and show their abilities. They find English lessons
more engaging, meaningful and therefore set goals for better English learning.
Through extracurricular hours, their listening and speaking skills have improved
markedly, they are much more confident. Moreover, using local cultural heritage in
extracurricular activities combined with visiting heritage makes students feel more
proud and love their homeland.
Disadvantages:
When using local cultural heritage in teaching, teachers must invest more
time in researching and understanding content related to heritage. The stages of
conducting an activity, a lesson or a program are much more elaborate than the old
solution, so the teachers must constantly self-study, self-improve and improve
knowledge to meet practical requirements.
2. What can the teacher do to help students preserve local culture
heritages and improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning English?
Bringing local culture in English language teaching would build up learner’s
cultural knowledge, awareness, and competence. It is that said that in learning
13


English, bringing the idea of multiculturalism taken from the students’ closest
environments promoted them to increase their vocabulary. The result of this study
showed that the idea of bringing local culture in English writing classroom

however attract the students’ interest
2.1. The process of organizing extracurricular activities through
experiences activities
a. Aim
Organizing for students to visit and learn about local cultural heritage in
order to:
+ Implementing the goal of "Learning with practice","Theory is associated
with practice" helps students understand the local cultural identity .
+ Understand the work of preserving and promoting the value of local
cultural identity.
b. Skill:
Through experiential activities, students are taught teamwork skills, selfstudy skills, skills in collecting, synthesizing, processing information and data,
applying information technology in learning.
c. Attitude:
Educating students to consciously participate in the preservation of local
cultural heritage
d. Formative competencies for students:
- Collaborative capacity, communication capacity, creative capacity,
problem solving , computing capacity.
2.1.1 Format: Visit to deepen knowledge
2.1.2. Participants: Students 10A1, 10C1
2.1.3 Steps to conduct a tour
Step 1: Teachers clearly state the purpose, requirements and content of the
experience tour for students to understand and perform the tasks during the
experience trip.
Step 2: Students visit and learn
Step 3: Students process data, collect more information online, reference
books .. proceed to write harvest articles for the experience tour.
Step 4: Students write harvest papers in English
Activity 1. Studying at Van Temple Historical Site - Tuong Duong District

The temple is located in Xa Luong commune ( Tuong Duong), standing in
the strip of land between Nam Non river and Nam Mo river. Every year at the end
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