treatment of cross-cultural characteristics in the teaching of speaking to grade 12a1 students of english in nam dan 1 high school in nghe an province = xử lý các yếu tố giao văn hóa trong giờ dạy nói tiếng anh

1

Vietnam national university, ha noi
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
----- o0o -----

HỒ THỊ MỸ HẠNH

TREATMENT OF CROSS-CULTURAL
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE TEACHING
OF SPEAKING SKILL TO GRADE 12A1 STUDENTS
OF ENGLISH IN NAM DAN 1 HIGH SCHOOL IN
NGHE AN PROVINCE
Xử lý các yếu tố giao văn hố trong giờ dạy nói tiếng Anh
cho học sinh lớp 12A1 Trường THPT Nam Đàn 1,
tỉnh Nghệ An
M.A MINOR - THESIS
Field:
Code:

English linguistics
602215

HÀ NỘI, 2010
Vietnam national university, ha noi
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES


2

DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
----- o0o -----

HỒ THỊ MỸ HẠNH

TREATMENT OF CROSS-CULTURAL
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE TEACHING
OF SPEAKING TO GRADE 12A1 STUDENTS OF
ENGLISH IN NAM DAN 1 HIGH SCHOOL IN
NGHE AN PROVINCE
Xử lý các yếu tố giao văn hố trong giờ dạy nói tiếng Anh
cho học sinh lớp 12A1 Trường THPT Nam Đàn 1,
tỉnh Nghệ An
M.A MINOR - THESIS

Field:
Code:
Supervisor:

English linguistics
602215
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ngô Đình Phương

HÀ NỘI, 2010


6

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION……………………………………………………………...…......................i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………..………………......................ii
ABSTRACT………………………………………………….………………….....................iii
TABLE OF CONTENT.............................................................................................................iv
LIST OF TABLE.......................................................................................................................v
LIST OF FIGURE......................................................................................................................iv
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale............................................................................................................................1
2. Aims of the study...............................................................................................................2
3. Scope of the study..............................................................................................................2
4. Research questions.............................................................................................................2
5. Methods of the study..........................................................................................................3
6. Organization of the study..................................................................................................3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Literature review
1.1. The importance of cross- cultural knowledge in foreign language learning
1.1.1 Definitions of term “culture” and “cross-culture”
1.1.1.1. What is culture?.............................................................................................4
1.1.1.2. What is cross-culture?...................................................................................6
1.1.2. The relationship between language and culture...........................................................6
1.2. Goals and objectives for treatment cross-cultural characteristics in English
teaching......................................................................................................................................8
1.3. Some consideration in raising students` cross-cultural awareness when teaching
English as Foreign language.....................................................................................................9
1.4. Speaking skill and the position in E language teaching
1.4.1. Definition of speaking skill.......................................................................................12
1.4.2. The position of speaking skills in English language teaching..................................13
1.5. What types of culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom?.............13
Chapter 2: The study

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2.1. Situation analysis
2.1.1. Setting of the study..................................................................................................17
2.1.2. Participants and Classroom context. .......................................................................17
2.2. Data collecting instruments…………………………………………………………….18
2.3. Data analysis
2.3.1. The attitudes of the learners towards the target culture
2.3.1.1. Positive attitudes towards the target culture...............................................18
2.3.1.2. Negative attitudes towards the target culture..............................................20
2.3.2. The attitudes of the teachers and learners towards the importance of culture
ELT...........................................................................................................................................20
2.3.3. The attitudes of the learners and teachers towards cross-cultural characteristics in
speaking skills...........................................................................................................................21
2.3.4. The students' evaluation on the applied culture teaching activities.........................24
2.3.5. Speaking as the best way of enhancing cross- cultural knowledge.........................25
2.3.6. The change in NDI students' test result after inserting and treating English cultureteaching activities into the teaching of speaking at NDI high school………………………...25
2.4. Discussion of the findings ……………………………………………………………...27
Chapter 3: Suggestions for treatment cross-cultural characteristics into teaching of
speaking in English to grade 12A1 students in Nam Dan I high school
3.1. Implications
3.1.1. To teachers.................................................................................................................29
3.1.2. To students.................................................................................................................31
3.2. Suggestions for treatment cross- cultural characteristics into teaching of speaking in
English to grade 12A1 students in Nam Dan I high school
3.2.1. Teachers and students` sources in Nam Dan I high school for enriching crosscultural information..................................................................................................................31
3.2.2. Activities for improving cross-culture teaching methods in NDI high school..........32
PART C: CONCLUSIONS
1. Recapitulation………………………………………………………………………...36
2. Suggested issues for further research………………………………………………37

REFERENCES
APPENDICES


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SUGGESTED LESSON PLANS

LIST OF TABLE
Table 1: Positive attitudes toward the target language .............................................................19
Table 2: Negative attitudes toward the target language............................................................20
Table 3: The attitudes of the students toward the rank of skills in order of importance
in learning speaking skill..........................................................................................................21
Table 4: The attitudes of the teachers toward the rank of skills in order of importance
in learning speaking skill..........................................................................................................22
Table 5: The attitude of students toward the importance of speaking skill
in enhancing cross-cultural knowledge.....................................................................................24
Table 6: The change in students` test result after treating English culture-teaching activities
into the teaching of speaking skill.............................................................................................26


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LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1: The students` perception of the role of culture in English learning..........................20
Figure 2: The attitudes of the students toward the rank of skills in order of importance in
learning speaking skill..............................................................................................................21
Figure 3: The attitudes of the teachers toward the rank of skills in order of importance in
learning speaking skill..............................................................................................................22
Figure 4: the attitudes of teachers and students toward influence of the difference between

Vietnamese and English culture on their teaching and learning spoken English.....................23
Figure 5: The students` evaluation on the applied culture teaching activities..........................24
Figure 6: The change in students` test result after treating English culture-teaching activities
into the teaching of speaking skill.............................................................................................26


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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
English, the most popular foreign language in Vietnam, has been taught from the early
age (at the age of six or even younger) in most of schools throughout the country as a
compulsory subject. Thus, many Vietnamese, especially the young people, can speak English;
however; not many of them have intelligible cultural knowledge.
Personally, I think that cultural gaps are one of the most important keys lead us to
success in communicating genuinely and understanding the real world outside the classroom.
In order to use the language effectively, language teachers should realize that knowledge of
the world's language and culture is increasingly important. Language learners need to have
mastery of not only the language itself but also the culture in which the language is used.
Therefore, it is suggested that language teachers should focus on the integration of culture in
language classroom, which serves as a tool for helping students understand and appreciate
other cultures.
Nowadays, in teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam,
speaking has received a great deal of attention. Nonetheless, English is learnt and taught in a
non-native environment, students usually do not have close contact with native speakers of
English and have little opportunity to discover how these speakers think, feel, and interact
with others. That is the reason why they do not feel confident enough to converse with
English teachers or native speakers.
It proves everything clear that culture and language can not be separated and the
teaching and learning of a foreign language should always be a culture- based course. So as to

improve student's communicative competence, teacher should insert cross- cultural
knowledge into the learning and teaching of speaking skills. From my teaching experience,
cultural challenges in speaking-class have become a great source of inspiration for my thesis,
which deals with the problem: "Treatment of cross-cultural characteristics in the teaching
of speaking skill to grade 12A1 students of English.". This study is, hence, to aim at treating
cross-cultural characteristics into teaching of speaking in English for the teacher and students
at Nam Dan I high school.


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2. Aims of the study
The major aims of the study are as follows:
-

To investigate the teachers' and students' attitudes towards the importance of crosscultural knowledge to the learning of a foreign language.

-

To find out the attitudes of teachers and students at Nam Dan 1 high school toward
the importance of culture in learning speaking skills in English language teaching.

-

To find out the effective ways of treatment cross-cultural characteristics into teaching
of speaking in English.

3. Scope of the study
To develop speaking skill and the communicative competence for students at Nam
Dan I high school, teachers has made a lot of effort to motivate the students to participate in

speaking class effectively. However, in the thesis, the researcher wants to find out the
attitudes, as well as the cross-culture awareness in teaching and learning spoken English. The
scope of this study is limited to the raising of students' cross-cultural awareness through
speaking only.
The subjects of the study are grade 12A1 students of English at Nam Dan I high
school in Nghe An province. The research is confined to English and American cultures as the
cultures of the target language. The suggestions and recommendations are all centered on a
combination of task-based of activity- based syllabuses.
4. Research questions
This study is implemented to find answers to the following questions:
1. What is the students' perception of the role of cultural understanding in learning English?
2. How do teachers and students at NDI high school appreciate the role of culture in speaking
skills?
3. How does students' cross-cultural understanding change through the treatment of crosscultural characteristics in speaking lessons?
5. Methods of the study
Because the purpose of this study is to investigate the teachers` and students` perception
of the role od cultural understanding in learning English, a questionnaire was used as the key


12

instrument of data collection. Data were analysised quantitatively by means of descriptive
statistics.
6. Organization of the study
The study is divided into three main parts:
Part A is the INTRODUCTION. In this part, the rationale, the aims, research questions, the
scope of the study, method, and design of the study are presented.
Part B is DEVELOPMENT. There are three chapters in this part.
Chapter 1 reviews the related knowledge that helps to give the theoretical foundation for this
study. This review consists of the literature on the role of cross- cultural understanding ,

techniques that can be used to raise students' cross- cultural awareness, the role of speaking
skill in English language teaching and important factor in cross-cultural communication.
Chapter 2 can be seen as case study in real situation. This chapter discusses the context of the
study, data collection methods and analyses the data collected to answer specifically the
research questions for the study. It provides the detailed results of the instruments for data
collection and discussion of the finding.
Chapter 3 contains the summary of findings, the suggestions for treatment of cross-cultural
characteristics into speaking lesson. and the recommendation for further studies.
Part C is CONCLUSION.


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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. The importance of cross- cultural knowledge in foreign language learning
When students learn a foreign language, their ultimate aim should be directed towards
the understanding of the ways people do things and why they do them. At the same time
language teachers also feel that while this goal is the most ideal, it is not very easy to handle,
due partly to our imbalanced knowledge of more than one dicipline, partly also to time
limitation in the classrooms. Students also have to face a unique problem of not being able to
get themselves exposed to the natural environment while pursuing their language study.
Therefore, they have to be equipped with cross-cultural knowledge to learn foreign language
more effectively.
1.1.1 Definitions of term “culture” and “cross-culture”
1.1.1.1. What is culture?
There are many definitions and ways of understanding term " culture", Kroeber and
Kluckhohn (1954) found over three hundred definitions of culture in their study, which
underlines the difficulty and scope of issues involved in communicating and teaching about
culture. "Culture" has many aspects, it includes behavior, attitudes, and the social knowledge

that person use to interpret experience. In other words, culture should be seen as assumptions,
ideas, and belief that are used to interpret other's action, words, and thinking.
According to Kluckhohm (cited in Christopher Early1993:42): Culture is the patterned
ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, required and transmitted mainly by symbols,
constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments of
artifacts, the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their
attached values.
Benedict, R.(1934:16) thinks "Culture is what really binds men together". Culture is all
accepted and collaborated ways of behavior of a given people. It is that facet of human life
learned behavior shared with others.


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Takdir Alisjahbana ( Indonesia) (cited in Soenjono Dardjowidjojo 1973) defined culture
as that which is left when all has been forgotten. He understood the culture of the individual
to be that hard-to-isolate element that distinguishes the "cultivated" man.
In Levine's definition (1993), culture is like an " iceberg", the exposed parts are those
which are easy to recognize such as language, food, ect. Meanwhile the others, most of which
are hidden under water, are not easy to be recognized. Such hidden aspects are the influence
of culture on individual, the ways of behavior and interactions with each other, which cannot
be seen.
Nguyen Quang's point of view about culture: " Culture is the whole complex of tangible
and intangible expressions that are created and adapted by society or a social group as well
as the ways it functions and reacts in given situations, this helps distinguish one society or
social group from another not only in term of the availability of those expressions and
behaviors, but also in terms of their proportionality and manifestability". (Nguyen Quang
2006:24)
Language learning is culture learning. Brooks (1975) defines that " Culture learning is
the process of acquiring the culture- specific and culture-general knowledge, skills, and

attitude required for effective communication and interaction with individuals from other
cultures, it is a dynamic, developmental, and ongoing process which engages the learner
cognitively, behaviorally, and affectively."
Montgometry and Reid-Thomas (1994:5), anthropologists define culture as "...The
whole way of life of people or a group. In this context, culture includes all the social practices
that bond a group of people together and distinguish them from other." From point of view's
Montgometry and Reid-Thomas, we can see that the language classroom context is an
example of a cultural group and by being so is an excellent phenomenon to be analyzed and
observed.
As seen from these views, culture can be understood as something, which was and has
been created through the history of human development through their social activities in the
forms of materials and spiritual values in a society. Culture does not belong to a single person
but to all people who share a culture.


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1.1.1.2. What is cross-culture?
Cross-culture can be seen as cultures in contact or cultures encounters. The term
"cross-culture" usually refers to the meeting of two cultures or languages across the political
boundaries of nation-states ( Claire Kramsch). They are predicated on the equivalence of one
nation-one culture-one language. In foreign language, teaching a cross-cultural approach
seeks ways to understand the other on the other side of the border by learning his or her
national language. Cross-cultural communication does not only study cultural differences and
their influences on the people's behaviors but also see the similarities between them.
Effective cross-cultural communication is concerned with overcoming cultural
differences across nationality, religion, borders, culture and behavior. Cross-cultural
communication competency can only be truly achieved through cross cultural awareness
training, language acquisition, foreign travel and cultural immersion.
Cross-cultural understanding refers to the basic ability of people to recognize,

interpret and correctly react to people, incidences or situations that are open to
misunderstanding due to cultural differences. It is said that cross-culture understanding is
recognition of the ways in which two cultures resemble one another as well as the ways in
which they differ.
Mastering cross-culture knowledge opens great vista for the teacher and provides a
basis for better understanding of persons from other backgrounds, as well as supplying new
insights into approaches to teaching a second language.
According to Meyer (cited in Eli Hinkel;1991:37), intercultural competence has been
defined in foreign language learning as "the ability of a person to behave adequately in a
flexible manner when confronted with actions, attitudes, and expectations of representatives
of foreign cultures".
1.1.2. The relationship between language and culture.
Culture, unlike language, does not consist of specific rules that apply to all people in
one culture. Nevertheless, Culture and language have a close relationship. Many linguists
have been discussed a question for a long time: how do the language and culture relate to each
other? One of the most well known sources is Sapir-Whorf's hypothesis (cited in Pinker
1994:59) state: "We cut nature up, organize it into concepts and as we do, largely because we
are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way... an agreement that holds throughout


16

our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language. The agreement is, of
course, an implicit and unstated one, but its terms are absolutely obligatory." Pinker shows
that Whorf did not do his research properly to prove his hypothesis. However, it cannot be
denied that language and culture are profoundly connected, or rather, that language is
inseparable from culture.
According to Claire Kramch (1998:3) "They give meaning to it through the medium
they choose to communicate with one another, for example on the telephone or face to face,
writing a letter or sending an e-mail message, reading the newspaper or interpreting a graph

or chart. The way in which people use the spoken, written, or visual medium itself to creates
meanings that are understandable to the group they belong to, for example, through a
speaker's tone of voice, accent, conversation style, gestures and facial expressions." Through
Clair Kramch's idea, we find that language embodies cultural reality. As Nguyen Van Do
(2006) has said: "Language and culture can be seen as the faces of a sheet of paper".
Language cannot exist outside the social context, language is a social institution.
Buttjes (1990:55) points out the reason why language and culture are inseparably
connected that:
1- Language acquisition does not follow a universal sequence, but differs across cultures;
2- The process of becoming a competent member of society is realized through exchanges of
language in particular social situations;
3- Every society orchestrates the ways in which children participate in particular situations,
and this, in turn, affects the form, the function and the content of children's utterances;
4- Caregivers' primary concern is not with grammatical input, but with the transmission of
sociocultural knowledge;
5- The native learner, in addition to language, acquires also the paralinguistic patterns and the
kinesics of his or her culture.
Language reflects culture. Culture affects the way language is expressed and language
may contain many factors of culture in turn. Words always reflect attached cultural elements
that are practiced by the people who speak the language. All the belief, value, attitudes,
perception... are performed and transmitted via language. Language cannot be explained
without reference to its cultural context. Language is acquired in a cultural-social context and
the meaning constructed are the result of interaction between individual, the language and the


17

culture. Therefore, while teaching language, it is necessary for teachers to introduce cultural
element.
1.2. Goals and objectives for treatment of cross-cultural characteristics in English

teaching.
From linguist's ideas and analysis about the relationship of language and culture, we can
see that teaching culture needs to be integrated in the curriculum of the foreign language.
Teachers do indeed need to teach students a few critical skills that can help them develop and
improve the quality of their intercultural communication that can help them "get their feet wet
in the waters of another culture." (Seelye 1993). Here are some goals, devised by Seelye in
1974 and refined in 1993, that will help teachers select cultural data that will increase student
skill in intercultural communication:
Goal 1: Interest- The student demonstrates curiosity about the target culture and empathy
toward its people.
Goal 2: Who- The student recognizes that role expectations and other social variables such as
age, sex, social class, ethnicity, and place of residence affect the way people speak and
behave.
Goal 3: What- The student realizes that effective communication requires discovering the
culturally conditioned images that are evoked in the minds of people when they think, act, and
react to the world around them.
Goal 4: Where and When- The student recognizes that situational variables and convention
shape behavior in important ways. (S/he needs to know how people in the target culture act in
common mundane and crisis situations)
Goal 5: Why- The student understands that people generally act the way they do because they
are using options society allows for satisfying basic physical and psychological needs, and
that cultural patterns are interrelated and tend mutually to support need satisfaction.


18

Goal 6: Exploration- The student can evaluate a generalization about the target culture in
terms of the amount of evidence substantiating it, and has the skills needed to locate and
organize information about the target culture from the library, the mass media, people, and
personal observation.

The Nostrands (1970) listed nine objectives: students should have the ability to
1) React appropriately in asocial situation
2) Describe a pattern in the culture
3) Recognize a pattern when it is illustrated
4) “Explain” a pattern
5) Predict how a pattern is likely to apply in a given situation
6) Describe or manifest an attitude important for making oneself acceptable
in the foreign society.
7) Evaluate the form of a statement concerning a culture pattern
8) Describe/demonstrate defensible methods of analyzing a socio-cultural whole
9) Identify basic human purposes that make significant the
understanding that is being taught
Various versions of these steps have been made, with more or less the same goals and
expectations for students.
1.3. Some considerations in raising students` cross-cultural awareness when teaching
English as Foreign language
Language teachers and students must have a certain awareness of the foreign culture
and its effect on the language being taught and learned. When developing cross-cultural
awareness, both learners and teachers of a foreign language need to understand cultural
differences. Cultural differences play a very important part in teaching English. Teachers
often base on their activities to teach students how to use structures, expressions instead of
those in the country they are working. Although they should get students learn to speak
English in the native ways, they should see that it is necessary to be more aware of the
cultural differences, so that they can help students understand and use English in a native
speaking country.


19

Students often meet intercultural encounters in schools which can lead to many

perplexities. For example, the students at Vinh university complained about an American
professor that their American teachers often eat bread and drink milk on the table of the
teacher in break and she did not invite their students. And the students felt that their teachers
did not respect the students . Or another example, an American lecturer at Vinh university
thought that the students showed their opposition to the teachers from the first lesson, when
the teacher gave questions but no one raised their hand or gave ideas. She did not understand
that most Vietnamese students are unselfconfident We can see that the role of language in
intercultural encounters applies entirely to the teaching situation. Therefore, developing crosscultural awareness in EFL classroom is an indispensable thing in teaching and learning
foreign language. Learning to understand a foreign culture should help students of another
language to use words and expressions more skillfully and authentically; to understand levels
of language and situational appropriate; to act naturally with persons of the other culture.
We need to understand that if we want our students to master another language, we
have to help them become communicatively competent in that language as much as possible.
Namely, fluently speaking is not just to master of using grammatically correct words and
forms but also knowing when to use them and under what circumstances. That is the reason
why culture is crucially important in learning and teaching foreign language.
Interest in culture is linked to the intrinsic motivation of a learner. Therefore, if the teacher
can get the learner interested in the culture of the L2, then they will hopefully end up with
more successful students.
When considering language learning, it is clear that the learning of both languages
would have cultural goals, and that students would be learning these aspects of culture in a
comparative process. To achieve culture goals, often teacher has to play a role in breaking
down cultural barriers prior to initiating teaching-learning activities. Student must be
receptive to concept of learning about other cultures more than their own. In Vietnam, the
learners learning the foreign language has a great limit in communication. Thus, the easiest
way to begin teaching culture or raise students' awareness is to emphasize similarities and
differences between members of students' s family, between schools and between cultures.
According to Valette, R.M.(1986:179), there are two main components of culture in
the language classroom: "one component is the anthropological or sociological culture: the
attitudes, custom, and daily activities of a people, their ways of thinking, their values, their

20

frames of reference. Since language is a direct manifestation of this phrase of culture, a
society cannot be totally understood or appreciated without knowledge of its language. The
other component of culture is the history of civilization. Traditionally representing the
"culture" element in foreign language teaching, it includes geography, history, and
achievements in the sciences, the social sciences, and the arts. This second component forms
the framework for the first: it presents the heritage of a people and as much must be
appreciated by the students who wish to understand a new target language."
The teacher must relate language to culture if a coordinate system is to result from the
learner's efforts. Robert Politzer (1959:100-1) (cited in Akarim Benlaayouni) have ever had
conclusion in the Georgetown University Report of the Fifth Annual Round Table Meeting on
Linguistics and Language Teaching: "As language teachers we must be interested in the study
of culture (in the social scientist's science of the world) not because we necessarily want to
teach the culture of the other country but because we have to teach it. If we teach 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 meaning."
For foreign language students, language study seems senseless if they know nothing
about the people who speak the target language or the country in which the target language is
spoken. Tomalin and Stempleski (1993:9) say:
"When students have understood the language being used in a situation and then go on to
gain an understanding of the cultural factors at work, this is for them one of the most
absorbing and exciting parts of any language lesson."
In summary, the aim of increasing students' awareness and of developing their
curiosity towards the target language and their own, help student to have the correct
appreciation about similarities and differences between cultures, help them to feel more
confident in communication. The comparison among cultures are not meant to underestimate
any of the cultures being analyzed, but to enrich students' experience and to make them aware

that although some culture elements are being globalized, there is still diversity among
cultures.


21

1.4. Speaking skill and the position in E language teaching
1.4.1. Definition of speaking skill
Speaking is "The process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal
and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998:13). Speaking in a foreign
language has been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills. It plays a vital role since
it is the step to identify who knows or does not know a language. When attempting to speak,
learners must muster their thoughts and encode those ideas in the vocabulary and syntactic
structures of the target language.
According to Brown, (1994); Burn and Joyce, (1997): "Speaking is an interactive
process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing
information." Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including
the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the
purposes for speaking.
Speaking is the productive skill, is known to have two main types of conversation
namely, dialogue and monologue, which are rather different. In monologue, you give
uninterrupted oral presentation while in dialogue you interact with one or more other speakers
for transactional and international purposes.
Martin Bygate (1987:11-12) shows that " First, spoken language is affected by the time
limitations, and the associated problems of planning, memory, and production under
pressure. Second, it is reciprocal activity, which has a crucial effect on the kinds of decisions
to be made." It can be understood that speaking is not spoken writing. It is different from
other skills in the teaching and learning of language. It needs to limit time in response and it is
not easy to correct when an utterance is made. The speakers must be responsible for their
utterances in a limited time and make sense with what they are saying. During speaking,

speakers are responsible for making themselves understandable to listeners through selected
and adapted messages based on listeners' understanding feedback. This means that speakers
use devices in order to facilitate production.
In conclusion, for many people, speaking is seen as the central skill. The desire to
communicate with others, often face-to-face and in real time, drives us to attempt to speak
fluently and correctly. Speaking is also one of necessary skills that students have to acquire in
learning a foreign language. It helps people to communicate and exchange information and
culture with other countries.


22

1.4.2. The position of speaking skills in English language teaching
From the fact, four skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing have certain roles in
ELT, but the most important aim of students is using language to communicate with others.
Thus, it is clear that speaking is the key component to English language teaching.
According to Pattison (1992): "when people mention knowing or learning a language,
they mean being able to speak the language". We cannot deny that we use spoken language
more than written language in our lives. For students, training speaking skills will help them
to feel more confident and to correct grammatical mistakes by themselves in communicative
process.
When talking about the role of speaking, Bygate (1987:7) claims that: " It is the
vehicle of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement and of business."
The mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many foreign language learners. The
learners often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their
English course on the basis of how well they feel they have improved in their spoken
language proficiency.
Nunan (1991:39) has ever said that: "mastering the art of speaking is the single most
important aspect of learning a second language or foreign language, and success is measured
in term of ability to carry out a conversation in the language." It can be inferred from Nunan's

viewpoint that speaking is very important skill. Therefore, having dealt with the importance of
oral skills in language teaching and learning, it is essential that language teachers should pay
more attention to teaching speaking skills.
Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning. The goal of
teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. The ability to communicate in a second
language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and success
later in every phase of life.
1.5. What types of culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom?
Culture and language exist in the same relationship as that in which, within language,
meaning and expression develop together. Today educators have become aware of the
importance of cultural factors in the teaching of speaking skills and they also see the influence
of inferences between two cultures-target and learner's cultures-on the teaching and learning


23

skills. However, what types of culture should be taught in the foreign language classroom in
order to be suitable with student's awareness and class environment ?, this has been a problem
which many educators care about.
Like teaching other aspects in foreign language instruction, culture teaching requires
systematic development of its teaching principles. Principles for culture teaching are
mentioned in a number of studies and Kramsch's (1993:205,206) list may be considered one
of the most noticeable. Her principles of teaching culture has led to a new way of looking at
the teaching of language and culture. They are:
- 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 both cultures.
- Teaching culture as an interpersonal process, which means replacing the teaching of facts
and behaviors by the teaching of a process that helps to understand others.
- Teaching culture as difference, which means considering the multiculturality and

multiethnicity of modern societies and looking at various factors like age, gender, regional
origin, ethnic background, and social class. In the other words, cultures should not be seen as
monolithic.
- Cross disciplinary boundaries, which means linking the teaching of culture to other
disciplines like anthropology, sociology and semiology.
As Tomalin and Stempleski (1993:7) suggest, it is difficult to identify a detailed
syllabus for the study of culture in a language classroom. They present three elements of
culture:

Products
Literature
Folklore
Art
Music
Artfacts
Ideas
Beliefs
Values
Institutions

Behaviors
Customs
Habits
Dress
Foods
Leisure


24

They claim that behavior culture should be systematically treated in every language
class. It is fact that many language teachers habitually begin their classes with a five-minute
presentation in the foreign language of subject that has not been previously announced. The
content of the topics may be ones that bring out identity, similarity, or sharp differences in
comparable patterns of culture.
Ismail Cakir (2006:155) suggests some topics that can be presented within the course.
Climate

Meeting people

Clothing

Money

Crime

Non-verbal communication

Eating

Pets

Education

Population

Family life

Religion

Geography

Social occasions

History

Sport

Holidays

Transportation

Language

Vacation

Leisure activities
According to Hasselgreen's idea (2003:47-52), the topics are centered around learner's
intercultural abilities. They are the ability of coping with daily life activities, traditions and
living conditions (e.g. In home, school, and at festivals), the ability to deal with social
conventions (e.g. dressing and meeting people); confidence with the values, beliefs and
attitudes of the foreign language users (e.g. what they are proud of, worried about and find
funny), the ability to use verbal communication means (e.g. greeting, apologizing, expressing
gratitude, embarrassment and love) and finally, the ability to use non-verbal language (e.g.
body language and facial expressions).
Dobson (1992) shares Oxford's view that students are apt to be fascinated by the ways
in which their culture is similar to or different from an English-speaking one. He proposes a
series of aspects of life in an English-speaking country that student are especially interested.
They are:
1. Family relationship

11. Influence of the media

2. The generation gap

12. Sport


25

3. Dating customs

13. Worship

4. Courtship and wedding customs

14. Holiday

5. Drinking customs

15. Festival

6. Eating habits

16. Leisure activities

7. Features of etiquette

17. Time

8. A typical school week

18. Superstitions

9. Student-teacher relationship

19. Students' life

10. Contemporary fashions

20. Humor

From the ideas above, it is clear that each researcher has an individual opinion about
problem: teaching culture in classroom. In my opinion, the above cultural elements to be used
to teach the target language should be presented in the contexts, and depending on students's
level and knowledge, the teacher can choose types of suitable culture to teach in classroom.


26

CHAPTER 2. THE STUDY
2.1. Situation analysis
2.1.1. Setting of the study
The study is carried out at Nam Dan I high school where English is one of the
compulsory subjects in the curriculum and it is the subjects students have to pass at the
national examination by the end of grade 12th to be qualified for the secondary school
diploma. English curriculum for grade 12th students is divided into two semesters with a total
105 periods, 3 periods per week. Each period is 45 minute long.
The Textbook which our school are using for grade 12th is " English 10" with a new
curriculum which was designed following communicative approach. "English 12" textbook

consist of sixteen units. Each unit focuses not only on four different language skills: reading,
speaking, listening and writing but also such language elements as pronunciation, grammar
and vocabulary.
Speaking is the second one in each unit introduced just after reading lesson. All in all,
the topics and activities in each speaking lesson are very multiform with the aim of helping
students improve their speaking skill.
It is believed that to develop speaking skill for student, the most effective way is
inserting various cross-cultural issues in the safe environment of classroom. When having a
thorough grasp of cross-cultural knowledge of the language which students are learning, they
will feel more confident in communication.
2.1.2. Participants and Classroom context
The study is carried out with the participation of grade 12 A1 forty students at Nam
Dan I high school, most of whom are 17-18 years of age and 10 English teachers at Nam Dan
I high school. During the years at secondary school, the students learnt the old textbook with
curriculum concentrating on grammar. They are almost beginners in English speaking
because they were only exposed to the language in classroom before. They had no chances to
learn listening and speaking skills and the only knowledge they have is structures and theories
of grammar. Therefore, along with their difficulties in acquiring any effective language skills,


27

a majority of the students did not have chances to know about what we call "culture" and
"cross-culture" and how to use cross-culture knowledge into speaking skill. The English
teachers need to stimulate their curiosity about English -speaking cultures.
2.2. Data collecting instruments
The researcher designed survey questionnaire as main tools to collect necessary data
for study, ( See the Appendix). There are 10 questions and 2 tests. All the questions and tests
are clear and short to make sure students fully understand them before answering. The
questionnaire mainly focuses on 3 parts: The attitudes of the learners towards the target

culture, the attitudes of the teachers and the students towards the importance of culture ELT,
the attitudes of the learners and teachers towards cross-cultural characteristics in speaking
skills. The tests are given to see if there is any change in the participants'

English culture

achievement after applying cross-culture teaching activities in ELT.
The questions are designed as multiple choices. The questionnaire is collected from
both teachers and students of NDI. The students were asked to answer the questionnaires in
fifteen minutes. Besides, informal class observations, interviews and discussions were of great
help or research.
The un-structured interviews with students and teachers of NDI were conducted for
more information. These interviews were aimed to clarify some information gained from the
questionnaire responses.
2.3. Data analysis
This section deals with the data collected from a survey on the teachers and students.
This study was set up to investigate the changes in students' cross-cultural knowledge after a
period of integrating cultural information into the speaking lessons.
2.3.1. The attitudes of the learners towards the target culture
2.3.1.1. Positive attitudes towards the target culture


28

The first statements dealt with students' attitudes towards the learning of the target culture as
part of their language class. We can see the result in the table below.
Strongly
Disagree(%)

Disagree No idea

(%)

cannot

Agree

(%)

Agree(%) (%)

6(15%)

12(30%)

22(55%)

4(10%)

4(10%)

12(30%)

20(50%)

3(7.5%)

2(5%)

10(25%)

25(62.5

1. Learning a foreign
language

Strongly

be

separated from learning
that target culture
2.

You

English

cannot

use

effectively

unless you have good
knowledge of Englishspeaking cultures.
3.

The

differences

between Vietnamese and

%)

Englishculture influence
your

learning

spoken

English in class rooms.
Table 1: Positive attitudes toward the target language
From the table, we can see that the first statement shows that more than two-thirds of
students (85%) understand that learning a foreign language means to learn another culture.
The remaining students have no idea about this issue. It suggests that they have no awareness
about culture of a language in learning that language.
For the second statement of the survey, 30% of the students appreciated the
importance of cross-cultural knowledge to effective English usage. 50% strongly agree with
the idea. 20% disagree and have no idea with the importance of cross-cultural knowledge in
communication. It indicates that they did not know English cross-cultural knowledge is
essential if one wants to use English effectively. It is easily understandable that in English
learning process in secondary school, communication and language usage are being ignored
and when students do not care the relationships between culture and communication, they will
know the importance of good cultural knowledge to a foreign language learner.