A cross-cultural analysis of English textbook for grade 11 and suggestions of supplementary activities for students’ cross-cultural awareness

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

---------------------

TRẦN THỊ HẢI

A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH TEXTBOOK
FOR GRADE 11 AND SUGGESTIONS OF
SUPPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES
FOR STUDENTS’ CROSS-CULTURAL AWARENESS

PHÂN TÍCH SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11
TỪ KHÍA CẠNH GIAO VĂN HÓA VÀ ĐỀ XUẤT
CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG BỔ TRỢ ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN NHẬN THỨC GIAO VĂN
HÓA CỦA HỌC SINH

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.140.111

HANOI – 2014


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-------------------TRẦN THỊ HẢI

A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH TEXTBOOK
FOR GRADE 11 AND SUGGESTIONS OF
SUPPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES
FOR STUDENTS’ CROSS-CULTURAL AWARENESS
PHÂN TÍCH SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11 TỪ KHÍA CẠNH
GIAO VĂN HÓA VÀ ĐỀ XUẤT
CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG BỔ TRỢ ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN NHẬN THỨC GIAO VĂN
HÓA CỦA HỌC SINH

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.140.111

Supervisor: Prof. Nguyễn Quang, Ph.D.

HANOI - 2014


DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled:
“A cross-cultural analysis of English textbook for grade 11 and suggestions
of supplementary activities for students’ cross-cultural awareness”
is the result of my own work for the degree of Master of Arts in English
Language Teaching Methodology at the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies,
University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University,
Hanoi and this thesis is the total fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts.

I have provided fully documented references to the work of others. The material
in this thesis has not been submitted for any other university or institution wholly
and partially.

Hanoi, 2014

Trần Thị Hải

i


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research paper would not have been completed without the help of many
people to whom I would like to express my deep gratitude.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Prof. Nguyen
Quang, Ph.D. my supervisor, for his wholehearted support, his precious knowledge,
assistance, consideration and encouragement during the process of writing and
completing the thesis.
I wish to take this opportunity to express my heart felt thanks to the lecturers of
the Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies who help me a lot during the Master Course.
Last but not least, I owe my parents and my husband their continuous support.
Their patience and love have helped me go beyond what sometimes looks like an
insurmountable task.

ii


ABSTRACT

This study was intended to examine the cultural content presented in English
textbook for Grade 11 and suggest some activities for raising students’ crosscultural awareness.
To achieve the above mentioned objective, the research based on quantitative
methods was conducted in order to give a brief account of how culture is treated
according to the modified checklists designed by Cortazzi and Jin, Hirsch et al. and
Chastain. The main findings of the research were as follows: (1) the textbook can be
classified as an international target culture textbook in which students are exposed
to various kinds of cultures such as world culture, international culture and
Vietnamese culture. (2) the textbook reveals elements of cross-cultural comparison
that promote students’ cross-cultural awareness. (3) the research suggests some
supplementary activities among a number of activities used for culture teaching in
classrooms that may be used to develop students’ cross-cultural awareness.
The author hopes that the findings of the research may support teachers to
adjust their cultural teaching content and help textbook editors in the next reform of
high school textbooks.

iii


ABBREVIATIONS

FLT: foreign language teaching
SLT: second language teaching

iv


TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART A. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………

1

1. Rationale of the study…………………………………………………………

1

2. Objectives of the study……..………………………………………………….

2

3. Research questions……………………………………………………………

2

4. Scope of the study……………………………………………………………..

3

5. Methods of the study………………………………………………………….

3

6. Structure of the study…………………………………………………………

3

PART B. DEVELOPMENT………………………………………………………….

5

CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND…………………………………

5

1.1.

Foreign language textbooks and treatment of cultural content………….

5

1.1.1. Classification of cultural content in foreign language textbooks………………..

5

1.1.2. Cultural topics and categories in foreign language textbooks………………….

7

1.1.3. Checklists for analyzing the cultural dimension in foreign language

1.2.

textbooks…………………………………………………………………………………

8

Culture teaching in foreign language teaching………………………………

10

1.2.1. Principles for culture teaching………………………………………………… 10
1.2.2. Common approaches to the teaching of culture………………………………

11

1.2.2.1.

The mono-culture approach………………………………………………………

11

1.2.2.2.

Comparative approach……………………………………………………………

11

1.2.2.3.

Other approaches…………………………………………………………………

12

CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………...

14

2.1. Material under analysis…………………………………………………………..

14

2.2. Research questions……………………………………………………………….

16

2.3. Research methods………………………………………………………………...

17

2.4. Data collection procedures……………………………………………………….

17

2.5. Checklists for the cross-cultural analysis in the study…………………………

17

CHAPTER 3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS……………………………………

19

3.1. Research question 1………………………………………………………………

19

v


3.2. Research question 2………………………………………………………………

21

3.3. Research question 3………………………………………………………………

23

3.3.1. Influence of factors the choice of activities when teaching culture to Grade
11 students in Vietnam………………………………………………………..

24

3.3.2. Supplementary activities for developing Grade 11 students’ cross-cultural
awareness in Vietnam…………………………………………………………
3.3.2.1.

Elmore’s

24
25

activities……………………………………………………………..
3.3.2.1. Peck’s activities………………………………………………………………..

27

PART C. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………….

30

1. Summary of main findings……………………………………………………

30

2. Implications and recommendation…………………………………………...

31

3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research……………..

32

References……………………………………………………………………………… 33

vi


PART A. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Vietnam has been a member of World Trade Organization (WTO) since
2006. This integration is both opportunity and challenge. Thanks to this decision,
Vietnamese people are easy to seek a job and gain higher salary. It, however,
requires labour source with high level and effective communication in an
international language. In order to understand each other, people need to understand
not only each other’s language, but also each other’s culture. This can open the door
to better international understanding and ensure peaceful relations between nations.
Language and culture are interdependent and interactional. Language may
reflect many factors of culture and culture affects the way language is used in turn.
As Bremberk (1977:14) states “to know another’s language and not his culture is a
very good way to make a fluent fool of one’s self”. Thus, learning culture is
obviously a vital factor for Vietnamese students for success in communication

because second language learning is second culture learning. Without the study of
culture, foreign language instruction is inaccurate and incomplete. In modern
FLT/SLT materials, textbook editors rightly emphasize the close relationship
between learning a language and learning its culture. It is suggested that just
learning four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) may cause the
improper understanding of the meanings of a language.
In 2006, a new curriculum which defines English as a compulsory subject, is
“instrumental to the access of world science and technology as well as world
cultures” was developed by Ministry of Education and Training (MOET, 2006).
MOET designed new English textbooks for high schools to foster students’ four
skills and provide students with overall knowledge of English-speaking countries,
their people and cultures in 2002. One of the objectives of English teaching and
learning is to enhance students’ cross-cultural awareness. Since their nation-wide
implementation in the school year 2007-2008, a great deal of research have been
1


carried out to evaluate English textbook of grade 10 as well as to find out how the
textbook are actually implemented or the difficulties that teachers and students have
to face when teaching and learning by the new textbook. However, most of these
studies have dealt with the teaching and learning of the four language skills which
are believed to be new for both teachers and students at grade 10 and grade 11. And
one research on cross-cultural factors for grade 10 was conducted. Hence, there is
still a lack of research on cross-cultural factors in English textbook of grade 11.
For the aforementioned reasons, the author has decided to conduct this
study. It is hoped that this study will help students and teachers realize crosscultural factors which may be implicit or explicit in the textbook, contribute some
immediate activities to develop students' cross-cultural awareness.

2. Objectives of the study
This research was carried out to serve the following objectives:

 To identify cultural treatment and categories revealed in the textbook.
 To suggest supplementary activities for Grade 11 students’ cross-cultural awareness
so that English learning and teaching become more interesting and effective.

3. Research questions
In this research, the cross-cultural analysis of the textbook is carried out to
answer the following questions:
1. How are cultural and cross-cultural contents treated in Grade 11 English
Textbook? Which cultures are represented in the nationally developed Grade 11
English textbook and to what extent?
2. What type of cultural categories does Grade 11 English textbook introduce
and to what extent?
3. What type of supplementary activities should be used to improve Grade 11
students’ cross-cultural awareness?

2


4. Scope of the study
The thesis focuses on Reading and Listening passages in Grade 11 English
textbook (developed by Hoang Van Van et al., Vietnam Education Publishing
House, 2007). The tasks in Reading and Listening sections and the content of
Speaking, Writing and The Language Focus sections (including illustrations) are
also employed for analysis when and if appropriate.
In the national high school English syllabus, there are no appropriate
guidelines for cultural instructions although the stress on students’ cross-cultural
awareness is emphasized. It is believed that a good cross-cultural evaluation of a
textbook can be made when the goal of cultural instructions is clearly stated in the
syllabus. Therefore, the study just makes an attempt to conduct a small-scale crosscultural analysis of the Grade 11 textbook. It does not provide a general assessment
of the whole set of Grade 10, Grade 11 and Grade 12 English textbooks for

Vietnamese high schools.

5. Methods of the study
In order to achieve the objectives of the research, the study resorts to
quantitative method. The analysis is conducted according to the two modified
checklists proposed by Cortazzi and Jin, Hircsh et al., Chastain.

6. Structure of the study
The thesis consists of three main parts:
Part A: INTRODUCTION – All the academic routines required for an MA thesis
are presented
PART B: DEVELOPMENT – This is the focus of the study and consists of 3
chapters
Chapter 1: Theoretical background
Chapter 2: Methodology of the study
Chapter 3: Results and discussions

3


Part C: CONCLUSION: Review of the findings, implications and limitations of
the study and some suggestions for further research are given.

4


PART B. DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1.

Foreign language textbooks and treatment of cultural content

1.1.1. Classification of cultural content in foreign language textbooks
Textbooks and instruction materials are often used by teachers and language
instructors since they are considered essential constituents in EFL/SLT. As
Hutchinson & Torres (1994:315) suggest “the textbook is an almost universal
element of English language teaching.” They suggest that textbooks can support
teachers through potentially disturbing and threatening change processes,
demonstrate new and/or untried methodologies, introduce change gradually, and
create scaffolding upon which teachers can build a more creative methodology of
their own. A very indispensable assumption about using textbooks in FLT/SLT is
that they reflect the culture through their cultural content. Dunnet, Dubin and
Lezberg (1986) posit there are two types of textbooks: one-dimensional and twodimensional. One-dimensional textbooks focus on the target language culture and
leave few possibilities for comparison, “unless the teacher injects a question, such
as, ‘This is what American do. What do you do?’ or ‘This is the American view.
What is your view?” (Dunnet, Dubin and Lezberg (1986: 153). While two
dimensional textbooks encourage cross-cultural understanding, they treat culturerelated themes from two different perspectives, thus stimulating both comparison
and contrast between the target and the source cultures. Later on Moran (2001: 1518) offers four categories of cultural content that should be introduced to students
where cultural content is identified as:
- Knowing about, relating to cultural information – facts about products, practices
and perspectives of the target culture as well as students’ own;
- Knowing how, referring to cultural practices in the everyday life of the people of
the target culture;
- Knowing why, constituting an understanding of fundamental cultural perspectives
– beliefs, values and attitudes;
5


- Knowing oneself, concerning the individual learners’ self-awareness. In other
words, students need to understand themselves and their own culture as a means to

comprehend the target language culture.
Regarding culture-related teaching materials and textbooks in English
classroom, Cortazzi and Jin (1999) provide a novel look at the sources of cultural
information. They classified the sources of culture textbooks into source culture
textbook (learner’s own culture), target culture textbook (any English-speaking
countries where English is spoken as a first language), and international target
culture textbook (English-speaking or non-speaking English countries around the
world where English is not used as a first language). They distinguish three types of
cultural information to be presented in foreign language textbooks:
- Source culture textbooks refer to the textbooks which present language learners’
own culture. Usually, these are the textbooks that are produced at a national level
for a particular country. Preparation of the language helps learners to introduce their
own culture to English-speaking visitors is the main purpose of this kind of
textbooks.
- Target culture textbooks usually focus on one or two target cultures, such as the
United Kingdom, United States. The textbooks of this category are the most popular
instruction materials in the EFL context. The reason for integrating target culture
into English classroom lies in firstly that learning a target culture will nurture
student motivation and develop their attitudes toward language learning. Students
using such textbooks might have more competence when talking to people from the
target culture or visiting the target country. They could also be aware of cultural
differences between their own culture and the target culture, so students’ awareness
of the target culture is thus enhanced.
- International target culture textbooks involve textbooks that include a wide
variety of cultures set in English-speaking countries or in countries where English is
not a first or a second language, but is used as an international language, namely
lingua franca. Students not only learn the target culture from such textbooks but

6

also learn about more than one culture. Their knowledge of other cultures may
enhance student’s motivation, develop their attitudes toward language learning, and
raise their awareness of other cultures.
1.1.2. Cultural topics and categories in foreign language textbooks
Researchers have made many attempts to find out relevant cultural issues to
deliver in foreign language textbooks. It mainly focuses on investigating what
aspects of culture students should learn in order to be able to function in that culture
or interact with people from that culture. They proposed some frameworks to
describe specific categories of cultural knowledge that should be taught to students.
Brooks (1986: 124-128, first published in 1964) compiled 62 possible
cultural topics which could be used as the contents of brief cultural presentations in
the language classroom. He also draws a considerable attention to a comparison of a
student’s view of life with that of an individual in the new speech community.
Under each topic he provides some example questions so that teachers could
elaborate the topic according to students’ age and experience. For example, under
the topic “Soft drinks and alcohol” he presents the following questions:
What types of nonalcoholic beverages are usually consumed by young
people and adults? What is the attitude towards beer, wine, and spirits? What
alcoholic drinks are in frequent use at home and in public?
(Brooks 1986: 126)
Similar to Brooks, Chastain (1988:303-304), based on the idea of
anthropological definition of culture, proposes thirty-seven categories of culture
themes for foreign language learners. To develop students’ comprehension of the
values behind the categories, Chastain suggests using comparison and contrast when
introducing these culture themes. There are 37 topics in his list, including
Geography, Contemporary Science, Commonly Known History, Clothing,
Transportation, Home, Economic System, Earning a Living, Retirement, Money,
Services, Health and Welfare, Family, Courtship and Marriage, Population, Politics,
Death, Crime, Humor, Holidays, Leisure Activities, Correspondence, Language,

7


Education, Courtesy Phrases, Good Manners, Eating, Social Interaction, Non-verbal
Communication, Religion, Ecology, Vacations, Travel, Daily Routines, Pets, The
Press, Meeting Personal Needs.
Durant (1997:31) also emphasizes the comparative approach. He details list
of cultural topics which comprise food, customs, the legal and judicial system,
holidays, housing and gardens, social attitudes, and forms of political expression.
He also posits there is no need for any fixed list or fixed order of themes. Teachers
could choose topics depending on students’ interest and suggestions.
The above cultural topics may lead to an unsystematic provision of
information. Therefore, Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (CEF) (2002) groups into a list of seven
categories. 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 between generations),
values, beliefs and attitudes (e.g., social class, wealth, regional cultures, minorities
and arts), body language, social conventions (punctuality, dress and behavioral and
conversational conventions) and ritual behavior (e.g., birth, marriage and death).
Stern (1992) focuses on six categories which an average language student is
likely to require: places, individual persons and way of life, people and society in
general, history, institutions and, finally, art, music, literature and other
achievements. He claims that a student needs to have “some sense of physical
location to which relate the target language”. To teachers, he suggests that they can
overcome the vastness of material by careful selection and differentiated
approaches.
1.1.3. Checklists for analyzing the cultural dimension in foreign
language textbooks

In order to help teachers to pick up teaching materials that best meet the
demand of the course and students’ needs, there have been various checklists for
analyzing foreign language textbooks. However, some scholars such as Byram

8


(1997:71), Cortazzi and Jin (1999:201) and Skopinskaja (2003:44) contend that in
some checklists the cultural studies dimension is missing. Cortazzi and Jin
(1999:202) add that other checklists address only certain aspects of culture (for
example, stereotypes) or varieties of target cultures (for example Britain or the
USA).Still others put aside uncomfortable social realities such as unemployment,
poverty and racism.
Byram (1989) and Cortazzi and Jin (1999) offer Huhn’s (1978) list. There are seven
criteria to deal with the cultural content of foreign language textbooks in his list:
Cultural information must be accurate and contemporary;
The question of stereotypes must be handled critically;
It must provide a realistic picture of the foreign society;
It must be free from ideologies;
Facts should not be presented in isolation;
The historical material should be presented explicitly;
Later on Cunningsworth (1995), the social and cultural context in foreign language
course must be understandable to students and they should be able to interpret “the
relationships, behavior, intentions, etc. of the characters portrayed in the book”. He
asks the following questons”
 Are the social and cultural contexts in the textbook comprehensible to the
students?
 Can students interpret the relationship, behaviours, intentions etc. of the
characters portrayed in the book?
 Are women given equal prominence to men in all aspects of the textbook?

 What physical and character attributes are women given?
 What professional and social positions are women shown as occupying?
 What do we learn about inner lives of the chracters?
 To what extent is the language of feeling depicted?
 Do the textbook characters exits in some kind of social setting, within a
social network?

9


 Are social relationships portrayed realistically?
Thanks to Huhn’s (1978) list of criteria, Cunningsworth’s (1995) checklist or recent
checklists like Sercu’s (1998) set of questions, Kilickaya (2004), it can be seen that
scholars have developed them in a more systematic way. However, it cannot be
denied that the textbook assessment is more or less subjective, difficult to answer
and time-consuming for researchers who want to develop a questionnaire based on
those checklists.
1.2.

Culture teaching in foreign language teaching

1.2.1. Principles for culture teaching
When students learn a foreign language, their ultimate aim is to understand
the ways people do things and why they do them. With traditional teaching
methods, students are focused on the improvement of speaking, listening, reading
and writing skills as well as the teaching of pronunciation, vocabulary and
grammar. These may lead to misunderstanding in some real situation or
communicate less effectively, or even cause culture shock to students. Scholars
have been ongoing concerns about the teaching of culture in foreign language
instructions. Like teaching other aspects in foreign language instruction, culture

teaching requires organized development of its teaching principles. Kramsch’s
principles may be considered the most noticeable one. Kramsch (1993: 205-206)
warns against a simple “transmission of information” about the foreign culture and
its members’ worldviews. She highlights what she calls “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 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.

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-

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 other words, cultures should not be seen as monolithic.
- Crossing disciplinary boundaries, which means linking the teaching of
culture to other disciplines like anthropology, sociology and semiology.
Kramsch (1993) concludes that these “lines of thought lay the ground for a much
richer understanding of culture than heretofore envisaged by the majority of
language teachers”.
1.2.2. Common approaches to the teaching of culture
Researchers or scholars have observed, researched and classified approaches
to the teaching of culture in different ways in which some of them have lost ground,
others have had dominant positions. In very broad terms, they divided ways to teach
culture into two: those focusing only on the culture of the country whose language
studied is called the mono-cultural approach, and those based on comparing
learners’ own and the other culture is called the comparative approach.
1.2.2.1.

The mono-cultural approach

Risager (1998:246) calls the mono-cultural approach the foreign-cultural
approach. It focuses on the culture of the country where the language is spoken and
is based on the concept of a single culture. It seems to be a shortcoming today
because it is lack of the relationship between cultures. The aim of the teaching is to
develop native speaker communicative and cultural competence. This approach was
prevalent until the 1980s and is looked down nowadays since it does not consider
learners’ understanding of their own culture.

1.2.2.2.

The comparative approach

The comparative approach puts the stress on the relationship between the
foreign culture and the learners’ own. Buttjes and Byram (1991:13, cited in
Edginton 2000: 136) state that instead of providing learners with “a one-way flow
of cultural information” they should be encouraged to reflect on their own and

11


foreign culture. With the comparative approach, students learn that people can do
things by many ways, and their way is not the only possible one. Learner’s
knowledge, beliefs and values combining with those of other culture are addressed
to form a successful communication. Byram and Planet (2000:189) state that “the
comparative approach does involve evaluation but not in terms of comparison with
something which is better, but in terms of improving what is all too familiar.”
Comparison gives learners a new perspective of their own language and culture.
Through this, students discover both similarities and differences of their own and
other cultures. As a result, they can enhance knowledge, understanding and
acceptance.
1.2.2.3.
-

Other approaches

The theme-based approach
Theme-based or thematic approach to the teaching of culture relies on certain

themes, for example, family, humour, beauy, liberty, value, religion, symbolism,
ceremony, love and education, which are seen as typical of a culture. This approach
endeavours to indicate the values and relationships in a given culture and helps
learners to understand it better. Nevertheless, it might be difficult for them to see
individual people and understand social processes and values from this perspective
and could lead to stereotyping (Visniewska-Brogowska 1999: 61). Theme-based
approach has some flaws because it provides students with an unsystematic view of
the target culture.
-

The task-oriented approach

This approach is based on learners’ own research. Different from the previous one,
it is characterised by co-operative tasks. Learners work in pairs or small groups on
various aspects of the other culture. They share and discuss their findings with
others in order to form a more complete picture. Finally, learners interpret the
information within the context of the other culture and compare it with their own.
-

The skill-centered approach

12


The skill-centred approach aims at developing learners’ skills, which they may need
to deal with issues related to communication among cultures. Therefore, this
approach is beneficial for people needing to live in the target-language community.
It does not merely mean knowledge of the other culture. The skill-centered
approach addresses awareness and skills as much as content, their similarities as
well as differences.

13


CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY

2.1.

Material under analysis

The content of Standard English textbook Grade 11 (by General Editor and Chief
Editor Hoang Van Van, Vietnam Education Publishing House, 2007) is under
analysis. This is a theme-based textbook, which includes 16 units and 6 review
units. Each unit focuses on one specific theme with five parts such as Reading,
Speaking, Listening,Writing and Language Focus. Grammar and vocabulary
presents central grammar points and vocabulary of each unit. This part enables
student to understand and use the correct vocabluary and structures in
communication. Six review lessons are presented in a form of TEST YOURSELF
paper. It is designed for students to assess their abilities and knowledge on their
own after every 2 or 3 units. There is a list of vocabularies for each lesson at the end
of the book. A great advantage of the textbook is that it gives not only information
and knowledge about the source culture but also the target cultures. Learners are
given an opportunity to deal with various cultural issues. The aim is to develop an
understanding of cultures of English-speaking countries in general. The analysis of
its cultural content may set a continuous step for the analysis of the whole set of
high school English textbooks in terms of how culture is treated. It is the reason
why the author chooses the textbook for analysis.
Hereinafter are the six broad themes in the teaching content of Grade 11
English textbook: You and me; Education; Community; Nature; Recreation; People
and places.

Titles/topics for sixteen units in the textbook are broken from six above
themes. Each unit consists of five sections: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing
and Language Focus.
Reading: Like Grade 10 English textbook, Grade 11 English textbook begins
with reading section in each unit. The aim of this choice is, through reading skills
such as scanning, skimming, to provide information and help students get familiar

14


with the topics and the language content of the unit. Students are based on those to
speak, listen and write about related issues of the next periods and outside the
classroom. The reading text includes a passage (a monologue or a dialogue) from
240 to 270 words. The teaching of reading is allocated into three steps: Before you
read, While you read and After you read. Before you read facilitates students to
make accquaintance with the topic and the content of the unit, introduces
vocabularies of the passage. While you read is aimed at developing reading skills
and helps students comprehend the content of the passage. This section regularly
includes two or three reading tasks. After you read is to consolidate students’
reading skills through activities such as summarizing, retelling the passage by
informal language or linking the studied topic with real life.
Speaking: The purpose of the teaching is to develop student’s speaking skills
based on issues related to the topic. There are two to four tasks in the section. The
first two tasks provide students with language input and enhance certain
communicative competences. The other tasks require students to improve those
language input and communicative competences into an oral text which lasts
approximately one – two minutes to practice the speaking skill with or without
teachers’ instruction.
Listening: The section is aimed at developing students’ listening skills such
as intensive listening, extensive listening, listening for specific information,

listening for gist and so on based on the issues involved in the topic of the unit. Like
the teaching of reading, the teaching of listening is managed under a three-stage
procedure: Before you listen, While you listen and After you listen. Before you listen
is designed to help students get familiar with the topic and the content, introduce
new words in listening section. While you listen includes two to three tasks such as
requiring students to match information, answering true or false, choosing the best
answer from A, B, C, D or answering questions. After you listen is designed with
similar tasks of reading section.

15


Writing: Writing is the most difficult and complicated skill for both students
and teachers. Like the approach used in Grade 10 English textbook, Grade 11
English textbook normally begins with a sample of concrete writing task such as:
writing a letter, writing description of a close friend, writing description of
information in bar chart or line chart or table, writing about hobbies. Following a
sample, students are required to finish some tasks in order to find out content,
structure, and words used in the type of writing. Later, students are required to
conduct guided writing based on given questions or word cues. However, unlike
Grade 10 English textbook, Grade 11 English textbook is designed to create a
certain confortable environment. This is shown by providing some suggestions of
content, but students can choose language and writing style.
Language Focus: This section is complied to consolidate students’ language
competencies. The teaching of Language Focus consists of two parts: Pronunciation
and Grammar - Vocabulary. Pronunciation asks students to repeat right some
consonants, practice to pronounce them in words and sentences. Grammar and
Vocabulary including structures and grammar is important to development of
students’ communicative skills.
2.2.

Research questions
The study focuses on identifying the cultural treatment and cultural

categories in Grade 11 English textbook. So the study is set up to answer the
following questions:
Question 1: How are cultural and cross-cultural contents treated in Grade 11
English Textbook? Which cultures are represented in the nationally developed
Grade 11 English textbook and to what extent?
Question 2: What type of cultural categories does Grade 11 English textbook
introduce and to what extent?
Question 3: What type of supplementary activities should be used to improve Grade
11 students’ cross-cultural awareness?

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2.3.

Research methods
This study uses quantitative method in order to analyze and quantify how

culture is treated according to the modified checklists designed by Cortazzi and Jin,
Hirsch et al. and Chastain. The data collected from references, investigation,
findings and discussions are analyzed. Steps to conduct the study are presented:
The first step is reference to theoretical background of cross-cultural
treatment, cultural content, cultural categories and cultural teaching. The next step
is investigation in the Grade 11 English textbook (by General Editor cum Chief
Editor Hoang Van Van). The last step is findings and discussions about cultural
treatment, cultural categories in the textbook and suggest some activities to raise

students’ cross-cultural awareness.
2.4.

Data collection procedures
In this study, the cross-cultural analysis of the textbook is carried out

according to the following procedures:
Firstly, read and review theoretical background of culture from referent books,
research papers and so on.
Secondly, select scholars’ checklists used for cross-cultural analysis in the study.
Thirdly, list the titles of sixteen units in the textbook to investigate main themes
presented in it.
Next, read passages of Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing sections and
highlight main topics/subtopics of each passage/section as well as their illustrations
(if any) and then categorize the contents of the passages and illustrations according
to the checklists developed for the analysis.
Lastly, make statistics and present the results in tables to analyze, compare and
summarize the frequency of occurrence of cultural contents. Then, suggest activities
to raise students’ cross-cultural awareness.
2.5.

Checklists for the cross-cultural analysis in the study
The author bases herself on two modified checklists proposed by Cortazzi

and Jin, Hircsh et al., Chastain to conduct the analysis.

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