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

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY
________________________

BÙI THỊ MỸ HẢO

USING CULTURE-BASED ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE CROSSCULTURAL AWARENESS FOR THE STUDENTS AT ĐÔ LƯƠNG 2
HIGH SCHOOL

MASTER'S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghệ An , 2018


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY
________________________

BÙI THỊ MỸ HẢO

USING CULTURE-BASED ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE CROSSCULTURAL AWARENESS FOR THE STUDENTS AT ĐÔ LƯƠNG 2
HIGH SCHOOL

Major: THEORY AND METHODS OF TEACHING ENGLISH
Code: 1660140111840052
MASTER'S THESIS IN EDUCATION

SUPERVISOR: Assoc.Prof. NGƠ HỮU HỒNG, Ph.D.
Nghệ An , 2018

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

Author
Bùi Thị Mỹ Hảo


ABSTRACT
The objective of this research is to enhance the cross-cultural awareness for
the students at Đô Lương 2 high school by using culture-based activities. During
conducting this research, the researcher applies Experimental Research as the
method of the study. To collect data, the researcher uses the instruments of the
questionnaire answers and the students’ achievement in a Pre-treatment test and a
Post-treatment test of the same content. The research findings show that the culturebased activities were effective in improving students' cross-cultural awareness.
Culture-based activities help to motivate students to learn English and confidently
use English in real life situations. This effectiveness can be seen from the
improvements of experimental students at the end of the school year basing on the
mean scores in the test results. The improvement is also expressed basing on the
result from the questionnaire that show positive and good responses from the
students.


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all, I would like to heartily express my deepest gratitude and
appreciation to my thesis supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ngơ Hữu Hồng, for giving
me a lot of invaluable guidance, knowledge and encouragement, without which my
thesis could not be successfully completed.

I am also grateful to the Management Board, lecturers and staff members of
Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, Vinh University for their precious support and
giving me a chance to carry out the study.
My special thanks also go to the students at Đô Lương 2 high school who
enthusiastically took part in my small survey. Their contributions motivated me to
finish the research despite some arising obstacles during conducting process.
Finally, I would like to convey my great gratitude to my beloved family and
colleagues for providing me endless companionship and assistance throughout my
years of study and through the process of researching and writing the thesis.

Vinh, June 2018
Bùi Thị Mỹ Hảo


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................
1
1.1. Rationale...................................................................................................................
1
1.2. Aims of the study......................................................................................................
3
1.3. Scope of the study.....................................................................................................
3
1.4. The significance of the study....................................................................................
3
1.5. Method of the study…………………………………………………………..

....

4
1.6. Organization of the study…………………………………………………….

....

4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................
5
2.1. Definition of culture..................................................................................................
5
2.2. The relationship between language and culture.........................................................
6
2.3. The role of culture in language teaching...................................................................
8
2.4. Principles for teaching Culture in the second language classroom............................
11
2.5. Categories of cultural topics .....................................................................................
13


2.6. Culture-based activities towards teaching culture.....................................................
17
2.7. Cultural awareness and Cross-cultural awareness.....................................................
20
2.7.1. Cultural awareness.................................................................................................
20
2.7.2. Cross-cultural awareness........................................................................................
21

2.8. Related studies..........................................................................................................
21
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY...................................................................................
24
2.1. Research questions....................................................................................................
24
2.2. School's setting.........................................................................................................
24
2.3. The English Language syllabus.................................................................................
25
2.4. Participants...............................................................................................................
25
2.5. Research instruments................................................................................................
25
2.5.1. Assessment test......................................................................................................
25
2.5.2. Survey questionnaire..............................................................................................
28
2.6. Research procedure...................................................................................................
28


2.7. Data collection..........................................................................................................
30
2.8. Data analysis.............................................................................................................
30
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION..............................................................
32
3.1. Data collected from the cultural-awareness assessment tests....................................
32

3.2. Data collected from the survey questionnaire...........................................................
37
3.3. Findings....................................................................................................................
46
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS..........................................................................
50
1. Summary of the study..................................................................................................
50
2. Implications.................................................................................................................
50
3. Limitations of the study...............................................................................................
52
4. Suggestions for further study.......................................................................................
52
REFERENCES................................................................................................................
I
APPENDIX 1...................................................................................................................
V
APPENDIX 2...................................................................................................................
XIII


INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Language and culture have an inseparable connection. Thus, it is impossible
to learn a language without learning culture. Researchers claim that foreign
language learning is comprised of several components, including grammatical
competence, communicative competence, language proficiency, as well as a change
in attitudes towards one’s own or another culture.
Therefore, culture of the target language needs to be emphasized

because not only it is unavoidable part of language teaching, but it also plays an
essential role in reaching the goal communicative competence and it brings learners
many benefits. In modern FLT/SLT materials, emphasis is put on 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 not lead to
the proper understanding of the hidden meanings of a language. As Bremberk
(1977:14) rightly puts it, “to know another’s language and not his culture is a very
good way to make a fluent fool of one’s self”. Many methods and activities have
been designed as useful recommendations for language teachers to adapt for
presenting the target culture like class discussion, problem solving, role-play, etc.
At present, the goal of teaching foreign languages is to develop effective
communicative skills. The integration of the target language into the teaching
process becomes extremely important. Although the benefits of learning culture in
foreign languages have been recognized, cultural education has not yet become a
vital part of the textbook program in many schools. Recently, when starting to
become aware of the role of culture in teaching foreign languages, the selection of
appropriate and effective methods is a matter of primary concern. In addition, the
appropriate use of cultural activities with appropriate environment and conditions
will certainly be effective in teaching the language in general and teaching culture
in particular.

1


However, how can we “teach” culture to the students who do not have a
close contact with native speakers of English and have little opportunity to discover
how these speakers think, feel and interact with others in their own peer group?
How can we stimulate their curiosity about the target culture when, sometimes, they
do not even have sufficient time to learn the formal properties of the language? One
of the ways of doing so should be to apply culture-based activities, which focus on

culturally behaviors arising out of the language material being study, so that
students can be helped to move beyond the classroom into the living culture of
English-speaking countries.
In my case, as a teacher of English at Đô Lương 2 high school, I observe that
students rarely have a chance to talk to foreigners to understand different cultures.
Living far from the city center, they do not meet foreign tourists very often and
consequently they are not exposed to cultural experiences in real life. Besides, there
is no separated part for teaching culture in the textbook. It thus is not easy for
students to absorb cultural knowledge if their teachers do not provide them further
information. As a matter of fact, the students at my school often focus on studying
grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation. They consider cultural aspects less
important because they only care about what appear in the tests or examinations. To
meet students' demand, the teachers here usually try to teach the knowledge in
textbook that helps students to get good marks in their tests or exams. They do not
use culture-based activities in their lectures. Thus, the students seem to lack cultural
awareness which is very important in their real life. Because of the pressure from
their studying purpose for exams, the students here are eager to experience new
activities. Therefore, the researcher thinks that culture-based activities seem to bring
new learning atmosphere to them and enhance their cultural awareness.
All the reasons mentioned above have driven the author to her study thesis,
namely “Using culture- based activities to enhance cross-cultural awareness for the
students at Đô Lương 2 high school”. The author hopes that it may contribute to the
quality of teaching and learning culture at Đô Lương 2 high school.

2


1.2. Aims of the study
As the title suggests, the research’s purpose is to use some culture-based
activities to enhance cross-cultural awareness for the students at Đô Lương 2 high

school. In order to fulfil this aim, the study tries to answer the two questions:
1. What are the difference in the cultural awareness of the students who are
provided with culture-based activities and those who are not?
2. What are the students’ attitudes towards the use of culture-based activities
in English lessons?
1.3. Scope of the study
The study limits its scope within the English teaching and learning context at
Đô Lương 2 high school. Moreover, it just makes an attempt to conduct a small
survey to explore students’ attitudes towards the use of culture-based activities in
English lessons and evaluate the effectiveness of these activities. 151 studentparticipants in the survey are the ones who were studying at grade 10 of Đô Lương
2 high school during the research time in the school year 2017-2018. Also, the
culture-based activities in this study are based on the textbook Tiếng Anh 10
designed by Hoàng Văn Vân (2006).
1.4. The significance of the study
Doing this research, the researcher expects to improve herself and better her
cultural awareness as well as teaching skill. The researcher also hopes that the
results are useful for the English teachers at Đô Lương 2 high school in particular
and other high schools in general in teaching culture, so that English teachers can
create more communicative and active activities for the students and encourage
them to explore, compare and contrast different aspects of culture. Hopefully, in the
future, with new steps in teaching method, this thesis will make a small contribution
to the teaching of English in our country.
1.5. Method of the study
In order to reach the goals mentioned above, the study is implemented in the
most common procedure of experimental method. (See Chapter 2- Page 24)

3


1.6. Organization of the study

Introduction: Present the rationale of the study, the aims of the study, scope
of the study, significance of the study, methods of the study, and organization of the
study are presented.
Chapter 1: Literature Review: Provide the theoretical background related to
the study.
Chapter 2: Methodology: Present the research questions, school's setting,
participants, research instruments and procedures of data collection.
Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions: Provide an analysis of the data as
well as the interpretation of the results.
Conclusion and Implications: Summarize the study and give pedagogical
implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for further study.
References and Appendices are presented in the last pages of the study.

4


CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Definition of culture
A brief discussion of “culture” is necessary before we can proceed with
further study of the barriers. The English word “CULTURE” come from Roman
word “cultura” which had securely survived in Latin, the learned language of
Europe, almost unchanged for roughly two thousand years. Around 1800, this word
suddenly acquired new and important meaning with which it came to pass into
common use in the several European languages such as “ la cultura”, “die kultur”,
“la culture”, “the culture”, “de cultura”. In some societies, the word culture is used
to mean “society” or “civilization”.
Culture may mean different things to different people. In the anthropological
sense culture is defined as the way people live (Chastain 1988:302). Trivonovitch
(1980:550) defines culture as “...an all-inclusive system which incorporates the
biological and technical behavior of human beings with their verbal and non-verbal

systems of expressive behavior starting from birth, and this “all-inclusive system” is
acquired as the native culture. This process, which can be referred to as
“socialization”, prepares the individual for the linguistically and non-linguistically
accepted patterns of the society in which he lives.
According to Brown(1994:170) culture is deeply ingrained part of the very
fiber of our being, but language –the means for communication among members of
a culture- is the most visible and available expression of that culture. And so a
person’s world view, self-identity, and systems of thinking, acting, feeling, and
communicating can be disrupted by a change from one culture to another.
Similarly, Henrichsen (1998) propounds the view that culture is language and
language is culture. He suggests that to speak a language well, one has to be able to
think in that language, and thought is extremely powerful. Language is the soul of
the country and people who speak it. Language and culture are inextricably linked,
and as such we might think about moving away from questions about the inclusion

5


or exclusion of culture in foreign language curriculum, to issues of deliberate
immersion versus non-deliberate exposure to it.
The above definitions seem to mention specific behaviors and beliefs of a
general society, which are passed from generation to generation. The various
definitions of culture provide culture with different values. In this paper the author
would like to emphasize the influence of cultural factors on the teaching and
learning of speaking skills in classrooms, so the definition below should be taken to
give the foundation for this thesis.
“Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, so to
speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing. It is always in the
background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language learners when
they expect it least, making evident the limitations of their hard-won

communicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world
around them.” (Kramsch, 1993:1)
In a word, culture is a way of life (Brown, 1994:163). It is the context within
which we exist, think, feel and relate others. It is the “glue” that binds a group of
people together. It can be defined as a blueprint that guides the behavior of people
in community and is incubated in family life. It governs our behavior in groups,
makes us sensitive to matters of status, and helps us to know what others expect of
us and what will happen if we do not live up to their expectations. Thus, culture
helps us to know how far we can go as individuals and what our responsibility is to
the group.
2.2. The relationship between language and culture
When writing about the relationship between language and culture, many
attempts have been made to describe this complicated and sophisticated
relationship; the exact answer has not been found. Nevertheless, it is agreed that
language is a reflection of culture. Words, of course, always reflect detached
cultural elements

but the relationship between the form of language and the

6


form of cultural elements (thought and activity) is practically impossible to
detect.
Claire Kramsch (1993: 3) asserted that language is the principal means
whereby we conduct our social lives When it is used in contexts of
communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways. The
words people utter relate to common experience. They express facts, ideas or
events that are communicable because they refer to a stock of knowledge about
the world that other people share. Words also reflect their authors’ attitudes and

belief, their point of view that are also attitudes, belief and point of view of
others. In both cases, language expresses cultural reality.
But members of a community or social group do not only express
experience; they also create experience through language. According to
Kramsch (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 create meanings that are understandable to the group
they belong to, for example, through a speaker’s tone of voice, accent,
conversational style, gestures and facial expressions.” Through all its verbal and
non-verbal aspects, language embodies cultural reality. Thus, language and
culture can be seen as the faces of a sheet of paper (Nguyễn Văn Đỗ, 2006).
Language cannot exist outside the social context; language is a social
institution, both shaping and shaped by society at large.
If culture is something that can be learned and communicated from
generation

to

generation

through

human

activity

or

through

language

communication, language is inevitably part of culture. Language is not only a part
of culture but also a means through which culture is communicated. One will
naturally express his culture through the language he uses: Every time we use
language we express a cultural action. On the other hand, culture is also part of

7


language, as language embodies the products, practices, prospects, communities,
and people of a culture (Moran, 2001:7). Thus, language and culture are closely
intertwined: "... they are so intertwined in a complex relationship that one can not
completely divide them without losing the meaning of culture or language".
Emitt and Pollock (2007) also argue that learning a language means learning
the culture of that language: In fact, learners can not fully understand the language
if they have not yet recognized and understood the cultural context in which
language appears (Peterson & Coltrane, 2003). Therefore, in teaching and learning a
language, being aware of the close relationship between language and culture is of
utmost importance.
2.3. The role of culture in language teaching
To emphasize the importance of culture in learning and teaching foreign
languages Eli Hinkel (1999) has said,” Applied linguists and language teachers have
become increasingly aware that the second or foreign language can rarely be learnt,
or taught, without addressing the culture of the community in which it is used .This
can be with the idea that culture plays an important role in teaching and learning
language.” (Eli Hinkel, 1999: 56).
In fact, language is part of a culture; language is deeply embedded in a

culture; as a result we cannot teach a language without teaching a culture. It means
that teaching language is teaching culture. Therefore, teaching culture has been
integrated into language teaching programs and teaching materials in one way or
another. Many educators have applied these programs into real classroom activities
and teaching materials. This has been done, also, with the aim of bringing the most
effective ways to teach foreign languages.
Brooks (1983) stated that, “As language teachers we must be interested in the
study of culture “the social scientists’ sense of the word 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

8


wrong meanings. Unless he is warned or he received cultural instruction, the student
will associate American concepts or objects with the foreign symbols.” (Cited in
Nguyễn Văn Đỗ: 2007)
According to Kramsch (1998), language plays a crucial role not only in the
construction of culture, but in the emergence of cultural change. Culture shapes our
view of the world. And language is the most representative element of any culture.
It is true to say that “to know another’s language and not his culture is a very good
way to make a fluent fool of one’s self.”(Winston Brembeck cited in Nguyễn Quang
(1983). Without the study of culture, foreign language instruction is inaccurate and
incomplete. For foreign language students, language study seems senseless if they
know nothing about the people who speak it or the country in which it is spoken.
From these ideas of culture, it is actually hard for language learners to
communicate well without knowledge of culture such as codes of behaviors, and
different beliefs, etc. The facts have shown that some breakdowns in
communication between inter-collators have been caused just by cultural

misunderstandings. For example, when an Asian communicates with an American
or Westerner, they take no care of eye contact unless they know direct eye contact is
considered as conveying honesty in English cultures. What would happen if
someone knew the expressions of greetings very well but, with an inadequate
knowledge of culture, he didn’t know how to response “how are you?” , or even
how to shake hands in business? It is easy to fail in learning English if learners are
not provided with cultural values.
According to Barry Tomalin &

Susan Stempleski (1993) one of the seven

goals of teaching culture in language teaching is to create and encourage learners’
curiosity about the target culture, which is considered one of the motivations for
language learners. The more they know the target culture, the more they want to
explore it and their own culture as well, which helps them find differences and
similarities among cultures. With an adequacy of cultural knowledge, learners can
have deep understanding of the diversity of cultures and adjust themselves to real

9


situations. The comparisons among cultures help them not only to have a wider
view of culture but also avoid taboos or stereotypes.
Students can distinguish the differences of, for example, what is
“appropriate” in their own culture but may be “inappropriate” in another. They pay
more respect to the target culture instead of devaluing it because there is no culture
considered superior or inferior.
Culture denotes a body of shared knowledge, that is, what people must do
and follow to make it easier to interpret or make sense of another’s utterance or
actions. “This is true also of the change that we might want to bring about by

teaching people how to use somebody else's linguistic code in somebody else's
cultural context. Teaching members of one community how to talk and how to
behave in the context of another discourse community potentially changes the social
and cultural equation of both communities, by subtly diversifying mainstream
cultures” (Kramsch, 1993:4)
Another thing which should be mentioned here is that the aim of English
learning is to be able to communicate in the language and use the language properly.
The capacity of making oneself understandable is thus taken into consideration.
Cultural knowledge offers a range of distinct options and patterns related to
different areas of everyday life. So students not only get information about cultures,
but also practical use in appropriate situations. When students get deep
understanding of both English cultures and their own, they are better ready to speak
English or encounter real situations.
Facts have shown that culture and language are two sides of a piece of paper.
Language expresses, embodies, and symbolizes cultural reality and in return
cultural knowledge makes language alive. Therefore, they co-exist and support each
other. The idea of the world is captured by culture. And language is the most typical
component reflecting culture. Therefore, teaching and learning language, separated
from knowing culture, cannot be done properly. As a result, this is the reason why

10


we can come to the conclusion that teaching language is more than teaching a
system of syntax and lexicon.
Culture is not static. It is constantly changing because it depends on many
social factors. As Hinkel (1999) wrote, “culture denotes a body of shared
knowledge, that is, what people “must know in order to act as they do, make the
things they make, and interpret their experience in the distinctive way they do”.
According to Quinn & Holland (1987: 4), "everyone should easily realize that

successful communication is determined not only by shared language but also by
socio-cultural factors".
In conclusion, language teaching requires much more than words and
grammatical structures. It goes without saying that culture is regarded “as mere
information conveyed by the language, not as a feature of language itself, culture
awareness becomes an educational objective in social practice, and culture becomes
the very core of language teaching.” (Kramsch, 1993:8)
2.4. Principles for teaching Culture in the second language classroom
According to Kramsch (1993), traditionally, in the teaching practice in many
countries, FLT/SLT materials have put main focus on the improvement of speaking,
listening, reading and writing skills as well as the teaching of pronunciation,
vocabulary and grammar. The teaching of culture in foreign language instructions
began to receive more attention from the middle of the twentieth century, when the
American government realized the needs of cross-cultural communication during
and after World War II. The communication failures of American soldiers and later
Peace Corps volunteers led to changes in training techniques related to cultural
treatment. The new idea of the benefit of teaching culture which contributed to
general education was firstly introduced by the Modern Language Association in
1953.
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 list (1993: 97-98)

11


may be considered one of the most noticeable. Her principles of teaching culture led
to a new way of looking at the teaching of language and culture. These include:
- Establishing a sphere of interculturality, which means that teaching culture
is not transferring information between cultures but a foreign culture should be put

in relation with one’s own. The intercultural approach includes a reflection on 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
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”.
2.5. Categories of cultural topics
The CEF (2001: 102-103) offers a list of seven categories that are considered
characteristic of a culture. These include everyday living (e.g., food and drink,
holidays and working practices), living conditions (e.g., housing conditions),
interpersonal relations (e.g., class structure, family structures and relations 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).
Hasselgreen (2003: 47-52) suggests a list of categories based on those in the
CEF. The categories have been regrouped and supplemented on the basis of

12


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

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

living conditions (e.g., in home, school, at festivals etc.)
Everyday family life:
•

Meals, variety of food

•

Daily routine, housing, family size, housework

•

Pets and other animals

•

TV, internet

School:
•

System, class size, grades

•

Routines, meals, breaks, uniforms

•

Social needs

Leisure time:
•

Going out with friends

•

Sport, keeping fit

•

Holidays

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

Christmas, birthdays

•

National festivals and feast days

•

Other international feast days

•

Youth festivals

Country generally – living conditions:
•

Location, demography, occupations, farming activities

•

Nature, geography, climate, language

•

Urban-rural communities, regional differences

•

Social classes

Category 2: Ability to deal with social conventions (e.g., ‘good manners’,
dressing and meeting people)

13


Roles and relationships:
•

Boys – girls, men – women

•

Younger – older generation

•

Family – society

•

Family circles and cohesion

•

Women’s working situation

•

Helping each other

Visiting – hospitality:
•

Punctuality, introductions

•

Sharing, gifts

•

Washing hands, taking off shoes

•

Sitting down

•

Leaving early

Social occasions:
Funerals
•

Weddings

Expressing emotions:
•

Degree of noise, excitability, flamboyance

Going out:
•

Smoking and drinking etiquette and habits

•

Restaurant culture

•

Table manners

Clothes:
•

Dress code – general – formal for going out

Category 3: Confidence with the values, beliefs and attitudes of the foreign
language users (e.g., what they are proud of, worry about and find funny)
Concerned with:
•

Family life, friends, school success

•

Economy, prices, unemployment

14


•

Sport, keeping fit, diseases

•

Pollution, housing problems, gossip

Characterization:
•

Friendly, simple, polite

•

Sincere, caring, open-minded, tolerant

•

Rude, bad-tempered, hypocritical

•

Conservative

Religion:
•

Church-going

Beliefs:
•

Superstitions

•

Physical appearance, skin – hair color

Cultural heritage:
•

National history and independence

•

Country, nature, population

•

National heroes, athletes, sportsmen, singers

National stereotypes and reality:
•

Ethnic identities and conflicts

•

War, terrorism, emigration

Sense of humor:
•

Direct humor, irony

•

Telling jokes about other people and nations

•

Own and others’ misfortune

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

apologizing, expressing gratitude, embarrassment and love)
Addressing people:
•

Degrees of politeness and distance

•

Greetings

•

Apologizing

15


Striking up conversation:
•

Talking to friends and strangers

•

Being noisy, quiet, turn-taking, interrupting

•

Talking to small children – adults

•

Using thank you, please

Sayings, proverbs:
•

Animal references (i.e. as stupid as)

Emotions – feelings:
•

Expressing love, impulsiveness, shyness, embarrassment, taboos

Category 5: Ability to use non-verbal language (e.g., body language and
facial expressions)
Body language:
•

Shaking hands

•

Kissing

•

Hugging

•

Nodding

•

Gesticulating – hand signals

Body contact:
•

Touching

•

Standing too close, too far

Facial expression:
•

Eye contact

•

Winking

•

Smiling

•

Crying

•

Showing anger

2.6. Culture-based activities towards teaching culture
As defined by Henrichsen (1998: 17), "culture-based activities are the
activities used to increase students’ cultural awareness and to develop their curiosity

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towards the target culture and their own, helping them make comparisons among
cultures". These comparisons are not meant to underestimate any of the cultures
being analyzed, but to enrich students’ experience and to make them aware that
although some cultural elements are being globalized, there is still diversity among
cultures. This diversity should then be understood and respected.
Culture-based activities are derived from language material being taught and
learnt and constitutes a minor but important part of the language lessons. They are
characterized by co-operative learning tasks in which students
-

work together in pairs or small groups to gather precise segments of

information;
-

share and discuss what they have discovered, in order to form a more

complete picture;
-

interpret the information within the context of the target culture and in

comparison with their own culture.
In their own teaching the teachers and researchers have found that, when
students have understood the language being used in a situation and then go on to
gain an understanding of the culture at work, this is for them one of the most
absorbing and exciting parts of any language lesson. Studying culture with culturebased activities and co-operative learning approach may adds a new dimension of
achievement and understanding of the students and teachers as well.
In general, activities that can be used to teach culture during language hours
are not limited to the activities mentioned above. There are many methods and
strategies for teachers to apply the target culture in teaching foreign languages.
However, the choice of method depends on each learner. Teachers carefully
consider teaching goals to select and adjust available, innovative activities. It
teaches the culture of its own, from which to bring the cultural elements of that
language into the classroom to be most effective.
Below are some common types of culture-based activities suggested by
Henrichsen (1998):

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