MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES CHÂU THỊ HOÀNG HOA INTEGRATING CULTURE INTO TEACHING ENGLISH AT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN TRA VINH, VIETNAM DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES CHAU THI HOANG HOA INTEGRATING CULTURE INTO TEACHING ENGLISH AT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN TRA VINH, VIET NAM CODE: 14 01 11 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING SUPERVISOR: ASSOC PROF TRUONG VIEN, PHD HUE, 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ CHÂU THỊ HỒNG HOA LỒNG GHÉP LIÊN VĂN HĨA VÀO GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH Ở TRƯỜNG PHỔ THÔNG Ở TRÀ VINH, VIỆT NAM LUẬN ÁN TIẾN SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 14 01 11 HUẾ, 2019 This study was completed at: University of Foreign Languages, Hue University Supervisor: Assoc Prof Truong Vien, PhD Reviewer 1: Prof Nguyen Hoa, PhD Reviewer 2: Assoc Prof Nguyen Van Long, PhD Reviewer 3: Assoc Prof Nguyen Quang Ngoan, PhD This doctoral dissertation will be defended at the Thesis Examination Council of Hue University, at 03, Le Loi Street, Hue city at …………am/pm on ………………………/………………………/…………… …………… This dissertation can be found in the National Library and the Library of University of Foreign Languages, Hue University, at 57, Nguyen Khoa Chiem Street, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue Province i Cơng trình hồn thành tại: Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ, Đại học Huế Người hướng dẫn khoa học: PGS TS Trương Viên Phản biện 1: GS TS Nguyễn Hòa Phản biện 2: PGS TS Nguyễn Văn Long Phản biện 3: PGS TS Nguyễn Quang Ngoạn Luận án bảo vệ Hội đồng chấm luận án cấp Đại học Huế, họp tại: Số 03, Lê Lợi, Thành phố Huế Vào hồi ngày tháng năm 2019 Có thể tìm hiểu luận án thư viện: Thư viện Quốc gia Thư viện trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ, Đại học Huế, Số 57, Nguyễn Khoa Chiêm, Thành phố Huế, Tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP It is certified that the PhD thesis entitled “INTEGRATING CULTURE INTO TEACHING ENGLISH AT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN TRA VINH, VIETNAM” for the degree of Doctor of Education is the result of my own work This work has not been submitted elsewhere for a higher degree at any other institutions To the best of my knowledge, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by other people except where the references are made in this thesis Hue, 2019 Chau Thi Hoang Hoa iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To conduct and complete this thesis, I received plenty of support and assistance from my colleagues, the academic panelists, professors, my supervisor, educational managers, teachers, students, and my family To Tra Vinh University, Assoc Prof Dr Pham Tiet Khanh, the president; Ms Nguyen Thi Mai Khanh, the director of International Collaboration Office, and all of my colleagues, I owe them a lot for approving me to pursue my doctorate and shouldering my work during my study To the professors at University of Foreign Languages, Hue University, I am grateful to my professors, Assoc Prof Dr Pham Thi Hong Nhung, Dr Truong Bach Le, Assoc Prof Dr Le Pham Hoai Huong, Dr Ton Nu Nhu Huong, Assoc Prof Dr Tran Van Phuoc, Dr Bao Kham, Dr Nguyen Ho Hoang Thuy, Dr Ho Thi My Hau, and many other academic panelists who spent a great deal of time reading and giving valuable comments to improve my thesis And most importantly, to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Truong Vien, I would express my wholehearted thanks to him for his emotional, mental, and academical support I am very grateful to the local educational administrators of Provincial Department of Education and Training and many principals of upper secondary schools in Tra Vinh for their kind support Especially, I owe my thanks to all the teachers and student participants for their active participation in this study To the volunteers and interns who greatly contributed to this research as proofreaders and guest speakers, particularly Dr Liza Potvin, Mrs Justine Johnson, and Ms Georgina Alonso, I owe them a lot for sharing living experiences from their own culture and spending time reading this lengthy thesis To my father, an 88-year-old farmer, who gave me the greatest encouragement and desire to study; to my husband and two daughters who are also by my side for every sweet or hard moment during my study and in my life Again, I am deeply indebted to them all for their assistance and encouragement iv ABSTRACT Integrating culture into teaching a foreign language involves not only the transmission of intercultural knowledge but also the engagement of learners into social interaction and reflection on intercultural issues On that basis, this thesis is conducted (1) to investigate the teachers’ practice of intercultural integration and identify possible problems regarding this issue and (2) to try and propose an intercultural language teaching approach, the Intercultural Language Learning and Teaching (IcLLT) model of construction – connection – interaction – reflection extension to diversify teachers’ practice of intercultural integration to build students’ intercultural competence (IC) This thesis embraced action research design with two phases: (1) problem identification and (2) suggestions for solutions Phase 1, the pre-action phase, is an investigation of the current practice of intercultural integration of upper secondary English teachers in Tra Vinh, Vietnam In this phase, teachers’ perceptions and practices were reflected from questionnaire responses of 101 teachers and six classroom observations Phase 2, the action phase, was the trial implementation of IcLLT in two different classes of Grade 10, of which one class (Class 10E), involving one teacher and 22 students, used the pilot coursebook; the other (Class 10C), involving one teacher and 32 students, used the standard coursebook The applicability of the IcLLT model was judged from the perceptions and engagement of the teachers and students in two Communication and Culture lessons (in the pilot coursebooks) and two skill lessons (in the standard coursebooks) through the triangulation of data collected from (1) class observations, (2) students’ evaluation sheets and (3) teacher interviews Findings from Phase proved that teachers in upper secondary schools were willing to incorporate culture in teaching English to facilitate students’ language learning and build their intercultural knowledge, but not yet to target their IC The teachers’ practices were described as teacher-centered, knowledge-based, and coursebook-driven In Phase 2, the feasibility of the IcLLT model was approved The teachers could specify intercultural objectives and design relevant intercultural language activities Through these activities, the students were engaged in social interaction and critical reflection at different levels Compared to the skill lessons in the standard coursebook, the Communication and Culture lessons were more compatible with IcLLT due to the provided specific cultural input Nevertheless, the two types of lessons should be subjected to some modifications to foster students’ comprehensive IC The findings suggested that the representation of specific cultural input, the recognition of intercultural objectives, and students’ engagement in intercultural interaction and critical reflection are the key to the success of the IcLLT model v ABBREVIATIONS ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations CC: Communicative Competence CLT: Communicative Language Teaching EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching FL: Foreign Language Freq: frequency IC: Intercultural Competence ICC: Intercultural Communicative Competence IcLL: Intercultural Language Learning IcLLT: Intercultural Language Learning and Teaching iCLT: Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching IcLT: Intercultural Language Teaching KMO: Kaiser - Meyer - Olkin L1: the first language L2: the second language PDOET: Provincial Department of Education and Training Project 2020: National Foreign Language Project 2020 SPSS: Statistical Package for Social Sciences The UK: The United Kingdom The US(A): The United States of America TVLS: Tra Vinh Laboratory School (Trường Thực hành Sư phạm Trà Vinh) TVU: Tra Vinh University ZPD: Zone of Proximal Development vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv ABSTRACT v ABBREVIATIONS vi TABLE OF CONTENTS vii LIST OF TABLES xi LIST OF FIGURES xii LIST OF APPENDICES xiii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Research aims and research questions 1.3 Research scope 1.4 Research significance 1.5 Thesis organization 1.6 Term definitions 1.7 Summary CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Defining culture 2.2 Culture and language relationship 2.3 Intercultural competence 2.3.1 Defining intercultural competence 2.3.2 Intercultural competence and related terms 10 2.3.2.1 From communicative competence towards intercultural competence 10 2.3.2.2 Intercultural competence versus intercultural communicative competence 12 2.3.3 Structures and models of intercultural competence 13 2.3.3.1 Byram’s model of intercultural competence (1997) 13 2.3.3.2 Fantini’s model of intercultural communicative competence (2000) 15 2.3.3.3 Liddicoat’s model of intercultural competence acquisition (2002) 16 2.4 Intercultural competence in language education 17 2.4.1 The integration of culture into language education: theory and practice 17 2.4.2 Intercultural approaches to integrating culture into language education 19 2.4.3 Social constructivism in intercultural language teaching 22 vii ... LỒNG GHÉP LIÊN VĂN HĨA VÀO GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH Ở TRƯỜNG PHỔ THÔNG Ở TRÀ VINH, VIỆT NAM LUẬN ÁN TIẾN SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 14 01 11 HUẾ, 2019 This study was... Vietnamese culture, and other cultures has been added in the new coursebook series of Tieng Anh 10, 11, and 12, which was still in piloting stage, known as pilot coursebooks (developed by Vietnamese... thesis entitled “INTEGRATING CULTURE INTO TEACHING ENGLISH AT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN TRA VINH, VIETNAM” for the degree of Doctor of Education is the result of my own work This work has not been