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Teaching Chinese language and culture to Australian high school beginners through intercultural language teaching
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Fostering learner autonomy in language learning in tertiary education: an intervention study of university students in Hochiminh City, Vietnam
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Culture in a Vietnamese textbook of English for beginners at secondary school in Vietnam: a discourse analysis of illustrated texts
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Abstract:
Masters Research thesis ; This study examines sociocultural information provided in a commonly used English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbook for beginners at school in Vietnam to ascertain what is available that might be used to develop cultural understanding to complement linguistic development from early stages of language teaching. Aimed at equipping Vietnamese learners of English with intercultural communicative competence, English teaching in Vietnam needs to incorporate culture into language teaching from early stages. This is a difficult task to be done because while EFL textbooks for beginners in Vietnam claim to introduce the culture of the target language through simple language in use, they do not make what they provide explicit to Vietnamese teachers and learners, nor do they address the question of how such knowledge might be taught and learnt. Adopting Fairclough's (1995) model of critical discourse analysis, the study analyzed three illustrated texts in the textbook at three levels: content analysis; analysis of native English speakers' interpretation of the sociocultural information presented; and analysis of the illustrated texts in the context of production with reference to Vietnamese school education and society. The study found that, though claiming to introduce the culture of the target language, the textbook actually does little for this purpose but sacrifices what might be offered to promotion of Vietnamese culture in order to fulfill the more fundamental goal of teaching Vietnamese learners how they should behave in their own society. The study concludes that in order to present the culture of the target language to Vietnamese learners at school, school EFL textbooks must be changed. New resources need to be written with thorough understanding of both the target learners and the target language culture. Cooperation between Vietnamese and native English speakers in the production of materials is essential for this to be achieved. In addition, while respecting the appropriateness of inculcating local values in local school children, this educational objective of an EFL textbook should be viewed in a broader sense. This would be one which aims at training learners how to behave not only in their own society, but also in a broader international community that their own is part of, while remaining true to their own values. Reflection on how this might be achieved would need to be part of the linguistic and cultural development in English that this would necessitate. Thus not only new resources, but also more broadly educated teachers will be needed to bring this about.
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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/42313
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