English-major students' perceptions of the role of culture in English language learning and their levels of intercultural communicative competence - A case study

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF

THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

LEARNING AND THEIR LEVELS OF

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE

COMPETENCE: A CASE STUDY

TESOL: 8 14 01 11

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts in TESOL

Submitted by PHAM TAN TAI

Supervisor: TRAN QUOC THAO, Ph.D.

Ho Chi Minh City, May 2018

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted entitled “ENGLISH￾MAJOR STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AND THEIR LEVELS OF

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE”

This thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole

or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree

of diploma, except where reference is made in the text of the thesis.

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the

main text of this thesis.

Ho Chi Minh, May 2018

PHAM TAN TAI

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RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, PHAM TAN TAI, being a candidate for the degree of

Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the University relating to the

retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library. In terms of these

conditions, I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the Library

should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the

normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan, and reproduction

for theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, May 2018

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all the

people who contributed to this thesis.

First and foremost, my sincere and special appreciation goes to Dr. Tran Quoc

Thao, my supervisor, who has firstly inspired and guided me through the journey of

the research. He has always given me excellent insights and considerate, experienced

guidance and motivation for doing this research. Without his valuable knowledge,

my research would be far from being completed.

In addition, this study owes much to Dr. Betty Cabral Collerson for her valuable

encouragement, comments and suggestions from the beginning of the study. I also

acknowledge the much appreciated assistance and consultations of Professor Graeme

Walker on proofreading and editing my work.

I would also like to acknowledge all of the English-major students at An Giang

University for their collaboration and willingness in completing the questionnaires,

the interviews and providing precious information for my research.

Last but not least, my gratitude goes to my Swiss mother, Vietnamese mother,

sisters, and brother who always care for and unconditionally support me. I would also

like to dedicate this thesis to my adorable wife for her patiently reading and

commenting on my work and her perpetual love, devotion, and encouragement

throughout the thesis writing period.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ........................................................................i

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ............................................................ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS...............................................................................viii

LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................ix

ABSTRACT...........................................................................................................xi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1

1.1. Background to the Study.............................................................................1

1.2. Statement of the Problem............................................................................2

1.3. Purposes of the Study .................................................................................4

1.4. Research Questions.....................................................................................4

1.5. Significance of the Study ............................................................................5

1.6. Definitions of Key Terms ...........................................................................5

1.7. Overview of Thesis Chapters......................................................................7

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ........................................8

2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................8

2.2. World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca........................................8

2.3. Definitions of Culture ...............................................................................10

2.4. The Relationship between Culture and Language......................................11

2.5. The Role of Culture in English Language Education.................................13

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2.6. Students’ Perceptions towards the Role of Culture Learning in ELL.........16

2.7. Definitions of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC)................17

2.8. The Elements of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC)............19

2.9. Tools for Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) Evaluation .....20

2.10. Previous Studies .......................................................................................21

2.11. Chapter Summary .....................................................................................26

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ....................................................27

3.1. Introduction ..............................................................................................27

3.2. Research Setting .......................................................................................27

3.2.1. Research Location .............................................................................27

3.2.2. Research Participants.........................................................................28

3.3. Research Design .......................................................................................32

3.3.1. Case Study.........................................................................................32

3.3.2. Research Method ...............................................................................33

3.4. Research Instruments................................................................................33

3.4.1. Questionnaire.....................................................................................33

3.4.2. Interview ...........................................................................................36

3.5. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures..................................................37

3.6. Pilot Study ................................................................................................39

3.7. Ethical Considerations..............................................................................40

3.8. Chapter Summary .....................................................................................41

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION......................................................42

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4.1. Introduction ..............................................................................................42

4.2. Results......................................................................................................42

4.2.1. English-Major Students’ Perceptions of the Role of Culture in ELL ..42

4.2.2. Differences in Students’ Perceptions of the Role of Culture in ELL...48

4.2.3. English-Major Students’ Levels of ICC .............................................52

4.2.4. Differences in Students’ Levels of ICC..............................................53

4.2.5. English-major Students’ Five Most and Less Favored Themes of

Intercultural Knowledge .................................................................................58

4.2.6. English-major Students’ Issues related to Culture Learning in ELL ...59

4.2.7. English-major Students’ Methods of Promoting their ICC .................61

4.3. Discussion ................................................................................................62

4.3.1. English-major students’ Perceptions of the Role of Culture in ELL ...62

4.3.2. English-major students’ levels of ICC................................................65

4.3.3. Differences in Students’ Perceptions of the Role of Culture in ELL and

Their Levels of ICC........................................................................................65

4.4. Chapter Summary .....................................................................................68

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS...........................69

5.1. Introduction ..............................................................................................69

5.2. Conclusions..............................................................................................69

5.3. Implications..............................................................................................71

5.4. Limitations of the Study............................................................................72

5.5. Recommendations for Further Research....................................................73

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REFERENCES......................................................................................................74

APPENDICES.......................................................................................................85

Appendix A: Adopted Items for Questionnaire ..................................................85

Appendix B1: Questionnaire (English Version) .................................................89

Appendix B2: Questionnaire (Vietnamese Version)...........................................95

Appendix C1: Interview Protocol (English Version) ........................................100

Appendix C2: Interview Protocol (Vietnamese Version)..................................101

Appendix D1: A Sample of Excerpt of the Interview Transcripts (Vietnamese

Version)...........................................................................................................102

Appendix D2: A Sample of Excerpt of the Interview Transcripts (English

Version)...........................................................................................................107

Appendix E1: Introduction Letter for Data Collection......................................112

Appendix E2: Acceptance Letter for Data Collection.......................................113

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ELF: English as a Lingua Franca

ELL: English Language Learning

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESL: English as a Second Language

IC: Intercultural Competence

ICC: Intercultural Communicative Competence

IcLT: Intercultural Language Teaching

LC: Language Competence

WEs: World Englishes

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LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

3.1: Research participants’ general information .................................................30

3.2: Interviewees’ general information...............................................................32

3.3: Reliability of Sub-variables ........................................................................36

3.4: Methods of data analysis in relation to the research questions and instruments

............................................................................................................................38

4.1: English-major students’ perceptions of the role of culture in ELL in terms of

their levels of academic study..............................................................................43

4.2: The role of culture in ELL in terms of necessity and importance of culture and

intercultural components .....................................................................................44

4.3: English-major students’ perception of the role of culture in ELL in terms

necessity and importance of culture and intercultural components.......................46

4.4: One-way ANOVA: Differences in English-major students’ perceptions of the

role of culture in ELL..........................................................................................49

4.5: Post hoc Tukey test.....................................................................................50

4.6: English-major students’ levels of ICC ........................................................52

4.7: English-major students’ levels of ICC regarding LC and IC .......................53

4.8: English-major students’ levels of ICC regarding their levels of academic study

............................................................................................................................54

4.9: English-major students’ language competence............................................54

4.10: English-major students’ intercultural competence.......................................55

4.11: One-way ANOVA: Differences in English-major students’ levels of ICC

regarding their levels of academic study ..............................................................56

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4.12: Post hoc Tukey test....................................................................................57

4.13: English-major students’ five most and less favored themes regarding

intercultural knowledge ...................................................................................59

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ABSTRACT

The strong relationship between language and culture has been widely

acknowledged by many scholars and researchers and numerous studies have been

conducted to figure out the importance of culture learning in English language

education. However, the focus on students’ perceptions of the role of culture learning

in English language learning has not been emphasized yet in Vietnamese EFL

context. By using questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview, the current

study aimed at (1) investigating English-major students’ perceptions of the role of

culture in English language learning, (2) better understanding their levels of

intercultural communicative competence, as well as (3) figuring out differences in

students’ perceptions of the role of culture in English language learning and their

levels of ICC. The participants consisted 160 students majoring in English at An

Giang University.

The findings revealed that most of the students expressed positive attitudes and

high understanding towards the role of culture in English language education.

Particularly, by introducing and integrating culture in English language classroom,

the English-major students perceived that their intercultural skills, intercultural

attitudes, intercultural awareness and intercultural knowledge would be more

enriched. Similarly, most students recognized the importance and necessity of the

culture integration in English language education. Home culture was most highly

perceived by students to be integrated into the English classrooms and the target

language culture and foreign culture were also paid attention, respectively. However,

a number of students felt unsure of the importance and necessity of culture teaching

in ELL and they also did not clearly differentiate the visible and invisible intercultural

knowledge in their English language learning. The results also demonstrated that the

English-major students had a moderate ICC level. Furthermore, the results indicated

that the seniors in particular demonstrated a more thorough understanding of culture

role in English language learning while the freshmen held the lowest awareness of it.

Interestingly, the sophomores were found to have higher perceptions of the role of