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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN


LANGUAGES AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY –
(HUFLIT)

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE

GRADUATION PAPER

APPLYING ASPECTS OF BRITISH CULTURE IN


TEACHING ENGLISH TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
IN HO CHI MINH CITY

Instructor: Vo Le Thuy Nga M.A.


Student: Phan Nha Thu Lam
Student’s code: 20DH712768
Class: SA2003

Ho Chi Minh City, 2024


Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

Declaration

I certify that the attached material is my original work. No other person’s


work or ideas have been used without acknowledgement. Except where I have
clearly stated that I have used some of this material elsewhere, I have not
presented this for assessment in another course or unit at this or any other
institution.

Date:27/06/ 2024
Writer’s Signature and Full name :
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To complete this thesis, I would like to thank the lecturers of the Department of
Foreign Languages, Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages and
Information Technology for creating opportunities to study, practice, and accumulate
knowledge for thesis writing.

In particular, I would like to thank Lecturer Vo Le Thuy Nga for enthusiastically


guiding, monitoring, and giving useful advice to help me solve problems encountered
during the research process and complete the topic in the best way possible.

Due to my limited knowledge and lack of practical experience, it is difficult to avoid


shortcomings in the thesis content. I look forward to receiving comments and further
teaching from you teachers.

Finally, I wish you good health and much success in your work.
Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1: High school teachers’ evaluation about the importance of incorporating
British cultures into teaching English............................................................................16
Figure 4.2: High school students’ evaluation about the importance of incorporating
British cultures into English lessons..............................................................................16
Figure 4.3: General Benefits of Applying British Cultural Aspects to English Learning
in students’ opinion........................................................................................................17
Figure 4.4: English skills improvement when utilize aspects of British culture as
teaching materials in English classes.............................................................................18
Figure 4.5: Elements of British cultures that teachers choose as the best one...............19
Figure 4.6: Elements of British cultures that students are interested in.........................20
Figure 4.7: Effective strategies for teachers to integrate British cultural themes into the
framework of English curriculum planning...................................................................21
Figure 4.8: Activities that students want to see in the English classes..........................21
Figure 4.9: Challenges teachers have to cope with when applying English cultural
aspects to English guidance...........................................................................................23
Figure 4.10: Evaluation the number of teachers having taken the English training
sessions about teaching English cultures.......................................................................24
Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION............................................................................2

1.1 Background............................................................................................................2

1.2 Problem identification............................................................................................3

1.3 Objectives..............................................................................................................4

1.4 Scopes....................................................................................................................4

1.5 Research organization............................................................................................5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................6

2.1 General Statement..................................................................................................6


2.1.1 The synergy between British cultural understanding and English language
proficiency............................................................................................................................6
2.1.2 The importance of combining British cultures with English language teaching in
high school education...........................................................................................................7
2.1.3 Existing pedagogical methods and approaches to teaching English to high school
learners in Vietnam..............................................................................................................8
2.1.4 Challenges and gaps in applying British culture within teaching English at high
school....................................................................................................................................9
2.1.5 Methods of integrating cultural aspects into English language teaching..................10

2.2 Research gap........................................................................................................11

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY.........................................................................12

3.1 Overview of the experiment................................................................................12

3.2 Subjects of the experiment...................................................................................12

3.3 Materials..............................................................................................................13
Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

3.3.1 Survey of High School Students in Ho Chi Minh City.............................................13


3.3.2 Survey of English Teachers surrounding Ho Chi Minh City....................................14

3.4 Procedures............................................................................................................14

3.5 Statistical Treatment............................................................................................15

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS.......................................................................................16

4.1 Evaluation about the importance of incorporating British cultures into English
lessons..................................................................................................................16

4.2 Benefits of Applying British Cultural Aspects to English Learning...................17

4.3 A comparison of teachers' and students' choices of British cultural aspects.......19

4.4 Effective strategies for teachers to integrate British cultural themes into the
framework of English curriculum planning.........................................................21

4.5 Challenges teachers have to cope with when applying English cultural aspects to
English guidance..................................................................................................23

4.6 Current status of educational training about teaching English cultures...............24

4.7 High school teachers' additional opinions on the benefits of pedagogical training
courses to increase the application of English culture in English teaching.........25

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION..................................................................................26

5.1 The purpose of the study......................................................................................26

5.2 Finding and Explanation......................................................................................26


5.2.1 Positive Impacts of Incorporating British Culture in English Education in Ho Chi
Minh City...........................................................................................................................26
5.2.2 Challenges when incorporating cultural aspects in English lessons in Ho Chi Minh
city......................................................................................................................................27
5.2.3 Pedagogical methods for embedding British cultural content into the English
curriculum at high schools in Ho Chi Minh City...............................................................28

5.3 Implications.........................................................................................................31
Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION............................33

6.1. Conclusion..........................................................................................................33

6.2. Recommendations...............................................................................................34

REFERENCE............................................................................................................36

Excerpt from scientific research articles by foreigners...........Error! Bookmark not


defined.

Excerpt from Vietnamese scientific research articles................................................37

APPENDIX A : Students’ Questionnaire..............................................................39

APPENDIX B : Teachers’ Questionnaire..............................................................43


Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

ABSTRACT

This research paper aims to investigate the adoption of British cultural aspects in the
English curriculum at high schools in Ho Chi Minh City. By incorporating aspects of
English culture such as literature, history, traditions, films, and so on, this study amply
illustrates their valuable importance in enhancing the educational experience and
students' foreign language proficiency at this stage of development. On the other hand,
the research also underscores the subjective and objective challenges when
implementing British cultural components in English instruction. However, these
limitations cannot overshadow the numerous benefits that this combination provides to
Vietnamese education. Therefore, the research proposes many different pedagogical
methods so that educators can overcome these limits and include British cultural
elements in high school lectures. In addition, teaching training sessions, which help
teachers be deeply aware of developing innovative teaching approaches connected to
target cultures' utilizations, are also highlighted in this research article. All of the above
findings present common contributions to the Vietnamese education system in general,
and HCM City in particular, making it a diverse and advantageous system, assisting the
country in training talented future generations in order to effectively integrate with
global cultures, and promote international partnerships.

Key words: British culture, English learning, benefits, pedagogical methods, cutural
awareness.

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

In recent years, English has become a common language utilized in many commercial
and cultural domains around the world, as these were controlled by the nations directly
impacted by the British Empire in the past, in addition to many European, American,
and Australian countries nowadays. Thus, linguistic knowledge of English is both
helpful and even essential. As a result, English as a second language is globally
widespread as countless people choose to study and work in this tongue, mainly
because they believe English is vital to learn and develop. Furthermore, English is
taught in schools in many countries as a second language, and students begin studying
it at a very early age, proving its significance. It is now the language of many kinds of
fields such as education, diplomacy, aviation, and tourism. Possessing English
competence improves students’ chances of landing a solid position in a large global
corporation. Consequently, the importance of English proficiency is being emphasized
in Vietnam, a country that is passionately committed to fast modernization and
international integration for the past 50 years. As Vietnam enters the world arena,
English fluency has become a valuable advantage, propelling remarkable progress in
education, science, industry, and technology development while also fostering
relationships with the global community. From schools to boardrooms, English
proficiency serves as a springboard to achievement, allowing individuals and the
country to make a stand in an increasingly linked world.

The teaching of conventional English as a foreign language (EFL) in Vietnamese high


schools mainly emphasizes language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. It views foreign language acquisition as merely the transfer of linguistic
knowledge, focusing primarily on memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules through
repetitive exercises. This approach, therefore, often ignores the great importance of

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

cultural context as well as the deeper understanding of culture integrated into the
language being taught. In some classrooms and textbooks, including Vietnamese
culture in English books helps students understand vocabulary and context more easily.
However, because Vietnamese culture appears excessively in the books, it will obscure
the English cultural context as well as cultural awareness in language learning, further
hindering linguistic absorption.

As a result, this research proposes to raise the awareness of learners as well as


educators to have a deep grasp of intercultural communication, combining both
linguistic competence and the ability to comprehend different cultures, especially
among the younger generation. Through this, it hopes to promote the creation of an
excellent high school curriculum that can integrate cultural aspects into English lessons
in Vietnam, especially in Ho Chi Minh City.

1.2 Problem identification

English education in high school is very important for Ho Chi Minh City students to be
able to compete in a globalized world. However, some traditional methods of Vietnam,
of which the grammar-translation method is likely the most popular, may not appeal to
all high school students or prepare them adequately for cross-cultural
communication. This is clearly stated in the research of Cam (2017) , where she
explained that these fairly common teaching methods, especially the grammar-
translation technique, present certain drawbacks. Indeed, Kramsch (1993) believes that
culture and language have a very deep relationship with each other, so teaching
language without cultural context can hinder students' ability to communicate
effectively. According to Byram (1997), this further highlights the development of
intercultural communication through exposure to diverse cultural perspectives and
practices in the context of language learning, especially English. All studies shown
above highlight the need to include cultural components in English instruction.

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

In spite of merging British cultural content into English classes at high schools, many
English teachers in Ho Chi Minh City may feel that this combination will be a
enormous challenge for them because of many reasons. The availability of culturally
appropriate teaching materials and resources can be limited, making it difficult for
teachers to incorporate cultural content into their lessons. Additionally, very few
training sessions occurred that increased the awareness needed to integrate cultural
aspects into their teaching performance effectively. More importantly, with the huge
workload, both teachers and students do not have much time to search for information
about other countries' cultures and integrate them into their lessons. All these problems
can lead to a range of limitations. First, students may struggle to engage with English if
it is taught in isolation from the cultural context relevant to their lives. Second, teachers
may have a misunderstanding of a grasp of cultural characteristics and distinctions
between Vietnamese and English culture, making it difficult to effectively combine
cultural themes into their instruction.

1.3 Objectives

The object of this study is to put a spotlight on the importance of incorporating culture
into English teaching, thereby creating a premise for finding some pedagogical
methods to apply aspects of culture in teaching English to high school students.

1.4 Scopes

Many studies emphasize the strong importance of incorporating English culture into
the English curriculum. By incorporating social norms and British traditions into the
curriculum, students can improve their foreign language knowledge as well as cross-
cultural acquisition. The study chose high school students as an ideal subject for many
reasons. First, this age is the most cognitive and developmental stage, where children
are developing their thinking and critical abilities, being able to grasp both English

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

knowledge and cultural awareness. In addition, the high school curriculum gives
students a lot of knowledge related to Vietnamese culture, history, and geography in
the most detailed way, so high school students have the opportunity to compare
cultures in both countries, thereby finding profound meanings related to culture and
language. In addition, this research also points out some pedagogical methods to apply
target cultures to English teaching. However, this combination necessitates procedures
that are consistent with the curriculum but no less creative and innovative. Therefore,
the target audience for this research is the community of high school teachers with
many years of experience in Ho Chi Minh City.

1.5 Research organization

This scientific - report will be structured in five sections. The first section will be
about the importance as well as existing methods and approaches of applying British
culture in teaching English to high school learners. The structure of the report will also
be presented in section 1. In section 2, Literature Review, both previous studies from
domestic and foreign researchers will be reviewed carefully. The literature review will
provide the base to formulate the research methodology in section 3. Based on
reviewed documents, the methodology will be proposed to (1) recognize the
importance of English culture; (2) determine a case study and scope of the study; (3)
set up a survey and make questionnaires; and (4) implement and assess the collected
results related to the topic of the thesis. In section 4, the results will be represented and
discussed. Finally, conclusions and recommendations will be proposed in the terminal
section.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

2.1 General Statement

2.1.1 The synergy between British cultural understanding and English language
proficiency.

Kramsch (1998) argues that language is closely connected with cultural aspects and
that effective communication tends to require awareness and certain notions of these
cultural elements. In her study, she underlined the fact that language teaching should
integrate such cultural elements to foster linguistic comprehension and competence, as
well as to broaden understanding of cultures.

Furthermore, the cognitive development of students and children was seemingly


connected to social relations and cultural context (Vygotsky, 1978). Moreover,
language was considered a fundamental tool for bridging social behaviors and cultural
aspects, thereby presenting significance in forming our cognitive skills. Therefore,
learning languages is a process of great importance, which helps us in absorbing
cultural knowledge and shaping societal behaviors.

Whorf (1956) stated that language structure has profound effects on cognitive skills
and the general perspectives of speakers. This argument has led to further debate and
research into how language affects mindsets and cultural concepts. Sapir (1921)
highlighted that language is a cultural artifact that represents the values, beliefs, norms,
and customs that regulate a society, thus reinforcing the link between languages and
cultural identity.

Jiang ( 2000 ) stated two examples which are the words “lunch” and “dog” in English.
“Lunch” can arouse a thinking of a hamburger or a pizza for a British or an American
while bread or rice will definitely occur in a Chinese or Asian’s mind. Another
example is the word “dog” in English, which represents the character “gou” in Chinese,

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

referring to the same animal. However, “dog” in Western countries is most considered
a friendly pet, a trustful companion with positive idiomatic phrases such as “lucky
dog”. On the other hand, Chinese people, by contrast, associate “gou” with watchdogs,
which defend their households or even a food source, together with such derogatory
idioms as “gou tui zi” (“hired thug” or “chó săn”). Therefore, along with such cultural
aspects, English words and their Chinese translations (or vice versa) show significant
disparities and often arouse different images and memories.

2.1.2 The importance of combining British cultures with English language teaching in
high school education.

It can be said that British cultures play an extremely essential role in understanding and
absorbing English, a global language, and numerous researchers strongly affirmed the
necessity of incorporating cultural aspects into English teaching in the formal
education system for generations of students, especially high school curricula, to
improve their English. Indeed, this pivotal issue has been discussed frequently through
various scientific studies. This report must mention the seminal research of Cruz
(2010) because it has provided heaps of compelling evidence elucidating the great
impact of culture in teaching and learning foreign languages. He also demonstrated to
readers that applying cultural aspects to English lessons enhance foreign language
proficiency and absorption across all language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. This indicates if students are taught culturally relevant information, their
English proficiency eventually improves more fully. The steady development of these
skills through the exposure to British societal values is also confirmed by Wang
(2011). In addition, by clarifying the definition of culture, Kechnaoui (2020)
emphasizes the close-knit and unbreakable relationship between cultures and
languages. He emphasized: “The relationship between language and culture is
dynamic, language is influenced by culture, therefore it is one of the most important

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

carriers of culture and it reflects the latter.”. This recognition highlights the
significance of integrating cultural aspects into English classes in order to foster a
comprehensive understanding of the language through an explanation of its origins.
Furthermore, by integrating idioms, visuals, game shows, and music related to the
target culture into English lessons, teachers can ensure adequate knowledge of English
cultures to teach students and create a fascinating classroom atmosphere. This
approach was accentuated by the researchers Sarigul (2005) and Alekseevna (2023) in
order to raise teachers' awareness of bringing the target culturfe into English classes.

2.1.3 Existing pedagogical methods and approaches to teaching English to high school
learners in Vietnam

Currently, to offer a dissimilar range of lessons to students in the high school


environment in Vietnam, especially in teaching English, an international language,
most educators should present flexibility and creativity while combining various
pedagogical methods. According to Hanh and Quan (2021), Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) is a prominent and well-known teaching strategy. By consistently
engaging in English with pupils, teachers may focus primarily on speaking skill
through the use of the CLT approach. In addition, a brand-new method that has
emerged recently is “Blended Learning”. Lalima (2017) defined: “Blended learning is
the concept that includes a framing teaching-learning process that incorporates both
face-to-face teaching and teaching supported by ICT”. In Vietnam, students at high
schools appreciate lessons that employ this teaching strategy, thereby enabling them to
be more proficient in the language as well as to easily access the resources they have
learned (Nguyen, Sivapalan, Hiep, Anh & Lan, 2021).

Nevertheless, along with the innovative, creative teaching strategies mentioned above,
there are still some inadequacies in the English pedagogical system in Vietnam. The

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

most common mistake that most teachers make, according to Nhan (2013), is placing
tremendous pressure on students to prepare for school exams focusing on two main
skills: reading and writing, which indirectly disregards the remaining English skills that
are required more frequently, namely Speaking and Listening. On the other hand, some
schools and teachers also employ the grammar-translation teaching method as their
primary approach. According to Brown (2007), the grammar-translation method is
considered an ineffective one for acquiring and learning English. This method is
highlighted by Richard and Rodgers (2001) for only memorizing vocabulary and
sentence structures translated into the native language. It is difficult and time-
consuming for students to comprehensively develop full communicative English skills
if teachers apply this strategy.

2.1.4 Challenges and gaps in applying British culture within teaching English at high
school

Infusing English cultural contexts into language education is considered a necessary


teaching method for improving English skills. However, many research articles have
pointed out many problems related to this teaching method. First, Sercu (2005) pointed
out that some teachers misunderstand the relationship between cultures and languages,
as well as underestimate the importance of applying cultures in language teaching.
These educators believe that English cultural knowledge is irrelevant to students'
language growth, resulting in an excessive number of classes for pupils to study. As a
result, they unintentionally ignored such cultural references and did not attempt to
implement this teaching method. Taylor and Francis (2016) also provided a
comprehensive analysis of this topic. Furthermore, according to Gonen and Saglam
(2005), one of the problems teachers deal with is that the current curriculum system in
some countries is overloaded, leaving them with little time to embed English lifestyle
elements and create interesting lessons into the teaching program. Also in this study,

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

they emphasized that many teachers have yet to receive training sessions on ideological
work related to British culture so that they can clearly understand this pedagogical
method. Ultimately, Enkeleda (2015) listed many challenges that students in his
country deal with during English culture lessons at schools. One prominent difficulty
he mentioned is that students were not well aware of the importance of the target
culture to the English language, which resulted in a lack of focus on it. Additionally,
students tended to have limited opportunities to discuss cultural aspects as well as to
not have the opportunity to communicate or present on this topic, given the amount of
workload posed by different school subjects.

2.1.5 Methods of integrating cultural aspects into English language teaching

It is commonly acknowledged that integrating cultural dimensions into English


language teaching (ELT) is a critical component in boosting effective language
acquisition and intercultural competence. Many researchers have investigated various
teaching methods and approaches to include cultural content into ELT programs. One
prominent method is to employ fun activities that directly portray British culture,
including role-playing famous and historical plays, dramas, singing cultural songs, and
dancing. This measure is analyzed in Wang's (2011) research article, emphasizing the
necessity of applying practical activities in improving the cultural awareness and
communication capacity of learners. In addition, Byram (2008) referred to a practical
method for applying culture to teaching and learning English. By providing a method
of comparing and reflecting his home culture with British culture, he encouraged
students to discuss similarities and differences of cultural aspects in groups and present
them to the class, thereby helping students develop deeper intercultural understanding.
Moreover, using authentic resources from the Internet is another simple approach for
teachers to put into practice since the material from such sources can help provide
reliable cultural experiences for new language learners. Several beneficial documents

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

are listed namely news, game shows, tourism advertisements, magazine photos, etc
(Peterson & Coltrane, 2003). They claimed that by using these resources, instructors
can design many different tasks, such as watching videos and answering questions,
listening and filling in the blanks, describing pictures of traditional festivals, and so on.
Through the above methods, learners not only are able to take in a great deal of
understanding of diverse cultures, but also improve their foreign language abilities.

2.2 Research gap

In his research article, Enkeleda (2015) mentioned many obstacles that students had to
go through when researching and contemplating English culture in English classes at
school; however, no suitable solutions were proposed to overcome the problem. In
contrast to the above author, Wang (2011) has put forth numerous innovative and
cutting-edge solutions that are very helpful for English teachers to apply in their
lessons. Nevertheless, he did not mention the difficulties that educators and students
encounter when the education system provides new knowledge that needs to be
absorbed. Taylor and Francis (2016) also conducted a poll to assess teachers'
understanding of teaching British culture in their lessons, from which they concluded
that the majority of teachers were not highly aware of the relationship between British
culture and English. However, they have not come up with specific methods to
improve the situation given its importance, thereby not creating some unique
pedagogical methods.

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Overview of the experiment

The purpose of this study is to understand the significant impacts of infusing English
curriculum with British cultural perspectives at high schools in Ho Chi Minh City,
which is regarded as one of the most developed cities. Specifically, this survey aims to
assess the level of interest of the school education sector in incorporating English
cultures into English instruction as well as to measure the value of access in terms of
students' gains in language and cultural competency. In addition, by exploiting aspects
of culture such as history, literature, books, movies, and so on to provide students with
English culture lessons, the following experiment determines whether high school
students enjoy learning English through British cultures.

Furthermore, the research investigates the intentions and orientations of educators in


Ho Chi Minh City in teaching English. In other words, the experiment will collect
comprehensive data on educators' awareness of the integration between teaching
English and British cultures, thereby providing appropriate methods in order to bring
students efficient and interesting lessons related to the English language and culture.
Ultimately, the outcomes of this experiment are intended to shed light on creative
pedagogical strategies for English education in HCMC and other comparable settings.

3.2 Subjects of the experiment

The survey comprises two different groups of participants: one group is high school
students from Tran Phu High School, and the other group is high school English
teachers in Ho Chi Minh City. The student group is made up of 130 students randomly
from grades 10 and 11, representing both genders, with an English level equivalent to
A2 to B2 (based on the overall English level of high scholl students in Ho Chi Minh

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

city, stated by the city’s FCE survey, Bao Thanh Nien, 2024 ) on the Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and have ever been
exposed to English literature. All these criteria aim to discover how high school
students perceive the impacts of incorporating British Culture with English lessons at
school as well as understand whether these aspects of culture affect students' English
learning outcomes. In the remaining group, 60 teachers with varying teaching
experience levels who have been teaching English in high school environments
throughout Ho Chi Minh City were interviewed. Teachers' keen observations may
enable the research to clarify more accurately the value and relevance of utilizing target
cultural aspects as a method to teach English, which has a direct influence on the
content of this research. Generally, creating these two distinct groups of research
subjects objectively assesses the importance of English literature to foreign language
education in this key city.
3.3 Materials

There are two questionnaires for two distinctive subjects of the experiment, and both
were conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

3.3.1 Survey of High School Students in Ho Chi Minh City

The researcher used a questionnaire with a total of 10 questions, of which 9 used


multiple choice questions. There are two personal information inquiries including
major, age, and gender. The next two questions were asked about the time they have
spent learning English as well as their level of interest in this foreign language. The last
six questions address issues about studying English in conjunction with British cultural
characteristics such as its benefits, students' understanding of improving language
abilities through cultural knowledge expansion, and the inadequacies of this learning
method. The researcher posed a question to the participants, using qualitative method,

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

which could address each student's perspective about how improving knowledge
related to English culture will help them in the future, highlighting the importance of
learning target cultures in school.
3.3.2 Survey of English Teachers around Ho Chi Minh City

There are twelve questions, which include four personal questions related to age,
school they work in, and number of years in the profession. The next 6 questions are
the ones that completely revolve around the content that the researcher is working on,
including the benefits and drawbacks of applying British culture in the official
curriculum, teachers' awareness of the aforementioned teaching process as well as how
to combine learning English culture and learning languages together. All three of such
six questions employ qualitative approaches, which can assist the researcher in
acquiringnew opinions and ideas from teachers in order to enrich this study.

3.4 Procedures

The research process consists of four steps. Firstly, the researcher created
questionnaires using Google Forms and made simple questions and answers in order to
ensure clarity of the questions. In the second step, the researcher distributed the form to
groups of students at at from grade 10 to grade 11 Tran Phu High School by directly
providing them a QR code in the classroom. With the group of high school English
teachers, the researcher collected data by sending a Google-Form link via Zalo and
Facebook. Thirdly, a three-week-long time limit was set for the respondents to
complete the survey, with a request for honest and careful answers, and the option to
seek clarification for reliable responses. Almost all the participants possessed basic
technical knowledge and were able to use applications such as Google Forms, Email,
Facebook, and so on. After three weeks, the researcher compiled the responses in Excel
for analysis. In the fourth step, the data collected was carefully analyzed and examined

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

to give clear findings and results with the help of visual means such as charts and
graphs and eventually lead to discussions of the paper.

3.5 Statistical Treatment

The data collected from the questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive statistics,
such as frequencies and percentages, to summarize the responses and provide an
overall picture of students' and teachers’ attitudes toward the benefits of applying
aspects of British cultures to English lessons at high school. The questionnaire data
was also used to identify teaching methods to incorporate British culture in English
Teaching and Instruction. Furthermore, all data was displayed in the form of pie charts,
bar charts, and tables to make it easier for explanation. As a result, the ensuing findings
was far more empirical and fact-based than subjective and opinion-based.

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS
4.1 Evaluation about the importance of incorporating British cultures into
English lessons

Figure 4.1: High school teachers’ evaluation about the importance of


incorporating British cultures into teaching English.

Figure 4.2: High school students’ evaluation about the importance of


incorporating British cultures into English lessons.

Based on the survey data including 60 high school English teachers, the importance of
applying British cultures to English teaching is depicted in Figure 4.1. The vast
majority of English teachers (95.1%) were deeply aware of the importance and great
benefits that various aspects of British culture provide for English teaching. Similar to

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

the results of the teacher survey, in figure 4.2, a considerable proportion of students
studying at high schools in Ho Chi Minh City (75.4%) also agreed that language
learning combined with English cultural elements is vital. Although the percentage of
people agreeing with Figure 4.2 is smaller than in Figure 4.1, both statistics indicate
that the overwhelming majority of respondents in the two surveys recognized the
importance of the aforementioned issue. On the other hand, only about 4.5% of
teachers believed that the above application was unnecessary for various reasons, while
in figure 4.2, this number witnessed a significant fivefold disparity from 4.5% to
24.6%, possibly because some students still lack specialized experiences in learning
English culture in high school classrooms. However, these figures are trivial to the
wide plurality of participants who agreed on their importance. Generally, by viewing
the application from two distinct perspectives, this identification can reflect educators'
profound connection between language and culture, enabling them to enrich their
students' linguistic abilities and broaden their worldview.

4.2 Benefits of Applying British Cultural Aspects to English Learning

Figure 4.3: General Benefits of Applying British Cultural Aspects to


English Learning in students’ opinion

The figure 4.3 demonstrates students' multiple perspectives on bringing target cultures

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

into the English curriculum in high schools. With 26.2% of the total survey
participants, the potential for improving skills using cultural aspects is evident as
English proficiency through cultural immersion has the highest rate, which illustrates
that the majority of students view cultural understanding as essential for language
development. Furthermore, up to 23.8% of students recognized that discovering more
about cultural heritage contributes to increasing confidence when communicating with
native speakers, showing the importance of the issue raised in this study. In addition,
20,8% and 16,9% are the percentages of students' opinions on the objective of
enhancing cultural knowledge, namely "Absorbing the essence of other countries" and
"Learning English more easily and interestingly", respectively, helping to diversify the
benefits of this combination. Meanwhile, about 12.3% of students believed that there
are no benefits here, however, this figure is insignificant compared to all students
participating in the survey. Overall, this evidence clearly highlights that integrating
English culture into language learning provides students with several benefits in
boosting their English language capabilities.

Figure 4.4: English skills improvement when utilizing aspects of British


culture as teaching materials in English classes.

Concerning the practical benefits in detail, the researcher raised the main purpose of

18
Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

improving English skills in Figure 4.4. Surprisingly, the proportion of students, who
admitted that learning English culture supports them in comprehensively improving the
four main skills, is the highest with 46.1% of the total number of students participating
in the survey. This displays its significant influence on students' English acquisition
through many different approaches that are suitable for each skill. Besides, the
remaining percentage of students (53.8%) selected it to have a specific impact on a key
skill, especially English-speaking competence, which was superior to other skills
(25.4%). This emphasizes that students have an opportunity to practice communicating
with foreigners naturally and easily by learning more about the cultural aspects. In
short, delving deeper into the rich tapestry of English cultures not only allows students
to develop listening and communication skills but also helps students increase their
necessary knowledge in order to sharpen English writing and reading skills.

In conclusion, both figures above determine the great perks that deepening their
exploration of the diverse facets of English cultures brings to students. This question
exclusively polls in the student area to help the researcher better understand students'
opinions and thoughts on this issue, thereby drawing accurate and beneficial
conclusions for students, which is also the main essence of this research paper.
4.3 A comparison of teachers' and students' choices of British cultural aspects

Figure 4.5: Elements of British cultures that teachers choose as the best one.

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

Figure 4.6: Elements of British cultures that students are interested in.

Figure 4.5 and Figure 4.6 emphatically illustrate which aspects of British culture are
interesting to instructors and students. In Figure 4.5, up to 61.5% of the total number
of students participating showed passion and enthusiasm for music. Due to an apparent
understanding of students' interests, lots of teachers, specifically nearly 61% of the
entire group in Figure 4.6, also utilize this pop-culture as an effective resource to teach
English cultures, allowing students to be able to feel entertained and relaxed but still
absorb enough knowledge about the target culture. Similarly, some aspects that are
equally practical and fascinating are also prioritized by both instructors and students,
such as literature, film, art, etc. However, in Figure 4.6, teachers consistently voted
literature-related resources as the most effective feature, accounting for 63.9% of the
total, illustrating teachers' greater focus on the necessity of developing critical thinking
and deeper literature appreciation. Overall, the survey results indicate a strong
connection between student and English teacher preferences for expanding their
knowledge base on the cultural nuances of England in English classes.

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

4.4 Effective strategies for teachers to integrate British cultural themes into the
framework of English curriculum planning.

Figure 4.7: Effective strategies for teachers to integrate British cultural


themes into the framework of English curriculum planning.

Figure 4.8: Activities that students want to see in the English classes.

The combination of Figures 4.7 and 4.8 highlights both the congruence and the
contrasts in evaluating the tactics preferred by English teachers and students in high
schools to incorporate cultural elements into English lessons. One of the prominent

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Chi Minh City

applications among teachers is role-playing and performing arts activities with more
than 61% of participants approving, while the percentage of students appreciating the
same activities is 40.8%, which is much less than the proportion teachers. This proves
that teachers regarded this experiential activity as the most dynamic and practical way
to easily introduce culture to students, even though many students anticipated that it
took them a lot of time to prepare for the performance. The results were similar for
English presentation activities on various facets of British culture, where 78% of
teachers, accounting for the highest proportion of the total, felt this was the best means
of acquiring cultural knowledge and developing speaking skills, however, only 43.7%
of students acknowledged the effectiveness of this activity. Conversely, students
believed that watching a movie or related material would be the most engaging way
(61.5%). In contrast, the majority of instructors disagreed. All the activities listed in
this survey question were chosen by a substantial percentage of teachers and students,
except for the activity of teaching and learning by boring theories, in which there were
only 13% of students and 2% of teachers who support such methods, obviously
indicating that they all express a common aversion to uninspiring teaching methods. In
summary, most teachers strongly considered alternately combining an assortment of
different approaches as a good way to promote efficacy and help students easi
ly assimilate English cultural awareness.

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

4.5 Challenges teachers have to cope with when applying English cultural aspects
to English guidance.

Figure 4.9: Challenges teachers have to cope with when applying English
cultural aspects to English guidance.

Figure 4.9 depicts some of the obstacles that teachers endure when including English
cultural content in their lessons. First and foremost, the research must mention the
shortage of multiple materials to present English cultural insights as part of their
teaching, when up to 73% agreed with this difficulty, showing the critical need for
teachers to convey British cultural knowledge to students. Additionally, 63.5% of
teachers dealed with heavy workloads in the standard curriculum set by the Ministry of
Education, which limits their flexibility in enriching their lessons with English cultural
teachings. Furthermore, there are other challenges such as time-consuming preparation,
lack of interest from students, and cultural sensitivity issues, which are also hampering
educators' ability in combining aspects of target cultures and teaching. In a nutshell, the
aforementioned amalgamation is extremely effective and important. Nonetheless, there
are still many challenges for teachers to embed English cultural teachings within their
curriculum.

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

4.6 Evaluation the current number of teachers who have participated in


educational training about teaching English cultures

Figure 4.10: Evaluation the number of teachers having taken the English
training sessions about teaching English cultures.

Figure 4.10 summarizes the situation of teacher training to cope with challenges in
implementing English cultural elements to English teaching at high schools. The data
from this survey questionnaire shows that the bulk of English teachers (about 62%)
have received professional training sessions related to this issue. This implies that there
is a positive movement towards endorsing the importance of acculturation in English
language coaching, improving the standard of education. However, there are still 38%
of teachers having not participated in the above training course, leading to teachers
remaining ill-prepared to apply target cultures to English teaching. To wrap up, in
addition to numerous teachers participating in these courses, further endeavors are
necessary to ensure that all teachers are able to receive more opportunities in order to
develop language guidance, hence augmenting the nation's educational system.

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

4.7 High school teachers' additional opinions on the benefits of pedagogical


training courses to increase the application of English culture in English teaching

Along with asking several multiple-choice questions, also known as quantitative


methods, the research also asked qualitative questions about the effectiveness high
school English teachers found in training sessions on infusing English cultural
knowledge into their instruction. According to the results collected, after participating
in the training courses, the challenges that teachers encountered were given solutions,
typically with the answer "Integration of cultural awareness training into teacher
education programs would better equip educators like myself."(an English teacher,
Tran Phu high school). Besides, many teachers commented that after training, they can
equip themselves with a variety of good methods to implement cultures in foreign
language teaching. This led one high school English teacher to state: "A network or
community of fellow educators sharing resources and ideas on cultural integration
would be supportive."(an English Teacher, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School).
However, besides the good feedback related to teacher training mentioned above, there
are still a few unsatisfied comments about them. A teacher commented: "I don't see any
useful resources" (an English Teacher, Bui Thi Xuan High School). However, this
percentage is insignificant compared to the majority of approval. In short, there should
be regular advanced training sessions to help teachers present English cultural insights
as part of their teaching.

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION

5.1 The purpose of the study


Learning a second language can be a complex and difficult task, especially for those
who are not involved in the target language context as linguistic and cultural barriers
can make it difficult for learners to develop the necessary skills to communicate
effectively in the target language. However, if both learners and teachers are deeply
aware of the intimate connection between the English language and culture, or more
specifically, have a keen understanding of the linguistic context, they will be motivated
to study English. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is first to evaluate the importance
of integrating British culture into the English program in high schools in Ho Chi Minh
City, thereby determining effective methods for incorporating cultural elements into
English teaching. By providing comprehensive data and analysis on outcomes,
advantages, and application strategies, this study also draws profound conclusions
about proposals for Vietnamese education generally and Ho Chi Minh City in
particular, enhancing the quality of education by fostering a learning environment
richer in British cultures, which empowers students to communicate effectively in a
multicultural world.

5.2 Findings and Explanations

5.2.1 Positive Impacts of Incorporating British Culture in English Education in Ho Chi


Minh City

The research results reveal the importance of British culture in improving the English

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Chi Minh City

proficiency of high school students in Ho Chi Minh City. From two distinctive
perspectives, both teachers and students are deeply aware of the deep bond between
cultures and languages, which complement each other. It is affirmed that combining a
variety of real-world English cultural sources such as movies, history, English
literature, etc with the English program at school gives students a wide range of
exposure to the language, assisting students in comprehending how to utilize words,
structures, and phrases correctly in their context. This suggests that the essence of
British culture is to support students in better absorbing lectures through incredibly
engaging and visually appealing materials because students can easily relate to the
cultural context and situation while learning this language. In addition, students have
opportunities to comprehensively improve their English skills, especially listening and
speaking skills, by participating in classroom activities such as role-play, cultural
presentations, performing some artwork, and so on. Finally, the research has identified
that students can increase cultural knowledge and sensitivity through learning English
culture. Once British culture is included in the curriculum, students are nurtured with a
globalized vision, allowing students to discuss with countries worldwide.

5.2.2 Challenges when incorporating cultural aspects in English lessons in Ho Chi


Minh city

In the Vietnamese education system, particularly in Ho Chi Minh City, standardized


testing is utilized and emphasized significantly as it is the policy of the Ministry of
Education. This approach, in turn, tends to underline grammar and vocabulary as well
as reading and writing at the expense of cultural aspects. Consequently, obstacles in the
availability of time and the flexibility of the lessons are obviously presented, posing
various challenges for the teachers to incorporate cultures in their lesson plans.
Additionally, the curriculum is often tightly structured and the knowledge is provided

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Chi Minh City

rigidly, leaving little space for the utilization of other cultural elements. Such a strict
structure further limits the ability of educators and teachers to integrate cultural
elements into their lessons. As a result, due to the policy of standardized testing and the
strict structure of the main program, cultural aspects are often underestimated.
Moreover, students in Ho Chi Minh City often face a hectic schedule due to the fact
that numerous subjects contain a substantial amount of knowledge requiring them to
absorb in a short period, not to mention the practice of extra classes of subjects such as
Math and Literature. Therefore, this situation underlines the demand for a more
balanced approach that recognizes the importance of both linguistic proficiency and
cultural competence in the overall educational development of students in Vietnam and
Ho Chi Minh City.

5.2.3 Pedagogical methods for embedding British cultural content into the English
curriculum at high schools in Ho Chi Minh City.

Integrating Literature and Multimedia

Incorporating English or American movies, TV shows, famous quotes, and online


videos on YouTube can significantly enhance English lessons by making them more
engaging and culturally informative, enhancing language absorption. Teachers can
regularly feature multimedia content relevant to the topics being studied, utilizing and
combining materials that have both linguistic and cultural content. Moreover, this
method not only improves students' listening and reading skills through constant
exposure to various genuine British accents and dialects but also makes lessons more
engaging and relatable. Multimedia resources provide captivating visuals and sounds
while creating challenges in language skills and making cultural content more
accessible for students.

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Chi Minh City

For example, watching extractions from famous movies and series such as "Harry
Potter" and "Sherlock" enables students to have more knowledge on cultural aspects of
language such as ordinary slang, phrases, exclamations, and idioms while gripping the
context in which such phrases are used.

Role-Playing English plays

Another common method is to engage students in role-playing activities based on


famous ancient British plays and scenarios which has been proven highly effective in
enhancing English absorption. Teachers can extract a play or a scenario that contains
signature content such as Romeo and Juliette, Hamlet, which presents cultural aspects
of the Middle Ages. Teachers can ask students to translate the language used into
today’s English, further improving their language competence.

This immersive approach not only improves students' pronunciation skills but also
boosts their confidence in speaking English. Moreover, it made language learning more
dynamic and interactive, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of British
customs and traditions.

Transferring cultural norms in English textbooks

The method of converting Vietnamese cultural terms in English language textbooks


into those of English is also an effective approach to make English learning more
captivating and engaging for students. Therefore, not only can learners interact with
new vocabulary and grammar points, but they also can broaden their cultural
understanding and enhance their knowledge of English-speaking countries. For
example, in the festivals and celebrations topic, instead of focusing on traditional

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Chi Minh City

Vietnamese festivals such as Tet Nguyen Dan (Lunar New Year) or the Mid-Autumn
Festival, Vietnamese textbooks could incorporate stories about traditional English
festivals such as Christmas and Harvest Day, their origins, common activities, and their
meanings. Another example is that rather than exclusively learning about tourism in Da
Nang and Nha Trang (famous tourist attractions of Vietnam), students can learn about
ancient cities in Britain and their tourist spots, common tourism activities, and
festivals. This fosters the connections between cultural understanding and linguistic
aspects during the learning process. Integrating English cultural elements into the
Vietnamese curriculum not only enriches students' learning experiences but also
promotes cross-cultural understanding and appreciation.

Creating some English games aiming to raise students’ awareness of cultural aspects

Teachers can consider implementing some captivating and engaging English games
that focus on cultural aspects, enhancing students' engagement and studying process.
These games not only make learning interesting and entertaining but also offer a
variety of background contexts for linguistic phrases through famous plays, movie
extractions, and song lyrics which, obviously, are more captivating than heaps of
figures and facts in the form of plain text. Moreover, teachers designing games should
consider cultural aspects as well as specific vocabulary and grammatical points related
to British culture. This leads to improving students' lexical resources and grammatical
ranges while ensuring the knowledge's accuracy and genuineness.

A typical example for this is the culture bingo game, in which teachers make several
bingo cards containing interactive pictures such as Big Ben, Birmingham Palace,
Stonehenge, Fish and Chips ( a famous British meal ) instead of plain, boring numbers.
Subsequently, teachers will describe the pictures using English, and students will
choose the correct cards with the pictures accordingly. Students with the first five

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Chi Minh City

pictures in a row or a column win the prizes.

5.3 Implications
The findings of this study have important implications for language learners and high
school instructors who seek to enhance language teaching skills by using British
cultural contexts in teaching English at high schools in Ho Chi Minh City. In terms of
education, this advantageous combination enables teachers to enhance their teaching
skills by designing innovative and diverse teaching methods that incorporate British
cultural elements. This also helps students become more active in their learning,
thereby ameliorating English proficency for high school students such as vocabulary,
grammar, critical thinking, and reading comprehension. Socially, by using this
approach, educators can cultivate a global outlook in students that encompasses a wide
range of British cultural elements, promoting global awareness and competence to
absorb world culture, thereby promoting international cultural exchange relationships
in the future. However, this requires many high-quality resources, ensuring that the
cultural knowledge that teachers bring is complete and accurate, suitable for students'
abilities. On the other hand, even though this is a useful artifact to apply to the English
teaching program, educators must not overuse this reference and view this as a
replacement for traditional language instruction. Features of British culture are
additional material for students to enhance their language skills and access to world
culture. Therefore, educators have the role of developing suitable teaching strategies to
optimize their advantages of the resources, bring rich educational experiences, and help

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Chi Minh City

students be well equipped with knowledge for future global integration.

5.4 Limitations
For a number of objective and subjective reasons, this thesis still has some limitations.
First, the number of respondents was not high enough to be considered effective, with
only 130 people in the high school student group and 60 people in the formal teacher
group responding to the questionnaire. In addition, this study did not organize direct
interviews and opinion polls, which may affect the relativity of the above data. Second,
because of time constraints, some of the participants answered in a rather sketchy way,
even that the answers were not related to the content of the question, causing the author
to filter them again to have the most precise answer table. Finally, the researcher only
conducted the survey to get answers within 3 weeks, then collected and processed.

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Chi Minh City

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

6.1. Conclusion

Through careful examinations in the study, it is shown that integrating cultural


elements into English lessons in classrooms can, to some extent, enhance students'
language proficiency and linguistic competence, as well as foster language absorption.
Furthermore, this practice can improve interests and engagement of students by
providing realistic contexts of certain language usage, which helps students easily
memorize the meanings and the liguistic context behind each English word and phrase.
Moreover, students’ motivation can be greatly enhanced, making the lessons and
studying process significantly more enjoyable. In addition, understanding cultural
contexts enables students for a more effective global communication method, offering
better opportunities in landing a position in an international career.

Despite such positive impacts, there are still challenges in incorporating British culture
into English classroom lessons. Firstly, teachers may face difficulties regarding the
lack of practical resources and inadequate necessary training for suitable pedagogical
methods. Additionally, students may initially find themselves struggling with cultural
elements that are not their native ones or present tremendous differences with their own
culture. Therefore, teachers are the ones who play a significant role in balancing the
introduction of foreign cultural elements and the familiarity or the ease of

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Chi Minh City

understanding to prevent potential misunderstandings and cultural conflicts.

A variety of methods can be employed to remedy these drawbacks. To begin with,


teachers can utilize multimedia resources, such as movies, music, and famous plays
and quotations to create engaging English lessons in classrooms. Educators can
consider adding activities such as role-playing, transferring language style and make
comparisons between cultural differences and similarities, which can create an
interactive learning environment for students. Moreover, providing specialized training
for teachers on pedagogical classroom techniques is also a crucial aspect for effective
implementation of cultures in language teaching. Additionally, integrating cultural
content at a slow and appropriate pace can ensure that students can absorb new
information while keeping it undisputed with their existing knowledge and
experiences.

Ultimately, while integrating British cultural aspects into English teaching in Ho Chi
Minh City high schools presents substantial advantages, it still requires more careful
solutions and implementation methods to the challenges. Teachers can create an
interesting, engaging, and effective learning environment through incorporating
various cultural elements, not only to reinforce students’ knowledge absorption but
also to prepare students for communication in an increasingly globalized world.
6.2. Recommendations

Based on the results of this study, some recommendations are sincerely offered for
future research to optimize all the potentials that aspects of British culture bring to the
English teaching process in Vietnam generally.

First, the future researchers should broaden the survey's scope and include more survey
participants, especially high school English teachers, to be able to gain general findings
concerning the significant impact of combining culture and language. In addition,

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Chi Minh City

prospective researchers should increase survey time, allowing them to directly


interview participants in the area where they live. In that manner, the research will be
more objective and reliable.

Second, they should organize practical experiments, specifically applying English


cultures directly to some English classes in high school, then observe and gather
attitudes as well as the level of satisfaction of students when studying in a classroom
that uses British cultural materials, and finally analyze their impact. This organization
will bring the most practical results, clearly supporting the content of this research
paper.

The third piece of suggestion for researchers is to devise long-term methods to address
the challenges that this combination faces. The current Vietnamese education system in
general still strictly manages the content included in the curriculum to create a common
standard in English teaching. This leads to educators not having the opportunity to
implement the educational methods proposed in the study. Therefore, future research
should find a long-term solution that can provide new knowledge about culture but is
still allowed by the education sector, from which the arguments in the research article
on the topic will be more convincing.

Finally, it is important to raise awareness among Vietnamese students and educators of


the potential benefits of incorporating British cultural resources into the official
English curriculum. While some respondents in the current study recognized the
educational potential of aspects of English culture, many still considered these
materials unnecessary, and irrelevant to learning English. Therefore, there is a need to
conduct online workshops, seminars, and resources that highlight the intimate
relationship between culture and language, guiding how to integrate them into the
curriculum language, and helping educators enrich the treasure of English teaching

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Chi Minh City

methods.

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Kechnaoui, C. (2021). The importance of integrating teaching the target culture into
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(2021). Teaching English as a Second Language in Vietnam: Transitioning from the
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Chi Minh City

APPENDIX A : Students’ Questionnaire

APPLYING ASPECTS OF ENGLISH CULTURE IN TEACHING ENGLISH


TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN HO CHI MINH CITY

PART I

1. Which grade are you in?


 10
 11
 12
2. What’s your gender
 Male
 Female
 Prefer not to say
3. How long have you been learning English ? ( short answers )

4. On a scale of 1 to 5, how interesting do you feel about English?

 Very interesting
 Somewhat interesting
 Neutral
 Somewhat not interesting
 Boring / Not intersting at all

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

PART II

5. Do you think it is important to learn about English cultures in


learning English at school? (Bạn có nghĩ việc tìm hiểu về văn hóa
Anh khi học tiếng Anh ở trường là quan trọng không?)
 Very important
 Important
 Not very important
 Not important at all

6. What benefits do you believe that incorporating English culture


into learning English at school will give you? ( Bạn nghĩ mình sẽ
được những lợi ích gì khi được học tiếng Anh kết hợp với văn hoá
Anh ? )
 Improving English Skills
 Absorbing the essence of other countries
 Confidently communicating with native speakers
 Learning English more easily and interstingly
 No benefit
7. Have you ever thought that understanding cultural aspects
would help you improve your English skills? ( Yes / No question )
(Bạn có bao giờ nghĩ rằng hiểu biết về các khía cạnh văn hóa sẽ giúp bạn cải
thiện kỹ năng tiếng Anh của mình không?)
8. Which English skills do you think it will be improve if you
understand English Cultures?
(Bạn nghĩ kỹ năng tiếng Anh nào sẽ được cải thiện nếu bạn hiểu Văn hóa
Anh?)

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

 All skills
 Reading
 Listening
 Writing
 Speaking
9. What aspects of English culture would you like to see more of in
your English classes?
(Bạn muốn thấy những khía cạnh nào của văn hóa Anh trong các lớp học
tiếng Anh của mình?
 Literature (poems, plays, novels )
 Music (songs / lyrics)
 Films or documentaries
 Art or visual media
 Traditional customs and rituals
 Cultural Festivals
 Other (Please specify)
10. Which activities do you think would be most effective in
incorporating cultural aspects into English lessons? (Choose one
or more)
Bạn nghĩ hoạt động nào sẽ hiệu quả nhất trong việc kết hợp các khía cạnh
văn hóa vào bài học tiếng Anh? (Chọn một hoặc nhiều)
 Role-Playing activities
 Playing some English games about cultural aspects
 Watching and discussing movies or TV shows from different
cultures
 Quizzes, Mini tests, assignments
 Discussing and presenting about one aspect of culture

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

 Learning about cultural festivals and traditions through


English materials such as custom, food, etc.
 Learning boring theory

11. How do you think the knowledge of British culture gained in


English classes will benefit you in the future? (ex: communicate
with native speakers, improve English skills, create conditions to
study abroad, etc)
Bạn hình dung kiến thức về văn hóa Anh thu được trong các lớp học tiếng
Anh sẽ mang lại lợi ích gì cho bạn trong tương lai?

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
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APPENDIX B : Teachers’ Questionnaire

APPLYING ASPECTS OF ENGLISH CULTURE IN TEACHING


ENGLISH TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN HO CHI MINH CITY

PART II

1. What’s your gender


 Male
 Female
 Prefer not to say
2. How old are you?
 25-30
 35-40
 45-50
 Other
3. Years of Teaching Experience?
 5-10
 11-20
 >20
 <5
4. Which high school are you working at?

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
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PART II
1. Have you applied aspects of culture into your English language
lessons?
 Yes
 No
2. How important do you believe it is for students to learn about
different cultures while learning English?
 Very important
 Important
 Not very important
 Not important at all
3. In your experience, how do students typically respond to lessons
that apply aspects of culture?
 They are highly interested.
 They show a little interest and engagement.
 They seem disinterested.
4. What types of culture do you often include in your lessons?
(Check all that apply)
 Literature (poems, plays, novels)
 Music (songs / lyrics)
 Films or documentaries
 Art or visual media
 Traditional customs and rituals
 Cultural Festivals
 Other (Please specify)
5. What specific strategies will you use to apply culture to your
English lessons?

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Applying Aspects of British Culture in Teaching English to High School Students in Ho
Chi Minh City

 Create a chance for student to research and present


 Let students participate in art performance (roleplay, songs,
literature, etc.)
 Replace some examples of Vietnamese culture in the book with
native culture
 Create some English games to ask students about cultural aspects
 Teach boring theory
 Quizzes, tests, assignments
 Let them discuss about one aspect of culture
6. What activities do you think is the best to apply cultures into
English lessons? (Short Answer)
7. What challenges do you face when applying aspects of culture
into your English lessons?
 Lack of appropriate resources/materials
 Time-consuming issue
 Student disinterest or resistance
 Cultural sensitivity
 Curriculum restrictions
8. Have you received any training or professional development
related to integrating culture into English teaching?
 Yes
 No
9. If yes, how effective do you find such training in enhancing your
teaching practice? (Short Answer)
10. What resources would you find helpful in better combine culture
with your English teaching after taking teaching training? (Short
Answer)

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