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Tạp chí Khoa học Ngôn ngữ và Văn hóa ISSN 2525-2674 Tập 7, số 2, 2023

TEACHING CULTURE AND DEVELOPING INTERCULTURAL


COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN HIGH SCHOOLS
IN THE MEKONG DELTA: FROM PERCEPTIONS TO PRACTICE
Nguyen Van Long
Luu Tan Phat High School, Tien Giang province, Viet Nam
nguyenlongltp87@gmail.com
(Received: 30/03/2023; Revised: 10/05/2023; Accepted: 21/06/2023)
Abstract: English language teaching (ELT) in the era of globalization does not simply equip
learners with linguistic competence. English language learners need to develop intercultural
communicative competence (ICC) - one of the indispensable skills in the 21st century. To
develop ICC for learners, teachers should incorporate intercultural attitudes, knowledge, and
skills into the language classroom. For this purpose, the current study was conducted to
explore EFL high school teachers’ perceptions of ICC in language teaching and investigate
their practices of ICC integration in EFL classes. The study was designed as qualitative
research. The data from both classroom observations (n=8) and semi-structured interviews
(n=4) were examined to have insights into the teachers’ perceptions and practices. The
findings showed that despite their positive attitudes towards ICC teaching, their practices of
ICC integration in EFL classes were at an average level and they tended to prioritize linguistic
proficiency over cultural competence. Furthermore, the results indicated that they were in
favor of and integrated ICC knowledge in their teaching rather than ICC attitudes and skills.
Notably, the preferred activities that most of the participants consider the most effective way
to include ICC are role-play and video watching. It is implied from the research findings that
EFL high school teachers should master not only instructional goals to know how to adapt
teaching materials in compensation for lack of cultural content but also intercultural teaching
stages to know the way of creating strategies appropriate for each stage and integrating ICC
into their classroom practices.
Key words: Intercultural Communicative Competence, High school EFL, perceptions

1. Introduction
Like many countries in the world, Vietnam has been a part of the international integration
and globalization process. Vietnam has officially become a member of many international
organizations. The integration serves as catalytic factors in promoting a series of reforms in many
fields such as economy, politics, society, education, and so forth. In the education sector, to better
satisfy the needs of the rising trend of globalization and international integration, the Vietnamese
Prime Minister announced Decision No 1400/QĐ-TTg on September 30, 2008 authorizing the
national foreign languages project entitled “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the
National Education System, Period 2008 - 2020” (known as Project 2020). This project aims to
further promote English study in an integrated, multicultural, and multilingual environment and
improve the quality of English language teaching and learning in Vietnam for the sake of the
industrialization and modernization of the country.
In an attempt of adapting the project to be more appropriate to the situation, the Prime
Minister issued Decision No 2080/QĐ-TTg authorizing an extension of the project till 2025. In
2018, the MOET issued the General School Education Curriculum, including the English
Curriculum with Circular No. 32/2018/TT-BGDĐT on December 26, 2018. Specifically, such

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instant demands of respecting other countries’ cultural diversity and simultaneous reflection of
Vietnamese cultural values in English have been introduced to educational objectives in the 2018
General Education Program.
Obviously, language education policy-makers have taken more notice of the development
of communicative competence (CC) for learners and an approach to comprehensive intercultural
competence (IC). This is to say that they were seen as essential components of the educational
reform in the teaching of foreign languages in Vietnam in general, and teaching English as a
foreign language (EFL) in particular, especially in the globalized world. Intercultural
communication is, therefore, an essential goal for Vietnamese speakers of English to achieve
involving in multicultural education where both culture teaching and intercultural education are
highlighted as present duties. However, there is a paradox in the practice of English language
education in Vietnam. Most English language training programs do not incorporate cultural
content into their curricula. As a result, in some cases, English language users find it difficult to
use English appropriately and effectively when they communicate with people from different
linguistic and cultural backgrounds because they are unaware of cultural differences.
Kirkpatrick (2011) elaborated Kachru’s (1985) the three concentric circles model of
English language, namely, the Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circles, as English is used as a native
language (ENL), English as a second language (ESL), and English as a foreign language (EFL),
respectively. According to Kachru’s (1985) model, Vietnam belongs to the ‘Expanding Circle’
together with Thailand, China, and Indonesia, where speakers increasingly use English as a
foreign language for communication. Thus, a speaker of a foreign language who is inter-culturally
competent is characterized by both language proficiency in communication and specific cultural
knowledge, attitudes, and skills (Byram, 1997). This leads to the shift in English language
teaching (ELT) from the linguistic to the communicative aspects of language that proves the
intercultural communicative theory, primarily established by Byram in the 1990s, may be
significant.
Practically, several studies have sparked a debate whether intercultural teaching can be
easily applied to classroom practices. Several studies (e.g., Chau & Truong, 2018, 2019; Nguyen,
2013; Nguyen et al, 2016) on teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding this field provided evidence
for this claim. They found teachers’ strong beliefs in the value of incorporating ICC into ELT did
not align with their practices in the classroom due to their lack of intercultural knowledge and
teaching strategies or activities in alignment to ICC, and teachers’ main focus on linguistic
competences. Considering these findings and the expanding function of ICC in modern global
communication and ELT, the present study aims to explore teachers’ perceptions of ICC as well
as their practices in EFL classes at Mekong Delta region. This study is of great significance in
helping learners at the research context to develop their ICC when EFL pedagogical reforms are
taking place on a nation-wide scale.
This research is conducted for two purposes. First, it explores EFL high school teachers’
perceptions of ICC in language teaching. Second, it investigates their classroom practices of ICC
teaching. To achieve the objectives, the study seeks answers to the following research questions:
1. What are teachers’ perceptions of intercultural communicative competence in language
teaching?

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2. What are teachers’ practices of integrating intercultural communicative competence in EFL


classes?
2. Literature review
2.1 Pedagogical approaches to developing ICC
Teaching culture may be seen as a fundamental and essential part of helping learners
acquire ICC. This actually relies on the effectiveness of using appropriate strategies, approaches,
and activities in ELT. Huber (2014) suggested three teaching approaches, namely, experiential
learning, project work, and cooperative learning. Experiential learning is the process of learning
by doing. Education can be much more effective when lecturing to passive listeners is minimized
in the classroom. In that one-way teaching model, there might not be intended changes in learners’
cultural attitudes, knowledge, skills, or behavior. It is believed that only experiential learning can
build up learners’ competence, especially intercultural competence. Project work is a carefully
organized piece of coursework that learners undertake either individually or in a group. It consists
of topic- or theme-based assignments appropriate for different ages and levels, where learners
produce their own learning materials. Project work is now widely used in the teaching of
numerous disciplines in schools. Cooperative learning, also known as collaborative learning, is
a type of learning where students collaborate on tasks designed with particular co-operative
concepts in mind. This particular kind of education as such has demonstrated success in fostering
the development of intercultural competence.
2.2 Intercultural teaching objectives and stages
2.2.1 Six organizing goals
From the Nostrands' (1970) understanding of the foreign culture, Seelye (1993) lists the
six goals below (Figure 1). They can serve as the foundation for IC classes and may also be used
as a framework for structuring intercultural curriculum.
Six Instructional Goals
Goal 1: Interest: The student shows curiosity about another culture (or another segment or
subculture of one's own culture) and empathy toward its members.
Goal 2: Who: The student recognizes that role expectations and other social variables such as age,
sex, social class, religion, ethnicity, and place of residence affect the way people speak and behave.
Goal 3: What: The student realizes that effective communication requires discovering the
culturally conditioned images that are evoked in the minds of people when they think, act, and react to the
world around them.
Goal 4: Where and When: The student recognizes that situational variables and convention shape
behavior in important ways.
Goal 5: Why: The student understands that people generally act the way they do because they are
using options their society allows for satisfying basic physical and psychological needs, and that cultural
patterns are interrelated and tend mutually to support need satisfaction.
Goal 6: Exploration: The student can evaluate a generalization about the target culture in terms of
the amount of evidence substantiating it, and has the skills needed to locate and organize information about
the target culture from the library, the mass media, people, and personal observation.
Figure 1: Seelye’s organizing goals of cultural teaching (Source: Seelye, 1993, p.31)
An intercultural curriculum based on this framework can facilitate learner-centeredness.
More importantly, they are sufficiently specific to allow teachers to concentrate on valid reasons,
that is, it can encourage students’ interest in discovering who did what, when, where, and why in
the target culture. These six goals cover intercultural communication and understanding-related
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abilities that can be cultivated in EFL classes. The shortcoming of this framework is their focus
on student achievement rather than teaching process.
2.2.2 Intercultural teaching stages
From Crawford-Lange and Lange's (1987) study, there are eight stages in the process of
integrated language and cultural acquisition. The first five are primarily teacher-driven and focus
on the presenting of culture- related content, verbalization of perceptions, and language
development. The latter three stages are student-directed and focus primarily on language use,
cultural awareness, and manifestation of language and cultural competence. Specifically, Cultural
Theme Recognition (Stage 1) involves approaching textbook units by identifying the content to
see if cultural themes are clear, focusing on culture rather than grammar. Cultural Phenomena
Presentation (Stage 2) presents cultural phenomena/ events through images, posters, slides, films,
audiotapes, and written texts. In Stage 3: Conversation (Target/Native Cultures), students are
involved in describing the cultural phenomenon, analyzing thematic elements, and reacting to it
in terms of their own culture. Language Learning Transition (Stage 4) focuses on language
functions, notions, structures, syntax, and vocabulary needed to cope with cultural issues.
Language Learning (Stage 5) provides scenarios where language might be used to communicate
by using the textbook as a resource for language lessons and exercises. In Stage 6: Validation of
Perceptions (Target/Native Cultures), students explore resources (e.g., written and visual
materials, audio recordings, and human resources at Stage 2) to build, validate, or change their
first perception from Stage 3. Cultural Awareness (Stage 7) investigates students’ adjustment to
their cultural perceptions in light of new knowledge and successful involvement in unfamiliar
cultural contexts later by explaining, comparing, exploring the distinctions between the target
cultures and home one. In Stage 8, Language and Cultural Competency Assessments, the teacher
can simultaneously evaluate students’ culture and language proficiency (i.e., the use of language
functions, ideas, structures, grammar, and vocabulary as well as cultural elements).
2.3 Types of activities for integrating ICC into EFL classes
Many classroom activities prove beneficial for developing intercultural competence. To
some extent in this study, a brief description of activity types considered as being conducive to
the development of ICC as such activities emphasizing multiple perspectives, called
multiperspectivity (1), can evoke learners’ different perspectives through verbal description or
visual recording of an event, action or phenomenon. This will develop their skills of observation,
interpretation and decentering as well as openness and non-judgmental thinking. Role plays,
simulations and drama (2) may be considered as effective classroom practices for communicative
language teaching and ICC teaching. “Such activities can also help to develop attitudes of
openness, curiosity and respect, as well as willingness to empathize and suspend judgment”
(Huber, 2014, p.41). Theatre, poetry and creative writing (3) are other types of activities to
develop learners’ ICC. These activities help them recognize what is often taken for granted in
their culture, but is peculiar in others’, which formulates their empathy with stereotypes of other
cultures. Ethnographic tasks (4) refer to extra curriculum tasks involving learners in going outside
to discover real life, bringing back experience and knowledge through self-discovery and self-
reflection. In formal settings, such tasks can develop learners’ attitudes, knowledge or skills
required for intercultural competence. Watching films or reading texts (5) are often encouraged
in informal education for leisure (Huber, 2014). In fact, they are authentic materials of the target

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language and can be accessible to the development of learners’ knowledge and skills for analyzing
and comparing cultural factors of their own and others’ (Lee, 2012). Visual aids or using images
(6) are great in ELT because fieldwork or visits are more expensive and difficult to conduct. Such
activities reinforce the development of openness and curiosity in learners’ attitudes, skills for
adapting their thinking to culture-oriented contexts, and awareness of their own and the other’s
stereotypes or prejudices. Last, most EFL learners and teachers do not have many opportunities
to experience other cultures directly. Instead, they directly interact with people of other cultures
via the Internet such as social media and other online tools (7). These Internet-based
communication applications can be powerful tools to develop intercultural competence (Corbett,
2003; Huber, 2014; Lee, 2012).
2.4 Teachers’ perceptions of ICC
In both international and domestic contexts, there has been much research in teachers'
perceptions of how intercultural communicative competence is integrated into language teaching.
In Vietnam, for example, in Nguyen’s (2016) study, university EFL teachers seemed to be
unaware of the importance of culture teaching and viewed it as someone else’s responsibility,
leading to the fact they prioritized language learning. If possible, their teaching culture only
focused on cultural knowledge as opposed to skills and attitudes. Likewise, Chau and Truong
(2018) examined teachers' perceptions and concerns about intercultural teaching and indicated
that teachers had a strong conviction in the importance and feasibility of intercultural teaching.
Additionally, the analysis of the teachers' concerns showed that they were more concerned with
administration, curriculum, and students than with their own intercultural instruction. Chau and
Truong (2019) proved that despite being fully aware of intercultural integration, teachers seldom
engaged in intercultural activities in class. Surprisingly, they agreed on the roles of intercultural
education, but they placed it second to language education and gave it more importance than
helping students improve their IC or ICC.
There has been much research in teachers’ perceptions of how ICC is integrated into
language teaching, using Byram’s (1977) ICC aspects (attitudes, knowledge, skills of interpreting
and relating and skills of discovery and interaction, and critical cultural awareness). Typically,
Smakova and Paulsrud (2020) revealed that the majority of Kazakhstani EFL teachers stressed
the importance of helping students acquire the skills necessary to communicate effectively in
different cultural situations. Others, however, emphasized the teaching of English language to get
high-test results on both national and international levels, as well as to gain more understanding
of difficult reading passages and complicated grammatical structures and vocabulary. In Barebzi's
(2021) study, teachers perceived cultural teaching to be important in EFL education. However,
they viewed cultural goals as being less crucial than linguistic ones. Rohmani and Andriyanti's
(2022) study indicated the high school English teachers in Ngawi have had positive beliefs and
attitudes toward cultural teaching. Surprisingly, the two researchers acknowledged that “the
classroom practices were only described through the teaching syllabi due to the pandemic
situation” (ibid, 2022, p.253).
The review of the above studies showed a mismatch between the teachers’ perceptions
and practices. However, they all employed a quantitative approach, which leads to the lack of real
classroom observation to check whether culture teaching is put into practice. This signals an
important gap that a qualitative study can solve.

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3. Methodology
3.1 Participants
Four female participants (n=4) aged from 30 to 50 were selected to join the interviews
and classroom observations. They are all the high school teachers of English coming from the
provinces in the Mekong Delta. The teachers are well-trained and well-qualified for the new
general education 2018 standards. For the reasons of confidentiality and ethics, pseudonyms are
used for these teachers as A, B, C, and D. Teacher B has master's degrees in teaching English
while three others (A, C, and D) have bachelor's degrees in the subject.
3.2 Instruments and data analysis
This study was designed as qualitative research, using classroom observations and semi-
structured interviews. An observation sheet, the format promulgated by Department of Education
and Training (DOET) on 23 September 2015 with Dispatch No 1575/SGDĐT-GDTrH, was
adapted as follows. In replacement for evaluation of a lesson plan, an ICC-related evaluation
aimed to ascertain the effectiveness of the teachers’ integration of ICC in their classes. Byram’s
(1977) ICC components such as attitudes, knowledge, and skills were used as a theoretical
framework for this evaluation. Besides, to replace criteria for evaluating the process of teaching
and learning, eight intercultural teaching stages by Crawford-Lange and Lange (1987) and six
instructional goals by Seelye (1993) were adapted to evaluate the level of effectiveness of
teachers’ teaching practices and learners’ learning outcomes respectively. Totally, there were
eight observed classes divided into two rounds, including 1 vocabulary and listening, 2
vocabulary and reading, 2 pronunciation and speaking, and 3 grammar classes. Then, observation
data were examined and reinforced with information from the interview data.
The interview questions were designed based on the literature regarding pedagogical
approaches (Huber, 2014), intercultural activities (Corbett, 2003; Huber, 2014; Lee, 2012), and
previous studies on teachers’ perceptions of ICC by Smakova and Paulsrud (2020), Barebzi
(2021), and Rohmani and Andriyanti (2022). These studies were also based on Byram’s (1977)
ICC model. Four participants whose teaching practices were observed were interviewed. The
semi-structured interviews were conducted after the observation data analysis was completed. All
of the responses were meticulously recorded with the teachers' permission and were then
transcribed and translated into English for analysis to gain further insights into their perceptions
of ICC in language teaching and practices of ICC integration into EFL classes. The interview
protocol was tried out with two high school teachers of English from Cohort 28 to ensure that the
questions were valid, understandable, and ready to collect data.
4. Findings and discussion
RQ1: What are teachers’ perceptions of ICC in language teaching?
As evidenced by the interviews, most of the participants understood the value of
integrating culture into language teaching. They justified the fact that the National Foreign
Languages Project 2020 aimed to enable students to communicate effectively in an integrated,
multicultural, and multilingual environment. Additionally, they believed that integrating cultures
was a must-do and assisted students’ acquisition of communicative competence and other skills.

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In my opinion, a must-do in language teaching includes ICC integration […] At present, according
to the 2018 General Education Program, students are now acquiring languages for
communication, thus they must also have intercultural communicative competence. This is very
important. Therefore, I think the integration of culture is equally important to the development of
all other skills. (Teacher B, block 32)

However, the teachers acknowledged that they only addressed culture when the lessons
contained cultural topics or elements, and they spent little time teaching culture. Teacher A stated,
“…if a lesson has a cultural element, I will be sure to make it clear to students so that they may
compare it with their own” (Teacher A, block 14)
The findings from the interviews revealed that the teachers in this study had positive
attitudes toward ICC teaching and recognized the significance of culture in language learning.
This is in line with the previous research by Smakova and Paulsrud (2020), Barebzi (2021), and
Rohmani and Andriyanti (2022). For example, Teacher A claimed that learning a language is
truly learning its culture since we cannot teach a language without teaching its culture (block 6).
The teacher shows her understanding that language and culture are inexorably linked, intricately
interwoven, and interdependent (Byram, 1989; Fantini, 1995; Lázár et al., 2007; Roberts et al.,
2001). Most obviously, globalization and English as a Lingua Franca are the two primary reasons
why culture should be taught as a fifth language ability. Additionally, participants believed that
integrating cultures was imperative and helped students develop communicative competence, one
of Project 2020’s primary goals, so that they could communicate effectively in an integrated,
multicultural, and multilingual environment. This belief is in agreement with a study by
Cheewasukthaworn and Suwanarak (2017), who concluded that ICC and communicative
competence were essentially communication skills. Notably, despite their awareness of the value
of incorporating cultural aspects and ICC components in language teaching, they only addressed
culture when the textbook included cultural issues and spent only a small amount of time doing
so. It may be because teachers only had a little amount of class time to address culture, they would
rather follow the textbook and use more time to teach grammar. Likewise, Nguyen (2013)
mentioned that the allotted time only allowed teachers to cover language-related content and if
they integrated more culture, students’ language acquisition would take time.
Concerning classroom activities for ICC integration, three out of four teachers agreed that
role-playing and viewing videos were the most efficient activities for students to learn about the
culture and build their ICC. They thought that both were simpler to combine cultural elements
and provide intercultural knowledge to students. Teacher A and B justified their opinions as
follows:
“[…] by showing them a video clip, which is a simple but effective way […] Besides using
videos, I am using role-plays in my advanced classes” (Teacher A, block 18)
“[…] watching video clips is the method most frequently used in the classroom […] On
the other hand, students do role-plays in warming up activities related to culture”
(Teacher B, block 48)
To be specific, role-plays provide them with real-life situations to avoid culture shock
while videos make them interested in learning and may be helpful for them to understand culture.
In accordance with the earlier studies, role-play was still the most effective way to promote ICC.
On the other hand, using videos ranked sixth in Chau and Truong’s (2019). Additionally, the
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teachers in this study did not mentioned some activities such as visual literacy, theatre, poetry and
creative writing, ethnographic tasks, social media and other online tools, and multi-perspectivity.
This may be attributed to the fact that they are typical activities for intercultural approaches in
non-formal and informal settings, not in a formal educational context and that teachers depended
heavily on available teaching materials.
RQ2: What are teachers’ ICC teaching practices?
In the present study, the teacher participants seemed to integrate ICC accidentally into
their classroom activities. They mostly discussed ICC-related issues in response to intercultural
content introduced in teaching materials, which may be interpreted as improving students’
understanding of the target language. To gain insights into their teaching practices, this study
explored and evaluated ICC components as well as intercultural teaching stages and instructional
goals below.
Based on the indicators of ICC’s components in Byram’s model (1997), the observed
teacher primarily integrated ICC knowledge in their observed practices rather than ICC attitudes
and skills. For example, Teacher A displayed her knowledge of major geographical factors
including a safari, Africa, and wild animals. Similarly, Teacher C showed her understanding of
cooking food in Hanoi and HCM City, street food. There might be still deeply ingrained
educational beliefs in their mind. That is to say, conveying knowledge to students was the
foremost goal. Moreover, compared to developing ICC skills or raising ICC attitudes,
transmitting ICC knowledge to students could make it less time-consuming. Another possibility
may be that EFL teachers focused on the textbook’s content, which was highly inclined to
knowledge aspects. Truly, the fact that they depended much on the textbook and guidelines was
easily observed in the classroom. This is in alignment with Nguyen’s (2013) and Nguyen et al.’s
(2016) study, where the participants stated that they used textbooks to guide their EFL teaching
practices as well as to include cultural elements. Most importantly, the need for integrating
cultural knowledge into high school English classes has been supported because it can help
students broaden their cultural knowledge and identify the contrasts and similarities between their
own culture and those of other cultures.
In terms of intercultural teaching stages, teachers tended to prioritize linguistic
competence over cultural competence, particularly ICC. First and foremost, as easily recognized
from the organization of the textbook, it is divided into lessons mainly focused on linguistic
elements, as follows: Grammar, Vocabulary and Reading, Vocabulary and Listening, Listening
and Reading, Pronunciation and Speaking, and Writing, which cover different aspects of
language. In fact, cultural topics or content are implicitly presented in the textbook. In observed
teaching practices, the majority of teachers fulfilled Stages 4 and 5, known as language learning
stages. This proved that most teachers highlighted language proficiency over cultural
competency. Simply put, the teachers in eight classroom observations just evaluated students’
language proficiency when dealing with Stage 8. To prove the privilege of teaching language
proficiency, Barebzi (2021) affirmed “cultural objectives less important than linguistic ones” (p.
5). Additionally, ICC and linguistic competence were not equally emphasized in language classes
because language curricula maintain a greater emphasis on teaching language knowledge than on
developing intercultural communication. Consequently, teachers who highly rated linguistic

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competence tried to help students’ acquisition of language proficiency so that they can use it for
practical purposes (Smakova & Paulsrud, 2020).
In students’ turn, when evaluating the effectiveness of their learning outcomes through
teachers’ instruction in observed classes, it is obvious that students might not learn anything about
culture in grammatical classes partly because the content in teaching materials might not address
culture. In addition, teachers did not encourage their curiosity about who did what, where and
when, and why. In contrast, students easily acquired six goals ranking medium to high levels in
other language skills lessons because teachers had strategies or teaching methods to facilitate their
acquisition of these instructional goals. To obtain this achievement, they used learning activities
such as comparing/ contrasting or explaining cultural differences explicitly, sharing personal
experience, using authentic materials, and doing role-plays to integrate cultural information into
their teaching practices. Another explanation is that the classes of language skills have already
included content or topics related to who did what, where and when, and why. Therefore, the most
important thing teachers need to do is to activate learners’ interests in (Goal 1) and get them
engaged in exploring the target culture (Goal 6) from other external learning materials.
5. Conclusions and implications
The study explored teachers’ perceptions of ICC in language teaching and investigated
their practices of ICC integration in high school EFL classes. The research was qualitatively
conducted using classroom observations and interviews. The data were analyzed to answer two
research questions in this study. Specifically, teachers had positive perceptions of ICC teaching
in EFL classes. They understood the importance of integrating culture into language teaching and
believed that it was helpful for students’ acquisition of communicative competence and other
skills. This also contributed to the realization of the National Foreign Languages Project 2020.
However, they prioritized language skills over cultural competence and admitted that they only
addressed culture or spent a little time on it. This may be attributed to the fact that it is the first
year when the new general education curriculum has just been implemented. In addition, teachers
may not know how to incorporate ICC into their teaching or the course book may provide culture-
related content inexplicitly.
The critical review of the teachers’ culture teaching in their observed classes may suggest
some pedagogical solutions to lack of priority over ICC teaching practices. Firstly, EFL high
school teachers should understand the six instructional goals aforementioned. Only when they
deeply know these goals, do they have methods to help students achieve these learning outcomes.
Moreover, based on these instructional goals, they can adapt the content in the textbook once it
may not include ICC dimensions. Therefore, they may be considered as guidelines for them so as
not to depend strictly on the teaching materials. Adapting the textbook is viewed as the best way
to compensate for the lack of cultural content. If impossible, authentic materials may be another
best choice to provide intercultural information.
Secondly, EFL high school teachers should follow the intercultural teaching stages
mentioned in the literature review. They are viewed as cornerstones for teachers to make decisions
about language and culture integration. As easily recognized, they know a wide range of teaching
culture related-strategies. However, they may not know how to integrate them into classroom
practices. As a result, based on these teaching stages, they can change or create classroom
activities or strategies that are suitable for each stage. Moreover, it is necessary to encourage
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students to participate in activities outside the class as project work: ethnographic tasks or social
media and other online tools for their growth of ICC.
There were some limitations in this study. The first limitation was that it only focused on
the tenth grade in two high schools in the Mekong Delta. The other limitation was that only one
unit in one textbook was observed in teaching practices (i.e., Unit 9: Travel and Tourism in the
textbook i-Learn Smart World by Hue University Press). In connection with the aforementioned
restrictions, there are several suggestions for future research. First, a larger sample size and a
more diverse scope of locations in Vietnam might be used in future research on this topic to
increase validity. Second, further study can observe diverse units in other English textbooks by
different publishing houses.
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DẠY VĂN HÓA VÀ PHÁT TRIỂN NĂNG LỰC GIAO TIẾP


LIÊN VĂN HÓA BẬC TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG
Ở ĐỒNG BẰNG SÔNG CỬU LONG:
TỪ NHẬN THỨC ĐẾN THỰC TIỄN
Tóm tắt: Giảng dạy Tiếng Anh (ELT) trong thời đại toàn cầu hóa không đơn thuần là trang
bị năng lực ngôn ngữ cho người học. Người học Tiếng Anh cần phát triển năng lực giao tiếp
liên văn hóa (ICC)- một trong những kỹ năng không thể thiếu trong thế kỷ 21. Để phát triển
ICC cho người học, giáo viên nên lồng ghép các yếu tố như thái độ, kiến thức và kỹ năng
liên văn hóa vào trong lớp học ngôn ngữ. Với mục đích này, nghiên cứu được thực hiện để
khám phá nhận thức của giáo viên trung học về ICC trong giảng dạy ngôn ngữ và điều tra
thực tế giảng dạy về tích hợp ICC trong các lớp học Tiếng Anh. Nghiên cứu được thiết kế
theo phương pháp định tính. Dữ liệu từ quan sát lớp học (n=8) và phỏng vấn (n=4) được kiểm
tra để hiểu rõ hơn về nhận thức và thực hành của giáo viên. Kết quả cho thấy mặc dù giáo
viên có thái độ tích cực đối với việc giảng dạy ICC nhưng thực tế việc tích hợp ICC trong
các lớp học ở mức độ trung bình và có xu hướng ưu tiên cho kỹ năng ngôn ngữ hơn năng lực
văn hóa. Hơn nữa, kết quả chỉ ra rằng họ ủng hộ và chủ yếu tích hợp kiến thức liên văn hóa
vào việc giảng dạy hơn là khía cạnh thái độ và kỹ năng. Đáng chú ý, các hoạt động mà hầu
hết giáo viên cho là hiệu quả nhất để lồng ghép ICC là đóng vai và xem video. Kết quả nghiên
cứu gợi ý rằng giáo viên trung học nên nắm vững không những các mục tiêu giảng dạy để
biết cách cải biên tài liệu dạy học nhằm bù đắp sự thiếu hụt về nội dung văn hóa, mà còn các
giai đoạn giảng dạy liên văn hóa để biết cách tạo ra các hoạt động phù hợp cho mỗi tiến trình
giảng dạy cũng như biết cách tích hợp ICC vào thực tiễn lớp học.
Từ khóa: Kỹ năng giao tiếp liên văn hóa, Tiếng Anh trung học phổ thông, nhận thức

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