Teachers’ and students’ perceptions of integrating culture in an English language classroom at Nguyen Thai Binh Secondary School: Master’s Thesis

Abstract

Integrating culture into the teaching and learning of English in the classroom implies not only the transmission of intercultural knowledge but also the learners’ enthusiasm in the language. On that basis, this thesis was carried out with the main aim at exploring the secondary school teachers’ and students’ perceptions of integrating culture in an English language classroom at Nguyen Thai Binh Secondary school to find out the challenges the secondary teachers and students may encounter to provide some recommendations for secondary school teachers and students to teach and learn English effectively. This study used a mixed-methods approach, but the quantitative data collection method was commonly used. In my school, there were 15 English teachers at Nguyen Thai Binh Secondary school, 5 teachers from other schools and 120 students from four grades who took part in the survey. In terms of data analysis, quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (e.g., mean, standard deviation, and frequencies/ percentages), whereas qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. Teachers are typically aware of the necessity of teaching and integrating culture in the foreign language classroom, according to the findings of the data analysis. It was also shown that while all teachers have some awareness of parts of the target culture, how they deal with the target culture is heavily influenced by curricular considerations and limits. Students, on the other hand, have had a lot of trouble understanding the cultural aspect of learning a new language. The study's findings have various implications for the integration of culture in foreign language classes, as well as suggestions for further research