Culture teaching in foreign language education: an integrated model for Vietnam

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)The teaching of culture in foreign language education operates at a political as well as a pedagogical level. An examination of Vietnamese foreign language history reveals that Vietnam’s relations with foreign countries have had profound impacts on the teaching of foreign languages, especially the teaching of foreign cultures. Culture teaching in Vietnam remains problematic and has largely failed to enable language learners to meet local and global communication demands. To consider how best to teach culture in foreign language education, research from outside Vietnam must be considered. With reference to the Vietnamese context, a range of well-established models and paradigms from both English-speaking and non-English speaking countries have been discussed and analysed. In turn, a critique of these models has laid the foundation for the development of a context-based model for culture teaching in foreign language education. This thesis concludes that the teaching of culture in foreign language education is not merely a pedagogical issue; instead, it has both pedagogical and political considerations. The research explores questions of why, what, and how to best teach culture, and proposes an integrated model to suit Vietnam’s sociocultural context. This model deals with some critical issues such as the relationship between language and power, the importance of power relations in communication, the relationship between culture teaching and Vietnam’s national interests, balancing tradition and change in the era of globalisation, and so on. For these reasons, the model offers a number of potential benefits for foreign language education in Vietnam