PhD project

Enhancing students’ communication skills through incorporating cultures into English classes

Duration: 2014 - 2018
Funding: Nuffic

Researchers

drs. T.T.Q. Tran - PhD candidate
prof.dr. W.F. Admiraal - supervisor
dr. N. Saab - co-supervisor

Project description

This research project consists of a descriptive phase and an intervention stage. In the first phase, the researcher investigates cultural distance in terms of Sense of time, Cultural orientation, Power distance and Value orientations between Western and Vietnamese employers and Vietnamese employees. This study aims to shed light on the culture gap of Western and Vietnamese employees by making a comparison with the findings from two sets of companies.

Questionnaires and interviews were employed for the survey. Questionnaires were delivered to 900 Vietnamese employees and 763 were completed. Also, 43 were completed by Vietnamese employers and managers and 33 were completed by Western employers and managers. Besides, 66 Vietnamese employees, 11 Western employers and managers and 11 Vietnamese employers and managers were interviewed. Based on the outcomes of those examinations, in the second stage, culture will be incorporated into the English lessons. The critical incident tasks interventions will be employed to deliver cultures in the English non-major classes in Business master programs.

Both projects are expected to obtain the key to cross-cultural communication accomplishments for English learners in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam so that they will be prepared to confidently work in the global-oriented economy.

Research questions

Study 1:

To what extent do Vietnamese and Western employers differ with respect to attitudes towards sense of time, power distance, cultural orientation and value orientations?
To what extent do Vietnamese and Western employers differ with respect to attitudes towards sense of time, power distance, cultural orientation and value orientations?

Study 2:

How does incorporating cultures into the speaking sections of English classes by using peer work and critical incident tasks differently affect learners’ speaking performance and intercultural communication skills than using individual work and critical incident tasks?

Scientific relevance

From the end of the twentieth century, 'graduate career and employment patterns have changed significantly' due to globalization (T. Tran, 2013). Therefore, in this international context, educational creators have increasingly paid attention to portable skills instruction and culture; especially intercultural competence has always been considered a salient component in those skills guidance (Australia, 2008; Geert, 1986; T. Tran, 2013). For this reason, the project is conducted to speculate about the impact of intercultural communication between Westerners and Vietnamese, employees' and employers’ resolutions to overcome cultural barriers in workplaces as well as measures to advance students’ communicative competence and speaking performance, setting a prime target for their future professions.

Social relevance

This research project is conducted to serve the needs of the global-oriented development in the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam, specifically at Can Tho University of Technology. With the excessive penetration of foreign trade and culture into Vietnam, the residents especially the knowledgeable classes are in a tendency to upgrade themselves to keep pace with this internationalization. Therefore, an inquiry into workplace culture and operation of foreign subsidiaries and joint-ventures in the area is propitious for intercultural communication training of EFL students in the region. Via the examination of employers and employees’ perceptions and needs, measures can be positively worked out and facilitate the impetus for intercultural training at tertiary level.

Method

Study 1 employed both quantitative and qualitative methods through using 2 main instruments: questionnaire and interview. The target population of the study were divided into 4 groups:

group 1: 33 Western higher managers (including Americans, Australians, New Zealanders and Europeans) working for foreign subsidiaries and joint ventures in the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam.
Group 2: 43 Vietnamese higher managers working for state-owned companies in the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam
Group 3: 763 Vietnamese employees working in the same institutions with those managers.

Study 2 which is an experimental research will be implemented with two-group design to investigate the effects of critical incidents tasks on students’ speaking performance including accuracy, fluency and students’ frequency of engagement in the tasks as well as students’ intercultural sensitivity comprising of their problem-solving, communication and negotiation skills, tolerance and empathy to the situations presented. The two groups will be instructed with the same speaking course designed for English non-majors who major in a technical field. The course textbook was adapted from the English course book Outcomes, intermediate level, and has been used for 4 semesters at Can Tho University of Technology. The intervention will be conducted during 10 weeks including 2 meetings of 2 and a half hours per week. In each meeting, the treatment will be offered within 45 to 60 minutes and the rest of the class meetings will be for course-book instruction. The experiment will be conducted with control and experimental condition.

communicative competence