Tài liệu The importance of introducing some cultural aspects on stubborness of the british to sophomores of english majors and non english majors at hanoi pedagogical university no.2

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N0 2 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY PHAM THI THANH THE IMPORTANCE OF INTRODUCING SOME CULTURAL ASPECTS ON STUBBORNESS OF THE BRITISH TO SOPHOMORES OF ENGLISH MAJORS AND NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY No 2 (SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELORS OF ARTS IN ENGLISH) SUPERVISOR: PHI THI THO, B.A Hanoi, 2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, B.A Phi Thi Tho, without whose valuable comments and guidance, my research would not have been accomplished. My special thanks go to my English friends; Ms. Jasmine Kathleen and Ms. Jenifer Wells who help me find out the information about their cultures as well as provide me books and necessary materials. I wish to thank all the lecturers at Hanoi Pedagogical University Number 2, especially the lecturers in the Foreign Language Faculty for their dedicated instructions during years of university work. I am greatly indebted to my family for their love, support and encouragement. Finally, I am particularly grateful to my close friends for their enthusiasm and kindness, to K37 students of Foreign Language Faculty for helping me in making survey. i ABSTRACT The British culture plays an importance role in teaching and studying English. Beside the characteristics of Western culture, British culture has typical aspects which are consider as tokens of “Britishness”. One of these tokens is stubbornness or conservativeness. There are quite a lot of books written about British culture, but these books just discuss this culture in general and do not mention the stubbornness in full. Therefore, this research work entails introducing the British’s stubbornness to sophomores of English majors and non-English majors to help them understand clearly this typical aspect in British culture. ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title: Introducing the British’s stubbornness to sophomores of English majors and non-English majors at Hanoi Pedagogical University No 2. (Graduation paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in English) I certify that no part of the above report has been copied from any other person’s work without acknowledgements and that the report is originally written by me under the instructions of my supervisor. Date submitted: May 2013 Student Supervisor Pham Thi Thanh Phi Thi Tho iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HPUN2 : Hanoi Pedagogical University Number II SI : International System of Units USSR : Union of Soviet Socialist Republics TNT : Trinitrotoluene EU : European Union UK : United Kingdom BST : British Summer Time GMT : Greenwich Mean Time DST : Daily Savings Time RoSPA : Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents SDST : Single Double Summer Time EC : European Community ELT : English Language Teaching iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: The result of the students’ attitude towards the British’s stubbornness......................................................................................................... 38 Table 1: Holidays and events..................................................................... 53 Table 2: List of country driving on the left side ......................................... 54 Table 3: Cities and countries using double-deckers ................................... 55 Table 4: SI base units ................................................................................ 56 Table 5: Units of measurement in Britain .................................................. 57 Table 6: List of countries changing the clocks ........................................... 58 Table 7: Time when British change their clocks ........................................ 58 v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................... i ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .................................................................... iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES.................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... vi PART ONE INTRODUCTION I. Rationale ....................................................................................................... 1 II. Research presupposition .............................................................................. 2 III. Research objectives ...................................................................................... 2 IV. Research scope.............................................................................................. 2 V. Research tasks .............................................................................................. 3 VI. Research methods......................................................................................... 3 VII. Research significance ................................................................................... 3 VIII. Research design ........................................................................................... 4 PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW I. An overview of culture and British culture..................................................... 5 I.1. Culture ............................................................................................................. 5 I.2. British culture .................................................................................................. 7 II. The British’s conservativeness (stubbornness) ............................................ 10 II.1.What is conservativeness or stubbornness? .................................................... 11 II.2.The British stay stubbornly different.............................................................. 12 II.2.1. Left-hand side driving ................................................................................ 12 II.2.1.1. History .................................................................................................... 12 vi II.2.1.2. Left-hand side driving in Britain ............................................................. 16 II.2.2. Double-decker bus ..................................................................................... 17 II.2.2.1. History .................................................................................................... 17 II.2.2.2. Description ............................................................................................. 18 II.2.2.3. Double-decker buses in United Kingdom and the differences ................. 19 II.2.3. System of measurement ............................................................................. 21 II.2.3.1.What is system of measurement? ............................................................. 21 II.2.3.2. Classification .......................................................................................... 22 II.2.3.2.1.Imperial and US Customary .................................................................. 22 II.2.3.2.2. Metric system....................................................................................... 23 II.2.3.2.3. SI System ............................................................................................. 25 II.2.3.2.4.Other types of measurement system ...................................................... 25 II.2.3.3. System of measurement in Britain and the conservativeness ................... 26 II.2.4. Clock changing in Britain .......................................................................... 28 II.2.4.1 Origin of changing the clocks .................................................................. 29 II.2.4.2.The British Summer Time (BST) and the stubbornness ........................... 30 CHAPTER TWO: THE METHODOLOGY II.1. Purpose of the survey.................................................................................... 32 II.2. Population of the survey ............................................................................... 32 II.3. Type of the survey ........................................................................................ 33 II.4. Construction of the survey ............................................................................ 33 II.5. Preparation of the survey .............................................................................. 33 II.5.1. Test items .................................................................................................. 33 II.5.2. Arrangement of the test items .................................................................... 34 II.6. Administration of the try-out ........................................................................ 34 II.6.1. Preparation of the try-out ........................................................................... 34 II.6.2. Try-out ....................................................................................................... 34 II.7. Method of data analysis ................................................................................ 34 vii CHAPTER THREE: THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY III.1. The results of the survey........................................................................... 36 III.1.1. The results of the students’ attitude towards the importance of learning British culture in learning English. ....................................................................... 36 III.1.2. The results of the students’ attitude towards the British’s stubbornness .... 37 III.2. Suggested solutions ................................................................................... 39 III.2.1. Suggested solutions for teacher................................................................. 39 III.2.2. Suggested solutions for student ................................................................ 41 PART THREE CONCLUSION CONCLUSION................................................................................................... 43 REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 45 APPENDICES .................................................................................................... 47 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE ............................................................................. 47 viii PART ONE INTRODUCTION I. RATIONALE Nowadays, it cannot be denied that English is the most commonly used language among foreign language speakers. Throughout the world, when people with different languages come together they commonly use English to communicate. In addition, English is commonly spoken throughout much of the world due to Great Britain’s expansion during the colonial age. People in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and parts of Africa, India, and many smaller island nations speak English. English is the commonly adopted second language in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. As we know, language teaching and culture teaching have a dual nature. In order to conduct language teaching well, one must take up the teaching of culture and the teaching of language at the same time. When we learn a foreign language, we do more than learn a linguistic system. We acquire some degree of familiarity with the foreign cultural system. It is now broadly accepted that learning a foreign language is not simply mastering the grammar, the vocabulary, but appropriately focusing more on learning a means of communication. Communication in real situations is never out of context, and because culture is part of most contexts, communication is rarely culture-free. It means that if we use the same word in different culture, we would get different psychological response. For example, when reading the sentence "It's morally hard to turn her away as it is a lost dog", most students put "a lost dog" into literal meaning which totally shows our feeling of disgust and dislike for the dog. But it is not the case in western countries. In the western culture, dogs are regarded as faithful friends and companions. So the actual meaning of "the lost dog" here means something precious, valuable and adorable is lost. It's obvious that neglecting the cultural difference results in the misunderstanding. In Vietnam, learning and teaching English as a second language is paid more and more attention and furthermore, English becomes more and more popular. To 1 study English effectively, as mentioned above, studying about culture of countries speaking English is very crucial. We cannot mention culture of these countries without mentioning the American and British culture. However, British culture has some different salient features. With the aim of helping learners of English, especially sophomores of English majors and non-English majors at HPU2 to have knowledge about the British’s stubbornness as well as “Britishness”, this thesis is focused on finding out how British stay stubbornly different and giving the reasons and the origins of these differences. II. RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION Based on the knowledge on British culture, some questions are raised in about this topic: 1. Why is it said that the British stay stubbornly different? 2. How does the British stay stubbornly different? 3. What are the origins of the stubbornness? 4. What are some effective ways that help the students and ELT teachers study British culture well? Based on these questions, I am eager to study about the British’s stubbornness and the origins as well as how their stubbornness is. III. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The study is aimed at achieving the following goals: 1. To find out more information about British culture and British people as well 2. To figure out how British stay stubbornly different 3. To explain the reason as well as the origin of those stubborn differences. IV. RESEARCH SCOPE This thesis is focused on studying the conservativeness as well as stubbornness of British. Because seniors of English major have to study about American-British Culture and in the textbook, there is only a short article written on “British stay stubbornly different”, this thesis intended to serve the learners of English, especially sophomores, basic knowledge on some different aspect of 2 British culture and orient students to studying American- British Culture efficiently. V. RESEARCH TASKS The research work involves fulfilling a number of tasks: 1. To study how British stay stubbornly different. 2. To study more about the origin as well as the reason of the differences in British style. VI. RESEARCH METHODS With the aim of finding out how British stay stubbornly different, the research method applied in this thesis is searching and material analysis with the assistance of the survey. VII. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE Culture is always an extensive phenomenon. It takes a long process in its own right to understand the culture of a country. In addition, understanding the culture of a foreign country is not easy for learners who study English as a second language. This is the first time the research that surveys how student understand about British culture has been done at HPUN2. Especially, the survey is carried out with sophomores of 40 non-English majors and 40 English-majors (K37 students). Therefore, this thesis gives the theoretical background about how the British stay stubbornly different, states the origins and the reasons of their differences for learners of English in general and the sophomores of English major who is oriented towards studying on British Culture in the third year in particularly. Hence, both teachers and learners can gain benefits from this thesis. They are given a comprehensive view on the typical in aspects of British culture. To the teachers, this thesis provides detailed information about the British’s conservativeness and teachers of English can help students when they question it. In another hand, students can benefit from this thesis the comprehensive view on the British culture and their stubbornness as well. Thence they have background knowledge and study better when officially study in the third year. 3 VIII. RESEARCH DESIGN The thesis has 3 main parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion. The part “Development” consists of three chapters. Chapter one is named “Literature review”, which has 2 sections known as “Overview of Culture, British Culture and British People”, “The British’s conservativeness”. The first section mentions the culture and British culture in the general with different aspects. The second discusses how the British conservative as well as the origin of this stubbornness. Part II and Part III are named “The Methodology” and “Conclusion” in succession. In two these part, the surveys are shown as well as analyzed, then the discussion and suggested solutions are indicated. 4 PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW I. AN OVERVIEW OF CULTURE AND BRITISH CULTURE I.1. Culture Culture is human’s product and the impact of humanity’s evolvement. Culture makes man unique and different from other kinds in the world of living being. There are many definitions describing what culture is. The first meaning of “culture” in Chinese is tattoo through which people can tell them apart others, show the incorporation into the deities or the mysterious force of nature, and take up supernatural power. According to the language of the Western, (“culture” in English and French, “kultur” in German), “culture” is a word derived from different forms of a Latin verb “colere” which are colo, colui, cultus. These words have two meanings: conservation, care and creation in farming and worship. In the daily life, culture is known as literature, art like poetry, fine arts, theatre, and cinema. In other hand, culture is a lifestyle including cuisine, clothing, behavior, belief. In anthropology and sociology, the definition of culture is mentioned in an extensive meaning. Culture includes everything which is a part in the human life. Culture is things related not only spirit but matter. Many authors gave the different points of view on culture. CARLA, Centre for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, defined culture that “For the purposes of the Intercultural Studies Project, culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.” In another hand, Matthew Arnold said that culture is a study of perfection which insists on becoming something rather than in having something, in an inward condition of the mind and spirit, not in an outward set of circumstances. 5 In Multicultural Education by Banks, J.A., Banks, & McGee, C. A. (1989), it is said that most social scientists today view culture as consisting primarily of the symbolic, ideational, and intangible aspects of human societies. The essence of a culture is not its artifacts, tools, or other tangible cultural elements but how the members of the group interpret, use, and perceive them. It is the values, symbols, interpretations, and perspectives that distinguish one people from another in modernized societies; it is not material objects and other tangible aspects of human societies. People within a culture usually interpret the meaning of symbols, artifacts, and behaviors in the same or in similar ways." Damen (1987) in Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension on the Language Classroom gave his viewpoint that culture learned and shared human patterns or models for living; day- to-day living patterns. These patterns and models pervade all aspects of human social interaction. Culture is mankind's primary adaptive mechanism. Moreover, in a book named Culture: A critical review of concepts and definitions Kroeber, A.L., &Kluckhohn, C. (1952) mentioned that culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other as conditioning elements of further action. However, to sum up, Useem(1963) in Human Organizations claimed that culture has been defined in a number of ways, but most simply, as the learned and shared behavior of a community of interacting human beings. Each country has a different culture. One's culture is an amalgamation of so many different elements like history, art, cuisine, language and many other tangible and non-tangible aspects. Taking off the shoes before getting in a house or bowing when greeting in Japan, remembering to try “kimchi” when going to Korea, Netherland famous for tulips, “phở” Hanoi in Vietnam are some of so many 6 examples showing the characteristics in the culture as well as life in different countries. Studying a single culture in-depth requires immense effort and time to fathom the core values and fundamentals. I.2. British culture Being one of countries speaking English, Britain (or Great Britain) is the largest island in the UK. The United Kingdom is made of the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain, on the other hand, comprises only England, Scotland and Wales. Britain ranks 20thin the world in terms of population size. The population of the UK is more than 60 million. The total population of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland is estimated in succession at 50 million, 2.95 million, 5.1 million and 1.7 million people. England has the highest population density and Scotland has the lowest. Many parts of London, such as Islington or Highgate, were once villages (small towns). Today, London is a growing city with a population of more than seven million. People have come from all parts of the world to live here. They have brought with them different ways of living and colorful festivals. London is a multicultural city, as it has been since the Roman times. This city has the largest non-white population of any European city and over 250 languages are spoken there. Therefore not all British people are White or Christians. To live in Britain means that you could enjoy a very good standard of living with life expectancy for men being nearly 76 years and 81 years for women. The rate of unemployment is low (4.8%). On the negative side, 17 % of the population is living below the poverty line. The UK covers an area of 244,820 sq km with the famous tourist attraction and so many typical things in their culture as well as political, climate and life of people here. Life in Britain is an interesting amalgamation of international cultures and modern mentality cemented together based on the spirit of powerful national character and tradition. 7 People in Britain, a multi-cultural country, derived from different races, religions and cultures. Christianity is a religion having the most prayers in Britain. In most of town and city of Britain, there are movie theaters showing the newest movie in the world. Britain is also famous for lots of country heritages such as Edinburgh Palace and well-known museum of the Beatles in Liverpool, the Royal Opera House and The National Theatre, London’s tube, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey ( one of the famous churches in London which is more than nine hundred years old), British Museum, Madame Tussaud’s Museum ( the most famous tourist attraction), the main shopping street Oxford Street and try travelling by double-decker bus, a symbol of London. Britain has so many museums but the biggest museum is British museum located in London with many collections of more than seven millions objects. The collection of this museum is one of the biggest and the most sufficient collections in the world which derived from every continents and showing human’s life from the dawn of human kind. The British Library in London is national library and this is one of the biggest libraries of research in the world containing more than 150 million objects and 25 million books in every languages and formations. Britain is more famous for pop music than it is for classical composers or jazz musicians. Names such as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Elton John, George Michael and The Spice Girls are known worldwide. Nowadays, there are every kinds of music listened in Britain, such as pop, rock, electro, hip-hop, classic, country, jazz, opera with many famous singers and music bands like Nightwish, Beyonce, Pink, Britney, Justin Timberlake, and so on. A lot of monuments and statues were built in the prehistoric time; among them are the most well-known monuments like Stonehenge, Devil’s Arrows, Rudston Monolith and Castlerigg. Classical architecture including the systems and building methods of Greece is also popular with imperial palaces, hoop-stages, Triumphal Arch, villas, Roman castle, and so on. 8 Many festivals and holidays in Britain are centuries old. Every towns, villages and hamlets in Britain has its own traditions, some involving months of careful planning and preparations of costumes and choreography, others requiring simply a worrying desire to make a complete and utter fool. The main holidays of British are Xmas, Easter and New Year. In addition, there is a holiday of Bank named Bank Holiday when all the banks and many workplaces closes. The holidays of British are different in each year and the number of days off is also different. For example, in terms of Bank Holiday, people have 8 days off in Wales, 9 days in Scotland and 10 days in North Ireland. During a year, there are lots of holidays and events which are held in different times of months. ( Table 1). Britain is full of culture and traditions which have been around for hundreds of years. British customs and traditions are famous all over the world. When people think of Britain they often think of people drinking tea, eating fish and chips and wearing bowler hats and pubs, beer, cricket, royal family, and also Shakespeare. Some socialists and researchers have been studying about British culture as well as updating the changes of country and people in Britain. Annne Collins (2001) in “British life” gives us a comprehensive view on British life and ordinary British people. He also mentions some changes in British life nowadays. In “Customs and Traditions in Britain”, Stephen Rabley (1986) discusses Britain with full of customs and traditions. A lot of them have very long histories. Some are strange and some are funny, but they are all interesting and are all part of the British way of life. David McDowall in “ Britain in close-up” , section 8 “ Culture and style: national self-expression” states how the aspects of British society express themselves and the overall view of culture and style of British such as dress code, art, sport, and so on. In “Rules, Britannia”,Toni Summer Hargis provides a comprehensive knowledge on people and life in Britain. He also covers a wide variety of subjects including driving, shopping, dining out, managing with small children and taking a vacation. 9 Christopher S. Chapman (2005) in “Controlling strategy, management, accounting and performance measurement” mentions the system of measurement in Britain and also how to account, manage and perform measurement as well. He express understandably and scientifically. In addition, David Christopher (1999) in “British culture, an introduction” explores highly varied nature of culture and the arts in Britain including the social cultural context, language and culture, theatre, cinema, fashion, architecture and interiors. In “Britain: The country and its people, an introduction for learners of English”, James O’driscoll also give the readers the overall about the country, its history as well as its geography and the life of British. In summary, culture in general and British culture in particular is very complicated and extensive. There are many researchers mentions British culture in many different aspects. However, the research about the British stubborn style is rare and there are not many researches collected all of aspects related to this issue. Therefore, it is necessary to have a study about how British stay stubbornly different and the origins of their difference. II. The British’ conservativeness (stubbornness). The British are said to be reserved in manners, dress and speech. They are famous for their politeness, self-discipline and especially for their sense of humor. British people have a strong sense of humor which sometimes can be hard for foreigners to understand. However, it is also said that the British stay stubbornly different. They are conservative with many characteristics and typical things called as British values. The British values or the “Britishness” as many may call it revolve around the British people as well as British life and how they interact with each other in the society. Many people may say that Britain has basic and mutual values due to British stereotypes. Britain has grown over the years, and this country has the ethnic and cultural diversity. The British have tried to hold on to values as far as national history. They struggle to keep their values. Having faced obstacles 10 regarding conflicts connected to colony dispenses, Britain has had strong values that we still recognize today, for example, a British tea party, double-deckers, or currency. Every person comes from a specific country and culture. And every country characterizes some specific values. The British can be particularly and stubbornly conservative about anything which is perceived as a token of “Britishness”. In these matters, their conservatism can combine with their individualism. They are rather proud of being different. II.1.What is conservativeness or stubbornness? According to the Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary, the word “conservative” has some following meaning. The first meaning is “opposed to great or sudden social change, showing that you prefer traditional styles and values, for example, The conservative views of his parents make him crazy. The second meaning is connected with the British Conservative Party, like Conservative members or supporters. The third meaning is related to estimate meaning lower than what is probably the real amount or number. For example, At a conservative estimate, he’ll be earning $50.000. In the website Wattpad.com, being “conservative” means that people always favor traditional views and values and tend to oppose changes. In other words, people are disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., to restore traditional ones, and to limit changes. For example, in some countries in Asia, people often have social conservatism. The marriage between a man and a woman must be accepted by their parents. In addition, having sex before marriage is very bad and the girl who is pregnant before the wedding is considered depraved. Moreover, in some countries, if the bride is fat, it is no good and she does not look good. However, in Montana, before the wedding, the bride try to eat as much as possible to have a big body and people believe that fat brides are gorgeous and the bridegrooms are proud of their woman. A girl cannot even get marriage if she is not fat. 11