Achieving cultural competence in Vietnamese EFL classes: a case study from an intercultural communicative competence perspective

The process of teaching and learning foreign languages in the era of globalisation aims to equip students with intercultural awareness and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) (Sercu, Carmen, Garcia, & Castro, 2004). This goal is being conceptualised as a new requirement that teachers should promote among their students through the inclusion of intercultural knowledge, skills and attitudes in foreign language education (Byram, 1993b). To achieve this goal, culture must be addressed as a core component in language programs and integrated with the teaching of linguistic elements. In Vietnam, the common goal for English language study noted in Decision No 1400/QĐ-TTg on 30 September, 2008, emphasises the training of young Vietnamese citizens to become communicative and intercultural English users. This objective of English language teaching requires Vietnamese English teachers to provide students with opportunities to achieve cultural competence alongside linguistic competence. This study looks at the teaching of culture in the contemporary context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching at the Vietnamese tertiary level, examining the presentation of culture in the official teaching materials and the teaching practices in terms of the ways and the extent to which they infuse culture into EFL lessons. This study adopted a qualitative case study approach, and was conducted in two phases: Phase 1 (Document Collection and Analysis) and Phase 2 (Teachers’ Interviews, Classroom Observations and Field notes). I employed various strategies to collect the data: document analysis, one-on-one interviews, individual interviews for member checking, classroom observations and field notes. The case study research revealed two key findings: the gap between how the cultural content is presented in Vietnamese tertiary English textbooks and the conceptualisations of cultural competence from an ICC perspective; and the gap between the Vietnamese tertiary EFL teachers’ teaching practices and the development of students’ ICC. The shortcomings of the textbook content and the teachers’ tendency to limit the teaching of culture influenced Vietnamese English students’ development of ICC. This study provides a framework for the teaching of culture in the Vietnamese context, which will help teachers and policy makers improve English language teaching, with the aim of achieving the intercultural goals of language study in our globalised community.