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INCORPORATING ASEAN CULTURES INTO EFL CONTENT-BASED UNITS

Puangpen Intraprawat
Faculty of Education, Vongchavalitkul University
Nakhon Rachasima
Thailand
(puangpen@g.sut.ac.th)

ABSTRACT

Language learners from a mono-cultural society need to be exposed to different aspects of

other cultures either by class activities or having first-hand experience abroad because they
can think and behave as members of the multicultural society and have positive attitudes
towards others. For Thais to be ready to join ASEAN community, the multicultural society,
EFL teachers in Thailand should highlight the cultural diversity in their classes, not limit to
the teaching of linguistic skills. This paper reports on the effect of intercultural language
learning on learners EFL learning. In the paper, I will demonstrate how a content-based unit
is implemented in a low proficiency EFL class. The cultural components aiming at raising
learners intercultural competence are proposed. The approach is appropriate for the study of
any culture.

Keywords: EFL, content-based cultural units, ASEAN cultures, intercultural competence.

Introduction
Culture teaching in a foreign language classroom has always been included in its
curriculum; however, it has not been emphasized as much as it is recently. In 2015, ten
countries in South-East Asia will become the ASEAN community. It is expected that people
in this newly established community are going to have more frequent contact, especially in
social functions and in the workforce. They then will use English as the communicative
medium when they meet each other. In addition, they have to be intercultural speakers
(Byram & Zarate 1997, p. 11) who have the abilities to interact with others, accept other
perspectives, be conscious of the cultural differences. Unfortunately, such abilities cannot
occur naturally; they have to be developed by intercultural training (Bennett, 2001, p. 1;
Chlopek, 2008, p. 12). This training can be conducted in class or having the first-hand
experience abroad.
Teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), many teachers in Thailand now try to
find effective ways to help their students develop intercultural competence so that they can be
successful in their intercultural communication. One of the English courses offered at
Vongchavalitkul University, Nakhon Rachasima, Thailand, also aims at reaching this specific
goal with ASEAN cultures as the content and four language related skills as the emphasis on
English.
Designing this course is interesting to me on the personal level. In addition, the sample
unit described in this paper will have relevance in inviting other EFL or ESL teachers to
ponder on the practicality of teaching intercultural competence. The main aim of this paper is
to draw the readers attention to the teaching method and learning activities suited for
promoting intercultural competence in the class.

The Concepts of Culture, Intercultural Competence, Intercultural Learning

1. The Concepts of Culture. Culture is viewed as an iceberg being made of a small,
visible part above the water line (10%) and a huge, invisible part underneath the water (90%)
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(Hall, 1976). This iceberg metaphor symbolizes culture as having the visible manifestations
representing the behaviour aspects such as greeting, customs, gestures, food. It can be easily
observed with touch, taste, smell, sound. Another part represents the mental aspects of
culture: norms and values, hidden rules of conduct, and ideas. They are subjective
knowledge, difficult to change and implicitly learned. However, they can ultimately become
visible through words we use, the ways we act and communicate with each other. To
understand them, we have to analyze, interpret them and reflect on our own core values.
The concepts of culture have been referred as products, practices, and perspectives in
the field of teaching foreign languages as stated in the Standard 2a of the American Council
of the Teaching of Foreign languages (ACTFL) (2014). The products, tangible or intangible,
are things that people produce. The examples of the tangible ones are food, a work of art,
clothing etc.; the intangible ones are literature, educational or legal systems, celebrations, art,
etc. The practices are what people do to the products or behaviors such as appropriate
greetings, school routines, and New Year celebration. The perspectives are the ways people
think. They include the attitudes (individual characteristics such as curiosity and interest in
others), beliefs (to be good or bad), or values (to be true or false) of a culture (Condon
&Yousef, 1975 cited in UNESCO: 2013, p. 11).
2. Intercultural Competence. UNESCO (2013, p. 12) states simply that
intercultural describes what occur when people with different cultures interact. However,
after 30 years, the definition of cultural competence has not yet agreed upon (Deardorff,
2006:242). The term has been named and defined differently in different disciplines. Some
of the names being called include intercultural communicative competence (ICC),
transcultural communication, cross-cultural adaptation, and intercultural sensitivity (Fantini &
Tirmizi, 2006). For example, for interculturalists, it is the ability to communicate effectively
in cross-cultural situations and to relate appropriately in a variety of cultural contexts (Bennett
and Bennett, 2004: 149). It is a complex of abilities needed to perform effectively and
appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from
oneself (Fantini & Tirmizi, 2006, p. 12). In communication studies, one definition is A
wealth of interaction skills that permit individuals to cross cultural boundaries flexibly and
adaptively. (Ting-Toomey, 1999:261). British Council calls it intercultural communicative
competence (ICC) and states that it is an attempt to raise students awareness of their own
culture. In so doing, it helps them interpret and understand other cultures. It is asserted that
ICC is not just a body of knowledge, but a set of practices requiring knowledge, skills and
attitudes. Another definition of intercultural competence based on Deardorffs survey study
(2006) is Ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations
based on ones intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Thus, it can be concluded that
intercultural competence is the ability to take part in a social context with other individuals
who have linguistically and culturally different backgrounds effectively and appropriately.
What features contribute to intercultural competence? The abilities of an ideal
intercultural competent person as described in Byrams (1997) five-factor model of
intercultural competence are attitude, knowledge, skills of interpreting and relating, skills of
discovery and interaction, and critical intercultural awareness. First, attitude refers to the
ability to relativize ones self and value others. It includes curiosity and openness, readiness
to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about ones own (p. 91). Secondly,
knowledge refers to knowledge of the rules for individual and social interaction. It consists of
knowing social groups and their practices, both in ones own culture and in the other culture,
and realizing that people have multiple identities. The next two different skills are
interpreting and relating which describes an individuals ability to interpret, explain, and
relate events and documents from another culture to ones own culture, and discovery and
interaction allowing the individual to acquire new knowledge of culture and cultural
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practices. This includes the ability to use existing knowledge, attitudes, and skills in cross-
cultural interactions (p. 98). The last one is critical cultural awareness .It includes respect for
human dignity, recognition of human right, awareness of ones own values and their influence
on of other peoples values. Similarly, Bennett (2001) concludes that being an intercultural
competent person requires three different sets of abilities: the ability to recognize cultural
differences and to maintain a positive attitude, the ability to identify potential areas of
misunderstanding and behave appropriately, and the ability to cope with cultural differences
wisely.
3. Intercultural Teaching in a Language Learning Class. In terms of foreign
language learning, both major frameworks for reference: Council of Europes Common
European Framework of Reference for Language Learning (CEFR) (2001) and American
Council of the Teaching of Foreign languages (ACTFL) (2014) make the development of
learners intercultural competence as the major goal. In CEFR, it is stated that one of the
main aims of a language class is to develop learners ability to communicate with each other
across linguistic and cultural boundaries (2001, p. 3). Similarly, Standard 2a of ACTFL
(2014) Demonstrate target cultural understandings and compare cultures through
perspectives, products, and practices of those cultures. The similar aims are, no doubt,
widely supported by many language educators (Byram, 1997; Sellami, 2000; Mountford
&Wadham-Smith 2000).
Once the goal of language learning, promoting the intercultural competence, is clearly
stated, a number of methods of how to reach it are also suggested. For example, ACTFL
(2014) recommends language students learn the cultural elements through the three
communicative modes: interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational. In addition, Morans
(2001) Cultural Knowings Framework is another method used for teaching intercultural
language learning skills. This framework refers to four knowings: Knowing About,
Knowing How, Knowing Why and Knowledge Oneself. Furthermore, Crozet and Liddicoat
(2000) and Liddicoat (2002) propose these principles for learning language and culture: Learn
about cultures, compare cultures, explore cultures, and find ones own view between cultures.
Liddicoat (2005c, p. 6) further proposes a process-oriented approach for developing
intercultural competence.

Content-based Instruction (CBI)

Content-based instruction has been called in different names such as CLIL (Content and
language integrated learning (EU), language across the curriculum, cross-curricular language
learning, etc. It in fact is an approach that uses the subject matter as a vehicle in language
teaching and learning. The benefits of this type of instruction are that the students
motivation, success, engagement and interest increase because of the stimulating content.
Drnyei (2001) also asserts that students will not be motivated to learn unless they regard the
material they are taught as worth learning (p. 63). And through the stimulating content, the
learners can get exposure to rich language data. Furthermore, once the students get
motivated, they then feel more confident in using the language and thinking more about the
content. This in turn enhances the students higher types of thinking such as analysing,
synthesizing, solving problem, etc. However, one of the difficulties in implementing the
content-based instruction is that the course designer cannot predetermine the language (e.g.
grammar structures, vocabulary, function, etc.) to be learned. He/ she has to wait until the
selection of texts representing the contents is done. Thus, it is advisable that when using the
content-based instruction, the teachers should include learners in the choice of topics and
activities. Besides, the teachers have to be very careful in choosing the materials to be used in
class that they are appropriate at the level of the students language proficiency. Furthermore,
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the teachers have to keep in mind that the focus is on the language for thinking and school
learning. Finally, the teachers have to offer scaffolding when and where it is needed.

Application of the Content-based Intercultural Learning in an EFL Classroom

The course name: English for ASEAN learning

Type of course: compulsory/non-credit Language level: beginner
Time needed: about 14 sessions/ 3 hrs. each Class size: 30
Age group: 27-38 (almost all -in-service Environment: mono-lingual
teachers with family) classroom
The goals: 1) To develop English language skills emphasizing reading and critical
thinking through the course topics, 2) for students to learn ASEAN cultures.
Upon completion of the course, the students should be able to 1) read passages on topics
related to ASEAN cultures, comprehend and critically discuss about them; 2) speak, read,
write to explain the cultural elements about ASEAN cultures arising in class, 3) do small
groups project related to ASEAN cultures of their choice.
The content: The class agreed on the following topics and their concepts:
1. Greeting: Concepts-different ways people greet each other in different ASEAN
cultures, how formal and informal we need to be with family, friends, and guests.
2. Names and Addresses: Concepts-different forms of titles and names, ways of
describing where people live, and how parents choose their childrens names.
3. Gestures and Customs: Concepts-gestures of the body and appropriateness in specific
situations.
4. Buying Food: Concepts-different customs in buying food, specifically, who does the
shopping, what people buy, how and where they but it.
5. Food and Drink: Concepts-typical food and drink from different ASEAN cultures,
specifically, traditional dishes, mealtimes, special meals, table manners.
6. Identity and Values: Concepts-relationship between individual (the state they belong
to), factors involved such as gender, age, and background.
7. Face: Concept-personal reputation or prestige as seen by other people.
8. People Like You: Concepts: How we see other people, and how others see us,
specifically, exploring stereotypes.
The following flow chart shows the relationship of the cultural concepts and the topics:

ASEAN Cultures

Social conventions and rituals-e.g. Customs and traditions-e.g. Values and attitudes-
greeting, gesture, etc. family life, holidays, etc. e.g. time, identity and face,
etc.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. People
Greeting Names Gestures Buying Food Identity Face Like You

Figure 1: the relationship of the cultural concepts and the topics of the course
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THE SAMPLE UNIT: BUYING FOOD

The unit, Buying Food, is used as an example. It consists of a series of three lessons
organizing around food shopping.

Estimated time: 90 minutes X 3 sessions including summative assessment

Situation: The students in the class have plans to visit ASEAN countries.
Goals:
To compare different ways of buying food of people in the ASEAN countries
To search for information about buying food from authentic language and content
of the ASEAN cultures
To describe different cultures related to buying food in the ASEAN countries.
To pratice language skills
Final Student Performance:
1. Acquire cultural knowledge about food shopping in ASEAN countries and present
the work to the whole class.
2. Research and compare types of food and peoples behaviors of buying food in
ASEAN countries.
3. Exchange ideas and viewpoints about issues of buying food in ASEAN countries.
Interpretive Tasks:
Read two texts about buying food in one ASEAN country of your choice. As you scan
the texts, fill in the questionnaire that your group members developed to organize your
thoughts and help you to understand the information in the texts.
Interpersonal Tasks:
Conduct a survey of students who does food shopping in your class. Focus on
questions pertaining to the reasons for their food selection, specific places/shops they
prefer to go buying food, problems in buying food, and health related issues.
Additionally, ask those who have been in other ASEAN countries to compare their
food buying.
Presentational Tasks:
Prepare and present a PowerPoint presentation about your findings (Buying food in for
a particular ASEAN country of your choice). Following the presentation, the audience can
have the opportunity to ask questions and state opinions on the issues.
Objectives: By the end of the unit, students would be able to:
1. identify different types of food by the way they are sold (e.g. in containers, and by
measurements) by categorizing them in separate boxes individually;
2. (in pairs) read and comprehend the texts by matching the questions and the answers
and rearranging them in chronological order;
3. (in small groups) search for the information from different sources both in English
and Thai including the internet and compare different customs in buying food in
ASEAN countries in terms of who does the shopping, what people typically buy,
and where they go to buy;
4. engage in role playing about buying food using the given dialogue as a guide;
5. (in small groups) talk about buying food in Thailand by using information sheets ;
6. (in small groups) prepare and present orally the cultural perspectives and personal
views relating to buying food in ASEAN countries ;
7. ask and answer questions and express opinions about different ways of buying food
in ASEAN countries.
Assessment:
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1. Students participate in class activities.

2. Students read buying food related materials and demonstrate understanding of
the main idea and specific details by summarizing and synthesizing.
3. Students research and collect relevant materials.
4. Students write the presentation slides and present the information about buying
food in ASEAN countries and express their perspectives orally.
5. Students exchange ther ideas about the issues of buying food in ASEAN countries
with their friends in the class.

Materials:
1. Unit 4 Buying Food, pp. 12-13 (Greenall, S,s People Like Us)
2. Handouts: Talking about the customs and culture:
In Thailand, (women do most fo the shopping).
Its the same/similar in .....(the name of the country).
Its different to .....(the name of the country).
3. Authentic materials from other sources including the internet.
4. Handout: Vocabulary:
Markets: a local market, a covered market, a Weights
supermarket, a local street market, hypermarket, Liquids
a department store, bakery, butcher, stall, a stall Bargain
holder Stand in line, cut in line
Waste: Trash, dry waste, garbage (kitchen Siesta
waste) Buying units: A packet of
Meat: beef, chicken, cigarette, a liter of milk , a
Vegetables: chili peppers, potatoes carton of orange juice, a
Seafood: fish, shrimps kilo of fish, 250g of butter
Rice, cooking oil, fruit Can, bunch, tube
Skills:
Thinking skills: Classify, identifying, comparing, reasoning, matching, reflecting,
making generalization, synthesizing information.
Language skills: Describing, asking, answering, reading, discussing, giving
opinions, listening to peer, presenting information, writing
presentation about shopping behaviour.
Social skills: Participating in class, working in pairs and small groups, giving
feedback, taking notes, looking up words, cooperating in groups,
researching for information
Literacy skills: word reading, reviewing sentence structures, reviewing yes-no
questions and wh-questions

Learning Activities
Phase 1: Stimulates students interest and raises essential questions
1) The teacher introduced the unit by showing the students the word, .Buying food on
the screen and encourange them to brainstorm based on the following questions:
How has food affected our ways of life?
In daily life, how do people buy food?
Why do people buy food the way they do?Their buying behaviors, choices and
types of food, places where they buy food.
2) Elicit from the students previously learned vocabulary and language functions as
well as expressions required to discuss the questions. From the elicitation, the
teacher creates a semantic map that outline ideas, language functions and related
vocabulary (shown in the appendix A.).
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3) Implements activities and tasks for students to acquire vocabulary and functions
they need to discuss the topic.
4) Asks the students to work in pairs attemping to answer the essential questions.
They share their ideas, later discuss the issues with the whole class.
Phase 2: Focusses on content and language functions
1) (Using the text). The teacher told the students to open the book to page 12 and
asked them to look at the photo of a Thai woman, Chutima, and informed them
who the woman was, how old she was, and where she was from ( her nationality).
2) Interpretive tasks: Reading and listening: The set of questions and answers
about buying food (e.g. items of food, where to buy, who does the shopping, how
often, days and opening and closing times of different types of shops, problems of
food shopping) was used in introducing the scenario of an interview between
Chutima and her foreign friend. The teacher read while the students listened; after
that the students individually read the text.
3) Preparation in group work: In groups, learners
a) matched the questions with Chutimas answers, put them in the correct order,
b) wrote down what Chutima buys, where, how often , what she likes and dislikes
her food shopping and why,
c) discussed Chutimas problems with food and buying food, tried to find the
solution,
d) had mini-lessons to review the question forms (Yes-no, and wh- questions).
Phase 3: Involves students in performance tasks addressing communication
1) Interpersonal tasks: Representatives of the groups
a) played the roles of Chutima and her foreign friends, asked and answered
questions,
b) discussed the problems of buying food and tried to reach a solution,
c) The class circulated around the room and asked each other about three favourite
places for buying food, three favourite food, types of food, how they buy the
food, reasons for buying, etc.
2) Reflection
a) The group representatives talked about their experiences of acting as Chutima
and her foreign friends asking and answering questions about food shopping.
b) The class also talked about their experience of their asking their friends,
c) Audience gave feedback:
Were they asking and answering questions authentically?
Did they cover the important points?
(The session ended.)
3) Research work.
a) Individual groups searched for information about food shopping of people in
ASEAN countries. (Done as homework)
b) Individual groups represented individual ASEAN countries
c) They read and created information sheets (as content support) about food
shopping of the people in the country that they were responsible. They looked
for the answers to such questions as:
Who does the food shopping? What do shoppers bargain for?
What kinds of stores are there? Do shoppers need to stand in line?
What are the opening hours? How expensive is ?
What kinds of food do they buy? Where do they buy food? etc.
The students were reminded to notice any specific food they did not know.
Mini-lessons on reading strategies were provided as needed
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4) Preparation for the talk. With the information sheets available for everyone in
the class, individual groups prepared the talk about buying food in the ASEAN
countries. (The language support was provided when needed.)
(The session ended.)
5) Small group presentation. The individual groups presented the talk to the class.
The audience took notes to be used in the class discussion.
6) Class discussion for intercultural awareness. The class discussed the cultural
aspects included in the talks. The students brought in the materials about individual
countries such as pictures of foodstuffs, food stalls, people behaviours why buying,
various types of food etc. they had found to show to the class.
name similarities and differences of types of food and buying food among
ASEAN cultures
explain the ASEAN people s behaviours
Look for logical reasons by suggesting four possible choices why people do
the way they did.
(The last session of this unit ended.)

Teachers Reflections
Learners responses to this unit were positive. Most of them said they enjoyed their
class participation even though they really had to try very hard to express their ideas because
of their low language proficiency.
Buying Food is just one example of the topics that can be used for learners to be aware
of intercultural issues. As an English language teacher supporting the teaching of ASEAN
cultures I made every effort to encourage my students to see how people could communicate
effectively.

Conclusion
Content-based instruction allows teachers to teach English through the medium of
interesting content, in this case, ASEAN cultures. It leads learners to engage in doing
activities enthusiastically and improve English language abilities . As for intercultural
competence, the author believes that it can be introduced and developed from early stages
throughout the learning process through cultural materials and specific learning activities
similar to the ones presented here.
_______________________________________________

The Author
Puangpen Intraprawat is an associate professor in the Department of Education at
Vongchavalitkul University, Nakhon Rachasima, Thailand. She teaches a variety of courses
such as Academic Writing, EAP (Educational Administration, Accounting), ESP (Nursing),
Preparation for TOEIC, IELTs, She received her doctorate degree in English from Illinois
State University, USA. Her research interests are in the area of TEFL.

References
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language learning for the 21st Century. A collaborative project of ACTFL, AATF,
AATG, AATI, AATSP, ACL/APA, ACTR, CLASS/CLTA, & NCSTJ/ATJ. Retrieved
July 5, 2014, from http://www.actfl.org/files/ public/execsumm.pdf.
Bennett, M. J. (2001). Developing intercultural competence for global leadership. In R-D
Reineke & C. Fussinger (Eds.), Interkulturelles management: Konzeption beratung
training. Germany: Gabler.
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APPENDIX A:

Semantic Map: Categorization of important content ideas, vocabulary, language functions

related to Buying Food. It also outlines the concepts and content.

Who does the shopping/cooking

Male
Language female
o Comparatives
o Superlatives Buying Food Family members
o Expressions of o Retired couple
opinion o Family of four
o Narration o Single
o Description
Types of food
o Cooking food with
ingredients
o Premade food
Buying Food Factors o Ready meals
o Daily VS weekly shopping
o Prices
o Quality of food they eat Places where people buy food
o Convenience: parking, near o Famers markets/ supermarkets,
home, on the way, buy things at convenient stores/morning markets
one time o Specific place: baker, green grocer,
o Local food/imported food butcher, etc.
o Specific types of food available o Favourite places for different groups
only in one country/ Weird of people
food
o How people go to buy food