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1. RATIONALE

The purpose of this study is to determine the context in which Vietnamese students attain
target language literacy, and the cultural transfer in order to overcome the challenges of
cultural interferences. This study is conducted in an English class at CITC – Centre for
International Training Cooperation at Hanoi Open University, where IELTS is a prerequisite
for entrance and completion of the mainstream courses.

For any Vietnamese learners striving to master English, writing is a demanding skill that
requires the development of language proficiency, the development of cultural knowledge and
cultural understanding, and the fostering of positive cross-cultural attitudes. Therefore,
students have much more than grammar and vocabulary to learn. They should be underway of
exploring and acquiring the target cultural values as well as the way of knowing and learning.

2. AIMS OF THE STUDY
As the certificates of IELTS and TOEFL are more widely recognized, Vietnamese students
now find themselves facing up to the obstacle of cultural transfer mostly in writing. In IELTS
writing task 2, students have to learn – in many cases for the first time – to write an essay
arguing a position on a topic from their own point of view. To better understand the problem
that students have adjusted to a new way of thinking and learning in English classes, the
researcher will look further into the socio-cultural and cultural pragmatics perspectives of this
challenge. Although there has been some research on the studying of Asian students, less is
known about pedagogical practices in the teaching of literacy in the Vietnamese context,
especially in mastering IELTS writing skills. To achieve this overall purpose, the study aims
to
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- 3 - human-related resources to answer these questions. Glossner (1990) believes that “[the]
richness and complexity of students’ attitudes toward learning might be better understood
through qualitative research techniques than quantitative research techniques” (p. 16). Thus,
the use of qualitative research in this study was appropriate since it took place in a natural
setting and depended on data collection methods that were based on words rather than on
numbers. The role of the researcher is that of participant observer, sharing class work and homework,
collecting all writing done in class, interviewing students and lecturer before and after class.
In other words, the researcher became both an insider and outsider in order to both understand
the students’ experience and evaluate it objectively as an observer. Being guided by the
preceding research questions, all the data were carefully reviewed and analyzed for salient
themes which would help create a finely grained description of the class in order to better
understand the entering freshman’s perspectives on learning language, specifically writing
skills.

The main techniques of carryong out the research are:
 Interviewing students and teachers
 Taped transcripts
 Collecting writing pieces of students
 Document analyis
 Observation

4. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Because of the limit of time, the research paper focus on the cultural aspects of Vietnamese
students’ writing scripts of IELTS task 2 at CITC - HOU. All the texts are marked, identified,

knowledge that person uses to interpret experience. In other words, culture should be seen as
the framework of assumptions, ideas, and beliefs that are used to interpret other people's
actions, words, and patterns of thinking. However, it is crucial that foreign language learners
should become aware of differing cultural frameworks, both their own and those of others;
otherwise they will use their own cultural system to interpret target-language messages whose
intended meaning may be well be predicated on quite different cultural assumptions.

According to Martin (1993), in the fields of social psychology and studies of communication,
cultural competence is seen in social effectiveness (i.e. the ability to achieve instrumental and
social goals) and appropriateness (i.e. suitable communication in a given situation in a
particular culture). The term has been defined in foreign language learning as "the ability of a
person to behave adequately in a flexible manner when confronted with actions, attitudes and
expectations of representatives of foreign cultures" (Meyer, 1991, p. 137).

On one hand, human culture, social behaviour and thinking would not exist without language
as Edward Sapir (1985: 171) stated, “ Language actually shapes the way which we perceive,
think, and therefore act”. On the other hand, transfer means exchange procedure between two
cultural areas (i.e. between Germany and English or between France and Russia). Thus,
culture transfer can be defined in the comparison with ordinary learning.

I.1.1. Transfer versus ordinary learning
According to David N. Perkins and Gavriel Salomon in their contribution to the International
Encyclopaedia of Education in 1992, any learning in a sense requires a modicum of transfer.
- 6 - To say that learning has occurred means that the person can display that learning later. Even if
the later situation is very similar, there will be some contrasts  perhaps time of day or the
physical setting. So no absolute line can be drawn between ordinary learning and transfer.


separately in their homework, or when a garage mechanic repairs an engine in a new model of
car, but with a design much the same as in prior models. Far transfer refers to transfer
between contexts that, on appearance, seem remote and alien to one another. For instance, a
chess player might apply basic strategic principles such as “take control of the centre” to
investment practices, politics, or military campaigns. It should be noted that “near” and “far''
are intuitive notions that resist precise codification. They are useful in broadly characterizing
some aspects of transfer but do not imply any strictly defined metric of “closeness”.

I.1.4. Prospects of transfer
As noted earlier, transfer is especially important to learning theory and educational practice
because very often the kinds of transfer hoped for do not occur. The renowned educational
psychologist E. L. Thorndike conducted the classic investigation of this in the first decades of
the 20
th
century. Thorndike examined the proposition that studies of Latin disciplined the
mind, preparing people for better performance in other subject matters. Comparing the
performance in other academic subjects of students who had taken Latin with those who had
not, Thorndike (1923) found no advantage of Latin studies whatsoever. In other experiments,
Thorndike and Woodworth (1901) sought, and generally failed to find, positive impact of one
sort of learning on another. Thorndike concluded that transfer depended on “identical
elements” in two performances and that most performances were simply too different from
one another for much transfer to be expected. In terms of the rough near-far distinction, near
transfer is much more likely than far transfer.

Thorndike's early and troubling findings have re-emerged again and again in other
- 8 - investigations. For instance, the advent of computer programming as a school subject matter
stimulated the proposal that computer programming developed general problem solving skills,

arranged to form words, and words have to be arranged to form sentences. However, they are
not unrelated sentences, they must be joined together to form what is called 'a text'. So to the
learners at this level, writing means producing" a sequence of sentences arranged in a
particular order and link together in a certain ways" (Byrne: 1991).

At a high level, in academic education, writing has been defined as a creative process, which
requites some preparation, drafting and revising. Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (l999) and Brown,
K. & Hood, S. (l992) suggested a practical writing process as follows:
Figure 1: Process of writing
(Source: Brown & Hood 1992: 6)

From another point of view on writing, language teachers consider it as a supportive skill and
as a communicative skill. Students often use writing as a supportive skill when they try to
learn a linguistic system. For example, they copy down learned materials, paying attention to
grammatical features, vocabulary and spelling, and they complete grammar practice exercises
to reinforce their knowledge of structures. As a communicative skill, students can express
their ideas and opinions. They can write about what they are interested in and know about,
what they want to communicate with someone else and what they want a reader to know.

Greater emphasis on communication in the classroom has brought a realization that students
may benefit from earlier exposure to personal and creative writing. One more common view
Preparing
Preparing
Preparing Preparing


I.2.3. What makes an effective writing?

- 11 - According to Brown, K & Hood, S (1989), effective writings require a number of things, a
high degree of organization in the development of ideas and information, a high degree of
accuracy so that there is no ambiguity of meaning; the use of complex grammatical devices
for focus and emphasis, and a careful choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and
sentence structures to create a style which is appropriate to the subject matter and the eventual
readers.

Nevertheless, producing a good writing remains a challenge for many students. In order to
achieve it, they should be proficient not only in grammar, socio-linguistic, discourse and
strategic competences but also in cultural competences.

I.3. Previous research on writing skills and cultural transfer
Among the four main skills to acquire and master a second language literacy, writing is
conceded by many researchers as being extremely complex. Unlike the receptive reading and
listening tasks, writing requires both social and linguistic knowledge, and skills to be fulfilled.
Especially, writing conducted in a second language does need cultural understanding and
practice.

Interestingly, as it is shown in many existing researches, the concepts of teaching writing vary
widely from culture to culture. Purvis (1992) found through his study that involved students,
teachers, and researchers in fourteen countries that the concept of writing could include a
wide variety of tasks, including note taking, business writing, and summarizing. From east to
west, perceptions toward literacy tasks in the classroom may also vary. According to Song
(1995), East Asians’ need and tend to be submissive to the teachers. This very attitude

deliberately digressed from the topic, whereas, the Anglo-American writers relied more on
linear rhetoric, using enumeration as a transitional device, such as first, next, then, and after
that.

More recent research has examined rhetorical strategies in student persuasive writing. Ferris
(1989) examined 60 persuasive writing samples, half of which were by native English
- 13 - speakers and the other half by non-native speakers. He found that the differences between the
two populations might be due to lack of preparation for argument writing. One of the results
of the study was the recommendation for more investigation into the educational background
of ESL students entering as college freshmen, especially with respect to learning to write
persuasive discourse.

Aside from differences in rhetorical styles, social construction of knowledge within discourse
communities has become an important area of research (Leki, 1991) since these constructs
can transfer to the second language literacy acquisition process. Socialization styles in the
classroom vary from culture to culture; students often come from classrooms in which
interaction between peers and between students and teachers is nonexistent. Instead, teacher-
dominated environments tend to be the rule in some of the cultures studied (Ramirez, Yuen,
Ramey, and Pasta, 1991).

I.4. Vietnamese traditional class and writing styles
Under the immense influence of Confucianism and especially Chinese literature for more than
a thousand years, Vietnamese literary development has gone through lots of transfer and
assimilation. In Vietnamese traditional idea three people that always deserve respect are the
king, the father, and the teacher. In that ideology, people must follow those people’s advice
and even die for them if necessary. Thus, the traditional class is a model of a teacher sitting in
front of all students, talking and enjoying the supreme power in the setting. Students were

are regarded as strange and inappropriate. This has many causes, though, partly from
teachers’ teaching styles, and partly from students themselves. But this controversial issue has
attracted lots of attention recently when a girl student wrote in her exam that she couldn’t see
any beauty in a famous poem by a Vietnamese patriot in the war against French colony. This
was a shocking idea, as generations of teachers and students have had to follow that model of
thinking about the beauty of that poem!
TEACHER TEXTBOOK
mastery of
knowledge

STUDENTS
transmission

grammar
vocabulary

Language
learning focus
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I.5. The relationship between writing and culture
The relationship between writing and culture can be described as that of a component and an
assembly to which it belongs (“culture” hereby covers the way of life, including knowledge,
arts, beliefs, social conventions, or customs…). Their relationship can also be envisioned as
that of a component and the others in the assembly. The nature of these relationships can be
characterized as interactive and multi-dimensional.

Language, writing and culture have been in a close relationship, as language is a means of
Figure 3: Kaplan’s model of thinking
“Linearity” (Anglo-Saxon)
"Parallelconstruction" with the first idea completed in the second part (Semitic)
"Circularity" with the topic looked at from different tangents (Oriental)
"Freedom" to digress and introduce 'extraneous' material (Romance)
"Amplification” - similar to “Freedom” but with different lengths and parenthetical
amplifications of subordinate elements.

In 1966, Robert Kaplan, in "Cultural Thought Patterns in Cultural Education," analyzed the
organization of individual paragraphs in approximately six hundred compositions by ESL
(English as Second Language) students and sought to identify rhetorical differences in their
writings to contrast with rhetorical characteristics in English paragraph development. His
essay thus pioneered an area of study that is now known as "contrastive rhetoric." Altogether
- 17 - he identified five types of paragraph development for five cultural groups, and each type
reflects a corresponding culture's thought patterns. For example, paragraph development in
Anglo-European expository writing follows a linear path, whereas speakers of Semitic
languages construct paragraphs based on a complex series of parallel constructions. Oriental
writing, on the other hand, can be characterized by an indirect approach as its paragraphs are
"turning and turning in a widening gyre" (10). In Romance languages and in Russian,


I.6. General Language Testing
I.6.1. What is a language test?
The first question to answer is then what is a language test. A number of definitions may be
provided that will explain the concept of a test. One definition given by Carroll (1968) is:
“A psychological or educational test is a procedure designed to elicit cream behaviour from
loch one can make inferences about certain characteristics of an individua1.” (Carroll
1968:46).
So a test may be defined as a measurement instrument that gives us a sample of an
individual’s behaviour. The language test may also be defined as a device that tries to
estimate how much the students have learned in a language course; or as an attempt to
produce, interpret or recall certain type of material that was taught by the teacher and learned
by students.
I.6.2. Why do we test?
The second question to answer is why do we test. The reasons for language testing are
diverse. The test is given to the students when there is a need to:
1) Find out about the progress the students have made in the language areas and
skills, which have just been taught
- 19 - 2) Check the understanding of language; this is an indication for the teacher if he
has taught the students
3) Find out about the achievement, how much the students know, how much they
have learned of what should have been taught
4) Find out about difficulties, diaries the specific features of language that the
students may have problem mastering;
5) Encourage the students and increase their motivation, show them the goals they
have already reached and indicate that they are constantly making progress, that they
learn new things and become more fluent;

words. In both tasks you must write in the formal academic style appropriate to the question
task. You will also be marked on your ability to organise your writing, and on your choice of
content within your answers. The question tasks do not require you to have any specialised
knowledge of a particular subject.

For Task 1 you describe information that is presented to you in a graph, table, chart, diagram,
or short piece of text. The description is usually given in the form of a report. You might have
to compare sets of data, or use a set of data to support a given statement. Alternatively, you
might be required to describe the stages of a process, describe an object, or explain how
something works, or how it is used.

For Task 2 you are asked to write a formal essay or a report in which you might have to offer
a solution to a particular problem, present and justify an opinion, compare information given
in the question task, or evaluate and challenge a given argument, for example:
 Present and justify an opinion
e.g. Do you think trial by jury should be used in all criminal cases?
- 21 -  Compare and contrast evidence, opinions and implications
e.g. How effective is it to teach and study with and without computers?



Evaluate and challenge ideas, evidence or an argument e.g. ‘Failure shows desire wasn’t strong enough’. To what extent do you
agree?


been taken into consideration to a satisfactory extent.

Although there are some studies on Asian populations, there is a specific scarcity of research
on Vietnamese students acquiring an argumentative writing in English, especially in
completing IELTS writing task 2. - 23 - 
II.1. Research procedure
II.1.1. Setting of the Study

This study was conducted at Hanoi Open University, specifically in the Center for
International Training and Cooperation. The center offers a number of IELTS preparation
courses, for students who need to develop their writing ability in order to meet academic
requirements.

I first contacted the instructor of the class and asked her for permission to observe her class
and ask the students to volunteer in this study. The lecturer gave me her full permission to
attend the class at any time. She also provided me with the syllabus for the course. The class
met twice a week throughout a four-month semester. The course was based on the thinking-
writing process, which includes lots of writing skills needed for the IELTS pressure. In this
course, the instructor provided theory of essay writing as well as models of texts, and engaged
students in analyzing and editing class papers, group discussion and peer review, and writing
for specific audiences. The course depended on giving students opportunities to practise
writing task 1 and task 2 of IELTS.

Students were required to complete assigned home writing before each class meets. They

students’ transfer of skills.

Due to the results of the participants’ writing placement tests, the participants were placed in
different groups of the college writing course required for all students. This course aims at
developing their writing ability to meet the requirements of their academic course of study.
Although the participants came from different parts of the country, they shared similar
background information about their L2 learning experiences, in general, and about their
writing experiences, in particular. This section highlights the participants' background
information based on the first interview.
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The participants' ages ranged from 18 to 23. Their English learning experiences were limited
to school. The English courses in intermediate and high school were confined to basic
language skills, such as spelling and grammar. They did not have any writing experiences
except for school requirements, which were limited to completing exercises or doing
homework, again largely focused on grammar. This course, ESL College Writing, was their
first and only language course. Table one shows some background information about the
participants:
Table 1- Background Information

Participants Age & Gender Major College Writing
Courses
Nguyen Van Hoa 19 /M Accounting 0
Chu Thanh Mai 21/F Telecom 1
Dang The Dung 20/M
Computer
Science
1