EFL Teachers’ Teaching Intercultural Communication and Four Skills through “American English Files 2” Textbook and the Reasons for Their Teaching Practices, A Case at an English Center in Can Tho City, Vietnam

Abstract

The article discussed outstanding issues in how teachers taught Multicultural Communication (ICC) and four English skills through the English textbook “American English Files 2” at a language center in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The concepts of culture, multiculturalism, teaching and supporting teaching tools as well as the reasons for choosing those teaching tools were identified respectively. At the same time, multicultural contents were exploited when teachers combined four basic language skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing). The relationships and benefits of combining multicultural teaching with skills were also presented. Furthermore, factors such as instruction, curriculum and textbooks that impacted the success and failure of cultural instruction for Englishas Foreign Language (EFL) learners at the center would be described. In addition, many other teaching aids such as Information Technology (IT), supplementary materials, or other ICC teaching and learning techniques would be explored. Data analysis results from tools, namely questionnaires and interviews would be described, analyzed and commented. What‟s more, the assessment of intercultural awareness and the use of supplementary tools in the lessons would be depicted. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of using complementary tools to teach ICC and the four skills in a language classroom where student willingness was critical were mentioned after data analysis. Finally, some discussions and conclusions were raised.