FIRST YEAR STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON CULTURAL FACTORS THAT HINDER VIETNAMESE AND KOREAN FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES IN FELTE, ULIS =

Abstract

Abstract Culture has been proved to be one of the factors that cast negative influences on students’ oral participation in class activities. Although ample research has been conducted in one cultured classroom, few studies focused on the sameness and dissimilarities between different cultural groups in multicultural classes. Thus, this research was conducted with the aim of investigating the similarities and differences between the perceptions of Vietnamese and Korean first-year students on the cultural factors that inhibit their participation in in-class speaking activities in FELTE, ULIS. To reach the objectives, the researcher utilized the purposive sampling strategy to select participants for questionnaire and interview. The findings revealed that according to Vietnamese and Korean first-year students, the fear of holding different answers from the class and teachers’ authority contribute greatly to their reluctance to speak in class. Moreover, the perceptions of Vietnamese and Korean first-year students differ in the acts of saving their own faces, low group cohesiveness and previous learning culture. While Vietnamese students believe that they hesitate to participate in class speaking activities due to the acts of saving their own faces and the lack of speaking tasks in high school, Korean students reportedly stated that they are affected by low group cohesiveness in small group work.