CJAL * RCLA

Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2021

Culture, a commonly visited concept in English language teaching research, has been integral to language classes. The present study investigated the place of culture in English as a foreign language classes for ten English language instructors teaching at tertiary level across state and private universities in Turkey. The findings revealed that the English language instructors’ opportunities to raise their students’ cultural awareness were not satisfactory, and there was a mismatch between their wishes and practices. This mismatch was mainly attributed to learners’ lack of motivation/interest and their opportunities for visits abroad. The findings also indicated that the participants’ conceptualization of culture in English language classes was predominantly modern, i.e. either as part of the humanistic (big C) paradigm representing canonical literary work produced via a standard language or sociolinguistic (little c) paradigm representing everyday interaction, communication, and pa...

Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 2019

This study aims to reveal EFL lecturers' opinions about intercultural education and classroom practices including teaching materials, classroom activities, assessment, and teachers' role for developing intercultural awareness. To gain insights about the current situation in EFL classrooms at a university level in Turkey, lecturers' opinions and classroom practices have been examined through a questionnaire and an interview. This study, combining both quantitative and qualitative research, was designed according to the mixed method procedure and followed the sequential explanatory strategy. The study covered 172 EFL lecturers from preparatory schools of six state universities, and 12 EFL lecturers selected randomly joined the interview voluntarily. The participating institutions

The Qualitative Report, 2016

The role of English as a global language has been increasing greatly in importance for the past few decades, giving rise to different varieties of English spoken by native and non-native English speakers all around the world. It has pointed to the need to raise intercultural awareness in English language classes. This study aims to reveal teacher and student perspectives of intercultural awareness regarding ownership of English and cultural integration in English language classes in Turkey. A mixed method research investigation was used in this descriptive case study. Questionnaires were employed to collect data from 45 English language instructors and 92 English language students. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight English language instructors, and focus group interviews were conducted with 24 English language students. The quantitative data was analyzed via SPSS 20 and the qualitative data was analyzed via NVivo 10.0 qualitative data software. The findings revealed that while both instructors and students seemed to be aware of the importance of intercultural awareness in English language teaching, their perspectives didn't indicate a thorough intercultural point of view. The findings yielded several significant implications including the need to develop an intercultural curriculum, textbook, and teacher training programs to enhance intercultural awareness in English language teaching and learning process.

Culture teaching in EFL classrooms has been widely investigated by researchers, program developers and teachers. Having been regarded as challenging in terms of both instructional and pedagogical aspects, it still occupies a remarkable place in EFL classrooms. To this end, the primary concern of this study is to discuss culture and culture teaching in general terms through the eyes of English language instructors and preparatory students. Moreover, to capture the great number of potential angles, the contribution of the course book " English File " to culture teaching is also explored. To serve this purpose, a mixed method research design was adopted to reveal whether there was a conscious culture teaching at a preparatory school of a state university in Turkey. Within this scope, 15 English language instructors and 122 learners were randomly selected to respond a questionnaire in addition to semi-structured interviews. Triangulation was achieved through qualitative, quantitative data, and document analysis which provides rich insights on culture in language classrooms. While quantitative data was analyzed via SPPS program, qualitative data was gone through content analysis. Incorporating both qualitative and quantitative data obtained from considerable number of respondents, the study revealed that both instructors and students agreed that culture is to be taught in language classrooms. With the central aim being to cover all relevant ideas with regards to culture, this study highlights that instructors need to develop appropriate methodology in order to make their learners aware of cultural differences which merits serious consideration.

Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 2016

In the field of ELT, the undeniable relationship between language and culture has always been a focus of attention from a variety of perspectives. Sociologists, anthropologists and naturally applied linguists have tried to understand whether cultural aspects of L2 scaffold or interfere in much the way where other types of contrasting linguistic systems do. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate teachers’ and EFL learners’ perspectives on understanding of ‘culture’; attitudes towards culture teaching; the cultural topics they favour to teach/learn in the classroom; time allocation to culture teaching/learning and finally their attitudes towards intercultural communicative competence. The data were collected through a Likert type questionnaire in which Turkish teachers of English and Turkish university students were asked questions to respond with the purpose of finding the importance of cultural aspects in learning the target language. The analysed results show encouragin...

Intercultural issues in the era of globalization, 2014

2024

This research paper aims to investigate students' diverse cultural backgrounds that can create communication barriers and issues when teaching English. Language and cultural differences may influence students' comprehension and production of English, affecting their ability to engage in the learning process fully. Teachers should be aware of the many differences and make use of strategies that foster understanding and inclusivity. This research for this paper was conducted in quantitative method research. Teaching English in a cultural context depends on an approach that integrates language learning with a better understanding and appreciation of the cultural aspects which is connected with the English language. This research tries to find out the significance and benefits of teaching English in a cultural context, looking at the impact on language acquisition and intercultural competence. In a few decades, there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of cultural awareness in language education. Language is not only a system of learning something but is also closely interrelated with the beliefs, values, and practices of an individual culture. Teaching English in a cultural context acknowledges this connection that aims to provide learners with a holistic language learning experience.

Teacher Development, 2006

This article examines the importance of raising non-native English language teachers' awareness of different dimensions of culture in the teaching of English as an international language. The author believes that the more critical English language teachers become about the involvement of culture in their English language teaching, the more they equip their students with the necessary linguistic and cultural resources to be able to communicate with people from other cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The study comprises the development and implementation of a semi-structured interview. The participants are a small group of Turkish teachers of English working in public and private schools in Turkey. Drawing on the results of the interview study, the author shows that there is a general consensus among the participants of the study on the practice of referring to an 'international culture' with special emphasis on English-speaking Anglo-American cultures, as well as the learners' local culture in the English as a Foreign Language classroom. Moreover, the results also reveal the participant teachers' belief that being a non-native English-speaking teacher is an advantage as far as cultural and linguistic issues in the English language classroom are concerned.

European Journal of English Language Teaching

With the recognition of English as a Lingua Franca, intercultural communication has gained great importance. As a result, culture teaching has become an indispensable component of EFL classrooms. Even though there has been extensive research on the attitudes of EFL teachers towards culture teaching, few studies were found bringing attention to the differences between private and state school teachers to this end. The purpose of this research is therefore to shed light on private and state school EFL teachers’ attitudes towards culture teaching, their classroom practices, and the obstacles they come across upon this. The participants are 72 EFL teachers (32 state, 32 private) working at different institutions in Turkey. The data were collected employing a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that both private and state school teachers have positive attitudes towards culture incorporation in their lessons. However, private school EFL teachers were proven ...

This study aims to investigate Turkish EFL pre-service and in-service teachers' perceptions of the place of culture in English language teaching in addition to uncovering the difficulties they face while teaching/integrating culture into their practice. A total of 40 participants were administered a comprehensive questionnaire the results of which were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings of the study revealed that pre-service and in-service teachers did not differ in terms of their perceptions of culture in their practice. However, the ways of integrating culture and experienced difficulties vary to a considerable extent between the two groups. The results showed that in-service teachers are inclined to make use of course books as a way of teaching culture whereas pre-service teachers favor authentic materials to integrate culture into their teaching. Regarding the challenges faced by the teachers, the lack of time allotted for teaching of culture which is restricted by the curriculum and the dominance of UK and US culture in the textbooks were addressed as the major problems. The present study offers critical implications for foreign language teachers, teacher education programs and curriculum specialists.