THE EFFECTS OF EPICS ON INTERCULTURAL AWARENESS OF SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS AT SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Abstract

This research study was aimed to determine whether the epics have effects on intercultural awareness of second language learners at the School of Foreign Languages, Selcuk University. It was conducted in two prep classes including 21 and 19 students to determine whether using epics was beneficial for intercultural awareness of second language learners during the foreign language learning process. The experimental group including 21 students was taught two English and two Turkish epics and related activities were done. The control group consisted of 19 students and no specific study for intercultural awareness was done. The students in that group got the cultural information from the coursebook. Both groups were given a questionnaire as a pre-test and a post-test. The test consisted of three open-ended questions related to the attitudes of students towards the target culture. During the study, the students were observed, and their behaviours and opinions were recorded by the researcher. The results showed a significant difference in the mean gains of the samples. Teaching epics proved to be effective on students’ intercultural awareness as second language learners while learning a second language.

Keywords

• second language learners
• intercultural awareness
• Literature
• Culture in ELT
• Epics

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