İngilizce öğretmenlerinin yabancı dil olarak İngilizce derslerinde İngilizce atasözlerinin öğretilmesine yönelik algılarının araştırılması: kültürlerarası bir çalışma

Öz

Atasözleri, belirli bir toplumun deneyimlerinden oluşarak, genellikle belirli kültürel geleneklerin izlerini, inançlarını ve bu toplumun değerlerini yansıtır. Bu, yabancı dil olarak İngilizce öğretilen sınıflarda, kültürlerarası bağ kurma yoluyla hedef kültürü öğretme yollarından biri olarak ortaya çıkar. Dolayısıyla bu çalışma iki amacı barındırır: İlk olarak, kültürlerarası ilişkiler için İngilizce atasözlerini öğretme üzerine İngilizce öğretmenlerinin algılarını ve yabancı dil olarak İngilizce sınıflarında İngilizce atasözlerini kullanma frekanslarını araştırmak ve ikinci olarak, Türkçe atasözlerini kullanmada ve öğrenmede atasözlerinin kültürlerarası rolü hakkında Türkiye’de yaşamakta olan anadili İngilizce olan dil öğretmenlerinin fikirlerini incelemek. Bu amaçla, 65 İngilizce öğretmeni beşli likert-ölçeği düzeninde iki ankete katıldı ve ana dili İngilizce olan 4 öğretmenle de e-mail görüşme yapıldı. Katılımcılardan toplanan veriler niteliksel ve niceliksel araştırma yöntemleriyle uyumlu olarak analiz edildi ve tanımlandı. Çalışma, yabancı dil olarak İngilizce öğretimi sınıflarında kültür öğretimi için öğretmenlerin atasözü öğretmeyi desteklediğini ve atasözlerini öğretmenin ikinci dil öğreniminde öğrencilerin dil yetenekleri, dilbilgisi ve kelime öğrenmeyi geliştirdiği konusunda etkili olduğuna inandıklarını ortaya çıkardı. 2. Bir bulgu olarak, anadili İngilizce olan öğretmenler kültürel bağlayıcı olarak atasözlerinin öğretilmesine olumlu yaklaşmışlardır. Bu nedenle, çalışma atasözlerinin kültürü öğretmede anadil ve hedef dil arasındaki kültürel bağı çağrıştırmada etkili bir şekilde kullanılabildiğini ve yabancı dil yeteneklerini ve çalışmalarını geliştirmede kullanılabileceğini ortaya çıkardı.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Kültürlerarası ilişki
• atasözleri
• yabancı dil olarak İngilizce öğretimi

Investigating EFL teachers’ perceptions of teaching English proverbs in EFL classes: A cross-cultural study

Abstract

Emerging from the experiences of a specific society, proverbs commonly mirror certain cultural signs of the traditions, beliefs, and values of that society. This appears as one of the ways of teaching the target culture through building intercultural connections in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. Correspondingly, this study reserves two aims: First, to investigate the perceptions of Turkish EFL teachers on teaching English proverbs for intercultural relations and the frequency of using English proverbs in EFL classes and second, to examine the ideas of English native-speaker language teachers residing in Turkey about the intercultural role of learning and using proverbs in learning Turkish. To that end, 65 English teachers participated in a likert-scale pattern of two questionnaires and 4 native English lecturers were e-mail interviewed. The data collected from the participants is analysed and described related to the qualitative and quantitative research procedure of the instruments. The study revealed that for culture teaching in EFL classes, teachers favoured teaching proverbs and they believed that teaching proverbs was effective in improving learners’ language skills, grammar and vocabulary learning in learning an L2. As a second finding, native English lecturers were also positive towards learning Turkish proverbs as cultural connectors. Hence, the study accentuates the realization that proverbs can be effectively employed in teaching culture and evoking cultural relations between native language and the target language, plus in improving L2 skills and studies.

Keywords

• Intercultural relationship
• proverbs
• teaching English as a foreign language

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