IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS’ OPINIONS ABOUT TEACHING CULTURE IN FL CLASSROOM

Yıl 2015, Cilt: 36 Sayı: 3, 1047 - 1067, 13.05.2015

Mohammad Hossein Zare Fatemeh Nematı Kazem Jafarıan

Öz

Abstract. Intercultural competence in the paradigm of intercultural communicative competence plays an important role in the present time of the Foreign Language Teaching profession. Intercultural skills (Sercu, 2004) of the intercultural speakers (Byram, M.2000), rather than the language skills of the language speakers is more prominent nowadays. This radical shift in the view of the language researchers and experts certainly affects language teachers’ role in promoting learners’ acquisition of intercultural skills and consequently, fostering their cultural dimension. The present study focuses on the role of teachers as mediators of both language and culture in foreign language classes. To collect the data, a questionnaire was distributed among 93 Iranian foreign language teachers of both genders from seven different provinces. They were asked to express their opinion regarding several aspects of including the culture element in foreign language teaching. To analyze the data, frequencies are computed, chi square is obtained and finally the r formula for some of the answers is used. Completing the questionnaire, teachers express their opinion about culture and language teaching. The participants also explain the extent to which they are interested in interculturalizing the foreign language teaching and the conditions and circumstances they think to be important doing that. The findings suggest that teacher training programs should pay more attention to training the language teachers in intercultural skills as well as intercultural competence. The curriculum developers should also include more cultural points and information in the material the teachers are using and keep them updated. Though some  of teachers in our study believed that interculturalizing the foreign language teaching is important, they were more linguistic-oriented and did not regard intercultural skills and knowledge as necessary, hence their failure in practically integrating language and culture in their classrooms.

Anahtar Kelimeler

culture, Intercultural competence, intercultural communicative competence, EFL

Kaynakça

• Baker, W. (2003).Should culture be an overt component of EFL instruction outside of
• English speaking countries? The Thia context. Asian EFL Journal Brown, H. Douglas. (2000).Principles of language learning and teaching. Fourth edition.
• White plains, NY: Pearson Education. Byram, M., et al. (1991). Young people’s perception of other cultures. In D. Buttjes & M.
• Byram (Eds.), Mediating languages and cultures (pp. 103-119). Byram, M. (2000). Assessing intercultural competence in language teaching. Sprogforum, No. 18, Vo.6, Pages, 8-13.
• Chastain, K. (1988). Developing second-language skills: Theory and Practice (3rd ed.).San
• Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. Hadley, A.O(2003) Teaching Language in Context. Third edition.
• Kitao, K. (1991). Teaching culture in foreign language instruction in the United States.
• Doshisha studies in English, 52(53), 285-306. Lafayette, R.C. (1979). The Culture Revolution in Foreign Language Teaching. University of Louisville.
• Lafayette, R., & Schulz, R. (1975). Evaluating culture learning. In R.C. Lafayette (Ed.), the Cultural Revolution in foreign languages: A guide for building the modern curriculum (pp. 104- 118).
• Lapin, L. (1993). Statistics for modern business decisions. Philadelphia: Harcourt Brace
• Jovanovich College Publishers. Paige, R. M., Jorstad, H., Paulson, L., Klein, F., & Colby, J. (1999, November)
• Culture learning in language education: A review of the literature. Risager, K. (2000). The teachers’ intercultural competence. Sprogforum, No.18, Vo. 6, page 14 – 20.
• Sercu, L. (2002).Implementing Intercultural Foreign Language Education. Belgian, Danish and British Teachers' Professional Self-Concepts and Teaching Practices Compared.
• Sercu, L. (2004). Culture teaching in foreign language education; EFL teachers in Spain as cultural mediators. Porta Linguarum, N1 enero 2004.
• Sercu, L., Bandura, E., Castro, P., Davcheva, L., Laskaridou, C., Lundgren, U., Mendez García, M., Ryan, P. (2005). Foreign language teachers and intercultural communication: An international investigation. Languages for Intercultural Communication and Education 10.
• Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Wang H. & Liying Ch., (2006). The Impact of Curriculum Innovation on the Cultures of
• Teaching. ASIAN EFL JOURNAL, Volume 7, Issue 4, article 1. Wardhaugh, R. (1993). An introduction to sociolinguistic. Second edition. Oxford & Cambridge
• Valdes,G.M.(1986). The teaching of culture in the ESL and foreign language classes. Paper presented at the 6th conference on second language acquisition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture. (2014) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_taxonomy. (2014)