- ELT Research Journal
- Vol: 7 Issue: 3
- Tertiary level EFL teachers’ opinions and preferences about cultural instruction in foreign language...
Tertiary level EFL teachers’ opinions and preferences about cultural instruction in foreign language education
Authors : Nalan Bayraktar Balkir
Pages : 125-145
View : 9 | Download : 2
Publication Date : 2018-09-30
Article Type : Research
Abstract :The main aim of this study is to explore a group of English language teachers’ opinions and preferences about cultural instruction at tertiary level. This study, which adopted a qualitative research design, was carried out with 10 English language teachers in the English Preparatory Programme at a state university in Turkey. In order to collect data, an open-ended questionnaire was designed and administered to the participants. The data were analysed qualitatively, and some patterns were discovered from the respondents’ answers. The analysis of the data indicated that all the participants have positive opinions about culture teaching because they believe culture and language are inseparable. It was also found out that most of the participants support the instruction of cultural products like food, family, music, holiday and so forth, but they did not mention other dimensions of culture such as practices and perspectives in culture teaching. Another finding of the study was that participants mostly focus on British culture in their teaching; however, only a few of them have a multicultural approach to the teaching of culture. Finally, all the participants reported that they need training on cultural instruction. In the light of these findings, this study offers some suggestions for further research and points to some important implications for both in-service and pre-service foreign language education.Keywords : Cultural instruction, foreign language education