Students' Understandings and Preferences of the Role and Place of 'Culture' in English Language Teaching: A Focus in an EFL context

Abstract

In this article, the authors investigate language learners' understandings of the role and place of 'culture' in foreign language classrooms, and non-native versus native English language teachers. The data collection procedures comprise the development and application of a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The participants of the study are three hundred and eighty five senior high school students from three provinces in Turkey. Both the quantitative and qualitative results of the study reveal that students want to see cultural elements from both target language culture and local culture in foreign language classrooms as well as in language learning materials. As a consequence, they almost equally value native and non-native English language teachers. These findings indicate that to fully understand and improve English as a foreign language and English as a second language curricula to its rightful place in today's world it is necessary to obtain students' opinions as well as the opinions of the decision makers (e.g., teachers, administrators) in relation to issues like what to teach in the English language classrooms, what the aims of learners and teachers for learning and teaching English are.