Dr. Sedigheh Vahdat & Elahe Ebadatinia
Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran
The issue of culture as an inevitable element in any language teaching in general and English language teaching in particular merits researchers’ close attention in any English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign language (EFL) context. Since in the present century, the need of teaching and learning English appears quite obvious and necessary; this study tries to deal with the importance of teaching learning L2 culture in English classes. The present study aimed at examining the Iranian EFL teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning L2 culture in English classes. To this end, two questionnaires and 10 interview questions were devised. Participants of this study were two groups. The first group consisted of 60 freshman students majoring in English translation and literature, at Shahid Chamran University in Ahvaz. The second group consisted of 20 Iranian EFL teachers in English department of Shahid Chamran University and Jahad Daneshgahi in Ahvaz. The participants were asked to complete a questionnaire which was prepared for the purpose of the study. 10 teachers and 20 students also participated in the interview phase of study. The results showed that teachers and students favored teaching and learning L2 culture in the classroom. They had different opinions towards teaching and learning source and target culture in the classroom. But most of them emphasized the intercultural view to language teaching and learning. Because training students who are intercultural competent, helps them to understand the cultural concepts of perception, thinking, feeling, and acting better. This study also suggested teachers using the effective and appropriate cultural techniques for teaching English to allow students to observe and explore cultural interactions and enable them to find their own voices in the language speech community.
The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The International Conference on Current Issues of Languages, Dialects and Linguistics (WWW.TLLL.IR), 2-3 February 2017, Ahwaz.
