Adult Learners’ Perceptions of the Significance of Culture in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

Kimberly Anne Brooks-Lewis

doi:10.11114/jets.v2i2.250

Abstract

Is learning about culture important when learning a foreign language? One would think that after its long history in the field of foreign language teaching this question had been answered with a resounding ‘yes’. However, I saw little evidence of this in the classroom when I returned to the university to learn a foreign language or when I began teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL). I decided to investigate, and found that while much has been published about the theory of the need for inclusion of culture in foreign language teaching, I was struck by the absence of reports on the study of learners’ opinions on the issue and resolved to do such a study. Since I had encountered no teaching materials that I felt encompassed the teaching of culture sufficiently, I designed an introductory EFL course specifically for the adult learners I was working. The course centered on intercultural communication and awareness, and I employed it as the ‘medium’ for qualitative action research to learn about the learners’ perceptions of the experience. In this paper I report on their responses to the focus on culture. The research reveals that while the inclusion of culture and the concept of ‘learner centering’ in foreign language education are recognized in theory, these considerations have not been effectively incorporated into practice. It is hoped that the definitive insights from learners’ assessments of the significance of explicitly learning about culture when learning a foreign language will instigate its further inclusion and promote conscious learner centering.

Highlights

My initial question when I began the research was what adult learners would think of forthright teaching about culture in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom
Today it might seem that this question is outdated because of all that has been written about the theory of the necessity for the inclusion of culture in the study of a foreign language, but in my study of the literature I discovered no reports of learners‟ responses to such teaching
I wondered if this might be a reflection of my observation that while there has been some progress towards the inclusion of culture in foreign language teaching it is has been limited, and generally, culture is only hinted at, and that in such a fragmented, disconnected manner as to make meaningful learning about culture improbable

Summary

Introduction

My initial question when I began the research was what adult learners would think of forthright teaching about culture in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. I became aware of this in my experience as an adult learner in the foreign language classroom, and as an EFL teacher I became critical of the deficiency of information about culture in the materials I was expected to employ. The insights that emerged from the data are arresting, I think are especially so because they come from the viewpoint of learners, not from theory or, as in most reported classroom research, from the teacher or researcher‟s observation of learners‟ reactions

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Methods

Conclusion