Saudi EFL Students’ Attitudes Toward the Target Culture and Its Relationship with Their Linguistic Backgrounds

Abstract

Culture and language have long been focal points of investigation, and both have been intensively discussed in the academic literature, but little attention has been paid to the influence of EFL students’ linguistic backgrounds on their attitudes toward the target culture, especially in the Saudi context. This mixed-method study aimed to explore the impact of learners’ linguistic backgrounds (mainly their language academic achievement levels and contexts of language learning) on their attitudes toward the target culture. The data was collected using an online questionnaire. A total of 84 students from the Faculty of Language and Translation at King Khaled University participated in this study. A Pearson correlation coefficient test and thematic analysis were used to interpret the data. The results showed a significant relationship between the participants’ linguistic backgrounds and their attitudes. The results also indicated that the participants had an overall positive attitude toward the integration of the target culture into language learning. In light of the findings, EFL students’ linguistic background should be taken into consideration before embedding the target culture into language learning.