Learner Attitudes and Preferences in Terms of Learning Culture

Abstract

Problem statement: Due to its complex nature, the teaching of culture poses a lot of problems. It encompasses everything from daily life to traditions, or from ways of showing politeness to important occasions or special days in a society. Thus, “what of culture†and how it will be taught must be determined carefully through close scrutiny especially for the “expanding circle countries†since in these countries there is no direct contact with native speakers. Curriculum designers and language teachers need to make a number of choices as regards the selection of cultural categories to teach and what techniques to use in the teaching of these cultural elements.
Purpose of the study: The present study aims at finding out Turkish learners‟ preferences in terms of learning and teaching of culture in order to shed light on the practice of language teaching in an EFL context.
Method: A questionnaire was used in the study. It was administered to 92 participants.
Findings and results: The findings suggest that Turkish learners‟ awareness must be raised in terms of the importance of the target culture. Turkish learners view target culture learning as comprising of both big “Câ€, which can roughly be defined as values pertaining to the target community, and lower case “c†culture, which is related to practices. Another important finding of the study is that students in Turkish context do not view learning culture essential for effective communication.
Conclusion and recommendations: This study focused on the learning and teaching of culture in terms of learner attitudes and preferences. As an indispensable element of language, culture must also be studied in terms of other variables like materials and course books. Therefore, studies into materials and course books in relation to their cultural load are needed in order to bridge the gap and optimize the practice of target culture teaching in Turkey.