Integrating culture learning into foreign language education

الملخص EN

-This study reports on an empirical study into teachers’ and students’ perceptions and practices of culture teaching and learning in a Saudi university from an intercultural perspective.

Various perspectives on culture from the fields of anthropology, psychology, and intercultural communication were analyzed, and three approaches to culture learning were devised based on an exhaustive review of pertinent literature.

The present study is based on the assumption that culture learning is a developmental process that requires development of both culture-specific knowledge and culture-general skills.

Utilising a descriptive research method, the researcher revealed that the students' background heritage was a significant factor that affected their performance in cross-cultural competence and their perceptions of the relationship between language and culture.

Additionally, it was revealed that teaching literature can be an effective tool in improving cultural competence of EFL students learning English as a foreign language.

Analyses further implied that the native culture of EFL students can counterfeit overt culture teaching, especially when it is religiously hard-lined and fraught with taboos, thus being conducive to covert culture teaching to avert friction between the target language and the native culture of EFL learners.

In fine, the study concludes with a summary of the findings and their implications to the pedagogy of English.

Finally, a discussion of the potential difficulties in incorporating culture learning into EFL curricula, conclusions from the present study and pertinent research, and suggestions for further research were forwarded.