Literature : a way to cultural learning

الملخص EN

In a world changing rapidly and bringing cultures close to each other more than any time before, culture teaching has become a necessity in foreign language education.

Yet, the efforts made towards culture teaching through civilization and literature courses were not fruitful and such courses were and are still regarded as mediums to narrate the past or tell a story, but not to teach culture.

Therefore, this research work attempts at investigating the role that literature, as a teaching material in the civilization course, has in improving students’ understanding of the target culture and; therefore, a better achievement in the course.

To reach that aim, the experimental method has been followed and data was gathered using an experimental design and a questionnaire with a sample from second year students at the department of English, Batna2 University.

Results have shown that literature is of an immense role in teaching culture and that teachers are expected to make the first steps towards a real change in their teaching strategies for better cultural teaching and learning