EFL students’ awareness of the sufficiency of received inputs to acquire culture in the EFL classrooms

Abstract EN

Culture has been the focus of teachers and specialists in language learning environments in various contexts.

This study examines Arab learners’ views on the impact of culture on language learning.

The study is qualitative in nature and used open-ended interviews with a sample of 25 participants from the Department of English and Translation at Qassim University.

The interviews with the participants are recorded, transcribed, and classified under themes.

The findings showed that students believe that the teaching materials, pedagogy, and teachers’ developments are not sufficient to develop students communicating in the target language.

Furthermore, the study showed that view opportunities can be exploited to expose to the target language culture in the classroom.

They reported low awareness of the combination of learning both language and culture in language acquisition, it is not easy to absorb culture though.

The study also shows that culture affects the communication skills of learners.

The study urges language teachers to emphasize awareness of the target language culture in their classrooms.

They should also introduce their learners to the differences between Arabic and English to avoid miscommunication and undue adoption of cultural traits.