Teacher Perception of Cultural Difference in L2 Materials: Is Filtering Culture the Right Approach?

Autor/in	Hermessi, Tarek
Titel	Teacher Perception of Cultural Difference in L2 Materials: Is Filtering Culture the Right Approach?
Quelle	In: TESL-EJ, 21 (2017) 2, (19 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1072-4303
Schlagwörter	Teacher Attitudes; Cultural Differences; English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Instructional Materials; Correlation; Language Teachers; Intercultural Communication; Communicative Competence (Languages); Foreign Countries; Semantics; Pragmatics; Religious Factors; Moral Values; Political Attitudes; Multicultural Education; Questionnaires; Course Content; Cultural Context; Qualitative Research; Tunisia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Lehrerverhalten; Kultureller Unterschied; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Lehrmaterial; Lehrmittel; Unterrichtsmedien; Korrelation; Language teacher; Sprachunterricht; Interkulturelle Kommunikation; Communicative competence; Languages; Kommunikative Kompetenz; Sprache; Ausland; Semantik; Pragmalinguistik; Moral value; Ethischer Wert; Political attitude; Politische Einstellung; Multikulturelle Erziehung; Fragebogen; Kursprogramm; Qualitative Forschung; Tunesien
Abstract	With the emergence of the intercultural approach to L2 teaching, several studies investigated teachers' attitudes and beliefs concerning the cultural dimension of L2 teaching in different foreign language settings. This study explored teachers' perceptions of the relationship between teaching English and culture in Tunisia, an EFL setting where the culture of L2 teachers is assumed to be distant from the "English" culture. It also enquired into Tunisian teachers' approach to culturally different teaching materials. The study revealed that although most Tunisian teachers thought that English cannot be taught without culture, some of them approached cultural content with apprehension to the point that they expressed a readiness to filter and drop any aspect of the "English" culture that is incompatible with the local culture. In practice, the teachers in the study had varied understandings of intercultural communicative competence on the one hand and the socio-pragmatic and the socio-semantic dimensions of communicative competence on the other. In light of these results, it can be argued that teacher attitudes and beliefs concerning the cultural dimension of L2 teaching and their approach to culturally different content are a function of two factors: (1) distance between L2 culture and teacher culture defined in religious, moral and political terms and (2) teacher awareness of the intercultural approach to L2. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	TESL-EJ. e-mail: editor@tesl-ej.org; Web site: http://tesl-ej.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01