Global English Language and Culture Teaching in TRNC Secondary EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Perceptions and Textbooks

ABSTRACT: According to Alvarez (2007, p. 126), “Today, foreign language education finds itself at a crossroads with multiple models of language and culture competence”. In other words, because of the globalization of the English language, the field of ELT is facing new challenges for teaching language and culture. Taking these challenges into consideration, the main purpose of this study is to focus on culture teaching in public secondary schools in TRNC. More specifically, this study aims to find out the awareness of language teachers and their attitudes towards teaching culture, as well to analyze the language textbooks used in the public secondary schools in TRNC with specific reference to intercultural sensitivity. As a result, this study primarily focuses on the following research questions: What are the language teachers’ perceptions on culture/intercultural teaching? To what extend are language teachers aware of the intercultural dimension of language teaching? How are culture/intercultural teaching reflected in the language textbooks? In order to find out the answers to the research questions, a related questionnaire (Hui, 2010) was administered to 42 English language teachers working in secondary schools in six different regions of Northern Cyprus. The data collected by the means of the questionnaire was analyzed by SPSS 20. Moreover, the English language textbooks used in public secondary schools were analyzed. The findings of the study reveal that the teachers possess positive attitudes towards teaching language and culture. According to the results obtained, the language teachers believe that culture teaching is important and necessary. Moreover, the language teachers mainly rely on the language textbooks while teaching culture. Considering the intercultural dimension of language and culture teaching, it is possible to see that the language teachers posses vague ideas about the intercultural dimension of language teaching. Based on these results, it can be concluded that teacher training programmes on teaching language and culture are necessary. Moreover, through the analysis of textbooks, it can be concluded that although the textbooks are designed to cater for intercultural sensitivity, their role in developing intercultural sensitivity is limited. Keywords: Culture, teaching, intercultural, textbooks, English as a global language. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………