Teaching Culture to Enhance EFL Learners’ Intercultural Communicative Competence

Abstract

The current study is an endeavour to investigate the status of teaching the target culture in the Algerian program of teaching English in the secondary school, and with a particular reference to the Algerian secondary school textbook New Prospects. It aims at inquiring into Algerian secondary school teachers’ conception and awareness regarding the significance of teaching culture to EFL learners, and thus, enhancing their intercultural communicative Competence (ICC). Accordingly, the present work examines the role of both teachers and New Prospects in enhancing learners’ attitudes towards the target culture and boosting their ICC for an effective interaction with its subjects. In addition, the research is an attempt to investigate into secondary school learners’ attitudes towards the TC and culture teaching. It also aims at testing their cultural awarness. Throughout the first chapter, considerable reference to the relevant theoretical background is made so as to spot light on the significance of teaching culture in secondary school language classes while the second chapter is an exploration to the major constructed perspectives about intercultural communication and its application in foreign language classes along with a descriptive analysis and evaluation of the textbook New Prospects. Hence, it is hypothesized in this study that the tetxbook is not staisfactory in terms of its cultural content, teachers to some extent give importance to teaching culture in language classes, and learners lack awarness about the target culture and thus fail to develop their ICC. To test the hypothesis and achieve the research aims, the practical part includes a questionnaire for teachers and a cultural test for learners. The findings of the investigation tools along with the analysis of the textbook make it clear that the latter treats cultural elements superficially and shallowly, teachers do give importance to teaching culture but only in theory and not in practice, and learners are incapable of building successful intercultural relations with foreigners. On the basis of these results, some recommendations are provided so as to help pupils achieve a deep understanding of the “Other”.