Tiwaporn Kongsom. Teachers' and undergraduate students' attitudes toward learning about the target-language culture and cultural content included in an EFL textbook. (). King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok. Central Library. : , 2016.
Teachers' and undergraduate students' attitudes toward learning about the target-language culture and cultural content included in an EFL textbook
Abstract:
This study investigates Thai EFL teachers' and undergraduate students' attitudes toward learning about the target-language cultural content included in an EFL textbook used in a foundation English course. Thirteen Thai EFL teachers and 238 undergraduate students participated in the study. Data were collected using an EFL textbook, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. The findings from the EFL textbook analysis showed that the tasks on the target-language cultural content were most frequently presented in the analyzed EFL textbook. With respect to the cultural themes included in the textbook, the findings revealed that 12 cultural themes under big C or "visible" culture and little C or inviable culture were discovered in most tasks of the textbook. The top-five themes found in the textbook were lifestyles, followed by certain knowledge, values, customs, education, and hobbies. In addition, the analysis of the questionnaires revealed that there was no significant difference between the teachers' and students' attitudes toward learning about the target-language cultural content in the EFL textbook used in the foundation English course. Regarding the analysis of the semi-structured interviews, it was found that both teachers and students indicated that learning about the target-language culture was important and necessary for their English learning and usage.