The Attitudes of EFL Teachers Towards Teaching Culture and Their Classroom Practices

Abstract

This study mainly aimed to describe the attitudes of language teachers at Turkish universities towards teaching
culture. The attitude was determined in terms of content and learner levels that are addressed, amount of cultural information
and the materials and strategies implemented in language classes in teaching about culture. Furthermore, the study investigated
the effects of teacher-related variables such as being a native English speaking teacher or non-native English speaking teacher,
working at a state or private university, participation in professional development activities on their perceptions of culture
teaching. The data was gathered via survey method. A questionnaire was administered to 155 ELT instructors working at
language preparatory schools of 17 universities in Turkey. The results revealed that there is no significant difference between
native and non-native English speaking teachers and between the teachers working at a state or private universities in terms of
overall attitude towards teaching culture. On the other hand, the higher participation rate in ‘training courses on teaching culture’
and ‘professional development activities’ lead to a more positive attitude towards the integration of culture.