Teaching Culture In the EFL Classroom

The need to address culture in the language learning process has been emphasized as a means to promote both intercultural awareness and communicative language curricula. In countries such as Turkey, this has been an ongoing concern in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) education. Thus, attempts have been made to enhance the cultural aspect of EFL learning in Turkey with the current English language curricula for elementary and high schools. To determine whether these curricula truly address culture in ways that support intercultural awareness, the researcher conducted a content analysis of the learning outcomes and objectives for each grade level, focusing on the curricula developed in 2013 and 2014 respectively for elementary and high school, as well as the program updates introduced in 2017 and 2018. The culture-related objectives and outcomes including products, practices, perspectives and persons relating to native Englishspeaking and international cultures were identified, and the total numbers of culture-oriented outcomes and objectives were recorded and analyzed. The findings indicate that culture-related outcomes and objectives were highly limited in number; and they mainly addressed superficial aspects of culture such as names of countries/languages, foods and traditional costumes. Abstract and complex topics such as pragmatics, beliefs, and worldviews were largely ignored. Moreover, while the updated programs of 2017 and 2018 were intended to improve on the 2013 and 2014 versions, little was accomplished in this regard. As such, the findings suggest that current EFL curricula are unlikely to support the development of intercultural awareness in language learners. Some recommendations for addressing this issue are offered.

Many adults especially business people have the need to learn English for their work. Yet, a lot of them have problems in different language skills. For example, across U.S.A, business English teachers encounter Chinese speaking students who had problems in writing proper English business messages (Beamer, 1994). Although a lot of educators have been trying creative approaches on teaching children, the adult classrooms are relatively more traditional. This paper aims at reviewing some prospective problems and sharing with the practitioners some approaches for language instruction.

Rules that govern proper communication are culturally specific. For example, which is a better form of greeting, to bow or shake hands? In this workshop, participants investigated how to help Japanese students learn about and deal with three key differences between Japanese and English speaking styles in order to help them speak English more naturally. In addition, participants were introduced to the basics of pragmatics, that area of linguistics that deals with meaning in context, or “the hidden rules of language.” Pragmatics was defined in lay terms, and a case was made for its inclusion within an oral communication curriculum for low-intermediate and above learners. Specific ideas on which aspects to focus upon and how to teach them were provided. Participants had an opportunity to experience and reflect on various activities that introduce, practice, and review progress in building pragmatic competency.

NOTE: This workshop presentation was given twice in 2014, once in March and again in September.

Since I am not yet a teacher but have worked as one for an L2 classroom in Cusco, Peru teaching preschoolers through 2 nd. graders, I know what it takes to keep them focus and occupied in the subject matter. I have developed a couple of strategies to keep them interested. Since children need relationships with caring adults who engage in many one-on-one, face-to-face interactions with them to support their oral language development and lay the foundation for later literacy learning. I have had 10 students per class which I had done twice a week for 6 months. All the students are L1-L2 beginner level. Do to the fact that my students are beginner level preschoolers through 2 nd. grade their attention span is minimal and their English proficiency is also minimal so the class lasts about 1 ½ hours.

ABSTRACT
Informal social networks among the construction craftworkers from various ethnic groups can
give rise to barriers of entry for craftsmen and trainees. This study investigated informal
social networks on three construction sites in an ethnically diverse area, to explore how these
give rise to economic exclusion and promote inequality of access to social economic
resources such as work opportunities. Using the Social Network Analysis (SNA) method,
adopting through the egocentric approach data was collected and analysed using of the social
network analysis program UCINET. Findings from the three case studies showed that the
primary access to information on work opportunities was through the informal social
networks formed among construction artisans, foremen and construction managers. Moreover,
artisans on these sites were mostly friends and neighbours with similar ethnic backgrounds
strongly suggesting that social relations facilitated the transfer of information around work
opportunities. Whilst for those who are a part of these networks, the informal social networks
can be advantageous, however, they also act as barriers of entry to those who are not a part of
these networks to work opportunities and can act as barriers to skills acquisition for those who
do not already possess craft skills. Further findings showed a strong relationship between
trade and ethnicity. Minimal interaction was observed between different ethnic groups
suggesting a further hindrance in the transfer of information about work opportunities across
ethnic groups. To an extent government policies identify this phenomena and seek to
overcome it at the level of businesses and entrepreneurs through actions such as Broad Based
Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) and preferential procurement. However the
findings of this limited study suggest that social networks and the resultant social capital that
they engender exists in all manner of forms, and within many different communities, raising
the question of the ultimate effectiveness of such interventions.
Key words: Craftsmen, Artisans, Social Networks Analysis, Work Opportunities

บทความนี้ศึกษาเกี่ยวกับที่มาและความสำคัญของนโยบาย ประเทศไทย 4.0 ในส่วนของความเชื่อมโยงกับการจัดกิจกรรมส่งเสริมการเรียนรู้ เพื่อการพัฒนาผู้เรียนให้เต็มศักยภาพในรายวิชาภาษาอังกฤษ (สาระที่ 2 ภาษาและวัฒนธรรม) ด้วย ห้องเรียนกลับด้าน สำหรับนักเรียนระดับชั้นมัธยมศึกษาตอนต้น (ม.1-3) การศึกษาอาศัยข้อมูลจากการสำรวจ สืบค้น และอ้างอิงข้อมูลจากงานวิจัยจากหลายๆชิ้น ที่ได้กล่าวถึงการศึกษาไทย 4.0 บทความนี้ยังกล่าวถึงแนวคิดในการจัดกิจกรรมส่งเสริมการเรียนรู้ เพื่อการพัฒนาผู้เรียนให้เต็มศักยภาพในรายวิชาภาษาอังกฤษ (สาระที่ 2 ภาษาและวัฒนธรรม) ด้วย ห้องเรียนกลับด้าน สำหรับนักเรียนระดับชั้นมัธยมศึกษาตอนต้น (ม.1-3)เพื่อให้ผู้เรียนเกิดการเรียนรู้และการพัฒนาที่เต็มประสิทธิภาพ โดยการนำเอาอุปกรณ์อิเล็กทรอนิกส์ มาใช้เป็นสื่อการเรียนการสอนหลักในห้องเรียน
แนวคิดในการจัดกิจกรรมส่งเสริมการเรียนรู้ เพื่อการพัฒนาผู้เรียนให้เต็มศักยภาพในรายวิชาภาษาอังกฤษ (สาระที่ 2 ภาษาและวัฒนธรรม) ด้วย ห้องเรียนกลับด้าน สำหรับนักเรียนระดับชั้นมัธยมศึกษาตอนต้น (ม.1-3)นี้ เกิดขึ้นจากการระดมความคิด และการออกแบบหลักสูตร แผนการจัดการเรียนการสอน รวมถึงสื่อการเรียนการสอนที่แตกต่างอย่างสร้างสรรค์ เพื่อเป็นการจุดประกายความคิดของผู้สอน ให้ได้นำแนวคิดในความนี้ไปประยุกต์ใช้ และปรับใช้ในการจัดการเรียนการสอนในชั้นเรียนของตนเอง โดยใช้เครื่องมืออิเล็กทรอนิกส์เป็นส่วนสำคัญในการดำเนินการเรียนการสอนในแต่ละวัน เพื่อให้ทั้งผู้สอน และผู้เรียน ได้เกิดความคุ้นเคยกับการใช้เครื่องมืออิเล็กทรอนิกส์ และเกิดความคิดที่แปลกใหม่ เพื่อเป็นพื้นฐานให้กับผู้เรียน และผู้สอนได้นำไปใช้ต่อยอดในการสร้างนวัตกรรมใหม่ๆเพื่อใช้การจัดการเรียนการสอนในอนาคตต่อไป

The teaching of foreign languages always brings to the front the issue of culture teaching especially when this teaching takes place in a context multilingual. The curriculum and textbook designers are often divided between a desire for enculturation because anxious to preserve the national identity of the learners and a desire to open up to the other culture and therefore to advocate interculturality. This dilemma characterizes the various textbooks designed for teaching the English language in Algeria.

Abstract : 1. What are we doing when we do grammar ? / 2. So what is grammar?/ 3. Where do the rules in book grammars come from ? / 4. So is grammar just about the links between words ? / 5.Language grammar always happens at the same time as lots of other things in your brain / 6. What should grammar teachers teach ? / 7. Do students learn useful language control from studying grammar books? / 8. Can teachers teach grammar? / 9. How can language teachers be most useful? / 10. Do grammar mistakes matter? / 11. Is accuracy more important than fluency?

This is the outline of a seminar on grammar teaching given as a teacher inservice for Chinese English teachers in Zhengzhou, Henan, China, on 13 May 2008. Thor May has been teaching language and linguistics since 1976.

Although the “burrito” is often served at Mexican restaurants and has a Spanish name (little donkey), it is rumored to have only become a food item in the United States by the Americans and was not served in Mexico before its popularity in the United States.  Which is why I have included it on the All-American Food list.

This purposive homogeneous study explores the relationship between reading and speaking in the EFL context and attempts to integrate the two language skills in a manner that encourages learners to practice and develop their receptive and productive capacities with greater enthusiasm. To this end, tertiary-level learners from two universities in Thailand representing six English-prominent fields of study were presented with a questionnaire, participated in structured interviews, and took part in five in-class online reading and speaking lessons designed and evaluated by this author. The study questions focused on the English reading habits of service industry and communication majors for whom English proficiency figures prominently in employment pursuits. The goal was to discover reading patterns and sources and forge links that would combine reading and speaking classroom activities. The two language skills are connected but rarely considered an alliance and thus are paired less frequently than most other language skill combinations. The results of this descriptive-correlational study found the majority of participants derived their English readings from online sources. Oral narratives read from online information sources proved to be an efficient blend of receptive reading and productive speaking performances that found favor with participants as task models.

BALAV was inspired first by the presence of English & Spanish technical vocabulary in Texas secondary textbooks. Technical and formal English is descended from Latin and French--relatives of Spanish. Informal English is descended from German. Marzano and Pickering's model of vocabulary development is utilized. Hispanic achievement drops sharply between 4th and 11th grade; bilingual instruction is usually banned after 5th grade, regardless when the newcomers reached the US

Corpus Linguistics has been noted to be a trendy approach in language research in the last few decades as it is closely related to technological advancements. The rising number of available online corpora and the advanced concordancing software have been urging and boosting researches on potentials and uses of corpora in language analysis and teaching. In this study the researcher tried to fill in the gap apparent in the Saudi EFL context of poor or lack of corpora use. Therefore, the researcher has investigated the effect size of using corpus-based approach on vocabulary gains and retention. He has employed quasi-experimental study to thoroughly investigate the study questions. A diagnostic pre-test, posttest and delayed posttests have been employed with both groups, the control which has been taught using conventional approach and the experimental which has been taught using corpus-based approach. At the end of the treatment test scores for both groups have been statistically analyzed to find out the differences. The results of posttests and delayed posttests showed a statistically significant differences in favor of the experimental group, which indicated the effectiveness of using corpus-based approach on vocabulary gains and retention rates. Consequently, the researcher has recommended integrating corpus pre-service and in-service training for EFL teachers. He has also suggested enhancing friendly user interfaces for available corpora to be easily accessed and used by teachers and learners. Finally, combining conventional tools alongside with corpus-based method is recommended in some instances to meet some emerging challenges with corpora use.

English is a key part of the Year One Higher Diploma in Business Programme (HD1) at the Dubai Women’s College (DWC) in the United Arab Emirates. Several years ago, the HD1 English faculty team decided to prioritize the teaching and learning of vocabulary to try and help students better cope with the demands of their coursework. The target vocabulary for HD1 is the Academic Word List (AWL). As Coxhead points out, the AWL is more than just a list, it can be used as a basis to ‘set vocabulary goals….construct relevant teaching materials, and help students focus on useful vocabulary items.’ The AWL is comprised of the ‘semi-technical’ lexis that assists students in their English language academic development and Business studies.

This article traces the development of HD1’s approach to the teaching and learning of vocabulary over 2-3 years, the central importance of independent student learning and research, the use of technology in facilitating the process, and the assessment procedures developed.

The ideas discussed areeminently ‘transferable’ and applicable in other contexts.

El presente trabajo conlleva el estudio de lo que se conoce como la nueva crónica esclava (neo-slave narrative) según se entiende desde la novela Beloved (1987) de la premiada autora norteamericana Toni Morrison. Siguiendo la tradición de las crónicas esclavas emergentes entre los siglos XVIII y XIX en el contexto de las poblaciones esclavizadas en territorios pertenecientes a colonias británicas, Morrison hace una nueva escritura de los horrores vividos por los esclavos en el sur de los Estados Unidos alrededor del período de Guerra de Secesión Norteamericana finalizada en 1864. Esta nueva forma artística se plantea desde una perspectiva post moderna, en la que se amplía el espectro de temáticas y se profundiza el aspecto social y comunitario. Los objetivos de esta investigación tienden a resolver los siguientes interrogantes: ¿Cuál es la necesidad de re- escribir experiencias de esclavitud en la década de los 80, en un país donde la población afroamericana podría considerarse ya inserta dentro de la sociedad gozando de plenos derechos civiles?¿En qué falla la crónica esclava tradicional a la hora de presentar los hechos fidedignamente? Este trabajo explora los mayores obstáculos que demuestran de qué manera las crónicas esclavas tradicionales resultan insuficientes para abarcar los intereses del sector socio-cultural que las re-escribe. Para ello se analizará una pluralidad de técnicas estéticas y yuxtaposición de recursos narrativos que dan lugar a la formación de una nueva crónica esclava que resulta innovadora y logra poner de manifiesto posturas feministas, políticas y artísticas.

The aim of the research projects described in this paper was to find out how much and what kind of cultural competence is transmitted through classes of English. From the statistical analysis of nearly 400 questionnaires it seems that the majority of teachers incorporate very few activities with a cultural focus in the language classroom. Nevertheless, both staying abroad and intercultural training do make a significant difference in the frequency of culture-related activities. It is interesting to observe that according to length of stay abroad there were statistically significant differences between respondents in the frequency of just four activities: discussions about cultural differences, current events, negative stereotypes, and culture shock. However, respondents who had received some form of cultural awareness or intercultural communication training do nearly all of the 13 examined culture-related activity types significantly more often. The case studies presented give further insight into the factors that may influence the frequency of culture-related activities in the English classroom. Aside from the participating teachers’ relatively poor repertoire of activities with a cultural focus, the difficulties they had using the ones they had learned at the training session, and their coursebooks’ apparent deficiencies, several other decisive obstacles were mentioned. These include lack of first-hand experience or knowledge of other cultures, strong grammar- and exam-centeredness, feelings of incompetence due to lack of training in the given area, younger teachers’ preoccupation with discipline and motivation problems, and some teachers’ reservations about whether developing intercultural competence was the task of the language teacher at all.

" A cognitive approach to instructed acquisition of English tenses by speakers of Russian is described in the framework of a cognitive theory of tense and aspect (CTTA). It is argued that the meaning and function of the so-called tenses may be understood in relation to the underlying cognitive structures rooted in perceptual experience, which are similar in both languages. The usual stumbling blocks in the acquisition of "tenses" are summed up, and a simple three-step procedure is offered for choosing a correct tense in discourse. The suggested approach allows to dramatically improve the process of grammar acquisition.

Keywords: cognitive grammar, observer, perceptual groundedness, aspect.
"

Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has been
considered as an important ability in the globalized world. Particularly,
critical cultural awareness (CCA) has become an essential element to address the development of ICC in English language education. This paper describes how to employ film based re flective tasks as instructional activities and discusses their impact on university English learners’ critical cultural awareness. Five intercultural films were chosen as teaching materials, and different film based re flective tasks (film clips) we re designed for English learners to experience a deeper connection to and reflection on issues in social and psychological dimensions of intercultural communication.
    Over the course of 18 weeks, student participant s were comprehensively engaged in film based reflective tasks. G roup interviews were conducted with all participant s before and after the course. Reflective reports during the course were also collected as research data. The results sho w the change of participants’ awareness in four dimensions: Cultural bias awareness; awareness of self and other cultures; language awareness; political or historical awareness. Evidently, t he critical cultural awareness of many student participants was stimulated and the n developed in some way. In addition, the advantages and difficulties mentioned by student participants in implementing the film based reflective tasks were compiled. Overall, their learning experience s with the film based intercultural course were positive.
    This research findings reveal that film based reflective tasks could be
used as one of many effective instructional strategies to raise university
English learners ’ critical cultural awareness Finally, relevant suggestions are provided for future teachers and researchers.

These are notes on English stress, rhythm and intonation.

Part A is for students and Part B is for teachers.

The treatment here is “technical”, as by a linguist, but in very plain language. Even with poor formal English, L2 speakers who “sound right” will gain social acceptance, and this in turn will greatly accelerate their learning.

Firstly the concept of “the music of a language” is introduced. It is noted that languages are on a scale of “syllable timed” to “stress timed” (though this is not a simple matter). English is a stress-timed language. Both word stress and sentence stress are essential in English. However, proper word liaison and elision marks native speakers from non-native speakers. Some advice is given on how to practice privately and in a classroom. The importance of teacher talk as a model is noted.

Texting  language  is  a  new  language  variety  that  appears  with  the  Internet  and  digital  media.  This
language  has  developed  a  unique  style  that  requires  new  terminology, which  separates  it  from  daily
language. It is very common between Internet users, bloggers, chatter, gamers, and teenagers in general.
Some  people  consider  such  a  language  variety  as  an  informal  language.  Linguists,  educators,  and
language teachers should take care of this new trend. It has some influences on the formal language and
academic writing. I am interested in studying this new linguistic trend and review the literature. I have
some question about it depending on some linguistic theories and educational perspectives.  My goals
are to find out about the role of internet, media, and technology to teach English in EFL context and to
distinguish  between  formal  and  informal written  forms  and  to  compare  between  how English  native
speakers and non-native speakers of English deal with this language.

This paper discusses the issue of learner outcomes in learning culture as part of their language learning. First, some brief discussion on the role of culture in language teaching and learning, as well as on culture contents in language lessons is presented. Based on a detailed review of previous literature related to culture in language teaching and learning, the paper distinguishes three different levels of learner outcomes in learning culture, namely cultural knowledge, cultural awareness and cultural competence. It also suggests a framework for examining learner outcomes in learning culture towards the end of the discussion. Recommendations for further research are also provided.

Borghetti, C. (2019), 'Interculturality as collaborative identity management in language education'. Intercultural Communication Education, 2(1), pp. 20-38.

Just over ten years ago, Block (2007, p. 2) called the increasing attention that second language researchers – and social scientists at large – were giving to the construct of ‘identity’ an “obsession”. Since then, the identities of those who use, learn or study a language have been investigated in greater detail (e.g., Benson, Barkhuizen, Bodycott & Brown, 2013; Clarke, 2008; Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009; Edwards, 2009). It may seem that intercultural language education is lagging behind this tendency. However, a number of publications (e.g., Kramsch, 2009; Rivers & Houghton, 2013) suggest that, considering contemporary global societies, the intercultural goals of language learning and teaching can be better promoted by replacing the notion of ‘culture’ with that of multiple ‘identities’ or ‘subjectivities’. More specifically, language education can aim to make students capable of selecting the language resources available to them in order to express their (developing) desired identities and, at the same time, to recognise the multiple identities that their interlocutors put forth in a given context (Borghetti, 2016). To make the case for this ‘identity-related intercultural language education’, the article reviews and discusses a number of studies which, from different perspectives, have already argued for a more prominent role of the construct of ‘identity’ in the field of second language education.

Principles-based approach (PBA) identifies six principles aimed at helping policymakers, researchers, and practitioners build effective and successful practices within varied contexts while identifying and engaging with the challenges that the implementation of these practices will encounter. PBA builds on the current work on language policy and practice, but instead of
providing a set of standards, it identifies a set of principles that can help policymakers in diverse contexts develop locally appropriate language policies and practices. The application of a set of standards has to be based on assumptions related to the distribution of resources, access to knowledge, and appropriate infrastructure. In addition, the types of methodologies and assumptions about learning and teaching that underlie standards are also based on notions of language teaching approaches which espouse “a particular view of the world and [can be] articulated in the interests of unequal power relationships” [13, 589-590]. Understanding the limitations that such an imposition might pose in different contexts, with varying capacity for achieving these standards, professional organizations such as the TESOL International Association have attempted to collaborate with local ministries of education to develop contextually relevant standards.

Due to the globalization era, English language, as one of the international languages, is taught as a foreign or second language all over the world. The objective of learning English language is to acquire communicative competence among people from different languages and cultures. As one aspect supporting communicative competence in language teaching, cultural competence has its prominent role. Cultural competence is the ability to understand behavior from the standpoint of the members of a culture and to behave in a way that would be understood by the members of the culture in the intended way. People from different places will bring their background values, expectations, and perception when they communicate each other. There will be misunderstanding if they do not understand the difference. Accordingly, understanding culture of the target language is necessary to maintain good communication. It is necessary to teach culture to the students who learn a second or foreign language, because culture represents any item of behavior, tradition or pattern and it can only be understood by the people who practice it. People who learn language means they learn culture of the target language. Samovar, Porter and Jain (1981) state that culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what, and how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted. In line with that, Byram (1988) argues that we should and do teach our students the second or foreign language culture in our classes when our goal is communicative competence. Brown (1994) says that a language is part of culture and culture is part of language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot

Speaking is an important skill in language learning and EFL learners sometimes face difficulties when they want to speak. This study attempted to measure the effect of Kagan's cooperative structures on speaking skill of Iranian EFL learners. The participants were selected from EFL learners studying at Ideal Language Institute. The Cambridge English Language Assessment was administered in order to select homogenous participants. Forty eight adult female EFL learners were selected as intermediate learners based on their results of the language proficiency test. They were divided into two groups, 24 as the control group and 24 as the experimental group. A pre-test was administered to both groups at the beginning of the experiment then, the students participated in 90 minute classes two times a week for eight sessions. At the end of the experiment, a post-test was assigned to both groups to determine whether the Kagan's cooperative structures had positively affected the students' speaking skills. The normality of data was tested through Skewness, Kurtosis, and K-S. To make sure the participants were homogenous, the parametric statistical technique of independent-samples t-test was calculated between the pre-tests of both groups and they were homogenous. Independent-samples t-test between the post-tests of the experimental group and the control group was calculated and it showed that the participants of the experimental group outperformed the subjects of the control group. Moreover, paired-samples t-test between the pre-test and post-test of the experimental group was calculated and it was shown that the experimental participants progressed from the pre-test to the post-test. The study revealed that: (1) Kagan's cooperative structures had a positive effect on the students' speaking skills, (2) the experimental group obtained higher scores in the post-test than in the pre-test, making the difference between the pre-test and post-test scores statistically significant. Based upon the conclusion drawn from the study, Kagan's cooperative structures were recommended to English classes.

As was the case with many newly independent African nations, Somalia was beset by a language problem whose complexity had begun well before independence and the unification of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland in 1960. With three languages (English, Arabic, and Italian) used as media of communication in government offices and in schools, various Somali administrations struggled to contain the impasse but found no tangible solution. Barely three years after Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in October 1969, he had his military regime introduce the Somali orthography in the Latin alphabet. Based on this milestone, Siad Barre's military rule is highly commended for taking a remarkable step forward in what came to be known as the Somalization project. However, officials of the government and Somali scholarship failed to

Motivation is essential because it highly contributes to achievement. Teachers need to motivate their students in order to develop a positive outcome. Research on motivation for foreign language learning has shown that teachers should be aware of their actions and behaviors in classroom because it is very likely that they can demotivate learners. This study explores how motivational strategies used by English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers could increase the motivation of students to learn English as a foreign language. Participants included five EFL teachers along with one hundred first-year female students. The students completed a survey while the teachers took part in an interview. Both measures aimed to explore the attitudes of both teachers and students towards motivation in the foreign language classroom. Results showed that the most used motivational strategies were: resources that satisfy the students’ needs and interests, group work, active participation in class, and praises and rewards. The findings of this study can contribute to teachers’ knowledge of the motivational strategies that work best for students especially those that are pertinent to the Saudi context to improve their current teaching methods and can contribute also to further research on motivation.

The introduction to this volume is intended to be a holistic introduction to international /intercultural  communicative competence.  In this introduction and part 1, the four
chapters on the meaning of EIL competence by four different authors present very different perspectives. We do not wish to attempt to resolve differences of perception, although I will
discuss some differences in this introduction. After all, the tolerance of different perspectives is an essential part of the epistemology of EIL. As Moser, (2002, p.17) eloquently suggests in
defence of his own epistemology, meta-epistemic instrumentalism,
Within the tolerant confines of meta-epistemic instrumentalism, we can welcome even as rational, much of the remarkable divergence we see in contemporary epistemology (p.17).
When faced with a broad and divergent body of knowledge, it would have been tempting to simplify the different accounts of knowledge into some kind of coherent whole. This can
sometimes take the form of rejecting scholarship that we cannot reconcile within our own paradigm. In our own field, we might want to reconsider whether a common target for rejection
(frequently also within this volume), Chomskian linguistics, is indeed really in opposition to holistic views of competence. For Moser (2002, p.6), holism is related to ‘epistemic coherentism’ as it “finds the ultimate source of justification in a system of interconnected beliefs or potential beliefs”. However, Moser does not support the artificial creation of a tidy fixed, impervious system of interconnected beliefs. Moser (p.16) argues instead that to characterize the present state of epistemic scholarship as ‘rational’, a tolerance of conceptual divergence is
needed that might not be encompassed in a coherent holistic model (coherentism). Moser coins the phrase ‘meta-epistemic instrumentalism’ (p.16) which “enables us to explain as rational
conceptual divergence what initially looks like perennial disagreement.” In Moser’s view, “the diversity hides a deeper rational unity” (p.17). As Sivasubramaniam suggests in this volume, we must therefore view all attempts a creating ‘final’ systems as temporary. The parts may come together in apparent coherence as with a kaleidoscope, but the ‘fixed’ outcome will only be
provisional. In the case of Chomskian linguistics, might we not need to acknowledge that EIL specialists have so far struggled to come up with an adequate characterization of linguistic
competence? As a result of this conceptual divergence in part 1, there is inevitably some repetition too. On closer examination, however, I have found that similar but very important concepts are
contextualized very differently in these chapters. This is perhaps most apparent in Sivasubramaniam’s contribution, which provides a much broader challenge to the concept of competence itself. Sivasubramaniam proposes a pluricentric view of community leading to a notion of competence that is enriched by its dependence on a plurality of contexts. His suggestion that we are actually in search of context-based confirmations rather than objective and context-free affirmations underline the difficulty of providing a meaningful definition of EILcompetence at all. My co-editor therefore provides a different angle on “rational diversity” as he underlines the need to broaden our perspectives, whereas as definitions tend to summarize and reduce. His strongly expressed views of social alignment and sociolinguistic sensitivity have, I
hope, helped me avoid reductionism in my own attempt to characterize (rather than definitively or narrowly define) EIL competence in this introduction. I have nonetheless responded to my own perception that the EIL literature has spent a lot of time pointing out what EIL competence is not, but less time suggesting what it is. If readers feel we have made a first step in this regard, we will be delighted.

Teaching a foreign language does not merely involve teaching its linguistic system but also its cultural system. A native speaker of English may tolerate EFL speaker's grammatical or phonological errors in communication, but cultural errors may not be tolerated and may create serious problems which lead to communication failure. Therefore, English culture should be given an adequate place in EFL teaching and syllabi if we want to produce competent users of English who can use it effectively and appropriately for communication with English people. For this reason, this paper aimed at raising Yemeni EFL teachers' awareness towards integrating English culture into their EFL classes. It explored Aden University EFL teachers' perceptions of the importance of integrating English culture into their EFL teaching and the actual practices they utilize for integrating English culture into their teaching.
For full article click this link:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332199761_Integrating_Culture_into_EFL_Teaching_A_Study_of_Yemeni_EFL_Teachers'_Perceptions_and_Actual_Practices

In April 2006, Kinki University Technical College implemented three new textbooks with the aim of increasing the communicative competence of the students. The researcher compared the effectiveness of the new textbooks by using three approaches: firstly, a textbook analysis based on the Littlejohn Approach; secondly, a questionnaire completed by teachers who used the textbooks; and thirdly, semi-structured interviews with four practitioners who used both one of the new and one of the traditional textbooks. This paper reviews these three methodological approaches.

The rising use of English as an international language has caused scholars in the field of culture pedagogy to question the relationship between the English language and the cultures of the English-speaking countries it has traditionally been associated with (Kramsch 1993, 1998; McKay 2002; Risager 2006, 2007). As a result, research into this area of language teaching and learning has been highly prolific in the twenty-first century as can be confirmed by the number of articles and books addressing the subject. This paper comments on some of the results obtained from a larger piece of research which considered the role played by culture in the learning of English as a foreign language in Majorca, Spain. Results indicate that much of the cultural knowledge of EFL learners is based on popular cultural stereotypes. This paper will discuss how these results can be understood within a theoretical framework of language socialisation theory (Shieffelin and Ochs 1986), social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1979) and stereotype theory (Gudykunst and Kim 1997) and how this may have consequences for the future of English language learning within the context of English as an international language.

Teaching a foreign language does not merely involve teaching its linguistic system but also its cultural system. A native speaker of English may tolerate EFL speaker's grammatical or phonological errors in communication, but cultural errors may not be tolerated and may create serious problems which lead to communication failure. Therefore, English culture should be given an adequate place in EFL teaching and syllabi if we want to produce competent users of English who can use it effectively and appropriately for communication with English people. For this reason, this paper aimed at raising Yemeni EFL teachers' awareness towards integrating English culture into their EFL classes. It explored Aden University EFL teachers' perceptions of the importance of integrating English culture into their EFL teaching and the actual practices they utilize for integrating English culture into their teaching. Data were primarily collected through a questionnaire webbed to 56 teachers (n=56) and then analysed by using SPSS. Findings have revealed that Yemeni EFL teachers held positive attitudes towards integrating English culture into their EFL teaching as their overall attitude was more than 4 (out of 5). There were significant differences in teachers' attitudes which were gender-based as female teachers showed a higher overall positive attitude than their male counterparts. Other variables such as major, years of experience and academic level showed slight statistical differences. On the other hand, findings have shown a low level of integrating culture into actual teaching by both male and female teachers. Slight differences were found among their actual practices that can be attributed to teachers' major and teaching experience. As per the findings, the study has provided some recommendations that may help Yemeni teachers to go beyond teaching linguistic skills and to integrate culture into their teaching of English.

Abstract
Though much of the EFL literature today centers on the use of contemporary technology
within a learner-centered medium, the majority of English language learners worldwide
are living in areas of reduced circumstances. Educational institutions, in many cases,
cannot afford multimedia or blended learning tools; nor can they incur simple textbooks.
This paper offers a perspective on activities from a task-based syllabus that provides
lessons requiring little more than pen, paper, and the resourcefulness of the second
language instructor. The lessons consist mainly of auditory activities that utilize the
second language learners’ existing cognitive concepts. The relevant feature of this taskbased
design is its dependence on the creativity of the instructor who is charged with
developing, constructing, and presenting the tasks that both engage and educate the
learners. In creating lesson material, themes associated with Arabic speaking societies
are adopted rather than culturally sensitive topics often found in the EFL/ESL generated
material dispersed by Eurocentric publishers. Allowing Arabic speaking EFL learners the
opportunity to absorb and display English from the prism of their own societal
consciousness, and in a task-based format, creates a wealth of lesson plan possibilities.

p.55 in the attached volume

My paper will not have a single focus, but the unifying central theme will be the description of the method actually being enacted in particular contexts (method-in-use) to help us compare unique experiences across contexts. For cross-cultural comparison to be possible at all, we have to assume that there is something in common between even the most divergent teaching contexts. I have therefore selected the two most different situations I could find from my own experience and from my research and then used the same model to compare them. By comparing experiences of unique teaching situations across diverse contexts, we attempt
to learn from the local experience of others, help to make sense of local experience for ourselves and help others to make sense of their own experience. After briefly summarizing my model of method-in-use developed and modified from my earlier PhD study (Nunn 1996), I will narrate some of the episodes that could not be included in an examined study or in standard journal articles, but which help support the perception of the need to describe real local experience and to look below the surface of polished academic study. Anecdotal narrated experience would not normally be included in standard academic writing. I use this partly as a counterbalance to more formal writing I have already published on this same subject, but partly because I have come to believe that formal academic writing can take the life and energy out of what is a very dynamic, lived profession and can exclude
some highly relevant local data. I do not believe it is possible to understand the context I describe without the anecdotal narrative.

Analysis of errors produced by Korean learners of English is one area in which much work remains to be done. This paper attempts to delineate two particular types of errors: L1 syntax-influenced errors, those caused by L1 surface structure interference in L2 production, and L1 culturo-syntactically related errors, those caused by L1 surface structure interference which, in turn, has been influenced by cultural or other extralinguistic aspects of the L1 speech community. This culturo-syntactic influence of Korean is shown to occur at the morphological, lexical, phrasal, and sentential levels, all causing errors in English production. Two additional general principles are proposed to account for much of this influence. It is suggested that teacher awareness of these types of errors and imparting to the student information on the reasons causing them will be conducive to their expedient elimination.

Listening to and processing the pronunciation of speakers of different native and non-native varieties of English presents a challenge for many learners. The general consensus among authors of ELT handbooks is that teachers need to use listening material that will help learners become aware of different accents of English (i.e. Harmer, 2007; Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000)

In order to discover if teachers of English share this view and if this is reflected in their teaching practices, a questionnaire was completed by a representative sample of 47 English language teachers in Thessaloniki, Greece. The mean response for each questionnaire item was calculated and the paired-samples t-test was undertaken in order to determine if any differences in the scores were statistically significant.

The questionnaire results indicate that the perceived importance of learners' exposure to a standard British or American variety is greater compared to the learners' exposure to standard regional, non-standard regional, or non-native varieties of English. A similar pattern emerged in terms of the teachers' responses to the question addressing the frequency of learners' exposure to various accents of English through the listening material of the course. Conversations among non-native (but fluent) speakers of English received the lowest rating of all questionnaire items; this is disappointing since nowadays English is primarily used for communication among non-native speakers of English (Jenkins, 2000). This study suggests that the views expressed in ELT handbooks in this area have had little impact on teachers' practices and the reasons why this is the case will be revealed.