A study on ELT students' cultural awareness and attitudes towards incorporation of target culture into language instruction

Culture and language are inseparable from each other as both in combination reflect shared cultural properties such as values, behaviours, and attitude inherent in the society we live and in language patterns we use. In this respect, it is highly valuable to integrate cultural elements into language education for intercultural understanding and welcoming different cultures. The aim of this research was to explore the attitudes of Turkish university students at the English Language Teaching (ELT) Department towards culture and its integration into language teaching and their cultural awareness and to reveal if birthplace, gender, experience abroad and high school graduated had any influence on their attitudes. Data were collected from 96 participants through a questionnaire consisting of three parts (i.e. demographic information, multiple-choice questions, and 5-point Likert-type scale). For data analysis, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage and means), one-way ANOVA and post-hoc test were conducted via SPSS and open-ended items were qualitatively analyzed. Overall, findings of the study yielded positive attitudes of significant numbers of ELT students towards culture and its incorporation in language teaching regardless of their birthplace, the type of high school, and the experience abroad. As for gender, female students had more positive attitudes towards culture than males. Additionally, participants were found to learn culture mainly to develop their cultural awareness and maintain better communication with people from different cultures. In the light of findings, necessary implications were provided for teachers and teacher educators regarding raising cultural awareness of students and developing positive attitudes towards incorporation of target culture into language instruction.