A Comparative Study of Teachers' and Learners' Perceptions towards the Role of Culture in English Language Teaching
The general principal is that the way people perceive something positively or negatively would influence their behavior toward that thing. Given the fact that English is the dominant foreign language taught in Iran, it is of enormous use to investigate the possible contributions of teachers' and learners' attitudes toward teaching the target culture. This study was an attempt to uncover the Iranian English teachers' and learners' perceptions of teaching culture. Alongside, the possible differences between the teachers' and learners' perceptions of teaching culture in language classrooms were also inspected. The participants of the study included 8 language teachers and 30 language learners from Iranian institutes. Teachers' and learners' perceptions toward teaching target culture in language classes were collected through attitude questionnaires and interviews. Data analysis revealed that both language teachers and learners held positive attitudes toward teaching culture and the statistical test of independent samples t test also indicated that there was no significant difference between language teachers and learners in terms of perceptions toward teaching culture in language classes. Moreover, language learners expressed that they preferred dialogue based learning of culture rather than using other channels such as reading about culture.