Culture and Foreign Language Teaching

                           

It is important for language teachers to learn about the culture of the people  who  use  the  language.  By  understanding  the  culture,  it  will  be easier for the language teachers to understand the language  and to teach the language to their students. Some materials are easier to be explained by  relating  them  to  culture.  Some  experts  believe  that  it  is  better  to  use the students‟ cultural context when teaching a foreign language. They believe  that  it is easier  for the  students to learn  the language  when they are  familiar  with  the  context.  Others  believe  that  it  is  better  to  use  the target language cultural context so that they can learn the language in its natural settings. 

Given the importance of English in today's global era, then

Learning English must also be developed so that it is able to attract students' interest in these subjects and learning objectives can be achieved. namely by adding culture in foreign language lessons. Most students learn English just to be able to speak English, but they don't know the importance of applying culture so that there are no misunderstandings in the communication itself.

Dwyer (1996) states about the incorporation of culture into the Foreign Language Curriculum. Language teachers have been in the business of incorporating cultural information into their language classes long before it became popular. Even though these teachers may not use cultural terms, they are definitely aware of the fact that one does not communicate in the language with only grammar and vocabulary. But now that experts are suggesting that teachers add 'culture' to their classrooms, the situation becomes problematic as it's not really clear what that means in practice.

From here we can understand that the teacher must be able to take advantage of the culture for learning foreign language materials by explaining it with explanations and then providing cultural examples from these students so that students easily understand.

(Dwyer, 1996) then your main concern in teaching is the three components of language and does not pay too much attention to culture. But if you define it as a system for the expression of thoughts, feelings, etc., using spoken sounds or conventional symbols (The Collins Dictionary. P. 563), then culture is very important in the teaching and learning process. So you see, it's important to have a clear definition of those two words before you teach.

What can you conclude from this quote? True, there is a close relationship between cultural studies and teaching or learning foreign languages. In his first issue, Byram mentioned the cross interest between students studying culture and students learning foreign languages. Those who study foreign cultures must use the language used by these cultural communities to be able to understand that culture. On the other hand, those who study a foreign language must also know the culture of the community in which the language is spoken. the importance of a teaching culture for English teachers who can help them in teaching English to their students.