The Cultural Aspect of Learning Environment in Foreign Languages as a Means of Empowering Social and Integrative Attitudes

Abstract

Due to a rising demand for social and integrative interaction among nations, the cultural and educative role of foreign language learning compatible to a sustainable pedagogy learning environment is a priority to be investigated, especially in countries which are heading toward European integration, like Albania is. This paper addresses the enhancement of formal education curriculum with focus at foreign language in order to meet the needs of learning environment by employing an interactive pedagogy methodology. The instrument used in this research is the Socio-Educative Model, Gardner R.C. (2001) which measures the intensity of the impact that cultural and educative constructs have in students` social and integrative attitudes. On national basis, by a random selection technique the Socio-educative Model presented by Attitude Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) was conducted on a sample size of N=1500. The Likert scale of assessment at a range from (1-6) with code (1) indicating absolute disagreement and (6) absolute agreement to the test statements, was used for the instrument and the results of the data gathered indicated that: English learners have moderate positive attitudes toward foreigners speaking English; the language is marked as a high priority when integration is concerned, and they expressed a very strong interest to learn the English language. Overall, the cultural aspect of learning environment reflects the students` social and integrative attitudes to learning English as a foreign language.