The Relationship Between Being Exposed to Culture Through Social Media and the Willingness to Learn English

Abstract

This study is an attempt to investigate the relationship between exposure to the native culture and the learners’ willingness to learn the language. The study follows a mixed-method methodology using a questionnaire with closed-ended items and open-ended questions. Responses to the questionnaire were collected from 54 female students at a public university in Saudi Arabia. In general, the questionnaire results are significant, and indicate that there is a relationship between exposure to the native culture and the learners’ willingness to learn the language. The main finding is that being exposed to a certain culture makes the learners more willing to learn the language of that culture. Moreover, the findings of the study indicate the importance of adopting social media networking to assist in the process of integrating culture into teaching English as a foreign language. Furthermore, based on the findings of this study, we encourage teachers to allocate as much time as possible to introducing cultural aspects in foreign language classrooms with the aid of social media.