Teaching culture explicitly through literature to EFL learners

Abstract

Teachers/learners of foreign language (FL) have always faced a demanding task of learning/teaching L2/FL culture and despite the fact that diverse methods have been proposed to teach FL/L2 culture in language classes, the difficulties have not been completely removed. One of the possible ways would be using literary works to teach the cultural issues of the L2 to the learners. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance and the effect of using literature to teach L2 culture in the English language classes. To this aim, 40 upper-intermediate English language students were randomly selected and also randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (20 students for each group). Both groups were given a pre-test of some 20 L2 cultural questions. As the treatment, the experimental group was given a fifteen-session teaching of literary texts specifically selected for their cultural points together with a thorough explanation of those points while the control group went through a normal reading class with ordinary texts. Finally, a post-test was administered to both groups. The results showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups. The delayed post-test administered after two weeks confirmed the results, too. The findings may contribute to explicit teaching of culture through literature in L2/FL classrooms. © 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.