THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TEACHING CULTURE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM CONTEXT

Abstract

Language is a basic form of communication. It can be verbal, physical and biologically innate. Culture is the distinctiveness of a specific group of people. This distinctiveness can be observed in the language, religion, social behavior, music and the arts of these groups. Language and Culture are closely associated as culture finds its expression in language. Therefore, anyone learning a new language without having knowledge about its culture is deficient. In learning language, Culture plays an important role. It is pertinent then to mention that including culture in the learning process of a foreign language does not rule out the need to learn the four language skills in addition to spellings, sentence structure, word articulation, and vocabulary building. This article aims to establish the role that culture plays in the teaching and learning process of English as a foreign language. In its examination, the study highlights how culture in English as a foreign language (EFL) can be taught. The study of the Documentary Research Survey examines the usefulness of culture in teaching language and verifies whether their teaching conforms to the curriculum. Data used in the analysis of this study were obtained from external sources such as documents, articles and book chapters. The study confirmed that including culture in the context of learning foreign language is important. The outcome of the culture curriculum is not yet incorporated into secondary school operational plans.