Exploring Efl Teachers' And Learners' Perceptions Of Challenges Faced While Developing Cultural Awareness

Abstract

Alongside social and cultural linguists, pragmatics and cross-cultural studies have evolved. To properly teach foreign languages, it is vital to include not just language but also culture. For both teachers and linguists, the importance of cultural context cannot be overstated. According to Kramsch, we cannot be proficient in a language "unless we are aware of that culture and how that culture connects to our own first language/first culture." (ibid.). This argues that effective language usage requires both cultural knowledge and awareness. Henceforth, establishing cultural awareness and comprehension of various cultures requires a great deal of language planning authentic resources. However, for a variety of reasons, teachers, and instructors of EFL courses face several challenges when it comes to extending their students' exposure to other cultures. Accordingly, this study aims at exploring the attitudes of EFL teachers and students toward the process of cultural awareness enhancement. A qualitative study approach was used to administer an online questionnaire to a representative sample of teachers and students in a variety of English departments at Algerian universities to ascertain their experiences with cultural integration and to make recommendations for future constructive solutions. The study's findings established the importance of cultural awareness in EFL courses and the critical necessity to remove current impediments to building up language proficiency.