Attitudes of parents towards their children’s culture learning in an EFL setting.

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Punar N., Karatepe Ç.

Journal of Foreign Language Education and Technology, cilt.4, sa.2, ss.324-346, 2019 (Hakemli Dergi)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 4 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2019
  • Dergi Adı: Journal of Foreign Language Education and Technology
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Index Copernicus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.324-346
  • Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

http://jflet.com/jflet/ 324

Attitudes of Parents towards Their Children’s Culture Learning in an EFL Setting

Nermin PUNAR (nerminpunar@gmail.com)

Private Bursa Kültür Schools, Bursa

ORCID: 0000-0001-8772-0075

Çiğdem KARATEPE (cigdem.karatepe@gmail.com)

Uludağ University, Bursa ORCID: 0000-0002-2902-6656

Abstract: Language and culture are inseparable terms and in many researchers’ opinions, such as those of Byram (1988), Kramsch (1993), and Brown (2000), they should be integrated during the foreign language teaching process. Many studies have been conducted about the effects of culture teaching on language learning, or the views of both language teachers and learners about target culture teaching while learning a foreign language. However, there is very limited research examining the effects of parents on their children’s foreign language learning process about target culture teaching. Based on this gap in the literature, the present paper attempts to find out what parents think about the target culture in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes, and to identify whether there is any difference between the attitudes of parents considering their educational background, whether they know a foreign language, and whether they have been abroad before. One hundred and nine parents participated in this study, and a mixed research design was used. The quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA, and the qualitative data were collected by interviews and analysed by content analysis. As a result, it was found that some parents believe that culture is important and a good way to learn a foreign language; however, some of them do not believe that it is necessary for language learning. The majority of the parents believe that learning about a foreign culture could harm their children’s own culture and that they can learn the target language without being exposed to the target culture. The detailed results are discussed.