Towards an intercultural approach to teaching civilisation in the foreign language classroom

Abstract

The research argues that although the civilisation programme is one of the most important cultural subjects that can develop EFL learners’ intercultural skills, it is often taught as history. Therefore, this research calls for the importance of recognising the cultural dimension of English language through the programme of civilisation. The findings of the research have concluded that this neglect of teaching culture has to do with many teaching/learning pedagogies and classroom practices such as the teaching content, the teaching practices, the classroom atmosphere, and the learners. On the basis of these findings, it is suggested that there should be a review of the content, the teaching practices in order to achieve better results in terms of language and culture.