2.5. Related studies and research gaps
2.5.2. Studies about students’ perceptions of cultural instruction
There exist many studies concerning cultural learning and teaching, some of which indicated negative effects on the learners of learning the target culture presented in English textbooks. In the study of Prodromou (1992), the focus was on which cultures should be included in language learning. Three hundred students studying English as a foreign language in Greece were the study's subjects, and the results showed that more than 50% of the respondents believed native-speaker teachers should know Greek culture to better understand local students.
Canagarjah (1993) discovered that the students in ESL classes in Sri Lanka had unfavourable opinions regarding the target language and culture. They found that the materials' inclination toward the West was to blame. The worry of being
“absorbed” by the culture of the language they were learning made the students uneasy. Due to these factors, students preferred the more traditional method of learning English, probably because it allowed them to maintain some distance from the drastically different society and their traditional cultural values.
Japanese students were surveyed by Richards (1995) to help them choose instructional materials that are motivating. It is revealed that students, especially those attending Japanese universities, were more interested in learning about the target culture. More specifically, students were most interested in learning about American, British, and Chinese cultures. They were especially interested in learning about American food, music, film, and school life.
However, many studies have also portrayed positive perceptions regarding cultural teaching and learning. To understand how Chinese university students with
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various levels of English proficiency view the cultural content of college English teaching materials in China, Zhang and Ma (2004) surveyed them to examine.
According to the responses, the cultural content included in the most recent English teaching resources did not meet the needs of the students. Although most students agree that they want to learn about the target culture, more than half of the participants also say they would like resources that include source and worldwide cultures in addition to the target culture. Nonetheless, the majority of their textbooks, according to respondents, are focused on target culture.
Kahraman (2016) carried out a study at two universities in Turkey with the voluntary participation of 107 teachers and 310 students to investigate their perceptions regarding cultural instruction. The findings indicated that source, target, and international target cultures were necessary for cultural teaching. Considering the best ways to teach cultural materials, students prefer to explore the cultural aspects of the target language, hear about the target culture, focus on vocabulary that is related to cultural references, hear English songs or poems to experience different cultures, act out or take part in role-playing activities to learn about different cultures and learn from additional materials that are filled with cultural references outside of the classroom.
Xiao (2010), in his study conducted at Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, devised a well-structured and thorough questionnaire to investigate students’ perceptions of teaching cultural content. This questionnaire adopted a three- pronged approach comprising a Likert scale answer option (a 1-5 scale), rank order questions, and an open-ended response with 28 items. The first part, which contained 20 items, aimed to explore students' attitudes toward cultural learning and their ability to communicate cultural knowledge. The second part encompassed five aspects concerning the significance of cultural elements, and participants were expected to arrange them according to the degree of their perceived importance. Lastly, part three comprised three open-ended questions about their expectations of cultural learning regarding cultural categories. Additionally, they were required to provide reasoning
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and support for their choices. The researcher then concluded that most students agreed that the textbook mainly focused on English-speaking nations' cultures. The findings also revealed that most students had made an effort and were eager to learn about source and target cultures. For the reasons they provided, the students believed that learning about the target culture would be most beneficial to their English because they can boost their knowledge expansion, cultural awareness, and communication effectiveness. They also desired to study source culture to preserve their cultural identity, promote their cultures, and communicate with foreigners.
Nonetheless, the majority of students showed little enthusiasm for studying the cultures of other nations due to the time limit and insignificant importance of these cultures to their study. These students expected such themes as Lifestyles, History, Values, Politics, and Education to be included in their textbook. They preferred the lessons if the teachers could give cultural background concerning the topics and offer cultural knowledge by discussing current cultural happenings. Since the questionnaire developed by Xiao is a well-developed and detailed questionnaire, the researcher decided to base the data-gathering tool for this study on this questionnaire.
According to a study by Alrashidi (2021) with 45 teachers and 151 students in Saudi secondary schools, the participants were interested in including cultural items from all the suggested categories of culture and a mixture of cultures. They provided some reasons, namely understanding language in an adequate way, helping students achieve their learning goals, practical reasons, individual differences, secondary importance to language improvement, dealing with sensitive, controversial topics, challenges relevant to the teaching context, learning and teaching from other resources, familiarity issue, and concepts about language as explanations for their cultural preferences and ways of teaching cultures in classes.
In Vietnam, in a study conducted by Vu (2016) regarding students' attitudes toward the importance of culture and cultural learning, the findings indicate that most students attempted to learn both the target and source cultures and were open to doing so. Students perceived the learning of target culture as the most advantageous aspect
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of their English studies, whereas learning about the source culture helped them to understand traditional Vietnamese culture better, thereby enabling them to introduce Viet Nam to foreigners in an intercultural communication context. Nevertheless, the research revealed that many students lacked interest in learning about other countries' cultures. The students also did not view international culture as a necessary and significant aspect of their English studies. Some themes like Lifestyles, Customs, Values, Education, and Economy are preferred to be included in their textbooks. In terms of the students' attitudes and preferences towards the current state of cultural teaching and learning, they preferred the lessons if teachers included cultural backgrounds related to the topics and discussed cultural knowledge in the context of current events, as this would enhance their cultural learning compared to the current situation. Additionally, in a study at Hue University in Vietnam with 120 randomly chosen EFL students, Cao (2020) found out that the surveyed students could not decide whether the cultural elements in the textbooks were suitable to help them develop their intercultural competence. Nonetheless, they generally concur that the books lack a good balance of components from inner and outer circles, with the inner ones predominating. Also, the majority of the components showcase characteristics of surface culture.