Publication Date

Winter 2014

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Master of Arts in TESOL)

First Advisor

Leslie Turpin

Abstract

This study sought to understand opportunities for teaching and learning target culture for intercultural awareness. Utilizing Moran’s Knowing Framework and its five cultural dimensions, reviewing curriculum documents and textbook in use for Grade Six as well as survey data from 22 English language teachers in Kosovo, this study finds that there is a misalignment among curriculum documents, textbook in use, and teacher classroom practices regarding teaching culture for cultural understanding. It is noted that while curriculum documents share the goals and objectives for preparing students to become global citizens through language and culture learning in English language, this vision is lost along the way and rarely makes it to the English language classrooms. Teachers in the study complained that they lacked adequate training for teaching culture in their teacher education programs, while a few indicated that they teach culture occasionally as part of their teaching repertoire. I conclude that English teachers, in Kosovo and internationally, need to be more creative in utilizing more authentic cultural materials in their classes to bring to life the culture of the native speakers of the language that students so much desire and spend time and other resources to acquire. Further, I argue that learning another culture and comparing it with own culture helps students to examine their culture from a different, outside perspective, making them culturally-richer individuals in deeper touch with their culture as well as those around them, near and far.

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