On the Relationship between Culture and ELT

Abstract

In the literature, there are two widely spread and opposing views regarding the relationship between culture and English language teaching (ELT). One is that, since culture and language are inseparable, English cannot be taught without the culture (or rather, one of the cultures) in which it is embedded. The other one is that English language teaching should be carried out independently of its cultural context. It is often suggested that, instead of the context of the target culture, ELT should make use of contexts familiar to language learners. Taking this debate as a starting point, the paper reports on a survey carried out at a university college in Hungary investigating students’ attitudes to the cultural content of their EFL courses. The aims of the survey were to find out respondents’ attitudes towards the cultural elements of their EFL courses, and to define their perceived needs.