The Comparative Study of EFL Teachers and Learners’ Perceptions on the Importance of Teaching Culture

The present study aimed at investigating the teachers and learners' perceptions toward the importance of English culture and its needs in reading comprehension classes. Accordingly, following study planned to compare teachers and learners’ perception about the importance of teaching culture and their view points on reading materials. As the requirements of the study, two groups of EFL teachers (n=24) and learners (n=40) were selected based on convenience sampling method at Abadan Azad University. The instruments were two attitude questionnaire extracted from Karabinar and Guler (2012) and Pishvaei and Kasaian (2013). The participants filled in the questionnaires of 5-point Likert scale and data were analyzed through independent samples t-test to assess the teachers and learners' perceptions on the importance of culture in teaching reading skill. Two types of textbooks (i.e., native and non-native) were also used in two classes to evaluate their culture richness. Results showed that there was not a significant difference on the teachers and learners' perception on the use of culture and English native materials in the classroom. Results also indicated that the learners in the reading class in which English native textbook was used outperformed the class with non-native reading textbook at the significant level (p<0.05). Implications of the study suggest that English language teachers should be aware of English language culture and put it in their teaching process. Cultural aspects in EFL teaching context believed as a vital necessity for many students to learn and improve their language knowledge, communicative skills, and comprehensions in same ways as native speakers do.