THE INCORPORATION OF TEACHING CULTURE WITH TECHNOLOGY ENHANCES LEARNING ENGLISH AS A FL

The aim of this paper is to highlight 1) the importance of culture in learning/teaching EFL, 2) the importance of technology competency in language teaching/learning, and 3) enhancing learning/teaching English through integrating teaching culture and technology. Though culture and language learning/teaching are inseparable, culture was underestimated during the past decades. But recently, the role of culture in language learning/teaching has changed a lot. It has become an integral part of language learning, considered by some scholars as the fifth language skill. To be successful, it is vital to make students able to appreciate culture of those people who speak that language. This paper will try to give answers to the following: how, when, how often, what, why … do teachers teach cultural issues; how they integrate teaching culture with the use of technological tools; to what extent media technology is incorporated in teaching culture; etc. All these are discussed among student-teachers, at “A. Xhuvani” University of Elbasan, Albania, NIU students and students from 9-year schools. Due to different opinions and various perceptions gathered from questionnaires, interviews, fieldwork, observations and simulations, this paper provides ideas about how to help student-teachers face challenges of their future profession. This is a challenge not only for student-teachers and in-service teachers, but for educators, who deal with teacher preparation as well. Finally, this study indicates the need for further additional research on the interaction of culture and technology in teaching and learning English as a FL and at the same time it indicates the need for technology teacher training.