Iranian authorities view English language learning as a disturbing influence on national identity. They are concerned about its impact on learners' identities. Despite the political concern, there is growing interest in learning English in Iranian private schools for personal and social development. This article reports on a study in which six…

Foreign language textbooks not only aid language learners in developing their linguistic skills and knowledge but also reshape their cultural identities. Drawing on theories of critical curriculum studies, this paper examines cultural representation in two sets of US-produced Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) textbooks for American college…

This study presents language as a form of social expression through which feelings, ideas and thoughts are signified in a Culture. However, distinct groups belonging to the same society may define those factors in different ways, giving rise to a phenomenon called 'Multiculturality'. Therefore, thinking about this cultural diversity and taking…

This study reports the findings of a mixed method critical study of non-native university English language teachers' perceptions about cultural values and traditions represented in North Star English course book (advanced level), published by Pearson. The sample consisted of 35 male teachers who had experienced teaching the course book under…

The article raises the topical issue of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language to Arab students. Representatives of the Arab world have specific features in behavior, attitude to the organization of the educational process associated with cultural traditions, and upbringing. The Ukrainian system of higher education offers high-quality training.…

This study aims to investigate the differences in the realization of request speech act between the IEL (Indonesian English Learners) and the AES (Australian English-Native Speakers), as well as explain the factors influencing these distinctions. The descriptive-qualitative method and discourse completion task (DCT) were used to obtain data in…

The purposes of this paper are to investigate Taiwanese undergraduate students' responses to a selected fictional text, and to propose a critical intercultural pedagogical approach of reading global literature in the EFL educational context based on the insights from the research findings. The authors first critically analysed Xiaolu Guo's third…

It is impossible to imagine a modern person with higher education who would have never studied one or several foreign languages and would not be familiar with the culture of different countries. Especially in the modern world, in which knowledge of languages serves not only as a way of cognition, but also as a key to self-realization both in one's…

A Meta-Cultural way of thinking about communication, understanding, and competence means not just understanding and appreciating a few other cultures, but rather being able to function competently in any cultural setting in which you find yourself. In the Meta-Cultural mindset, therefore, all cultures have value, we are sensitive to cultural…

In Kosova, after the war, Albanian and Serb youth have not had opportunity to learn the language of each other. They have communicated in English language and thus this language has expanded throughout the region from its previous function as a sign of prestige and necessity for people who want to get educated or work abroad to the main tool of…

The present study was an attempt to evaluate and specify teachers' perception of the cultural elements of Total English book series. Another objective was to study the techniques and strategies that teachers usually use in teaching these elements. To this end, a total of 50 male and female teachers working at Kish Language Institute in Esfahan…

Discusses the situation of Hmong refugees who entered the United States 25 tears ago and new generations of Hmong living in the United States. The focus is on culture and learning styles, language and identity crises bridging the academic gap, instructional strategies, and tradition and progress. (Author/VWL)

Based on the idea that the brain consists of hemispheres which control different types of behavior, this paper argues that the Puerto Rican school system is deteriorating because its emphasis on left hemisphere (quantitative) activities does not synchronize with Puerto Rico's cultural orientation toward the right hemisphere (qualitative…

Taboo or forbidden topics of conversation are compared for Taiwan, the Republic of China, and United States. Emphasis is on the conveyance of conversational conventions in second language teaching. First, the concept of conversational taboos is examined, noting the non-transferability of taboos across cultures and languages. Four kinds of taboos…

A technique for teaching cultural awareness that uses comparisons of French films and American remakes is described. It is argued that the technique provides an appealing context for exploring cultural differences in terms of taboos regarding sex, death, and the body. (13 references) (Author/MSE)