Unifying language and culture, through English teaching process: An examination of Iranian Teachers’ conception of intercultural objectives in English language education

In Iran, English language has received widespread acceptance and people are learning this language day by day because it is an international language and has a significant impact on people and nations, relationships. Each of these nations, has their own cultures that are remarkable. Having enough information about different cultures, will help English language students to communicate effectively, with people who have different cultural backgrounds, but do Iranian language teachers in institutes and high schools, teach its’ culture to the Iranian learners? In this study, the main focus is on Iranian English teachers who are teaching at high school level. Using Castro et.al (2004) survey questionnaire regarding objectives of teaching English, helped us to examine to what extent Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers, reinforce target culture education, while they are teaching English. The results of this study revealed that Iranian EFL teachers tended to teach linguistic knowledge rather than cultural issues. They also claimed that the cultural information which students acquire, containing general topics such as, holidays, festivals, and celebrations of English-speaking countries. Moreover, they declared that teaching English in Iran’s high schools is taught in the light of Iranian-Islamic culture (Majdzadeh, 2002). More results are illustrated through the study.

Unifying language and culture, through English teaching process: An examination of Iranian Teachers’ conception of intercultural objectives in English language education Keywords:

Iran schools , Teaching English language , Iranian EFL teachers , EFL textbooks , Intercultural knowledge , Language teaching in Iran