Developing EFL Learners’ Cultural Awareness Through Teaching Contextual Idioms Case Study: Second-year Students of English at Mohamed Lamine Debaghine-Sétif 2 University
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Date
2024
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University of ‘Abbes Laghrour’ Khenchela
Abstract
Abstract
The current study aims to scrutinise the effect of teaching idioms in contexts on developing the cultural awareness of second-year (LMD) students in the Department of English at Mohamed Lamine Debaghine, Sétif-2 University. We hypothesise that contextual idioms instruction has a significant impact on developing EFL learners’ cultural awareness. The present study opts for a quasi-experimental research design by adopting a mixed-method approach that incorporates quantitative and qualitative instruments to ensure optimal answers to the research questions. As a preliminary phase, explore the target population’s cultural awareness with a questionnaire that is delivered to the entire population (472), besides the teacher’s interview, to confirm the existence of the problem. After that, pre-and post-tests were conducted before and after the intervention and were deployed to measure the participants’ cultural awareness level before and after the incorporation of the treatment. In this study, there were two intact groups [86 subjects]: experimental (46) and control (42) out of 472. Instructions for idioms were taught to the participants of both groups via distinctive techniques. On the one hand, the experimental group underwent the treatment by teaching culturally specific idioms in their contexts (Situation, Cultural). On the other hand, the subjects in the control group were taught using traditional instruction. Consequently, the findings show that both groups showed cultural awareness development after the experiment; however, the participants of the experimental group made higher progress compared with the control group’s participants in terms of proper idiom production. Besides, an attitudinal test done after the treatment of the EG participants revealed positive attitudes towards the contextual-cultural idioms employed in the instruction. In the end, we recommend the role of culture-specific idiom activities in the classroom instruction of culture since they have proven effective in the development of second- year students ‘cultural awareness.
Keywords: EFL Learners, Cultural Awareness, Teaching, Idioms in Contexts (Cultural), Effectiveness and Constraints