| The Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (1996; 2006) listed culture as one of five goals of learning foreign language, and required students to demonstrate the connections between cultural products and cultural perspectives, and between cultural patterns and cultural perspectives. However, how foreign language instructors at college-level teach culture and cultural perspectives remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) language instructors' attitudes and beliefs towards teaching culture; (2) the instructional strategies, resources and technology that instructors use to teach culture; and (3) the difficulties and barriers of teaching cultural and cultural perspectives to college-level students. This qualitative case study explored the teaching of culture in the Modern Language Department at a university in the mountain west region of the U.S. through document mining, classroom observation, and interviews of both language instructors and students. The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge base on the teaching of culture and cultural perspectives in foreign language programs at the college-level. Findings include that (a) some foreign language instructors did not recognize that culture is an important objective for teaching foreign language in the 21st century; (b) instructors used both instructor-led and student self-directed instructional strategies; (c) instructors relied on textbooks rather than authentic materials, and used basic technology such as a projector and screen to teach culture; and (d) the knowledge of how to teach a language is undervalued. The results of this study suggest foreign language instructors and programs should emphasize the teaching of cultural perspectives in practice. |
