SHOULD WE INCLUDE OR EXCLUDE TEACHING CULTURAL MATTERS IN TEFL?

The present study aims to demonstrate that, firstly, language and culture are intertwined to such an extent that they cannot be separated to be studied or taught and secondly, the study claims that teaching English as a foreign language necessitates teaching its culture as it is impossible to teach a language without teaching its cultural matters. Littlewood (1981) asserts: “When we try to adopt new speech patterns, we are to some extent giving up markers of our own identity in order to adopt those of another cultural group. In some respects, too, we adopt another culture’s ways of perceiving the world.” The study shows that in the situations where cultural matters are not included in the educational program, the educational ends are not reached perfectly, so the language learners in such situations will not be able to communicate well and easily. Grammatical and lexical competence alone will not help language learners to gain fluency and to successfully socialize in the foreign language. Consequently, language learners, in addition to acquiring linguistic competence in a foreign language, should gain intercultural competence, too. As with the results of the study, it may be claimed that teaching English as a foreign language without dealing with its cultural matters will not lead us to English language teaching (ELT) purposes; rather it may lead to misunderstanding and misinterpretation. So, teaching culture should be an obligatory and important part of the curriculum.