This thesis analyzes the use of culture in foreign language classes by the instructors working in a state university in Istanbul, Turkey. The purpose of the study is to determine whether a sufficient degree of attention is paid to culture-teaching in the language classes of the School of Foreign Languages in a state university which is located in a city with a rich cultural heritage (Istanbul) and whether the instructors do their best to maintain or improve their cultural knowledge so as to integrate it in their lessons as well as how they teach culture in their lessons. The data were collected with a questionnaire distributed to the instructors and this instrument was used as guidance by the researcher to select the people to interview. The interviewees were divided into three groups: The ones who showed high utilization of culture were named as &ldquo / HUC&rdquo / , the ones with moderate utilization of culture were called &ldquo / MUC&rdquo / and the ones with low utilization of culture were named &ldquo / LUC&rdquo / . Results of the study showed that the instructors found it difficult not only to improve themselves on this issue but also to allocate a great deal of time to it in the lessons because of the time restrictions of the curriculum of the school and the intense syllabi of their courses. Also, instructors in the HUC group mentioned target culture more, whereas the ones in the LUC group said that they covered Turkish culture in their classes. The interviewees in the MUC group mentioned both the Turkish culture and the target culture. Thus, some modifications in the curriculum of the school are necessary to integrate culture into the lessons and the instructors should be trained on culture teaching with the help of in-service teacher training programs.

In response to the dearth of research on culture awareness instruction prior to foreign language instruction, the objective of this study was to explore the effects of culture awareness lessons on learner attitudes and beliefs in second-semester university students of French. As a treatment, the experimental group received lessons on culture awareness prior to traditional French classroom instruction; the control group did not. Culture awareness lessons addressed terms such as perspective, culture, interpretation, and stereotypes. Lessons also included worksheets consisting of open-ended questions designed to capture students' responses to the aforementioned topics of discussion. Data collection methods consisted of pre- and post-surveys that included Likert-scale questions and reflections that incorporated open-ended questions designed to capture student attitudes and beliefs. Reflections included general questions on attitudes toward the French as well as cultural practice-specific questions. Qualitative analysis revealed that students from the experimental group showed greater appreciation for culture as an important component of foreign language instruction as well as higher response rates vis-à -vis intercultural understanding. Statistical analysis of the Likert-scale questions also showed significance among questions addressing greater understanding of cultural differences and increased perceived similarity between American and French cultures among the experimental group. However, the experimental group also showed a decrease in student predilection for studying and talking about culture. In general, the study reveals that the explicit teaching of culture awareness prior to traditional foreign language instruction, in conjunction with the opportunity students had to reflect and express their thoughts, has a positive effect on student attitudes.

This diploma thesis deals with presentation of russian culture, life and institutions in teaching sets for teaching russian at czech high schools. The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on the role of russian language in the contemporary world and the history of teaching russian in the Czech republic, presents Curricular documents. The thesis also deals with the meaning of a teaching set during learning language and present teaching sets for teaching russian, which were analyzed as an instrument for teaching culture and acquiring of communication skills. The practical part of this thesis analyses the teaching files Радуга по- новому, Снова Класс! and Твой шанс and offers the complete summary of representation of russian culture in these teaching sets. The main aim of this thesis is to compare the image of Russian Federation in selected teaching sets with a real high school students' knowledge. The realised research shows that the students' knowledge are not noticeably different under the terms of type of high school or a teaching set that they use. The majority of responders made known that their teaching set includes enough information about culture, nevertheless their knowledge is not good. The research also shows that student are greatly influenced not only by the teaching sets, but also by...

This study presents a critical investigation into the teaching of computer ethics. A qualitative pluralistic approach (a mixture of qualitative approaches) was used to investigate case studies of teaching computer ethics to university-level students from Bahrain. The main issue was that ethics to Arabs and Muslims is a matter of religion than a matter of philosophy whereas the dominant perception in the academic literature which discussed computer ethics teaching is that computer ethics is a form of practical philosophy and hence separate from religion. In order to shed light on this, the study investigated computer ethic’s perceptions and teaching practices which were occurring in universities in Bahrain. The study found that the issue was not a matter of perception but rather a matter of confusion and a misconception. Computer ethics was being confused with morality, religion, basic computer skills to name just a few. And such confusion was causing computer ethics to gradually disappear from the curriculum and become substituted with concepts which were not necessarily capable of building students’ ethical thinking. The study recommends that computer ethics teachers and policy makers from Bahrain distinguish computer ethics from religion, morality and from any other concept and identify it as an independent field of study, also teachers need to involve their students in social and ethical analysis of various kinds so that students understand that ethics is not a set of rules on what is forbidden and allowed aimed at providing straightforward answers to a given problem but rather ethics is a ‘cognitive tool’; a mechanism through which different competing ethical theories and standards are used to reflect on a given problem.

本論文旨在分析阿美族鄉土文化教材之內容，並探討這套教材在邦查國小實施的情形。前者以內容分析法，輔以論域分析法進行研究；後者則以參與式觀察法和訪談法進行研究。本研究之研究結果如下： 壹　在理念部分，研究發現本教材實施的最大困難在於邦查國小師生皆無法完全肯定原住民鄉土文化教材的價值。他們無法肯定本教材實施的主因在於幾個看似衝突概念之間的矛盾與混淆，分別是「國際化」對「本土化」、「同化」對「多元化」、「認同」對「生存」等。除非能夠釐清這幾個概念，否則原住民鄉土文化教材仍很難在國小教育中落實。 貳　在阿美族鄉土文化教材之內容部分，研究發現本套教材之照片多於圖片，較能說服學生相信文字所敘述的是「現在真實存在」的文化，而更有真實感。本教材之文字描述最著重精神文化，其次為社群文化，最少的則為物質文化。而圖片呈現最多的是精神文化，其次為物質文化，最少的是社群文化。研究並發現此套教材隱含有父權意識型態，並有避免呈現負面、衝突和困境，標題和內容不符，以及母語標注系統不一致等疏誤。 參　在阿美族鄉土文化教材之實施部分，大環境所看到的是不斷變動之課程改革政策與虛化之鄉土教材教科書；蘊涵豐富阿美族文化的邦查村，卻因族人參與意願、信仰因素、及青壯年之族人遠離部落到他鄉工作等主客觀因素，使得學童接觸本族文化機會少。在邦查國小鄉土活動課程之實施部分：八十七學年度上學期邦查國小實際上課的節數只有十四次。上課主題部分只有四次是關於阿美族族群文化的，另外十次則是邦查村之鄉土教材。在實際教學部分：發現教師對教材陌生、感到生疏、不自在、不知道如何教。教學重陳述，少有比較、評論或價值澄清。教學法強調記憶與背誦，互動偏向教師對全體學生的封閉性問題之問答。經過一個學期的教學，學生對於自己本族的看法不是太樂觀積極。 肆　整體而言，阿美族鄉土文化教材之實施至少有以下幾個問題：1.本鄉鄉土教材課程優先於原住民鄉土族群文化課程，原住民學童在學校仍無法學到自己的族群文化；2.教師在教導鄉土教學時，相關之教學專業知能不足，影響教學效果；3.想讓一個民族明白自己文化的根，使他們有自信，但卻只提供單一課程，則其功用有限。 最後，本研究並針對上述研究發現提出討論與建議。 / The study aims to analyze the contents of Ami indigenous culture teaching materials and to explore the process of employing these teaching materials in Pangcah elementary school. Content analysis and discourse analysis were conducted. Participatory observation and interview were also employed. Findings include: 1. The most difficult thing for implementing Ami teaching materials is that the staff and students were unconvinced of their values. The Ami indigenous culture teaching materials cannot be successfully implemented unless people can clarify the concepts of “internationalization vs. localization”, ”assimilation vs. diversification”, and “identification vs. survival”. 2. In the contents of Ami indigenous culture teaching materials, there are more photos than drawings, making the depicted real things of the past even more convincing. Most of the text describes the spiritual culture, less of the text describes the social system culture, and least of the text describes the substance culture. However, most pictures show the spiritual culture, less pictures show the substance culture, and least pictures show the social system culture. There was fatherhood ideology hidden in these teaching materials. Additional mistakes include the avoidance of negation, conflicts and dilemma, the incompatibility between title and content, and the inconsistent phonetic symbol systems of labeling Ami indigenous language. 3. The implementation of the Ami indigenous culture teaching materials was conditioned by the unceasingly changing curriculum policies, inefficient use of textbooks, and the ignorance of abundant Ami culture existing in the Pangcah village. In the instructional process, time is very limited, and the teacher did not perform very well. When he taught, he spoke alone and hardly has any comparisons, comments or clarifications. The teacher emphasized on reciting and rote-memory, with little teacher-student interaction. In the end of the semester, students did not develop positive attitude toward their own culture. Overall speaking, the implementation of Ami cultural teaching materials encounter at least the following problems: 1) the local mainstream curriculum takes precedence over the Ami cultural curriculum, thus precludes the absorption of their own culture by the Ami school children. 2) The effect of special instruction is usually offset by teachers' lack of the specialized pedagogical knowledge. 3) It is virtually impossible to restore self-confidence of the indigenous race through the implementation of one single subject's curriculum. Doing so would undoubtedly produce limited effect.

The Swedish regulatory documents for the school subject of English demand the presence of cultural representation/phenomena in the communicated material to the students but is vague about what the actual content should be. This leaves a lot of room for personal interpretation and selection of material for the teachers. The objective of this study was to explore how teachers interpret the sought after concept of culture, as well as how they choose to implement it in their lesson-plans. A qualitative study with five grade 7-9 teachers was made, with semi-structured interviews that were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results show that all the teachers found the instructions vague regarding what type of culture was to be included in the teaching. They perceived the vagueness as both a stressor and as a liberating factor, which is in accordance with previous research. The type of culture that was implemented in the teachers’ classrooms seemed to center around so called ‘little c culture’ or ‘social science context culture’ with the goal of achieving ‘intercultural communicative competence’.

Prior research in the field of culture and language education depicts the close relation between language and culture. Furthermore, such research emphasises that in order to understand and to be able to use a language properly, one needs to acknowledge that language is culture. Today English is a global language and a tool for communication in working life, in studies and when travelling. Hence, to be able to communicate in English one needs to know the cultural codes in these specific settings. Moreover, language teaching has many dimensions and according to the curriculum, teachers have an obligation to raise cultural awareness amongst pupils as well as teach fundamental values. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate how secondary teachers and pupils view and work with culture and how these views can be connected to the curriculum and to the syllabus of English Lgr.11. Through interviews with secondary pupils we found that their view of culture to an extent connects to the cultural content of the curriculum for Swedish compulsory school, Lgr.11. Through teacher interviews, we additionally found that even if the teachers had a broad view of culture that was connected to the curriculum, they did not always manage to convey their cultural teaching to their pupils.

Second/international language (L2) education contexts are increasingly recognized as fertile ground for the learning about “otherness”, teaching a new linguistic code and another way of seeing the world. This study contrasts how culture teaching beliefs and visions develop among new secondary school international language teachers in curriculum/methodology classes in two distinct teacher preparation programs. Using a comparative, multi-case study approach with a mixed methods design, this research uses complementary data sources including three repeated questionnaires, individual, focus group interviews and classroom observations to examine changes in culture teaching beliefs/visions. The research was informed by a sociocultural perspective in teacher education, a proposed model of teacher education impact and current thinking in culture and intercultural learning including Byram’s (1997) framework of intercultural communicative competence and post-modernist definitions of culture. Comparisons between the teacher educators involved show that culture teaching practices are strongly situated in historically embedded paradigms, contextual constraints of learning environments and framed by practitioners’ culture teaching beliefs. Findings indicate that teacher candidates’ culture teaching beliefs and visions evolve on individual pathways, depend on reflection, and are firmly rooted in previous beliefs about culture and L2 learning. Teacher education practices in these programs prompted both a facilitative and tempering effect on teacher candidate culture teaching beliefs and visions. Enthusiasm and curiosity about culture teaching increased and some teacher candidates saw culture teaching having perspective-changing benefits. Alternatively, many teacher candidates began to see increased complexity with culture teaching leading to insecurity about culture teaching knowledge and cultural credibility. Teacher candidates cited increased awareness of curricular and time constraints, concerns with stereotypes, the daunting breadth of culture and a lack of culture teaching models. Teachers with the most teaching and “living away” experience exhibited more culture teaching familiarity. Despite a brief appearance of some intercultural approaches, an instructivist approach working with the material dimension of the target culture dominated teachers’ culture teaching visions. Implications include rethinking the structure of L2 teacher preparation programs to provide more critical, ethnorelative reflection on culture, teacher identity, and to situate and operationalize culture teaching in teacher beliefs and experiences.

Second/international language (L2) education contexts are increasingly recognized as fertile ground for the learning about “otherness”, teaching a new linguistic code and another way of seeing the world. This study contrasts how culture teaching beliefs and visions develop among new secondary school international language teachers in curriculum/methodology classes in two distinct teacher preparation programs. Using a comparative, multi-case study approach with a mixed methods design, this research uses complementary data sources including three repeated questionnaires, individual, focus group interviews and classroom observations to examine changes in culture teaching beliefs/visions. The research was informed by a sociocultural perspective in teacher education, a proposed model of teacher education impact and current thinking in culture and intercultural learning including Byram’s (1997) framework of intercultural communicative competence and post-modernist definitions of culture. Comparisons between the teacher educators involved show that culture teaching practices are strongly situated in historically embedded paradigms, contextual constraints of learning environments and framed by practitioners’ culture teaching beliefs. Findings indicate that teacher candidates’ culture teaching beliefs and visions evolve on individual pathways, depend on reflection, and are firmly rooted in previous beliefs about culture and L2 learning. Teacher education practices in these programs prompted both a facilitative and tempering effect on teacher candidate culture teaching beliefs and visions. Enthusiasm and curiosity about culture teaching increased and some teacher candidates saw culture teaching having perspective-changing benefits. Alternatively, many teacher candidates began to see increased complexity with culture teaching leading to insecurity about culture teaching knowledge and cultural credibility. Teacher candidates cited increased awareness of curricular and time constraints, concerns with stereotypes, the daunting breadth of culture and a lack of culture teaching models. Teachers with the most teaching and “living away” experience exhibited more culture teaching familiarity. Despite a brief appearance of some intercultural approaches, an instructivist approach working with the material dimension of the target culture dominated teachers’ culture teaching visions. Implications include rethinking the structure of L2 teacher preparation programs to provide more critical, ethnorelative reflection on culture, teacher identity, and to situate and operationalize culture teaching in teacher beliefs and experiences.