A case study of culture teaching practices of upper secondary school English teachers

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to investigate teachers’ culture teaching practices in an English language classroom and to examine the factors affecting teachers’ culture teaching practices. The participants were three upper secondary school English teachers of a school in Educational Area 1, Bangkok. The research instruments were a questionnaire, field notes, and interviews. The questionnaire data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The field notes and interviews were coded in the descriptive index. The results of the study revealed that (1) teacher teaching English Reading-Writing was the only one who taught all culture contents and took the roles covered by all four Cultural Knowings. Furthermore, all of them used three similar techniques in their culture teaching practices. Additionally, in Foundation English and English Reading-Writing, teachers used the course textbook as main material. In English Listening-Speaking, the teacher used CDs and VCDs as main materials. Besides that, all teachers used criterion-referenced tests – multiple choice as a method to measure students’ culture learning; and (2) there were eight teacher factors affecting teachers’ culture teaching practices: teachers’ learning experience, teachers’ cultural knowledge, teachers’ culture teaching experience, teachers’ culture teaching skills, teachers’ beliefs, teachers’ personal preferences, teachers’ roles, and teachers’ preparation time.