Students' perceptions towards the role of audio/video conferencing in developing EFL learners' cultural awareness

Abstract

EFL students are supposed to be learning English as a foreign language. In fact, the recent studies concerning the relationship between language and culture showed that learning a foreign language requires the knowledge of its culture. With the appearance of the new technology “audio/video conferencing” which is considered as an advantageous way to connect with people anywhere in the world students are using this technology for the sake of exchanging their home culture with others from different cultures. The main concern of this dissertation is the cultural awareness among students in the Department of English at Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia University - Jijel. The aim is to investigate the learners’ perceptions towards the role of the technology (audio/video conferencing) in developing EFL learners’ cultural awareness. Accordingly, we hypothesised that 1st year master students of English would perceive the audio/video conferencing as an affective learning tool to develop their cultural awareness. A questionnaire has been conducted and directed to 1st year Master students in department of English of Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia University - jijel. The results from the analysis of the questionnaire showed that there is a gap in communication through audio/video conferencing because of the lack of local students’ cultural awareness, since they do not have adequate knowledge about the two cultures. Furthermore, the data obtained from the students’ questionnaire showed that the students are more attracted to discover the foreign culture than their own. Moreover, it has been concluded that learners perceive audio/video conferencing as a good tool to develop their cultural awareness.