Teachers and Students’ Attitudes towards the Use of Authentic Materials to Raise Learners’ Cultural Awareness

Abstract

The current study aims at investigating the perspectives and attitudes of the LMD learners and teachers of English as a foreign language towards the use of authentic materials for developing learners’ cultural awareness as well as to figure out the best authentic material that students and teachers consider as an effective tool in enhancing learners’ cultural awareness. It is hypothesized that EFL teachers and learners hold positive attitudes towards the use of authentic materials in raising learners’ cultural awareness. To check the validity of the research study, two questionnaires has been administered. The first to eighty EFL students at the Department of English at Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia University, Jijel, and the second to nineteen EFL teacher of English at the same department. The results proved that both students and teachers are in favor with the use of authentic materials for the sake of enhancing their cultural awareness. The majority of students declare that authentic materials are motivating; serve as a support in learning the target language as well as raising the cultural knowledge. Overall, the findings revealed that both teachers and students old positive attitudes towards the use of authentic materials in raising learners’ cultural awareness. Given the findings of this study, it is suggested for EFL learners to use authentic materials as a support in raising their cultural awareness. IV