Investigating Iranian EFL Learners’ Attitudes towards the Role of Culture and Intercultural Awareness

Culture, as an inseparable component of language, impacts different aspects of human communication in real language use. However, it has been underestimated in language teaching programs in Iran. Hence, this study aimed at investigating EFL learners’ attitudes towards the importance of learning culture and its impact on their intercultural awareness and language learning. A survey study was conducted. Seventy female EFL students at Islamic Azad University- Najafabad Branch were randomly selected to participate in the study. Their ages ranged from 20 to 28. Both questionnaire and focus group semistructured interview were used to have data collection triangulation. The findings of the study indicated that the EFL students had positive attitude towards the importance of learning the target language culture, believing that many of the misunderstandings and communication barriers were due to unfamiliarity with the target language cultural norms. Moreover, they claimed that cultural awareness makes language learning more meaningful, stimulates their critical thinking, develops open-mindedness, motivates them to learn the target language, and positively impacts their interpersonal and intercultural communication. Having a deep understanding and a comprehensive reservoir of the language meta-skills, as well as developing the cultural competency seem to be the basic requirements for those engaged in teaching or learning languages. Educational policy-makers and language teachers should consider that learners need to understand and behave pliably different cultural situations, tolerate the existing diversity in cultures, and learn to effectively negotiate the subtle differences and sub-levels ofcommunication and interaction.