Iranian EFL Learner's Beliefs about Culture and its Reflection on Teaching English Language

Culture has always been of utmost importance in English language teaching (ELT) and there are arguments for and against its teaching. This study was an attempt to explore Iranian EFL learner's beliefs about teaching/learning the target (i.e., American or British) culture in the realm of ELT; it also tried to arrive at a definition of culture based on the interpretations of Iranian EFL learners. To achieve this goal, eighty-nine undergraduate students from Alzahra University participated in the present study. In this study, a qualitative research method was used. To achieve triangulation, the data were collected from three main sources: Questionnaires, interviews, and observations. The findings revealed that the learners of this study mainly perceived culture in terms of beliefs, traditions, customs, and way of living. In general, the results of this study demonstrated that the learners supported teaching/learning the target culture in ELT but they believed some criteria should be taken into consideration.