Culture in Language Education; Secondary Teachers’ and Pupils’ Views of Culture

Abstract: Prior research in the field of culture and language education depicts the close relation between language and culture. Furthermore, such research emphasises that in order to understand and to be able to use a language properly, one needs to acknowledge that language is culture. Today English is a global language and a tool for communication in working life, in studies and when travelling. Hence, to be able to communicate in English one needs to know the cultural codes in these specific settings. Moreover, language teaching has many dimensions and according to the curriculum, teachers have an obligation to raise cultural awareness amongst pupils as well as teach fundamental values. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate how secondary teachers and pupils view and work with culture and how these views can be connected to the curriculum and to the syllabus of English Lgr.11. Through interviews with secondary pupils we found that their view of culture to an extent connects to the cultural content of the curriculum for Swedish compulsory school, Lgr.11. Through teacher interviews, we additionally found that even if the teachers had a broad view of culture that was connected to the curriculum, they did not always manage to convey their cultural teaching to their pupils.