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Foundations of cultural awareness

The first theme referred to as foundations explain the components of the EFL classroom that fosters cultural and intercultural awareness. Each code of this theme discloses one assisting aspect for EFL classrooms. The first code named as lesson components includes the studies about the importance of teachers and activities’ on cultural and intercultural awareness. Young and Sachdev (2011) stated in their study that intercultural communicative competence is a vital component and teachers are the inseparable part of this process. Teachers who identify themselves as intercultural speakers become good learning models for their students. As Heliot and Young (2006) stated, teachers are important components inside the classroom to integrate culture and language.
Activities and practices inside the EFL classroom are significant parts for both language teaching and developing cultural awareness. Furthermore, Vourdanou (2017) notified that cultural elements in EFL classrooms make students question their own attitudes and work on feeling empathetic for cultural differences. Teachers should be aware of the cultural elements and use those elements while working with students to develop cultural communication (Önalan, 2005; Svalberg, 2007). Such elements may lean towards culturally sensitive issues such as diversity, discrimination, equality and so on (Compos, 2009; Frank, 2013; Porto, 2010) , so that the students can express themselves better in their target language community. Such issues could be integrated within the lesson components by tasks designed by the teachers. For example, teachers might use task-based cultural classroom activities (Shaded, 2013) and help students to identify cultural issues through some authentic tasks. The aim should be to evoke students’ curiosity and help them to learn about different cultures (Çakır, 2006). In this way, students will be more mindful about how they can use their language skills no matter how they experience cultural issues.
Second code named as interaction refers to the students’ interaction with people from different cultures. According to Toyoda (2016), when students work with peers in a culturally diverse setting, they can enrich their cultural awareness and high- order thinking skills. This intercultural interaction paves the way for effective interaction, makes students active participants of the target culture, and teaches sharing social values and personal problems (Kourova & Modianos, 2013; Moecharam & Kartikasari, 2014; Moeller & Nugent, 2014; Tsuda, Shigemitsu & Murata, 2007). When students have direct contact with the people from their target culture, they are able to do positive shifts to increase cultural sensitivity and promote cultural awareness (Bloom, 2008).
The third code stated as dynamic explains the dynamic structure of the intercultural and cultural awareness. In the 21st century, communication has become both more intercultural and dynamic with the use of technology. Therefore, culture should be considered from the global perspective while historical roots are taken into consideration (Kramsch, 2013). As Knutson (2006) stated, culture has a dynamic nature. Therefore, learners should be equipped with awareness and understanding of different cultural components.
The fourth and last code of the foundations’ theme stated personal connection. Teachers should understand the relationship between culture and language in a specific country to provide cultural awareness skills and materials in ELT classrooms (Baker, 2008). Thus, they can develop skills to make individual orientations (Baker, 2009). Students can develop cultural and intercultural awareness while making personal connections with the target culture’s values, traditions, and beliefs. Furthermore, literature tells us that students who share social values and personal problems tend to become culturally aware and be knowledgeable about cultural awareness (Moecharam & Kartikasari, 2014).