Including Learner’s Culture in English Language Teaching: An Experimental Study
Veerya Nayak Gugulothu *
CMR Engineering College, Kandlakoya, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Including the learner's culture in English language teaching may stimulate interest in learning a new language. English is not the mother tongue of the learners of our Indian context. The English language is recognized as a global language, and the demand for it is remarkable in the present market. As many MNCs are administered using English, employees are expected to have excellent communication skills. The employees of any company are expected to have excellent communication skills in English. Therefore, it has become compulsory for everyone to have good communication skills in English. Rural background learners may have performance variation in English speaking, compared to urban background learners. To bridge the gap between rural and urban learners, the teaching approaches and methods have to be changed by the teacher to make his/her teaching more effective. The aim of the present study is to know the benefits of a learner's culture in English language teaching, with a specific focus on learning problems of engineering graduates in rural Telangana. To carry out this study the researcher conducted an experimental study by including learners’ culture in teaching English language and communication skills. The tools used for this study are student questionnaire, materials related to learners’ culture for intervention. The results of the study are analyzed and discussed. This empirical study provides some implication to enhance learner’s communication skills by using learner’s culture.
Keywords: English communication skills, culture in language teaching, rural background, learning English problems