American cultural values as seen through a film and their application to a Turkish classroom

Abstract

Although EFL classrooms are very suitable places to examine cultural aspects of a language, this part of classroom learning is widely neglected because of the attention given to language skills. In many classrooms, students’ exposure to the target culture is far from being systematic; it can be somewhat random. In addition, since the language is taught in the learners' own environment, learners may lack opportunities to be exposed to the target culture. As a result, they may have little or no awareness of the target culture and are likely to experience difficulties in adjustment if they enter a target culture environment. Therefore, language teachers should expose students to cross-cultural contexts that will help them to understand the target culture better and clarify misconceptions; this should also enhance crosscultural communication. On the basis of these views, this study investigated underlying cultural differences between Turkish and American people by examining their perceptions of themes and issues raised in an American film. It also examined which of these insights might be useful in a cross-cultural communication class in Turkey, and for what reasons. Data were collected from two different groups of participants through questionnaires and discussions after watching the film Grand Canyon. One of the groups included six Turkish teachers of English who worked in different universities in Turkey. The other one was a group of five Americans who were teachers at Bilkent University. Both groups viewed the film separately and noted the major themes and issues that they observed. After viewing, the groups discussed the film. Theme discussions were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed through discourse analysis techniques. The data gathered from the transcriptions were categorized for the most part according to American values as presented by Robert Kohls (1984). The results of the study indicated that there are differences between the discussions of Turkish and the American groups, and these can be related to underlying values concerning fate, equality, individualism, work orientation, directness and openness in human and family relationships, materialism, public behavior, efficiency in service, and power. The findings lay ground work for an examination of cultural differences in an EFL class, especially for students who plan to further their study in the target culture