We will start by presenting the role of cultural learning in the history of Foreign Language Teaching (FLT).
Two main perspectives have influenced the teaching of culture. One pertains to the transmission of factual, cultural information that are institutional structures and other aspects of the target civilisation, highbrow information and lowbrow information. The other perspective, drawing upon cross-cultural psychology or anthropology, has been to embed culture within an interpretive framework and establish connections between one’s own and the target country.
As Lessard-Clouston (1997) noted, in the past people learned a foreign language to study its literature, as this was the main medium of culture. It is only in the 1980s that scholars began to delve into the dynamics of culture and its vital contribution to “successful” language learning (Byram, Morgan et al., 1994).
On the assumption that communication is not only an exchange of information but also a highly cognitive as well as affective and value-laden activity, Melde (1987) holds that Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) should foster “critical awareness” of social life.
This way, it is evident that, much as the element of culture has gained momentum in Foreign Language Learning (FLL), most educators have seen it as yet another skill at the disposal of those who aspire to become conversant with the history and life of the target community rather than as an integral part of communicative competence and intercultural awareness at which every “educated individual” should aim.
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