EFL Students’ Attitudes towards Integrating Teaching Cross-Cultural Issues and Teaching Listening Skill

Abstract

Teaching cross-cultural knowledge in English teaching is drawing more and more attention nowadays. This study investigated students’ attitudes towards the integration of teaching cross-cultural issues and teaching listening skill. This study based on qualitative analysis of a questionnaire done by 30 EFL students who participated in the course on Listening 2 in the second year of their MBA program in Kien Giang University, Vietnam. During the course, besides helping students master the language and listening skill, the researcher helped cultivate their cross-cultural competence by explaining some cross-culture notes related to the content of the lesson. At the end of the course, a questionnaire has been conducted to the students to gain information about the effectiveness of integrating teaching cross-culture knowledge and teaching listening. The finding revealed that students found the cross-cultural issues effective in helping them understand the lessons better and form healthy cross-cultural awareness. They also enjoyed learning the cultural differences to develop their cross-cultural knowledge and got useful experience to widen their world.