A socio-cultural perspective on english reading comprehension in the algerian context

Abstract

English has become increasingly the language of technology, progress and communication across the globe. This fact led to the increase in demand and urgent need of learning and teaching not only the target language but also its culture as well. Focusing on the inseparable relationship of culture and language, this thesis is concerned with the incorporation of the teaching of culture into the foreign language classroom particularly in teaching reading. Historically speaking, the Algerian educational system paved the way for making the progress of teaching /learning process by adopting several approaches and methods. However, our traditional classrooms still emphasis on the reading fluency at the expense of reading to learn and understand to cope with the changing world. Nevertheless, not only the school environment is responsible for the success or failure of the learning process, but there are other determinants. The social, cultural and even linguistic environment play crucial roles in forming active learners with rich knowledge. Therefore, teaching reading by emphasizing the culture represents a great challenge for both EFL teachers and their learners. The current study is conducted with third-year secondary pupils at seven different secondary schools in Algiers. It tends to investigate teachers. and learners. understanding of culture and culture teaching and learning, the way they handle it in class when they read, and their views about its place in their socio-educational environment. This dissertation is divided into four interrelated chapters; the introductory chapter which describes the educational system in Algeria and the place of English in the socio-educational context. The second chapter deals with some principal basics on reading and culture needed to explain the situation of reading in the Algerian context. The third chapter presents the research procedures used for collecting and analyzing data then, reports on the findings obtained from the research tools and provides both qualitative and qualitative analyses. Lastly, on the bases of the findings obtained in this chapter, some recommendations and implications are drawn for EFL teachers and learners to improve reading performance taking into consideration the foreign culture of the language.