The importance and benefits of teaching English speaking countries’ cultures in the EFL classroom

Abstract

[eng] The secondary education stage is a crucial period to enable students to learn about and understand the world we live in, and for this reason, teachers should strive to incorporate real opportunities for personal growth during these years. By doing this, teachers can ensure that the students' journey through high school becomes as rewarding and enriching as it can be. Introducing different cultures in the EFL classroom is a way of broadening the students’ knowledge of multiculturalism, traditions, and values while helping them improve their foreign language skills. Traditional coursebooks often include cultural aspects from the United Kingdom or the United States; however, when it comes to the rest of the countries where English is spoken as an official language, information is extremely limited or even non-existent. Learning a language should not be about being able to produce perfectly grammatical sentences. Understanding the sociocultural norms and communicating and acting accordingly is also a relevant aspect to consider in the EFL classroom. Consequently, a didactic proposal following the principles of UDL is presented in this paper as a starting point to solve this knowledge gap in students’ English acquisition and to provide the opportunity for students to be more open minded about different cultures, festivities, and traditions while learning English.