Integrating Culture in EFL: Students' Perspective

It has been widely debated whether or how to integrate culture in foreign language education. Literature in language teaching research has shown that the relationship between culture learning and language teaching is intertwined, but how "culture learning" is perceived by learners in EFL is still a neglected area and how the notion of "culture" should be addressed needs further research. Therefore, this case study intends to explore student perceptions towards culture learning in EFL. The participants of the study comprise 40 students who study at the preparatory program of a state university in İstanbul. Data were collected by an open-ended survey in 2022-2023 spring term. Both qualitative and quantitative content analysis approaches in data analysis were carried out by using MAXQDA software. The results and implications of the study will be presented and discussed.