International Journal of Research in English Education

en Investigating Intercultural Awareness: Iranian EFL Teachers’ Perceptions and Challenges Investigating Intercultural Awareness: Iranian EFL Teachers’ Perceptions and Challenges تخصصي Special پژوهشي Research In recent decades, the importance of applying cultural dimension into language pedagogy has received extensive emphasis worldwide. The problem arises when EFL teachers are afraid of referring to cultural notions in their classes just because it seems that they lack sufficient cultural knowledge of the target language. This research study intended to inspect Iranian EFL teachers’ intercultural awareness by evaluating their opinions about the importance of cultural teaching.  Sercu et al. (2005) adopted questionnaire was used to gather the anticipated data. The  participants were comprised of 102 teachers who were provided with questionnaires in person using hard copies. An interview was conducted as well with participants in order to explore the difficulties they encounter in the way of teaching culture. the collected data were analyzed via statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software. Content analysis was used for analyzing the qualitative data gathered from interview. The results showed that Iranian EFL teachers have favorable opinions about intercultural learning. They were unwilling to implement the intercultural approach to their teaching method because of time constraints, lack of suitable materials, and guidelines. Several implications are emergent from the findings including suggestions for educational policy-makers, material designers, language institutes, and teacher training programs.   In recent decades, the importance of applying cultural dimension into language pedagogy has received extensive emphasis worldwide. The problem arises when EFL teachers are afraid of referring to cultural notions in their classes just because it seems that they lack sufficient cultural knowledge of the target language. This research study intended to inspect Iranian EFL teachers’ intercultural awareness by evaluating their opinions about the importance of cultural teaching.  Sercu et al. (2005) adopted questionnaire was used to gather the anticipated data. The  participants were comprised of 102 teachers who were provided with questionnaires in person using hard copies. An interview was conducted as well with participants in order to explore the difficulties they encounter in the way of teaching culture. the collected data were analyzed via statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software. Content analysis was used for analyzing the qualitative data gathered from interview. The results showed that Iranian EFL teachers have favorable opinions about intercultural learning. They were unwilling to implement the intercultural approach to their teaching method because of time constraints, lack of suitable materials, and guidelines. Several implications are emergent from the findings including suggestions for educational policy-makers, material designers, language institutes, and teacher training programs.   culture, English language classrooms, EFL teachers, intercultural awareness, language learning culture, English language classrooms, EFL teachers, intercultural awareness, language learning 15 35 http://ijreeonline.com/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1290-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Samira Nanbedeh Samira Nanbedeh samirananbedeh@gmail.com 10031947532846003746 10031947532846003746 Yes Department of English Language and Literature, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran Department of English Language and Literature, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran