The Effect of Text-Driven Approach on Saudi EFL Learners' Cultural Awareness

Abstract

The intent of this study was to examine the effect of text-driven approach on Saudi EFL high school learners' cultural awareness. The problem tackled in this paper is the difficulties and complexities EFL high-school students face regarding the lack of cultural awareness in the foreign language and how it may affect their communication in an American context. Moreover, Tomlinson (2000) introduced text driven approach that claims to be used as a tool for teaching the language effectively in the classroom by engaging and interesting activities. A total of twenty-five female Saudi EFL high school students took part in this study. By the end of the semester, 3 sessions were held in order to develop students’ American cultural awareness using activities that followed the Text-driven approach's (TDA) framework. The sessions focused on developing 3 subcategories of cultural awareness suggested by Cardona, Rico, and Sarmiento (2015) which were assessed both before and after the sessions. The level of development was determined according to Littlewood’s (2010) five stages of cultural awareness. This paper followed a mixed-method approach where the data was collected by a post-test, pre-test, and finally a questionnaire. The results of the paper showed that the participants’ cultural awareness have developed and that the participants thought that text-driven approach activities were fun, interesting, engaging, and that it deepened their appreciation for their own culture while still value other cultures.