Exploring Middle School EFL Teachers’ Practices and Challenges in Teaching Culture

Abstract

Given the recent expansion of English to 7th and 8th grades in Moroccan middle schools, examining middle school EFL teachers' practices and challenges in teaching culture is crucial. To this end, forty-eight EFL teachers from public middle schools were surveyed. Thematic analysis is used to analyze the data. The findings show that EFL middle school teachers incorporate culture into their classrooms mainly through the 3Ps model (practices, products, and perspectives). The most commonly practiced activities for integrating culture include reading comprehension, watching videos, role playing, and discussions, with each activity serving a specific pedagogical objective. The findings also disclosed that EFL teachers encounter both student-related and education-system-related barriers to teaching culture. The study calls on stakeholders, supervisors, and trainers to support teachers in overcoming these challenges and recommends further research into classroom practices. It also anticipates the prudent use of L1 to address students’ low level of English when the goal is to develop learners’ intercultural competence, though this still also requires further research.