Locating Intercultural Awareness in the Portuguese English as a Foreign Language classroom

Abstract

The growing importance of culture in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) settings has led to increasing research in this area, resulting in a proliferation of books and papers containing a myriad of innovations and best practices to be implemented by teachers in their classrooms. The consequence of this is to draw attention to culture and cultural diversity and the context in which they operate. However, while culture and (inter)culturality have become popular themes to discuss in and out of the classroom, concepts of culture in current educational practice are sometimes ill-defined. Accordingly, this paper aims to contribute new insights in this field of study to help raise teachers’ awareness to the importance of integrating culture and (inter)culturality into their classroom practice by examining the rationale underlying some of its core concepts and understanding how intercultural awareness is being addressed in FL classrooms in Portuguese state schools. In an attempt to chart how has this being done the following instruments were used: relevant documentary data, a small-scale online questionnaire, and field descriptive notes. Findings suggest that Portuguese EFL teachers seem to be struggling with suitable classroom procedures to promote intercultural awareness in their classes.