Chinese School Teachers ’ and Teacher Trainers ’ Perceptions of Culture Teaching in ELT: A Case Study in Xinjiang

This paper investigates the perceptions of secondary school teachers and teacher trainers from Normal Universities and Teacher Training Colleges in Xinjiang Province of culture teaching in English language teaching (ELT): How they define culture; what they think the objectives of culture teaching are; and, how important they view culture teaching in ELT. The findings show that the teachers define culture in a very broad sense, such as traditions and beliefs, while the teacher trainers think that literature is a major channel to expose students to foreign cultures and tend to adopt an elevated form of Culture in the classroom (Culture with a big C). The study also reveals the teachers ’ and trainers ’ positive attitudes towards the integration of cultural information in their application, and their understanding of culture teaching objectives in the language classroom