Students\u27 Perception on Teaching L2 Culture Online

Mainstream advertising of language companies guarantees that anyone can learn a language online. “Learn a language in 4 weeks,” “Do it from the comfort of your home,” “Learn at your own pace.” Is it feasible, however, to learn all skills of a language online? Can culture be taught online? Second language (L2) Learners can visit virtual museums, science exhibits, can chat and hold videoconferencing sessions with native speakers, they can learn how to cook, dance, and sing, all from home! This paper discusses current research on teaching and learning culture online. It analyzes existing online resources to make culture readily available to language learners. It also presents an ongoing study of an online program that pairs students virtually face-to-face with native speakers. Qualitative data about students’ self-reported perspective of cultural learning is presented, along with quantitative data about cultural gains from a comparative study between treatment and non-treatment. In addition, it explains the results obtained from questionnaires and what cultural aspect/s students think they are learning online