The use of TV news in teaching culture in foreign language classrooms

Abstract

The issue of integrating language and culture teaching has been a focus of research for several decades. The discourse builds on the idea of inseparability of language and culture and the need to explore effective methods of incorporating target culture into foreign language instruction. The purpose of this study was to explore whether and how integration of TV news clips into the target language teaching facilitates the learning of the target culture. The study adopted a combination of data collection methods which involved questionnaires, follow-up interviews, and participant observations. Analysis of the themes generated from the findings and comparisons with the literature proved the importance and benefits of the use of authentic TV news clips to teach the target culture. Implications for teaching Russian as a foreign language and the Russian culture, as well as recommendations for further research in the area are provided.