English Language Teacher Candidates' Views on American Culture

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate a group of Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher candidates' views on American culture. The participants of the study were 150 (75 first-year and 75 fourth-year) EFL teacher candidates studying in the EFL teacher education program of a state university in Turkey. The participants' views on American culture were investigated with the help of a questionnaire which had a total of 55 items focusing on different dimensions of American culture. These dimensions are power distance, individuality-collectivism, femininity-masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-short term orientation. For each questionnaire item the participant read a sentence which claimed to be reflecting American culture and decided whether s/he agreed or disagreed with, or could not decide about the item. The results of the study indicated that there are not important differences between first-year and fourth-year participants of the study in terms of their views on American culture.