Cross-Cultural Understanding: A Dilemma
for TEFL
E. Sadtono
Language
is inseparable from culture, consequently when we teach a foreign language we
should also teach its culture, it is an axiom. However, as English now belongs
to the world as its lingua franca, used as a native language by several
different nationalities, the nagging question is ‘Whose culture do we have to
learn?’ In a TEFL country such as Indonesia, teaching cross-cultural
understanding (CCU) is extremely difficult for various reasons and whether it
is actually necessary to teach it considering the objectives of TEFL in
Indonesia, the limited time allotment for teaching the language itself, the
immense amount of materials to be covered, the lack of resources and the
teachers’ questionable competence in handling the subject. This paper will
discuss the background of
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Sadtono, E. (2003). Cross-cultural understanding: A dilemma for
TEFL. TEFLIN Journal, 14(1), 82-110.
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