Culture in the English Language Curriculum in Mexico: How English language teaching and learning is conceptualized and exercised by educators in relation to ideas of culture at UVM México

Abstract

In this dissertation, I explore teachers' voices around the integration of culture learning into the English as a foreign language curriculum in a large private university in Mexico. Drawing on interviews and a focus group, as well as reference to the actual curriculum at play, this study offers an exploration of teachers’ perspectives and the realities in action of culture learning in the classroom environment. The study highlights the concerns of a large institution, the aspirations of program leaders, and the voices of teachers charged with making the desired outcomes a reality. It examines the realities behind best intentions in the educational environments of higher education in Mexico, specifically in the EFL sphere. This dissertation contributes to the international literature and knowledge base around culture in English language teaching in two ways. First, by sharing the realities of a contextualized program in Mexico and how the desired skills and competencies are integrated into the program. Second, by exemplifying teachers’ interaction with curriculum design and implementation, and giving voice to their perspective in ways which have never been recorded at UVM before. At the same time, this dissertation provides reference to how action research can make a difference in formal educational settings in Mexico and specifically, how it can and should be used in the element of curriculum design. As such, this research reinforces the need to continually recognize, train and include teachers in program design and curriculum reform. It draws on the realities of in-class teaching and learning to highlight the importance of the teacher in the process of learning culture and language, and shows teachers’ perspectives of the importance of culture as learning objectives for students.