This research increases knowledge in the field o f foreign language and cultural learning by identifying Taiwanese students' areas o f difficulties in cultural learning in Britain based on their perception o f the culture as depicted by the visual images and language in the EFL textbooks available to them. The research addresses the gap identified in the Literature Review in that it looked at the effects o f textbook design and research and specifically how this influences Taiwanese students on short-term EFL courses in the South-East of England. The research has implications fo r teachers and teacher trainers, students, materials writers and publishers, and study abroad administrators.
Teachers and Teacher Trainers
The findings from this study indicate that teachers need to be more aware of students' behaviour when using textbooks and when interacting within the host culture. Specifically, in the first few days of studying in Britain students might be finding the cultural learning experience a difficult and unpredictable one. Teachers need to be aware of students' potential reasons fo r adopting such strategies as silence, inappropriate responses, and feigning satisfaction. When using textbooks, fo r example, when engaged in classroom activities, Taiwanese students might tend to focus on what they perceive to be more culturally appropriate topics at the expense o f activities that may be more challenging. They may also have difficulties dealing with unfamiliar language structures due to cultural differences regarding comedy, irony and sarcasm. In addition, cultural scripts adopted by the students may hold back their language learning, and need to be monitored by teachers. Finally, teachers should not underestimate the effects o f face, particularly in the multinational class, and consider it a factor in all classroom discourse. For example, students may not always say what they mean; there may be a hidden agenda. Teachers may be able to use this knowledge to gauge whether a classroom situation requires teacher involvement, and the form that involvement should take. Although my research only dealt w ith learners from Taiwan, such awareness is important as it may well reflect the experience of learners from other backgrounds.
The findings from this research suggest that teachers in Taiwan can better prepare students fo r study in Britain by providing a pre-departure briefing on aspects of culture they are likely to encounter when in Britain. For example, what they are likely to encounter regarding the people, the language and the culture. Students could be given an overview of contemporary society in Britain, perhaps stressing its multicultural nature.
They could be introduced to open-ended dialogues with a variety of possible responses. Such strategies may prepare them fo r the unpredictable nature o f discourse in the world outside the classroom when they arrive in Britain. An additional area o f interest may be a briefing on what they are likely to be going through in their first few days or weeks in Britain, and ways of dealing w ith any negative issues that may arise during this time. Teachers should include information on the unpredictability o f host families, and the students' potential fo r enhancing the study abroad experience considerably by actively engaging with the family. In order to make teachers in Taiwan more aware o f these needs there may be a requirement fo r additional training.
Students
The implications o f this study fo r Taiwanese students are that appropriate preparation for study in Britain goes beyond the accepted method of rote language learning - particularly in 'cram' schools - combined with a selection o f information with a largely pop culture undercurrent. Pre-departure training could comprise language learning alongside appropriate cultural learning. Such training may include: response to culture shock, expectations fo r and dealings with host families, strategies for making - and maintaining - contact with people in the host culture, and ways of dealing w ith language when things do not go as planned. An additional means of preparation may be opportunities to talk to returning students, although aspects of saving/giving face may prevent the student from being totally candid.
Materials Writers and Publishers
This research also has implications for materials writers in that the choice o f topics for discussion and conversation, the nature of the language, and the choice and positioning o f visual images have all been seen to impact in some way on students' learning ability,
and need to be chosen with great care in order to satisfy the complex demands o f the multinational EFL class. However, it has been shown that to a large extent, materials writers are constrained by the demands o f publishers who wield substantial economic power (Bell and Gower, 2011; Gray, 2010, 2007; Donovan, 1998 and Littlejohn, 1992), and subsequently have a large stake in the completed textbook. Given the previous information, this research may have substantial implications fo r publishers even more than materials writers.
Publishers need to be aware that the diverse needs o f multinational students are difficult to effectively realize in the global textbook, and the writers are perhaps the people best suited to filling those needs. Economic decisions taken by publishers regarding layout and specific content o f textbooks may need revision in the light o f the diversity o f the contemporary global textbook market, and indeed an approach geared more to pedagogic input than immediate financial gain may in the long-term prove beneficial to the publishers in addition to the writers and o f course the students.
Study Abroad Administrators
The potential implications fo r study abroad administrators are that more thorough preparation pre-departure, during, and post-sojourn, particularly regarding expectations, appropriate strategies fo r dealing with culture shock, and dealing with members of the host culture, may smooth the process o f the study abroad experience fo r the students, and the people responsible for their welfare. In addition, closer ties between administrators in Taiwan and Britain may allow for a deeper understanding of students' difficulties when engaged in cultural learning. There is also the possibility that email contact between students and the home institution may allow problems to be discussed, and the students' feelings o f estrangement may be minimised by such contact. It will be
noted that these are simply suggested implications as this study did not allow me to conduct detailed analysis of study abroad administrators.
6.4 Further Research
Based on the results of this study further research should concentrate more on students' language and cultural preparation prior to and on arrival in Britain, in terms o f briefing and introducing students to the culture in Britain. The development and trialling of materials and activities that raise students' awareness of what is involved in moving from one culture to another, and how to respond appropriately in the new culture, may be a by-product of such research. A number of other areas fo r further research arise from this study.
Further research is needed firstly into Taiwanese students' cultural motivations when learning a foreign language, secondly to determine how cultural and language learning can be effectively combined in the EFL classroom in order to allow students to achieve cultural learning alongside language learning.
Students' cultural background seems, in some cases, to be a factor in adjusting to the host culture. How can this process be made smoother, either before arrival in Britain, or through the specific teaching of culture? Does engagement in ethnographic observation facilitate adjustment and cultural learning?
In terms of the development o f resources, would the inclusion o f high-end cultural representations be a means for the students to engage in cultural learning with greater success? Might an additional means of preparation involve introducing students to situations that may produce cultural misunderstandings? Although it is virtually impossible to predict such situations w ith any accuracy, some form of preparation may
ease the students7 anxiety. As Coleman (1997, pp. 9/10) comments, Appropriate preparation fo r residence abroad is likely to include an awareness o f the probability of experiencing culture shock.7