چكيده
Culture gap in textbooks has been the focal attention for decades, especially when language is taught as a foreign language. This thesis studies the culture gap in American English File that includes a mass of culture load. Considering the framework of Wintergerst and McVeigh (2011), among many aspect of culture, one distinction that can help language learning, is distinction of culture to Big C culture and little c culture. The gap under question in this study included the Big C culture gap, mainly for literature (books and writers), cinema (movies, directors, actors and actresses), music (musicians and singers), and painters. To this aim, two versions of questionnaire were developed to find out if the culture load in the texts is high for teachers and students, if they are familiar with it or not, and more than that, if they consider the mass culture load and gap as a factor to hinder learning English as a foreign language. In addition, the evaluation was to find the awareness and attempt made by teachers to acknowledge learners and bridge the gap. The major findings are: students consider little c culture context as culture aspects. Second, the learners are more aware of little c culture, so they do not consider Big C culture as a main factor to concentrate in learning process. Third, in learners’ attitude, unfamiliarity prevents them participate in conversations, and class activities, but they claim it does not hinder the overall learning. Forth, according to practitioners’ and learners’ attitude, the teachers are aware of aspects of culture, but not necessarily acknowledged of the exact samples in the texts. At last, the evaluated statistics proved the teachers’ attempt to raise the awareness of students. Findings of current study can help learners and teachers to deal with culture gap especially in Big C domain, therefore the findings of this study can provide a greater comprehension and consciousness in learners to learn a foreign language. This is what leads to practical use of language and, to be aware of cultural, artistic and literary aspects of texts and contexts.
