Resumen de Incorporating the cultural portfolio projects in efl college classes: Theory and practice
The globalization of world economics and the growth of international telecommunications are drawing countries all over the world closer together. Globalization has also increased awareness of the importance of integrating culture into foreign language (FL) education. Learning about FL cultures is becoming an important objective in the FL curricula and national standards around the world. The purposes of this study were to discuss why it is significant to incorporate the cultural portfolio project in EFL cases, how it is being used in classes, and how students view about the cultural portfolio project. 42 undergraduate students agreed to participated in the study. Data were collected through students’ written reports and interviews. Results found that students constructed knowledge in active learning process. They reconstructed their understanding as they made connections between their existing knowledge and the new information they found. Students also became more aware of their misconceptions about the target cultures and realized that their generalizations do not apply to everyone. 90% of the students marked that the project increased their desire to learn English and improved their understanding of and respect for target cultures.
