Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of Intercultural Aspects of ELT in Moroccan EFL Discourse

The teaching of intercultural aspects of English Language Education (ELT) has gained a scholarly attention in intercultural language education studies. This study seeks to explore Moroccan teachers and students’ perceptions towards the teaching of the target culture(s) in Moroccan EFL classrooms, which are essentially marked by diversity in terms of cultures, languages and identities. The study starts from the hypothesis that there is an under-representation of the target language culture and its deep features in Moroccan EFL curricular and the focus is likely to be on the incorporation of surface elements of other foreign cultures. It also assumes that both students and teachers encounter many challenges in target culture teaching and learning due to students’ low linguistic level in English and due to the types of cultural contents included in textbooks. Based on data collected through quantitative and qualitative research, the findings reveal that there is a common preference among teachers and students toward the Anglophone cultures; however, given the outdated contents of textbooks and the ministry’s official guidelines emphasis on students’ language proficiency, there is a need for the integration of recent cultural capitals of the target culture in textbooks and teaching practices. The research recommends equal consideration of world cultures and realities in Moroccan EFL textbooks and discourses as well as further critical research engagement with EFL discourse that holds accountable for social justice and equity in language education.