The Consideration of National and Societal Values in the Sudanese English Language Curriculum

الملخص

EFL teachers and language syllabus designers have recently expressed the need to integrate cultural knowledge in the EFL curriculum to teach English to Sudanese students as a foreign language. In fact, the Sudanese English language teachers have publicized the need to take into account the culture of Sudanese learners in the English language curriculum as a foreign language due to the role culture can play in facilitating learning. Also whether the foreign culture-enriched instruction can affect the Sudanese EFL students’ character is being closely considered. For all these concerns, it is necessary to conduct intensive curricular research to find out the influence of the foreign culture ​​on the Sudanese EFL students’ character and understanding. This paper examines the impact of integrating cultural knowledge in the EFL curriculum in the teaching of English as a foreign language for Sudanese students on their academic understanding. The paper also aims to find out the degree to which the foreign values ​​and norms can positively or negatively influence the morals and values of Sudanese students. The paper also attempts to find out the ethical and moral elements of the English culture that should be integrated and that can be eliminated from the English language curriculum. To conduct this study, interviews have been held with twenty ESL Sudanese teachers. The interview questions involved the features of English culture in the Sudanese EFL curriculum – both acceptable and detrimental to native cultures – that can be taken into account during the design of the EFL program. The results of the interviews showed that it is necessary to integrate the national culture and values ​​into the Sudanese EFL curriculum with a little cultural content of the foreign culture that can boost the students’ understanding but not affect their personality. The results also indicated that the current EFL program does not involve any foreign cultural risks to the Sudanese national culture and values.