The Role of the English Literature Teacher as a Cultural Facilitator in Turkish Classrooms

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the various roles of an English Literature teacher as a cultural mediator in a Turkish context. Teaching a foreign language is about helping learners gain intercultural empathy and transform their worldviews (Murat Hişmanoğlu, 2005; Büşra Onursoy & Senem Zaimoğlu, 2024). Teachers act as cultural brokers, helping learners to grasp the cultural context of a given text and, at the same time, fostering the acceptance of other values and perspectives (Servet Çelik & Şakire Erbay Çetinkaya, 2020). In such mediation, the teaching of literature is not confined to grammar and vocabulary, and the literature class is also a site of cultural exchange. Foreign language teachers are expected to adapt teaching and learning resources, elaborate on foreign cultural elements, and manage interactions that link the English literary canon with the Turkish sociocultural context (İlkin Başar & Selin Küçükali, 2021; Gülten Torlak, 2024).