







































Emerging Perspectives 
ep.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca 

*harriet.namukwaya@ucalgary.ca 

 
 
 

Integration of Culture in the Teaching of French as a Foreign Language at the 
University Level in Uganda 

Harriet K. Haggerty* 

University of Calgary 

 

This qualitative case study allowed insights into the integration of culture in the 

teaching/learning of French as a foreign language at Makerere University in Uganda. 

Twenty-one students learning French at the advanced level and their four lecturers 

participated in this case study. The researcher recruited the participants through 

purposive sampling. She collected data by means of an open-ended questionnaire, 

focus-group discussion, and interviews. The results from this case study showed that 

language and culture are interdependent and interrelated so teaching the two 

separately would lead to losing the essence of either language or culture. The findings 

also revealed that the lecturers used the Internet, prescribed texts, and authentic 

documents as the main sources of culture teaching materials. The results suggest that 

the teaching of the French language enabled the students to appreciate the French and 

francophone culture(s) as well as the differences existing between the 

French/francophone culture(s) and their own.  

 

Key words: Culture, culture teaching, intercultural competence, foreign language 

teaching, French as a foreign language 

 

Haggerty, H. K. (2020). Integration of culture in the teaching of French as a foreign 

language at the university level in Uganda. Emerging Perspectives, 4(1), 19-24. 

 

Learning a new language does not only involve the acquisition of linguistic and 

communicative competence, but also entails: a) an increase in the learners’ familiarity with the 

language’s background, b) an expansion of the learners’ cultural awareness, and c) intercultural 

competence (Sercu, García, & Prieto, 2004; Thanasoulas, 2001). Language learning and teaching 

is an interpersonal and intercultural process whereby learners come into contact with the teachers 

and other learners of diverse personal histories, experiences, and outlooks, either face-to-face or 

virtually (Kramsch & Hua, 2016). Kramsch and Hua (2016) argued that language learning and 

teaching have close connections with the field of intercultural communicative competence, 

especially where the notion of culture is concerned.  Therefore, the purpose of integrating culture 

in the teaching of a foreign language is to enable learners to acquire the ability to interact 

effectively and appropriately with the speakers of the target language. However, teaching a foreign 

language and its culture in a multilingual and multicultural country like Uganda is quite 

challenging (Ismaili, 2015; Wagaba, 2010). Learners come to class with a diversity of cultural 

communication styles, multicultural values, and nonverbal communication behaviors, which may 



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be unfamiliar to foreign language teachers. This cultural diversity in the language classroom poses 

challenges when it comes to explaining certain cultural aspects of the target language (Ismaili, 

2015).  

In order to improve the intercultural communicative competence of learners and to 

accommodate their cultural backgrounds, teachers need to raise the learners’ awareness of the 

differences in cultures that may create discomfort or cultural shock. For example, greeting with a 

kiss, and eating snails, as is the case in the French culture, may create discomfort in learners of the 

language. Teachers need to accommodate their learners’ cultural backgrounds to establish a shared 

understanding between the teacher and the students (Al-Amir, 2017; Byram, Gribkova & Starkey, 

2002). Byram et al. (2002) referred to this shared framework as intercultural competence. This is 

why language teachers need to be interculturally competent to enable students to navigate between 

their cultures and the target language culture (Byram, 2013; Cushner & Mahon, 2009; Kramsch, 

1993), and understand culturally different norms of interaction, as well as people’s values and 

thought (Saville-Troike, 2003).  

In Uganda’s context, Ugandan lecturers train most foreign language instructors. The 

instructors have, in fact, never had actual contact with the French speaking communities1. This 

lack of contact implies that they may not know how to incorporate culture in the language 

classroom since they may lack adequate training (Gonen & Saglam, 2012), and may base their 

teaching of cultural aspects on only what is presented in the prescribed texts. The purpose of this 

case study was therefore to investigate how Ugandan lecturers of advanced French at Makerere 

University incorporated the culture of the target language in their teaching.   

Methodology 

The study explored how Ugandan lecturers integrated culture in their teaching of French at 

Makerere University in Uganda. The researcher opted for a qualitative case study design (Merriam, 

1998) because such a design would enable her to not only focus on a particular aspect of foreign 

language teaching (culture teaching), but also to make a comprehensive description and analysis 

of how lecturers taught various cultural aspects of the French language. The researcher used 

purposive sampling to select participants, believing that they would provide the required 

information by virtue of their knowledge and experience (Bernard, 2002).  Twenty-one students 

of advanced French, between the ages of 20 and 25 years, and four lecturers participated in the 

study. The participants were from different sociocultural backgrounds as Uganda is a multiethnic, 

multicultural, and multilingual society (Kabananukye & Kwagala, 2007). The students were 

enrolled in three different years of study (i.e., first to third year), all studying French for various 

personal and professional reasons. The four lecturers had taught French at the university level for 

over five years and had varying academic qualifications: three held master’s degrees and one had 

a doctorate.  

The researcher collected data by means of a focus-group discussion, a questionnaire, and 

interviews. The researcher used the questionnaire and focus-group discussion with the students, 

and one-on-one interviews with the lecturers. The researcher used a focus-group discussion to 

obtain detailed information about personal and group perceptions and opinions on culture learning, 

as well as the challenges faced in the learning of French culture. Conscious of the possibility that 

students may withhold personal opinions about the topic during the group discussion, the 

                                                 
1 Information informally gathered by the author during the pedagogical trainings that she conducted with the 

teachers of French in Uganda.  



Haggerty / Emerging Perspectives (2020)                                                                                                              21 

 

 

researcher administered a private, open-ended questionnaire to get elaborate information (Züll, 

2016). Additionally, the researcher conducted interviews with the lecturers in order to find out 

how they integrated the French and francophone culture(s) in their teaching. The data collected 

allowed the researcher to examine the teaching approaches and materials the lecturers used in the 

teaching/learning of the French culture. The data also allowed the researcher to examine their 

selection criteria of these materials, as well as the challenges the students faced in studying the 

French/francophone culture and French in general.     

Findings 

The results showed that language and culture are intricately related. One of the lecturers 

stated, “the French language and culture are interrelated and therefore inseparable.” This 

interrelatedness comes from the fact that language is not a code free from culture (Eldin, 2015), 

but an embodiment of it (Gonen & Saglam, 2012), and a method for the transmission of culture 

(Moran, 2001). Brown (2007) described this interrelatedness of language and culture by stating, 

“one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture. The 

acquisition of a second language, except for specialized, instrumental acquisition, is also the 

acquisition of a second culture” (pp. 189-190).    

The results further showed that the Internet (e.g., pedagogical websites such as 

lepointdufle.net), prescribed texts (e.g., “la civilization progressive du français”, 2002; “la France 

d’aujourd’hui: Civilisation”, 1991; “la France aux cent visages”, 1995), and authentic documents 

(e.g., newspaper articles, extracts from magazines, programs from Radio France International) 

constituted the main sources of culture teaching materials. The authentic materials enabled the 

students to see language in use in the real world and provided cultural information about the target 

language (Ahmed, 2017; Brandl, 2008). They also provided the students with the opportunities to 

use the target language to achieve communicative purposes through meaningful and realistic 

interaction (Brandl, 2008; Richards, 2001; Tomlinson, 1998). The lecturers selected these 

materials based on the duration of the class (i.e., the shorter the duration, the shorter the text), the 

cultural theme, the linguistic objective of the lesson, and the communicative task to be 

accomplished in that particular lesson. One lecturer stated that one-hour lectures allowed him to 

focus on only the content in the prescribed texts, and that he used materials from other sources, as 

well as a variety of activities/tasks during two-hour lectures.  The lecturers added that during the 

one hour lectures, they did most of the talking while students took notes, whereas in the two-hour 

lectures, the roles were somewhat reversed because students usually engaged in communicative 

tasks as well as presentations.  

The findings also revealed that lecturers used various teaching methods: research and 

presentation, the communicative approach in the form of role-plays and simulations, and guided 

inquiry learning. The lecturers claimed that not only did these methods enable the students to 

develop their (socio) linguistic competence but they also promoted learner autonomy. The lecturers 

also believed that culture teaching involved providing information about daily life and routines of 

the French-speaking people, creating awareness of cultural differences, teaching students openness 

and tolerance towards other peoples and cultures, as well as promoting increased awareness and 

understanding of students’ own cultures. Furthermore, the lecturers associated culture learning 

with the ability to communicate in French. These lecturers’ beliefs reinforce other studies (Al-

Amir, 2017; Bryam & Risager, 1999; Byram, 1997). In fact, Al-Amir (2017) claimed that 

communicative competence and culture are inseparable; culture is the base of all types of 



Haggerty / Emerging Perspectives (2020)                                                                                                              22 

 

 

communication; it determines the rules that govern who talks to whom, the content of the message 

and the manner in which one conveys the message.  

The findings further revealed that three lecturers had a one-month or three months’ 

intercultural training in either France or Reunion, and one had done her doctoral studies in France. 

These lecturers stated that based on this training, they were able to integrate culture in their 

teaching of the French language.   

Students on the other hand, perceived culture learning as the learning about the customs and 

traditions of the French speech community, and of culturally appropriate ways to address people 

from different sociocultural backgrounds (Paige, Jorstad, Siaya, Klein, & Colby, 2000). This 

perception calls for an analysis of students’ needs at the beginning of every semester to find out 

students’ language needs and expectations so that the lecturers may find ways of integrating those 

needs in their teaching.  

The study also found that students faced challenges with a lack of textbooks since the 

department had limited copies. Furthermore, students faced a problem of limited hours allocated 

to the learning of French, which made the practicing of the language, the retention of cultural 

content, and the acquisition of intercultural communicative competence challenging. To them, 

French is taught in an artificial environment. There is no community of practice for the French 

language in Uganda. This is in line with Moran (2001) who posited that in the classroom, one does 

not encounter directly another way of life; therefore, culture learning is best seen as a lived 

experience. Conscious of this lack of a community of practice for French in Uganda, the lecturers 

used a variety of activities/tasks depicting different communication situations to enable students 

to communicate and use language in a simulated environment. Additionally, the lecturers 

mentioned that a French club met every Friday, which enabled students to practice the language 

in a relaxing environment, watch French movies, sing songs in French, and cook French dishes, 

among other activities.  

Implications 

From the findings, we can draw the following implications: 

1. There is a need to initiate intercultural exchange programs to enable students to learn the 

language in a culturally authentic environment.  

2. For the lecturers, there is a need for refresher courses in the area of culture teaching, foreign 

sojourns, and intercultural competence training for a longer duration. 

3. In order to diversify classroom activities, lecturers may need to integrate computer-assisted 

language learning in their teaching such as the use of voice- and text-based virtual exchange 

with native speakers of the target language as language and culture learning tools (Dema & 

Moeller, 2012; Levy, 2009).  

Conclusion 

The main objective of the study was to find out how Ugandan lecturers of French 

integrated culture in their teaching. The study found that the teaching of the French language 

enabled the students to appreciate the French and francophone culture(s) as well as the 

differences that exist between the French/francophone culture(s) and their own culture(s). This is 

in line with Paige et al. (2000) who claimed that cultural learning does not only involve 

memorization of cultural facts, but also the acquisition of interactional competence, and the 

learning of how to learn about one’s own culture and another culture. In spite of the fact that 

students learn French in an environment where they do not use it in their daily interactions, the 



Haggerty / Emerging Perspectives (2020)                                                                                                              23 

 

 

lecturers use various pedagogical approaches to enable students to learn how to communicate 

effectively and appropriately in French.   

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