To What Extent does Culture Create Language Learning in Terms of Proxemics?

The aim of this study was to determine whether the English teachers’ perceptions of proxemics, which is a frequently ignored but crucial part of non-verbal communication, vary from that of American people because of their native cultures. With this aim, they were provided with 60 multiple choice questions with pictures illustrating different proximities and asked to choose the most appropriate options for the given situations. The participants were chosen depending on purposeful voluntary basis and consist of 37 English teachers. 28 of them have been exposed to different cultures by going abroad and 19 of them by taking special courses on culture. They were native speakers of Turkish and learned English as a foreign language. The obtained data was evaluated by calculating mean scores and applying one sample t-test, independent samples t-test and ANOVA in SPSS 22. Depending on the findings, it was discovered that females, those who had been abroad, taken culture courses and higher educational degree tend to have slightly higher scores. It can be deduced that non-native English teachers should be encouraged to have higher education, go abroad and take culture courses.