Songul Dogan Ger: Developing Students’ Cultural Diversity Awareness and Intercultural Communicative Competence in English Classes
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2 Theoretical and Empirical Background
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2.2 Aspects of Culture
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2.2.1 Big C culture, Little c Culture, and Deep Culture

2.2.1 Big C culture, Little c Culture, and Deep Culture

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When addressing the teaching of culture in language education, it is important to distinguish between different aspects of culture. Cortazzi and Jin (1999) observe that many teachers associate culture with history, geography, literature, and art—elements often classified as “big C culture” or “civilization” (Lázár, 2007, p. 7). The National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project (1996) define big C culture as encompassing political systems, economics, history, literature, science, and fine arts.

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However, scholars stress that these visible elements represent only part of culture. “Little c culture” refers to less tangible aspects such as lifestyles, holidays, values, and customs (Xiao, 2010), as well as behaviours and attitudes (Cortazzi & Jin, 1999). Similarly, the National Standards (1996) include housing, clothing, tools, and behavioural patterns under this category.

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Gómez Rodríguez (2015a) critiques the dominance of surface-level culture in EFL textbooks—topics such as holidays, food, and tourist sites—which he argues perpetuate a static and overly positive image of culture. He emphasises that culture is not fixed but transformative, shaped through global interaction. When presented as static and symbolic, culture teaching risks reinforcing stereotypes and failing to prepare learners for real intercultural encounters. Instead, he advocates for the inclusion of deep culture—complex, often invisible aspects tied to values, lifestyles, and beliefs—which supports critical thinking and the development of ICC.

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Shaules (2019) similarly distinguishes between surface and deep culture. He links surface culture to observable practices like food and rituals, and deep culture to implicit norms, assumptions, and communication styles. Drawing on Triandis (1972), he explains this through “objective culture” (external, sensory elements) and “subjective culture” (internal, conceptual knowledge).

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There is broad scholarly consensus on the need to incorporate culture into language education (e.g., Bennett & Bennett, 2004; Byram, 1997; Kramsch, 1998; Lázár et al., 2007; Liddicoat, 2004; Reid, 2015; Gómez Rodríguez, 2015; Sercu, 2002). More recently, calls for a deeper and more critical approach have emerged (e.g., Gómez Rodríguez, 2013, 2015a, 2015b; Hazaea, 2020; Koutlaki & Eslami, 2018; Shaules, 2019; Tan, 2012; Wang et al., 2021). The next section defines what is meant by a critical approach to culture in second and foreign language education.
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