Recent years have witnessed many developments in the use of the communicative approach in language teaching. This approach aims at developing students ability to communicate with native speakers of the target language. To achieve this ability students are required to have not only linguistic competence but also communicative competence. That is why the students need not only the linguistic knowledge but also the background knowledge of the culture in which the language is spoken. Background studies, including culture, must be seen as a separate and indispensable component of the curriculum so that students gain some knowledge of English speaking countries, their peoples ways of life, their customs and habits and so on. Various techniques for the teaching of this subject are examined.