This article addresses the issue of the hidden cultural dynamics prevailing in teaching and learning English as a foreign language. The study examined the extent to which teachers' oral feedback and the resulting classroom interaction were affected by aspects of the cultural backgrounds of the teacher and the learners. Evidence is based on an ethnographic study in three discretely different cultural settings of Israeli junior high school EFL classrooms: Jewish secular, Jewish ultra-orthodox, and Arab. Extended observation of the classes was undertaken to identify the specificity of patterns in teacher-learner relationships, and this was supported by interviews with the three teachers and their respective principals. Analysis revealed three distinctive micro-cultures that were found to reflect elements of each specific macro-culture. Conclusions are drawn as to the effect of these elements on the language teaching and learning process, and also on the distance between the cultural backgrounds of the teacher and students and the culture of the target language. (Contains 4 figures.)