On Target Language Culture in English Language Teaching And Learning

【Abstract】This paper presents some meditations on culture and language; culture and language teaching; target language culture and English language teaching and learning; target language culture and developing language skills. The aims are to highlight the importance of target language culture in English language teaching and learning; to advocate teaching language and culture simultaneously.

【Key words】Culture Target language culture Language teaching Language skills

【中圖分類號】G642 【文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)識碼】A 【文章編號】1674-4810(2009)12-0037-02

1.Culture

Kramsch regards culture as “1 Membership in a discourse community that shares a common social space and history， and a common system of standards for perceiving， believing， evaluating， and acting. 2 The discourse community itself. 3 The system of standards itself”(Kramsch， 2000b:127). In its broadest sense， “it includes a wide variety of constructs such as the mental habits， personal prejudices， moral values， social customs， artistic achievements， and aesthetic preferences of particular societies” (Kumaravadivelu， 2003:267).

By the anthropologists’ thought， “it fit to distinguish between Culture with a capital C and culture with a small c. The former is a relatively societal construct referring to the general view of culture as creative endeavors such as theater， dance， music， literature， and art. The latter is a relatively personal construct referring to the patterns of behavior， values， and beliefs that guide the everyday life of an individual or a group of individuals with a cultural community” (Kumaravadivelu， 2003:267).

2.Meditations on culture

Different scholars and experts have got such different views on culture that culture has been defined in many ways by many scholars representing various discipline. As Kumaravadivelu argues， “culture is such a complicated concept that it does not lend itself to a single definition or a simple description”(Kumaravadivelu， 2003:267).But it is for me， from the perspective or special sphere of language teaching， a better definition for culture should be the combination of capital C and small c.

Accordingly， culture is defined as a framework to our lives， something that affects our values， attitudes and behavior. As culture is so inclusive， it actually permeates every aspect of human life and predominantly influences people’s behavior including linguistic behavior. Therefore， culture is a wider system that completely includes language as a subsystem. Actually， linguistic competence is one variety of cultural competences， and speech behavior is one variety of social behavior. The relation of language to culture is that of part to whole.

3.Culture and language

It is extremely difficult to separate language and culture. On the one hand， language both expresses and embodies cultural reality. First of all， it expresses facts， ideas， or events， which represent similar world knowledge by its people， but also permeates people’s attitudes， beliefs， the way of thinking and viewing of the world. Besides， as a system of signs with their own cultural values， language may be viewed as a symbol of social identity. For instance， when we learn a new word， we tend to look for its meaning in the word itself. In addition to its dictionary meanings， the same word may stir up different associations in people. People are identified by using their language. In this sense， language symbolizes cultural reality.

As Brown vividly describes the two as follows: “A language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture” (Brown， 2000:177). In this way， I can compare the relationship between culture and language to the relation of fish and water: language is fish; culture is water. Without water fish would be dead. Similarly， without culture， language would be meaningless; without language， culture would not be shaped.

4.Culture and language teaching

Language is a social phenomenon and a tool of communication， which was conventionalized in the long history of social practice inasmuch as language learning is not an isolated process. Every language is used by its people to express themselves in spoken and written forms in communication. Meanwhile， a people’s language is always closely-related to its religion， history， culture and social background. Culture and language are inseparable as language is deeply rooted in culture. Language and culture are closely linked to each other. Language knowledge is a part of cultural knowledge.

Therefore， learning a foreign language enables you to learn its culture and in turn， learning about a new culture enables you to have a deep understanding of its language. Kramsch indicates that second and foreign language learners necessarily become learners of the second culture because a language can’t be learned without an understanding of the second cultural context in which it is used (Kramsch， 2000a). As an example， when I say lunch in the UK， my classmates who have western culture backgrounds may be referring to hamburger or pizza but my Chinese classmates may be referring to streamed bread or rice. It follows that special attention should be paid to the teaching of the target language’s culture.

5.Target culture and developing language skills

In the English language teaching context， despite great efforts with speaking and listening practices， it is hard to guarantee that students will not commit pragmatic errors and mistakes in actual language use. ‘From a sociolinguistic perspective， competence in language use is determined not only by the ability to use language with grammatical accuracy， but also to use language appropriate to particular contexts. Thus， successful language learning requires language users to know the culture that underlies language’(Tseng， 2002:12). This shows that when learning the English language， the students should not only learn its pronunciation， grammar， words and idioms but also learn the English-speaking countries’ cultures， such as their ideas， customs， and behavior of the society.

In doing this， students can enrich their knowledge of the target language’ culture， foster their sensitiveness to the different cultures， promote the logical thinking ability， and lay a strong basement of different cultures. Cultural knowledge is an important part of communicative competence. Improving and emphasizing the understanding of the target language’s culture is one of the aims of English language learning. Actually， culture as an element which affects the developing language skills permeates through the process of language learning and language use.

6.Target culture and developing reading skills

In the field of reading， an article is as an entity and a vehicle which conveys information. One’s language proficiency will not guarantee him an effective reading outcome because reading is a result of a process of one’s language knowledge， cultural backgrounds， and professional knowledge which work integrally， and a process of predicting and correcting based on one’s language competence， cultural knowledge， and logical ability as well. So， the lacking of cultural knowledge of the target language will have a negative effect on students’ language learning and understanding of the text and discourse they are reading.

As an example， in my former teaching class， when reading this sentence: “To Vingo Florida was in fact the Land of Promise’ that appeared in College English(Intensive reading)Unit 10 / Book 1， most students could not understand the meaning of ‘the Land of Promise”. “The Land of Promise’ is an allusion quoted from Bible， which means the land God promised to give to the Israelites (Canaanites)and later this allusion is used as referring to ‘the land of promise”.This example shows that a reade’s cultural background impacts her ability to understand text’(Tseng as cited in Anderson et all， 1977)and that difficulties and problems in reading cannot be overcome and solved only by language knowledge because a people’s works of literature reflects their cultural heritage. Thus， in teaching reading， teachers should teach language points as well as the target.

7.Target culture and developing speaking skills

Speaking skills are a big challenge which the Chinese students have to face because speaking ability is not merely the problem of dealing with pronunciation and intonation. People tend to have the incorrect conception that mastering a language means having a command of the basic parts which a language consists of(grammar， word， idioms， pronunciation and intonation)and language skills(listening， speaking， reading and writing).In our daily life， language competence is the base of communicative competence.

So， if teachers want their students to have real communicative competence， they must introduce the target language’s culture to the students， and ‘learners may not only understand themselves better， but also learn the cultures of otherness， and even about the target language culture’(Tseng， 2002:16).Only when students are exposed to a quantity of language materials related to the target language’s culture and learned about the western cultures will they be able to facilitate their speaking skills and achieve the goal of communication in the target language properly. For example， honestly speaking， I could not use the following greetings properly before I came to the UK: How do you do; How are you; Hello; Are you all right; and Are you OK.

8.Conclusion

To sum up， the emphasis should be put on teaching English language and target culture simultaneously. If we teach English language connected with the target culture， not only can students improve linguistic competence but also communicative competence. Otherwise， the ignorance of cultural differences can create barriers in learning the target language and in communication， thus causing some unnecessary misunderstandings and confusions.

References

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