Culture Contact: The Coexistence of Cultures in EFL settings
Mandana Arfa Kaboodvand
Mandana Arfa Kaboodvand has been teaching English to both young learners and young adults for 18 years. She has been a lecturer at Azad University, Tehran, Iran since 1994. Her main areas of interest are teaching English to YLs, multiple intelligence, culture related issues in language teaching, and globalization.
E-mail address:m_arfa@yahoo.com
Menu
Introduction
Culture and Foreign Language Education
Some General Points
Likely Arguments
Bibliography
Language and culture seem to be inseparable; therefore, it is believed by many that anyone involved in teaching an FL should take this point into consideration. Thus in many cases acculturating students is a part of the foreign language teacher's responsibility, and many textbooks are prepared accordingly. However, sometimes some experts and textbook writers deliberately avoid cultural issues of the foreign community whose language they are teaching. But why do they do that? Here, the first aim is to discuss the reasons for this, to see what happens when a foreign language is taught while being deprived of cultural elements and then to provide suggestions on how experts, mainly textbook writers, can satisfy both groups- that is the ones who strongly support cultural issues and those who are against inserting cultural values while teaching a foreign language.
Many years ago, when I was still a high school student in Iran, I started to comment on and criticize the English textbooks that were used for teaching English at all schools throughout Iran. I thought they were boring and very artificial. At that time, I was shocked to see two Iranians who could easily and adequately communicate in Farsi, which is the native language of Iranians, speaking English in the dialogues of the books. My classmates did not seem to be enjoying or deriving much benefit from the books either. It is worth mentioning here that education system in Iran is centralized and all the students around the country, whether in city or village, whether in public schools or private ones, study exactly the same books which are prepared in Iran for all subjects including English. Some years later, when I was a university student, studying TEFL and hence becoming versed in subjects such as syllabus design or methodology, once again I started to think about those schoolbooks, which were and are still being used with very little difference. I used to think to myself that taking advantage of the books available on the international market which are prepared by reputable publishers and writers is the solution to the problems and kept wondering why the government was not using them.
In the last few years, I have become interested in the idea again and I believe one part of the reason is that I have realized this issue is not unique and a lot of countries are experiencing the same situation.
So, here I will share with you the gist of the articles and books that I have read, all the thought I have given this area, and finally my own suggestions.
First, let us look at the definitions of the word culture, which is considered essential in clarifying the points concerning the issue being discussed.
Culture has been proven to be an inseparable part of human society. To find out the reason why people have culture is actually the job of anthropologists and sociologists, and we as language teachers and even as members of society, take its existence for granted.
According to Hudson (1993), culture is a "socially acquired knowledge". Goodenough (1957, quoted in Hudson, 1993) has also said, "As I see it, a society's culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members."
Carrithers (1992) has stated that "It is commonly said among anthropologists that the Island of New Guinea alone has 700 languages and correspondingly 700 different cultures and societies."
Also a very simple interpretation of Sapir and Whorf's hypothesis, linguistic relativity, according to the Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992) is, "the way people view the world is determined partly or wholly by the structure of their native language. The relativist view states that thought is difficult to separate from language, and concepts can only take shape when we have the words to express them." According to Sapir (1958), "… it is not likely that different languages represent the world in equivalent ways." Even though there have been many debates over the priority of language to thought or vice versa, the fact remains that each person and community sees the world through their own experiences and a large part of these experiences are taken from the native language and culture.
Then it seems to experts in this area that the relationship between language and culture is evident and inevitable.
When learning a foreign language is involved, the issue of culture becomes more and more complex. In the preface of the book Culture Bond, Joyce Merrill Valdes (1995) has said, "A language learner must first be made aware of himself as a cultural being." Elsewhere in the introduction once again she emphasizes that "it is the responsibility of the foreign and second language teachers to recognize the trauma their students experience and to assist in bringing them through it to the point that culture becomes an aid to language learning rather than hindrance."
One factor that is essential to be considered while learning an FL is the social distance between the cultures of the native language and the foreign culture. If there are tremendous differences, the process of language learning may lead to culture shock. So, depending on the expectations of the learners and of course their needs, acculturation may become a necessity. The significant point about acculturation is that the learners need not forsake their native language identity. Then it can be assumed that it is the duty of teachers and textbook writers to help students enter the phase in order to minimize the possibility of negative feelings resulting from culture shock.
Many linguists, therefore, are interested in the universalities of languages and the interaction between language and culture and encourage the FL teachers to learn about the commonalities between two languages and transfer them to the students. "While we can recognize different worldviews and different ways of expressing reality depending upon one's worldview, we can also recognize through both language and culture some universal properties that bind us all together in the world…. The second language teacher can make positive use of prior experiences to facilitate the process of learning by retaining that which is valid and valuable for the second language culture learning and second language learning." (Brown: 1980)
These are beautiful ideas, but what happens in reality? Doesn't a concept of language chauvinism exist? Is there really intercultural understanding? If so, why do some countries, like mine, prepare books inside their own countries and impose restrictions as far as the content is concerned? Martin Hyle (1994) in an article called The Teaching of English in Morocco expresses concern about the place of culture and uses the term cultural deracination. Why do Alptekin and Alptekin (1984) have worries about the process of language learning and teaching in Turkey and countries with the same background? Why do we have the term deculturalization? Why does Ratnawati Mohd Asraf (1997), an Arabian English teacher, go so far as to suggest that Moslems should have their own version of English?
Of course, I have some arguments against this last proposal. One is why don't Moslem countries choose another language such as Arabic as their means of communication? The second one is that even among Moslem countries there are some major cultural differences that cannot be ignored. Also, English is not even a second language in most of the Moslem countries; it is merely a foreign language so introducing a new version of it, tailored for Islamic countries, as a means of communication does not seem to be practical. One might argue that Moslems need English to communicate their messages to the world. That is true, but according to what was said earlier in the paper, culture and language are in constant interaction and you cannot make a new culture and new cultural concepts without implementing that language into your lives. If those concepts are not part of the English language then they cannot easily be understood by the native speakers of English so that would be of no more use to them than the version of English that exists now.
To summarize, on one side of the axis we have extremists who believe that foreign language being taught should be deculturalized totally or as much as possible, hence they prepare books in which culture has no part , and deploy local teachers. They are worried about imperialistic views and western chauvinism and have tried to eliminate anything cultural from the books. On the other side are the books which are prepared for international use with their emphasis on the cultural values of the host country and in some cases native language teachers who teach them.
According to a research done with Iranian junior high students (7th and 8th grade) by H. Farhady (2000), "The majority of the students have positive attitude and high motivation to learn EFL. However, there seems to be a decline in both attitude and motivation as the students move towards the higher grades." It should be remembered that this (7th and 8th grades) is the time students start learning English at schools, in other words, the students studied in this research are beginners.
The study also states that the language contents of the books have been studied very thoroughly and there seems to be nothing particularly wrong with them. However, the majority of pupils learning English at school are still not successful or satisfied. Part of the proof is the number of students who are attending private language classes wherever they are available. So evidently, there is a problem, but what can it be? Can it be somehow related to cultural issues? If so what can be done?
The results of a questionnaire filled by 200 Iranian students show that the lessons of the English textbooks used at our schools were altogether boring, and the more reasonable ones were the ones that were of an informative nature. Most of these students said that they were not interested in reading the passages and did not wish to reread their books. They also mentioned that if the passages had points that they were not already familiar with, then it was possible that they would enjoy the books more. Therefore, by reviewing the passages that are completely deprived of cultural elements of the foreign language being taught and going over the answers given to the questionnaires, one can assume that maybe inserting at least some of the cultural elements might be helpful. But how can this happen? Isn't there the possibility of putting the native culture at risk?
Up to now, we have somehow reached the conclusion that culture is an inseparable part of the language, so at least theoretically the second group is right. If one is learning English, then the book one is learning from should contain and show some cultural values, and even if the writer tries his best to be as neutral as possible, the writer will tend to show his native culture in a positive light, ignoring the darker sides. In practice the first group, those in favor of removing culture, have every reason to be worried as well. In trying to ignore culture, the best they can do in writing textbooks is using biographies or talking about generalities like inventions, processes and so on. You do not need me to tell you that overusing such passages can be boring and can only be helpful for 'tourist' level students.
What I propose is the preparation of books locally, but with certain considerations. If well-known writers and publishers try to publish books within each area then maybe there are some things that can be done. For instance, books can have the elements of both target and source culture in them so that the students will have the two together in one book. These books can be prepared by international and/or local publishers seeking the help of both native speakers of English and experts in the target country. Thinking globally but taking actions locally might be the solution to at least part of the problem. Maybe an example of the type of passages that can be put in the textbooks can better clarify the point:
An Iranian family, a mother, a father, and 3 children aged 5, 12 and 19 for some reason, immigrate to England. One child goes to university, the parents work, one other child goes to school and the youngest member goes to pre-school. Here British culture can be introduced, and at the same time many comparisons can be made. These comparisons and contrasts can be related to education, food, traditions, etc. In other words, if the students pay a visit to a museum in England the Iranian student can inform them of the existence of museums in Iran, too. If a traditional English food is introduced, then an Iranian ethnic food can also be put forth. The relations, the habits and a lot of other things can be compared without condemning one and promoting the other. The Iranian family might even invite a British family to spend some time with them in Iran and then the words for talking about Iranian cultural values can be introduced and possibly even the admiration of that family for certain Iranian places, beliefs and customs can be emphasized. So the readers will have their choices to see which values of their own country are already good and which can be improved and vice versa.
Thus, with no dictatorship and no prescription or persuasion the readers can choose and this can be used in every village, city or province. If the students have the opportunity to see both cultures together, they may have a wider scope and also realize that there are so many universal concepts. Furthermore, they can appreciate the values of their own culture and take an interest in of those elements of culture which are attractive to them from the other culture. (In other words, they will even see the differences without worrying too much.) Those points that the majority would appreciate will be internalized and become part of the culture and the existing ones which are approved by many will even be promoted. This way the learners of the foreign language besides becoming familiar with some of the cultural concepts and ways of living of the new language environment, will also have the elements needed to talk about, consider and rationalize their own priorities and beliefs. According to Dyer and Bushell (2002) global education "promotes a change in the way we see the world and reality." This is what can be achieved through localized books with global issues in them.
Finally, let us also bear in mind that the minimum damage the deculturalization of textbooks can cause is making language learning boring and lacking identity.
One might argue that this can lead to stereotyping, which is to some extent true. However, it cannot be denied that there are some typical characteristics that differentiate people of one region from others and if we emphasize both the universalities and the differences, this problem might be to some extent solved.
Another argument might be that many of the books available in the markets have already tried to be neutral and/or involve other cultures. Still, these are limited to very general things and not all or even the majority of cultures, groups and values have been described or compared in them.
Yet another point might be that a new concept called global English is being created, thus text writers will be able to create their textbooks accordingly. However, if we believe what Sapir and Whorf have suggested is true, then it is unlikely that this will be a possibility at least in the near future. According to Widdowson (1982, quoted by Hyde 1992) language has two functions, the communicative and the identifying. He believes that a brotherhood of man does not mean that societies will be one homogenous group with English as their means of communication.
There still might be another argument. One might ask: why not nativise the new language as has happened in India? This is a possiblity, but only when the new language is considered the second, and not the foreign language.
It goes without saying that teachers in these areas need to be made aware of the cultural concepts of both sides and the reasons behind their existence so that they too will not condemn or promote cultural elements at least without having given them prior thought. (It is sometimes argued that teachers have little influence on the attitude of their students. Compared to Hollywood movies, this is right, but still teachers and textbooks are among the elements that do influence learners, especially in a country like Iran where the majority of people do not have access to many of those films.)
On the whole, since culture is a very delicate matter in language learning, language experts must handle it with care and thought so that learning can become efficient and joyful.
Alptekin C. and Alptekin M. The Question of Culture: EFL teaching in non English speaking countries, ELT Journal 38/1 January 1984
Asraf, R.M. (1997) "The Cultural Implications of Teaching English as a Second Language or Foreign Language", Muslim Education Quarterly, Vol. 14 No. 4
Brown, H. D. (1980), Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, N.J.: Printice Hall p. 143
Valdes, M. J. (ed) 1995, Culture Bound Bridging the gap in cultural gap in language teaching, NY: CUP, pp: vii-xi
Carrithers M. (1992) Why Humans Have Cultures: Explaining Anthropology and Social Diversity Oxford: OUP
Dyer B. and Bushell B. (2002), World Issues or Global Perspective? , The Language Teacher 20_11 online journal
Farhady, H. (2000), Evaluating Students Achievement in Iranian Junior High Schools presented in a seminar on Issues in Foreign Language Teaching in Iran, Tehran, Iran
Goodenough, W.H. (1957), Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics. In Hudson, R.A., (1993), Sociolinguistics, NY:CUP: p.74
Hudson, R.A., (1993), Sociolinguistics, NY:CUP: p.74
Hyde, M. (1994), The Teaching of English in Morocco: the place of culture. ELT Journal Volume 48/4 October 1994, pp 295-305
Richards, Jack C., et al, (1992), Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Longman
Sapir, E. (1958), Culture, Language and Personality. Berkeley: University of California Press
Widdowson, H. G. (1982), English as an international language II : What do you mean by Internatioanl Language? In C. Brumfit (ed) English for International Communication, Oxford: Pergamon,. In Hyde Martin (1992)
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