LING 122: ENGLISH AS A WORLD
LANGUAGE - 7
Language: Culture and
Background Knowledge
Reading:
Y. Kachru & L. Smith, Chapter 2
Kachru & Smith, Chapter 2: Context of Culture
Speech (communication) happens in the context of
culture in a particular community (society).
Chapter 2 ‘Context of Culture’ attempts to connect
the three components:
1. Culture;
2. Society;
3. Speech Context.
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1. What is Culture?
A. Geertz (1973)
“Culture is a historically transmitted pattern of
meanings embodied in symbolic forms by means of
which people communicate, perpetuate, and
develop their knowledge about and attitudes
toward life.”
1. What is Culture?
B. Quinn and Holland (1987)
“Culture is what people must know in order to
act as they do, make the things they make, and
interpret their experience in the distinctive way
they do.”
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1. What is Culture?
C. Bloch (1991)
“Culture is that which people must know in
order to function reasonably effectively in their
social environment. Social environment consists
of social organizations and behaviors that are
instruments through which people relate to each
other.”
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1. What is Culture?
D. Kachru and Smith (2008)
“Culture is both historic and immediate;
It shapes action - verbal as well as a variety of
other actions - and in turn is shaped by them;
It is a dynamic process rather than a static,
monolithic entity with a stable existence.”
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Kachru & Smith, Chapter 2: Context of Culture
So, culture is,
All-inclusive, all aspects of life.
Metaphors:
-A filter through which people see the world.
-The raw dough from which each person fashions a
life that is individual and satisfying.
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Kachru & Smith, Chapter 2: Context of Culture
Culture is Universal
- Everyone belongs to one or more cultures;
- It is the template for rituals;
- It is the way to organize and interpret
experience;
- It simplifies living by giving structure to daily
life, minimizing interpersonal stress.
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External and Internal Symbolic Systems of
Culture
External and Internal
Symbolic Systems of
Culture
- External symbolic systems that
vary among cultures include
dress, personal appearance, and
make-up.
- It may be acceptable to some
cultures and families for young
girls to wear make-up, while
others find this inappropriate and
suggestive of premature
sexuality.
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External and Internal Symbolic Systems of
Culture
Internal symbolic
structures include beliefs
about natural phenomenon,
luck, fate, ceremonies, work,
play, medicine, health,
hygiene, politics, religion,
sex roles, social and
economic class, food, childrearing, age-related
activities, and the
importance of the arts and
humanities.
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2. What is Society?
A. Ginsberg (1932)
A society is a collection of individuals united by
certain relations or modes of behavior which mark
them off from others who do not enter into those
relations or who differ from them in behavior.
B. Linton (1936)
A society is any group of people who have lived
and worked together long enough to get
themselves organized or to think of themselves as
a social unit with well defined limits.
2. What is Society?
C. Mandelbaum (1970)
Society is a social system consisting of groups
whose members together perform certain
functions that they do not accomplish as
separate groups. The groups are thus
interdependent, and they are interdependent in
a particular way. That is to say, the participants
in each group act in regular, anticipated ways
towards members of other groups and toward
the external environment.
3. What is Speech Context/Situation?
Human actions, including verbal interactions,
take place in institutions defined by societies,
such as the institutions of family, workplace,
education, worship and others.
S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G
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Setting – both physical and psychological
Participants – speaker, hearer, addresser, addressee
Ends – goals, purposes
Act – acts (statements of fact, questions, requests,
invitations, thanks, etc.)
Key – “mood,” joking, serious, etc.
Instrumentalities – speaking, writing, text message, email, language, etc.
Norms – of behavior, of language use, cultural values,
etc.
Genres – business letters, business meetings, casual
conversations, fairy tales, recipes, term papers, etc.
The Structure of Background
Knowledge
 Schemata (scheme): structures in memory that
remain ‘active and developing’ – ‘A and B were going
shopping when they had an accident.’ = They were hit by a car.
 Frames: principles of organization that govern
events in which they are subjectively involved –
’School’: teacher, student, assignments, desks, etc.
 Scripts: a standard sequence of events that
describes a situation – ‘I’m thirsty’ -> ‘Would you like
something to drink?’
 Scenario: knowledge of the settings and situations
behind a text – Thanksgiving = turkey, family, holiday,
closures, etc.
Example
Before carrying the rice up into the barn, the time arrives for
making merit at the threshing floor. They make a pavilion
and set up a place for the Buddha image and seats for
monks at the threshing ground. In the evening of the day
appointed for making merit at the threshing floor, when
the time arrives monks come and perform evening chants
at the threshing ground. (Rajadhon 1968)
Schema: knowledge representations of rice farming
Frame: knowledge of components of making merit
Script: knowledge of event sequences of making
merit
Scenario: actions associated with making
merit
Class Group Exercise:
Kachru and Smith conclude in the chapter that
labels such as American or British or Indian or Thai
culture are referred to as if they are monolithic
entities with no internal variation. That, however, is
not true. Each one of these cultures represents
variations based on factors such as region,
ethnicity, age, gender, class, social status,
education, and profession.
Class Group Exercise:
It has been said that the US mainstream culture
(“middle class”) includes the following:
1. Individualism (individual freedom)
2. Independence and self-reliance
3. Equality
4. Ambition and industriousness (hard work)
5. Competitiveness
6. Appreciation of the good life
7. The perception that humans are separate
and superior in nature
Class Group Exercise:
 Discuss possible variation(s) (or degree of
variations) towards each value in the so called
‘mainstream’ American culture.
 Where possible, draw on the readings by Cunha
and Hong Kingston to illustrate how the authors
either assimilated to or resisted those
‘mainstream’ American values.