CULTURAL CONCEPT IN TEACHING ENGLISH
Yezhitskaya Svetlana Mikhailovna
Kazakh-American Free University
Kazakhstan, Ust-Kamenogorsk
Nowadays learning a language through culture is considered
to be very efficient. All the needs and demands of the society
determine the aim of teaching, renovate educational system, and the
content of education.
Some years ago the strategic aim of teaching was to develop
students’ communicative competence. These days the goal widens.
According to the Program of Development of Education, one of the
main aims of teaching English today is developing students’
cultural competence, i.e. ability to behave appropriately in different
sociocultural situations. This aim should be realized through
including cultural concept in the educational process. A well-known
methodologist Marianne Celce-Murcia states that the most
important long-term benefits of teaching culture may be to provide
learners with the awareness and the tools that will allow them to
achieve their academic, professional, social, and personal goals and
become successful in their daily functioning in foreign language
environments. (5, p.446)
James P.Lantolf emphasizes that learning the culture is an
integral part of language learning and education because it crucially
influences the values of the community, everyday interaction, the
norms of speaking and behaving, and the sociocultural expectations
of an individual's roles. He further notes that those who do not
follow the norms of appropriateness accepted in a community are
often placed in a position that exacerbates social disparities and
inequality.
A teacher may vacillate about what culture, cultural
concepts are and what should be included into learning process to
develop students’ cultural competence.
The term culture includes many different definitions and
considerations that deal with forms of speech acts, rhetorical
structure of texts, people’s sociocultural behavior, and ways in
which knowledge is transmitted and obtained. Culture may find its
manifestations in body language, gestures, concepts of self, time,
responsibility, hospitality customs, and even expressions of
friendliness.
Chris Rose defines culture as “a way of life, a set of social
practices, a system of beliefs, a shared history or set of experiences. A
culture may be synonymous with a country, or a region, or a nationality or
it may cross several countries or regions”. Moreover, it is "the shared
values, traditions, norms, customs, arts, history, folklore, and institutions of
a group of people." (1, p.38)
Culture is not static. Cultural beliefs and behaviours are always
being influenced by new information and new experiences. Therefore,
culture is fluid and dynamic, not something about which can reach
understanding in a single experience. Rather, learning about others’
cultures is a lifelong process – a journey with many destinations
Culture includes visible and invisible dimensions. When asked
about the native culture, many L2 learners and ESL/EFL teachers alike
would undertake to describe the history or geography of their country
because these represent a popular understanding of the term culture. In
addition, some definitions of culture can include style of dress, cuisine,
customs, festivals, and other traditions. These aspects can be considered the
visible culture, as they are readily apparent to anyone and can be discussed
and explained relatively easily.
Yet another far more complex meaning of culture refers to
sociocultural norms, world-views, beliefs, assumptions, and value systems
that find their way into practically all facets of language use including the
classroom, and language teaching and learning. The term invisible culture
applies to sociocultural beliefs and assumptions that most people are not
even aware of and thus cannot examine intellectually. The culturally
determined concepts of what is acceptable, appropriate, and expected in
one's behavior is acquired during the process of socialization and, hence,
becomes inseparable from an individual's identity.
The teachers should take into consideration both subjective and
objective sides of culture in teaching. Kohls L. defines subjective culture
includes different institutions and facts of culture, such as economic
system, social norms, political structure, and processes, kinds of Arts, and
other. Objective culture consists of psychological traits of character, such
as values and patterns of thoughts. Learning of these two sides of culture is
very complicated and difficult. In many cases, the students face with
misunderstanding and vagueness. The people try to judge about different
things comparing with the behavior patterns that belong to their own
culture. Sociocultural competence is made by the following attitudes and
skills:
- observing, identifying and recognizing;
- comparing and contrasting;
- negotiating meaning;
- dealing with or tolerating ambiguity;
- effectively interpreting messages;
- limiting the possibility of misinterpretation;
- defending one's own point of view while acknowledging the
legitimacy of others;
- accepting difference.
Chris Rose considers that raised awareness of what we do and of the
vital importance of these skills already makes crosscultural
communicative competence a more attainable goal. Moreover ,
intercultural awareness skills can be developed by designing
materials which have cultural and intercultural themes as their
content.
Heusinkveld urges that culture should be taught as a
process. They describe in detail an interactive process that relates
target and native languages, cultures, and perceptions. It also
integrates the teaching of culture and the teaching of language. The
process incorporates the following eight basic stages, the first five
of which are primarily teacher-directed and the final three, studentdirected:
1. Identification of a cultural theme
2. Presentation of cultural phenomena
3. Dialogue (target/native cultures)
4. Transition to language learning
5. Language learning
6. Verification of perceptions (target/native culture)
7. Cultural awareness
8. Evaluation of language and cultural proficiency (2,
p.133).
Educators suggest developing cultural understanding
through process skills. They propose organizing instruction around
four basic categories:
 Convention, which provides students with information
about the common everyday behavior of people;
 Connotation, which helps students develop their skills to
recognize that the meaning of a word is determined by each
individual's frame of reference;
 Conditioning, which helps students develop observational
and interpretive skills and understand that the actions of individuals
reflect an already established cultural frame of reference;
 Comprehension, which helps students develop the skills of
analysis and hypothesis formation, thereby recognizing that the behavior of
one person does not necessarily reflect the behavior of society as a whole.
Through learning culture the students form all their cultural
competence, develop their personality qualities that help in accomplishing
of cross-cultural communication. Therefore, cultural concept should be
widely used in teaching of all the international languages. It makes the
students ready to the spontaneous communication in the foreign language.
References:
1. Chris Rose (2007) British Council, Italy Intercultural learning.
teachingenglish.org.uk
2. Heusinkveld, Paula R.(1994) Pathways to Culture. Yarmouth.
768p.
3. Kohls L.R. (2006) Developing Intercultural Awareness.
Yarmouth. 365p
4. P.Lantolf, James. (2000). Sociocultural Theory and second
Language Learninng. Oxford.
5. Marianne Celce – Murcia. (2002) Teaching English as a
Second or Foreign Language. Thomson Learning. 584p.