How To Connect Language And Culture?

HOW WOULD YOU TEACH AND CONNECT LANGUAGE AND CULTURE?

We are long past an era when first language acquisition and foreign language learning were the products of imitation and language “drills”. Knowledge of the grammatical system of a language has to be complemented by understanding of culture-specific meanings. Learning a world language involves experiencing and knowing about the cultures ofthose who use it, in addition to knowing how to listen to, speak, read, and write the language. We cannot go about teaching a foreign language without at least offering some insights into its speakers’ culture. Communication requires understanding, and understanding requires stepping into the shoes of the foreigner and sifting his cultural baggage, while putting the target culture in relation withone’s own. Otherwise, we would be teaching meaningless symbols or symbols to which the student attaches the wrong meaning.
Language is a tool of communication used by groups of people with a shared history and a set of traditions, that is, a shared culture. Language is the verbal expression of a culture. On the other hand, culture encompasses daily objects, games, work, clothing, housing, familypatterns, behavioral routines, religious traditions, artistic and literary expression, and a host of other indicators including the symbols of the dominant culture of the language, such as the most renowned figures and masterpieces in the culture's history, arts, letters and sciences, and the widely recognized architectural landmarks. Anthropologists define culture as “the whole way of life of apeople or group”.
When teaching language, cultural awareness should be viewed as an important component. Whoever is learning the foreign language is also learning the cultural knowledge and skills required to be competent in the target language. Culture varies from country to country and so does the interpretation of language. In Western culture, roses mean passion or love. In another culture,roses could mean something different, even the opposite of passion or love. If we ask an Indian why he worships cows or a Frenchman why he says “a foot of lettuce” whereas English speakers say “a head of lettuce” and Greek speakers “a heart of lettuce”, chances are that we would get no more satisfactory an answer than we ourselves would be ready to give regarding our own language.
In order to teachlanguage and culture, the foreign language classroom should become a ‘cultural island’. From the first day, teachers should bring into the class posters, pictures, maps, and other realia in order to help students develop ‘a mental image’ of the target culture. Teachers can introduce students to the borrowed words from English to their own language. This helps students to realize they already knowmany words in the target language (i.e. internet, mail, lunch, Halloween). Some of the foods they eat are another example of the influence of foreign culture (i.e. hamburgers, cheeseburgers, pizza).
An effective and stimulating activity could be to send students on “cultural errands” to supermarkets and department stores and have them write down the names of imported goods. Teachers can alsoinvite guest speakers, who will talk about their experiences on a foreign country. Computer technology or the mail can be used to contact youths from other cultures.

Another insightful activity could be to divide the class into groups of three or four and have them draw up a list of those characteristics and traits that supposedly distinguish the home and target cultures. Also, the teacher cangive the students short descriptions of various situations where one person from the target culture interacts with persons from the home culture and then follow possible interpretations of the meaning of the behaviour and speech.
Cultural problem solving is yet another way to provide cultural information, learners can be presented with some information but they are on the horns of a dilemma. For...