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Teaching Cultural Concepts through Language

Hadher Hussen Abbood

English Department, College of Education, Samara University, Iraq
[email protected]

Abstract: The relevance amidst language and culture is a vital and a huge source to conduct
researches or even to consider about, as there is a sturdy link between realization the cultural
concepts and its dimensions. Additionally, comprehension and the capacity to read and use the
language of any culture to enter in examining the culture and learning it precisely. Thus, spirited
spot of this paper is to focus on any method for the rapport among the cultural connotation
perception and the use of the language of the culture itself. Recently, schools use some of these
ideas to communicate with culture during teaching and it is an important step across gaining any
insights into the culture in a scientific way. This also maybe through; the pedagogic syllabus in
teaching language as a primary bit of the language of any culture and let the learners enter
pointedly into the culture of this language. The paper is generated based on the author previously
faced many problems while working as a teacher. Aside for that, these hitches can be attributed
to the aims of the syllabus that the instructor delivered to his pupils during his teaching.
Subsequently, the idea of this paper is to share the researcher‟s own experience pertaining to
Cultural and Language link while teaching the students.
Keywords: Teaching Cultural Concepts, Language, Culture, Comprehension and Capacity.
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1-What is language?
Language comforts all living things in the environment to say what they intended. Language is a
traditional way among all types of creatures, any type of creatures can use many different forms
of language as sounds, voices, words, sentences or even movements, but the most important
point in this paper is about the human language. The occurrences of a language is linked with the
existence of humans on earth, the proof for this issue is what the investigators found in the old
places during the stone ages. This is evident in the diagrams they generated as a method of
signaling what they want to say for their followers, these diagrams includes arts to what their
auras such as; happiness, sadness, so they want to tell the followers about famous happenings at
that time.
The term language has many definitions and can be considered as fuzzy point! Many attempts
have been done to give specific definition for this purpose but, it still unclear, though. The term
language is not limited to human only but it also includes all kinds of creatures and the way they
communicated among them. Language is a collection of symbols and movements and each
symbol and movements have a cultural value (Kramsch, 1998, p.3). This has not given us
specific criteria to the term language and still unclear as it has not indicated the branches of these
gestures whether they are words, voices, letters, arts or others matters. From a linguistic point of
view, Sapir (1968), a famous linguist, informed language as a mean of communication for all
living creatures through integrating ideas, emotions, and desires by ways of traditionally
produced symbols. In addition to language, the term culture is also frequently mentioned during
the process of teaching any language.

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2-What is culture?
Many researchers have given many definitions to the term culture. Firstly, explanations were
highlighted by Goodenough‟s (1957). “… a community includes what any one knows, do, think,
and the actions with others accordingly …” (p. 167). That means the term culture includes to
hand the good manners and to stay away from bad manners. Brown (2007), however, defined
culture as “Living way across pressing cultural existence to move and release a message to the
following followers.”
As a result, we can see frequently that the words culture and civilization are linked together, but
for the purpose of this paper; the author may not want to enter this relation as it consumes many
hours of researching and many attempts searching as the context within which people speak,
behave, feel, and relate to others. Therefore, we can say that the terms culture and civilization are
vital, but as this paper has its limitation so the author decides not to enter into this links.
Moreover, culture, as Brown (2007) definition as all things that form the character of any living
things as the beliefs, traditions, manners, talents, and equipment that, over a short period of time,
define a particular group of people. Another wide definition to the term culture includes all what
people do or not, like or dislike, think, believe, accept, or not accept. This definition has some
limitations as it is very broad. Sowden (2007) informed that culture is typically referred to as the
accumulation of sociological and anthropological, artistic, and intellectual traditions that are
exclusive to a specific social, ethnic, or national group. (pp. 304-305). In addition, Mead (1961)
indicated that learning culture may be very simple, on the other hand Fox (1999) observed that
learning culture is very complex.
As for language, culture may seem as arduous concept that is not easy to define. National
Standards for Foreign Language Learning (issued in 1996), we can observe easily that culture is
a term related to behaviorism school of thought; that adopted the way mankind and its sway on
him in the primary step and the environment.
3-Interaction between Culture and Foreign Language Learning/Teaching
Learning/Teaching language can be considered as a bridge for Learning/Teaching culture”
(Dai, 2011; Zhao, 2011). Directly, the reasons that lay behind the process of teach culture during
explaining a foreign language. Rivers (1981) noted that there are seven aims for Learning
/Teaching culture.
These aims include; give students prospect to know how human deal; the influences of social
changes such as old, sex, and gregarious standard on the trend they say; how people in the target
culture conventionally act under various conditions.
Culture involved aplenty of vocabularies and phrases, being learned about the root of language
culture; developing skills used for gaining addendums about the roots culture; and developing
intellectual intriguing about the root culture and kindness towards its people. However, these
purposes have been rummaged by sundry researchers, Krashen (1982) notes that classes as not
opened and places are not apropos for acquiring culture. According to the previous trend,
classroom is only congenial for acquiring language ideas (from :
http://ijtase.net/ojs/index.php/ijge/article) as teachers used many traditional activities inside
classrooms during the whole previous century till the beginning of the 21st century when the new
strategies of teaching inside the classrooms pervaded the teaching fields quickly and there is still
a gap between the researchers in the issue of teaching culture inside the language classroom.
Damen (1987), follows the same view with Krashen, shows that “classroom-based learning relies
too much on rule ordered pedagogy, and teaching culture in this view can only reflect and
integrate cultural facts rather than the dynamic view of culture.” According to the previous view;
we can summarise culture as can be taught easily inside and outside classrooms. Indicatively,
Robinson and Nocon (1996) show that no relation between culture and language in classrooms
rely on activities without experience. In other words, the foreign language classroom is not
suitable for teaching or learning culture; as it needs more update activities outside the
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classrooms. However, according to the different discussions, teaching and learning culture can
be done inside and outside the classrooms.
4-Teaching English along with Its Culture:
The prime focus of teaching English in schools is to facilitate learners to gain an understanding
of other cultures. Just as English is widely utilized all over the world in a wide range of settings,
along with commerce, industry, interactions, and schooling, it has become a top choice of
language.
In Jordan, English as a second language is greatly regarded. For instance, if one speaks English
very well; offers from numerous persons came instantaniously for job purposes, it can be
regarded as evidence fluent in English is important. Nevertheless, the Jordanian English
language coursework for all classes and time periods generally disregarded English culture and
favours teaching the crucial skills of the language only.
It is important to discuss about how language and culture are closely related, as well as how
English language teachers can use English cultural concepts to help students communicate with
people from other cultures.
5- Main factors affect the success of cultural teaching in language classroom
Success or failure for culture teaching relies on different factor, instructors and books are
the main point which influence on cultural teaching process (Tran, 2010). Instructors should
gain the wide meaning of “culture” and the methodology of teaching it. Moreover, they
should know that their roles are to help students gain better understanding for what is called
the cultural differences.
The other factor is the English language utilized in the textbook. The culture components should
be in the language syllabus as well (Wandel, 2003 in Tran, 2010). As Wandel said “The
language in the textbook should contain elements of the culture (Wandel, 2003 in Tran, 2010).
Good understanding of culture components pave the way to the understanding of cultural terms.
The training programme of PLPG in Malaysia for example (Pendidikan dan Latihan
Profesionalisme Guru) used by teachers; explains that instructors only concentrate on the written
ideas in their books without any interest to any further ideas. Some schools refuse teaching
anything outside ideas; the comments given are the students are too young to get more
information and they have enough information and ideas in their books already. Some
commented that the syllabus is too long and they have limited time to complete it. Others say
that an outside idea is not essential (from my personal experience). This view matches with
Kusumo, et al. (1997) that “teachers hardly ever use other teaching resources in addition to the
textbook(s) they have chosen does not change”. This shows us that ESL teachers still use the
written ideas in textbooks only. This leads to another point that textbooks should be well
prepared in terms of its contents. That means that textbooks should include both linguistically
correct texts and acceptable cultural values of the language. The same ideas are followed in
Indonesia. For instance, in Indonesia, there were unaccepted points in the secondary school
curriculum in terms of including the sociocultural aspects, according to a study by Lestari (1997)
on several textbooks used by some junior secondary schools in East Java. However, this is not
the only problem, as a more recent study by Amrina (2013) and Laily (2015) also came to the
same conclusions.
6- The relationship between language and culture:
Edward Sapir, in his research with Benjamin Lee Whorf, the link between between language and
culture is very hard and culture can not be gained without understanding each other (taken from
Wardhaugh, 2002, p. 220). However, Wardhaugh (2002, pp. 219-220) said that there are three
steps to the link between language and culture: The structure of a language can pave to the
speaker to understand the surrounding society according to his ideas about culture components,
(adopted from the world- http//:www.lib.nifs-k.ac.jp/nii/46-11pdf )
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People use culture as a mirror through using language they are dealing with. Because they
employ specific rules and carry them out in a direct manner, they draw a connection between the
rules they follow and the language they use, allowing for the presentation of many words in a
variety of contexts: For instance, the expression "women can wear" (Hattah) refers to a scarf for
the head with bright colours dressed for a happy occasion. "Women should wear" (essabah)
refers to a scarf for the head with black and dark colours dressed for a sad occasion in Jordan.
These two expressions are recognised as cultural expressions without any reference to the
occasions or what women should wear. A „neutral claim‟ explains that no connection between
the two terms. the first of these claims, is researched by many researchers as Sapir and Whorf.
This claim is the important source to the relationship between language and culture and
therefore; will be mentioned a lot in the aknowledgement, beginning, with a brief summary of
the „neutral claim.
The neutral claim is that a link does not found between language and culture, when using roles
and effective power of language in the culture that uses it, at the same time it is possible to
classify a language and/or culture without referring for the others, the reasons for such an
analysis seem highly suspicious. Truly, language is utilized to explain ideas; would use a
relationship in which both the language take and give, assume one or more roles.
In considering such communication in its most minimal of forms –i.e. the immediate setting – it
would not be easy to summarize that culture would in no way have an affection the dealing even
on the smallest of fields. The second step in relationship points that people use culture‟s values
as reflection to using language.
This is the opposing opinion of Sapir and Whorf; is that here it is the „thoughts‟ of a culture
which influenced the language as well as decides the ideas. This claim includes that cultures
used languages that are not easy as the cultures that speak them and therefore, linguistic
functions vary in terms of, for example, a culture‟s level of technological development.
Wardhaugh (2002, pp. 225-226) points out that we must assume that all languages obtain the
equipment needed to give any learner the chance to express themselves about anything, provided
that the learner is prepared to deal with various forms of circumlocution. During using an
idiomatic expression, Wardhaugh (2002, p. 225) notes, we can assume that cultures have the
potency and liberation to generate or borrow them as necessary, and that civilizations who have
not even done so yet, and do not have a need.
At the same time we can take in our interests that many researchers point the relationship
between language and culture. Nida (1998: 29) notes the view that culture and language are two
faces to one coin. Everything we say in language has meanings, designative or associative,
denotative, or connotative”. That means every movement of voice is a language itself, people of
different cultures can use various things; during using the same language forms. For example,
lunch; an English speaker may refer to fast food, at the same time the same the word in China
refers to steamed bread or rice. The same with the word dog in English and the character go in
Chinese, refer to the same type of animal. However, with English speaker dog means good friend
with different meaning as lucky dog. Most Chinese people, by contrast, associate go with
watchdogs, defending the household from thieves, as derogatory idioms gou tui zi ('hired thug').
Being culturally loaded, English words and their Chinese translations (or vice versa) are idiom
equivalents, and often give rise to different digrams.
7- Culture in the classroom:
Here is the opposing viewpoint. Due to the various learning modalities that students bring to the
classroom The teacher should never assume there is a single best way to teach anything because
students, regardless of their cultural background, bring different learning styles to school.
Instead, they should use a variety of instructional methods, including visual and manipulative
ones, whenever possible. An approach that assumes that family composition and role-
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relationships are the same for all students is clearly inappropriate. Inductive procedures for
discussing topics like "what is a family" are increasingly being included in social studies text
books
Different people have different attitudes towards various categories and the things that make up
those categories. By implying that people from other cultures eat snails or kill animals, for
example, or by portraying differences as "odd things in any respect," there is a risk of fostering
negative attitudes towards those people. However, by presenting the opposing viewpoints of
some other groups about the prevalent American culture, for instance, the concept of cultural
relativity may be improved. Some people believe that pigs and cats are unclean, and they find it
strange that Indians, for example, never eat cows, only goats, camels, sheeps, etc. Teaching
culture should be distinguished from teaching about culture because teacher attitudes and
behavior may be much more important than curriculum content. Teachers serve as role models
for their students, who frequently adopt their values and respects.
8- CONCLUSION:
The relationship between language and culture is inseparable and cannot be broken down in any
way, and it extends to the teaching process such that no language can be taught without taking
into account the culture or civilization from which it is originated. It has been demonstrated that
teaching about culture increases cultural sensitivity, appreciation, and acceptance of other
cultures as well as one's own culture. Language teachers help students open doors that would
otherwise remain closed without the introduction and exploration of the target culture by putting
them in the position to act as a native speaker through role play or by allowing them to interact
with native speakers directly through participation in ethnographic interviews. Language
teachers can positively influence students' attitudes towards the target language and culture by
creating a tolerant classroom environment where all cultures are celebrated and by explicitly
teaching about the target culture during the language class.
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