Culture In English Language Analysis

Hantrais (1989) puts forth the idea that “culture is the beliefs and practices governing the life of a society for which a particular language is the vehicle of expression. Therefore, everyone’s views are dependent on the culture which has influenced them, as well as being described using the language which has been shaped by that culture”. When talking about the connection between culture and English Language Teaching, there are mainly two opposing views that are predominant. On the one hand, it is widely believed that language and culture are inseparable, and for this reason culture should be taught in the classroom since it will have many benefits for the students. For instance, it may help improve the student’s understanding of the target

Even though learners may have acquired the structure of the language and the different skills they have been taught, they may not see the reason for many of the linguistic choices they are making. One of the reasons for this to happen is that in many cases certain conventions in languages are culturally rooted (based on culture) and because of this they differ from one culture to the other, these differences may prevent students from fully comprehending the target language. ELT researchers have proven that studying the culture of a language increases both, the learners’ curiosity about the target country and their motivation. Pulverness (2003) believes that studying the target language culture helps motivate students and supports this idea by claiming that “for foreign language learners, language seems senseless if they know nothing about the people who speak the target language and the country in which the language is spoken”. A clear example of this may be seen in one case study that was based on classes in which educators introduced aspects of the target language culture. The interest of the learners in those classes increased a lot and the classes based on culture became to be preferred over traditional classes. Another example to make this idea clear is the different notions of politeness that different cultures around the world may have,

Nowadays, many learners have the possibility of visiting the countries in which English is the mother tongue, and because of this it is important for them to reach a certain level of competence in order to be able to interact in fully. To do this, it is crucial for them to not only study the target language but also the target culture. If this is not done the learner may become what Bennett (1993) calls a “fluent fool”. A fluent fool is someone who possesses an accurate use of the foreign language but lacks the social content that is interrelated to that language and as a consequence does not experience real communication. Another author that develops this idea is Bada (2000: 101), in his/her opinion “the need for cultural literacy in ELT arises mainly from the fact that most language learners, not exposed to cultural elements of the society in question, seem to encounter significant hardship in communicating meaning to native speakers.” In order to avoid these misunderstandings that learners may experience when using the target language, even though they may be proficient in it, many ELT teachers decide to include in their classes the explicit teaching of the target culture and they focus not only on vocabulary in context but also on certain expected behaviours since these may also differ from one culture to