Essay On The Relationship Between Culture And English Language

The relationship between culture and English language teaching

The English language in the EFL classroom is still often considered to be linked to the culture of the target language, which often means the culture of the English speaking countries, particularly, Britain or the USA. Since culture and language are inseparable, English cannot be taught/ learned without the culture or rather, one of the cultures. For nearly two decades, scholars from the fields of applied linguistics and sociolinguistics have discussed the question of teaching culture along with English, resulting in two main views: (a) teaching English language alongside its culture, or (b) teaching English language with students’ home culture.

For some researchers, it seems quite pointless to teach English without its culture, the culture of the country in which English is the native language. Nelson Brooks introduced this stance in his book, Language and Language Learning 1964, by emphasizing on the anthropological approach of which culture should be

In order to probe answers to the study, a questionnaire has been distributed to 94 participants, of whom 65 % are males and the rest are females. 97 % of the participants belong to the age group of 19-25. The participants have been chosen randomly. The findings indicate that learners have an overwhelmingly negative attitude towards the teaching of target language culture in Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Based on the aforementioned studies, the insertion of target culture has revealed some significant results in the teaching of English. Even though the researchers agreed on teaching target culture, the aftermaths reneged the researchers’ position; one showed positive results, whereas, the other one showed negative