Culture In Language Learning

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Recent developments in SLA have led to some changes in the objectives of language learning and teaching. Teaching and learning culture which is seen as one of the most important elements in communication with the people who have different cultural and linguistic background have taken a great deal of interest from the researchers (Kramsch 1993; Byram 1997; Sercu 2005). Kramsch (1993) highlights that culture should be accepted as an internal part of the language learning activities, it should always be in the background from the first day of any teaching situation. Sardi (2002) also mentions the importance of culture in teaching language. He believes that it is not possible to separate the language and culture from each other and claims that …show more content…

Culture and Foreign Language Teaching
In last three decades, the developments led some changes in foreign language teaching, one of which is culture. The cultural dimension of language teaching has always been ignored by the theories of SLA so far. However, the changing from ‘what’ and ‘how ‘ which gives more emphasis on structures of the language to ‘why’ which focuses on the functional use of language gave space to the social and cultural turn.
As result, culture should be accepted as an internal part of the language learning activities, it should always be in the background from the first day of any teaching situation (Kramsch, 1993). In this respect, it should not be seen as the fifth skill attached to the other four language skills to be taught and learned. Byram (2004) also agrees with Kramsch (1993) emphasizing that we have concentrated too much on skills and too little on values. Sardi (2002) also mentions the importance of culture in teaching language. He believes that it is not possible to separate the language and culture from each other and claims that children acquire their first language with its culture and language learners should do the same thing to be competent in the target language. In this respect, culture should be integrated in language learning process from the very beginning

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