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1 linguistics across cultures the impact of culture on second language learning ming mu kuo assistant professor the department of foreign language instruction wenzao ursuline college of languages kaohsiung taiwan ...

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           Linguistics across Cultures:   
           The Impact of Culture on Second Language Learning 
                Ming-Mu Kuo 
                Assistant Professor, the Department of Foreign Language Instruction 
                Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages 
                Kaohsiung, Taiwan 
                95029@mail.wtuc.edu.tw 
                Cheng-Chieh Lai 
                PhD Program Student in Educational Leadership 
                Prairie View A&M University 
                Texas, USA 
            
            
            
           Abstract: 
            
                The purpose of this article is to discuss the inseparable relation between culture and lan-
                guage and the implementation of instructional strategies for teaching second language 
                through culture to enhance students’ linguistic comprehension. Language is not only the 
                product of culture, but also is the symbol of culture (Gleason, 1961). Culture must be in-
                corporated outright as an essential component of second language learning and teaching. 
                Only after cultural issues become an inherent part of the language curriculum and instruc-
                tion, can students be successful in their target language learning. Second language 
                teachers, therefore, should pay more attentions to the diversities of cultures, identify key 
                cultural items in every aspect when they design a language curriculum, and apply appro-
                priate teaching strategies to learning activities in order to help students to bridge the cul-
                ture gaps. 
                ▌Journal of Foreign Language Instruction 
             2
                  The purpose of this article is to discuss     people live, their behaviors and thoughts fol-
             the inseparability of culture and language and     low and are generally based on their own cul-
             to propose ways of implementing instructional      tures. Culture has many different dimen-
             strategies for teaching second language  sions. It includes ideas, customs, skills, arts 
             through culture to enhance students' linguistic    and tools that characterize a group of people 
             comprehension. People who live in different        in a given period of time; it is also the beliefs, 
             areas of the world have different cultural         values, and material objects that create our 
             backgrounds and use different languages.           way of life. Culture establishes a context of 
             Language and culture appear on the surface to      cognitive and affective behavior for each per-
             be two distinct fields, but they have an inter-    son. It influences individual estimation and 
             twined relationship and affect each other mu-      attitudes, and can also have an effect on prac-
             tually. Gleason (1961) indicated that lan-         tical aspects of life such as hobbies.   
             guages are not only the products of cultures,           Culture is also a matter of habit, and it is 
             but also are the symbols of cultures. The de-      habit that becomes tradition and tradition that 
             velopment of a language frequently affects its     gives rise to culture. Local people begin with 
             associated culture, and cultural patterns of       habitual actions and go on to create common 
             cognition and custom are often explicitly          stereotypes. Condon further explained that 
             coded in language.                                 stereotypes assign group characteristics to in-
                  Furthermore, language is also a social in-    dividual purely on the basis of their cultural 
             stitution, both shaping and being shaped by        membership. The cultural stereotypes affect 
             society (Armour-Thomas & Gopaul-McNicol,           how people think, speak, act, and interact with 
             1998). Ihis means that language is not an in-      one another. Samovar, Porter, and Jain (1981) 
             dependent construct but social practice both       also stated that culture and communication are 
             creating and being created by the structures       inseparable because culture not only dictates 
             and forces of social institutions within which     who talks to whom, about what, and how the 
             we live and function. Certainly, language          communication proceeds, but also helps to 
             cannot exist in a vacuum and there is an in-       determine how people encode messages, the 
             evitable kind of “transfusion” at work between     meanings they have for messages, and the 
             language and culture (Fairclough, 1989). It        conditions and circumstances under which 
             follows, then, that learning a new language        various messages may or may not be sent, no-
             will also involve grapping with the notion of      ticed, or interpreted. In a word, culture is the 
             culture in relation to language.                   foundation of communication.   
                                                                     Without culture, we can not understand 
                                                                the lives and motivations of others and con-
             Definition of Culture                              nect with their concerns and interests. Culture 
                                                                is inherent in our being and a powerful human 
                  According to Condon (1973), culture can       tool to develop our society, add to our knowl-
             be defined as a way of life. No matter where       edge, and establish the relationships between 
                                             Linguistics across Cultures: The Impact of Culture on Second Language Learning  ▌   
                                                                                                                 3
               people. However, culture is fragile. The traits     tion. In many ways the structure of language 
               of culture are constantly changing and easily       reflects the structure of how our minds process 
               lost. If we do not value it, we will lose it        the world. According to Douglas (2000), there 
               eventually.                                         are four different dimensions of language. 
                                                                   There are: competence and performance; 
                                                                   comprehension and production; nature and 
               What is Linguistics?                                nurture; and universal grammars. Three ques-
                                                                   tions need be considered before analyzing the 
                    Linguistics is the scientific study of lan-    structure of a language: 
               guage. It is a foundational discipline in the                 
               sense that it bridges the social sciences, the            1.  What are the rules or principles that 
               natural sciences, and the humanities (Harris,                 predict how sounds are made and 
               1951). Linguistics is an exciting field, not only             how are they used (phonol-
               because of its own achievements, but also be-                 ogy-patterning of sounds)? 
               cause of its contributions to other fields. In the        2. How do sound sequences convey 
               language domain, the study of linguistics en-                 meaning and how are meaningful 
               deavors to answer many questions, one of                      sound sequences strung together to 
               which is: What is language and how is it rep-                 form words (morphology-patterning 
               resented in the mind? Linguists focus on de-                  of sound sequences and words)? 
               scribing and explaining language. It is a disci-          3. How are words strung together to 
               pline concerned with how languages are simi-                  form phrases and sentences (pattern-
               lar to and different from one another. In addi-               ing of phrases and sentences)?   
               tion, linguistics is also a social science that           
               shares common ground with other social sci-              Understanding a language should first 
               ences such as psychology, anthropology, soci-       involve understanding its patterns of sound. 
               ology, and archaeology. For this reason, to         All languages have definite patterns in the 
               understand the changing nature of language,         sounds that the speaker use, how those sounds 
               we have to look at psychological issues, such       are combined to form symbols, and how those 
               as learning ability and perception, and social      symbols are organized into meaningful sen-
               factors. We need to understand the structures       tences. Douglas (2000) further indicated that 
               and functions of languages which play a part        each language structure consists of four dif-
               in our social activities in order to be a suc-      ferent areas: phonology (the basis of speech 
               cessful use of language.                            sound), semantics (word meanings and or-
                                                                   ganization of concept), grammar (include 
               Structure of Language                               Morphology and Syntax), and pragmatics (the 
                                                                   use of language in contexts). In fact, some 
                    Language is a system of symbols and            languages have similar structural patterns 
               rules that is used for meaningful communica-        while others are totally different. One of the 
                 ▌Journal of Foreign Language Instruction 
             4
             reasons why some people have difficulty                      vironment, to cause certain events to 
             learning another language is often related to                happen. 
             language structures. For instance, Chinese and           2.  Regulatory function: when language 
             English languages have unique and totally                    controls events. The regulations may 
             different structures.                                        encounter the approval or disap-
                  However, the structure of a language can                proval of the listener. 
             be learned because human beings have a                   3. Representational  function:  when 
             natural and inherent competence to acquire                   language is used to make statements, 
             languages. According to language acquisition                 convey facts and knowledge, explain 
             theory, language learners usually need a                     or report.   
             transformational period when they are learn-             4.  Interactive function: when language 
             ing a new language. They must apply and                      serves to ensure social maintenance, 
             compare the structures of their mother tongue                this implies knowledge of slang, jar-
             to the new language in order to understand its               gon, jokes, folklore, cultural mores, 
             patterns. A good example of this is in bilin-                politeness, and formality expecta-
             gual education. The theories of bilingual edu-               tions in social exchange.   
             cation believe that when new second language             5. Personal function: when language 
             learners encounter an unfamiliar language in                 expresses feelings, emotions, and 
             the first time, they are often confused and dis-             personality.  
             oriented. But, after becoming familiar with the          6. Heuristic function: when language is 
             structure of the language, they eventually dis-              used to acquire knowledge and to learn. 
             cover its rules and how the various parts are            7.  Imaginative function: when language 
             interrelated (Krashen, 1994).                                is used to create tales, write a novel, 
                                                                          poetry, tongue twisters, and etc. 
             Functions of Language                                    
                                                                     All functions of language lead back to the 
                  Language is a system of signals, includ-      three elements that are indispensable to the 
             ing voice sounds, gestures or written symbols      formation of a proposition: the subject, the 
             which encodes and decodes information. The         predicate, and the link between them. Each 
             goal of language is to communicate meaning.        function has its objective to help us to deal 
             When we begin to develop our language abili-       with the necessities of daily life.   
             ties, the main purpose is to communicate or 
             interact with others. Halliday (1973, p. 10) 
             suggests that the functions of language can be     The Relationship between Lin-
             separated in seven areas, included:                guistics and Culture 
                      
                   1. Instrumental function: when lan-               Language and culture are intertwined, 
                      guage is used to manipulate the en-       and one will affect the other. Language and 
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...Linguistics across cultures the impact of culture on second language learning ming mu kuo assistant professor department foreign instruction wenzao ursuline college languages kaohsiung taiwan mail wtuc edu tw cheng chieh lai phd program student in educational leadership prairie view a m university texas usa abstract purpose this article is to discuss inseparable relation between and lan guage implementation instructional strategies for teaching through enhance students linguistic comprehension not only product but also symbol gleason must be corporated outright as an essential component after cultural issues become inherent part curriculum instruc tion can successful their target teachers therefore should pay more attentions diversities identify key items every aspect when they design apply appro priate activities order help bridge cul ture gaps journal people live behaviors thoughts fol inseparability low are generally based own propose ways implementing tures has many different dimen...

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