ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

Part 2

CULTURE IN TEACHING/LEARNING ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL

LANGUAGE

Sandra Lee McKay: Teaching English as an International Language

Susie Dent: Words of the Year

INTRODUCTION

The use of cultural content in EIL teaching is problematic regarding the characteristics of an international language.

In the case of English, these are that:a) …as it is an international language, the use of E is no

longer connected to the culture of Inner Circle countries.

b) ..one of the primary functions of E, as is the case with any international language, is to enable speakers to share their ideas and cultures.

Culture learning

Culture learning is a social process and, in reference to EIL, understanding one’s own culture in relation to that of others is paramount.

THE ROLE OF CULTURE Culture in language teaching/learning has traditionally

provided cultural information. Such information tipically includes:

- “the aesthetic sense” in which the literature film, and music of a target language country are examined;

- “the sociological sense” in which the customs and institutions of this country are ecplained;

- “the semantic sense” in which how a culture’s conceptual system is embodied in a languge is investigated;

- “the pragmatic sense” in which how cultural norms influence what language is appropirate for which context is examined.

A SPHERE OF INTERCULTURALITY

This line of thought promotes the idea that the learning of culture is more than just the transfer of information btw cultures.

Rather learning about a culture requires that an individual CONSIDERS his or her OWN CULTURE in RELATION TO ANOTHER.

Hence, th process of learning about another culture entails a reflection on one’s own culture as well as the target culture.

TO ESTABLISH A SPHERE OF INTERCULTURALITY

This rquires 2 essential steps.

First, learners need to acquire knowledge about another culture

and

Second, then they need to reflect on how their own culture contrasts with it.

.

Acquiring knowledge about and reflecting on another culture

In trying to understand another culture, one of first things an individual must do is to put aside what is called

NAIVE REALISM - the idea that all people define the real world in pretty much the same way, that love, worship, food, death, and so on all have similar meanings for everyone. In line with this assumption, one goal that should be encouraged when reflecting on another culture is to consider what meaning particular behavior might have for members of that culture, and not to assume that it is the same as the one we have.

Teaching culture as difference

Teaching culture as difference is also important because of the common use of EIL in cross-cultural encounters.

The goal of EIL teaching should not be for students to accept the standards of Inner Circle countries, but rather to recognze how particular pragmatic differences might affect their own cross-cultural encounters.

Why is culture necessary?Brown, for instance, points out that within scientific writing there are many

cultural assumptions and presumpositions regarding the nature of objectivity, the importance of truthfulness in scientific endeavors, and what is appropirate to include or exclude in a scientific report.

In all uses of EIL, including ESP (English for Special Purposes), entail some culutral dimension, it would appear that one cannot avoid the issue of culture in the teaching of English.

So if culture is essential to the teaching of a language, the question is in what ways is it essential?

1) In order to use E for special purposes, an individual needs to acquire the culturally influenced ways of using particular discourse.

2) Culture is necessary because it is really an integral part of the interaction btw language and thought. Culutral patterns, customs, and ways of life are expressed in language: culture-specific world views are reflected in language.

LEXICAL INNOVATIONS The question in relation to ELT is which particular culturally

influenced uses o E do learners need to acquire? Lexical innovations are occuring in the development of

many nativized varieties of E. These innovations often provide a means to describe a

cultural aspect of local life. For example:

- “luki-luki” in Tunisia (“Would you like to go on a sightseeing tour?)

- “misi, misi, kopi, kopi” in Hong Kong (“Miss, would you like to buy a copy of a designer bag?”)

Lexical items If an international language is one that is de-nationalized, then there is no

reason why bilingual users of E need to acquire the localized lexical items of any country other than their own.

Lexical items that include cultural knowledge exist on a continuum.

Some need to be acquired because of their frequent use in international context ,

Others are more restircted to use in a particular locality or country. E.g. the USA : Term such as “yellow journalism” have emerged from the historical and political

development of the country, but because of its local meaning, it is not central to the learning of EIL.

On the other hand, there are terms that have emerged from more general western traditions such as “Pandora’s box” and “the good Samaritan” and are perhaps more relevant to EIL.

CULTURAL CONTENT IN WORDS

I remember once hearing a statistic that only 1% of all new words ever make it into a dictionary, and wondering what on earth happened to the rest.

Many of the new words of a particular time can express often highly complex events and reactions with as much eloquence as any visual representation.

The prominent themes of these past years include ethical living, a global financial and economic insecurity and the entrenchment of online social networking. All are rapidly generating their own vocabularies.

Exposure for a new word takes today just a fraction of the time, thanks to the vast possibilities of the Internet and of blogs, chatrooms, texts, and emails.

The English language is being opened up beyond all recognition.

Here are some of the new coins…

A MODERN-DAY ENGLISH VOCABULARY

The majority of words used in English today are of foreign origin, historically from Latin and Greek and in more recent centuries from almost all the languages of Europe.

Approximately 5% of all new words in the 20th century came from abroad, and many were from far and exotic countires of the world.

In total, over 120 languages are on record as sources of modern-day English vocuabulary.

“LOAN WORDS” The majority of so-called “loan words” come about as a result of CULTURAL

INFLUENCE, and lifestyle terms are paritcularly likely to be picked up.

Food, sports, fashion, fitness regimes, and health remedies and therapies are all areas where English is currently hoovering up foreign ters most rapidly.

Recent food imports, for example, include the acai ( a fruit from the Amazon region), the kaiseki (a traditional multi-course Japanese meal),ristretto (a very short shot of espresso coffee).

When a foreign word comes out of a prominent event its exposure is guaranteed. As a result, it stands an excellent chance of becoming absorbed into our language and “naturalized”.

For example arguido/argida and tsunami.

ARGUIDO/ARGUIDAM/F

It is a Portugese term usually translated as “named suspect” or “formal suspect”.

The term has become naturalized in English as a result of the investigation by Portugese police into the disappearance of a 3-year old Madeleine McCann while on holiday in the Algarve, during which the status was invoked upon three people, including hr parents.

Words of the year 2008 • KNORK (bled of knife + fork)In late 2007 the supermarket chain Sainsbury’s

announced the result of a survey into British eating habits. Our modern lifestyle, apparently, is now so busy that the traditional family meal at the table is all but extinct. Not only that, but because most meals are being consumed on a sofa as a TV meal, our traditional cutlery is no longer cutting the mustard. We are using a fork to do everything on a plate, even if cutting power is clearly lacking. The real knork was invented in 2003 by the American enterpreneour.

MOOFER

• Moofing was coined by a Microsoft worker. He describes moofers, and those who have the courage to employ them as people who understand that work is something you do, not somewhere you go.

• A moofer is one of the new generation of office workers who are given the flexibility to choose where, when, and how they want to work according to the task in hand.

LATTE LIBERAL

• Barak Obama was called a latte liberal because of his perceived attempts to charm the coffee-drinking, left-leaning liberals. This was as opposed to his rival Senator Clinton.

• The insult came after one union leader called Obama supporters latte-drinking, trust-fund babies.

PICNIC

• PICNIC is a term used by IT support personnel to describe someone who calls them to fix a problem with their hard or software, when the problem is in fact due to their inexperience or incompetence: Perhaps the computer was not switched on in the first place?

• Acronym:Problem In Chair Not In Computer

CLEGGOVER

• The nickname given to the new Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg following an intervju in GQ magazine, in which he revealed that he had slept with up to 30 women.

BOYTOXAccording to statistics published in March 2008, a

fifth of all Britons who undergo Botox treatments as an anti-ageing measure are men.

Boytox joins other terms in the new male grooming lexicon including the back, sack, and crack: a waxing procedure by which a man’s body hair is removed from his back, genitals, and between his buttocks, alternatively known as the boyzilian.

CHURNALISMA category of journalism in which stories are repeated

second-hand without primary research.

It is Nick Davies in his book Flat Earth whom we can thank for the term churnalism, coined a s a result of the falling standards he perceives in today’s journalism. Davies, a reporter for The Guardian, led a survey of some 2000 news stories conducted by Cardiff University’s journalism department.

The result: 80% of home news stories in the main “quality” newspapers are either paritally or entirely made up of recycled material.

KINNEAR

To surreptitiusly take a photograph of someone.

It was invented on her personal blog by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who tried and failed to photograph the actor Greg Kinnear unawares when she spotted him at an airport. The resultant shots show only the lower legs of several passengers which really could have belonged to anyone.

FREEMALEAn unmarried woman.The term first appeared in Australia in the spring of 2008. It

followed a survey the outcome of which was the statistic that unmarried women now outnumber married women down under for the first time since WW II.

The report, entitled “Bridget Jones meets Sex and the City”, invented the even clumsier acronym SPUDSPUD, for a “single person urban dwelling.

However, a columnist for the Australian Daily Telegraph responded with her own creation: AOBWRTASIALB: Angry Old Bag Who Refuses To Accept She Is Anything Like Bridget Jones.

ETHICUREANA person who eats and drinks according to their moral and ethical

principles.

The ethicurean’s choices are informed by a complex set of concerns, not all of which are compatible: should, for example, third-world workers be supported even if many food-miles are covered in order to bring the results of their efforts to our plates?

Navigating the modern food landscape is a challenge: one The Sydney Morning Herald recently described as a “moral minefield of complex issues centred on the size of our foodie footprint.”

Even The Simpsons have been doing some soul-searching. In the episode “Apocalypse Cow” Burt unexpectedly (for someone who can’t become a vegetarian because he “loves the tast of dath” too much) feels sympathy for a cow he names Lou….

Check your understanding • As it is an international language, is the use of E is connected to the

culture of Inner Circle countries? • What is one of the primary functions of E, as is the case with any

international language?• Culture in language teaching/learning has traditionally provided

“aesthetic sense”, as is the case in your presentation task. What is it exactly?

• What is the sphere of interculturality?• If culture is essential to the teaching of a language, the question is

in what ways is it essential?• Exposure for a new word takes today just a fraction of the time –

why?