SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS

Shazliah binti Hamzah GS36004Sumainya Mohamed GS35927Yazdan Shamami GS33443

A way of life. It is the context within which we exist, think, feel and relate to others (Donne, 1924)

“Blueprint” that “guides” the behavior of people in a community & is incubated

in family life (Larson and Smalley, 1972)

CULTURE

STEREOTYPES OR GENERALIZATIONS?

• Due to our own perception view to others (Open- minded vs. Closed –minded).

• The key= to understand cultural differences

• Turn individual perception into appreciation.

SECOND CULTURE ACQUISITION (1)

Psychological Factors

MOTIVATION ATTITUDE CULTURE SHOCK

Schumann's Acculturation Model

STAGES OF CULTURE ACQUISITION

• TENTATIVE RECOVERY

• FULL RECOVERY

• CULTURE SHOCK• EXCITEMENT

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

SOCIAL DISTANCE

Social Distance

Refers to cognitive & effective

proximity of two cultures that come into contact within

an individual.

Distance is used in a metaphorical sense to depict

dissimilarity between two

cultures.

PARAMETERS•D

ominant, nondominant or subordinate?

Dominance

•Integration Pattern such as assimilation, acculturation or preservation

Integration

•Is the L2 group cohesive? What is the size of the L2 group?

Cohesiveness

•Are the 2 group congruent? Similar in their value & belief systems? Attitudes towards each other?

Congruence

•L2 group intended length of residence in the target language area

Permanence

Teacher:

needs to be sensitive by using techniques that

promote cultural understanding

Best model of the combination 2nd language 2nd culture learning Students who learn a 2nd language in a country

where the language is spoken natively.

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

CONCEPTUAL CATEGORIES

Individualism

Power Distance

Uncertainty Avoidance

Masculinity

COLLECTIVIST VS INDIVIDUALIST

COLLECTIVIST SOCIETIES INDIVIDUALIST SOCIETIESThe young should learn, adults cannot accept student role.

Permanent learning.

Students expect to learn how to do. Students expect to learn how to learn.

Students will only speak in individual groups.

Individuals will only speak in large groups.

Education is a way of gaining prestige in one’s social environment.

Education is a way to improving one’s economic worth and self respect.

Teachers are expected to give preferential treatment to some students.

Teachers are expected to be strictly impartial.

LANGUAGE POLICY

• Language policy (LP) is the deliberate attempt to change an individual’s or community’s use of a language or languages or a variety or varieties (Omoniyi, 2004).

• Every County has policies that affect the status of its native language(s) and one or more foreign languages. •Explicit, “Official” • Implicit, “Unofficial”.

WORLD ENGLISHES

• Different varieties of English in different parts of the world are called World Englishes .For example Malaysian English ,Indian English.

• In certain countries, learning English does not involve taking a new culture for example :Indian English or (Indianization of English).

• Nativization of English is a process which has spread from the inner circle to the outer circle( Richards, 1985) .

.

NATIVE VS NON-NATIVE TEACHERS

Native English speaking teachers

• Have superior model of oral production ,very proficient in the language.

• Ideal English language teachers.

Non native English speaking teachers

• Some researchers show that they have more advantages.

• Teachers who have gone through actual process of learning English are more skillful.

ESL AND EFL :

ESL

• Learning English in a country where it is natively spoken.

• Learning English in countries where it is accepted and widely used in education, or business within the country.

• In other contexts where English has no official status but occupies such high profile.

EFL

• Learning English in a country where English is not one’s native language.

• EFL countries do not use English as a medium of instruction but English is taught in schools.

LINGUISTIC IMPERIALISM

also known as “Linguicism” calls attention to the potential consequences of English teaching worldwide when Eurocentric ideologies are embedded in instruction.

It involves the transfer of the dominant language to other people.

Aspects of the dominant culture are usually transferred along with the language.

Culture

ThoughtLanguage

LANGUAGE, THOUGHT & CULTURE

FRAMING OUR CONCEPTUAL UNIVERSE

1. Advertisements – use of language to shape, persuade, and dissuade consumers. (eg. “weasel words”)

Words shape our lives

2. Euphemisms (Nice ways to say bad things)

For Example:Taboo Subjects• Death• Sex• Chronic Illness

Taboo WordsBlind – Sight Deprived Dead – DeceasedOld person – Senior Citizen

3. Framing & Verbal LabelsLanguage & verbal labels shape the way people think. (Lakoff, 2004).Framing refers to:

The social construction of a social phenomenon.

selective influence perception

eg. Political Rhetoric - carefully framed to invoke positive images and feelings.

Words are not the only linguistic category affecting thought.

The way a sentence is structured will affect nuances of meaning.

eg: Questions can effect the answer a person gives

Question:“did you see the broken head light?”

“did you see a broken headlight?”

Cultural patterns of cognition and customs are sometimes explicitly coded in language.eg. Conversational discourse styles – may be a

factor of culture.(American vs. Japanese)

Lexical items used by a person shows the intersession of his culture and cognition.eg. Colour categorization

The Whorfian HypothesisDoes language reflect cultural world-view?

Vs. Does language shape cultural world-view?

• Language shaped a person’s weltanschauung, or worldview.

Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767-1835)

• The way people think is strongly affected by their native languages.

Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf

Whorf Claims:Influence of language on

behaviour was “undifferentiated, all pervasive, permanent and

absolute”

Guiora (1981, p. 177) criticizes:

Claims are “extravagant”

Clarke, Losoff, McCracken, and Rood (1984, p. 57) disagrees:“The Whorfian Hypothesis was

not nearly as monolithic or casual as some would interpret it

to be”

After vigorous attack from critics, the hypothesis is now believed

by most linguists only in the weak sense that language can

have some small effect on thought, though, the fact

remains that learning a L2 may very well involve learning new

ways.

CULTURE IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Cultural activities in the classroom must include:1) Customs and belief systems.2) Analysis of stereotypes.3) Degrees of willingness of the students to participate

openly.4) Analysis of linguistic imperialism.5) Treatment of Students’ Uncertainty Avoidance6) Roles of males and females 7) Connections between specific language features to

cultural ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.8) Previous experiences on students’ native culture.

CLASS ACTIVITY

Brainstorm stereotypes for the people of their assigned country

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