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TOPIC: The connection between learning a language and understanding its culture.. Understanding these cultural factors helps communicators and learners acquire foreign languages effectively because of the meaning of the word, the content of speech in any language can change in each context. Language perception does not only just stop at the meaning of words, knowing the content contained in words but also more importantly grasp the deep meaning of the content of information.
HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE ENGLISH DEPARTEMENT CROSS- CULTURE COMMUNICATION END OF TERM ASSIGNMENT Instructor: Nguyen Bach Nga Student: Ha Thi Ngoc Diep Student code: 14f7511061 Class: 10 Hue, June 2017 TOPIC: The connection between learning a language and understanding its culture Nowadays, learning foreign languages is very important Foreign language has helped open the way for many people, especially young people Now, the goal of learning a foreign language is to develop effective communication skills However, learning a language without understanding and grasping native culture is difficult to understand indepth to communicate successfully with native speakers So integrating the culture of the target language into the learning process is extremely important To hark back to the relationship between language and culture; Samovar, Porter, & Jain (1981: 24) observe: Culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what, and how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted Culture is the foundation of communication In fact, Language and culture are two indispensable elements Language is a way for people to communicate with each other, exchange ideas and come to understand each other Each language is associated with the specific characteristics of that national culture Language can be seen as a cultural expression It is used to maintain and communicate culture Language allows people to express their thoughts in different groups of words which derived from life and accumulated over generations We will not be able to use a language without grasping the characteristics of a culture and conversely we cannot understand the subtle nuances and profound meaning of a culture without understanding it Clear about the language Therefore, for learners who study of foreign languages, the parallel development of language skills such as vocabulary, grammar, must also improve the understanding of the culture of the nation to be able to promote communicate in their new language in the best Moreover, given Duranti’s (1997: 24) definition of culture as ‘something learned, transmitted, passed down from one generation to the next, through human actions, often in the form of face-to-face interaction, and, of course, through linguistic communication’, it is patently obvious that language, albeit a subpart of culture, plays a pivotal role Bourdieu has emphasised the importance of language not as an autonomous construct but as a system determined by various socio-political processes For him, a language exists as a linguistic habitus (see Bourdieu, 1990: 52), as a set of practices that imply not only a particular system of words and grammatical rules, but also an often forgotten or hidden struggle over the symbolic power of a particular way of communicating, with particular systems of classification, address and reference forms, specialized lexicons, and metaphors (for politics, medicine, ethics) (Bourdieu, 1982: 31, cited in Duranti, 1997: 45) no matter how you have good grasp of grammar and rich vocabulary if you lack of understanding of native culture, when communicating you just stop at the level of knowing how to express their ideas clumsily Understanding these cultural factors helps communicators and learners acquire foreign languages effectively because of the meaning of the word, the content of speech in any language can change in each context Language perception does not only just stop at the meaning of words, knowing the content contained in words but also more importantly grasp the deep meaning of the content of information In addition, the problem may be more serious if the lack of understanding of culture can cause "cultural conflict" or "cultural shock" Most of the students often imprison their mother tongue in learning their foreign language For example, in Vietnam, familiar questions such as: "Do you married?", "How old are you?", "How much salary?" it seemed normal, but for people in The West it is not very courteous and should be avoided Each and every nation is deeply rooted within its own culture The culture makes each country very special and different from one another, so does the person belong to a particular culture Therefore the role of the culture in the process of national progress is unquestionable The way we are brought up and our personality is built up has a lot to with the culture Therefore culture means a lot to the nation as well as to the people It is a fact that we always prefer to hold on to our culture as we attach an emotional component to our culture Therefore one can be easily offended in cultural issues It is very difficult for a person to understand and get adapted to another culture in case the situation demands So that when we visit a foreign nation, one of the difficulties we encounter is the cultural issue Due to our way of living, customs and manners change completely and it becomes a novel experience to us Sometimes we get confused regarding what to adopt and what not Some times when in the foreign country, we are forced to adopt certain manners which are exact opposite to our idea of culture, as a way of showing civility So it can cause a lot of discomfort to us, especially with a person who is very new to the country Therefore it paves the way for a cultural shock for the individuals new to the country On the other hand, Misunderstandings can happen in all communication especially when people from the different cultures communicate Of course, the big problem here is the difference in culture I would like to mention about some possible reasons leading to misunderstandings I think the biggest barrier in communication is language and this is also the most popular reason of misunderstandings Though English is the international language and lots of countries all over the world use it as the national language, it is not the only one Numerous countries like Vietnam, China, Japan, Korean and so on use their own language The difference in language will lead to a situation that people will not understand or understand in another way what the opposite says Even when they use the same language as English, there are still misunderstandings because of slang, jargon, dialect In communication, people actually use some actions and gestures to explain what they are saying or express their attitude toward to the opposite And the misunderstandings occur when people from a country use a specific gesture to describe their opinion, the opposite can misunderstand or even be angry if that gesture is impolite in the opposite’s country The next reason is lack of basic knowledge about the concerning issue of one side This reason may also base on the literacy when the people from different countries talk together, there are a lot of subject that make some of them embarrassing or hard to understand because of their knowledge If the topic especially is about a specialized matter, it requests the participant have a certain knowledge to understand Another possible reason is that the people from the different cultures will have the difference in awareness of a specific matter It is hard for everyone to have a unified ideology in conservation Therefore, misunderstands are unavoidable The last possible reasons is that the ways people using their tone of voice to express their opinion instead of talking directly I think it is very difficult to understand what another says through their tone of voice From those reasons, I would like to suggest some ways to avoid misunderstands in communication and prevent them from turning into cultural conflicts Before starting the conversation, I think people should look at the cultural background of another to get some basic information It is very necessary for a successful conservation During the conservation, everything they say must be clear and concise to make sure that everyone can understand easily They should speak slowly and use short and simple sentences in order to everyone can follow what they says Besides, they shouldn’t use slang, jargon, dialect or ambiguous languages or double negatives All of them are easy to make people misunderstand They should give paraphrases or demonstrations when giving a new subject During that process, gestures and actions added to conservation must be polite and appropriate for everyone In addition, they shouldn’t mention to specialized matter if they don’t have the same specialized knowledge If any one doesn’t really understand, they must explain carefully They should avoid raising their tone of voice to express their opinion and try to introduce it directly One more thing is that they should find out the similarities between their cultures to lead their conversation in a certain direction I remember a conservation between my American guest and me when I did as a rider from Hoi An to Hue last two weeks Do you remember about the General Election last week? When my guest saw the posters about the Election, they asked me for more details I said that I would take part in Election as a voters so she wanted to know the way I would elected Because of her country, the presidential election happens and she wonders if both elections were the same In fact, I just knew a little about it and I didn’t how to explain for her to understand I have told some little rules that I knew but I’m not sure if she could understand clearly After that, she also show me the ways of American presidential election She said about the Parties, its campaign, the voted rates and the election rules However, I can’t understand completely about it because I didn’t prepare for this situation Generally, I just have basic tourism knowledge and some social knowledge to as a rider I don’t find out too much about Election Therefore, I was so confuse when my guest asked about election When my guest recognized my problem, she decided change another topic It’s very clear from the above discussion that culture and language are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture Cultural influences on foreign language teaching In my opinion, the best way to avoid all problems in communication is contact with as many cultures as possible To understand the importance of culture we need to know to what extent cultural background, knowledge influences language learning and teaching, and how can we take advantage of that influence To account for the roles culture plays in language learning and teaching, it is necessary to demonstrate the functions it may perform in the components of language learning and teaching, such as listening, speaking, reading, and translating Throughout, we can learn not only about their cultures but also about the ways they communicate with others It will help us to avoid misunderstanding in communication with others and raise our own knowledge If any one of them is separated the other remains incomplete so that the students need acquire the target language with cultural background and correspond in real life situations Now we understand the importance of cultural factors in learning a foreign language The question is how to learn to be effective and how to find sources of data which appropriates for different levels of each person The solution is to find modern foreign language teaching materials that integrate the cultural features of a people into the lessons In addition, you can find more articles on foreign cultures through foreign language journals or other types of books ... 2017 TOPIC: The connection between learning a language and understanding its culture Nowadays, learning foreign languages is very important Foreign language has helped open the way for many people,... influences language learning and teaching, and how can we take advantage of that influence To account for the roles culture plays in language learning and teaching, it is necessary to demonstrate the. .. understand each other Each language is associated with the specific characteristics of that national culture Language can be seen as a cultural expression It is used to maintain and communicate culture