L2 Assignment 2 In order to better understand the components of culture in others we are going to take some time to look at the "body of learned behavior" that shaped our own cultural identity. As we

How Culture is Learned and its Components

How Is Culture Learned?

An essential feature of culture is that it is learned.  As a body of learned behaviors which are common to a given culture group, culture, which operates like a template, shapes behavior within the culture group from one generation to the next.  

Components Of Culture

One of the greatest challenges we encounter when studying concepts related to culture and cultural learning is agreeing on what it is we are talking about. If you read the literature looking for the concept of culture, you will find hundreds of definitions, as studied by the following disciplines: anthropology, sociology, education, psychology, health, business, and the military.  However, what most of the definitions have in common is the idea that culture refers to the human-made part of the environment as opposed to aspects that occur in nature.

Cultural concepts are transmitted by language, and they mediate between the speakers of the language and their environment. People sharing the same cultural framework organize their experiences in the same way. (Pfister and Poser, 41)  Culture is an integral part of any communicative language course; culture involves the interaction of words, function and reality. For example, the dictionary may say that "pain" in French and "bread" in English represent the same physical object, but the speakers of both languages will have different experiences with the particular word. (Heilenman, Kaplan, 55)  ESOL teachers need to understand the cultural dimensions of language.  Note the following by Bennett:

Language does serve as a tool for communication, but in addition it is a "system of representation" for perception and thinking. This function of language provides us with verbal categories and prototypes that guide our formation of concepts and categorization of objects; it directs how we experience reality. (Bennett, 16)

Merely translating ideas into another language will not fully communicate the speaker's intent. (Szalay and Fisher, 82)  The psychological meanings and the subjective content of the entire communicative system-lexicon, stress, intonation, body language, eye contact, distance-must all be taken into account.

Gebhard suggests four concepts that can be taught.  First, adapting behavior, second, problem solving, third, getting to know individuals and fourth, to understand another culture, study your own. (Gebhard, 119)

In order to understand other cultures, "we first need to recognize that our habits, mannerisms, attitudes, preferences, and values are shaped by our own culture. We need to understand what sets American culture apart from others."  (Heusinkveld, 79)

Culture is created by people and exists in an environment where human beings interact with each other and with the environment. Culture consists of artifacts (things that are created, made or produced), sociofacts (the way people organize society and interact), and finally mentifacts (which are the ideas, beliefs and values held by the people). (de Fantini, 59)

De Fantini comments on culture: 

The whole of culture is greater than the sum of its individual parts, and the parts are interrelated. We can say that a tool (artifact) involves the custom (sociofact) for use of that tool, and that the custom involves the ideas or concepts behind it (mentifact)….  Culture is learned.  It is not genetically transmitted as are racial characteristics. We learn to speak, think and act the way we do because of the people and the culture that surround us. (de Fantini, 59)

Sociolinguistic competence has been added to communicative competence as a key element in successful language learning.  Background knowledge and shared assumptions are key elements in understanding spoken and written forms of language. (Kramsch, 1989, 1)

We talk about "communicative competence," but an L2 learner also needs to develop cultural competence.  ICC includes the ability to establish relations, the ability to communicate clearly and the ability to achieve or attain a level of compliance among those involved. (Fantini, 3)  Language and culture work together:

…language and culture are dimensions of each other, interrelated and inseparable.  Language, in fact, both reflects and affects one’s world view, serving as a sort of road map to how one perceives, interprets and thinks about and expresses one’s view of the world. (Fanti, 4)

We use language to classify and segment our notions about the world.  Fanti continues, "As we learn our native tongue, we learn to generalize and specify about the things of the world as we encode concepts into the words of language just as the words of language in turn lead us to concepts." (Fanti, 7)  He continues, "the language we acquire influences the way we construct our model of the world." (Fanti, 11)

Intercultural competence allows people to broaden their world view. Those who have never experienced another culture or learned a second language are often unaware of their own cultural milieu. Conversely, contact with other cultures allows one to shift perspective and appreciate the diversity of and richness of human beings. (Fanti, 13)

ESL learners need to understand the underlying L2 culture.  Otherwise the language becomes a dry series of symbols with no practical application. The knowledge of culture is essential for communication with native speakers.  Language is more than a system of sending and receiving information. Language and culture are interrelated:

…the implication for language teachers is clear: Language teaching is also reality teaching. The instruction that foreign and second language teachers provide in linguistic construction necessarily includes guidelines on how to experience reality in a different way. (Bennett, 17)

The question arises: How can intercultural understanding come from a skill oriented, behavioristically conceived program of language study?  Does cross-cultural awareness come out of being able to master a grammatical point or order a meal using English as a second language?  (Kramsch, 1989, 4)  How do learners feel about the possible loss of their own culture while they are mastering a new one?

We don’t have to downgrade or change our culture or methods, nor do we have to erase our students’ cultures.  Rather we need to realize that cultures are different.  We should be ready and willing to help students make the transition to the dominant culture here in the U.S. so the learning process can continue as we learn from each other.

Learning Styles

Students learn in different ways and teachers need to be aware of these differences. The psychologist Howard Gardner has discovered 7 core abilities to process information. (Gardner, 88; Toms, 1988)  These learning styles are of interest to ESL instructors who will have classes of learners at various levels using different learning styles. A brief summary is presented  here:

These learning styles serve as a guide to the instructor in preparing materials and help explain why different students react in different ways to the same materials.   Instructors need to be aware of the various learning styles in order to facilitate the learning process as much as possible.

 ESL students may differ in terms of their learning styles. They may be either analytical or global learners. Analytical learners are more interested in detail and rule learning and often shy away from unstructured activities. They like listening to lectures and taking notes. Global learners prefer more loosely structured communicative activities. They are more interested in communicating their main ideas than in grammar and structure.

ELLs also vary in learning styles regarding their sensory preferences. Asian students tend to be more visually oriented, whereas Latinos tend to be more auditorily oriented. Visual learners who are more oriented to reading than speaking often have weaker oral/communication skills. Many ESL students are hands-on learners.

ESL students also have different listening styles. For example, there are differences in listening styles between global and analytical learners. In listening, global learners tend to focus on the main idea and the rhythm and music of the language, whereas analytical learners focus on the structure and logic of the message. Global listeners may have difficulty focusing on the details of grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. These differing listening styles suggest that instructors should try to include both auditory and visual input in their presentations. (Marques, 2006)

Teachers must remember that the Metric System is used outside of the U.S.  Students may think in meters, kilometers, and kilograms rather than in feet, miles and pounds. For math problem solving note the following:

In some cultures, the final answer is more valued than the process of finding the answer.  Students coming from these cultures will have a difficult time recognizing the teacher's request that they "show the work." 

Certain cultures focus heavily on computational skills and less on process skills.  Due to educational differences, certain procedures used may be foreign to ESOL students. For instance, teachers should be aware that 7 and 0 may be crossed through at times, 4 may be opened or closed at the top and 2,55 may be written as 2.500. (Robison, 46)