Understanding the Role of Culture in Language Learning

1. Introperception and practice of intercultural awareness amongst the subjects of different linguacultural backgrounds? perception and practices of intercultural communication amongst students? perception and practices of intercultural awareness of each teacher reflected on their students' development regarding the perceptions and practices of ICA? 2061

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Intercultural communication and awareness are important to bring a sense of community in the global environment. The knowledge of culture will enhance the awareness of intercultural differences. Bring the global community closer will increase more knowledge of intercultural communication (Baur, 2010). In this light, this literature review will analyse the role of culture in language learning in the English Language Centre (ELC) at Taibah University in Saudi Arabia and will present previous research relevant with this topic, including aspects related to education dissertation help. Defining culture is important in relevance to the topic of the current research. Lustig and Koester (2010) defined culture as a “learned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, norms, and social practices, which affect the behaviours of a relatively large group of people” (Lustig & Koester, 2010, p. 25). Culture plays an important role in applied linguistics. Applied linguistics stresses on the role of language in the diverse social practices in areas including that of education. Language is integrated in the society, culture, and the psyche. Language is, therefore, not just an structural system but a communicative practice and its various conceptualisation and competences. In this context where language forms a part of culture, this literature review will seek to understand the students’ and teachers’ perceptions and practices of intercultural communication awareness (ICA) and to analyse the impact of such perceptions and practices on the use of English language and development in the classroom.

Notion of intercultural communication awareness

Cultural awareness is necessary to develop intercultural communication. As such, the competence in intercultural communication must be read along with cultural awareness (Vu, 2019). In English teaching, there is an intercultural dimension attached to it (Byram, 2014). Cultural awareness is commonly used in various disciplines, but it is more prominent in the teaching of foreign and second languages (Risager, 2004). The principal explanation for such a large implementation could be that the cultural context must be integrated into language teaching at all stages. Risager acknowledges that the cultural awareness is more post-modernist in terms of "the cultural difference and the relationship to ‘the Other’ (Risager, 2004, p.159), regardless of whether the ‘Other’ is different from a "national, ethnic, social, regional professional or institutional point of view " (Sercu, 2007, p.66). One of the key characteristics of cultural awareness is reflexivity, which is described as an awareness of one's own culture and the target culture, as well as similarities between the two (Baker, 2009, p.82), which is complemented by the cognitive and affective aspects derived from the various themes that have dominated the culture debate.

Throughout the discourses on internationalisation of higher education, the relevant policy measures mention the intercultural component along with the need to learn English (Kankaanranta & Salminen, 2013). As such, a critical cultural awareness contributes to intercultural communication. Such awareness drives two aspects, namely, social dimension and psychological dimension inculcating a desire and willingness in learners to learn new skills influencing academic success and communicative adaptability (Vu, 2019). This notion of intercultural awareness is reflected in the definition by Baker (2011: p 9) of intercultural awareness that states it as “a conscious understanding of the role culturally based forms, practices and frames of reference can have in intercultural communication, and an ability to put these conceptions into practice in a flexible and context-specific manner in communication” (Baker, 2011).

Young, Sachdev and Seedhouse (2009) conducted a research covering empirical literature related to the role of culture in English language teaching and learning. They found that the topic of culture has not been approached an effective, practical manner. They found that previous studies did not directly address the issue of whether or not culture is taught in English language programmes. This finding contradicted the importance literature places on the link between the acquisition of a second language and the skills necessary to engage with a foreign culture (Young, et al., 2009). This presents a gap in understanding the role of culture in learning new language. A form of skill in the form of understanding and being aware of a foreign culture is needed to acquire a new language. This is reflected in the view of Baker (2011), who presented the challenges in the use of English as a global lingua franca (ELF) in the context of the relationship between cultures and languages in intercultural communication. Baker (2011) offered the concept of intercultural awareness as the new approach to understand intercultural competence in the intercultural communication. This approach comprises the knowledge, skills and attitudes that required to communicate through English in diverse social contexts (Baker, 2011). This indicates that cultural awareness can only be developed only when a person has the required intercultural competence, which according to Barker (1997) is termed the Intercultural Communication Competence. Baker provides five components of such competence, including attitudes towards beliefs and disbeliefs about cultures; knowledge of social groups and practices as well as social and personal interaction; skills to interpret and to relate events and documents about cultures; skills to acquire new knowledge of a culture and using them in communication and interaction; and ability to evaluate cultural awareness comprising practices of cultures (Byram, 1997, p.48-53). Why intercultural communication competence is important stems from the fact that a new language cannot be acquired without addressing concerned culture of the community. Addressing the culture requires competence, which is affected by the culturally defined world of view of the learners. This view has to be addressed through intercultural communication competence that address the beliefs and presuppositions in a foreign teaching or learning. Only when a teacher or a learner develops communicative competence, will cultural awareness be raised (O’Reilly, 2014).

There are other studies that present a general lack of awareness of relevance of cultural in language classroom. For example, Duff and Uchida (1997) conducted a six-month ethnographic study concerning awareness of cultural domains in relevance with language classrooms. The study was conducted in Japan on four inexperienced EFL teachers, two Americans and two Japanese. It analysed the manner in which teachers negotiate socio-cultural identities and practices, which transform in due course of time. The study found that the perceptions of the teachers regarding their sociocultural identities are rooted in their personal histories and past educational, professional, and cross- cultural experiences. Duff and Uchida (1997) found a contradiction between the belief of the teachers and the practices in classroom regarding cultural practices and identities. They found that one of the Japanese English teachers incorporated cross-cultural themes in her class. However, the students claimed that only one American teacher dealt with culture in the classroom. The finding is that not one teacher believed that they were explicitly teaching culture (Duff & Uchida, 1997). This represents the lack of the sense to have awareness of culture while teaching a foreign-language. The importance of learning culture is reflected in multiple literature, such as (Alptekin, 2002); (Byram, 1997); (Corbett, 2003), to name a few. These works suggest learners of English will have a productive result if they become intercultural speakers. This means that the learners relate to socio-cultural and socio-linguistic aspects that are familiar or unfamiliar of the concerned culture. This also means that culture should be presented in a systematic approach in language learning (Young, 2007). Such an intercultural model seems to have not applied as is seen in the above studies. Continue your exploration of Ezra's Emergence and the Significance of the Book of the Law with our related content.

The teachers’ perspectives, another limitation is their knowledge, skills, and attitudes on how to deal with culture and language given its emergent and fluid nature. For a teacher who has not undergone any formal intercultural training (Guilherme, 2002) and who might not be entirely aware of such relationships in their own language, this may be a difficult task. The teacher has a decisive role in determining the importance of this type of awareness among the learners whether those learners share the same first language as their teachers or not, but whose intercultural interactions are limited to the first language. The tension between desire and a lack of preparation and understanding will hinder the growth of expected behaviours such as “person’s conscious attention to language and culture” (Byram, 2012, p.6) and the ability to reflect on the relationship between language and culture as “it exists in society and their own selves” (Byram, 2012, p.6). For example, in an English language classroom environment in the context of ELC, language teachers’ understanding of the role of intercultural awareness may affect their students either way. Whether those teachers were local teachers’ who share the element of the local culture with their students, or language teachers who share the native language with their students but not the local culture, or language teachers from an English-speaking country who doesn’t share the same language or local culture. In that context, intercultural communication seeks to provide a sound foundation that could normalise interactions between people belonging to different culture. In that context, teachers of such intercultural communication must be concerned about the thought process, perception, or assumption of students (Newmark & Asante, 1976).

Theoretical framework – link between culture and language

According to social science approach, culture is a measurable variable influencing communication in as much as personality does. Human behaviour is predictable as it is described by their culture that determines the manner of their communication encounters (Sadri & Flammia, 2011). A background culture defines the communication style. For example, a study conducted by Naomi Sugimoto regarding the style of apology found Americans to explain in their message and Japanese participants will include in their message remorse, offers of compensation, reparation and request for forgiveness (Sugimoto, 1997). Culture allows a person to behave or operate in a manner acceptable within their own cultural group (Goodenough, 1964, p. 36). Culture is “idealised systematisation of an induvial cognitive world” (Keesing, 1974, p. 84).

The cognitive theory of culture sees culture as the end product of learning, which is knowledge (Goodenough, 1964, p. 36). Thus, a person will act or interpret experiences in the manner they are accustomed to. This applies to when they are learning and use a foreign language. Geertz (1973) observed that based on Semiotic theory of culture, a person will also follow their culture, which has also been described a s system of publicly shared symbols and meanings. Such description of culture allows understanding the construction of meaning by integrating signs and words. Like culture, Monteil (2019) observed that language is also a system of semiotic system socially constructed due to shared experience that brings meanings of a language. According to Halliday (1975) and Geertz (1973), language is the most representative symbol of human thoughts. It is used to express one’s experience, social and psychological. Thus, language signifies a link between the social and cultural experiences of a person with their thoughts. They see language as a psychological tool that transform a human ability and skills to higher mental functions, including sign and language system.

The theories discussed here show a link between language and its representation of the cultural background and experiences of those learning and teaching. According to the linguistic relativity theory, language represents an interpretation of reality and influences thoughts about reality (Lucy, 1997). Language as a cultural tool impacts the manner in which a person thinks (Gumperz & Levinson, 1991). This means that language and culture are inseparable and can determine interaction between people (Zhu, 2014). However, the relationship between language and culture is not less complex. Risager (2008) observed that there is a culture in each language, and any cultural aspect that is not related with a language is ignored. Risager (2006) observed that they are interwoven where culture includes language that cannot ne conceived without culture.

When read with the current research area, it is, thus, reasonable to assume that the cultural background of the teachers or the students will define their communication style, in terms of learning English as a second language. However, unlike the social approach, interpretive approach presents human behaviour to be unpredictable and creative (Sadri & Flammia, 2011). According to this approach, an intercultural communication teacher or a learner, if they are taken as an interpretive researchers, will directly involve with the community they are studying and form close relations with them. Hence, they describe culture and do not predict behaviour by seeking to find and describe communication patterns in a holistic approach. A question is approach to find the meaning to a member of a community (Sadri & Flammia, 2011). For example, when forming a virtual community in a Japanese social set up, self-disclosure through stories and memories occupy an important element to become part of such community (Sadri & Flammia, 2011).

In accordance with these approaches to understanding intercultural communication, it could be considered that a message could be interpreted subject to how a person perceives it (Poutiainen, 2014). Such perception is dependent on the cultural background or understanding of the cultural background of the person. In this light, perception could be described as occupying an important part in attributing meaning to communicative intent of a person (Poutiainen, 2014). According to Reception Theory, an author attempts to communicate their intention. However, how the communication is perceived is subject to what the reader makes of it. This means the communication will have different effect and meaning depending on the type of the readers (Machor & Goldstein, 2001). Limaye (2000: 27) further states that the human perception is selective and so the reality is only partially perceived. There is, therefore, a diverse form of perception in intercultural communication (Limaye, 2000).

Perception is the way a person consider, understand and interpret interactional practices and behaviours of other in regard to the own cultural norms, practices and values (Poutiainen, 2014). Perceptions are interpretations of behaviours relative to participants’ own expectation of appropriate behaviours (Poutiainen, 2014). Thorne (2003) observes perceptions encompass an attitudinal attribution about others. Thus, in an intercultural situation, there are clashes in expectations of behavioural rules and norms. This may lead to misconceptions about other groups involved. Hence, there is a gap between the communicative intention and addressee interpretation, which may lead to serious consequences. In this context, it is to be noted of what Thorne (2003) observed, which is that higher order cognitive functions such as intentional memory are developed by participating in social practices, including learning and use of semiotic systems, such as spoken languages. As such, social practices occupy an important role in shaping intentional memory. Intercultural communication must, therefore, consider intercultural sensitivities and perceptions so as to develop intercultural competence with a view to provide intercultural interactions. In such communication, there must be an understanding of the processes governing delivering and reading messages in context to communication between people belonging to different cultures. Therefore, when Zarrinabadi (2017 studied intercultural communication in Iran, she realised that Iranian participants had the belief that such communication must enhance cohesion among different communities, groups and cultural systems. This perception is influenced by Islamic virtues of equality among all human beings (Zarrinabadi, 2017).

Perception of teachers and students

Jokikokko (2010) conducted a study on teachers’ intercultural learning and competence. He found that teachers generally perceive their own intercultural learning as a holistic approach. Jokikokko and Uitto (2017) observed that teachers adopt both formal and informal learning processes and a strong emotional work experiences in a diverse context has led to development of intercultural competences. However, even though they have high motivation for intercultural motivation and high level of competence regarding intercultural competence, they have weaker intercultural performance (Jokikokko & Uitto, 2017). The reason may lie with what Acquah (2015) identified that of lack of identity development that would have otherwise influence knowledge and diversity in a positive manner towards diversity; and lack of abilities to use students’ culture and language and link them with classroom instruction (Acquah, 2015).

This inability to deliver intercultural performance could also be seen in the internationalisation of classroom where, as Benjamin and Alemanji (2017) argued that the notion of internationalisation is used to signify privilege instead of multicultural education; or the Anglo-centric approach to set up native English speaking staff in international schools (Benjamin & Alemanji, 2017). Such dominance of a Western educator perspective may lead to otherness and harm diversity perspective (Bourn, 2020). Not only that, there will bound to occur a conflict between the perceptions of the language teachers and that of the students where they bring to the classroom different sociocultural backgrounds and educational experiences, norms and expectations, which they believe to be conducive to language learning. In this light, Dogancay-Aktuna (2005) suggested incorporation of sociocultural awareness into teacher education in order to enable teacher make informed sociocultural decisions. Intercultural communication when integrated with methodology training can produce greater awareness of sociocultural relevance and facilitate teachers to reflect on their perceptions regarding target learners (Dogancay-Aktuna, 2005). This leads to the need for an intercultural communicative competence in English language teaching. Kusumaningputri and Widodo (2018) conducted a classroom-based study covering uses of digital photograph-mediated intercultural tasks in order to promote critical intercultural awareness amongst students. They found that the mentioned tasks helped the enhancement of the students’ critical awareness of cultural realities, which were portrayed in the online photographs (Kusumaningputri & Widodo, 2018). Such skills are needed in language teachers who could use effective culturally-laden learning resources.

Practices of intercultural communication awareness comprises an alignment between teachers’ perception and the students’ perception. The competence of intercultural communication in regard to teachers’ ability focuses on appealing to students’ cultural background. The works of Jokikokko and Uitto (2017) and Acquah (2015) mentioned earlier have demonstrated this aspect. The alignment means that the curriculum must use students’ culture and practices, which further means that the perception of students regarding intercultural communicate must be understood and incorporated. Thus, Phan (2020) observed that the American and British cultures do not provide for insufficient preparation for the intercultural communication conducive for engagement of learners. They recommended to integrate students’ cultures into teaching content as a way to develop students' intercultural awareness.

The student perception about intercultural communication is influenced by their home culture. This is found in a study by Liu and Fang (2017) in their study covering the perceptions of English language learners and awareness of home culture that influence social practices of intercultural communication. They observed that conceptualising home culture is a key topic in intercultural communication. They found that perceptions and awareness of home culture of students play a critical role in negotiating with foreign speakers. This is given the context of a widespread use of English, which brings the dominance of Anglophone cultures in intercultural communication. Liu and Fang (2017) found that home culture challenges the dominance of Anglophone cultures and hence recommended integration between home culture and other cultures in the English language curriculum (Liu & Fang, 2017).

It is not only the home culture that influences the perception of learners about intercultural communication. This is specifically relevant with motivation of learners regarding intercultural communication. Noels et al. (1999) found that perception of students about their teachers also impacts their intrinsic motivation. When students perceive teachers as controlling in the classroom and also critical regarding feedback, such perception decrease their intrinsic motivation. When teacher supports learners’ autonomy regarding learning, there is a positive intrinsic motivation, which is not the case when students are left with lesser control over their learning environment (Noels, et al., 1999).

Enhancing intercultural communication awareness

Baker (2011) provided the three levels of development of intercultural communication awareness: basic cultural awareness, advanced cultural awareness, and intercultural awareness. Thus, a conscious understanding of one’s own culture starts the intercultural communication awareness, which will enable them understand the impact of culture on behaviour, beliefs, values and communication (Cheng, et al., 2019). It enables articulation of cultural perspective and comparative interpretation between cultures. This will lead to understanding the complex characteristics of a culture in interaction with other cultures. Cheng and colleagues (2019) describes culture as fluid, dynamic and relative and advanced cultural awareness comprises understanding this characteristics with specific knowledge of other culture. Thus, intercultural awareness will involve viewing a culture not only as bounded entity, but also the ability to negotiate between different cultural frames of reference (Cheng, et al., 2019). The levels of development and the complexity associated with intercultural awareness are applicable to learning and teaching a foreign language. As Kankaanranta and Salminen (2013) and Vu (2019) observed earlier, learning English needs references to the intercultural component where a critical cultural awareness contributes to intercultural communication. The social dimension and psychological dimension in regard to the impact of culture must be respected in developing intercultural communication awareness.

Understanding intercultural communication and being aware of it requires an environment conducive to learning. Deriving from the observation made by Duff & Uchida (1997) and Newmark and Asante (1976) earlier, communication between the teachers and students and between students holds the key to raise awareness of intercultural awareness. The work of Yang (2015) demonstrated this aspect when Yang used a translation project on Aboriginal culture to study the intercultural communication and understanding. Yang formed an interactive-based student engagement learning approach where social constructive theories were combined with practices. Yang found that student once acquired understanding of cross-linguistics differences have an enhanced intercultural awareness with meaningful communication and autonomy over the learning process (Yang, 2015). This is particular important when global mobility exposes people to multiple linguistic and cultural background. From the perspective of seeing English as a lingua franca, intercultural awareness is important such multilingual communication where culture is integrated with English language teaching. This promotes a higher mutual intelligibility (CROWTHER & COSTA, 2017). Mutual intelligibility is the common meaning and shared interests between people for understanding each other (Baldwin, et al., 2014 ).

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