Language and Culture:

Interculturalism in Second
Language Education
Lecture 2

Dr S.Umrani
 Overview
•  Understanding Language and Culture

•  Relationship between language and culture

•  Language and culture are integral parts of human life

•  Culture influences people’s language and

•  Language and culture influence each other

•  Acculturation Model

•  What is interculturalism and how it may be

implemented in second language learning
 Let’s first understand what is
language and what is culture
•  Culture is defined as gathered ideas,
beliefs, morals, customs, laws, and
traditions. Culture is a part of every
human being. The way they live, their
social interactions, attitudes, wisdom,
or generally their perception of the life,
altogether represent their culture.
 Language
•  Language is defined as an element of culture
which plays a very important and vital role
in daily life. Language allows people to
communicate with each other in meeting
their needs. Thus, it can also be defined as a
communication tool. Language is defined as
the ability to acquire and utilize a complex
system of communication, particularly the
human ability to do so, and a language is a
specific example of such a system.
•  The way people talk, express their ideas, present their
arguments, use their vocabulary and generally convey
their message offer an insight into their culture.

•  Proverbs and idioms

•  Language is verbal expression of culture

•  Hence, each language carries with it a culture

•  ‘Learning a language without the cultural framework in

which it exists is like cooking ethnic food without the
spices of the region. You simply will remove all of the
flavor from the language’. (A blog)
Relationship between Language and
Culture
•  Witherspoon (1980: 2) advocates that language and
culture are highly interrelated and proposed that
“cultures cannot be studied without attention to the
native languages spoken within them, …languages
cannot be studied in isolation from the cultures in
which they are spoken.”

•  The relationship between language and culture is

deeply rooted, as language is used to maintain and
convey culture.
 Culture and SLL
•  Learning a new language is like learning an entirely
new culture behind it.

•  Example of learning English

•  Language minus culture is language learning

without ‘Communicative Competence’ (Hymes,
1966) êêê
•  It refers to a language user's grammatical knowledge
as well as knowledge about how and when to use
utterances appropriately.
 Schumann’s (1978)
Acculturation Model
•  It provides a valuable context theory toward second
language acquisition.

•  His research argues that social and psychological

distance between the second language learner and
the target language community is a major factor in
determining the degree to which the language
learner will acquire the target language.

•  Eight variables of this model

•  1) Social dominance: When the English Language
Learning (ELL) group is politically, culturally,
technically, or economically superior to the target
language (TL) group, then it will tend not to learn
the target language. On the other hand, if the ELL
group is inferior to the TL group, they may resist
learning the target language.
•  2) Assimilation, preservation, and adaptation: If
the ELL group chooses assimilation as the
integration strategy, it gives up its own lifestyle and
values and adopts those of the TL group. Similarly,
preservation means that the ELL group maintains its
own lifestyle and values and rejects those of the TL
group. Adaptation means that the ELL group adapts
to the lifestyle and values of the TL group, but
maintains its own lifestyle and values for intragroup
use.
• 
•  3) Enclosure: Enclosure refers to the degree to
which the ELL group and TL group share the same
social constructs such as schools, churches, clubs,
recreational facilities, crafts, professions, and trades.
If the two groups share these social constructs,
enclosure is said to be low, and the L2 acquisition is
facilitated.

•  4) Cohesiveness: If the ELL group is cohesive, it

will tend to remain separate from the TL group.
•  5) Size: If the ELL group is large, the intragroup
contact will be more frequent than contact with the
TL group.
•  6) Congruence: If the two cultures are similar,
social contact is potentially more likely and L2
learning is more easily facilitated.
•  7) Attitude: If the ELL and TL groups have
positive attitudes toward each other, L2 learning is
more easily facilitated.
•  8) Intended length of residence: The longer an L2
learner plans to remain in the TL environment, the
more likely it is that they will feel the need to learn
the target language.
 What is Interculturalism?
 

•  Involves breaking down barriers of differences to allow

people to better understand, appreciate and respect other
cultures
•  Interchange of different cultural values, customs,
traditions and acceptance of other cultures and beliefs
•  Real integration between various cultures
•  The awareness of one’s self and acceptance of others
•  Understanding, embracing, and accepting others as they
are
•  Reinforces moving beyond the passive acceptance of
other cultures rather promotes dialogue and interaction
amongst cultures
 Bouchard (2011)

•  Interculturalism is a set of skills, which

allows real integration of traditions,
values and beliefs between cultures. It
emphasizes the idea of celebrating
diversity, which in turn enables
understanding, accepting and
embracing others as they are to break
down barriers for mutual appreciation.
 How to be intercultural?
•  Being intercultural does not only involve having
knowledge about the TL culture

•  it involves learning to understand how one’s own

culture shapes perceptions of oneself, of the world,
and of our relationship with others.

•  This means that in the language classroom it is not

just a question of learners developing knowledge
about another culture but of learners coming to
understand themselves in relation to some other
culture.
•  Engaging with linguistic and cultural diversity
•  The target language and culture and the learner’s
own language and culture are simultaneously present
and can be simultaneously engaged

•  ‘The goal of learning is to decentre learners from

their own culture-based assumptions and to develop
an intercultural identity as a result of an engagement
with an additional culture. Here the borders between
self and other are explored, problematised and
redrawn’

•  CulturalççççççèèèèèèIntercultural
 ‘Integration of cultures’
•  Taking an intercultural perspective in language
teaching and learning involves more than developing
knowledge of other people and places.

•  Effective intercultural learning therefore occurs as

the student engages in the relationships between the
cultures that are at play in the language classroom.

•  As languages educators, we know that what we can

teach in the classroom is inevitably only a partial
picture of a language and culture.
 Conclusion
•  ‘Intercultural language learning involves
developing with learners an understanding of
their own language(s) and culture(s) in
relation to an additional language and
culture. It is a dialogue that allows for
reaching a common ground for negotiation
to take place, and where variable points of
view are recognised, mediated, and
accepted’.
 That’s all!

Thank you
Your questions and comments please