STUDENT:

SUSANA MARTÍNEZ GAYTÁN

SUBJECT:

ENGLISH IN THE COMMUNITY

CHAPTER:

UNIT I: LANGUAGE AND CULTURE.

UNIT II: LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL IDENTITY

TEACHER:

RAYMEL ANDRÉS CARBAJAL TRUJILLO

ASSIGNMENT:

REFLECTION

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VO.BO.
 UNIT I: LANGUAGE AND CULTURE.
UNIT II: LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
Reflection

Language is a means by which human beings communicate with each other and in which it has accompanied us
from our origins. The human being is designed by nature to live in a group, which makes language a necessity
for coexistence and for existing in society. Each culture has its own thoughts, customs, ideologies of a collective
consciousness by which each one is delimited. “Culture is a problematic term… Collins Concise Dictionary
offers the following definitions:

1. The total of inherited ideas, beliefs, values and knowledge that constitute the shared foundations of social
action.

2. The full range of activities and ideas of a people.

3. A particular civilization in a particular period.

4. The artistic and social searches, expressions and tastes valued by a society or class.

5. The enlightenment or refinement that results from these searches.

6. The cultivation of plants to improve stocks or produce new ones.

7. The breeding and reproduction of animals, esp. with a view to improving tension ”(Hockly, N. Madrid, D,
2010)

Each culture has its own characteristics, so the language is adapted to each one of them. And you are seeing
more and more watering the sculpture itself and it is transmitted from generation to generation, thus generating
a cultural identity.

Language is the vehicle for transmitting cultural knowledge and at the same time an instrument for the
knowledge and acquisition of culture, so we understand that in order to know a language sufficiently, for the
development of good linguistic competence, it is necessary to acquire a certain cultural competence of the
community that uses that language. (Cervantes, 2020).

Enchanting the teaching of a second language is essential to know and understand the environment that
surrounds the students, since we must be aware that all of them have a worldview of the world along with their
attitudes towards learning a second language. “Adaskouet a /. (1990).
They suggest distinguishing between four separate senses of culture. These are the aesthetic sense, the
sociological sense, the semantic sense and the pragmatic sense. " (Hockly, N. Madrid, D, 2010); In my
opinion, culture determines the way in which students will show interest in developing their language skills in
SLA. In the sociological sense, I believe that it is important to understand that you didn’t great working on their
way of thinking influences a large percent age one the motivation of students to grow at an educational level.

Find the semantic sense I understand that the semantic sense causes each of us to give a meaning to the words
and the context they refer to. This point is important to consider since we must be aware that the students have a
semantic sense perhaps different from ours and it is often difficult to establish adequate communication to
transmit knowledge.

And finally, the pragmatic sense, in teaching a second language, the pragmatic sense is important in terms of the
meanings and uses and customs of the culture where we are, just as it is also important to introduce students to
the culture of the language that is being taught so that they can have a rough pragmatic sense of it.
"Edward Sapir, German anthropologist, student of Native American languages and professor at Yale
University argued that: No two languages are similar enough to be considered as representatives of the same
social reality." (The role of culture within the learning of a foreign language, 2020), in my personal case it
is difficult to meet the academic objectives established since my students are of indigenous origin and who
come with a Tzotzil mother tongue, and very few They have 100% knowledge of Spanish, this hinders teacher-
student communication, which causes slow progress, according to the cited author, the pragmatic sense that they
bring is very different, the Spanish language of most of the students just leaves becoming familiar with it, so in
each session of the English class they have to deal with the worldview of three cultures.

“Clarke (1996: 11) also offers what he calls 'three basic categories' for discussing culture in terms
that are relevant to ELT. These are i) culture as content, ii) high culture and iii) cultural practice or behavior.

 The first category includes' knowledge about food, clothing, weather, chain stores, newspapers,
pop stars, politicians, etc. '(ibid: 11),
 The second category includes what is often referred to as culture with a capital C, which is the art and
literature associated with the language.
 The third category includes linguistic behavior, and Clarke (ibid: 11) elaborates on this as follows: This
includes obvious characteristics such as ritual behavior, courtesy systems, but extends for example to
taking turns in conversations and meetings, and speech conventions of certain discursive communities
and their genres ”(Hockly, N. Madrid, D, 2010) Many times there is confusion regarding the third
 category since the use and custom of each culture is different and each one has its principles about the
same while for a culture there is the same phrase but a certain situation such as good night, in another
culture there are different ways of saying good night in terms of the formality of the phrase. For Geertz,
culture is external to the individual "embodied in public symbols … through which members of a
society communicate their worldview, value orientations, values, and all the rest to each other"
(Ortner 1984: 129) The General Survey of Aspects of Foreign Language Teacher Training, in its
Marburg Final Report (UNESCO, 1986), expressly states: “Understanding between peoples and peace in
the world depend largely on the ability of men to communicate among themselves. Them in a
constructive way. Language teachers have, therefore, the very special opportunity to contribute to the
achievement of one of the most important goals of Humanity.

”This trust placed in the L2 teacher seems to require the delimitation of the objectives appropriate to promote
such understanding from the cultural connections that it can transmit together with the language it teaches; for
this purpose, perhaps the methodological orientation and the elaboration of e concrete proposals to be used
”(Hockly, N. Madrid, D, 2010)“

Some texts are of excessive and some complex literariness; This type of text, obviously, will not be helpful to
the L2 learner for his functional or communicative learning, ready would constitute a task selection or
forecasting problem; in this case, the student should be warned about the convenience and appropriateness of
certain uses, not suitable for everyday communication. " (Cervantes, 2020). Whatever the type of text
-literary, journalistic, functional, etc.- that we use to develop an activity or class task, an effective reading
comprehension is necessary prior to any methodological orientation of teaching practice. For each word, each
sentence, is the product of a different culture.

Together with a particular vision and conception of the world, everyone who learns a foreign language must be
aware that:

a) A foreign language cannot be translated word for word; all languages have idiomatic expressions that have
connotations beyond the meaning of each of their constituent parts;

b) the intonation with which a phrase is said is loaded with meaning;

c) each language is accompanied by a different mimicry, according to what you want to express; d) each
language has a different grammar;

e) there are taboo terms in every language;

f) there are rules for addressing people (Dunnet: 148) or for certain situations. : (The role of culture within the
learning of a foreign language, 2020) It is in the process of confronting the mother tongue with the foreign
language when the student will begin to understand the culture of others, as well as to evaluate their own. The
new acquired culture, as he perceives it, will serve as an intersection point between L2 and the revision of Ll, of
his own experience, from another perspective. Speaking of cultural identity. "We can see how the labels
that individuals use to identify their ethnicity and membership can tell us a lot about how they see
themselves." (Hockly, N. Madrid, D, 2010) and how they see themselves, implies self-worth and real
awareness of their own intellectual capacities, and although they may have a good capacity, if the students
themselves do not see it or They believe it is very difficult for them to overcome academic challenges. "
… the notion of categorizing people in ways that they themselves have not devised." (Hockly, N. Madrid,
D, 2010). It is important to note that teachers must eliminate from our vision the cataloging of students with
stereotypes that only hinder communication and delays our work, since many times I have observed that
teachers box students with certain stereotypes that take away their motivation to teach and the whole course
returns a tedious work. Therefore we must find a way to attract the student and sell our "product"
and make it attractive, and also generate in the student a mental change of themselves, being in addition to
teachers of an L2, a personal group couch class.

“Kramsch (1998: 128) as" the need for a person to belong to a group and be independent from that group
&quot.

…She continues: Members of a cultural group should feel respected and unaffected by their autonomy, pride,
and self-sufficiency (negative side). They also need to be reinforced in their view of themselves as educated,
considerate and respectful members of their culture (positive side). ” (Hockly, N. Madrid, D, 2010)

I conclude with these words from Kramsch (1988: 77), about cultural identity that “…. It can be seen as the
most sensitive indicator of the relationship between an individual and a given social group '. The signs and
symbols that we use in the construction of our identities are complex and easily misinterpreted even within our
own speaking community. Yes, as teachers, we train our students to become effective intercultural
communicators, sensitize them to the complexity of problems and the need to understand more linguistic
systems.
 REFERENCES

 Hockly, N. Madrid, D. Elements of Sociolinguistics IEXPRO anthology Mexico. Chiapas, 2010

 Cervantes, B. (2020). Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. Retrieved 15 November 2020, from
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com

 Ayora Esteban, M. C. (2011). Diversidad lingüística y cultural en un ámbito educativo de lenguas en

contacto. Pragmalingüística, (18), 30-52. https://doi.org/10.25267/Pragmalinguistica.2017.i25

 C.E.L.E.-U.NA.M. (2020). El papel de la cultura dentro del aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera [Ebook].