Abstract

Language has been part of human evolution and it has been said that it helped in human survival
as to the fact  that human is a social being then communication through utilization of language
either verbal or non-verbal is innate to us. It is definite that language is vital with our
development  and it is a long part of our evolution as humans, this is the fact we hold as we
absolutely affirm that language as means of communication makes everything possible and even
crucial in creating human culture and society. Accordingly, the emergence of language is the
turning point in the change of modern humans. It was an upheaval that radically made the
character of human society. The origin of language is still a far greater puzzle for many
philosophers, linguists, and even biologists but the crucial idea that is mutual to the minds of
these experts is that language is a quintessential human trait. However, the question of how
language is innate to human is left hanging, for Chomsky a renowned linguist believed that
human learn language almost effortlessly, all children everywhere develop language in very
similar ways in a short period of time with little assistance because this said linguist argued that
there is universal grammar where it explains that human beings are born in the innate
understanding of how language works. This also contains the idea that we can acquire language
because we are genetically encoded with a universal grammar, a basic understanding of how
communication is structured. 

Emergence of language is the most important sphere of culture because it is a big essence in
shaping human culture. Communication is the core component of society and we use any means
of language and so it begins to develop that eventually becomes an important aspect in making
different cultural communities which clearly comprehend that language is responsible for
constructing different cultural backgrounds of people.To further explain this human as a social
being would really find ways in connecting other through communication and the primary and
only thing we have for it to happen is to use language and so with this it essential in building
relationships and makes a sense of community and through this it would be easy to have and
create varieties of culture as long as human constantly and continuously interact with each other
any simple action, thing, and many more could be named as a culture of a certain group or
community of people in the society. So one simple thought that we can understand is that
language is pivotal in molding culture that eventually led to  diversity of culture as there are also
different languages, so to interpret this with different languages all over the world, every one of
it signifies a different culture, one language is equivalent to one culture. According to research
there are roughly 7,100 spoken languages in the world today, so that implies that culture must be
a lot as to how many languages we have in our world, to put it the diversity of culture is the same
as how languages are complicated as to its number.   

Schumann’s Acculturation Model Theory

This theory explains that learning another language is very possible and easy if we immerse
ourselves in the culture of that language's culture. This theory has nothing to do in dealing with
the process of language learning, specifically learning the grammar structure and different
linguistic elements; however its focus is the social and psychological aspects that are relevant in
learning a language. The main takeaway of this theory is that language is attainable due to
sociological factors and that the more we involve ourselves to different cultures the more we
could associate our own language with it and it would be easy to learn that language coming
from such culture. For instance, a Filipino visitor to Japan will acquire Japanese language
through seeing the similarities of Japanese culture to the Filipino culture and by then it is easy
for that Filipino to learn the Japanese language. So being exposed to others' culture and learning
the similarities it has to your own culture is a facile method in learning another language. 

The naturalistic and untutored way of acquiring a second language or just learning another
language according to Schumann is a by-product of acculturation, which is defined by him as
"the social and psychological integration of the learner with the target language”. As to the term
“acculturation” it is defined as a process of cultural contact and exchange through which a
person or group comes to adopt certain values and practices of a culture that is not originally
their own, to a greater or lesser extent. So acculturation is key in learning language as this is
proposed by Schumann. So obviously we can get the idea in theory that language learning is also
part of acculturation as this is the result of wanting to acquire language that we must expose
ourselves to the culture of where that language originated and so the outcome is that we also
endup acculturating ourselves.  

Factors of Acquiring a Language

In this theory Schumann includes two important influences in learning language is the social and
psychological distance from the person’s origin culture to the target language’s origin culture, so
having a big difference or distance with your own culture in terms of social and psychological
aspect then you would have a hard time to learn other’s language. 

Social distance

There are eight factors that can influence the social distance between your culture and to the
culture of which the target language originates.  

1. Social Dominance- When you are acquiring a language it is a big factor if your
originating culture is inferior to the culture of which that target language originates. For
instance, the host’s language is English and the guest’s language is African, so the picture
we have here is that we have an African person trying to learn the English language,
 English language is from the Americans and obviously American culture dominates
African culture because Americans are politically, economically and culturally superior
so this implicates that it would be very hard for this African person to learn English
language. So there should be an equal power between the originating culture of the host
and the guest in order to see similarities between the two cultures and by then it will be
easy to learn another language. 

2. Integration (Assimilation, Preservation, and Adaptation)- In integrating between your

culture and to the culture of where your target language originates you must choose
either of the three as an integration strategy. Assimilation gives up its own lifestyle and
values and adopts those of the target culture. Preservation is about preserving the
culture you have and not adopting the culture of the target language originating culture.
And for adaptation, it means you are going to adapt the lifestyle and values of the target
language originating culture. So the more there are integrational distance, the more it
would be hard to acquire a certain language from others. 

1. Enclosure- If the language learners are only enclosed to the group of their own culture
and have little interaction to the culture of the target language, then language learning
would be very hard to achieve. To better not be enclosed, the language learner should
be exposed to the culture of the target language through sharing the same institution
and social organizations such school, workplace, social clubs, and even churches to
better have more interaction and so acquiring the language will be facilitated.

2. Cohesiveness- Having a tight bond of the group of language learners means there is
tight cohesiveness and this implies that chances of the language acquisition would be
hard and it also means more social distance. While being cohesive in the group of
natives of the target language then it would have less of a social distance that indicates
high chances of language learning. 

3. Size - If the group of the language learners is bigger in size this leads to a social distance
between the group of the natives of the target language, it denotes a less interaction and
exposure, so language acquisition is not achievable.  

4. Congruence- This refers to having similarities between the culture of the language
learner and the native of the target language which implies that social distance will be
less and acquiring the language is very possible. Social contact would be easy having a
similar culture and with this language learning is more likely facilitated.

5. Attitude- Language learners having a positive attitude towards the group of the natives
of the target language would have a good social interaction and that will lead to a less
social distance and so language learning would be easy.
 6. Intended length of residence- Time spent in the environment or place of the native of
the target language will be a big factor of language learning, language learner that spent
more time possibly by years, language acquisition will definitely happen. So intending to
learn a language should have a long intended period of time for effective language
learning and a less social distance.

To sum up the thought towards the aforesaid factors, the great social distance between the
language learners and the target language speakers and culture deeply affects their
acculturation, and hence their language acquisition. So it should be set to have a less social
distance in order to achieve effective and easier learning situations for the language learners. 

Psychological Distance

According to Schumann Psychological aspect is included as a distance that serves as factors

for the language acquisition.  There are three factors that determine Psychological distance and
these are motivation, language shock, and culture shock.

Motivation- Language acquisition requires a high level of motivation in order to fully achieve the
goal of learning a specific language, the motivation of the language learner should be more of a
self oriented reasons so that they will have a strong will to acquire the target language so
reasons could be to have a career, opportunities, and to earn more money through knowing the
target language. So more likely high motivation is equivalent to less Psychological distance and
a great chance for language acquisition.   

Language Shock- The degree to which speaking the new language makes the learner feel
foolish or comical specially if the language’s sound is weird or funny for the language learner it
would be strange for them and they could see a big difference from the target language to their
own native language. Thus, Psychological distance will be present and language acquisition will
be hard to attain.

Cultural Shock-  Since we are not only talking about language acquisition in this theory, we
imply that language learning is also an acculturation process so the  extent to which the learner
feels disoriented and uncomfortable with extended residence in a new culture is what we refer
to as culture shock. It could also be that the learner sees the big difference between the culture
of their own and the culture of the community of the target language and this could cause
Psychological distance. 

Conclusion

With the theory of the linguist John Schumann the Acculturation model which he proposed in the
year 1978 definitely shows the relationship between culture and language, through this theory
we comprehend that learning language also means acculturating yourself to the culture of the
community of the target language. Also we see that variables play roles in language acquisition
where we primarily have the Social and Psychological distance that may hinder the said
acquisition. As to the relationship between culture and language we refer to this as a
subordinate relationship, which the languages are under the cultural sphere. Language and
culture are the two systems that are attached in human life. If culture is a system that regulates
the human interaction in society, the language will be a system that serves as a means of the
interaction ongoing. As long as you have the will to learn another language you will possibly
have an unconscious or conscious mind with the thought of the process of learning the
language requires you to be acculturated through being immersed to the culture of the
community of the natives of the target language.