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<\/p>\nAna Carolina Calil, Brazil<\/b><\/p>\n
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English has come to be a global language. Nobody would deny that. However, what does it mean and what does it take for a language to reach this status? According to David Crystal (1997, 2): \u201cA language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country\u201d.<\/p>\n
There are around 350 million first-language speakers of English and just as many speakers of English as a second language. English has become the language of business, science, government, international communications and tourism. Speaking English became a synonym of status. In the words of the editor of the Oxford English dictionary: \u201c\u2026 any literate educated person is in a very real sense deprived if he does not know English\u201d (Burchfield, 1985).<\/p>\n
As a typical middle-class Brazilian kid, I was ten years old the first time I set foot in an English classroom and seventeen when I took my first proficiency exam, and not once was the reason for my studies explained to me. I remember being dragged to class because we HAD TO learn English. It would be important for my future, whatever that meant. So, like many other children of the nineties, I spent part of my week amongst books and cassette tapes which showed a culture I knew nothing of and couldn\u2019t get myself to relate to. When I look back, I can still remember my first textbooks \u201cTouchdown\u201d and \u201cSam on radio 321\u201d, and how little they reflected my interests and culture. I can still sing most of the \u201cGrammar Chants\u201d, \u201cJazz Chants\u201d and \u201cMuzzy\u201d songs.<\/p>\n
I have fond memories of those days: my teachers were caring and I did learn enough so that when my family sent me away for high school in the United States, I didn\u2019t feel my language skills let me down at any time. Nevertheless, what nobody had prepared me for was to deal with another culture. No one had told that my very Brazilian lace up bikinis might be the source of embarrassment in the pool, or that taking my customary three showers a day would be considered a waste of water and money. I could go on giving other examples, but the point is that, now, I find myself in front of the classroom and, after being a teacher for fifteen years, I still think we don\u2019t teach our students what matters most. We insist on artificial dialogues and meaningless cultural tips, failing our students every step of the way.<\/p>\n
According to Brown (2007), \u201cCulture is a way of life. It is the context within which we exist, think, feel, and relate to others. It is the \u2018glue\u2019 that binds a group of people together\u201d. Nevertheless, we can\u2019t reduce the study of culture to public representations of this way of life, in other words, we can\u2019t reduce it to holidays, celebrations, \u201cexotic\u201d curiosities and \u201cfun facts\u201d. In order to understand, respect and discuss the aspects that led a group of people to act the way they do, we should stop swimming in shallow waters and immerse in the other culture in a way as to promote meaningful interaction and, therefore, meaningful communication. As Hall (1959) said: \u201cCulture is communication and communication is culture\u201d. \u00a0Hence, the way in which we communicate and convey meaning is deeply rooted in our culture. Language and culture are, in all counts, inseparable.<\/p>\n
Bringing culture into a classroom that is already culturally diverse by essence raises issues that teachers may not be prepared to deal with, for there is no college course or internship that prepares a teacher to deal with every possible source of conflict that may arise in the classroom. The problem is that there is no ready-made formula. Every student brings to the classroom their own values, beliefs, anxieties and expectations that, combined with the teacher\u2019s own values, beliefs and expectations, may generate a number of different responses.<\/p>\n
In English as Second Language (ESL) classrooms, teachers play the role of culture brokers, which gives them the added responsibility of representing the other culture without reinforcing stereotypes or emitting biased opinions. According to Brown (2007, 190-1) \u201cIn the bias of our own culture-bound worldview, we too often picture other cultures in an oversimplified manner, lumping cultural differences into exaggerated categories, and then view every person in a culture as possessing stereotypical traits\u201d. A teacher who doesn\u2019t have proper awareness of how different cultures and identities should be addressed in the classroom could easily turn the language class into a place in which prejudice is translated into words and actions rather than a place that fosters mutual respect and tolerance.<\/p>\n
Over the years, I have seen a shift from books that showed a foreign culture to books that, in the attempt of catering for \u201cthe global market\u201d, started picturing a neutralized culture that doesn\u2019t truly resemble the complexity of any culture at all. The culture of these books is a culture that doesn\u2019t belong to anybody. It\u2019s the \u201cBBC English\u201d equivalent of cultures: it is neutral, it doesn\u2019t offend anyone and it aims at representing every continent at once by featuring characters from different countries, texts that oversimplify a given festival or footnotes with culture tips. The mass production of textbooks that aim solely at making profit at the expense of students who are eager to learn the lingua franca only reinforces the stereotype and widens the gap between cultures. The multicultural textbook that was supposed to empower each individual\u2019s particular culture has turned into a parade of stereotypes and a bland amalgam of old clich\u00e9s. \u00a0It is adamant that ESL textbooks contemplate diversity in all its forms. If the textbook treats culture as a superficial issue and brings it as a \u201cside dish\u201d, that is exactly the role it will play in the learning experience and, subsequently, in communication. If we spoon-feed our students bland culture, we are denying them the opportunity of making the leap into the other culture and creating meaningful connections.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, we cannot conceive any attempt of separating language and culture. Studying a foreign language was, for a long period, the study of \u201cthe language of others\u201d and \u201cthe culture of others\u201d. Nevertheless, as the communicative approach came into the ELT scene, it brought the idea that acquiring a foreign language means making that language your own and using it in contexts in which there is meaningful communication. In the words of Brown ( 2007) \u201c\u2026culture is a deeply ingrained part of the very fiber of our being, but language \u2013 the means for communication among members of a culture \u2013 is the most visible and available expression of that culture\u201d.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, it is the duty of applied linguists, teachers, researchers and material producers to ensure that the world cultures are not given lukewarm status in the foreign language classroom. We need to use the results of linguistic research to ensure better results to our students, because \u201c\u2026 to work with language is to necessarily intervene in the reality in which it is part of\u201d (Rajagopalan 2013). A call for action is in place.<\/p>\n
References<\/strong><\/p>\n Brown, H. D.2007. Principles of language learning and teaching.<\/em> White Plains: Pearson Longman.<\/p>\n Crystal, D. 1997. English as a global language<\/em>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n Damen, L. 1987. Culture learning: the fifth dimension in the language classroom<\/em>. Reading: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.<\/p>\n Phillipson, R. 1992. Linguistic imperialism. <\/em>Oxford: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n Hall, E. T. 1959. The Silent Language.<\/em>Garden City: Doubleday.<\/p>\n Rajagopalan, K. 2013. Por uma lingu\u00edstica cr\u00edtica: linguagem, identidade e a quest\u00e3o \u00e9tica. <\/em>4th ed. S\u00e3o Paulo: Par\u00e1bola Editorial.<\/p>\n Ana Carolina Calil, Brazil English has come to be a global language. Nobody would deny that. However, what does it mean and what does it take for a language to reach this status? According to David Crystal (1997, 2): \u201cA language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized … Continue reading Bland Culture<\/span>
\n\r\nAna Carolina Calil is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics at University of Bras\u00edlia (UnB). She also has a Non-degree Graduate Course in English and a \u00a0Licensure in Language Arts - Portuguese\/English. Ana has been an EFL teacher for 15 years, having worked in schools and language institutes. She is from Uberaba, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.<\/span><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"