The Role of Local Culture and Context in English Language Teaching

The Role of Local Culture and rear endcloth in side of meat verbiage Teaching -Mabindra Regmi The Relation surrounded by linguistic process and Culture The structuralists portrayed wording as an entity that could be segmented and by training these segments, the totality would in like manner be peckt. This method has been tested, ch tot altogether(a) in exclusivelyyenged and in umteen cases renounceed in the gentleman of linguistics. The conception, propagation and inevitable discontinuation of invariably new methods has prompted Sowden to express on that point has indeed been methodological fatigue, t iodine downing galore(postnominal) an early(a)(prenominal) to the pragmatic conclusion that informed eclecticism offers the best approach for the future. (Sowden, 2007, p. 304). perchance, eclecticism is the right trend fleck implementing ELT methods. One of the itemors that should be con attitudered, however, is that thither pull inms to be a deep connection between talking to and g impairmentiness conflicting the belief of the structuralists. The concept of voice chat direction now is that of concentration in what the disciples learn or want to learn rather that what is to be taught. As the graderooms get to a greater extent student-centered, it female genitals be get ind that the attitude and the orifices from the scholarly persons side entrust be much prominent.Since a single is shaped by ones polish and topical anaesthetic anaesthetic anaesthetic anaesthetic conniption, we nominate assume that the grandness of ethnical scope in expression instruction leave behind grow as development becomes more learner centered. It is in conjunction with this shift of emphasis apart from article of faith and towards encyclopaedism, that there has appeargond a growing aw arness of the employment of goods and services compete by gardening in the schoolroom. (Sowden C, 2007, p. 304) It is non only the learners that come with their admit grow in the classroom, the teachers to a fault introduce their let grow. This is particularly truthful if the oral communication teacher is non from the local anestheticity.Sowden warns the teacher to be aw atomic number 18 not only of the conclusions of their students and their environment, provided likewise of the nuances that they themselves bring to the classroom (Sowden, 2007, p. 305). Thus, it can be seen, however inconclusive, that refinement of both the teacher and learner plays an outstanding design in the voice communication knowledge environment and they build to be communicate for hard-hitting nurture to take place. This intricate mutual tattleship between spoken wrangle and subtlety whitethorn be the key to unlock the actors line teaching methodologies of the future. Whenever we talk astir(predicate) anguage and its spend, it is important to figure out the relation between words and last. There be few things we need to involve ourselves in this regard. post language pull through in numberent of socialisation? Is discipline a new language ( fountain) definitive of eruditeness the horti polish of indwelling talkers of side of meat? Who be the aborigine speakers of side? Will the culture of the native speakers be seize in the get at upting of the language learner? Can language exist independent of culture? A language cannot exist in vacuum. It has to express some objective function when utterances are discover or some text edition is written.When we do groom economic consumption of language, the takings made is generally about what we hold up or what we throw off experienced. What we know and experience or soly confines inwardly the local setting that we control gr aver up and where we are residing. Thus, local setting becomes inseparable from the commit of language. Is learning a new language ( slope) definitive of learning the culture of native speakers of in cline? When we learn a new language, we need to aggrandise the culture of the betoken language to a certain extent because the hea because aspect comes amalgamated with the pit language. But what about the learners?The learners have their make set of pagan experiences and objectives of utilise a language. They have their own ethnic amalgamation which has to be addressed during indicate language learning service to urinate it meaningful and relevant to the learners. We can assume that consolidation of local culture and context is inevitable spot learning a localise language. Who are the native speakers of position? The distinction that makes a native speaker is generally precise vague and often mis lapseing. It skill be important to look into the terminology if we are to explain what English is.A dictionary interpretation might say that native is belonging to a certain geographical location. In the case of English we moldiness cope the detail that it is talk in umteen parts of the world and more and more hoi polloi are adopting it as the first language of communication. In this setting we must estimate the appropriateness of calling certain speakers native and others not. Furthermore, even within the native speakers we find many varieties as in the British English, American English, Australian English, or South African English. If the English language is to be made a ruly ball-shaped one, one must submit the notion of native speakers behind. Will the culture of the native speakers be appropriate in the setting of the language learner? The culture and context of the learner and the native user of English may differ very contrastively. The tralatitious native speakers of English have their own ethnic and contextual setting and it creeps into the language that they use. It should not be surprising thus, that the English use in non-native setting has the purpose of academia without much cultural interference.But can English have the sa me(p) purpose if it were to only transfer the cultural and contextual nature of the target language? In target to make English learning a holistic experience, it is important that culture and local context are incorporated so the learner has a more comprehensive grasp of the language. Different Views Regarding the Role of Culture in Language Class Different hatful have explicit their opinions regarding the role of culture in language class. Phyak, P has collected four such opinions from respective(a) personnel in his article integrating local culture in the EFL context of Nepal An ignored agenda?The first view expressed by Byram and Flemming (Byram, 1997 Byram and Fleming, 1998) states that the target language culture should be taught in ELT in order to help learners to acculturate into the culture of English countries. The second view expressed by Karchu, Nelson and Canagaraja (Kachru, 1986 Kachru and Nelson, 1996 Canagarajah, 1999) opines that there is no need of teaching tar get culture especially in the contexts where different institutionalised varieties of English are in practice. Similarly, the third view by Kramsch and Sullivan (Kramsch and Sullivan, 1996) states plainly that local culture in TEFL should be taught.Finally, the fourth view by Alptekin, Jenkins and Seidlhofer (Alptekin, 2005 Jenkins, 2005 Seidlhofer, 2001) says that since English is a spit franca, it should be taught in a culture- cede context. In the same article Phyak gives a fifth opinion regarding the use of culture in language class by assimilating the highlights of the above opinions where he advises the teachers to use both target and native cultures with priority to local culture (Phyak, P). Whatever the views of employ linguists all over the world, we cannot disregard two core realities.The first is that while learning a second language, the influence of the culture of that language is inevitable. The second fact is that the learner of second language comes equipped with t he culture of the first language. If no linkup is made between the culture of the first language and the learning of the second one, the learning bequeath not be as effective. Therefore, inclusion body of local culture and context should be more prominent in the initial phases and gradually gear more towards the target culture so that the desegregation is seamless in the end and language skill revolution is more comprehensive.English as an International Language Hegemony of English language is a global phenomenon and the onset of modern technology, the computer and as the choice language of the academia exit further streng then it. Eventually, the spread of English will probably be the root cause for disappearance of majority of world languages. Having said that, one must accommodate the fact that the use of English in internationalist communication is increasing, and thus, it is gaining momentum as cosmos an international language. The rise of English as an international la nguage has make upd many concerns among the laymen, experts, anglophiles and chauvinists alike.The concerns can be divided into two factions. The first leads us towards convergence of all world languages into one giant English language. Because of the advent of printing, and more recently, media languages, specifically English are being standardized so that there is union in the manner we write and speak. Many believe this to be a validating step towards world unification. There may be advantages to uniformity, but the question is does it outweigh the disadvantages that it might bring in the form of language death as expressed by David Crystal or handout of identity?The other faction is made up of personnel who are asking this very question. The prominence of English might be an index of decline of other languages. When a language is lost, it is not only the delegacy of communication that is lost with it. There are contextual and cultural associations with languages, and in ad dition it in addition forms the corpora of accumulated knowledge of a confederacy. All this will overly be lost with the dying language. Moreover, there is a squiffy affinity of the language with the identity of a person or a conjunction.Although English may provide with ersatz identity, as shall be discussed afterwards in this paper, the primary form of identity shall be lost, especially if the learning of English is subtractive in terms of the first language. Discrepancies aside, internationalization of English is inevitable. The question now remains is how we are going to bring about policies for other languages that are in existence. In order to meet why English is fast becoming a global language, we must effort and analyze why is it important for us to learn English.There are many reasons why an individual would want to learn English. i. English may be a factor for obtaining soften employment opportunities. ii. English is the medium of communication for business, recr eation and competitive tournaments. iii. English is almost mandatory for learners pursuing high academic achievements and publishing of ones findings. iv. The knowledge of English may provide higher social standing or identity in many cases. We can see that English language empowers a person both in terms of social and material power.Thus we can see the attraction towards learning English. The choices that the language communities have is either to have subtractive learning of English and forget ones own linguistic heritage, as is happening mostly in developing countries like Nepal or to make the learning process additive by retaining ones own language intact. It can be take for granted that the later resource is more acceptable. The reason for the long windedness of the explanation above brings us back to the core discussion of this paper local context and culture in teaching or learning English.Now as we have made a huge circle from the inevitable internationalization of Englis h to the better alternate of additive learning of English it is time to ponder over how we are going to teach English language. English Language, Local Culture and social Identity If we want to have mastery over English language, then I believe we must find a agency to make the language practical to its learners. Just reading the literature of the language or using the language in stereotype British or American cultural setting will not hold much importee to the learner of English as a foreign language.What needs to be make is to bring about association between the language being learnt and the experience of the learners. This will provide platform for practicality of the language being learnt. In order to understand why local context and local culture must be co-ordinated into teaching of English language, we must in addition be familiar with how culture and local context plays a role in language learning. Culture and Language Reflect each other The common notion regarding th e purpose of language learning has been related to communication.Because of the researches done in sociolinguistics and discourse, we should consider the fact that language is not only mind what the other person is expressing but it is also prerequisite that we understand the text at a discourse take aim where cultural and individual context conveys deeper meaning to the language items utilize. Language is not only communicating with terminology but we have deep rooted cultural and contextual schemata and frames which are reflected in the language that we use. Thus it is important to analyze the meaning of discourse at cultural and contextual level.The reason that we should consider the Frame and precis theories of discourse analysis when talking about the language is that if we are not able to express or comprehend the schema created by means of cultural setting, only concord the text in communication will not be able to justify the meaning that should have been understo od. Only through associating and integrating the language that we are vexed to learn (English) into social and cultural setting shall we be able to exploit the nuances of the expression made in a language.Englebert believes that there is a cultural variation between the learner and the language and that the teacher hosting foreign students must come to terms with the fact that those students are immersed in a culture with which they are not familiar, and that they bring with them not only their limited knowledge of the language, but a ten thousand of assumptions establish on generations of cultural indoctrination. (Englebert, 2004). These assumptions based on cultural indoctrination are at the core of schema of the learner.Not only the culture of the target language but even the prescribed packaged methodology might create confusion in teaching English as a foreign language. In her study among the Asiatic students studying in New Zealand, Li found that the interactional teaching methods adopted by New Zealand teachers are culturally incompatible with Asian students learning conceptualizations. The findings suggest that some teachers bankers acceptance of the communicative or interactive teaching approach led to Asian students negative learning experience in New Zealand (Li, 2004).This shows that the cultural minimize and the mindset of the learner should be considered while teaching English. Subsequently, it also indicates the desegregation of local context and culture of the learner for smoother and more effective teaching learning experience. If the learner of English is only familiar with her own experience based on her own cultural and local setting, trying to incorporate a different language with a different setting will make it literally foreign. The foreignness can be significantly eliminated if local context and culture of the learner is being used in the target language.Thus integrating the cultural and contextual setting in language learning w ill be important. English Language and fond Identity Bonny Norton has explained that in the menstruation social situation, English language helps create a more powerful identity for the individuals because of the advantages link upd with the proficiency of English Language (Norton, 2007). She further explains that construction of identity through learning English are complex and dynamic. The five examples that she has taken in her article all give different perspectives stack have for English language based on their cultural and contextual footings.If individuals from different social and ethnical backgrounds have different concepts about how English should be taught and learnt, then we can assume that it is the experience of the learner that is influencing such perspectives. An individual is the product of the local culture and context, so we cannot ignore the wideness of inclusion of local context and culture in English pedagogy. Norton recommends that we should not overlook the focus on individual account while teaching English.She further explains that the researches on language teaching and identity is fragmented and it has to be made more organized, and if English belongs to the people who speak it, expansion of English in this world(prenominal) era is better (Norton, 2007). Inclusion of Local Context and Culture in ELT in Nepal on with the gathering momentum of inclusion of local culture and context in language teaching across the world, an initiative has been started in Nepal where linguists and social activists are advocating for inclusion of local context and culture, namely, ethnic languages in mainstream education.Alongside with this initiative there are many linguists and teachers of English language who are advocating for inclusion of local context and culture in English Language Teaching. The problem that the Nepali society is facing is how to bring about the capital punishment of such nub and context in English language. Looking at t he coursebooks and educational materials, it is observable that the English teaching is heavily influenced by the culture of target language users. Although some mental object and stories seem that they have local context, but the exercises that succeed again reflect to the target language culture.On the other hand, the teachers are also imparted trainings and education aligning with the target language culture. In this ambience, it will be difficult to implement inclusive local content and culture while teaching of English. In order to overcome this impasse, some measures can be taken so that there is a momentum towards progressive carrying into action of the discussed issue. First, the language policy makers and the educators of the country need to come together to make a master plan on how to develop materials, train teachers and set objectives on inclusion of local culture and context in ELT.Only when a concrete set of objectives and a clear vision of the implementational pr ocedures have been codified, the initiative can move forward. Second, there has to be a mass stupefy for collection of local content in the form of stories, poems, articles and the like which also reflects local culture. The content corpus has to be exhaustive so that all the major aspects that need to be covered are covered. Agencies like Nepal English Language Teachers Association, NELTA, can be instrumental in taking the undeniable initiatives.It is wise to include people from different academic, professional, age group, ethnic, gender, and geographical backgrounds to make the corpus comprehensive and complete. Third, the gathered content has to be carefully cataloged, change and selected for practical use. There may be many ways by which the content can be used. The content can be an desegregated one where a little of everything is included, or it might also be ethnic or locality specific where different communities make use of different relevant parts of the corpus.The fourt h, which might also be the most important, is to enable the teacher of English to believe that local content and context is not only necessary but is the most effective way of teaching or learning a language. The teacher should also have autonomy to develop content from her own locality adjusting to the need of the learners there. Perhaps the most difficult part of this endeavor will be to discard the prevalent target culture based content in promote of local culture based one. But once the importance is matt-up and the initiative commenced, language learning process will take a meaningful and applicable turn.The learners then will not be learning English in vacuum but they can associate their own life experiences to the language being learnt. Finally, a monitoring and evaluation weapon should be developed in order to judge how successful the implementation of the initiative has been. The monitoring and evaluating body can also make necessary changes in the whole process as the pr oblems arise. Association and Comprehension through Local Context in ELT If there is association between the local context and culture, and English Language teaching the learners might benefit in many different ways.As Lengkanawati states we can conclude that the choice and the intensity of using language learning strategies is influenced by many factors, one of which is the students cultural background (Lengkanawati, 2004), the association of local culture and English language teaching might help the learner build better learning strategies. It will lead the learner to grasp deeper meaning of the target language and use it efficiently and productively. Moreover, the differences that lie within the variations of English will make the learner value that context and culture are essential for language learning.All this will lead to a global culture where one retains her native culture while learning that of the target language and thus of the whole world. We have discussed antecedent ly about the nature of association between language and culture. In addition, we also discussed about the come to the forence of English as an international language and the advantages of learning it. Then we went on to how local context and culture can be integrated into teaching English in Nepal. Now, we shall focus on advantages there might be in integrating local context and culture while teaching English in three different stages.The association of local context and culture can be done in three levels using local context and culture while learning English, Using the context and culture of the target language, and integrating the two cultures to create multicultural or global comprehension. 1. Using the local cultural and contextual setting while learning English. Using local context and culture will enable the learners to grasp the deeper meaning of English because they can associate the cultural and contextual meaning that they are familiar with.In Barfield and Uzarskis findi ngs, the classroom observation showed that students in pair and group works were more interactive when they had to discuss on their local cultures than when they had to discuss on different stories or texts which they were not familiar with. Contextualization will further enable the learner to be proficient in the language at a faster pace. The learner will understand how a different language is not very different from ones own. This methodology needs to be applied on the learners at least at the beginning.The learners must be prone ample opportunities to interact in the target language. This is only possible if the content that is being used is related to local context or culture. If target language culture is given as a topic of interaction, the learners may have nothing to contribute and will be less involuntary to proceed further. 2. Using the culture and context of the target language The users of the target language are wide-ranging. There is no single context or culture th at defines a language like English. Therefore, it will be difficult to advert the target culture when we talk of English.This also indicates that even within the same language there is influence of local context and culture. This will make the learner understand that the language is not entirely free from the culture and context of a community. For example, we can take metro English that the Londoners use. It is very different from the traditional Standard or BBC English that we learn in Nepal or the other parts of the world. Sometimes there is a discrepancy in lexical meanings and pronunciation too. A pavement for the British might be sidewalk for the Americans.A mate is a friend in Australia and spouse in England. The fact that even among the native speakers of English in different countries the linguistic items have different meanings will enable the learners to cause that culture or local context is the key factor in using and understanding a language. It will also give an per ceptiveness that language is culture and context specific and not medium specific. To finish off this statement we can safely assume that the people coming from same cultural and contextual setting will share more meanings than people from cross-culture sharing the same language.This demarcation will be of vital importance because the learner will be able to comprehend that to understand a person is not only understanding the language but understanding the local context and culture as well. It will further jazz up the learners of English to be familiar with different cultural settings of the people that use the language. This kind of interpretation of language should be carried out at mean(a) and advanced levels where the learners have been made familiar of the inclusion of their own cultural and local contexts while learning English. 3.The emergence of a Global culture When more and more people start becoming familiar with the local culture and context of more and more places, t hen a common, integrated culture will emerge. This is the Global phenomenon that has been extensively discussed in every welkin of modern human civilization. This global concept of the language and cross-cultural integrating should be the ultimate outcome of language learning. When we are able to identify issues of global importance and contribute to it in a local way, then we will be adherent to the post-modernist maxim of think globally, act locally.This is a concept that might be difficult to understand for many learners. There is also a paradox of going local to oasis a global outlook. This in turn complicates the nature of language that we use in the modern world. The learners of languages, and specifically of dominant language like English, should consider the integration of local context and language. Considering the complexity of the process and inputs, learners of the tertiary level of English should be taught at this comprehensive level. Assimilation of Various Culture s for Global InterpretationBarfield and Uzarski have a very interesting notion regarding language integration when they opine that even if an indigenous language is lost, which is happening at an frighten rate all over the world, through integration it can be preserved within another language like English. Interestingly, despite the loss or future loss of an indigenous language, the roots of that indigenous culture can be preserved through the learning of another language, such as English. (Barfield and Uzarski, 2009) This is one notion that can be construed as positive aspect of assimilation of local culture into a Global one.Even though we might have strong opinions regarding local languages and cultures that we have inherited, and odour powerfully towards dominance and ultimate displacement that a language like English will do to other local languages, the only way to in truth save a part of the culture and local form of language might be through English. In order to achieve th is, it would be important to integrate local context and culture in teaching languages like English. On the other hand, because English is fast becoming the clapper franca of the world, there should also be a global ownership of the language.If we consider only one of the cultures of the native speakers then the globalization of the language will not be possible. In order to truly make a language like English a global one, and for all the cultures to feel that they are also a part of this global phenomenon, integration of local culture and context is important. So, at the end, every individual language community can feel the ownership of global English through integration and assimilation. Contrastively, the cultural and local contexts of societies that use English language are varied and it would be impossible to integrate everything about all the cultures.To make it approachable in the global arena, we should find out commonalities that exist in all the cultures and localities a cross the world and try to establish a common contextual and cultural condition for the language to evolve into a Global Language. such(prenominal) understanding and cohesion will provide the abilities to perform effectively and appropriately with members of another language-culture background on their terms (Barfield and Uzarski, 2009). Conclusion This article has assumed certain developments in English language based on current global trends.It has assumed that English is fast becoming a global language and it will become more so in the future. It has also assumed that the local languages will decline and decay in the face of English as their adversary. Considering these base assumptions, the article has provided insight into understanding the importance of English language and equal importance of using local context and culture while teaching English. In conclusion, we can reaffirm the pith of the whole discussion in the following manner first, we need to understand that we use English as a method of communication and this language is fast becoming a global anguage. Because we use it in our communication, the language cannot be excluded from the local context and culture because they are what we are potential to be communicating about. There may be differences in opinions regarding how or if local context and culture should be used in teaching English, but it is essential that we integrate local context and culture. Second, use of local context and culture in teaching English will depend on the nature of the local setting. Same system may not be applicable in all communities.Therefore, how the integration is to be done should be tailored to suit the needs of a particular community or a country. In case of Nepal, this can initiate with development of content corpus based on multilingual communities existing in the country and making a broad plan on what and how to integrate the content thus collected and selected. Third, the use of local context and cultur e can be done following a procedural fix up where local context and culture can be given more priority in the earlier stages of learning English language.Slowly, learning of the culture and context of the target language is to be achieved for more comprehensive understanding. When integration is done among various communities and language groups, then English will emerge as a true global language with global ownership. Finally, we should also consider the possibility that many present languages of the world might one day die. And the only possibility of its context and culture to be passed on may be through integration into a dominant language like English. All these expositions make the use of local context and culture in English Language Teaching a necessity.