The relationships between culture and language

According to the experts are named Jones and Lorenzo-Hubert. They said that there are four key constructs that underlie the integral relationship between culture and language:

1.      Culture defines language, and language is shaped by culture

2.      Language is a symbol of cultural and personal identity

3.      Cultural groups have different worldviews based on the shared experiences that influence their various languages

4.      Language is the medium by which culture is transmitted from generation to generation.

In my opinion, Language has to do with sounds, symbols and gestures that a community puts in order and associates so that they can communicate. Language is more than just the code. It also involves social practices of interpreting and making meanings. Language is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. Different ideas stem from differing language use within one’s culture and the whole intertwining of these relationships start at one’s birth. Language has two kinds, example: mother language and second language (language target). So language has the advantage and the disadvantage.

At the same time Culture is dynamical social systems and shared patterns of behavior, beliefs, knowledge, attitudes and values. Culture and language also have a great deal of conflicts in teaching English, because every student has different culture and language. It will be difficult to the teacher how to teach because the teacher has to counterbalance student’ language and culture. In language learning classrooms, learners need to engage with the ways in which context affects what is communicated and how. When we want to teach the student by the same culture and language, it can get misunderstanding or miscommunication. Both the learner’s culture and the culture in which meaning is created or communicated have an influence on the ways in which possible meanings are understood. This context is not a single culture as both the target language and culture and the learner’s own language and culture are simultaneously present and can be simultaneously engaged. Learning to communicate in an additional language involves developing an awareness of the ways in which culture interrelates with language whenever it is used.

Culture and language are central to the process of learning another language. Languages and cultures merit study and celebration in their own right. Those who wish to promote local languages have special reason to examine how those languages and cultures work in the first place. Actually, language is included in a part of culture. Every culture has own language and every culture has the different rules in communicating of society.

In short, we are as the candidate of English teacher. We have to observe how to be a good teacher for our students latter.