77Academic Research in Educational Sciences VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 10 | 2021
ISSN: 2181-1385
Scientific Journal Impact Factor (SJIF) 2021: 5.723 Directory Indexing of International Research Journals-CiteFactor 2020-21: 0.89
DOI: 10.24412/2181-1385-2021-10-1057-1062
THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL BASED ACTIVITIES IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AT INTERMEDIATE (B1) LEVEL
Ziyoda Kattayevna Nazarova
Teacher of Termez state University E-mail: feruza7277@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
In this article the prominent pioneers have been reviewed first about relationship between culture and language first. After that, under the lights of their ideas, the impact of cultural based activities in foreign language teaching at one certain level has been checked out through some certain classroom instructions where these designed and adapted cultural based activities used and exams given to the students. The attitudes of both teachers and students towards the use of cultural based activities in foreign language teaching have also been investigated by giving them questionnaires.
Keywords: Intercultural Communicative Competence, attitudes, cultural based activities, assessment;
1. INTRODUCTION
The culture and language are inseparable notions has been stated by numerous prominent scholars such as Wittgenstein (1980), Saussure (1966), Foucault (1994), Dilthey (1989), Von Humboldt (1876), Adorn (1993), Davidson (1999), Quine (1980) and Chomsky (1968). These are the names to come to mind when the issue is the relationship between language and culture from different points of views regarding language, human, mind and culture. The most well known linguists dealing with the issue of language and culture are Sapir (1962) and Whorf (1956). In addition to the previous ones, the following researchers such as Laura (3), Kunanbayeva (1995), Jenkings (2008), Leveridge and Thanasoulas (2009) have also made precise contribution to this issue.
For a long time it has been argued that teaching a foreign language through lingua-cultural approach should be given the importance it deserves. Therefore, many scholars have paid plenty of attention to developing the notion 'intercultural communicative competence' and contribute ideas of implementing cultural based activities into process of foreign language teaching. With the works of scholars such
Academic Research in Educational Sciences VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 10 | 2021
ISSN: 2181-1385
Scientific Journal Impact Factor (SJIF) 2021: 5.723 Directory Indexing of International Research Journals-CiteFactor 2020-21: 0.89
DOI: 10.24412/2181-1385-2021-10-1057-1062
as Byram (1989; 1994a; 1994b; 1997a; 1997b) and Kramsch (1988; 1993; 1996; 2001) people, involved in language teaching, have begun to understand the intertwined relation between culture and language. It is emphasized that without the use of cultural based tasks and activities, teaching a foreign language is inaccurate and incomplete. For B1 students, language study seems senseless if they know nothing about the cultural background of people who speak the target language. Learning a foreign language means a lot more than acquiring just grammatical structure and vocabulary of it. According to Bada (2000: 101), 'the need for cultural literacy in ELT arises mainly from the fact that most language learners, not exposed to cultural elements of the society in question, seem to encounter significant hardship in communicating meaning to native speakers.' In addition, nowadays the B1 culture is presented as an interdisciplinary core in many B1 curricula designs and textbooks (Sysoyev & Donelson, 2002).
When we turn to the relationship between culture and language, we see some remarkable comments; to supply a satisfactory reply to the question of why teaching culture should be involved in language teaching. Here giving reference to several authors lists some of the benefits of teaching culture as follows:
• Studying culture gives students a reason to study the target language and can be a good motivational tool.
• One of the major problems in language teaching is to enable students think in the language they learn.
• Providing access into cultural aspect of language, learning culture would help learners relate the abstract sounds and forms of a language to real people and places (Chastain, 1971).
• The role of motivation was proved in ELT it is by experts like Gardner and Lambert (1959, 1965, and 1972). In achieving high motivation, culture classes do have a great role because learners like cultural based activities such as singing, dancing, role playing, discussing about and doing research on countries and peoples, etc.
• The use of cultural based activities in language education increases learners' not only curiosity about and interest in target countries but also their motivation.
Beside these benefits, studying culture gives learners a liking for the native speakers of the target language. 'Studying culture, we could also learn about the geography, history, etc., of the target culture (Cooke, 1970). McKay (2003) contends that culture influences language teaching in two ways: linguistic and pedagogical.
Academic Research in Educational Sciences VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 10 | 2021
ISSN: 2181-1385
Scientific Journal Impact Factor (SJIF) 2021: 5.723 Directory Indexing of International Research Journals-CiteFactor 2020-21: 0.89
DOI: 10.24412/2181-1385-2021-10-1057-1062
Linguistically, it affects the semantic, pragmatic, and discourse levels of the language. Pedagogically, it influences the choice of the language materials because cultural content of the language and the cultural basis of the teaching methodology are to be taken into consideration while deciding upon the language materials.
2. PROBLEM STATEMENT
The process and result of teaching a foreign language are affected by various factors such as the used approaches, methods, techniques, teachers, learners, motivation, environment, etc. Using the culture of the target language as one of the effective approaches and ways in teaching English is not an exception. However, it is given a poor consideration. Bearing in mind that 'cultural competence' is an integral part of 'communicative competence' or vice-versa; teachers should create an atmosphere of a real English speaking society or environment through the use of lingua-cultural aspects. As Kramsch says: 'in class, culture is created and enacted through the dialogue between teacher and students, Through their dialogue, participants not only replicate a given context of culture, but because it takes place in a foreign language, it also has the potential of shaping a new culture.' (1993, p. 49). The main problem in foreign language education is that the educators cannot enable L2 students to use target language effectively and appropriately for intercultural communication. In this paper we would like to focus on how students view culture and also how the application of the cultural based activities influences the result of foreign language teaching/learning. So, the problem and aim of our investigation can be stated as follows:
What are the attitudes of learners towards using culture in English classes?
To what extend does the use of cultural based activities and tasks affect the progress, the students get, while studying English?
3. METHODOLOGY
The cultural content existing in language teaching has been discussed a lot. However, as far as we see these cultural content or cultural based activities have not been designed in course books enough and put into practice fully in foreign language teaching. So, the main purpose of this study is to find out the attitudes of students to using cultural based activities and tasks in classroom and also to figure out how they get progress and affected by the use of culture-based activities in teaching a foreign language (English).
Academic Research in Educational Sciences VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 10 | 2021
ISSN: 2181-1385
Scientific Journal Impact Factor (SJIF) 2021: 5.723 Directory Indexing of International Research Journals-CiteFactor 2020-21: 0.89
DOI: 10.24412/2181-1385-2021-10-1057-1062
4. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION
This study has checked and investigated the attitudes of learners towards using cultural activities and the overall impact of it on ELT. Teaching and learning a foreign language through culture-based activities is one of the most effective and interesting ways for presenting, practicing and improving the learner's communicative competence.
Cultural based activities contribute a lot in learning a foreign language if learners are given chance to practice the target language through its culture in a pleasant and friendly warm atmosphere. The role of cultural based activities in teaching a foreign language, in our case English, cannot be ignored because every cultural activity has shown plenty of advantages and effectiveness in ELT in many different ways. First of all, cultural activities bring a kind of fruitful atmosphere where students learn four skills through sharing information, discussing and interacting with each other. Secondly, cultural based activities involve learners in the task-based activities where the goal is to set and students do their best in order to compete with each other. The last but not the least: the main factor of using socio-cultural activities is that they bring real world context into the classroom, and enhance students' use of English in a flexible and communicative way. The main results of this research have implications for learners and teachers in the realm of teaching 'real' English.
While working with students of higher level we were provided with many possibilities where we may use different approaches and methods. To be able to implement them correctly into teaching process we should be aware of some individual diverse characteristics. Teachers should keep in mind that cultural activities must be changed time by time as students can get bored very easily and these activities should be organized following all demanded conditions. As famous methodologists stated it the effectiveness of the lessons depends not only on the thoroughly planned lesson but also on the positive atmosphere created by the teacher through activities, in special, cultural activities.
Relying on the facts mentioned above, we can state that the use of cultural based activities is a manifold process in which you can learn a little bit of psychology of different cultural background because during this course you observe behaviors of students in different cultural situations.
The results of the data obtained from the data collection instruments showed that the cultural based activities have an effective influence on the development of
Academic Research in Educational Sciences VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 10 | 2021
ISSN: 2181-1385
Scientific Journal Impact Factor (SJIF) 2021: 5.723 Directory Indexing of International Research Journals-CiteFactor 2020-21: 0.89
DOI: 10.24412/2181-1385-2021-10-1057-1062
linguistic competency of learners as well as communicative competency. Certainly, the activities be successful if they are presented to students in understandable way which means that they must be planned step by step.
In general, aims and objectives of the study have been reached. It has been proved that using cultural based activities as tool or way in teaching the English language is appreciated by the majority of language learners. It has also became clear that students have positive attitudes towards cultural based activities. All language learners, in our case adult learners, are ready to fulfill tasks connected to culture both for fun and learning. In that case cultural based activities will be not just interesting for students to do but also bring the results you expect.
The idea of teaching a language through culture is not new to foreign language teachers. In many cases, teaching a language through cultural based activities has meant focusing a few lessons on holidays, customary
clothing, folk songs, food, etc. Understanding the cultural context of day-today conversational conventions such as greetings, farewells, forms of addressing, thanking, making requests, and giving or receiving compliments means more than just being able to produce grammatical sentences. It means knowing what is appropriate to say to whom, in what situations, and it means understanding the beliefs and values represented by the various forms and usages of the language.
Culture can be fully or at least additionally incorporated as a vital component of language learning. Foreign language teachers should identify key cultural items in every aspect of the language that they teach. The activities should be planned according to the exact level of students whether it is low intermediate or high, in order to make them feel more confident while expressing their opinions on different cultural situations, otherwise the students will not manage the discussion. Students can be successful speaking in a target language if cultural issues are an inherent part of the curriculum.
Another point, we had to consider is the multicultural groups where each representative of different nations must be paid attention. For example, while introducing famous artists of different foreign countries do not forget to include those artists coming from the same country of your students. It will make students become pride of their nations and it can work as a motivational tool to continue the discussion activity.
The last but not least point to consider is the different cultural background of students. Before implementing some aspects of culture of a foreign language, in our
Academic Research in Educational Sciences VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 10 | 2021
ISSN: 2181-1385
Scientific Journal Impact Factor (SJIF) 2021: 5.723 Directory Indexing of International Research Journals-CiteFactor 2020-21: 0.89
DOI: 10.24412/2181-1385-2021-10-1057-1062
case English, it is important for the teacher to take into consideration that some customs, traditions can be rude, humiliating or can be considered as abnormal by some students depending their origins especially, if we compare Christian and Muslim culture. For example, it might concern some specific vocabulary or behavioral pattern of the target culture, which our student can find inappropriate. Therefore they can be forewarned about cultural and mentality diversity to provide openness of our students to different cultures or to overcome the cultural shock.
So, we came to conclusion that teaching language through culture can be profitable and fruitful but should be carefully planned and designed equally to other methods of teaching.
REFERENCES
1. Adorn, T. (1993). The Culture Industry: Selected Essay on Mass Culture. Rutledge.
2. Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence.
3. Chomsky, N. (1968). Language and Mind. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
4. Edward Sapir (1921). An Introduction to the Study of Speech. New York.
5. Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W.E. (1959) Motivational variables in second language acquisition. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 13, 266D272.
6. Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press
7. Kunanbayeva, S. (2005). Modern Foreign Language Education, Methodology and Theory, Dom Pechat, Almaty.
8. Laura A, From Cognitive Linguistics to Cultural Linguistics, for publication in Slovo a smysl /Word and Sense (ISSN 1214-7915), University
9. Khayitova, F. A. (2021). LEXICAL TRANSFORMATION OF TOPONYMS. Academic Research in Educational Sciences, 2(10), 115-121. https://doi.org/10.24412/2181-1385-2021-10-115-121.Vol. 2, No. 10, 2021 (http://ares.uz/jurnallar-sahifasi/ares-vol-2-no-10-2021)
