Reading Journal 3< The Place of "Culture" in the Foreign Language Classroom: A Reflection >by Ramona Tang
'Langauge is culture .' is the main idea from the author. She suggested that language and culture are inextricably linked. 'By speaking the language, therefore, one automatically (to a greater or lesser extent) aligns oneself with the culture of the language. ' She also mentioned about some theories about motivation of learning language, one is the intergrative motivation and the other one is instrumental one. In the article, it was discussed about whether there's culture learning involoved in these two types of leaners. The author think that whether the learner actively and deliberately immerse in the culture to learn the language, the language itself IS the culture. When one speaks of a foreign language, she or he knows about the country in somehow. So learning language itself accompanys with the culture learning! Therefore, when teaching a foreign language, there is no point to talk about include or exclude the culture in the language curriculums or not; because it is there.
I agree with the author 's point that learning a language is learning culture since the language orignated from the culture. Starting from the sounds and the alphabets, we are gaining a different culture. The more we learn, the more we understand about the culture. I reflected back my English learning process, I liked to listen to the pop songs and liked to watch the Hollywood movies. Although I was not in a concious of learning a country's culture, the reality is I was learning the language and culture at the same time. Somehow, the language scholars may divide the motivation into two different types, but it doesn't mean the belief behind the thories is that language can be apart from culture. So what I think there's no need for the author to presurppose that culture can be separated from language behind those theories. And again, to have culture lncluded in a lesson or not won't be a question at all since the place of culture is always there in a foregin language classroom.
'Langauge is culture .' is the main idea from the author. She suggested that language and culture are inextricably linked. 'By speaking the language, therefore, one automatically (to a greater or lesser extent) aligns oneself with the culture of the language. ' She also mentioned about some theories about motivation of learning language, one is the intergrative motivation and the other one is instrumental one. In the article, it was discussed about whether there's culture learning involoved in these two types of leaners. The author think that whether the learner actively and deliberately immerse in the culture to learn the language, the language itself IS the culture. When one speaks of a foreign language, she or he knows about the country in somehow. So learning language itself accompanys with the culture learning! Therefore, when teaching a foreign language, there is no point to talk about include or exclude the culture in the language curriculums or not; because it is there.
I agree with the author 's point that learning a language is learning culture since the language orignated from the culture. Starting from the sounds and the alphabets, we are gaining a different culture. The more we learn, the more we understand about the culture. I reflected back my English learning process, I liked to listen to the pop songs and liked to watch the Hollywood movies. Although I was not in a concious of learning a country's culture, the reality is I was learning the language and culture at the same time. Somehow, the language scholars may divide the motivation into two different types, but it doesn't mean the belief behind the thories is that language can be apart from culture. So what I think there's no need for the author to presurppose that culture can be separated from language behind those theories. And again, to have culture lncluded in a lesson or not won't be a question at all since the place of culture is always there in a foregin language classroom.
