13-Ling-122-07-Culture-and-Background-Knowledge.ppt

The slide show about the culture, aspects and background

1. LANGUAGE: CULTURE
AND BACKGROUND
KNOWLEDGE
READING:
Y. KACHRU & L. SMITH, CHAPTER 2
LING 122: ENGLISH AS A WORLD
LANGUAGE - 7

2. Speech (communication) happens in the context of
culture in a particular community (society).
Chapter 2 ‘Context of Culture’ attempts to connect
the three components:
1. Culture;
2. Society;
3. Speech Context..
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3. 1.WHAT IS CULTURE?
A. Geertz (1973)
“Culture is a historically transmitted pattern of meanings
embodied in symbolic forms by means of which people
communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge
about and attitudes toward life.”

4. 1.What is Culture?
B.Quinn and Holland (1987)
“Culture is what people must know in order to
act as they do, make the things they make, and
interpret their experience in the distinctive way
they do.”
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5. 1.What is Culture?
C. Bloch (1991)
“Culture is that which people must know in
order to function reasonably effectively in their
social environment. Social environment consists
of social organizations and behaviors that are
instruments through which people relate to each
other.”
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6. 1.What is Culture?
D.Kachru and Smith (2008)
“Culture is both historic and immediate;
It shapes action - verbal as well as a variety of
other actions - and in turn is shaped by them;
It is a dynamic process rather than a static,
monolithic entity with a stable existence.”
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7. Kachru & Smith, Chapter 2: Context of Culture
So, culture is,
All-inclusive, all aspects of life.
Metaphors:
-A filter through which people see the world.
-The raw dough from which each person fashions a
life that is individual and satisfying.
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8. Kachru & Smith, Chapter 2: Context of Culture
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Culture is Universal
- Everyone belongs to one or more cultures;
- It is the template for rituals;
- It is the way to organize and interpret
experience;
- It simplifies living by giving structure to daily
life, minimizing interpersonal stress.

9. External and Internal Symbolic Systems of
Culture
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External and Internal
Symbolic Systems of
Culture
- External symbolic systems that
vary among cultures include
dress, personal appearance, and
make-up.
- It may be acceptable to some
cultures and families for young
girls to wear make-up, while
others find this inappropriate and
suggestive of premature
sexuality.

11. External and Internal Symbolic Systems of
Culture
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Internal symbolic
structures include beliefs
about natural phenomenon,
luck, fate, ceremonies, work,
play, medicine, health,
hygiene, politics, religion,
sex roles, social and
economic class, food, child-
rearing, age-related
activities, and the
importance of the arts and
humanities.

12. A. Ginsberg (1932)
A society is a collection of individuals united by
certain relations or modes of behavior which mark
them off from others who do not enter into those
relations or who differ from them in behavior.
B. Linton (1936)
A society is any group of people who have lived
and worked together long enough to get
themselves organized or to think of themselves as
a social unit with well defined limits.
2. What is Society?

13. C. Mandelbaum (1970)
Society is a social system consisting of groups
whose members together perform certain
functions that they do not accomplish as
separate groups. The groups are thus
interdependent, and they are interdependent in
a particular way. That is to say, the participants
in each group act in regular, anticipated ways
towards members of other groups and toward
the external environment.

2. What is Society?

14. Human actions, including verbal interactions,
take place in institutions defined by societies,
such as the institutions of family, workplace,
education, worship and others.
3. What is Speech Context/Situation?

15. S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G
•Setting – both physical and psychological
•Participants – speaker, hearer, addresser,
addressee
•Ends – goals, purposes
•Act – acts (statements of fact, questions,
requests, invitations, thanks, etc.)
•Key – “mood,” joking, serious, etc.
•Instrumentalities – speaking, writing, text
message, e-mail, language, etc.
•Norms – of behavior, of language use, cultural
values, etc.
•Genres – business letters, business meetings,
casual conversations, fairy tales, recipes, term
papers, etc.

16. THE STRUCTURE OF BACKGROUND
KNOWLEDGE
Schemata (scheme): structures in memory that remain
‘active and developing’ – ‘A and B were going
shopping when they had an accident.’ = They were hit
by a car.
Frames: principles of organization that govern events in
which they are subjectively involved – ’School’:
teacher, student, assignments, desks, etc.
Scripts: a standard sequence of events that describes
a situation – ‘I’m thirsty’ -> ‘Would you like something
to drink?’
Scenario: knowledge of the settings and situations
behind a text – Thanksgiving = turkey, family, holiday,
closures, etc.

17. EXAMPLE
Before carrying the rice up into the barn, the time
arrives for making merit at the threshing floor. They
make a pavilion and set up a place for the Buddha
image and seats for monks at the threshing ground. In
the evening of the day appointed for making merit at
the threshing floor, when the time arrives monks come
and perform evening chants at the threshing ground.
(Rajadhon 1968)
Schema: knowledge representations of rice farming
Frame: knowledge of components of making merit
Script: knowledge of event sequences of making
merit
Scenario: actions associated with making
merit

18. Kachru and Smith conclude in the chapter that
labels such as American or British or Indian or Thai
culture are referred to as if they are monolithic
entities with no internal variation. That, however, is
not true. Each one of these cultures represents
variations based on factors such as region,
ethnicity, age, gender, class, social status,
education, and profession.
Class Group Exercise:

19. It has been said that the US mainstream culture
(“middle class”) includes the following:
1. Individualism (individual freedom)
2. Independence and self-reliance
3. Equality
4. Ambition and industriousness (hard work)
5. Competitiveness
6. Appreciation of the good life
7. The perception that humans are separate
and superior in nature
Class Group Exercise:

20. CLASS GROUP EXERCISE:
Discuss possible variation(s) (or degree of variations)
towards each value in the so called ‘mainstream’
American culture.
Where possible, draw on the readings by Cunha and
Hong Kingston to illustrate how the authors either
assimilated to or resisted those ‘mainstream’
American values.