Ling 122: English as a World Language - 7

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Ling 122 English as a World Language - 7

• Language Culture and Background Knowledge
• Reading
• Y. Kachru L. Smith, Chapter 2

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Kachru Smith, Chapter 2 Context of Culture
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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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.

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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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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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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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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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Kachru Smith, Chapter 2 Context of Culture
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.
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External and Internal Symbolic Systems of Culture
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.
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External and Internal Symbolic Systems of Culture
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.
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2. What is Society?
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.
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2. What is Society?
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.
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3. What is Speech Context/Situation?
Human actions, including verbal interactions,
take place in institutions defined by societies,
such as the institutions of family, workplace,
education, worship and others.
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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.

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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 Im thirsty -gt Would
  you like something to drink?
• Scenario knowledge of the settings and
  situations behind a text Thanksgiving turkey,
  family, holiday, closures, etc.

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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

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Class Group Exercise
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.
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Class Group Exercise
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
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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.