A SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ON
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
The Applied
Linguistics
Understanding of the real
world through of language
It builds socio cultural ways in which people
communicate, create and improve their
social life.
Language as
sociocultural resource
The essence of social life is the
communication
Sets of communicative plans (expected or
typical goals) which are constructed, shared
and changed between the same members of
our sociocultural groups and communities
according the daily lives
The
plans
‘Socially constructed
models for solutions of
communicative problems’
(Luckmann, 1995: 181).
Help us to synchronise our
actions and interpretations
with others and to reach a
mutual understanding of
what is going on (cf.
Levinson, 2006b;
Luckmann, 1995).
"a range of possibilities, an open
ended set of options in behaviour
that are available to the
individual in his existence as
social man’ (Halliday, 1973: 49).
Dialogue as the essence
of language use
The linguistic resources
are our collective history
Open to negotiation of
meanings and fulfillment of
the communicative tasks.
Single- and double-voiced
utterances
The different uses of
language embody different
meanings.
According Bakhtin, only by examining our
language use at particular moments of
time in relation to its history can we reveal
the varied ways in which we create our
voices in response to the larger social and
political forces shaping our worlds.
Culture as
sociocultural practice
The culture can be assumed as a
creative, dynamic, active and
evolving entity of meanings
Through of dialogue conveys
of the membership of people
and living in the social
activity and practice
Language and culture are
interdependent, being living
parts of the same reality;
resources and tools that enable
humans to live their social and
cultural changes, forming
alliances and interrelationships,
allowing the communicative
experiences in different social
contexts, making of the humans,
part of a society that evolves
every day.
Linguistic relativity
Understanding of the real world depends on
language, which is the reflection of individual
thought, linked unequivocally to the particular
reality of the cultural groups to which his/her
belongs.
Sapir–Whorf hypothesis posits an
interdependent relationship
between language and culture
The Importance Of Teaching Culture In
The Foreign Language Classroom
The History OF Culture Teaching
The teaching of cultural facts and not of meanings,
has left a vacuum in the understanding of the
knowledge, values, thoughts and in the very essence
of the cultural that is present, past and future of the
real life of social groups. It has also left a nonsense in
the social identity of communities.
The learner needs to take the role of the
foreigner, so that he may gain insights into
the values and meanings that the latter
has internalised and unconsciously
negotiates with the members of the
society to which he belongs
Language teaching is culture teaching
What IS Culture And Why
Should IT BE Taught?
Culture is a living, active and practice part of
the human being, which is both material
and immaterial, and essential for human
existence, since it is a reflection of its
evolution as a social and personal being
Bruner (1996: 3) says that ‘although meanings are “in the mind,” they
have their origins and their significance in the culture in which they are
created’. And he adds, ‘human beings do not terminate at their own
skins; they are expressions of a culture’.
Language and culture give way and
meaning to communication, that which
allows us to participate and be part of the
world around us, relating to other cultures,
but without losing the essence of the
society that forms it.
Allows the create social dialogues given way
to the active and dynamic permanence of
communities in the social world.
To view culture as ‘the total life way of a people [and] the social legacy the
individual acquires from his group’... leads to the belief that to be human
ineluctably means to be cultured. (Kallenbach & Hodges 1963: 20)
Theories
Noam Chomsky believed that
children are born with all of
the structures necessary to
create language and that
they instinctively know how
to use them
Vygotsky said that language and
cultural connections precede
learning and cognitive development
Social interactions between people,
watching and learning from others
speakers, is how a child (or anyone
learning a language) acquires
knowledge
Jean Piaget believed that all children
are born with a basis structure for
language and cognition and as children
develop they are able to learn more
complex language and concepts
In Piaget's theory, children
construct both verbal and
nonverbal meaning from their
environment and culture and
those meanings change as
children develop and mature