The Importance of Teaching Culture in the Foreign Language Classroom

The Importance of Teaching Culture in the Foreign Language Classroom

Muhammed, Arikan
Ulku, Ayhan
Azamat, Akbarov

This paper is concerned with the importance of teaching culture in a foreign language class. Linguists have long recognized that the forms and uses of a given language reflect the cultural values of the society in which the language is spoken. This means language learners need to be aware, for example, of the culturally appropriate ways to address people, express gratitude, make requests etc. Effective commutation is not just a matter of language proficiency, it is also about being able to understand other people and language alone is not enough for this. Language is a tool which reflects the life of the people from the culture that it was born from and thus learning the target language alone is not enough to communicate effectively. Communication is not the ability to speak the language but to understand the other person and since language is a tool that reflects the culture ( life style, ideas etc.) of the speaker in the communication proses, learning the culture is as important as learning the language itself when it comes to understanding each other. Since each language was born to meet the needs of the society that it was born from knowing that societies culture is necessary to fully master that language.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05

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