What Is The Importance Of Culture Essay

The definition of culture in the Cambridge English Dictionary is as follows, “The way of life of a particular people, especially shown in their ordinary behavior and habits, their attitudes toward each other, and their moral and religious beliefs.” So the fact that no society exists without the culture has made the learners to be motivated to learn about the culture as well as the language of the target language to achieve pragmatic competence in the target language. As an EFL instructor, I have always tried to introduce the culture of the English Speakers along with t] the language I try to promote socio-cultural competence in my English learners by introducing socio-cultural strategies such as initiating contact, anticipating cultural misunderstandings …show more content…
However, living in the country where language is spoken natively is the most productive model for learning the language and culture at the same time.At first, they experience a culture shock after a period of excitement but later they reach acculturation they will find self-confidence in the new culture and eventually adapt or accept the new culture.Traveling back and forth to the United States have taught me so much about the culture and it has helped me to transfer my knowledge to my students by providing personal stories of the situations that I have encountered. Culture is part of the language and these two are inseparable however there are some learners who have instrumental motivation in learning the target language e.g passing tests, these individuals may not need to be fully competent in the cultural content. Byram (1998) makes a distinction between knowing about other culture and accepting another culture, he introduces two terms, “ biculturalism assumes that an individual identifies with and accept the beliefs, values, and practices of the target language. Interculturalism, on the other hand, assumes a knowledge rather than acceptance of another culture.”( McKay, 2005) For those learners who aim to live in the inner circle countries where English is the primary language of the country should not only be aware of the cultural norms, but they should also try to adapt or accept the cultural norms of the host …show more content…
Learning to perceive cultures with an open-minded attitude won't result in a stereotype assumption not only in culture but also in politics. One person or even a government does not represent the whole nation. Like not all Americans are cold and have surface friendships (according to the lecture of the previous module) not all Germans are stubborn neither all Italians are passionate. “ The stereotype may be accurate in depicting the” typical” member of a culture but it is inaccurate in describing a particular individual simply because every person is unique and all of a person’s behavioral characteristics cannot be accurately be predicted on the basis of an overgeneralized median point along a continuum of cultural norms.” Brown p.191. So as an instructor I will introduce the cultural differences and I will teach my students to recognize openly that “people are not all the same beneath the skin”, but there are some cultural norms that apply to all the society, like the way they greet each other, like in Iranian culture men and women shake hands, hug and sometimes air kiss each other on the cheek whereas in the American culture men do not feel comfortable to hug each other they don’t see it masculine. Another example could be the response to greeting such as “How’s it going?” in