Language, Culture and Learning

Language, Culture and Learning

1. Language

   • Language as code
     • language is made up of words and a series of rules that connect words together.
     • It sees language as fixed and finite and does not explore the complexities involved in using language for communication.
   • Language as social practice
     • Our understanding of language influences our curriculum, planning and classroom pedagogies.
     • People use language for purposeful communication and learning
     • Language is used to create and represent
   • Language and culture
     • Language and culture is central to the process of learning another language
     • Both the learner’s culture and the culture in which meaning is created or communicated have aninfluence on the ways in which possible meanings are understood.
     • Learning to communicate involves developing an awareness of the ways in which culture interrelates with language whenever it is used

2. Culture

   • Static and dynamic approaches to culture
     • The most static way to approach the teaching of a culture typically emphasises artefacts, institutions and factual knowledge
     • The most dynamic approach to culture is represented by the lower right hand quadrant, which sees learners actively engage with the practices of a cultural group. Artefacts
   • The intercultural dimension
     • all human beings are shaped by their cultures and that communicating across cultures involves accepting both one’s own culturally conditioned nature