Culture in Second Language Teaching - Response Paper 4

Culture in Second Language Teaching

Teaching culture in a second language can be challenging, but it is part of teaching a language. It is more than focusing on holidays, customary clothing, folk songs, and food. It depends on how or what you teach on your lessons. The main idea of teaching culture is to reach its goal of completely understanding the target language. Teachers of a second language always have to incorporate culture to their lessons, mostly its linguistic and its cultural norms.

The study of linguistics is indispensable, because of its importance. It covers a wide variety of terms, the study of the language structure and its meaning. How it has evolved: sociolinguistics. I do agree on what it says on the article about language. It says it is not only part of culture, it reflects it. You cannot teach a culture you do not know, you have to get to know it and understanding the cultural context of day-to-day, thereby to make it real or believable for students.

When we teach we have to consider every cultural background of every individual, especially to avoid cultural issues in classroom instruction. Also, there are culturally appropriate ways to address people and communicate accordingly to the situation. Vocabulary, greetings, farewells,forms of addresses, formal and informal speaking or writing... are just part of the learning of the target language; but most importantly culture in a second language teaching needs or requires REAL LIFE to be incorporated in students' learning.