Culture and Second Language Learning and teaching

 Culture and language are interrelated. Risager (2006) defined language as “linguistically formed culture” (p. 6).  Therefore, integration of culture in language teaching and learning has become an important topic in the field of language teaching and learning. Language teachers are required to integrate culture in their teachings due to help language learners to understand English culture and to be understood by the strangers in the target culture. Therefore, without teachings of target culture, teaching language cannot be completed.

              Needs of native language teachers have increased while the number of non-native English teacher has been increased. Thus, the needs and availability of teachers are not the same.  Consequently, many language institutes are hiring native English speakers without teaching profession to be English teachers instead of hiring non-native English speaker teachers with teaching profession (Amin, Braine, Canagarajah, & Rampton, as cited in Maum, 2002).

 In Mongolia, most of the English teachers pursued their language teaching profession in the country and have not been to any English speaking country. Thus, integrating culture in language classroom is one of the challenges that many English teachers are facing in Mongolia today. However, the teachers may cooperate with instructional media to integrate culture in a language classroom (Yoko as cited in Warschauer & Meskill, 2000).  Mongolian government started supporting the young people to be educated in foreign countries therefore there is room for language teachers to improve their language teaching profession.  All language teachers should integrate culture in their teachings regardless of their different cultural identities.  

References:

De Capua, A. & Wintergerst, A. (2004). Crossing cultures in the language classroom. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Maum, R. (2002). Nonnative-English-speaking teachers in the English teaching profession. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pric/is_200212/ai_4217021737/

Risager, K. (2006). Language and culture: Global flows and local complexity. Ontario, CA: Cromwell. 

 

Warschauer, M., & Meskill, C. (2000). Technology and second language learning. In J. Rosenthal (ed.), Handbook of undergraduate second language education

            (pp. 303-318). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.