Relationship Between Language And Culture

Scholar, Gloria Anzaldúa, in her narrative essay, “How To Tame A Wild Tongue’, speaks her many experiences on being pressured on what language to use. She then expresses how the discrimination made her to realize the ugly truth--that people reject languages that aren’t their own. She adopts logos, ethos and pathos in order to appeal toward her audience who is anyone who is not bilingual. One of the perspectives she takes on in her piece clearly expresses the relationship between language and identity and how it creates a conflict between her and the world.

Having to live a life of two languages leads to an insecure identity. Rodriguez argues that learning both languages and using them rather than avoiding one, leads to a better sense of identity and freedom. Thus, his intended audience are people who are of higher education, scholars, and educators. Both himself, and the audience have shared values which entail: “independent thinking, self-knowledge”, education, “commitment to the affairs of the world”, and scholarship and intellect. Rodriguez convinces the audience to seriously consider his claim through effective appeals to ethos and pathos. Ethos is developed in the area of authority by personal anecdotes and in the area of credibility by shared values. Pathos is effectively evoked via experiences he had that make the audience more likely to pause and consider his claim.

Language, culture, and self are inseparable, as one cannot exist without the other. The structuration of one's consciousness stems from the language that one learns as a child, thus the formation of self is largely out of one’s control. As humans we live to experience, for our native language structures the world at which we inhabit and molds one's very modes of conscious awareness. Simply put, “who we become is not a matter of our own volition” (Encyclopedia of Identity 384), how we perceive and evaluate the world at large is entirely out of our control. Our development consciously is driven by the world we are brought into, ergo the language and culture we are raised with ultimately determines who we become.

How does our native language affect we think about the world and our place in it? How is speaking more than one language difficult? Tom Munnecke’s purpose was talking about how learning many languages frustrated him, and how each language frustrated him. Each of these languages he saw as “shells,” and he goes on to talk about each language and its limitations and/or opportunities. The audience for Nothing is Missing are people who are interested in learning one, or more than one, different language. This article could also apply to people who are already bilingual, or already know multiple languages. Munecke would like people who are interested in learning more than one language to know how the first language we speak affects the way we

Just as language is an important feature in identity, so too is culture. In fact, the two are very intricately woven. Language is one of the main factors in the survival of cultures, without it the traditions and ideas of a particular culture can’t be passed to the next generation (Wong, p. 362). Since the two are so closely linked its plausible to say that every language shows favoritism toward its own culture, this is ethnocentrism (Wong, p.362). An ethnocentristic perspective is responsible for members of its ethnic group favoring other members of the same group and discriminating against those who are not members. This is where an issue can arise, specifically in a school setting with a culturally diverse population, studies have shown that students will select friends based on the premise of ethnic groups (Fortuin, et al. p. 58). The formation of these groupings can be a source of exclusion to those students who don’t neatly fit into an ethnic group or who are not well represented in the school population. Considering this along with the growing rate of ethnic diversity in schools, it seems as though reexamining school programs for ESL students as well as the approach to diversity is necessary.

Language is one of the ways anthropological ways culture is formed and retained. Influenced by location, individual backgrounds and intermingling with others of different backgrounds, languages change often and rapidly. In the beginning of the English language and culture, the only way to intermingle was to conquer or be conquered. Dialects mixed, religion developed and histories, lof and entertainment were found nightly at the Mead-Hall. Although the entire family is not in one physical place, in 2014, most people are logging on to social media at night to share stories and memories while checking out the latest hashtags and earning ‘likes’.

Fashion has played many rolls in the terms of identity. Language has played the biggest role in fashion other than clothes being made or produced. Language is used like fashion to express aspects of the self-such as, a marker of subcultural identity, a marker for nationhood, social mobility, and attitudes.

“What role does learning a second language play in the way one shapes their identity?”

When it comes to culture there are many factors that come into place like where you were born, how you were raised and the list goes on. Through out the course of your life you are experienced to other peoples cultures and it opens your eyes to a lot of things you might not have understood before. Some of the most important parts of culture is the fact that it is a way of life and it classifies where people come from. Culture is what we have to show for our greatest successes. It is also interesting that culture isn 't something we have but something we learn along the course of our lives and are completely unaware of the process we go through. Anthropologists have studied small societies outside of the united states to get a better understanding of culture by collecting stories that show how certain cultures existed. Its an insightful look into how cultures are formed and can even be used as a window to look into how cultures are formed in modern times.

Language is one of the most significant developments of humans. It is one of the few means of communications which enclose a large number of beliefs, values, and methods to see the world in different perspectives. Peoples native languages are thought to be in danger when they do not speak their mother tongue in foreign countries. A mother tongue refers to a child’s first language and can be learned since birth. This mother language cannot be used often in foreign countries. As a result, significant numbers of languages are ceasing to pass from one generation to another. Cultural diversity and languages are essential assets of any nation, representing their identity across the world. The mother tongue is the language of the heart, of the emotions, of the warmth of the home, of the first important relationships. A "first" language that does not hinder subsequent learning but, on the contrary, opens to new languages. Thus, it is very important to conserve languages especially in foreign countries. This paper will explore how non-native languages in foreign countries are being threatened, why this is problematic, and why it’s crucially important to preserve such languages.

The authors of the two chapters built their cases around literacy practices from different prospective and stances. Alverman, a critical literacy specialist emphasized the importance of the popular culture usage as a natural societal connection with their peers in social groups. Other researches such as Paul gee focused also on the importance of reading embedding in social practices. his study seeks to expand the notions of space and composition, and to inform new pedagogies that utilize and respect the beliefs, experiences and practices of urban students.

The reading, in its entirety, explains the concept of culture and its influence on communication within both, a particular community and the world at large. It also mentions the three interconnected layers of culture, i.e., the outer layer, the middle layer and the core. The first two layers consist of symbols and ideals shared by a group, whereas the core layer includes adaptive culture or the ways of things because of human evolution. The implication is that culture is not something that is inherent in human behavior. It was built by continuous interaction and has been handed down to the newcomers in the society. This does not mean that people within a culture have identical sets of symbols, ideals or behavior, but there may be some similar behavior within that group of individuals. It could result in stereotyping which is an exaggerated form of the predicted behavior of a particular social group. Since all of humanity faces the same day-to-day problems, the behaviors or solutions to those problems among various cultures mainly depends on the different perceptions of the meaning of life. In other words, all cultures face the same obstacles but their solution varies. Therefore, to a certain extent, cultures can be blended to reunite values.

A Diglossic Situation is where two varieties of a language co-exist within one society or community. Both varieties are used in this community and is used based on different situations. Diglossic situations occur where both languages are either termed a “high or low variety. Selecting an official/national language can be difficult for a country that has many language and has had a colonial past and can stir up social situation. An example of a diglossic situation is in India, where there is a competition between the use of Hindi and English. This began nearly 175 years ago when Thomas Babington Macaulay proposed the Macaulay’s Minute, which was a

In this section, we will briefly examine the relationship between language and culture and see why the teaching of culture should constitute an integral part of the English language curriculum. To begin with, language is a social institution, both shaping and shaped by society at large, or in particular the ‘cultural niches’ (Eleanor Armour-Thomas & Sharon-ann Gopaul-McNicol, 1998) in which it plays an important role. Thus, if our premise is that language is, or should be, understood as

In our society today, language plays a diverse role in human potential and captures individual unique human characteristics of expression. Likewise, if a universal language was adopted, these distinctive perspectives will be lost. In correlation, linguistic and phonological skills were created when people used language as a natural communication system. Consequently, one’s daily life is impacted by language through unique ways we can communicate to manifest problem-solving and cognitive skills. Above all, language plays a huge role in cooperation and sharing of ideas throughout the world. Undeniably, English is considered the dominant language spoken today. However, as time passed, cultural identities became corrupted and other native