Literature Review
What is the Connection Between Language, Culture, and Teaching?

Raising cultural awareness is one of the most significant things while learning or teaching a foreign language. From time to time the connection between language, culture, and teaching is not clear. To trace this relation, first of all, the terms should be analyzed separately, and only then in interaction.

According to the traditional definition, language is a structured system of signs and means of storing and forming ideas as reflections of reality and exchanging them in the process of human communication. It performs three basic functions. The first is a cognitive function which allows a person to record the results of thinking and use them in communication. The second function called social; it implies that language is an instrument of communication. The last is an accumulative function which indicates that language is a means of storing, forming, and transmitting knowledge.

All above-mentioned functions assist with the establishment of the relation between language and culture. However, the meaning of culture should be specified. There are hundreds (if not thousands) definitions of this phenomenon given by specialists in various fields. Edward Hall, a cross-cultural researcher, determines culture as a special term which concerns methods of producing, storing, and transmitting knowledge. Another interpretation is given by Clifford Geertz, an American anthropologist. He denotes culture as an example of historical transmission of symbolic meanings which are used by humans for communication and the development of their life awareness. I have chosen these definitions in order to show a direct connection between culture and language. Thus, language is a method of expressing ideas, i.e. language is a means of social interaction. According to the aforementioned definitions, culture is a system of competence (knowledge, beliefs, attitudes) shared by human society through communication and serves for organizing life. It has a profound effect on language because every new cultural phenomenon needs its linguistic equivalent. On the other hand, language boundaries determine culture-specific features, i.e. certain concepts cannot exist in a culture if restricted by a language.

The relation between language and culture is evident. The last item is teaching and its connection with the enumerated phenomena. In order to have a feel for the cultural difference, a teacher needs some grasp of the student's first language. The knowledge of existence or absence of certain things in one language may help the process of sequencing and focus on distinctions in the other. Moreover, the understanding of culture specifics may be useful not only in learning a language but also in teaching it. If a teacher is aware of some cultural peculiarities, it will be easier to explain cardinally new realities on the basis of that culture. In the article “Chinese Legal Texts – Quantitative Description” written by Lubos Gajdos, such connection can be observed. For example, the Chinese language-specific measure words. Nouns in Chinese need certain indicators, which depend on the substance of the objects that they designate. For the teaching purposes, measure words can be explained through the comparison with the determiners. Some linguists consider them to be redundant; however, they serve more of a cognitive purpose than a practical one: in other words, they provide a linguistic way for speakers to organize or categorize real objects. It makes them culture-specific.

To sum up, culture is the ideas, customs, and expression of a belief as a way of life of a community in a society that develops as a distinct art and taste. Language, in its turn, is a means of social interaction that provides the cultural originality. Having understood both of these phenomena, a person will be able to teach something (precisely languages) more naturally.

Sources:

1.      Взаимосвязь языка и культуры как основной объект лингвокультурологии, Д. Ш. Исрафилова. ВЕСТНИК ТГГПУ. 2010. №2(20) https://rib.li/IRuL

2.      Chinese Legal Texts – Quantitative Description, Lubos Gajdos. 2017. https://rib.li/u9Ts

3.      Developing cultural awareness in foreign language teaching, Ismail Cakir. Kirikkale University. https://rib.li/Kr42

4.      Edward Hall, Beyond Culture. New York: Doubleday, 1976.

5.      Клиффорд Гирц. Интерпретация культур. М.: РОССПЭН, 2004.

The Connection between Teaching and Culture

In the article “Developing cultural awareness in foreign language teaching” written by Ismail Çakir, the author examines the topic of effective teaching of a foreign language in interaction with the mother tongue and its culture peculiarities. He states that raising cultural consciousness leads to better comprehension of a language, i.e. intercultural communication. That is why while learning or teaching a foreign language one should bear in mind that these two conceptions are inseparable, because one complements the other.

The author further claims that ignorance of cultural differences may cause difficulties in international communication.  It follows that in order to avoid such situations the learners of a foreign language should pay special attention to understanding this or that culture. For the purpose of facilitating this task and making it even possible teachers need to take the initiative and motivate their students.

It is important both for a teacher and a learner to be aware of cultural divergences. Ismail Çakir notes that the knowledge of certain culture-specific features helps to use linguistic units more effective and appropriate. However, sometimes it may be difficult for students to absorb characteristics of a new culture, so teachers may use special techniques to elude alienation that learners of a second language may feel. The author gives role-plays as an example of enculturation in the EFL classroom.

From these arguments Ismail Çakir concludes that raising cultural awareness is the thing of main importance while learning and teaching a foreign language. It assists with deeper understanding of a language and its peculiarities. Teachers play the significant role in developing cultural consciousness; they provide specific materials and exercises, motivate students, and serve as a role model.

“Chinese Legal Texts – Quantitative Description” summary (REDONE)

In the article “Chinese Legal Texts – QuantitativeDescription” by Lubos Gajdos, the author analyzes the topic of practical application of linguistic units in legislative acts in the Chinese language. He considers such aspects as the correlation of parts of speech, special syntactical devices, and the size of phrases/sentences.

He claims that there is a correlation between the length of a sentence and the register affiliation – the more formal a text is, the longer the sentences are, and vice versa. For example, it is analyzed that Chinese official documents incline to have about 30 characters.

The next thing under evaluation is the occurrence of certain word classes. The research shows that the most frequent part of speech is noun. Then go verbs, prepositions, non-predicative adjective, adverbs etc. In addition, more precise analysis is concerned with the usage of content and function words. A detailed examination reveals the tendency to apply the measure word that means an article of a law, and the modal verb that indicates the necessity more frequently than the others.

Another trend of legal texts in Chinese is the prevalence of passive voice. It may be either marked or unmarked.  

Ultimately, what Lubos Gajdos is trying to convey through his research is that every language has its own particular means of expressing formal elements, and Chinese is not an exception. He also expects his work to be helpful while studying Chinese legal texts.

I have chosen this article in order to facilitate better comprehension of the Chinese language, to learn more about its peculiar features. While reading it some questions occur:

1.     What nouns appear to be the most frequent?

2.     What materials the author’s research was based on?

Gaidos, Lubos. “Chinese Legal Texts – Quantitative Description” 2017, Acta Linguistica Asiatica, https://rib.li/hWXQ