TOPIC 4.

VALORACIÓN DEL CONOCIMIENTO DE LAS LENGUAS

EXTRANJERAS COMO INSTRUMENTO DE COMUNICACIÓN ENTRE
LAS PERSONAS Y LOS PUEBLOS.

2. APPRECIATION OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE AS AN INSTRUMENT

FOR COMMUNICATION BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS AND PEOPLES.
3.1 ROUND THE LANGUAGE BARRIER.
3. DEVELOPING INTEREST FOR LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY THROUGH
THE KNOWLEDGE OF A NEW LANGUAGE AND ITS CULTURE.
3.2 CONCEPT OF LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY.
3.3 TEACHING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE.
3.4 BASIC CULTURAL CONTENTS IN THE CURRICULUM OF PRIMARY
EDUCATION.
3.5 DEVELOPING CULTURAL AWARENESS.
1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, learning English as a Foreign Language is essential in order to have better
chances in our society.
Due to the influence of the Communicative Approach, our current educational
system has incorporated this functional and communicative potential of
language in its objectives and methodology, the ultimate goal being the
development of the students´ communicative competence, which is one of the
general objectives for Primary Education established in the RD 126/2014 28th
February which establishes the teaching requirements for Primary Education
nationwide
Based on this view, I have chosen the topic ... because it is a good example of
how to work the Communicative Approach under different authors’
perspectives and showing, as examples, communicative activities.

2. APPRECIATION OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS AND PEOPLES.

In this topic we are going to focus on the study of language within its social
framework, as a product of the culture of the people who speak it.

The close relationship between language and culture must be taken into account
when considering foreign language teaching. It is impossible to learn it without
making reference to its cultural context.

Firstly, according to the Organic Law 8/2013 of 9th December, for the
improvement of the educational quality (LOMCE) Communication is the basis of
understanding among human beings.
And, according to Edward Sapir in his book ‘’Language: An Introduction to the
Study of Speech’’ written in 1921 and published by Harcourt, Brace & Co, the
real world is unconscious about the language habits of the group, and we
interpret according to the language habits of our community.
Later Benjamin Lee Whorf developed this idea of the deep interdependence
between language and thought, determined by the culture of the group, and
that is why it is known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, that tries to define and
explain the concept of linguistic determinism, which could be put as ‘language
determines thinking’.

We can find appropriate examples comparing the ways of referring to reality

of any other cultures. In Urdu, the word /kal/ refers to a unit of time meaning
something like ‘day close to today’, comprising ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’. As we
can deduce, their sense of time is completely different from the western one
and they are not so stressed.

Moreover, according to the Recommendation 2006/962 of the European

Parliament and the Council of Europe of 18 December on key competences for
lifelong learning the knowledge about the relation between language and culture
is essential, so as to work better on the cultural awareness and expression
competence.

On the other side, the question of translating from one language to another
constitutes the main problem. But, all western countries constitute a unity,
because of their Greek-Latin origin, an idea already pointed out by Whorf, who
grouped all European languages into one group under the name of S.A.E
(Standard Average European). So there should not exist big problems when
translating between languages such as English, Dutch, Swedish or Spanish.

3. DEVELOPING INTEREST FOR LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY THROUGH

THE KNOWLEDGE OF A NEW LANGUAGE AND ITS CULTURE.
3.1 ROUND THE LANGUAGE BARRIER.

As John McWorther says in his book ‘’ The Language Hoax’’ written in 2014 and
published by OUP, at the same time that languages help people to understand
each other, they can also be the barrier between peoples. Communities
speaking different languages cannot easily communicate and they can be
separated by their conceptions of the world.
Due to the globalization that affects our world, it is important to eliminate the
barriers between peoples, enterprises and other organizations, markets or
individuals.

Learning foreign languages contributes, first, to the students’ personal

development, expanding their minds, and prepares them to a professional world.

Now, I am going to describe the ways of getting round the language barrier
that have been attempted in different moments and with different degrees of
success. The first one is:

1.Translating and interpreting, but this way presents important communicative

limits. As we have already seen, literal translation is an ideal, but impossible to
achieve, as there is not an exact equivalent for many words in other languages.
In this way, an important loss of information may exist during the process.
And, on the other hand, the use of interpreters is very expensive and it would
be impossible to find enough specialists to assist at all the communicative
exchanges.

2.Another way could be the use of a lingua franca. Some linguistics and
politicians have proposed the use of a specific language as a vehicle for world
communication, justifying it on historical facts or linguistic reasons. A great
number of thinkers consider English as the language assigned to such a role due
to the importance of English as a world communication language and its
simplicity. But it can provoke cultural antagonism
However, the presence of a different culture also implies linguistic loans. And
some anglicisms have been assimilated like in fields such as:

- Economy: with words like ‘holding, spray or ticket’.

- Technology: Computer , CD, etc
- Sports: most of the names of all modern sports are English: football, tennis,
golf, etc.
- Sociological field: For example, the use of Christmas cards.
- Media: TV, music, radio, films, etc.

3.
Moreover, Ludwik Zmenhof invented the Esperanto in 1887 on very simple
bases. It was developed as simple as possible to achieve their immediate
objective. However, it will not be used if no one else knows it.
 4. In addition, another way to get round the barrier is learning foreign
languages. Being in Europe, we cannot forget how the process of constitution of
the European Union aroused (despertó) the awareness of the language problem
in the region. In order to solve this problem, the Council of Europe has
promoted the learning of European foreign languages through different
programmes: links between universities, studying in foreign countries (Socrates
programme); (Lingua programme) etc.

Nowadays, the process of globalization has run together with the extension of
English as a world language. English is the second language in the world, after
Chinese Mandarin, in number of speakers. But why has this happened with
English? We can classify the answers to this question in six groups of reasons:

1. Historical reasons: because of British and American Imperialism, many

countries can carry out their proceedings in English.
2. Internal political reasons: because English language may have a role in providing
a neutral mean of communication between different ethnic groups in a country.
3. External economic reasons: the U.S.A. acts as a magnet for international
business and trade, and, thus, a considerable pressure to work with English.
4. Practical reasons: English is the language of international air traffic control,
international maritime, academic conferences and international tourism, etc.
5. Intellectual reasons: most of the scientific, technological and academic
information of the world is expressed in English.
6. Leisure reasons: English is the main language of popular music, video games, etc.
We are living in the ‘’coca-cola era’’.

3.2 CONCEPT OF LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY.

According to David Crystal in his book ‘’The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of

Language’’ written in 1987 and published by CUP, language diversity can also be
considered regarding the varieties of one single language. The foreign language
teacher must be aware that there exist different varieties of the foreign
language, and a choice about this must be made. In the case of English
language, the most important distinction is between the two more widespread
varieties: British and American English. But this classification is a
simplification, because different dialects are spoken within the United States
and within the United Kingdom.

Taking into account all these aspects of language diversity, foreign language
students must be exposed to samples of different varieties of speech, so that
they can more or less understand most of them, but one major language variety
must be chosen because most language input corresponds to it.

Moreover, it is important to make a clear distinction between dialect and

accent. Different accents of a language are easy to identify and the dialect
refers not only to pronunciation, but to grammar and lexical aspects too.
3.3 TEACHING A NEW LANGUAGE AND ITS CULTURE.

One of the contentss of the Decree 108/2014 of the Valencian Government,

which establishes the teaching requirements for Primary Education in the
Valencian Government is that the students value the foreign language as a
means for communication and mutual understanding. It also takes into account
the socio-cultural aspects of the English speaking countries and the importance
of intercultural awareness, as well as the respect and interest towards social
and cultural realities different from the students’ one.

In my year planning, I organize the session, which lasts 45 minutes as established in

the RC 7/2014 of 15th of July which establishes the guidelines of the beginning of
the academic year, and I work with different activities creating different contexts
where students can work on the socio-cultural aspects.

From a teaching point of view we must be aware of the fact that the students
will not learn the foreign culture, but interact with it, elaborating their ideas
about it, that will imply further changes in the concept of their own culture.

According to Jeremy Harmer, in his book ‘’The Practice of English Language

Teaching’’, written in 1991 and published by Longman, the easiest way to teach
a foreign culture is to work on those aspects that are different from the
learner’s one. And this should be done trying to avoid foreign stereotyping.
When we have a clear idea of what to teach in relation to the cultural aspects,
the question is to decide how to do it.
Firstly, I usually use passages, dialogues and illustrations with an intentional
cultural component of the learning programme. Normally, students get
familiarised with the aspects they come in contact with during the lessons.
And, secondly, the transmission can be carried out by the teacher in the
classroom behaviour (behaving according to the British ways and values)

Moreover, I adapt these activities taking into account the levels of my

students, following the order of 16th July of 2001 by which the education to
students with special need is regulated in Infant and Primary Education
3.4 BASIC CULTURAL CONTENTS IN THE PRIMARY CURRICULUM.

The contents are divided into four blocks according to the D108/2014,
corresponding to the four linguistic skills, they are approached from a
communicative point of view, and all of them include the work on the socio-
cultural aspects of English speaking countries, paying special attention to
intercultural awareness, as well as to the respect and interest towards social
and cultural realities different from the students’ one.

Consequently, the assessment criteria include the evaluation of the students’

interest and curiosity towards the learning of the FL.

In order to fulfil those contents and assessment criteria, our students will
have to come into contact with the foreign language culture, with aspects such
as manners, social habits, certain knowledge of the history, geography, etc, of
the countries in which the FL is spoken.
I have adapted some activities from the Carol Read’s book ‘’500 activities for
the Primary Classroom’’ written in 2007 and published by MacMillan Education,
where students look for recipes of typical British meals that are very
different from our gastronomy or typical British festivities, among other. Also,
I pay special attention on the way of grouping, putting them in groups to work
moral and civic education, based on the Order of Conselleria of the 20th of
December of 1994 of the Valencian Government about Cross Curricular
Contents.
They also can use the ELP which is a project launched in 2001 by the Council of
Europe in an effort to support learner autonomy and plurilingualism, recording
their interactions and including them in the Dossier, which is a collection of
samples of their work where they record their learning achievements

3.5 DEVELOPING CULTURAL AWARENESS.

Being culturally aware implies realising that the way we regard a foreign
culture or language is influenced by the previous mental frame organised by our
own culture.

It is common to hear a student commenting how strange the British are, for
example, or what weird way of making a specific sentence they have. It must
constitute an objective in primary education that they realise that they think
so because they are valuing from the point of view of their culture, but that
foreign student learning Spanish may think similar things about our language
and culture.
 This is a difficult objective but, according to David Nunan in his book ‘’
Designing Task for a Communicative Classroom’’, written in 2000 and published
by Prentice Hall, it is necessary that students work with authentic materials
from the foreign countries, so that the contact with the foreign culture is as
real as possible. It would also be advisable that students come into contact
with native speakers.

It is also important to consider and discuss similarities and differences

between both cultures in order to develop their sensibility. For instance, we
can use the ‘Eurokid project’ whose purpose was to create educational and
cultural resources for older primary and secondary-aged pupils: it deals with
attitudes, traditions, culture diversity, etc.

There are many different ways of achieving the cultural awareness: since
letter exchange with foreign schools to visiting English-speaking communities in
our country (like Benidorm)... it all depends on the school and the teacher’s
possibilities.

4. CONCLUSION

To conclude, learning a FL is a necessity in a society that tends to remove

language barriers and promotes international relationships at cultural, social,
professional and political levels.
Learning a FL means learning both a linguistic code and cultural elements.
Therefore, FLT must introduce students to the social and cultural aspects of a
country and help them to develop attitudes of tolerance and respect

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY
In order to develop this topic, the following bibliography has been used:

 Sapir, Edward (1921) ‘’Language: An Introduction to the Study of

Speech’’ .Harcourt
 John McWotrther (2014) ‘The Language Hoax’’ OUP’
 Nunan, David (2000) ‘’Designing Tasks for a Communicative Classroom’’ .
Prentice Hall
 Harmer,J (1991): ‘’The Practice of English Language’’. Longman
 Read Carol (2007): 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom. Macmillan
Education.
 Crystal, David (1987). The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language. CUP
 LEGAL FRAMEWORK.

 Organic law 8/2013, 9th December, for the improvement of educational

quality (LOMCE)
 RD 126/2014 of 28th February.
 D 108/2014 of 4th July
 Order of 20th of December of 1994 about Cross Curricular Contents.
 Order 16th July of 2001, about educative attention to the students with
special educative needs
 Recommendation 2006/962 of the European Parliament and the Council of
18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning.
 RC 7/2014 of 15th of July which implies the instructions for the
organization of the schools of Primary Education during the 2014-2015
school year.
 ELP which is a project launched in 2001 by the Council of Europe in an
effort to support learner autonomy and plurilingualism

MAIN CONCEPTS

Other main concepts