EDU 3232-Linguistics and Second Language Teaching

J 38860

Question 1

Discuss which language learning theory (behaviorism / nativism /

constructivism) is most fitting to describe the learning of English in
Malaysia and why you think so.

Behaviorism is a psychological theory that claims all mental states

can be reduced to statements of observable behaviors. In learning theory,

the claim is all learning is based on a stimulus-response relationship. This

theory was influenced by famous behaviorists like Ivan Pavlov (classical

conditioning), Edward Lee Thorndike (Law of Effect), John Broadus Watson

and Burrhus Frederic Skinner (operant conditioning). Nativism is the view

that certain skills or abilities are ‘native’ or hard wired into the brain at birth.

Noam Chomsky, whose work had always been related to nativism, suggested

that the human brain has a built-in language acquisition device, or LAD, that

analyzes the parts of speech in the language that a child hears. The phases

of language acquisition and the age at which children begin to acquire

language are similar enough across different cultures and different

languages to give some support to the nativist view. Chomsky is also related

to the term “Universal Grammar”, a set of rules that assumed all languages

have a common structural basis. Constructivism is a theory of knowledge

which claims that knowledge is not passively received but actively

constructed by the learner, and that the function of cognition is adaptive,

serving to organise experience, rather than discover reality. Constructivism

values developmentally appropriate, teacher-supported learning that is

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initiated and directed by the student. Famous constructivists include Jean

Piaget, John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky who introduced the “zone of proximal

development” where learners are challenged within close proximity to their

current level of development.

Among the three learning theories defined earlier, it is clear that the

most ideal is constructivism. According to this learning theory, the teacher

only acts as the facilitator that helps the learners to get to his or her

understanding of the content. It may sound too ambitious (and also selfish in

a way) for teachers to only supervise while the students do the ‘hard work’

but it is achievable, provided the students have the prior knowledge about

the particular topic. However, generally in my opinion, it’s sad to say that the

learning theory that best described the learning of English in Malaysian

school is still behaviorism. As much as we want to promote student-

centered learning, in the end it still comes down to how good the grades or

marks that the students can obtain rather than making them understand the

concept of sentence building (tenses).

Typical classroom instruction consistent with the behaviorist theory

includes; classroom management, rote memorization and drills and practice.

Rote memorization for instance, is not only applicable to the multiplication

table in Mathematics. For UPSR English, there is a section in the Paper 2 that

required the students to write five sentences based on a single picture. In

order to ‘help’ the students, mostly the low achievers, some teachers even

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resorted to making the students memorize the sentences that are general

and can be used to any pictures. So, without understanding the sentences,

students memorize and write them during examination so that they could

get at least one or two marks.

According to behaviorism, knowing is giving the correct response when

exposed to a particular stimulus. It does not concern with how or why

knowledge is obtained, but rather if the correct response is given. This is

absolutely true in the current situation in Malaysian schools, not only for

English but to almost all the subjects. It’s unavoidable since the system is

too examination oriented. The students are pressured to get good grades

while the teachers are to make sure the students really achieve that.

Ng Yim San (2002) in her research paper on how ‘Computer Assisted

Language Learning’ (CALL) program promote autonomous learning, showed

that the secondary school students, even though they are exposed to the

program, they still need to have the teacher around during class just in case

they have questions regarding the language. The finding showed that when

the students faced problems, they preferred to verbally ask the teacher

rather than seeking the solution themselves. This is an evident as how

dependent the students are towards their teachers and that the role of

teacher is still to teach, not only facilitate.

Student-centered learning or self-learning as promoted in

constructivism learning theory is not something that is impossible to achieve

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even in primary school level. But most of the students still need to be spoon-

fed by the teachers. This is because they are used to the “culture” where

teachers give information or knowledge and they only act as the receivers.

Besides that, the students are not encouraged to voice out their opinion

during classes making them even more passive. Excellent activities that can

encourage their thinking skills like debates and public speaking have not

been made into regular activities in most schools.

In conclusion, behaviorism is most fitting to describe the learning of

English in Malaysia. My opinion may sound pessimistic, but it does not

portray each and every school in Malaysia. We still have a long way to go

in order to change the current style of learning. A lot of programs related to

language had been identified by the ministry to encourage student-centered

learning and some of them had even been implemented in schools. But what

is more important is to transform our current examination oriented system to

a more flexible one. It’s a wishful thinking, but I hope one day it will become

true.

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Question 2

“One cannot teach a language without teaching the culture of the

users of the language.”

Do you agree/disagree with the statement? Discuss your opinion,

giving adequate support/reasons from what you have learnt/read in
the course.

Culture is a way of life. It is a collective identity which binds a group of

people together. A language is a part of a culture, and a culture is a part of a
language; they are closely bonded together that it is almost impossible to
separate them without losing each of their significance. So, since the two are
inter-linked, I agree with the statement because I think that teaching culture
is an essential part of teaching a language. This is because if we only stick to
the linguistic part of a language and do not take into account the culture of

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the language users, or its native speakers, it can sometimes lead to

misunderstandings to the learners simply because of the different cultures
that they have. For students or any L2 learners language study seems
senseless if they know nothing about the people who speak the target
language or the country in which the target language is spoken. They may
be able to construct grammatically correct sentences or produce great
essays, but without teaching or integrating the culture of the language, they
will just regard it as an alien language or a language of fictive people,
without being able to relate it to something that they are familiar with
themselves. Then, the acquisition of a second language can also be regarded
as a process of acquiring another culture. McKay (2003) contends that
culture influences language teaching in two ways: linguistic and pedagogical.
Linguistically, it affects the semantic, pragmatic and discourse levels of the
language. Pedagogically, it influences the choice of the language materials.
There are several ways ‘culture’ can be incorporated in language learning. In
the case of Malaysian schools, the culture of English can be introduced in
songs, rhymes, poems and literary works or movies.

The cultural background or environment of the students shapes their

worldview in a way that they usually see other cultures rather than their own
as false or “strange” and is thus oversimplified (Brown, 2007, p.191). From
this come the stereotypes or generalizations that make it harder for them to
understand the culture and consequently the language that they are
learning. By teaching a language along with its culture, the students are to
be taught that every culture in the world has their own identity and positive
traits, and that they are to respect the differences without losing faith and
pride about their own culture. When the students recognize and understand
these different worldviews, they will acquire an open-minded attitude
towards the cross-cultural differences. The students will then realize that
positive attitudes towards themselves, the native language (their mother
tongue) and the target language (English) enhance their proficiency. If done

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sensitively, bringing culture into the classroom can only enhance

understanding between different cultures. However, this is not something
that can be taught literally. It is also impossible to make students understand
the importance of appreciating other cultures just because the teacher says
so. Their understanding takes time and they have to be reminded from time
to time that other cultures are as special as theirs. The same goes for the
language.

As a matter of arguments, this brings us to the introduction of the

varieties of English or commonly referred to as “World Englishes”. This
term can be defined as the process of amalgamation of English according to
the culture of a certain country. As English has become a part of the lives of
the students in the countries like India, Singapore and the Philippines,
learning English does not necessarily associated to learning or acquiring a
new culture. This is however, in my opinion, might not be the right way to
master the language. Let’s say a student asked about the meaning of the
idiom “the apple of my eyes”, then to explain it literally must not make any
sense at all to the student. Hence, the explanation to the idiom is culturally-
related. Comparing the cultural backgrounds of different parties involved in
the language-learning process serves two different goals; the students
understand the meaning of things that they have no idea of before and they
also learn new thing about the culture of other people who are physically and
socially distant from them.

Similar situation could have happened when the students acquire new
vocabulary. Learning vocabulary has always been one of the major issues in
the study of a second language. It does not matter how well one is in both
speaking and writing of a language; meanings still cannot be conveyed with
limited vocabulary. Whether they like it or not, the students need to acquire
a wide range of vocabulary in order for them to be able to communicate in a
meaningful way. Making the students familiar with the culture is definitely a
good thing as it will make things easier when we want to teach something

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that is not within their context of understanding. For example, if the students
were to come across a word like “Halloween”, it might be difficult for a
teacher in Malaysia to explain how, when or why Halloween is celebrated
because it is not something that any of them (the teacher and students) are
familiar with. In this case, maybe the teacher can show the students a
movie related to the Halloween (of course not the horror ones) so that they
can relate to its meaning. Or an episode of Martha Stewart Show pertaining
to Halloween might just do the explanation well
(http://www.marthastewart.com/halloween-workshop-week1). By doing so, the
students might not only learn about a new culture in another country, they
even pick up some more new words to add to their vocabulary.

Perhaps the more important reason why culture should accompany

language teaching is to develop the students’ communicative competence.
While linguistic competence is not to be put aside and denied its vitality, I do
believe that being able to communicate in the language will provide more
confidence in oneself. A study by Bilal Genc and Erdogan Bada (2005)
showed that the communicative competence of their Turkish student-
teachers improved after they completed a culture class. Conducting a
separate culture class may sound too extreme in school level, but that is not
the point. According to this research paper, Genc and Bada’s students felt
that they would become not only efficient readers and listeners but also
efficient speakers and writers of the language, i.e. English when they had
been exposed to its culture. The findings of this study supports the motion
that language and culture are both indispensable for anyone to master a
certain language. According to the concept of communication competence
introduced by Hymes (1972), the speakers of a language need more than
grammatical competence in order to communicate effectively in a language.
They also need to know how the language is used by the members of a
speech community to accomplish their purposes. When they are exposed or
introduced to the culture of the language they are learning, provided they

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have acquired a positive attitude towards the language, then it’s just a
matter of time that they can communicate well in the target language.

Various studies have been done by linguists over the time to explain
the relationship between language and culture. But the most discussed or
debated must be the Whorfian Hypotheses by Edward Sapir and Benjamin
Lee Whorf (1956). The hypotheses suggested that language has a strong
effect on one’s thinking and worldview; it can either determine one’s
thinking or influence it. There were mixed opinions by other linguists over
the years those hypotheses were brought up. But in my opinion, it all comes
to a point that learning a second language may involve new ways of
thinking, feeling and acting. As I said before, learning a language IS learning
a culture; hence without realizing it, we also change our way of thinking and
we see things in different views.

In conclusion, one cannot teach a language without teaching its

culture. There may be reasons to go against the statement, but I believe a
lot depends on the context you are in. As a nonnative teacher, getting myself
familiar with the culture before relaying it to the students is a must.
Acculturation or the process of adjusting and adapting to a new culture
comes as a part of language learning and it does not take a short time to get
familiar with a new culture. The students may face a lot of obstacles in their
journey on the winding road of language learning. By culture, I am not
talking about asking the students to change their way of life just for the sake
of better understanding the language, but it’s more like making them
familiar with the foreign language that they do not usually use at home. It
may be difficult to achieve as the Malaysian schools system are examination-
oriented, but what’s important is to make the students aware that any
language is a part of a culture, and learning it may be the way to
understand, criticize and/or accept that culture. Positive attitude towards
both language and culture will help the students or any L2 learners to master
their target language.

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References:

1. Bada, E. and Genc, B. (2005). “Culture in Language Teaching and

Learning “. The Reading Matrix, Vol.5, No.1.
2. Brown, H.D. (2007). Principles of Language Learning and
Teaching. NY: Pearson Education Inc.
3. McKay, S.L. (2003). The Cultural Basis of Teaching English as an
International Language. Online documents at URL :
http://www.tesol.org/pubs/articles/2003/tm13-4-01.html
[26.03.2009]
4. Ng Yim San (2002). “The Efficacy of Computer Assisted
Language Learning (CALL) in Fostering Autonomous Learning
Among ESL Upper Secondary School Students”. ESL Journals, Vol.
4.

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