1

THE NATURE OF CULTURE AND ITS ROLE IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAM

Definitions of Culture he word culture has many different meanings. For some it refers to an appreciation of good literature, music, art, and food. For a biologist, it is likely to be a colony of bacteria or other microorganisms growing in a nutrient medium in a laboratory Petri dish. Even anthropology, the field that concerns itself with the study of different cultures, has not been able yet to properly define what culture is. According to Trifonovitch (cited in Croft, 1980: 550), there are over 450 different definitions of the word or concept of culture available in literature. However, for the purpose of perceiving culture in relation to the field of language teaching/learning, our understanding about the following definitions is probably adequate. Tylor (cited in Croft, 1980:531) regards culture as: that complex whole which includes knowledge, believe, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Arvizu and colleagues (cited in Celce-Murcia, 1985: 81) define culture as a set of ways of behaving; possession of high level of education, or a particular style of artistic expression in areas like art and music. These two definitions denote that language is an aspect of culture because language is basically learned and shared by men as a member of society. And, in relation to foreign language learning, strictly speaking, these definitions imply that when somebody learns a foreign language, he participates to some extent in the culture of the native speaker of the language being learned. Different from the former definitions, which pay greater attention to concrete elements, recent definitions tend to emphasize the abstract element that underlies observable behavior. Condon (cited in Brown, 1987: 123), for instance, defines culture as a system of integrated patterns, most of which remain below the threshold of consciousness, yet all of which govern human behavior just as surely as the manipulated strings of a puppet control its motions. In a more detailed version, Larson and Smalley (1972: 39) describe culture as a blue print that: guides" the behavior of people in a community and is incubated in family life. It governs our behavior in groups, makes use sensitive to matters of status, and help us know what other expect of us Figure 1.1.: Categories of Cultures and what will happen if we do not live up to their expectations. Culture helps us to know how far we can go as individuals and what our responsibility is to the group. Different cultures are the underlying structures which make Round community round and Square community square. The existence of the abstract elements of culture is also emphasized by Robinson (cited in Tomalin and Stempleski, 1993: 7) by suggesting that culture consists of three interrelated categories, i.e. products, ideas, and behaviors (see figure 1). Pusch (1981: 3) also underscores the abstract elements of culture by defining culture as

Chapter 1: Introduction

the sum total of ways of living; including values, beliefs, esthetic standards, linguistic expressions, patterns of thinking, behavioral norms, and styles of communication which a group of people has developed to assure its survival in a particular physical and human environment. In accordance with them, Haviland (1974: 264) notes Culture is not observable behavior of a group of people, but abstraction derived from it. Culture is a set of rules or standards which, when acted upon members of a society, produce behavior that falls within the range of variance that members consider proper and acceptable. Americans have thousands of things that they can take for granted, that they have learned since they were so young that these things seem natural even though they are in fact patterns of learned behavior. Examples include things like the natural way to eat (using a fork and knife), to sleep (in a bed), the appropriate distance to stand from someone when talking to them, and so on, and so on. In fact, only eating is natural eating with a fork and knife, or with chopsticks, is cultural. Sleeping is natural, but sleeping on a bed is cultural. Belching is natural, but in American culture people are expected not to do so because it is impolite. Hofstede (1977) calls culture the software of the mind. In other words, while human beings all have the same hardware, the human brain, or their software or programming is rather different. You might say that some of us are running Windows XP, some are running Windows Vista, and some are running Linux. A computer running one operating system or the other will (for the most part) work fine in and of itself. But when you put software designed to run on one operating system onto a computer running a different one, and suddenly you will get error messages something does not compute! It is the same experience when you interact with someone from a different culture their words, assumptions, gestures, values, and other aspects of their culture will not make sense when transferred to your frame of reference. Williams (1983: 87-90), who calls culture one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language, also emphasizes on the abstract elements of culture. He suggests three broad definitions. First, culture can be used to refer to a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development. We could, for example, speak about the cultural development of Western Europe and be referring only to intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic factors great philosophers, great artists and great poets. This would be a perfectly understandable formulation. A second use of the word culture might be to suggest a particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group (1983: 90). Using this definition, if we speak of the cultural development of USA, we would have in mind not just intellectual and aesthetic factors, but the development of, for example, literacy, holidays, sport, and religious festivals. Finally, Williams suggests that culture can be used to refer to the works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity (1983: 90). In other words, culture here means the texts and practices whose principal function is to signify, to produce or to be the occasion for the production of meaning. Using this definition, we would probably think of examples such as poetry, the novel, ballet, opera, and fine art. To integrate the views on culture which emphasize both the concrete and abstract elements, culture is often expressed through an iceberg metaphor. This metaphor shows a cruise ship sailing close to the iceberg for a look at this foreign territory. Part of the iceberg is immediately visible; part of it emerges and submerges with the tides, and its foundations go deep beneath the surface. The part of the iceberg visible above the waterline represents aspects of culture that are explicit and visible. This includes written explanations, as well as those thousands of skills and information conveyed through formal lessons, such as manners, building houses, or cooking rice. Also above water are the tangible aspects: from the "cultural markers" tourists seek out such as French bread or Guatemalan weaving, to the conformity in how people dress, the way they pronounce the letter "R", how they season their food, the way they expect and office to be furnished.
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The part of the iceberg located in the transition zone is where the cultural observer has to be more alert: "now you see it now you don't", the area where implicit understandings become talked about, explained--mystical experiences are codified into a creed; the area where official explanations and teachings become irrational, contradictory, inexplicable--where theology becomes faith. The part of the iceberg located below the water line is the "hidden" culture, i.e. the habits, assumptions, understandings, values, judgments ... that we know but do not or cannot articulate. Usually these aspects are Picture 1.2.: Culture Iceberg Metaphor not taught directly. Think about mealtime, for example, and the order you eat foods at dinner: Do you end with dessert? With a pickle? With tea? Nuts and cheese? Just have one course with no concluding dish? Or, in these modern times, do you dispense with a sit-down meal altogether? Or consider how you know if someone is treating you in a friendly manner: do they shake hands? keep a respectful distance with downcast eyes? leap up and hug you? address you by your full name? These sorts of daily rules are learned by osmosis -you may know what tastes "right" or when you're treated "right", but because these judgments are under-the-waterline, it usually doesn't occur to you to question or explain those feelings. By synthesizing these definitions we can say that culture is the context within which a member of a society exists, thinks, feels and relates to other. In other words, it is the shared value system of the members of a society. And, as a system, it has patterns, which an outsider can understand. This concept, that culture has patterns, is very beneficial for us, because it enables us to understand a foreign culture by comparing its patterns to the patterns of our own culture. Characteristics of Culture In order to better understand culture, it is useful to closely examine its characteristics and their ramifications. In this section, you will learn about the specific advantages that culture gives our species. You will also learn about culture's limitations and shortcomings. These ideas are discussed in seven points: culture is an adaptive mechanism, culture is learned, cultures change, people usually are not aware of their culture, people usually are not aware of their culture, culture gives us a range of permissible behavior patterns, and cultures no longer exist in isolation (Dennis, 2006a). 1. Culture is an Adaptive Mechanism The first humans evolved in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa about 2.5 million years ago. Since then, we have successfully occupied all of the major geographic regions of the world, but our bodies have remained essentially those of warm climate animals. We cannot survive outside of the warmer regions of our planet without our cultural knowledge and technology. What made it possible for our ancestors to begin living in temperate and ultimately subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere after half a million years ago was the invention of efficient hunting skills, fire use, and, ultimately, clothing, warm housing, agriculture, and commerce. Culture has been a highly successful adaptive mechanism for our species. It has given us a major selective advantage in the competition for survival with other life forms. Culture has allowed the global human
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population to grow from less than 10 million people shortly after the end of the last ice age to more than 6.5 billion people today, a mere 10,000 years later. Culture has made us the most dangerous and the most destructive large animal on our planet. It is ironic that despite the power that culture has given us, we are totally dependent on it for survival. We need our cultural skills to stay alive. Over the last several hundred thousand years, we have developed new survival related cultural skills and technologies at a faster rate than natural selection could alter our bodies to Picture 1.1.: Successful cultural adapt to the environmental challenges that confronted us. The technology for adapting to very fact that cultural evolution can occur faster than biological cold winter environments evolution has significantly modified the effect of natural selection on humans. One consequence of this has been that we have not developed thick fat layers and dense fur coats like polar bears in the cold regions because our culture provided the necessary warmth during winter times. 2. Culture is learned Human infants come into the world with basic drives such as hunger and thirst, but they do not possess instinctive patterns of behavior to satisfy them. Likewise, they are without any cultural knowledge. However, they are genetically predisposed to rapidly learn language and other cultural traits. New born humans are amazing learning machines. Any normal baby can be placed into any family on earth and grow up to learn their culture and accept it as his or her own. Since culture is non-instinctive, we are not genetically programmed to learn a particular one. Every human generation potentially can discover new things and invent better technologies. The new cultural skills and knowledge are Picture 1.2.: added onto what was learned in previous generations. As a result, North American children culture is cumulative. Due to this cumulative effect, most high school informally learning the students today are now familiar with mathematical insights and culture of their parents solutions that ancient Greeks such as Archimedes and Pythagoras struggled their lives to discover. Cultural evolution is due to the cumulative effect of culture. We now understand that the time between major cultural inventions has become steadily shorter, especially since the invention of agriculture 8,000-10,000 years ago. The progressively larger human population after that time was very likely both a consequence and a cause of accelerating culture growth. The more people there are, the more likely new ideas and information will accumulate. If those ideas result in a larger, more secure food supplies, the population will inevitably grow. In a sense, culture has been the human solution to surviving changing environments, but it has continuously compounded the problem by making it possible for more humans to stay alive. In other words, human cultural evolution can be seen as solving a problem that causes the same problem again and again. The ultimate cost of success of cultural technology has been a need to produce more and more food for more and more people. The invention of agriculture made it possible for our ancestors to have a more controllable and, subsequently, dependable food supply. It also resulted in settling down in permanent communities. This in turn set the stage for further developments in technology and political
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organization. The inevitable result was more intensive agriculture, new kinds of social and political systems dominated by emerging elite classes, the first cities, and ultimately the industrial and information revolutions of modern times. City life brought with it the unexpected consequence of increased rates of contagious diseases. Large, dense populations of people make it much easier for viruses, bacteria, and other disease causing microorganisms to spread from host to host. As a result, most cities in the past were periodically devastated by epidemics. The rate of cultural evolution for many human societies during the last two centuries has been unprecedented. Today, major new technologies are invented every few years rather than once or twice a century or even less often, as was the case in the past. Likewise, there has been an astounding increase in the global human population. It is worth reflecting on the fact that there are people alive today who were born before cell phones, computers, televisions, radios, antibiotics, and even airplanes. These now elderly individuals have seen the human population double several times. The world that was familiar to them in their childhood is no longer here. It is as if they have moved to a new alien culture and society. Not surprisingly, they often have difficulty in accepting and adjusting to the change. The psychological distress and confusion that accompanies this has been referred to as future shock. 3. Cultures Change All cultural knowledge does not perpetually accumulate. At the same time that new cultural traits are added, some old ones are lost because they are no longer useful. For example, most city dwellers today do not have or need the skills required for survival in a wilderness. Most would very likely starve to death because they do not know how to acquire wild foods and survive the extremes of weather outdoors. What is more important in modern urban life are such things as the ability to drive a car, use a computer, and understand how to obtain food in a supermarket or restaurant. The regular addition and subtraction of cultural traits results in culture change. All cultures change over time--none is static. Picture 1.3.: North American However, the rate of change and the aspects of culture that change woman in a job that formerly varies from society to society. For instance, people in Germany would not have been open to today generally seem eager to adopt new words from other women languages, especially from American English, while many French people are resistant to it because of the threat of "corrupting" their own language. However, the French are just as eager as the Germans to adopt new technology. Change can occur as a result of both invention within a society as well as the diffusion of cultural traits from one society to another. Predicting whether a society will adopt new cultural traits or abandon others is complicated by the fact that the various aspects of a culture are closely interwoven into a complex pattern. Changing one trait will have an impact on other traits because they are functionally interconnected. As a result, there commonly is a resistance to major changes. For example, many men in North America and Europe resisted the increase in economic and political opportunities for women over the last century because of the far ranging consequences. It inevitably changed the nature of marriage, the family, and the lives of all men. It also significantly altered the workplace as well as the legal system and the decisions made by governments. 4. People are Usually not Aware of Their Culture The way that we interact and do things in our everyday lives seems "natural" to us. We are unaware of our culture because we are so close to it and know it so well. For most people, it is as if
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their learned behavior was biologically inherited. It is usually only when they come into contact with people from another culture that they become aware that their patterns of behavior are not universal. The common response in all societies to other cultures is to judge them in terms of the values and customs of their own familiar culture. This is ethnocentrism . Being fond of your own way of life and condescending or even hostile toward other cultures is normal for all people. Alien culture traits are often viewed as being not just different but inferior, less sensible, and even "unnatural." For example, European cultures strongly condemn other societies that practice polygamy and the eating of dogs--behavior that Europeans generally consider to be immoral and offensive. Likewise, many people in conservative Muslim societies, such as Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, consider European women highly immodest and immoral for going out in public without being chaperoned by a male relative and without their bodies covered from head to toe so as to prevent men from looking at them. Ethnocentrism is not characteristic only of complex modern societies. People in small, relatively isolated societies are also ethnocentric in their views about outsiders. Our ethnocentrism can prevent us from understanding and appreciating another culture. When anthropologists study other societies, they need to suspend their own ethnocentric judgments and adopt a cultural relativity approach. That is, they try to learn about and interpret the various aspects of the culture they are studying in reference to that culture rather than to the anthropologist's own culture. This provides an understanding of how such practices as polygamy can function and even support other cultural traditions. Without taking a cultural relativity approach, it would otherwise be difficult, for example, to comprehend why women among the Masai cattle herding people of Kenya might prefer to be one of several co-wives rather than have a monogamous marriage. Taking a cultural relativity approach is not only useful for anthropologists. It is a very useful tool for diplomats, businessmen, doctors, and anyone else who needs to interact with people from other societies and even other subcultures within their own society. However, it can be emotionally difficult and uncomfortable at first to suspend one's own cultural values in these situations. From an objective perspective, it can be seen that ethnocentrism has both positive and negative values for a society. The negative potential is obvious. Ethnocentrism results in prejudices about people from other cultures and the rejection of their "alien ways." When there is contact with people from other cultures, ethnocentrism can prevent open communication and result in misunderstanding and mistrust. This would be highly counterproductive for businessmen trying to negotiate a trade deal or even just neighbors trying to get along with each other. The positive aspect of ethnocentrism has to do with the protection that it can provide for a culture. By causing a rejection of the foods, customs, and perceptions of people in other cultures, it acts as a conservative force in preserving traditions of one's own culture. It can help maintain the separation and uniqueness of cultures. 5. We Do Not Know All of Our Own Culture No one knows everything about his or her own culture. In all societies, there are bodies of specialized cultural knowledge that are gender specificthey are known to men but not women or vice versa. In many societies there are also bodies of knowledge that are limited largely to particular social classes, occupations, religious groups, or other special purpose associations. Gender based skills, knowledge, and perceptions largely stem from the fact that boys and girls to some extent are treated differently from each other in all societies. While there may be considerable overlap in what they are taught, there are some things that are gender specific. In the Western World, for instance, it is more common to teach boys about the skills of combat and how
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machines work. Girls are more often exposed to the subtleties of social interaction and the use of clothing and makeup to communicate intentions. Not surprisingly, men are more likely to know how to fix their car or computer, while women generally are better at predicting the outcome of social interaction and make finer distinctions in fabric and color terms. 6. Culture Gives Us a Range of Permissible Behavior Patterns Cultures commonly allow a range of ways in which men can be men and women can be women. Culture also tells us how different activities should be conducted, such as how one should act as a husband, wife, parent, child, etc. These rules of permissible behavior are usually flexible to a degree--there are some alternatives rather than hard rules. In North America, for instance, culture tells us how we should dress based on our gender, but it allows us to dress in different ways in different situations in order to communicate varied messages and statuses. The clothing patterns of women in this society can be particularly rich and complex. Their clothing can be intentionally business-like, recreational, as well as sexually Picture 1.5.: A Modern attractive, ambiguous, neutral, or even repulsive. North American Woman in a suit American women are generally more knowledgeable than men that was formerly worn only about the subtleties of using clothing and other adornment to by men. communicate their intentions. The wide range of permissible ways of being a woman in North America today makes women somewhat unpredictable as individuals when others are trying to understand their intentions but do not fully comprehend the cultural patterns. It is particularly hard for men from other cultures to comprehend the subtle nuances. This at times can result in awkward or even dangerous situations. For instance, the easy friendliness and casual, somewhat revealing dress of young North American women in the summertime is sometimes interpreted by traditional Latin American and Middle Eastern men as a sexual invitation. What messages do the clothes and body language of the women in pictures 1.4. and 1.5. communicate to you? How do you think they might be interpreted by members of the opposite gender and by people in other cultures? Do you think that the age of the observer might play a part in their interpretation? The range of permissible ways of dressing and acting as a man or woman are often very limited in strictly fundamental Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and Hindu societies. In Afghanistan under the Taliban rule during the late 1990's, men were expected to wear traditional male clothing and were beaten or jailed by morality police for not having a full beard, playing or listening to music, or allowing female family members to go out in public unchaperoned. Women were similarly punished for being in public without wearing a plain loose outer gown that covered their face and entire body including their feet. They also were not allowed to go to school or to work outside of the home. To the surprise of Europeans and North Americans, many of these conservative cultural patterns did not disappear with the end of Taliban control. They are deeply ingrained in the Islamic tradition of Afghanistan and in the more Picture 1.4.: A Modern American Woman in a present-day fashion conservative nations of the Middle East.

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7. Cultures No Longer Exist in Isolation It is highly unlikely that there are any societies still existing in total isolation from the outside world. Even small, out of the way tribal societies are now being integrated to some extent into the global economy. That was not the case a few short generations ago. Some of the societies in the Highlands of New Guinea were unaware of anyone beyond their homeland until the arrival of European Australian miners in the 1930's. A few of the Indian tribes in the Upper Amazon Basin of South America remained unaware of the outside world until explorers entered their territories in the 1950's and 1960's. Members of these same New Guinean and Picture 1.6.: Conservative Muslim women in Amazonian societies today buy clothes and household the Middle East. They are fully covered for items produced by multinational corporations. They are modesty in public and are being escorted by developing a growing knowledge of other cultures a male relative. (Note: women in some through schools, radios, and even televisions and the predominantly Muslim countries lead lives Internet. As a result of this inevitable process, their that are much less constrained by tradition.) languages and indigenous cultural patterns are being rapidly replaced. Virtually all societies are now acquiring cultural traits from the economically dominant societies of the world. The most influential of these dominant societies today are predominantly in North America and Western Europe. However, even these societies are rapidly adopting words, foods, and other cultural traits from all over the world. The emergence of what is essentially a shared global culture is not likely to result in the current major cultures disappearing in the immediate future the same way many of the small indigenous ones have. Language differences and ethnocentrism will very likely prevent that from happening. There are powerful conflicting trends in the world today. At the same time that many people are actively embracing globalism, or the view that the people and nations of the world should become more economically and politically integrated and unified, others are reviving tribalism, i.e. a profound loyalty to one's tribe or ethnic group and a rejection of others. Those who advocate globalism generally believe that ethnocentrism, nationalism, and tribalism are obstacles that must be overcome whereas those who promote tribalism generally believe that globalism is a threat that must be overcome. A pattern of establishing ethnically "pure" nations through aggressive "ethnic 1.7.: Australian cleansing" occurred in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990's. Picture Aborigine wearing European Similar attempts to carve out tribal based nations have occurred in the former republics of the Soviet Union and in a number of African style clothes nations (Dennis, 2006b). The Role of Culture in a Foreign Language Program In all communications through language people do not only use their linguistic competence but also involve their perception, idea, gesture and many other things shaped by their culture. If the persons involved in the communication come from the same culture, to a certain extent, they can understand each other without any complicated obstacles. However, if they are members of different cultures, although their linguistic competence in the language used is high enough,
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misunderstandings are likely to occur. Thus, it is apparent that culture and language are two inseparable elements of human communication. The awareness of the close relationship that exists between language and culture has actually been one of the most significant developments for the field of language learning and teaching. Brown (1987: 123) emphasizes that A language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately interwoven such that one can not separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture. In support of the link between culture and communication, Samovar et al., (1981, cited in Lessard-Clouston 1997: 3) state: Culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what, and how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted ...Culture ...is the foundation of communication. In accordance with this, more than four decades ago Politzer (cited in Brooks, 1960: 85-86) had pointed out the high importance of incorporating cultural matters into language teaching: "As language teachers we must be interested in the study of culture not because we necessarily want to teach the culture of the other country, but because we have to teach it. If we teach language without teaching at the same time the culture in which it operates, we are teaching meaningless symbols or symbols to which the student attaches the wrong meaning; for unless he is warned, unless he receives cultural instruction, he will associate American concepts or objects with the foreign symbols". Despite this awareness, however, cultural instruction as part of the second/foreign language learning/teaching the programs continues to be ignored. McGroarty and Galvans (cited in CelceMurcia, 1985: 81) survey revealed that courses dealing with the role of culture in language learning are not commonly included in the core curricula of TESL programs in the United States. In parallel with this, a brief survey on the present curricula and classroom interactions of English in Indonesian schools will show that cultural teaching is not adequately dealt with. By relating the important role of culture in any communication through language to the fact that Indonesia has been at the threshold of the globalization erain which our present students will be inevitably involved in multicultural interactionsthe inevitability of including cultural elements in our language program is very obvious. Ethnocentrism and Stereotypes Whenever we try to study cultures we should always be aware of the two barriers, which probably prevent us from completely understanding other culture, i.e. ethnocentrism and stereotypes. Ethnocentrism is the belief that ones own culture is the best and that his interpretation of the world of reality is the most reliable and truthful. Such belief can result in negative judgments about other cultures, or it can manifest in critical attitudes towards individual from different culture. The illustration that describes two womens inability to understand each others point of view about the relationship between children and parents presented by Levine and Adelman (1982: 180) is a good example. In the first womans culture, children live with their parents until marriage because dependence on parents is considered positive, while in the second womans culture children leave home when they are eighteen because independence and selfreliance are considered positive. As a consequence, the former thinks that children and parents in
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the latters country do not like each other. On the other hand, the latter thinks children in the country of the former are very late to be mature and to learn about life. Such misunderstanding, which may then lead to unexpected conflict, can be prevented if the two sides were sensitive to each other values concerning family life. In order to have such sensitivity, a person should realize the truth that underlies the principle of cultural relativity, or the concept that cultural norms are societal conventions, that these conventions develop arbitrarily over time, and that they are subject to the same evolutionary influences as language. Realizing this, one of a language teachers responsibilities is to embed cultural relativity to his students. Stereotypes can simply be defined as an over generalized and sometimes distorted description of groups of people. A stereotype usually exists if we have limited contact with other cultural groups, or if we have limited information about them. For instance, if we got information about American cowboys and Indian only from movies, we will probably depict cowboys as civilized and Indians as wild and primitive (Levine and Adelman, 1982: 181). Any stereotypical beliefs will exert two negative impacts on us. Firstly, they prevent us from seeing individuals. Though, by stereotyping, we may be accurate in depicting the typical member of a culture, it is inaccurate for describing a particular person, because every person is a unique individual and all of a persons behavioral characteristics cannot be accurately predicted on the basis of cultural norms. Secondly, they can lead us to prejudice, suspicion, intolerance, or hatred towards other cultural groups. To make this clearer, lets consider the following Saville-Troikes (cited in Brown, 1987: 126) notes. Based on their observation, some middle class-whites (in the United States) regard that the lower socioeconomic classes frequently lack proper bathing facilities or changes of clothing. On the other hand, the blacks stereotype whites smell like dogs coming in out of the rain. Such contradictive views could inevitably lead them to prejudices. If both sides realized that those views were basically stemmed from different customs of so called cleanliness, those views might have never been in existence. And, as a consequence, it might have been easier for both sides to see one another more positively. Considering these explanations it is clear that a thorough understanding of the concepts of stereotype, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativity is very essential in every trial to understand cultural differences. Thus, those concepts should be inculcated to students as soon as possible. The students do not necessarily need to learn the definitions of these concepts by heart. But they should be helped to see the concepts permeate in every element of culture they are learning. Goals of Cultural Teaching In general, courses in culture (as part of language programs) are designed to achieve one of the following general objectives: firstly, to enable the learners to explain aspects of a specific culture; or, secondly, to develop cultural awareness as part of the learners personal growth and experience (Celce-Murcia, 1985: 81). Both are important objectives, but in order to be effective, each course of cultural instruction should decide one of these goals as a priority. Finocchiaro (1988: 24) suggests that the development of cross-cultural awareness should be made one of the major goals. Kwintessential (n.a.) emphasizes that the fundamental intention of cross cultural training is to equip the learner(s) with the appropriate skills to attain cross cultural understanding. Relating this to the fact that the major intention of English program in Indonesia is to enable the learners to function appropriately in English and to communicate with foreigners, the second objective sounds more appropriate to achieve. This objective is commonly broken down into three specific purposes. Firstly, to develop in its participants awareness of their own culture in addition to awareness of other cultures and subcultures within their own. Secondly, to provide the learners with the theoretical framework needed to understand how their own culture relates to other cultures.

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Thirdly, to guide participants to discover ways of applying their awareness to the actual learning of ESL/EFL (Celce-Murcia, 1985: 93). Relating these ideas to the nature of human communication through language, it is apparent that the major forms of culture we need to deal with in a foreign language program should be the one that views culture as a blue print or integrated patterns of abstraction derived from observable behavior of a group of people. Therefore, realistic elements of culture we should include are notions like educational attitudes, values of personal relationship, family values, time and space patterns, work values, etc. Although the concrete forms of culture like painting, music, and tools are interesting to discuss, since they are not inherent elements of communicative competence, they are not of high important to deal with in relation to the teaching of a foreign language. In the following chapters readers will be provided with essential information needed in any discussions about aspects of American society, including basic feature of American people, an outline of the history of the U.S., family values, social relationship, educational values, work values, religions in America, American government, and the common character of Americans. By understanding those information readers are expected to have a sound knowledge that will help them avoid culturally based misunderstandings. The focus on American culture in this book is based on two considerations. First, due to the globalization trends, Americans seems to be the major culture learners exposed to through media. Compared to other cultures belonging to English native speakers, American culture is so dominant in the global life-style that it will not create serious problems to take necessary examples from the realities while discussing the topics of the subject. Second, American culture is expected to enrich the students own personality and broaden their horizon. By having such rich personality and broad horizon, the students will find it relatively easy to live in the global world.

Activity One The followings are pictures of seven traditional houses from different places in the world. Form small groups (of 3-4 members each) and discuss the following questions in relation to these pictures. 1. In what aspects do you think the houses different one from the others? 2. Relate each of the differences to any relevant characteristics of culture of the people who built the house.

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Activity Two All the items that below are all features of culture. Using the concepts expressed in Culture Iceberg Metaphor, determine which items exist above the waterline (those features you consider observable behavior) and which exist beneath the line.

1. facial expressions 2. religious beliefs 3. religious rituals 4. importance of time 5. paintings 6. values 7. literature 8. childraising beliefs 9. concept of leadership 10. gestures 11. nature of friendship 12. holiday customs 13. concept of fairness

14. notions of modesty 15. foods 16. eating habits 17. understanding of the natural world 18. concept of self 19. work ethic 20. concept of beauty 21. music 22. styles of dress 23. general world view 24. concept of personal space 25. rules of social etiquette

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Activity Three To understand where behavior comes fromto understand why people behave the way they domeans learning about values and beliefs. The behavior of people from another culture may seem strange to you, but it probably makes sense to them, and vice versa. The reason any behavior makes sense is simply because it is consistent with what a given person believes in or holds dear. Conversely, when we say that what someone has done makes no sense, what we mean is that that action contradicts what we believe that person feels or wants. In the exercise below, match the value or belief in the column on the left to a behavior in the column on the right.

1. Directness 2. Centrality of family 3. External control 4. Saving face 5. Respect for age 6. Informality 7. respect to authority 8. Indirectness 9. Self-reliance 10. Egalitarianism

____ Use of understatement. ____ Asking people to call you by your first name. ____ Taking off from work to attend the funeral of an aunt. ____ Not helping the person next to you on an exam. ____ Disagreeing openly with someone at a meeting. ____ Not laying off an older worker whose performance is weak. ____ At a meeting, agreeing with a suggestion you think is wrong. ____ Inviting the tea-boy to eat lunch with you in your office. ____Asking the headmasters opinion of something youre the expert on. ____ Accepting, without question, that something cannot be changed.

Activity Four Culture is only one category or dimension of human behavior, and it is therefore important to see it in relation to the other two dimensions: the universal and the personal. The three can be distinguished as follows: (1) universal refers to ways in which all people in all groups are the same; (2) cultural refers to what a particular group of people have in common with each other and how they are different from every other group; (3) personal describes the ways in which each one of us is different from everyone else, including those in our group. This exercise contains a list of behaviors. In the underlined space preceding each of them, put a U if you think the behavior is universal, C if it is cultural, or P if it is personal.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.

___

Sleeping with a bedroom window open. Running from a dangerous animal. Considering snakes to be evil. Men opening doors for women. Respecting older people. Liking spicy food. Preferring playing soccer to reading a book. Eating regularly. Eating with knife, fork, and spoon. Being wary of strangers. Calling a waiter with a hissing sound. Regretting being the cause of an accident. Feeling sad at the death of your mother. Wearing white mourning robes for 30 days after the death of your mother. Not liking wearing mourning robes for 30 days after the death of your mother.

2. ___ 3. ___ 4. ___ 5. ___ 6. ___ 7. ___ 8. ___ 9. ___ 10. ___ 11. ___ 12. ___ 13. ___ 14. ___ 15. ___

Activity Five
Write an essay of 250-300 words on The Importance of Cultural Teaching in a Foreign Language Study

References
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Clack, George (ed.) 1997. Portrait of the USA. Washington D.C.: United States Information Agency. Croft, Kenneth (ed.) 1980. Readings on English as a Second Language. Massachusetts: Winthrop Publishers, Inc. Curry, Dean. 1987. An American Grab Bag. Washington D.C.: English Teaching Division Affairs, United States Information Agency. Encyclopdia Britannica. 2007. Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopdia Britannica. Essman, Elliot. 2007. Advantages for Senior Citizens. Retrieved April 20, 2008 from: http://www.lifeintheusa. com/aging/advantages.htm Flag of the United States-Wikipedia. (2006). Retrieved on April 27, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/American_flag Hofstede, Geert. 1997. Cultures and Organizations. New York: McGraw-Hill. Haviland, William A. 1974. Anthropology. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston. Hedde, Wilhelmina G. 1975. Patterns in Communication. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company. Kearny, Edward N., Mary Ann Kearny, and Jo Ann Crandal. 1984. The American Way: An Introduction to American Culture. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc. Kirn, Elaine. 1989. About the USA. Washington D.C.: United States Information Agency. Kwintessential (n.a.) Cross-Cultural-Understanding. Retrieved December 15, 2007 from: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/cross-cultural-Understanding.html Larson, Donald N. and William Smalley A. 1972. Becoming Bilingual: A Guide to Language Learning. New Canaan, C.N.: Practical Anthropology. Lee, Sharon M. and Barry Edmonston. 2005. New Marriages, New Families: U.S. Racial and Hispanic Intermarriage. Published in Population Bulletin Vol. 60, No. 2, 2005. Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau. Levine, Deena R. and Adelman, Mara B. 1982. Beyond Language: Intercultural Communication for English as a Second Language. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc. Mather, Mark, Kerri L. Rivers, and Linda A. Jacobsen. 2005. The American Community Survey. Published in Population Bulletin Vol. 6, No. 3, September 2005. Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau. Martin, Patricia. 2009. American Life & Culture Survey. Chicago: LitLamp Communications Group O'Neil, Dennis. 2006a. Characteristics of Culture. Retrieved December 15, 2007 from: http:// Pusch, Margaret D. (ed.) 1981. Multicultural Education: Cross Cultural Training Approach. Chicago: Intercultural Network Inc. Scanzoni, Letha D. and John Scanzoni. 1981. Man, Women and Change. New York: McGraw-Hill. Short J, Deborah. 1995. By the People, for the People: U.S. Government and Citizenship. Illinois: Delta System Co., Inc. Spencer-Oatey, Helen (ed). 2008. Culturally Speaking: Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory. New York: Continuum. The World Factbook: The United States. (2006). Retrieved on May 3, 2006 from http://education.yahoo.com/reference/factbook/us/popula.html Wikipedia. 2009a. Education in the United States. Retrieved Februari 20, 2009 from: http://en.wikipedia. org/ wiki/Education_in_the_United_States _______. 2009b. Social Class in the United States. Retrieved Februari 20, 2009 from: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Social_class_in_the_United_States _______. 2009c. Poverty in the United States. Retrieved Februari 20, 2009 from: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States
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