PART 1 The excerpt relates that culture has its effects on a language. They are both inseparable.

They both effect the development of personality and influence ones thoughts and perceptions. However, when teaching English, we tend to relate to the English culture. As we learn the language we ought to adopt the English patterns of speaking into our environment rather than using our own culture to convey the language. This is because linguistic competence by itself is not enough for learners of a language to be competent in that language (Kranser, 1999). Learners need to be aware of the culturally appropriate ways that may vary from their own culture. For example, Come here, an act of making request would be match with the appropriate social value rather than being linguistically correct. Therefore, learners should know that it is important to associate language with culture in order to communicate successfully. Based on the Sapir Whorf hypotheses, it is stated that culture and language are bound together so tightly that learning a new language requires learning a new culture and thus a new way of viewing the world. This is evident in the learning of English by the Malaysian. The Malay language contains many other examples of language that does not translate culturally into English. Names, for example, are often not used in Malay if there is some way to avoid it. Relationships or occupations are frequently used to refer to people instead such as mak cik, datuk etc. A Malay learner of English in America may experience culture shock at the idea of calling a teacher by his or her name rather than just calling that person teacher. Hence, what is said by the Sapir Whorf hypotheses matches the ESL context in a Malaysian environment. This shows that it is important that culture to be taught implicitly, imbedded in the linguistic forms that students are learning. To make students aware of the cultural features reflected in the language, teachers can make those cultural features an explicit topic of discussion in relation to the linguistic forms being studied. According to John Munro, the culture in which a person learns sets the agenda for learning in several ways. It determines what is learnt and influences how and when it is learnt. He added that what and how a person learns is influenced in large measure by the culture in which the learning occurs and the social interaction processes in which the learner engages. This is because people in a certain society or place use their language to express their culture

thus expressing the world view in that society. For example, the use of abang in the Malay language differs from father in English language. In Malay, abang is used to refer to an elder brother or sometimes ones father, whereas, in English it also used to refer to a Catholic priest. In other words, part of our knowledge is culturally determined and part is our knowledge of the world. Meanwhile, Piaget says that culture will form ones language where from this; the theory of cognitive growth was born. Furthermore, most experts believed that cultural education in language learning should focus on educating the learning about the target language. Cultural and language barriers under-represent ESL students cognitive abilities. They go through a period of disequilibrium as they assimilate their new culture. For example, a child from a rural area in Malaysia would be able to name various fruits as he or she would likely be surrounded by plantations, whereas, a child in America would have limited knowledge on tropical fruits. Hence, rural child would be able to classify other fruits if asked to do so. This shows that children from diffrent culture bring a different set of experiences and perspectives on understanding the world. According to Piaget, this new schema causes the child to be in a state of disequilibrium, which leads to accommodation of new knowledge. Hence, Teachers in the ESL classroom need to understand that while some children are often quiet and withdrawn in their classrooms, they are experiencing a state of disequilibrium of the different concepts they are viewing or learning and sometimes are in a state of confusion as they try to assimilate the new knowledge into their old existing knowledge.

In 1974, Howard Nostrand presented the Emergent Model of language learning that established six categories of influence for language learning which the first category was culture. He emphasized that there are there cultural elements values, traits and world view as inter related ideas that help to establish the meaning in which students of a language base their learning on. Therefore, in a Malaysian ESL classroom it is important that a learner be provided with enough opportunities inside and outside the classroom to experience other viewpoints and consequently reflect on his or her own culture: intercultural competence.

PART 2

No. Word/ 1 Phrases got

Local Equivalent (Bahasa Melayu) ada

Cultural Distinction It is used to express the English verb to have. Therefore, got is substituted for every tense of the verb. You got anything to do? (Kamu ada apa-apa untuk buat?) Where got? To deny something, as in Malay Mana ada? In the English language, chop relates to cutting of. Whereas, in Malay 'cop' meaning stamp e.g. "Put your company chop on the receipt". In England, it is often having a bath in the bathtub but in Malaysia we mostly take a shower standing up underneath a shower. It is often said Go and take your bath! Or Go and bathe. Really what is meant is take a shower. When you pass something, you move it from one person to another. You do not pass up your homework - you pass in your homework. Pass up is used when talking about chances or offers to do something. When you pass something up you are giving something amiss. In the English language it means on the previous occurrence. However, in Malaysian context it means previously. It is often used instead of "used to", for example: "Last time I was in the army" when the meaning is "I used to be an soldier"

chop

stamp

bath/ bathe

mandi

pass up

hantar ke depan

last time

dulu

Based on the previous table, it can be noted that problems may arise in teaching and learning as pupils bring their knowledge in their first language into the classroom. As discussed in Piagets cognitive theory, children bring their own schema into the classroom. These children

with different background will have different understanding of the second language and they might display lack of understanding in their English classroom. Hence, in their attempts to answer the teachers questions, they would tend to; to guess, to take risks, to experiment. This might lead to mistakes or misconception. If this prolong, the children might be reluctant to do so as their previous attempts were proven wrong. This negative impact will hinder the childrens desire to learn the language. This problem can be used to its advantage. For example, in rural areas where plantation is a source of income, pupils would tend to have a certain amount of knowledge on it. Instead of getting pupils to talk about procedures of building a robot, teachers can get pupils to talk about ways to plant paddy. By doing this, pupils will be able to use words or phrases that they are familiar with in their first language. Pupils will be able to relate to the words that have familiar meaning in their first language. This will help pupils to hinder misconception of words or phrases. By doing so, teachers are developing the schema that pupils have brought to the classroom into a different platform. Cultural differences may also impact the criteria of choosing appropriate materials to be used in the ESL classroom. It is necessary to consider how the selected materials deal with cultural conventions and norms in the Malaysian context. Materials of the English language tend to culture-bound, hence, creating problems for the ESL pupils. Pupils will not only come across unfamiliar topics or words but also with linguistic ones. This will cause difficulties in comprehension and production of language. Therefore, before using cultural materials, it is best to adapt and edit the materials to suit the pupils. Teachers can also ensure that the pupils have enough background knowledge before presenting cultural materials. Teachers can adapt their use of authentic materials to suit the age and language proficiency level of the pupils. For example, even beginning language pupils can watch and listen to video clips taken from a television show in the target language and focus on such cultural conventions as greetings. The teacher might supply pupils with a detailed translation or give them a chart, diagram, or outline to complete while they listen to a dialogue or watch a video. This will help to reduce any misconception as the teacher has help the pupils to related to the material with the pupils own culture knowledge.

Heath's and Philips'(1982) studies show how different home or community culture and language habits can pose problems for pupils' learning or schooling. They indicated that the norms of a culture will affect the learning of the pupils in an ESL classroom. Teachers teaching in Malaysia should keep in mind that there will be the possibility that pupils in schools may come from communities or homes that practice an entirely different pattern of language habits, language, and culture. Hence, their behaviour might affect their learning skills. The learning process of pupils from the Indian background tend to takes place mainly through observing their elders and practicing the skill alone until they have completely mastered it as they are not allowed to question their parents. Hence, the silent of these pupils tend to be viewed as lack of understanding and causes pupils to fail in their ESL learning. Peer pressure, is also another cultural differences, forces the children to uphold and continue to speak their first language. The social need of the children causes them to adhere to peer pressure. They place a high value on the language used among their peers contradicting the value imposed on English upheld by the school. Malaysian pupils too have their social needs and therefore do not escape peer pressure. The rural environment, for instance, triggers peer pressure which discourages pupils to speak English; thus, pupils may refuse to learn it. Based on experience, pupils tend to giggle away if their friends spoke in English. As a conclusion, culture does have its effect on acquiring the English language in an ESL environment. They both are indeed inseparable. Problems may arise because of these cultural differences that may hinder the teaching and learning process of the English language. Hence, it is important second language instructors in Malaysia be familiar with the impact of culture on the English language. Teaching the language is not only about the lexical or grammatical items but also the cultural values that it brings along. Pupils should be made aware of these differences either explicitly or implicitly as seen suited by the teacher.

References

Boroditsky,

L.

(2010).

Lost

in

Traslation.

Retrieved

25

June

2012

from

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467304575383131592767868.html Muniandy, Mohan K., Nair, Gopala Krishnan Sekharan, Krishnan @ Shanmugam, Shashi Kumar, InnaAhmad, Norashikin Mohamed Noor. (2010). Sociolinguistic competence and Malaysian students English language proficiency. English Language Teaching 3(3): 145-151. Peterson, E, & Coltrance, B. (2003). Culture in Second Language Teaching. Retrieved 25 June 2012 from Cal:Digests : http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0309peterson.html/ Razali, Norrizan (1992). ESL in Malaysia: Looking Beyond the Classroom. Retrieved 25 June 2012 from MELTA: http://www.melta.org.my/ET/1992/main8.html Rowsell, J., Sztainbok,V., Blaney, J. (2007). Losing strangeness :Using Culture to Mediate ESL Teaching . Retrieved 25 June 2012 from http://uncw.edu/ed/pdfs/news/CultureandESL.pdf Zohrabi, Mohammad & Mohd Shah, Parilah. Culture-free and Culture-bound English Language Classes. Retrieved 25 June 2012 from http://www.ukm.my/solls09/Proceeding/PDF/Mohammad%20Zohrabi%20&%20Parilah.pdf