Beyond barriers fresh frontiers: selected readings on languages, literatures, and cultures

The 20 articles in this volume are from the Malaysia International Conference on Languages, Literature and Culture 2003, which was organised by Universiti Putra Malaysia. They offer fresh perspectives on several themes, including: the determinants of how language is acquired; the usage and communication roles of language; the enactments of power in post-colonial literature; and language in inter-cultural cross-communication. Two of the papers are on Malaysia; one discusses language choice in the Malaysian legal context, and the other argues for a more proactive approach towards Malaysian research in corpus linguistics

Why Possibly Language Evolved

Human language has no close parallels in other systems of animal communication. Yet it is an important part of the cultural adaptation that serves to make humans an exceedingly successful species. In the past 20 years, a diverse set of evolutionary scholars have tried to answer the question of how language evolved in our species and why it is unique to us. They have converged on the idea that the cultural and innate aspects of language were tightly linked in a process of gene-culture coevolution. They differ widely about the details of the process, particularly over the division of labor between genes and culture in the coevolutionary process. Why is language restricted to humans given that communication seems to be so useful? A plausible answer is that language is part of human cooperation. Why did the coevolutionary process come to rest leaving impressive cultural diversity in human languages? A plausible answer is that language diversity functions to limit communication between people who cannot freely trust one another or where even truthful communications from others would result in maladaptive behavior on the part of listeners

Languages and Worldview

Asking and answering questions about what culture entails and examines the fundamental properties and intertwining nature of language and culture. This text explores linguistic relativity, lexical differences among languages and intercultural communication, including high and low contexts. Changes to a variety of OER works were made by Manon Allard-Kropp in the Department of Language and Cultural Studies to tailor the text to fit the needs of the Languages and World View course at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Materials from the original sources have been combined, reorganized, and added to by the current author, and any conceptual or typographical errors are the responsibility of the current author. Sources: Anderson, Catherine. Fundamental Properties of Language. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=IDNSZYXTXFk, 2018. https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/8. Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) Anderson, Catherine. Mental Grammar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLf0ZIkbUxE, 2018. https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/12. Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) “Anthropological Culture Concept.” In Cultural Anthropology. https://wikieducator.org/. Accessed December 20, 2019. https://wikieducator.org/Cultural_Anthropology/Anth_ Perspective/Key_Concepts. Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License Boroditsky, Lera. How Language Shapes the Way We Think. https://www.ted.com/talks/lera_ boroditsky_how_language_shapes_the_way_we_think, 2018. https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/13. Creative Commons license, Attribution–NonCommercial–No Derivatives Calude, Andreea S., Alex Gendler, Mike Schell, and Addison Anderson. Does Grammar Matter? https://ed.ted.com/lessons/does-grammar-matter-andreea-s-calude, 2016. https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/9. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) Center for Deployment Psychology. Military Culture Iceberg. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=LBF6BCV1wlc, 2014. https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/10. Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) Cultural Anthropology - Wikibooks, Open Books for an Open World. Wikibooks, 2018. https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cultural_Anthropology. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License Department of Communication, Indiana State University. “2.3: Understanding Intercultural Communication | Introduction to Public Communication.” In Introduction to Public Communication. Pressbooks; Simple book Production, 2016. http://kell.indstate.edu/ public-comm-intro/chapter/2-3-understanding-intercultural-communication/. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License Gasser, Michael. “2.6: Lexical Differences Among Languages.” In How Language Works. http://www.indiana.edu/~hlw/book.html: LibreTexts, 2015. https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Anthropology/Linguistics/Book%3A_How_Language_Works_(Gasser)/2%3A_ Word_Meanings/2.6%3A_Lexical_Differences_Among_Languages. GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2. “Intercultural Communication.” In A Primer on Communication Studies, 2012. https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/a-primer-on-communication-studies/s08-03- intercultural-communication.html. Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 Hahn, Laura K., and Scott T. Paynton. Survey of Communication Study - Wikibooks, Open Books for an Open World, 2019. https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Survey_of_Communication_Study. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License Let’sTalkLanguage. Language Influences Thought? - Linguistic Relativity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxLBXP5sq3o, 2015. https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/11. Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) LibreTexts. “3.1C: Cultural Universals - Social Sci LibreTexts.” In Sociology (Boundless), 2019. https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Sociology/Book%3A_Sociology_(Boundless)/3%3A_Culture/3.1%3A_Culture_and_Society/3.1C%3A_Cultural_Universals. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. Light, Linda. “Language.” In Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology, edited by Nina Brown, Laura Tubelle de González, and Thomas McIlwraith, 1st ed. Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association. Accessed December 20, 2019. http://perspectives.americananthro.org/. Creative Commons License (CC-BY-NC) Pym, Anthony. Do Women and Men Use Language the Same Way? https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Txd93vZQHWU. Accessed December 20, 2019. https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/15. Creative Commons Attribution license Pym, Anthony. What Is Diglossia? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvcM4mpNpqs. Accessed December 20, 2019. https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/16. Creative Commons Attribution license TED-Ed and Krystian Aparta. One of the Most Difficult Words to Translate . . . https://www.ted.com/talks/krystian_aparta_one_of_the_most_difficult_words_to_translate/, 2016. https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/14. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Tylor, Edward Burnett. Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom. London: J. Murray, 1871. http://archive.org/details/ primitiveculture0171tylo. Public Domain Wikipedia contributors. “Speech Community.” In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, August 23, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Speech_community&oldid=912200358. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licens

Some Insights into Iran’s English Curriculum Based on Iran’s Major Policies

The study aimed to investigate Iran national curriculum, foreign language part. The curriculum analyzed according to major documents of Iran; 20-year Iran’s vision plan and Comprehensive map of science. Moreover, it was analyzed based on current issues in language teaching. The qualitative study reached at some setback in curriculum. Curriculum centered on language teaching without appropriate culture, while aim of major documents was non-stop communication with world. As a result, there were some weak points toward national curriculum

Multidisciplinary perspectives on intercultural conflict: the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ of conflict, culture and communication.

A few decades ago, managers spent more than 20% of their time trying to resolve conflicts (Thomas and Schmidt 1976). Nowadays, conflicts are probably even more complex and time consuming to resolve, because technological advances, the world‟s exponential growth rate, and globalization have led to increased contact between culturally diverse people. Different norms, values, and language can make negotiating more stressful and less satisfactory (Brett and Okumura 1998), and conflict cannot be managed effectively without simultaneously considering both culture and communication. In fact, the three concepts of conflict, culture and communication are like a Bermuda Triangle – hazardous conditions will emerge unless the three are simultaneously handled appropriately. Conflict processes are studied by researchers in a range of disciplines, including organizational behaviour, management studies, (intercultural) communication studies, peace studies, and applied linguistics. Unfortunately, research in these various disciplines tends to exist in parallel fields, with infrequent passages across theoretical and empirical divides. In this chapter we provide an overview of key theoretical frameworks, explore some of the main views as to the impact of culture, and consider the interrelationships between conflict, culture and communication. We call for more interdisciplinary research, so that boundaries can be broken down and illuminating new insights can emerge

Texts used in the English language arts classroom of an American Islamic school

In this article, we examine what texts were selected for use by a middle school language arts teacher working in an American Islamic school. The literature has found that schools play an important role in supporting immigrant students to navigate a new culture, especially by selecting and providing appropriate texts for learning. Since students’ interaction with texts can mediate knowledge and identity construction, what cultural information and whose culture is embedded in the texts matter for language learning. As such, we wondered what texts a teacher would use to bridge the minority culture of the students with the majority culture in which the students lived. One teacher’s language arts class with 20 students at one American Islamic school was observed for one academic quarter and then described using a case study method. We qualitatively analyzed classroom observations, field notes, teacher interviews, and teacher and student work samples. We found that the teacher was able to use both academic texts, virtual texts, and teacher-created documents to explore some of the issues that the students face on a daily basis. This study further adds to the existing knowledge that culturally relevant texts may mediate students’ understanding of the larger socio-historical contexts in which they reside including a chance to develop language skills necessary for communication and learning

The Scavenger Hunt: A Technique for Enhancing Culture Learning and Intercultural Communication Practice

In this changing era, which is characterized by the interconnected world, and the increasing mobility of people, the need to be able to communicate inter-culturally is evident. To be successful in intercultural communication, one does not only need to be linguistically competent but also culturally knowledgeable and sensitive. Bearing in mind these cultural needs, this paper details the scavenger hunt technique as a tool for enhancing culture learning and intercultural communication practice. Although this technique applies to students of any major, this study was specifically implemented to a group of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in Indonesia. Participants of this study were nine (9) male and twenty (20) female students of The English Language Education Program at a private university in Central Java, Indonesia. The students did the scavenger hunt in a group of four or five during their three-day trip to a multicultural setting in Indonesia: Bali island, and documented the activities in vlogs. The students’ vlogs which were data of this study were analyzed by using a qualitative content analysis approach. The findings showed that the scavenger hunt task resulted in the students' learning on cultural knowledge, intercultural communication, intercultural adaptation, information technology, and soft skills. During the three-day program, the students could also use English in a meaningful way. The study presented the strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations of this study, as well as some ideas for further research.Keywords: culture learning, intercultural communication, EFL,scavenger hunt.

The Place of Western Cultures in the Learning and Teaching of EFL in Libyan Secondary School Education

Mobility has become a part of all students’ life in today’s modern-day world (Gonen & Saglam, 2012). The majority of Libyan English foreign language (EFL) students now have the opportunity to travel abroad, particularly to English speaking countries, for educational purposes (Omar, 2014). Thus, language is important for them as a means of communication, although it cannot be studied without content, culture or the wisdom of its community. Accordingly, language, culture and communication cannot be separated and are strongly related to one another (Syahri & Susanti, 2016). Gonen & Saglam (2012) contend that EFL students require a certain level of intercultural knowledge and competence in order to become globalised citizens, as well as to be able to survive in Western cultures and educational contexts. This suggests that culture should be integrated in such a way so as to assist students in raising their cultural awareness, developing language skills, and modifying attitudes towards Western societies (Genc & Bada, 2005). However, language teaching and learning in different parts of the world still continues to neglect to consider the integration of target culture as a part of language study. The current study mainly aims to investigate Libyan EFL teachers’ and students’ attitudes and perceptions in regards to teaching and learning Western cultures in EFL classrooms. This is of fundamental importance to the success of any language teaching as, if it is the case that language and culture are intertwined, the perceptions and approaches of EFL Libyan textbooks and classrooms to culture are key to teaching the language effectively. This research has used both quantitative and qualitative research methods for data collection and analysis. The data were collected from Libyan EFL teachers and students who live in a highly conservative Islamic and traditional society that is completely different to the values of Western cultures. More specifically, the data were gathered from 489 teachers and 510 students through the application of two questionnaires. SPSS software was adopted to analyse the questionnaires. A total of 20 Libyan students and 20 Libyan EFL teachers in Libyan secondary schools were interviewed, with thematic analysis employed to analyse the interviews. Metaphor analysis (Cortazzi & Jin, 1999; Jin et al., 2014; Jitpranee, 2017) was employed to gain additional insights. This research was carried out during and after the period of the political revolution in the country, 2011, a period which is thought to have impacted participants’ definitions of culture and their attitudes towards teaching and learning about Western cultures. The implications of this impact are argued to be significant both in terms of how culture is perceived and also in how it is researched and presented. This study contributes to the field of research since it is the first to consider intercultural learning in English classrooms in Libyan secondary education. It also has a number of implications for Libyan EFL teachers, inspectors and curriculum designers in order to maintain the quality of teaching and learning in Libyan secondary schools (see chapter 5: section 5.2). The findings of questionnaires and semi-interview results provide a variety of ideas, perceptions, attitudes and experiences for Libyan EFL teachers and students. The findings reveal that teachers and students are generally aware of the necessities and importance of teaching and learning about Western cultures in the EFL classroom. Although there were differences between teachers’ and students’ views, they generally stated that language and culture are interwoven and should be taught together (Yeganeh & Raeesi, 2015). Based on the results, this study provides valuable information for Libyan EFL inspectors and educational policymakers on the importance of providing updated EFL materials and resources and offering training programmes, which promote an integrative view of teaching English and its culture

Kamseupai (Kamus Saku sebagai Media Pembelajaran Inovatif) Berbasis Bahasa Gorontalo Bagi Para Siswa Sdn No. 20 Kecamatan Dungingi Kota Gorontalo

Language is a cultural component that must be nurtured, maintained and dilestaikan by all people, because language is a communication tool to interact with each other. By implementing research in the District SDN 20 Dungingi Gorontalo City, where 80 % of students have not mastered the local language Gorontalo. In fact, Gorontalo language is the identity of an area that is able to distinguish between one tribe to another tribe. Gorontalo language waning, due to the sophistication of the technology, the progress of science and technology and the lack of awareness of the public, especially the students to use the local language. Making KAMSEUPAI (pocket dictionaries as an innovative learning media) Gorontalo is a language -based solution that is appropriate for elementary school students. Because illustrated pocket dictionary is structured in such a way creative and innovative to attract the reader\u27s interest in learning the language of Gorontalo. Moreover, packed with a variety of images and animations that interest children and practical and flexible to carry everywhere. The method does is disseminate to school about the importance of using local languages . Next is the executor of designing dictionaries, edit and distribute them to students at SDN 20, then continued with the Teaching and Learning activities use Kamseupai Gorontalo language and culture. Making this kamseupai as local media innovation language learning for children and as an attempt to reexistence the USAge of Gorontalo language which are fading in the community

The reflection of language in culture and identity: A case of Basotho in the Free State Province and Lesotho.

Published ThesisThe research investigates the relationship between language, culture and identity among the Basotho residing in the Free State Province of South Africa and Lesotho. The study attempts to reveal how each of the elements namely; language, culture and identity affect each other and what each means to the speakers of Sesotho. Access to immediate communication, which is enabled by the different social media platforms allows people from different languages, cultures and identities to interact thereby exposing them to different ways of speaking, doing things and presenting themselves. The study aims to ascertain at which junction are the Basotho in terms of the above, have they lost interest in speaking their language, practising their culture and portraying their identity? This research study, employed the qualitative research methodology to reveal the interdependent relationship between the concepts of language, culture and identity and their dynamism brought on by the time lapse between generations of Basotho living in the Free State Province of South Africa and Lesotho. The ethnographic research design enabled the researcher to investigate the concepts in their natural setting and as a process was being studied and not the final product. The consent form will be explained and the content of the study to 25 researcher participants of mixed genders, ages 20 - 80 years. The researcher will collect data by interacting with participants by asking questions, making observations, taking notes and recording the interviews on voice recorder. Data will be analysed and interpreted. The literatures consulted gave definitions of the concepts of language, culture and identity. These concepts are in a state of continuum, never remaining static and constantly affecting each other interchangeably. The scholars are in agreement that language transmits culture and identity. The reality of life as experienced and expressed by people reflect their culture and identity Speakers of other languages cannot fully understand the intricacies or nuances of another culture as their terms of reference are framed by their own language and culture. This means that an individual's frame of mind in understanding his/ her environment is hugely influenced by their language and culture. The research is supported by Sapir theory of language and cultu re that heightens the view that language and culture are indispensable, and that language is the vehicle that carries culture everywhere. The findings revealed that the ideology of a particular speech commun ity is propagated by; language - defining and expressing their culture and identity; cul ture - a way of life and how people perceive and make sense of the world around them; and lastly iden tity - how people distinguish themselves from others commun ities through their clothes, music, food, practices, customs, etc. It demonstrated that the older generations are the custodians and teachers of language, culture and identity, and that the younger generations are current students and in turn future custod ians for the generations to come. Basotho nation is in fact very fortunate that the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, shall into many eons of time to come, continue to produce Basotho, who speak Sesotho and practice Sesotho cultu re and portray bosotho identity and propagate all things Sesotho going forward