Theoretical Background

The relationship between language and culture has been the interest and the focus of attention of many researchers for many years (Kramsch,2000; Kramsch,2008; Hinkel,2009). Linguists have studied the influence of culture on language and communication. Cultural factors can influence the process of language teaching because cultural systems in the target culture can be a source of interference when they are compared with those in the target culture (Hinkel,2009: ix). Others have analyzed the different aspects of second language use that are subject to culturally based influences, including classroom interaction, roles of teachers and students, and teaching styles and beliefs (Hinkel,2009: 1). Culture shapes and binds one's social and cognitive concepts, and these concepts are not likely to be understood by outsiders (Hinkel,2009: 2). Language teachers and applied linguists argue that it can be impossible to teach or learn second or foreign language without addressing the culture of the community in which it is used (Hinkel,2009: 2). When nonnative speakers violate cultural norms of appropriateness in interaction between native and non-native speakers, sociopragmatic failure, breakdowns in communication, and the stereotyping of nonnative speakers can result (ibid).

Language and culture are interrelated in many different ways. First, language is used to express cultural identity

(Kramsch,2000: 3). In other words, when people communicate, they use language to convey their viewpoints and/or the information about the world they share. Second, language embodies cultural reality (ibid, 3). This means that language through its verbal or non-verbal aspects is the medium used to reflect peoples' ideas or knowledge. Moreover, people interact or communicate differently such as speaking, reading or writing. Third, language symbolizes cultural reality (ibid, 3). Language is a system of symbols which have a cultural value.

Furthermore, forms of acculturation can shape language users' behavior. This means that etiquette, expressions of politeness, social dos and don'ts have an impact on people's behavior through different ways such as schooling and professional training (Kramsch,2000: 6). In addition, culture can also shape the use of written language. Cultural conventions are used in deciding (what it is proper to write to whom in what circumstances and which text genres are appropriate (the application form, the business letter, the political pamphlet (ibid)). Culture brings order and predictability into people's use of language (ibid). Language, therefore, plays a critical role in the continuity of culture especially in its printed form (Kramsch,2000: 8).

Culture could be a source of conflict when it is in contact with another. Teachers believe that knowledge of the grammatical system of a language has to be complemented by understanding of cultural meaning (Bayram and Morgon,1994: 4). They also believe that information about social institutions and geographical features of the country, family structures,

educational systems, political parties, regional industries, for example - is necessary support or 'background' to knowledge of grammar and meaning (ibid).

There is a relationship between the language spoken by the members of a social group and that group's identity. The speakers this group by their accent and discourse patterns can identify themselves as belonging to this social group. Language, therefore, points out to the interrelation between people and their social groups. This relation promotes the feeling of cultural identity.

Questions of 'interference' or transfer are predominantly focused on syntax and phonology. As soon as semantic interference or transfer arises, however, the interdependence of language learning and culture learning begin to become evident (Byram,1989: 42). For the association of the mother language (an L1) meaning with a foreign language FL word is a cultural transfer; the FL word is being used to refer to an L1 cultural phenomenon (ibid). Teachers, who expect and cope with syntactic or phonological transfer, must also beware of cultural interference and cope with it appropriately (ibid). Misunderstandings are likely to occur between members of different cultures, differences are real and we must learn to deal with them in any situation in which two cultures come into contact (Brown, 1987: 123 as quoted in Morgan and Byram,1994: 11).

Cultural diversity can be a potential source of conflict when one culture comes into contact with another (Kramsch,1993 :1). Culture in language learning is not an expandable fifth skill, tacked on, so to speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing. It is always in the background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language learners when they expect it least, making evident the limitations of their hard- won communicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world around them (ibid,1).

Educational systems have adopted functional approaches to language teaching in which educational effectiveness is traditionally measured according to its practical outcomes (Kramsch,2008: 4). Language teachers' responsibility is to get their students to talk and write as well and as fluently as possible (ibid,4). Some teachers believe that students should learn to use language in communication after they have learned the necessary linguistic skills through drills and exercises. On the other hand, teachers are now told that learners should be given the opportunity to use their skills even before they have completely mastered them and that they should focus on the message (ibid,5). Social interaction is achieved through 'student- talk' and 'teacher-talk'. However, students need to talk as much as possible, and teachers need to talk as little as possible. The focus is on the quantity rather than the quality of talk. In recent years, teachers start to expose their learners to 'quality input' (ibid,6).

According to Kramsch (2008: 23), challenge represents social and cultural differences and calls for acceptance of differences

and cooperation rather than the competition and the achievement of consensus. Challenge becomes a call for 'dialogue' between speakers of different languages who struggle to keep the channels of communication open in spite or because of the ideological differences they recognize and maintain between them.

Foreign language teachers deals with cultural factors that influence communication (Brown,1987:3 as quoted in Byram and Morgan). Some linguists focus more sharply on behavioral differences and in particular on how this may help cross-culture understanding in reading comprehension, pointing particularly to possible clashes between the culture of the reader and the foreign culture.

Experiential learning must be a clear approximation to first language and culture acquisition (Buttjes and Byram,1991: 18). Learners must understand and experience the culture from within, by acquiring new values and behaviors in a non-mediated form through direct experience. Therefore, there are two possible approaches: first, the use of learners' first language as the medium of study of a foreign culture interpreted ethnographically, although without the intention of introducing the learner to the totality of the culture. Second, the integration of language and culture learning by using the language as the medium for the continuing socialization of pupils is a process which is not intended to imitate and replicate the socialization of native-speaker peers but rather to develop pupils' cultural competence from its existing stage, by changing it into an intercultural competence (Buttjes and Byram, 1991: 19). The

issue is to change mono-cultural awareness from being ethnocentric and aware only of cultural phenomena as seen from their existing viewpoint, learners are to acquire an intercultural awareness which recognizes that such phenomena can be seen from a different perspective from within a different culture and ethnic identity (ibid).