The world is a much smaller place now than it ever was. ‘Global village’, ‘globalization’ and ‘global markets’ are the new buzzwords. People are traveling more and the number of people working or settling down in foreign countries, in search of better jobs or better living conditions, is increasing all the time.
One of the key changes this has triggered is the need to communicate effectively with people from different cultures in different languages. The upshot – the world is becoming increasingly bilingual and knowing a second language is almost a necessity now.
With companies growing globally and the outsourcing of jobs, the work force finds itself having to interact with people from different countries everyday. People with knowledge of a foreign language find themselves at a distinct advantage.
Naturally, this has prompted a lot of people to go in for a second language preferably one that is spoken internationally. While English, which is already the de facto international language, has the most takers other languages like Chinese, French and Arabic are also being widely used and studied.
However, after learning all the grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, many still find it difficult to genuinely integrate and communicate with the people in their new environment. This is a problem that has troubled both the teacher and learner. Increasingly there is the realization that merely concentrating on structures and forms of the language is not enough to help people genuinely communicate in today’s world. Intercultural awareness and learning is a must.
An ignorance of the culture you are visiting or interacting with can and does lead to development of stereotypes and occasionally, causing offence. It is often the case that intercultural misunderstandings lead to negative consequences. Recent clashes between the immigrant population and the natives in Britain and France have grabbed everyone’s attention. One of the major reasons attributed to the tensions was the lack of intercultural awareness. Britain is already devising new tests for immigrants, a lot of which has to do with knowledge of British culture.
Communicative competence as opposed to linguistic competence
There are distinctive cultural differences in the way people communicate. Even personal pronouns are used differently in different cultures and a simple nod of the head can have opposite meanings in different cultures. If a second language learner is looking for communicative competence rather than just linguistic competence, then cultural awareness is imperative. Second language teachers are being increasingly called upon to adapt their teaching methods and materials to include linguistic as well as cultural awareness. These two are in any case complementary to each other since language itself is defined by a culture and is the prime expression of culture. Understanding the culture will therefore equip us with better competency in the language shaped by that culture. Ultimately it will also help us communicate better.
Intercultural awareness and its importance in language learning have been neglected all along. It is left to the learner to come up with his own solutions by way of trial and error when confusions or misunderstandings occur in real life situations. Now, however, there is the realization that cultural awareness enables language proficiency. Second language teachers vouch for this and say that by relating our own culture to that of the second language we will understand it better and learn it quicker.
While bilingualism is increasingly the norm, biculturalism is very much a need of the times. The causes of many of the conflicts going on all over the world can be attributed to cultural differences and intolerance brought about by cross-cultural ignorance. In such a context second language learning and the sharing of cultures becomes all the more relevant. Effective communication and the interaction of language and culture are vital in fostering understanding among people throughout the world.
Chillibreeze's disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article.
Out of 5 “chilies”, our editorial team gave this article...
—About our writer:
Vijith writes for chillibreeze.
>> Read more articles written by Chillibreeze writers:
