A Critical Analysis on the importance of Culture in L2 Textbooks in the USA : relationship between language and culture Assignments | Custom Assignments Help

Language has impacted our lives in various ways. Language is the most crucial expression in our live. We use language to express thoughts and emotion, to communicate and interact with others, as well as to meet our wants and needs, to establish rules and maintain our culture. Today, language learning is not only limited to our mother tongue but instead we have the privilege to be able to learn various languages if we desire. Our ambition of learning has grown every single day and we are starting to learn more than one language for our own interest. We are aware that learning a second language is not easily done compared to learning a first language. There are distinct differences in the way an adult brain processes a foreign language when compared to the brain of a child. With that being said, a student in middle school, high school or even college, must work twice as hard to learn a new language. There is a necessity of more time invested, concentration. Textbooks is one of many sources that impact the learning process when teaching and learning a second language. It includes guidelines, content, knowledge, information, etc. and can be a very useful material. According to Hirchfelder (1982), instructional materials significant affect students’ development if knowledge and their perceptions of self and others. Also, Hirchfelder stated “Instructional material play the role of cultural mediator as they transmit over and convert societal values, assumptions and images”. Having that in mind, textbooks have the power to positively or negatively influence students’ point of view on new culture and acquiring a new language.

Learning a second language cannot be separated from the acquisition of the culture that it contains. Dlaska (2000: 249) expresses, the importance of ideal conditions for raising cultural awareness. In addition to Dlaska idea it’s safe to say culture plays a drastic role in learning about cross cultural communications and giving the learners an opportunity to explore and connect with other cultures than their own. In most cases a lot of foreign language teachers don’t incorporate culture in their curriculum because they don’t feel comfortable or don’t feel like it’s important. Powerful teaching and learning environment must be very inclusive for both the teacher and the students. The atmosphere of your classroom practices and the diversity of cultures can help learn more about other communities leading students to open their minds all the time in school and in their communities. This is very important in foreign language classrooms to create a welcoming and acceptance community. The importance of environment analysis is that it makes sure that the course will really be suitable, practical and realistic.

On the other hand, many teachers also think culture is what shapes our prospective of the world and of course language is the most symbolical element in communication. Learning a language is not all about grammatical knowledge. Teachers must educate students be linguistically and culturally in order to communicate successfully. Both culture and grammar are equally important. The importance of language and culture is not a recent issue and there is a lot of debates on this particular issue.

This research aims to show if teachers continue to think textbooks are the key ingredient when acquiring a new language, and to investigate how important culture is when learning a new language including how much is used in a classroom. The Researcher has seen from personal experience and from observing pupils and teachers that textbooks play a huge role in teaching a foreign language, but not all teachers use it as their primary source in their classrooms and prefer to use other resources. As well as students don’t find it as useful. Throughout this investigation the researcher will go more into depth about the impact textbooks have on students and teachers when learning a foreign language. In addition to the alternative tools on what is being used in classrooms in order for students to be able to learn a foreign language. The researcher will also focus on the importance of the involvement of cultural content in class curriculums.