CONTEXT AND CULTURE

Part 2
CULTURE
 What is culture?

 It is the conventions and procedures, including those

related to paralanguage, pragmatics, and genre, together
with values, beliefs which lie behind them, are elements
of cultural knowledge.
CULTURE
 What is cross-cultural communication?

 It is communication between members of different

national or ethnic communities.

 How is it related to Applied linguistics??

 It is related in many ways, for example, language

planning, foreign language education, and translation (In
a monolingual setting).
CULTURE
 What if the society is multilingual? How is it related to
applied linguistics?
 Clinical Linguistics:

deals with individuals whose communication needs

involve more than one language and more than one set of
cultural procedures.

 Language use in workplace and law courts:

communication involves members of different
communities.
WHAT IS CONSIDERED TO BE CROSS-
CULTURAL?

 Communication across different groups with different

knowledge and values can be conceived of as being
cross-cultural.

 Examples:
 Generations
 Socialclasses
 The two sexes
 Sexual orientation
WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT?
 The differences between cultures vs. the similarities
between cultures when it comes to applied linguistics.

 With no cultural background, a shared language can

cause instances of miscommunication.

 The role of applied linguistics is to raise awareness of

the degree to which meaning of behavior is culturally
relative, thus combating prejudice, and contributing to
the improvement of community relations and conflict
resolution in general.
DO YOU THINK THE STUDY OF
CULTURE IS CLEAR CUT?
 Of course not!

 There are cultures within a culture.

 Example: The African American culture in an American
Culture.

 Culture is constantly changing.

 Example: The loss of titles in addressing people in England
TRANSLATION, CULTURE, AND
CONTEXT
 Look at this example:

Uvazhayemy Gospodin Smith

Russian

Respected Gentleman Smith

English

Or would you prefer

Dear Mr. Smith

TRANSLATION AND APPLIED
LINGUISTICS
 It is impossible to translate a text from one language to
another using the same phrase structure, voice, and
meaning at the same time.

 A translator has to choose which effect to achieve

through translation (literal translation, or a smooth,
flowing text that communicate the same meaning).

 Culture has to be understood to be able to translate from

one culture to another.
TRANSLATION, CULTURE, AND
CONTEXT

 Example:
 In English the word “you” can be translated to French but the
translator has to decide between the following:
 Vous formal second-person pronoun
 Tu informal second-person pronoun
Example
 Translation of news headlines between Arabic and English.

Which one do they use? Why?

The word “martyrdom” or “Shahada”
TRANSLATION, CULTURE, AND
CONTEXT
 For translators, decisions had to be made all the time on
what structure to use, what meaning to convey and effect
to be added to get well understood text. A knowledge of
context and culture is necessary.

 Why don’t we rely on Machines to translate for us?

The human factor that understands culture and context is

missing.
TEACHING CULTURE
 It has long been that the teaching of culture is related to
language teaching. However, there are differences.

 Example:
 If you want to learn Chinese. Then, you already have some
interest in the Chinese culture and you will be willing to learn
it.
 How about English?
 Because of its Lingua franca status, English is viewed
differently.
TEACHING CULTURE

 Different ideologies may reject a culture while in need of

learning the language (teaching English in Saudi Arabia).

 Applied linguistics doesn’t interfere in such issues. But,

it would try to give informed insights to help those who
will have the obligation to make such decisions.