The Importance of Culture in the Esl Context in Malaysia

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FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND LANGUAGES

MAY 2012

OUMH

SOCIOLINGUISTICS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

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LEARNING CENTER : BATU PAHAT

Heath's[1] and Philips'[2] studies show how different home or community culture and language habits can pose problems for pupils' learning or schooling. Taking this finding into the perspective of ESL teaching in the Malaysian context, it is of utmost importance that any recommendations for ESL teaching consider the possibility that pupils in schools may come from communities or homes that practice an entirely different pattern of language habits, language, and culture. Where second language learning and teaching is concerned, the cultural dimension becomes acute since teaching and learning a language explicitly involves a different culture. The students of the classrooms themselves belong to a culture and where this differs from the second language teachers' culture or the second language teaching style, some pertinent problems may arise. In the Malaysian context, most ESL teachers themselves are not native speakers of English. The composition of the teaching population in Malaysian schools reflects the multiracial state of the country. Thus cultural conflicts can occur when a teacher of one ethnic background deals with pupils from other ethnic backgrounds.

This assignment requires me to complete all the task in part I and II. Part I will discuss about language and culture and the importance of culture in the English as second language (ESL) context in Malaysia. Part II will discuss about English words or phrases that are culturally different from those used by Malaysian language users. It will also discuss about some pertinent problems in second language teaching that may arise due to cultural...