CONGREGAÇÃO DE SANTA DOROTÉIA DO BRASIL

FACULDADE FRASSINETTI DO RECIFE

HUDSON MARQUES DA SILVA

CONSIDERING LANGUAGE, THOUGHT AND CULTURE IN TEFL

RECIFE 2008

HUDSON MARQUES DA SILVA

CONSIDERING LANGUAGE, THOUGHT AND CULTURE

IN TEFL

Monografia apresentada ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras da Faculdade Frassinetti do Recife como um dos pré-requisitos para a obtenção do título de Especialista em Lingüística Aplicada ao Ensino da Língua Inglesa.

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Alexandre Furtado de Albuquerque Correa

RECIFE 2008

HUDSON MARQUES DA SILVA

CONSIDERING LANGUAGE, THOUGHT AND CULTURE IN TEFL

Monografia apresentada como exigência parcial para a obtenção do título de Especialista em Lingüística Aplicada ao Ensino da Língua Inglesa à comissão examinadora do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras da Faculdade Frassinetti do Recife.

Aprovada em ______ / ______ / ______

BANCA EXAMINADORA

___________________________________________________________________________

ALEXANDRE FURTADO DE ALBUQUERQUE CORREA ORIENTADOR

FAFIRE

___________________________________________________________________________

LUCIA RIBEIRO COORDENADORA

FAFIRE

A minha mãe Eunice e minha noiva Thaysa

AGRADECIMENTOS

A minha noiva, Thaysa, que tem me ajudado em todos os aspectos da minha vida.

Aos meus pais, por terem sempre acreditado e apoiado os meus objetivos.

A minha família, que sempre me incentivou na busca de todos os meus sonhos.

Ao Prof. Alexandre Furtado, pela orientação e sugestões para a concretização deste trabalho.

A todos os professores do curso em Lingüística Aplicada ao Ensino da Língua Inglesa, pela

excelente orientação, em especial a Francisco Gomes de Matos, Maria Cavalcanti (Lurdinha),

Flávia de Andrade e Dulce Porto.

À coordenadora Lúcia Ribeiro, pelo constante auxílio e orientação para o andamento do curso

e conclusão deste trabalho.

A todos os colegas de classe que me ajudaram, em especial a Mônica Jacinta e Anita

Angélica.

Tell me and I forget

Show me and I remember

Involve me and I will learn

- unknown

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the relationships between language, thought and culture in teaching and

learning process of English as foreign language. For that, it presents a brief historical

overview on English language teaching methodologies, the interdependence between thought

and language, the cultural context function to English as a foreign language acquisition and,

finally, it verifies some examples of this kind in the books Video English Course for all 2, 3,

4; New Interchange Intro and 1; New Cutting Edge: elementary student’s book and New

Headway: English course intermediate, used by some private English language schools. It is

concluded that culture influences significantly the target language teaching and learning

process, once it is starting from culture that a language is established, mainly concerning to

lexicon. In the books used as example, it is verified the presence of some specific linguistic

components of native-speakers' culture, what may both hinder the new language acquisition

somehow – because learners have to conceive both the language structure and native speakers'

cultural world views – and reproduce a cultural superiority ideology of countries where

English is the official language.

KEYWORDS: Teaching. Language. Culture. Thought.

RESUMO

Este trabalho traz uma revisão bibliográfica sobre as relações entre linguagem, pensamento e

cultura para o ensino e aprendizagem do inglês como língua estrangeira. Para tanto, são

apresentados uma breve revisão histórica sobre as metodologias de ensino de inglês, a

interdependência entre pensamento e linguagem, o papel do contexto cultural na

aprendizagem do inglês como língua estrangeira, e, por fim, a verificação de alguns exemplos

desse tipo de abordagem nos livros Video English Course for all 2, 3, 4; New Interchange

Intro e 1; New Cutting Edge: elementary student’s book e New Headway: English course

intermediate, utilizados em alguns cursos privados de inglês. Conclui-se que a cultura

influencia de maneira significativa o processo de ensino e aprendizagem da língua-alvo, uma

vez que é a partir dela que a língua, principalmente no que tange ao léxico, é estabelecida.

Nos livros didáticos utilizados como exemplo, verifica-se a presença de alguns componentes

lingüísticos próprios da cultura dos falantes nativos, o que pode tanto dificultar, de certa

forma, a aquisição da nova língua – pois o estudante terá de conceber tanto o seu

funcionamento estrutural quanto novos paradigmas culturais dos falantes nativos –, quanto

reproduzir uma ideologia de superioridade cultural dos países onde o inglês é adotado como

língua oficial.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Ensino. Língua. Cultura. Pensamento.

ABBREVIATIONS

EFL English as a foreign language

ELA English language acquisition

ELT English language teaching

FLA Foreign language acquisition

FLT Foreign language teaching

TEFL Teaching of English as a foreign language

SUMÁRIO

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 11

1 SCHOOLS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING ........................................ 13

1.1 The Grammar-Translation Method .................................................................................. 13 1.2 The Direct Method .......................................................................................................... 14 1.3 Audiolingualism .............................................................................................................. 15 1.4 Cognitivism and Innatism ................................................................................................ 16 1.5 Constructivism ................................................................................................................ 17 1.6 Communicative Language Teaching ................................................................................ 18

2 LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT ......................................................................................... 21

2.1 Reflections on language concept...................................................................................... 21 2.2 Interdependence between language and thought .............................................................. 23 2.3 Sapir-Whorf hypothesis ................................................................................................... 25 2.4 Language and reality description ..................................................................................... 27 2.5 Language and thought in TEFL ....................................................................................... 29

3 THE PLACE OF CULTURE IN TEFL ............................................................................. 31

3.1 Which culture do we refer to? .......................................................................................... 31 3.2 Language as a culture product ......................................................................................... 32 3.3 Learning English through which culture? ........................................................................ 34 3.4 The specificity of vocabulary .......................................................................................... 35 3.5 Language and cultural identity......................................................................................... 37

4 FOREIGN CULTURE PROMOTION IN SOME DIDACTICAL BOOKS .................... 39

4.1 Why those didactical books? ........................................................................................... 39 4.2 Popular places in USA..................................................................................................... 39 4.3 Other cultural features in Britain and USA ...................................................................... 47 4.4 Britain and USA as major models .................................................................................... 61

CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 64

NOTES ................................................................................................................................... 66

REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 69

11

INTRODUCTION

During the last years, English language learning has been attaining considerable

visibility, starting to make part of students’ everyday life in Brazil and worldwide, because

this language has been representing, mainly after globalization, a world communication

instrument. Many countries already adopt it as the first foreign language, as well as it is used

as a lingua franca in scientific production and international commercialization.

Therefore, most of public and private Brazilian schools, in basic education, adopt

English as a modern foreign language, pointing out that the number of English language

schools in this country has grown rapidly due to the national market’s new demands.

This paper discusses some implications into the relationship between culture and

thought for teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL), focusing on students from

Brazilian Northeast. It brings a conception of language as a way of interpreting and describing

a given “reality”, as well as a cultural result of each people.

Although the concept known as Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has been considered

somewhat radical – by some branches of linguistic studies – for believing that thought

depends on language to be formulated – Linguistic Determinism –, it is noticed that each

language clips/describes the same reality differently – Linguistic Relativity. Moreover, due to

cultural and geographical diversities between countries and regions, each language has its

own lexical elements which assist to its own communicative needs.

If that is true, to learn a certain foreign language, it is also necessary to conceive

the speakers’ socio-cultural and geographical context, because “[...] for understanding a

symbol’s meaning it is necessary to know the culture which created it.” (LARAIA, 2006, p.

56, our translation)1 Thus, in English language beginning courses, among the first words

studied, it is possible to exist those which are frequently used by native-speakers, but which

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do not compose Brazilian Northeast reality. For that and other reasons, sometimes it may

become difficult for a Brazilian northeast beginner student to acquire the new language by

studying words which do not accord to a significant context for him/her.

In agreement with Moita Lopes (2006, p. 40, our translation),2 “Even when the

goal is the teaching of English as a second or foreign language, the referential is still the

foreign country [...]”. Therefore, it can be inferred that the cultural acquisition process –

endoculturation 3 – may come as a difficulty for language learners, once besides learning its

structure, they have to understand this language’s socio-cultural and geographical aspects.

Based on those premises, this work’s first chapter presents a review on language

teaching methods used during history, observing their tendencies and development. In chapter

2, it brings a reflection on the interdependence between language and thought, discussing its

implications for English Language Acquisition (ELA). Chapter 3 discusses culture concepts

and brings an approach about the place of culture in the TEFL. Finally, it is presented

examples in some didactical books used by some language schools, in order to notice culture

teaching promotion in the English language course, because those books present a reality

focused on the countries where this language is spoken, mainly, in Britain and United States

of America.

Thus, it is important that there is an understanding on this subject, so that

difficulties and ideologies are identified and barriers can be overcome in the process of ELA,

because “[...] it is an obligation of Applied Linguistics to examine the ideological base of the

knowledge that we produce.” (PENNYCOOK, 1998, p. 24, our translation) 4

Hence it is our obligation to identify possible difficulties found by learners when

acquiring a foreign language and this is just possible through a critical investigation. This

paper combines some linguistic concepts along the history with examples contained in some

student’s books used in TEFL.

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1 SCHOOLS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

1.1 The Grammar-Translation Method

Due to our tradition of Philology, as the first science of language, and which had

only written texts as study subject; the oldest method to language teaching and learning is the

grammar-translation. As its own name indicates, this method had the translation of written

texts as base, mainly, of Greek and Latin. Brown (2000, p. 15) points out that “Latin, thought

to promote intellectuality through ‘mental gymnastics’, was until relatively recently held to be

indispensable to an adequate higher education.” Thus, with this practice, it was believed that

the individual could develop his/her mind and intelligence. The main focus was grammar and

vocabulary study, not giving an emphasis to communication itself.

This method allowed learners access classic literary texts, as well as the domain of

normative grammar. The main instruments used in the learning-process were dictionaries and

grammar books. Learners had to elaborate enormous vocabulary lists and memorize them as

the best way to learn. Unfortunately, this method did not approach speaking and listening

skills.

There are many reasons to explain why many people consider writing more

important than speaking, in Saussure (2006, p. 37, our translation)5, it is underlined that “[…]

speaking change continuously, while writing tends to remain unchangeable.” This is one of

the reasons why written texts were used as subject of study during many years, reinforcing the

coming of Historical Linguistics, which studied written texts of different languages through

time.

The Grammar-Translation Method faced the teacher as the owner of knowledge

which, in turn, should be transmitted to the students. It can be said, therefore, it was a

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traditional pattern of teaching. In spite of past dissatisfactions with this method, it still

remains in many high education courses as a believed way to develop students mind.

1.2 The Direct Method

As an answer to dissatisfactions with The Grammar-Translation Method, it was

created The Direct Method. This method excluded the use of mother tongue from the foreign

language teaching and learning process completely, what made learners have a direct contact

with the target language, in this case the English language.

So, to teach vocabulary, this method used gestures, engravings, pictures,

simulation and others; without never appealing to translation. It gave a great emphasis on oral

speech, including native pronunciation, focalizing on a question-answer model. Grammar was

not explicitly presented, but it should be inferred by learners.

According to Larsen-Freeman (1986), the method main characteristics are:

dialogues, pieces or passages aloud reading;

question and answer exercise led in the target language;

conversation practice about real situations;

dictation of texts in the target language;

filling blanks exercises to evaluate rules or vocabulary intuition;

drawing induced by teacher's or mates’ dictation;

written composition of subjects chosen in the classroom.

Thus, it can be said that this method worked well in offering learners a direct

contact with the target language, breaking the tendency which beginners generally have to

transfer their own mother tongue words and sentences to the other language (interlanguage).

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This method intended to do the same as a child when acquiring his/her mother tongue, that is,

the child sees things and learns names for them.

At the same time, as far as we know, the use of translation into the language

classes is not totally useless or prejudicial. It can help students acquire the target language in

many ways, such as words which cannot be explained through figures, gestures, pictures,

explanations for understanding some structures and so on. Thus, this method stopped to be so

much used being replaced by others which can be seen in further sections.

1.3 Audiolingualism

During the Second World War, in the forties, due to the American soldiers' need

to speak foreign languages for military operations accomplishment, Bloomfield was

summoned to create a fast and effective method to the teaching of foreign languages. Soon,

the method was adapted to English Language Teaching (ELT) in the USA at that time.

This method derived from a behaviorist teaching conception which believed that

learners acquire a language through repeating pre-produced speeches, giving emphasis firstly

to oral language and then writing. The speech is recorded in day-to-day situations and put so

that learners can receive and reproduce. The teacher directs and controls the language

behavior of the students who become imitators of the teacher’s model or just repeated the

tapes he/she supplied during classes as model speakers. This method, as points Brown (2000,

p. 8), “[…] prided itself in a rigorous application of the scientific principle of observation of

human languages.” Even being effective, we can realize that this method is somehow limited

because it faces language as a short group of sentences and expressions which could be

learned by repetition. So, this method was used for a long time and remains until today in

some language schools.

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1.4 Cognitivism and Innatism

In opposition to the behaviorism of Audiolingualism, in the sixties, methods more

linked to the individual needs appeared in USA. In the middle of hippie’s movement

development in the early sixties, which acclaimed for the individuality and people's freedom

of expression, repetition mechanical methods were not accepted; because the hippies were a

counterculture movement which questioned everything imposed by society. Hence, this

movement was an own way of creating the world without imitating anyone or anything. Thus,

Audiolingualism system did not have a place in such model of movement, giving its place to

Cognitivism and Innatism.

Wilhelmsen, Âsmul and Meistad (2008) points out that:

The cognitivistic school ‘went inside the head of the learner’ so to speak in that they made mental process the primary object of study and tried to discover and model the mental processes on the part of the learner during the learning-process. In Cognitive theories knowledge is viewed as symbolic, mental constructions in the minds of individuals, and learning becomes the process of committing these symbolic representations to memory where they may be processed.

All such ideas happened under a certain influence of Noam Chomsky, who tried

to show that human language could not just be derived from mere observation and imitation

as the other methods claimed. Chomsky was interested in a “principled basis, independent of

any particular language, for the selection of the descriptively adequate grammar of each

language.” (CHOMSKY, 1964 apud BROWN, 2000, p. 10) He believed that there was

something innate in language, what comes to create Innatism conception, that is, as says

Souza (2008, our translation)6, “[…] take language as something innate, a gift, of human

beings.” Thus, those ideas came to derive the generative-transformational school, to be

developed detailed next chapter.

17

Chomsky has been considered one of the most important researchers in linguistics

field and he has such a large work with his books. Many of his ideas have been subject of

study into universities and researches field until today.

1.5 Constructivism

When we hear the word Constructivism, immediately we remember Piaget and

Vygotsky, once both researchers have not been new for Linguistic Studies. Among other

ideas, this conception claimed that all human beings build their own version of reality, that is,

human beings are not biologically determined, but developed through the contact with the

other, with their relationships in society. Becker (2008, our translation)7 states that

Constructivism is:

[…] the idea that nothing, in rigor, is ready, finished, and knowledge, especially, is not given, in any instance, as something finished. It is constituted in the interaction of the individual with the physical and social medium, with the human symbolism, with social relationships world […]

According to this idea, who an individual can be depends mainly on the way

he/she is inserted in the world, such as place, culture, family, education and others. In this

perspective, Constructivism goes beyond Chomskyan Innatism, since there is a greatest

emphasis to the construction of each individual's reality. It can be said that this concept has a

focus on “[…] individuals engaged in social practices [...]” (SPIVEY, 1997 apud BROWN,

2000, p. 11). So, it is deduced that language is a social product which its development

depends on the social relationships the speaker has. This way of thinking diverges from

Chomsky ones, for giving more importance to social practices rather than humans as a

biological being.

18

The shock of those ideas helped on the reflection of what the best ways of

learning a foreign language might be. None of those ideas is completely concluded, but they

just complement each other in the attempt to have the ideal methods.

1.6 Communicative Language Teaching

At the end of sixties, Communicative Language Teaching appeared as a reaction

against all the methods above mentioned. It had as precursor Hymes (1991), who faced

language as a group of communicative events. According to this method, the classroom

should be transformed in surrounds of authentic oral communication. The learners’ focus is to

know how to communicate in agreement with the demands of each situation.

[…] that aims to (a) make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and (b) develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication. (RICHARDS; RODGERS, 1986, p. 66)

While in the audio-lingual approach the student should have a “perfect”

pronunciation, imitating a native-speaker; in the communicative approach the goal is that the

student has a pronunciation which allows intelligibility, that is, to understand and to be

understood. Littlewood (1981, apud RICHARDS; RODGERS, 1986, p. 66) states that “One

of the most characteristic features of communicative language teaching is that it pays

systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language.”

Hence, this method may be a result of nowadays needs which includes a fast

communication due to globalization and internet. It does not matter what language standard is,

but if its goals are attained. Accuracy is not considered to be the only correct way of

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communicating, because, according to this method, if there is an effective understanding

between speakers, language will be doing its main function which is to communicate.

Thus, this chapter presented a brief review on The Grammar-Translation Method,

which was very limited for focusing only written texts and providing learners large

vocabulary lists so that they could memorize them. Then, it presented The Direct Method,

which had an interesting point of view, because made students have a direct contact with the

target language such as a child when acquiring his/her mother tongue, but what could make

difficult the learning-process for not using translation as a way of helping students to better

understand the target language operation. After that, Audiolingualism developed by

Bloomfield, which was a very effective and fast way of acquiring a foreign language, but

which was very mechanical and limited by imitating and repeating pre-produced sentences as

if they were the full language. Then, Chomsky contributed creating the generative grammar,

which would be a human innate system that would drive all languages and which is known as

universal grammar.

Piaget and Vygotsky brought the constructivism ideas, which faced human beings

as a social product, in other words, they are not complete from birth, but developed according

to the environment where they are inserted. As an example of that, it is noticed that a child, if

put in different countries, will learn that country’s language. Therefore, a language is acquired

socially.

At the end, this chapter presented The Communicative Language Teaching, which

has been used by language teachers and schools very often nowadays. This method left

somehow the traditional ideas of a standard or correct language model. This fact can be much

linked to the coming of sociolinguistics, which does not believe in the linguistic unit, that is,

for this linguistic field, there is a large linguistic variety among a community speaking the

same language.

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After having a brief overview on English teaching methods along history, next

chapter discusses the relationships between language and thought, considering great linguists

from Brazil and around the world.

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2 LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

2.1 Reflections on language concept

Before discussing the relationships between language and thought, it is necessary

to have an explanation on what language comes to be, into a linguistic perspective; and which

its function is to the effective use of human communication.

The term language has generally been used, equivocally, by the media, to

designate peculiar features of linguistic variations – accent, specific vocabulary, grammatical

structures and others – of each individual or linguistic community.

There are also the ones who name artificial communication systems (notation

systems) such as traffic signs, for instance, as a language type.

However, the concept that linguistics has been offering to it is that language

consists of the potentiality, which is unique of human beings, of acquiring languages; the so-

called language faculty. Many linguists believe that such faculty is innate, as pointed out in

Saussure (2006, p. 17, our translation):8 “[...] the exercise of language is a kind of faculty

which is given us by Nature [...]”. According to this concept, language would be an organ pre-

programmed for one or more languages acquisition, which only human beings get from birth.

Considering the difference between language and a language, in Saussure (2006,

p. 17, our translation)9 it is underlined that a language “[...] is just a defined and essential part

of it [of language], undoubtedly”. In other words, while language faculty represents "the hard

disc" for languages learning; a language, by its turn, is a socially acquired communication

system, varying among different communities.

Concerning to the previous statement that language is unique of human beings; we

could mention experiments cases accomplished with animals. Although it is already known

22

that animals exercise their communication means, linguistics does not consider them as a

language manifestation; once there is not a symbolic and articulated system such complex as

humans’. Researches made by Koehler, Yerkes and others showed that anthropoid monkeys,

especially the chimpanzees, possess a thought mechanism similar to humans’, besides a

phonetic apparel capable to reproduce all the necessary sounds to speaking, however, the

chimpanzees do not speak.

Koehler (apud VYGOTSKY, 2005, p. 43, our translation)10 verified that “[...]

their phonetic expressions just denote desires and subjective states; they express affections,

but never a sign of something ‘objective’”. In other words, animals can communicate among

themselves, they have their own way of doing this, which is given by nature, but comparing to

human beings, their communication is such limited, because they cannot reproduce a complex

and symbolic speech. Anyway, this debate continues unfinished.

On language concept, the North American linguist Noam Chomsky has been

accomplishing lectures, besides a vast literature, about the so-called universal grammar;

which would come to be a type of “norm” stored in language faculty that would rule the work

of all the languages. For this linguist, “[...] all the languages are variations of a same theme

[...]” (CHOMSKY, 1998, p. 24, our translation)11 The enormous amount of similarities among

the grammatical logic of different languages contributes to reinforce this idea.

In this perspective, language development resides in something that happens very

naturally to the child, similar to any other organ of his/her body. Studies have shown that,

very early, the child already has notion of things that could not be taught, especially symbolic

aspects of language use. “[...] a big part of this semantic structure seems to derive from our

interior nature, determined by the initial state of our language faculty, therefore not learned

and universal for mother tongue” (CHOMSKY, 2005, p. 77, our translation).12

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This kind of idea drove Chomsky to believe in the linguistic innatism, which

would be a kind of “pre-language” that humans receive from birth. That would be the reason

why children acquire a language so fast and easily. Anyway, it is noticed a strong relationship

between language and thought development as will be discussed in the next section.

2.2 Interdependence between language and thought

Much has been discussed about the relationship between language and thought.

Questions like What comes first, speech or thought? Is thought formed by the word? continue

appearing in a great number of lectures and researches of linguistic field.

Piaget, in his study about children's cognitive development, noticed that children's

chats are, initially, divided into two groups: egocentric and socialized (VYGOTSKY, 2005).

In egocentric speech, the child talks to him/herself, without a communication concern to

others, it would be like the adults’ thinking in a low voice. This thinking in a low voice leads

us, in a certain way, to relate a dependence of thought by language, since, on this, one thinks

through the words. In socialized speech, differently, the child tries to interact with others, to

communicate something, to do a request, to complain etc.

Piaget (apud VIGOTSKY, 2005, p. 61, our translation)13 says that “[...] initially,

thought is non-verbal and speech, non-intellectual”. The child emits sounds trying to express

his/her thoughts. Later, he/she discovers that each thing has a name and then his/her words

start to derive from an abstraction. If that is true, it can be said that thought precedes the

speech, in this case.

According to Chomsky (1998), it is known, through experiments, that children,

when still very young, already retain concepts of time and space, even before they could

speak. Thus, such concepts would be uniform for all the cultures.

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That idea is corroborated by Piaget (apud VYGOTSKY, 2005) when affirming

that the primitive man, or the child, only learns with the experience in especial cases, in an

ephemeral and partial contact with reality. And that contact does not modify in anything the

general flow of his/her thought.

Many researchers face such vision as biological determinism. Others radicalize to

the opposite side: the cultural aspect as decisive. In that second group, we can mention the

case of the etnolinguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, to whom we will dedicate a

further section.

However, we do not believe that Piaget and Chomsky totally removed the social

influence on individual's linguistic development. Chomsky himself (1998, p. 61, our

translation)14 told in a lecture: “Even for sheep, not only for human beings, the contact

between the mother sheep and the lamb affects its ability to notice depth [...]”. In this case, the

influence of social means which the author is addressed to would be more focused on a

language acquisition, as a cultural product. “[...] social means is the main factor to the speech

development [...]” (STERN apud VYGOTSKY, 2005, p. 39, our translation).15 Therefore,

language faculty and thought are natural processes to human being, while a language is an

acquired cultural manifestation.

But which one comes first, a language or thought? To that question Chomsky

(1998, p. 63, our translation)16 answers:

If we are considering a person who is listening to somebody speaking, the word comes before the sense [...] things are going to your auditory system [...] they reach your cognitive system [...] last, you understand something [...] If we think in the speaker [...] we don't know if meaning comes first and then I produce the sentence, or if I start speaking and then I realize that I am speaking and then I continue the sentence.

It is difficult to answer that question, once language consists of a stored data

system, and in a system of that type, nothing comes first. Scientists could introduce electrodes

25

into the brain of animals which possessed organs similar to humans and they learned a lot

about them, nevertheless, it is not known about other organisms that possess language faculty

in order to experiment; since such experiences are not allowed with human beings. In this

manner, this section finishes with Vygotsky’s comment (2005, p. 156, our translation):17 “[...]

the relationship between thought and the word is not a thing but a process, a sways continuous

movement from thought to the word and vice versa”.

2.3 Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

In what concerns to thought-language relationship discussed in the previous

sections, the etnolinguist Edward Sapir believed that it is language which molds thought. He

wrote: “The writer, for one, is strongly of the opinion that the feeling entertained by so many

that they can think, or even reason, without language is an illusion” (SAPIR, 2004, p. 11).

Starting from Sapir’s concept, there is not possibility of thinking without

language. It implies that language both precedes and guide thought; the philosopher

Wittgenstein agreed to this opinion, when affirming that “[...] language itself is the vehicle of

thought” (WITTGENSTEIN, 1991, p. 111, our translation).18 Wittgenstein was considered to

be one of the most important philosophers of twentieth century. Most of his work was

published posthumously. This Austrian philosopher was very interested, among other

subjects, in language and its limits, which he presented in his Tractatus Logico-

Philosophicus. He thought most of the problems occurring into philosophy happened because

of an inadequate use of language. So, as well as Sapir, Wittgenstein believed that language

would be a kind of guide to thought.

From that principle, Sapir inspired his disciple Benjamin Lee Whorf to

accomplish significant researches for linguistics field; among them, stands out the one of the

26

Hopis Indians. Whorf discovered that Hopi language did not have the verbal tenses – present,

past and future; what made him believe that such tribe did not have notion of time due to the

absence of components in their language.

This research result was substantial to the coming of the so-called Sapir-Whorf

hypothesis, which has a more radical version – linguistic determinism: language determines

thought – and a more moderate one – linguistic relativity: language influences thought due to

its arbitrariness.

Steven Pinker was one of the main opponents to the hypothesis. According to this

author (apud SZCZESNIAK, 2005, p. 64, our translation),19 “[...] there are in all of us

emotions which do not have words in many languages”. In other words, thought happens

without speech, even if there are not words to express it.

As an example of that, it is said that Portuguese is the only language which

contains the word “saudade”. Even if it were true, it would be difficult to believe that only

those language speakers had such feeling. “All of us have had the experience to enunciate or

write a sentence, stop and notice that that was not exactly what we meant. So that there is this

feeling, it is necessary to exist a ‘what we meant’ different from what we said.” (PINKER,

2002, p. 62, our translation)20 According to this idea, it can be said that there is what we think,

which is different of what we want to say, which is different of what we say. Then, listeners

realize something different from what we meant. As an example, it is noticed that when a

teacher speaks something to many students in the classroom and, after that, some different

students are asked to retell what the teacher said, each one of them will tell a different version.

It happens because the words are not enough to mean our thought neither reality.

However, in the attempt to end with Whorfian hypothesis more radical version,

verifying his mistake, in 1983, the German linguist Ekkehart Malotki elaborated an enormous

27

list of Hopis words used to express time (SZCZESNIAK, 2005). So, it means that Whorf

made a mistake on his research when concluding that Hopis did not have notion of time.

Anyway, the hypothesis most moderate version was perpetuated in nowadays

linguistics. As an example, Peter Gordon wrote an article entitled Numerical cognition

without words: evidence from Amazonia, which was the result of a research accomplished

with Pirahã indigenous tribe, from Amazonia. Gordon and his team noticed that in that tribe’s

language, there were only three expressions to indicate numbers: hói (one), hoí (two) and

baagi or aibai (more than two). In experiment, it was verified that Pirahãs did not notice the

difference between 8 and 10 sticks (GORDON, 2004), what came to reinforce Sapir-Whorf

hypothesis.

We can consider deaf people’s case. If it were true that a language formulates

thought, then, we would have to affirm that deaf people from birth, to whom a language was

never taught, are not able to think. However, we know that it is not pertinent. Even without a

language, all the deaf ones from birth have the ability to think just as any one. Later, besides

the communication by gestures (speaking sign language), many acquire a language, learning

how to read, to write, to speak and lip-reading.

2.4 Language and reality description

Concerning to the function of language to thought formulation, independently

whether language molds or not thought, it will be showed in this section that “[...] two

languages describe reality differently” (PERINI, 2004, p. 43, our translation).21 It does not

implies that different languages speakers perceive reality in an incompatible way, as wanted

Sapir and Whorf, but the way how each language interprets reality is different.

28

If we compare English and Portuguese languages, we may list some of those

differences. Perini (2004) shows that in Portuguese language some ‘limões’ (lemons, limes)

are green and other yellow, but all of them are ‘limões’. In English language, the green ones

are called limes and the yellow ones are called lemons, in other words, in English language

they are considered to be two different fruits. It does not mean that Brazilians do not notice

the difference between limes and lemons; however, each language had its own way of

interpreting the same reality.

Another example is that in Portuguese language, we have the ‘dedos’ (fingers) of

the hands and the ‘dedos’ (toes) of the feet. All of them are ‘dedos’. In English language, in

hands the individual has fingers and in feet he/she has toes. It seems to refer to different

members, as well as in Portuguese language, we describe ‘árvore’, (tree) ‘madeira’ and

‘bosque’ (wood) in three words, while English language means it in just two words which are

tree (árvore) and wood (madeira and bosque).

The verb to know in English language can mean ‘saber’ or ‘conhecer’ in

Portuguese language according to the information contained in the rest of the sentence or

from the context. Sentences like (1) I know him. and (2) I know that he is here. in Portuguese

language would be (1) Eu o conheço. and (2) Eu sei que ele está aqui. (PERINI, 2003). We

can see that a word may have different meanings in different languages. So, learning a foreign

language is much more than transferring words, but, among others, acquiring a new way of

describing reality.

We can also mention the fact that in Portuguese language there are two types of

past verbal tenses: the perfect past, as in Ele trabalhou em um banco, and the imperfect past,

as in Ele trabalhava em um banco. In English language, both sentences would be translated as

He worked in a bank, that is, the Portuguese language perfect and imperfect past tenses are

presented in English with only one form – the simple past tense.

29

We did not intend, with those examples, to affirm that Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is

completely true, but we just wanted to show that each language describes and interprets

reality, or thought, in different ways. Thus, in order to learn another language is not just

substitute words from a language to another, but, above all, to learn how to see the world in

another way, as we will see in the further section.

2.5 Language and thought in the TEFL

This chapter on language and thought derived from the implications which such

theme generates for the TEFL. Thus, as seen in previous sections, there is a considerable

interdependence between thought and language. In this perspective, in order to learn a foreign

language, the individual will not have just to substitute words and sentences from a language

to the other, but to overcome his/her world linguistic paradigms to acquire a relative or real

competence to communicate in EFL.

Certainly, conservatism contributes to hinder the target language acquisition, once

it tends to keep the perceptions and usual descriptions of reality. Learning another language is

to go besides the world view established by the own culture and, consequently, by the mother

tongue. Portuguese natives usually find strange the fact that in English some words –

adjectives, genitive case, etc. – appear in the sentence in inverse order to the Portuguese. They

think English speakers “speak on the contrary”. However, in the English way of describing

the world it is natural.

Thus, it happens somewhat philosophical during the target language learning. It is

as a new song, which when heard for the first time is found strange by our ears and, therefore,

soon we make comparisons trying to assimilate it to another that we know. Language is like

30

this, whenever we hear a sentence in another language, immediately we associate it to another

sentence of our own mother tongue which may sound equally.

Acquiring another language requires, among other things, “to open the ears” for a

new song and to obtain a new world view. That is why Ênio, Latin poet of the century II B.C.,

used to say that he had “three souls”, referring to the three languages which he spoke: Greek,

Latin and Osco (PERINI, 2004).

Hence this chapter discussed the present implications that the interdependence

between language and thought may bring to ELA. It did not consider Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

more radical version to be completely true, but it argued that there is something real in

linguistic relativity ideas. In order to better discuss such subject, next chapter presents culture

as a way of formulating language and thought paradigms, which may be significantly

presented in TEFL.

31

3 THE PLACE OF CULTURE IN THE TEFL

3.1 Which culture do we refer to?

The term culture has been generating several concepts along history. The word

has its origin in Latin, which means ‘to cultivate the soil’, ‘to care’. Popularly, this term is

very used to designate intellectual accumulation, that is, everybody who has a background is

called a culture person. It is also used in reference to folkloric manifestations, which are

called the culture of that people.

In the course of time, the word went recruiting a new dimension, mainly, in the

field of anthropology. The British Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917) was the pioneer to the

culture modern concept. In agreement with Tylor (apud LARAIA, 2006, p. 25, our

translation),22 culture “[...] is all the complexity which includes knowledge, faiths, art, moral,

laws, habits or any other capacity or habits acquired by humans as member of a society.” In

that perspective, all communities have own ways of building notions of culture in their

subjectivity. Therefore, there are not hierarchies, such as considering a knowledge or habit

better than another.

In this work, we use the term culture in its as boarder as possible sense. We

present the following definition:

[...] culture is the knowledge, experiences, faiths, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, positions, space relationships, concepts of the universe and material objects deposit, acquired by a group of people in the way of individual formation and as a group. (PORTER; SAMOVAR, 1994 apud SOARES; SCHMALTZ, 2006, P. 42, our translation).23

Starting from this idea, we affirm that society formation and human existence

consists of a culture product. The whole socio-cultural world created by humans made them

32

be cultural beings, in other words, “[...] man started to be considered a being who is beyond

his or her organic limitations.” (LARAIA, 2006, p. 36, our translation).24 And perhaps this is

what differentiates them from other animals: the capacity to symbolize. It was the symbol

what made our anthropoid predecessors became humans.

It can be said that the main representative of this symbology is the language, once

it has fundamental function in this process, because it is through it that cultural experience is

transmitted from generation to generation.

Therefore, we intend to bring an approach about the relationships between

language and cultural context. The way how culture can interfere in ELA makes it a

significant object to linguistic study.

3.2 Language as a culture product

Among all human creations, language is the main object of culture, for passing an

entire learning process from generation to generation. Each people, in the course of time,

developed their own language, according to their geographical and cultural context and needs;

what makes language, as pointed in Saussure (2006, p. 221, our translation),25 something that

“[...] reflects a community's specific characteristics [...].”

For that reason, “[...] a text can only be understood fully in terms of the culture

which produced it.” (PERINI, 2004, p. 138, our translation).26 To exemplify this statement,

we can mention a text by the Latin poet Quinto Horácio Flaco (65-8 B.C.) which says:

The bitter winter is going melting, with the spring and favony return and the machines are already dragging dry keels. (FLACO apud PERINI, 2004, P. 136, our translation) .27

33

When analyzing this text, we know that Favony is a hot wind, coming from

Sahara, which blows Europe in the beginning of the spring, causing the melting of the snow;

and that keel is the down part of a ship. But what does it have to do the end of the winter with

the keels? And why are they dry if their place is into the water? And what are those

machines?

As far as we know, old Romans did not navigate in the winter for not being a

favorable period to navigation. Thus, the keels were dry because the ships stayed out of the

water during this period. Then when the spring came, the machines (bobstays and strings

pulled by hand) took the ships back to the water, what represented the end of the winter.

To understand Horace’s words, it was necessary to apprehend specific facts of the

culture in which they were produced. That happens because:

The organization that the listeners associate to a certain speech is not just owed to the text linguistic structure [...] Other factors that contribute to the MENTAL REPRESENTATION that the listeners have of the speech are his or her previous knowledge of how things happen in the real world [...] (DOOLEY, 2004, p. 39-40, our translation).28

If that is true, to understand a language, it is necessary to start from the context in

which it is produced (HYMES, 1972 apud KRAMSCH, 1993). This presupposes that

teaching a language implies teaching culture, as says Kramsch (1993, p. 177): “It is a truism

to say that teaching language is teaching culture [...]”. It happens because a language is not

reproduced isolated, but in a given context. If the individual does not know the cultural

context where the target language is produced, it may be difficult to acquire such language.

However, it does not mean that the target language cultural context has to be necessarily

focalized on the native-speakers countries, but the language can also be taught though the

learners cultural context. Such ideas are better discussed in the following section.

34

3.3 Learning English through which culture?

[...] reading the world always precedes reading the word and reading the word implies the continuity of reading the world. (FREIRE, 2003, P. 20, our translation)29

Learning a language does not only consist of the understanding and domain of its

structure, but, also, of the coherence between what the language describes and the speakers’

world view. This is a need for both FLA and literacy process in mother tongue.

So that the individual can read and understand a word as iceberg, for instance,

firstly, he/she has to know the referred object. Otherwise, the speech would be incoherent for

him/her. Vóvio (1999, p. 118, our translation)30 argues that:

The social subject's constitution is permeated since the beginning by a creation of meanings process, inserting in a symbolic order in which instituted symbols acquire concrete signification in the context within were produced.

Through oral or written language, we express our thoughts and describe the world

around us. Talking about icebergs or snow in the interior of Brazilian Northeasterner consists

of reproducing an “abstract” speech for the people of that area, for treating of phenomena

never seen by the great majority.

Some of the text books used at language schools for TEFL present a reality

focused on the countries where this language is spoken, as we will see next chapter.

In this way, when studying English, learners from Pernambuco generally come

across two difficulties: to learn a new linguistic structure of a foreign language and to

conceive new and changing paradigms of the world.

However, “The ideal would be that the learner developed a world and culture

view which was not based on the target language principles [...]” (TAVARES, 2006, p. 24,

our translation),31 because one of the things which may turn difficult for learners from

35

Pernambuco “[...] to communicate with native speakers is that they do not share the native-

speaking community's memory and knowledge.” (KRAMSCH, 1993, p. 43). It does not mean

that learners do not have to study the native speakers culture, because to acquire a foreign

language it is also necessary to acquire its culture, but when teaching English, mainly at the

beginning, it is important to facilitate the process by not presenting, besides the target

language, a lot of cultural elements unknown by the learners, as points out Lameiras (2006, p.

34, our translation),32 “We must take care so that foreign language learners, when coming

across with the sounds, the forms and the meanings of a foreign language, do not feel just as a

wayfarer traveling strange lands, feeling, literally, a foreigner.” It means that students need to

feel at home when learning the English language; otherwise it could hinder the acquisition

process.

3.4 The specificity of vocabulary

As says Igreja (2008, p. 17), “Certain words and expressions that stem from

particular cultural aspects of a specific country or region are unique and may not have a

counterpart in another language.” So, a language lexicon is dependent of geography and

cultural practices of a given linguistic community. As an example of that, it can be mentioned

the case of the Indians Tupis from Amazon, Brazil. For most of people, Amazon forest

consists of a heap of trees and other plants, however, an Indian Tupi sees qualitative

characteristics and a space reference in each one of those vegetables (LARAIA, 2006); as well

as the Skimos – peoples from Northern Alaska – have several words to distinguish what, for

other communities, is nothing else than snow. Of course there are “thick snow “, “soft snow”

and others, but there are many words used only by Skimos. Some of them were listed by

Igreja (2008, p. 18):

36

nutagaq: new fresh powder snow

qiqsruqaq: glazed snow in thaw time

sitliq: hard crusty snow

auksalaq: melting snow

aniu: packed snow

aniuvak: snow bank

natigvik: snow drift

qimaugruk: snow drift blocking a trail or a building

aqiluqqaq: soft snow

milik: very soft snow

mitailaq: soft snow on ice floe covering an open spot

As seen with this list of words used only by the Skimos, such phenomenon

happens in all other areas of the planet, that is, the words are used in agreement with each

linguistic community's need, such as climate, cultural practices, cookery, and others, which

make each people have a specific vocabulary.

None of the words used by the Skimos above integrates the vocabulary of

Brazilian northeast. Perhaps not even the word snow or iceberg, since such phenomena do not

happen in this area.

Of course, it is important of students to learn not just the English language

structure, but all the reality that involves it. However, it could be done after the students break

the first possible barriers that they can find when learning English. Thus, the students could

be better prepared to comprehend a new world point of view.

37

3.5 Language and cultural identity

As known, all the countries have an official language. In Brazil, Portuguese is the

language spoken; in England, it is English and so on. However, it has been a long time that

sociolinguistics already verified that it does not guarantee the existence of a linguistic unit. In

other words, each individual has his/her own language, that is variable and it is intimately

linked to his/her social situation.

Things such as education, profession, age, sex, and others influence the way of

speaking, what makes language a mark of each individual's identity. In that perspective,

language and identity are two inseparable elements. In order to see that, we can mention a

Japanese student's case who, when studying English, had a habit to bow in the classes. Her

teacher told her that in American culture it was not necessary to bow. As an answer she said:

“I know Americans don’t bow, but that’s my culture, and if I don’t do that, I’m not being

respectful and I won’t be a good person.” (KRAMSCH; McCONNELL-GINET, 1992 apud

KRAMSCH, 1993, p. 44). So, not bowing would mean leaving from a cultural code that

would probably be against the references of her cultural identity, even if in the USA culture

that practice does not exist. This fact happened because “A language is a part of a culture, and

a culture is a part of a language […]” (BROWN, 2000, p. 177). So that this girl could learn

the English language, it is not necessary to leave her habits, thoughts and culture in a general

way, but she has also to know the target language culture.

In Brazil, we can affirm that there are several variations of Portuguese language

and these variations influence directly ELA. As it was seen in the previous section, language

represents the specific characteristics of each region, therefore, the identity. If that is true, we

can say that “Second language learning [...] involves the acquisition of a second identity.”

(BROWN, 2000, p. 182). As we will see in the last chapter of this work, English language

38

Brazilian Northeastern learner will come across several elements which diverge of his/her

culture and which are presented in some text books used to TEFL.

This chapter discussed some ideas about culture and its implications to TEFL. We

argued that language and culture are parts of a same branch, therefore, in order to study a

language it is also necessary to study its culture, however, leaners’ culture has to be respected.

The question that comes is which cultures are contained in the didactical books used to

TEFL? Thus, next chapter brings examples of the teaching of culture through some didactical

books used by some language schools in Brazil.

39

4 FOREIGN CULTURE PROMOTION IN SOME DIDACTICAL

BOOKS

4.1 Why those didactical books?

In order to show some examples of foreign culture promotion in TEFL, it was

selected some text books – Video English Course for all 2, 3, 4 and Interchange Intro and 1 –

which are used by some language schools of high demand throughout Brazil. These books are

used during the English learning basic level, which starts from the beginner until the

elementary levels, representing the first two years of study; phase when the learner is passing

by a literacy process in the target language.

This chapter’s goal is to notice how learners’ first contacts with the English

language might happen through the references which he/she finds, referring to cultural

aspects, mainly, to lexicon. The study is made by an interpretative analysis and verification of

cultural components contained into the books such as texts and figures which may represent

realities different from the ones Brazilian students are used to.

4.2 Popular places in the USA

The selected text books show, among others, a large amount of touristy, cultural

or commercial places which are presented through texts and illustrations. These places are

presented as a way of learning vocabulary, directions, linguistic structures and others.

All the further examples are related to places located in the USA as shown in

Examples 1 and 2, which presents some popular tourist attractions in this country.

40

Example 1

(CCLS, 1994a, p. 112)

Example 2

(RICHARDS, 2000, p. 83)

41

Most of Brazilian Northeastern learners have probably never seen much stuff

regarding most of those places shown in Examples 1 and 2. So, in this case, students will not

be learning just the target language itself, but a geographical reality which is significant to

American-speakers, not to them.

Another reference focalized in the USA always presented into the books is The

Empire State Building and other places located in that sector of New York City. Example 3

shows a reading section of the student’s book through which students would learn about

directions. For that, it is presented some streets from New York City where students will

“live” an interchange, as the book’s own title indicates.

As we can see in Example 3, students have to acquire both the English language

and an American city reality. So, as this is the first book studied by learners, we argue that it

would be easier for Brazilian students to learn directions in English language through

Brazilian cities; just as a way of facilitating the first contacts with the target language, because

there is not expressions like “33rd and 34th Streets” or “Fifth Avenue” in Brazil. Thus, such

references may hinder the literacy process that students pass at this moment.

Examples 3 and 4 might conclude that there is a tendency to value the USA

culture probably due to the power and the economic situation that this country has. Lopes

(2006) argues that many Brazilian students start learning English in order to rise both

economically and socially. However, according to this author, it is a myth that learning the

English language guarantees a better job or social situation. So, this supposes that this

Brazilians’ inferiority feeling could carry them to deny their own culture and identity, what

may come to aggravate this country situation by not helping to develop its own culture, but

copying and imitating the others.

42

Example 3

(RICHARDS, 2000, p. 85)

43

Example 4

(CCLS, 1994b, p. 59)

Example 5 promotes a conversation which learners are supposed to repeat and

simulate, among themselves, a trip in the USA, pointing out Nashville as a good place to visit.

Example 5

(RICHARDS; HULL; PROCTOR, 1999, p. 43)

44

Example 6 suggests that students talk about some cities in the USA, which are

San Francisco, New York, Miami and Los Angeles. In this activity, students must describe

how those cities are, concerning to attractions, weather, habits and culture in general. In this

kind of activity, besides the language, foreign students have to inform about cultural practices

which may not be significant for them, at least, during this phase of the target language

learning-process.

We can see the same situation in Example 7, which concerns to a listening

activity, through which students have to understand and reproduce what some people say

about New York and London.

Example 6

(RICHARDS; HULL; PROCTOR, 1999, p. 67)

45

Example 7

(SOARS; SOARS, 2000, p. 62)

Example 8 shows the Lincoln Memorial, which is located in Washington, D. C.

and represents part of the USA history by showing monuments, objects and information about

this man who once was this country’s president.

46

Example 8

(CCLS, 1994b, p. 82)

Thus, through such elements, learners attend to a culture lesson, studying old and

nowadays facts which are proper of that country’s culture, as can be seen in Example 9, which

once again appeals to a USA culture teaching by promoting a reading of Los Angeles and San

Francisco tourist places.

This book of Example 9 is used to TEFL during the first semester of the second

year studying English. At this time, students may be more able to conceive this foreign kind

of information, once they are starting Elementary English language level.

47

Example 9

(CCLS, 1994c, p. 35-36)

Therefore, this section presented some popular places in the USA contained in the

studied books for TEFL. So we realize that during the first two years studying English

language, students will be receiving together with the language a lot of cultural elements

which may bring some difficulties to learners by presenting a different cultural world view or

an ideology which may acclaim USA culture as better than theirs.

4.3 Other cultural features in Britain and USA

It is interesting to notice that when studying EFL, soon from the beginning,

students have to learn popular first names used in the USA, as can be observed in Example

10. Although some of these names are derived from other languages, in this context they are

used in American culture.

48

Example 10

(RICHARDS, 2000, p. 2)

Students are supposed to learn these names and use them during the English

language learning process. So, it can be inferred that students are being prepared to use the

English language in the USA, because in order to speak a Brazilian English language it is not

so necessary to learn those names, once they are not much used in Brazil.

As in the popular first names example above, Example 11 promotes a sports

study. Students will see what “people” do in the four seasons in the USA and Canada. Those

countries’ winter is such different from Brazil, what permits sports like hockey, skiing and

ice-skating.

It is known that there are several different sports practiced by people around the

world, and Brazil is prominent in this area, but as we can see in Example 11, some sports

presented are not popular in Brazil. We argue that it may be a way of valorizing those

countries’ cultures.

49

Example 11

(RICHARDS, 2000, p. 60)

50

Besides places, sports, climates, and others, as seen above, it can be verified the

study of British and American values, as can be observed in Examples 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.

Example 12 presents a text about what is changing in the families in the USA.

Thus, we can say that even if those changes can also happen in another country, but the book

presents a family which live in the USA as a model. We argue that the further examples are

more appropriate to teach English language to people living in Britain or USA, because it uses

students pre-knowledge, which may be different from region to region.

Example 12

(RICHARDS; HULL; PROCTOR, 1999, p. 33)

51

As a way of learning family vocabulary, books generally presents some famous

people so that students can look at the pictures and states what their family relationship is.

Example 13 presents some of those people who are the actress Liv Tyler and her father Steve

Tyler, the soccer player David Beckham and Lynne Beckham, the actresses Goldie Hawn and

Kate Hudson, and the British Queen with Prince William. Those people are supposed to be

recognized by learners as an example of worldwide recognized personalities.

Example 13

(CUNNINGHAM; MOOR, 2001, p. 22)

52

In Example 14, we can see a reading section about life in Britain. Students are

supposed to learn about British habits. For that, the book presents some pictures so that

students can describe and match information. The exercise proposes a comparison between

Britain and the students’ country, as well as some information about British home, work,

school and restaurants.

Example 14

(CUNNINGHAM; MOOR, 2001, p. 28)

53

Example 15 presents a reading about the American singer Madonna, who has

lived in London with her British husband Guy Ritchie, and the actress Catherine Zeta Jones,

who is from Wales, but has lived in the United States with her husband, the actor Michael

Douglas.

Example 15

(CUNNINGHAM; MOOR, 2001, p. 36)

54

This activity of Example 16 is a clear example of an ideological speech, for

introducing the happiest person in Britain, what would suggest that this place can offer

happiness by describing some activities which could be done there. The picture presents a

happy family with a beautiful smile which might be wished by everyone.

Example 16

(SOARS; SOARS, 2000, p. 16)

55

In Example 17, we can see some snapshots showing percentages about things

people usually do in the United States, which are related to spending habits, music sales,

favorite kinds of ethnic foods and entertainments.

Example 17

(RICHARDS; HULL; PROCTOR, 1999, p. 14, 20, 80, 92)

56

Example 18 presents a reading about three races in the United States – the Empire

State Building Run-Up, in which runners run up the stairs in order to arrive on top; Badwater

Run, in California, where participants start from Deat Valley, a desert, and climb Mount

Whitney; and Race Across America, in which runners come from Irvine, California, to

Savannah, Georgia. Then, students are asked to give information about place, distance and

winning times contained into the texts.

57

Example 18

(RICHARDS, 2000, p. 65)

58

Example 19 presents a text about two different types of houses in the American

Southwest, one is very colorful with pink, purple and other colors, and the other is made by

logs and is called hogans.

Example 19

(RICHARDS, 2000, p. 45).

59

Example 20 presents a text about English food. It suggests the best places to eat in

Britain, which would be the Shepherd’s Inn in Melmerby, Cumbria, and the Dolphin Inn in

Kingston, Devon. The text points that those places are good for offering a good steak,

mushroom pie and butter pudding, considered to be the three gastronomic wonders of the

world.

Example 20

(SOARS; SOARS, 2000, p. 61)

60

So that we can finish this section, Example 21 shows a fragment of David

Copperfield, a classic book of literature which was written by the British writer Charles

Dickens. Students are supposed to read the text and then answer comprehension questions.

Example 21

(SOARS; SOARS, 2000, p. 121)

61

All those examples show different kinds of cultural promotion, which are

focalized in Britain and USA. We argue that, in Brazil, it could be used its own cultural model

through places, sports, families, food and others, which are common to this country’s people

and not presenting a succession of cultural features linked to British and American people.

So, it can be said that in Brazil English language should be taught through Brazilian culture,

as well as each country should have its own ELT model according to its needs, but there are

some reasons to explain why some counties assume such position as a model to be followed,

which are discussed in the next section.

4.4 Britain and USA as major models

Several countries adopt English as the official language, “[…] as happens in the

USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and a scattering of other

territories.” (CRYSTAL, 2006, p. 422-423), but Britain and the USA usually represents the

most global references as it was seen in the didactical books studied. It may happen due to the

power which these countries have, as affirms Crystal (2005, p. 23, our translation),33 “A

language is used worldwide for just one reason – the power of people who speak it.”

Britain and the United States may be taken as major models to be followed by

other countries, as an example of that, we noticed that, in the didactical books, it was not

found any reference to an African country. It may occur due to the bad socioeconomic

position which that continent assumes, driving many people to have no interest in it.

It is known that the origin of the English language is in England, but it does not

mean that England or any other country should be a unique reference to be followed, but the

society tends to take models linked to the place where the language began and mainly where

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the people has a powerful socioeconomic situation. Thus, a language is taken as a model

according to its people social aspects rather than linguistic ones.

If we compare the linguistic situation of Portuguese language in Brazil and in

Portugal, we will realize an opposite situation. Portuguese language from Portugal is

considered to be more correct, more original and so on. This ideology may be related to the

social position which those countries assume in the world. Portugal is a developed and rich

country while Brazil has many social problems different from Portugal. So, some people take

this country as a model and transfer it to the language, affirming that Portuguese language

from Portugal is better, more correct. If that is true, it can be concluded that language models

and power are much related to form ideologies which spread among the society.

Crystal (2006, p. 422) underlines that “People have been predicting the

emergency of English as a global language for at least two centuries […]”, but the conception

of English as a lingua franca, a global language, is somehow new. According to Crystal, a

language gain a special position when it “[…] is made a priority in a country’s foreign-

language teaching policy; it has no official status, but it is nonetheless the foreign language

which children are most likely to encounter when they arrive in school, and the one most

available to adults in further education.” (CRYSTAL, 2006, p. 423). We can say that this is

Brazil’s situation, because in this country English is the modern foreign language adopted in

basic and high education.

Crystal states that a fourth of world’s population speaks English and it happens

for some historical events linked to the power of some countries. The term ‘power’ may

assume different meanings, such as political (military), economic, technological and cultural.

It is a mistake to believe that English became the world language for being an

easy language, with the lack of inflectional endings and others. As an example, it can be

63

mentioned the fact that Latin and French languages, which have many inflections and a

relative complex grammar, once were the global languages.

It is known that the Industrial Revolution of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

occurred in England, as well as the economic and cultural growth of the USA in nineteenth

and twentieth centuries.

All those events contributed to taking English as a global language. The

technological and cultural market spread through the world, and English was the language

used for scientific production and international commercialization, because Britain and USA

represented the leaders in this race.

Hence, as we could see, these countries’ influence attained the confection of some

didactical books used to TEFL, promoting ideologies of better countries to be imitated and

followed, reproducing their culture through the language. So, this is what leaded this work

accomplishment, in order to have a better comprehension of such elements and possible

ideologies contained in the didactical books used to TEFL.

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CONCLUSION

This paper reviewed the methods used in TEFL and its relationships with the

interdependence between language, thought and culture promoted by some didactical books

used at some language schools of high demand in Brazil.

The discussion focus was possible ideologies of Britain and USA as major models

and difficulties found by Brazilian Northeastern learners concerning to some divergences

between their cultural world view and the reality presented into such books.

It was seen that FLT implies many things such as the teaching of a new culture, a

new way of thinking, a new reality and so on. However, we argue that all those things

represent a factor which may hinder the target language acquisition, for appearing very

intensely soon when students start learning the new language, mainly, because it appears as an

ideological speech focalized in Britain and United States as model countries.

We believe that the initial process of ELA should take the learners’ reality as a

model, through texts and vocabulary concerning to places, objects, values, and culture in a

general way, which would compose their own reality.

Thus, it could help to break some initial possible barriers and just after, in

intermediate level, learners would begin studying vocabulary and expressions related to other

countries; without a focus just on Britain and United States. Even because English is

considered to be a lingua franca, what can be inferred that it does not belong to Americans or

English people anymore, but to the whole world.

If that is true, each country has its own linguistic elements, which are related to its

specific cultural reality, it can be said that there are many Englishes in the world. Hence,

students learn a Brazilian English language in Brazil, which has its own features and needs.

Therefore, the student’s books used to teaching English to Brazilians should be focalized on

65

Brazilian culture and reality. As Paulo Freire (2003) points out, it must start from the learner

world view when teaching him/her a language.

We do not mean that learners must be limited to their own culture, without

knowing the others’, but that could be done after students overcome the first barriers that they

may encounter when start studying the target language, in this case English language. Thus,

we finish this work, which is not concluded, but that may inspire new curiosities and further

researches.

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NOTES

1. “[...] para perceber o significado de um símbolo é necessário conhecer a cultura que o

criou.”

2. “Mesmo quando o objetivo é o ensino de inglês como segunda lingual ou como LE, o

referencial ainda é o país estrangeiro [...]”

3. Recorremos ao termo endoculturation no sentido usado por Laraia (2006, p. 19-20): “[…] o

comportamento dos indivíduos depende de um aprendizado, de um processo que chamamos

de endoculturação.”

4. “[...] é dever da Lingüística Aplicada examinar a base ideológica do conhecimento que

produzimos.”

5. “[…] a lingual evolui sem cessar, ao passo que a escrita tende a permanecer imóvel.”

6. “[...] considerar a linguagem como um atributo inato, um dom, do ser humano.”

7. “[...] a idéia de que nada, a rigor, está pronto, acabado, e de que, especificamente, o

conhecimento não é dado, em nenhuma instância, como algo terminado. Ele se constitui pela

interação do indivíduo com o meio físico e social, com o simbolismo humano, com o mundo

das relações sociais [...]”

8. “[...] o exercício da linguagem repousa numa faculdade que nos é dada pela Natureza [...]”.

9. “[...] é somente uma parte determinada, essencial dela [da linguagem], indubitavelmente.”

10. “[...] suas expressões fonéticas denotam apenas desejos e estados subjetivos; expressam

afetos, mas nunca um sinal de algo ‘objetivo’.”

11. “[...] todas as línguas são variações de um mesmo tema [...]”

12. “[...] uma grande parte dessa estrutura semântica parece derivar de nossa natureza interior,

determinada pelo estado inicial de nossa faculdade de linguagem, por isso não aprendida e

universal para Línguas-I.”

67

13. “[...] inicialmente, o pensamento é não-verbal e a fala, não-intelectual.”

14. “Mesmo para ovelhas, não somente para os seres humanos, o contato entre a mãe ovelha e

o cordeiro afeta a habilidade de perceber profundidade [...]”

15. “[...] o meio social é o principal fator no desenvolvimento da fala [...]”

16. “Se estamos considerando uma pessoa que está ouvindo alguém falando, a palavra vem

antes do sentido [...] as coisas vão para o seu sistema auditivo [...] atingem seu sistema

cognitivo [...] por último, você compreende algo [...] Se pensarmos no falante [...] Não

sabemos se o significado vem primeiro e então produzo a sentença, ou se começo a falar e

então me dou conta do que estou falando e então continuo a sentença.”

17. “[...] a relação entre o pensamento e a palavra não é uma coisa mas um processo, um

movimento contínuo de vaivém do pensamento para a palavra, e vice-versa.”

18. “[...] a própria linguagem é o veículo do pensamento.”

19. “[...] há em todos nós emoções que não têm nomes em muitas línguas.”

20. “Todos tivemos a experiência de enunciar ou escrever uma frase, parar e perceber que não

era exatamente o que queríamos dizer. Para que haja esse sentimento, é preciso haver um ‘o

que queríamos dizer’ diferente do que dissemos.”

21. “[...] duas línguas recortam diferentemente a realidade.”

22. “[...] é este todo complexo que inclui conhecimentos, crenças, arte, moral, leis, costumes

ou qualquer outra capacidade ou hábitos adquiridos pelo homem como membro de uma

sociedade.”

23. “[...] cultura é o depósito de conhecimentos, experiências, crenças, valores, atitudes,

significados, hierarquias, religião, noções de tempo, papéis, relações espaciais, conceitos do

universo e objetos materiais, adquiridos por um grupo de pessoas no caminho de sua

formação individual e enquanto grupo.”

24. “[...] o homem passou a ser considerado um ser que está acima de suas limitações

orgânicas.”

25. “[...] reflete os traços próprios de uma comunidade [...]”

68

26. “[...] um texto só pode ser plenamente compreendido em termos da cultura que o

produziu.”

27. “O amargo inverno vai derretendo, com a volta da primavera e do Favônio e as máquinas

já estão arrastando quilhas secas.”

28. “A organização que os ouvintes associam a um determinado discurso não é devida apenas

à estrutura lingüística do texto [...] Outros fatores que contribuem para a REPRESENTAÇÃO

MENTAL que os ouvintes têm do discurso são os seus conhecimentos prévios de como as

coisas acontecem no mundo real [...]”

29. “[...] a leitura do mundo precede sempre a leitura da palavra e a leitura desta implica a

continuidade da leitura daquele.”

30. “A constituição do sujeito social é permeada desde seu início por um processo de criação

de significados, inserindo-se numa ordem simbólica em que símbolos instituídos adquirem

significação concreta no contexto em que foram produzidos.”

31. “O ideal seria que o aprendiz desenvolvesse uma visão de mundo e de cultura que não

fosse embasada nos princípios da cultura da língua-alvo [...]”

32. “Devemos cuidar para que o aprendiz de LE, ao se deparar com os sons, as formas e os

sentidos de outra língua, não se sinta tal qual um viandante ao percorrer terras estranhas,

sentindo-se, literalmente, um estrangeiro.”

33. “Uma língua se torna mundial por uma razão apenas – o poder das pessoas que a falam.”

69

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