Topic 4

4. RELEVANCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

AS AN INSTRUMENT OF COMMUNICATION AMONG PEOPLE AND
COUNTRIES. INTEREST IN LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY BY GETTING
TO KNOW A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND ITS CULTURE.

1. RELEVANCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AS

AN INSTRUMENT OF COMMUNICATION AMONG PEOPLE AND

COUNTRIES

1.1. WHY LEARN FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT SCHOOL?

1.2. CURRENT LANGUAGES

1.3. CREATION OF AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

a. English as a Lingua Franca

1.4. LEARNING TO COMMUNICATE IN ENGLISH

2. INTEREST IN LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY BY GETTING TO KNOW A

FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND ITS CULTURE

2.1. FIRST LANGUAGE AND SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING

2.2. SOCIO-CULTURAL ASPECTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

a. Social aspects
b. Cultural aspects
c. Geographical aspects

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A language is the expression of a whole culture; it is a way of understanding the world

and organising the relationships among people. Hence, learning a foreign language
means learning both a linguistic code and cultural elements. Foreign language teaching
must introduce students to the most outstanding social and cultural aspects of a country
and help them to develop attitudes of tolerance and respect because, as stated by
Crystal, if a student perceives a country or culture to be unpleasant for whatever reason,
the negative attitude is likely to influence language learning achievement.

Based on this view, we will concentrate on analysing the main reasons to learn foreign
languages at school. After that we will talk about the current languages that exist,
considering the advantages and disadvantages of using a lingua franca. To finish, we
will focus on English language, paying attention to its teaching and its relationship with
the mother tongue, without forgetting the main cultural aspects that can be worked on in
the English classroom.

We deal with an essential topic since effective communication in a foreign language is

more than elaborating grammatically correct sentences; it also involves the appreciation
and respect of its speakers and their culture. The Foreign Language Curriculum for
Primary Education emphasizes the significance of this topic by including in its
objectives the value of the foreign language as a vehicle of communication and
understanding among people with diverse origins and cultures.

1. RELEVANCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

AS AN INSTRUMENT OF COMMUNICATION AMONG PEOPLE
AND COUNTRIES

WHY LEARN FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT SCHOOL?

Learning a foreign language is necessary nowadays. According to the Committee of

Ministers of the Council of Europe, Foreign Language Teaching must be increased and
diversified. If possible, children must learn more than one language. There are several
reasons why foreign languages must be promoted at school:

1. Sociological reasons: Learning foreign languages will allow students to access a

wider range or professions, to improve their channels of information and to
communicate with people from different countries.
2. Educational reasons: Learning foreign languages will deepen the knowledge of
the mother tongue and improve the students’ general communicative
competence.
3. Cognitive reasons: Children discover that what they have learnt in their mother
tongue can be expressed similarly in other languages. This develops their
cognitive capacity.
4. Linguistic reasons: Children are better prepared to learn a language than adults
at an auditory and phonological level; their oral understanding and
pronunciation are better.
5. Affective reasons: Children’s spontaneity is very useful when they are learning a
foreign language.

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CURRENT LANGUAGES

INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

Germanic, Latin, Slavic or Baltic languages appear to descend from a common

linguistic trunk whose influence expanded from India to Europe. They are known as
Indo-European languages. The Indo-European family is divided into twelve branches;
being the most important:
1. The Germanic Branch: It includes languages such as English, German or Dutch.
2. The Italic Branch: These languages are all derived from Latin. After the
fragmentation of the Roman Empire, the dialects of Latin followed different
directions: Romance languages were born.

The existence of a common linguistic trunk makes it easier for children to learn foreign
languages, since they can apply the knowledge of their mother tongue to the learning of
languages that have similar features.

OTHER LINGUISTIC TRUNKS

There are other linguistic trunks nowadays, like Caucasian or Semitic.

OTHER LANGUAGES

Languages such as Japanese, Korean or Malayan do not have similarities with other
languages.

CREATION OF AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

Language is the main means of human communication, although it also constitutes the
main barrier. The existence of so many languages prevents people from understanding
each other. However, a common language is necessary in a global world like ours.
Three possible solutions have been suggested for the creation of an international
language.
1. The adoption of a dead language, for example Latin.
2. The creation of an artificial language, such as Esperanto.
3. The use of an existing language as a lingua franca.

ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA

A lingua franca is the use of a common language by speakers of different languages.

History demonstrates that there have precedents in the idea of using a foreign language
to exchange ideas. In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, Latin was the
language used. From the 18th century onwards, French was used in international
diplomacy, and at the beginning of the 20 th century German was the language in which
scientists wrote.

Since the 19th century English has progressively gained status as an international
language and nowadays its hegemony is unquestionable. Several factors have
contributed to it:

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1. Demographic factors: The quick growth of English native speakers during the
19th century in the UK and the USA.
2. Political and military factors: The development of the English colonies during
the 19th century in Canada, Africa and Australia, and the political and military
hegemony of the USA in the 20th century.
3. Economic factors: Great economic development of the USA in the 20th century.
4. Technological factors: Development of means of communication in the USA
and the UK.
5. Linguistic factors: The degree of morphological and syntactic simplification of
English.

The importance of English as a lingua franca is demonstrated in many fields: politics,

economy, culture, sports, education, technology...
1. The UNESCO estimates that English is spoken in more than 60 countries and it
is well-established in all five continents.
2. More than 750 million people speak English.
3. English is the language of the most important world institutions: UNESCO,
NATO, UNO...
4. English is the language of business.
5. English is widely used in literature, cinema, music, television and radio.
6. From the Second World War onwards, English became the language of scientific
and technological advances.
7. Millions of children in the world study English in Primary Education.
8. The International Olympic Committee also uses English as a means of
communication.
9. It’s been estimated that about 20,000 English words spread into other languages
every year.

A language spoken in different parts of the world by people of diverse backgrounds can
suffer from linguistic variations that can end up being unintelligible. Other problems
with the use of a lingua franca are that some people don’t speak that language and that it
could affect the status of minority languages and the identity of those nations.

However, there are many reasons to support the existence of a lingua franca:
1. It facilitates international relationships at social, economic, cultural and political
levels.
2. It favours tolerance and respect towards a different culture. Learning a language
broadens the mind and helps children to overcome their innate egocentrism.
3. It increases self-confidence.
4. It increases respect for the mother tongue.

LEARNING TO COMMUNICATE IN ENGLISH

To realize the value of language as communication, learners must have the experience
of communicating in that language. The Communicative Approach is a method that
emphasizes communication and real-life situations. The goal is for students to
communicate their needs and thoughts, without worrying about perfect grammar.

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Communicative activities are tasks and exercises that students carry out for real
communication. They focus more on the message than on the linguistic features of the
language. According to the Communicative Approach, the practise of communicative
activities will produce an unconscious learning of the structures of the language. Some
examples of oral communicative activities are information-gap activities, role-play,
problem-solving or communicative games. To practise written communication we can
ask our students to write letters, greeting cards, notes, recipes, e-mails, filling in forms...

Communicating in a language is a complex activity that implies using the following

skills appropriately: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Our current educational
system establishes that learning a language in Primary Education has a practical
objective: to be able to communicate. Therefore, the four skills must be taught from a
communicative point of view, students must have a motive for listening, speaking,
reading or writing. The best way to do this is to use the language as an instrument of
communication from the very beginning, and teaching the language in a natural way. To
do the next principles must be taken into consideration: not speaking before listening,
not reading before speaking and not writing before reading.

2. INTEREST IN LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY BY GETTING TO KNOW A

FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND ITS CULTURE

Through foreign languages, children discover that there are other linguistic codes and
other ways of life in the world. The language teacher has to make students aware of this
linguistic and socio-cultural diversity. Not long ago multilingualism was thought to
threaten the integrity of every language. Nowadays the influences of other languages on
the mother tongue (linguistic interferences) are not so feared and multilingualism is
regarded as positive.

FIRST LANGUAGE AND SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING

The mother tongue and the second language must be taught at school in an interrelated
way. This means that the learning of a new language must be based on previous
linguistic knowledge. Language teachers must base their teaching methods on the
linguistic principles that are common to both languages and take advantage of the
children’s knowledge of their mother tongue. By having a clear idea about their own
language system, children will internalize any particular use or structure in another
language more easily.

However, students also need to learn that languages have different words and systems.
They usually think that the language they are learning has the same rules as their mother
tongue and make mistakes because of interference errors. For example, their say I have
nine years old instead of I am nine years old.

Some of the most significant differences between English and Spanish are:
1. Obligatory use of the subject in English.
2. Use of auxiliary verbs to ask and to deny.
3. A more rigid order of elements than in Spanish.
4. The adjective is placed before the noun; it also lacks gender and plural.
5. Use of contractions.
6. Omission of the article in generalizations.
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7. Different spelling rules.

8. Different punctuation signs.

SOCIO-CULTURAL ASPECTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The purpose of teaching languages is that students acquire communicative competence.

One of the competences derived from this is socio-cultural competence. Students must
be aware of the cultural background of the language they are learning in order to
communicate appropriately. In fact, students cannot truly master the language until they
have also mastered the cultural contexts in which the language occurs.

Culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks
to whom, about what and how communication progresses, it also helps to determine
how people encode messages and the conditions and circumstances under which various
messages may or may not be sent or interpreted. Culture is the basis of communication.

In addition to enriching communicative competence, socio-cultural competence can also

lead to empathy and respect towards different cultures. The aim of teaching culture is to
develop students’ curiosity towards the target language and culture and their own,
helping them to make comparisons among cultures.

In Primary Education, the teacher will give information which is close to the children’s
world so that they become interested in the new culture. Pupils will often learn a range
of details about the target culture, especially everyday life, songs, rhymes, stories,
special festivals and celebrations. In addition to these aspects of daily life, certain
geographical or historical aspects may appear naturally in text books and other
materials. These are some of the aspects that we can work on class:

GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS

The teaching of geographical aspects includes the knowledge of the main English-
speaking countries, capitals and cities, weather, population... These resources can be
used to teach geographical aspects:
- Maps: Students can locate the main countries where English is official language,
as well as important cities.
- Flags: Students can match nationalities and countries with their flag.
- Puzzles: We can make a puzzle of Great Britain or the USA by cutting its parts
into pieces, so that students can join them later.
- Listenings: An interesting activity would be listening to a weather forecast while
completing a map.

HISTORICAL ASPECTS

In Primary, children can learn about historical characters or events, like Henry VIII and
his wives, Queen Victoria and British Imperialism, the great writer William
Shakespeare, the American War of Independence... We can use comics, texts, songs,
videos and films of historical background...

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CULTURAL ASPECTS

Cultural aspects in Primary Education include a variety of topics:

1. Courtesy formulas and their use in each situation.

2. Education: Types of schools, uniforms, subjects, classrooms...
3. Food and drink: We can talk about the English breakfast, pancakes, tea...
4. Houses: Children can learn about the different types of houses (detached, semi-
detached and terraced houses), their characteristics and distribution.
5. Money: Children must be familiar with British and American money, and with
the value in Euros.
6. Names: It’s important that they know a variety of Anglo-Saxon names, not just
the most frequent.
7. Festivals: Children must know about traditional festivals such as Halloween,
Bonfire Night, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, Easter, St Valentine’s Day... as
well as vocabulary related to them: cracker, Christmas card, candle, Easter egg...
8. Music: Students will soon realize the amount of English songs that they listen to.
In class we can use different types of music: tailor-made songs (that come along
with course books), popular and traditional songs or international hits.
9. Monuments: Students will have seen in movies many monuments of Great
Britain or the USA. We can reinforce and enlarge this knowledge through
pictures, postcards, videotapes...

From the first day, teachers are expected to bring in the class posters, pictures and other
realia in order to help students develop a ‘mental image’ of the target culture (Peck,
1998). The main activities and materials for teaching culture include:
1. Realia: If the pupils are very young the teacher may try to collect realia, such as
typical food, toys or clothes. Using real objects from the country increases
students’ motivation and helps to engage them in authentic cultural experiences.
Films, television shows, web sites, photographs, magazines, newspapers,
restaurant menus, leaflets, tickets, money or labels can be used too.
2. Songs, rhymes and stories: They are a very appropriate way to introduce
historical, traditional or social elements through them.
3. Proverbs: They reflect historical and cultural background.
4. Role-play: Each student plays a role in a specific situation. They are useful to
practise social conventions, like greetings, asking for something, thanking... An
interesting activity would be acting out a miscommunication that is based on
cultural differences, for example a situation in which an inappropriate greeting is
used. Other students observe the role-play and try to identify the reason for the
miscommunication.
5. Projects: Students work on a topic, using the knowledge they already have and
looking for more information about it. For example, students can compare
British and Spanish schools (what they are like, uniforms, timetables, subjects...)
or British and Spanish food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch, eating hours...).
6. Quizzes on Anglo-Saxon culture can be useful and fun to do.
7. Recipes: They are useful to practise food and drink, and are also connected with
celebrations. Children can write down the ingredients and steps to follow.
8. Celebrations in class: Celebrating British or American festivals, like Halloween,
Christmas, St. Valentines Day or Easter will be very funny. The teacher can also
introduce vocabulary related to the festival.
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9. Making contact with real people: Older pupils can be encouraged to interview
native speakers, writing requests for information, writing to pen friends...

Beginning foreign language students want to feel, touch, smell and see the foreign
peoples and not just hear their language (Peck, 1998). The accent in the language
classroom must be on cultural experience rather than on cultural awareness.

3. CONCLUSION

In this topic we have explained why children must learn foreign languages at school.
Then we have focused on the main languages that exist today, considering the
possibility of creating a lingua franca to improve understanding about people from
different countries. Then we have concentrated on the teaching of the English language
in a way that contributes to the appreciation of its cultural features.

4. BIBLIOGRAPHY

BREWSTER, J. et al. (2003): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin English.
HARMER, J. (2003): The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman.
LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. (2003): Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching.
Oxford University Press.
VARELA, R. et al. (2003): All About Teaching English. Centro de Estudios Ramón
Areces.