Sociocultural Factors

Definition of Culture -: 1 -Culture is a way of life. It is the

context within which we exist, think, feel, and relate to others. It is the “glue” that binds a group of people together .

2-It guides the behavior of people in a community and is incubated in family. It governs our behavior in groups, makes us sensitive to matter of status, and help us know what others expect of us.

3-Culture might be defined as the ideas, culture, skills, arts, and tools that characterize a given group of people in a given period of time. But culture is more than the sum of its parts “It is a system of integrated patterns, most of which remain below the threshold of consciousness .

*The fact that no society exists without a culture reflects the need for culture to fulfill certain biological and psychological needs in human beings.

*Culture establishes for each person a context of cognitive and affective behavior, a template for personal and social existence. But we tend to perceive reality within the context of our own culture .

*Misunderstandings are therefore likely to occur between members of different cultures .

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Languages and culture-:*A language is a part of a culture , and a

culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture.The acquisition of a second language ِIs also the acquisition of a second culture.

From Stereotypes to Generalizations:- Views of other cultures and languages *French .

*German. Stereotypical traits

*American. *Italians.*German.

*British.*Japanese .

How do stereotypes form ? *The stereotype may be accurate in

depicting the “typical” member of a culture, but it is inaccurate for describing a particular individual.

*To judge a single member of a culture by overall traits of the culture is both to prejudge and to misjudge that person.

* Stereotypes have a way of potentially devaluing people from other cultures.

*Sometimes our oversimplified concepts of members of another culture are downright false .

Cross-cultural research has shown that there are indeed characteristics of culture that make one culture different from another.Different culture can be different in-:

*their concepts of time and space.*the degrees of collectivism , power

distance , uncertainty avoidance , and gender role prescriptions.What do teachers and learners need?

Both teachers and learner of a second language need to understand cultural differences, to recognize openly that people are not all the same beneath the skin.

There are real differences between groups and cultures. We can learn to perceive those differences, appreciate them, and above all to respect and value the personhood of every human being.

Done by-:اللهيبي عطية حنانالغامدي سعيد أروى

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