UNIVERSIDADE SÃO JUDAS TADEU Centro de Pós-Graduação Especialização Lato Sensu DISCUSSION QUESTION

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1 UNIVERSIDADE SÃO JUDAS TADEU Centro de Pós-Graduação Especialização Lato Sensu DISCUSSION QUESTION São Paulo, 2012

2 ALEXANDRE RODRIGUES NUNES RA Concepts of culture, literature and language and their relevance to educators. Trabalho apresentado à disciplina de Estudos Culturais da Civilização Anglo-Americana, do Centro de Pós-Graduação Especialização Lato Sensu da Universidade São Judas Tadeu, ao professor Alexandre Feldman. São Paulo, 2012

3 Concepts of culture, literature and language and their relevance to educators An educator has great importance in constituting culturally solid basis for the maintenance of the values and traditions of a society. The role of an educator is seen as a professional whose main task is to pass on to young people, to the students, the fundamentals of general knowledge as well as the elementary schooling. However, it is necessary to understand some concepts in which this professional bases his beliefs in order to being able to accomplish his aims as being an educator. When teachers do their tasks and teach students the subjects there are aligned to by the governmental department of education, they may simply transmit a group of contents without being aware of how necessary they are to institute some concepts that the societies require in order to keep institutionalizing the principles considered essential for the societies we know at present. If educators are seen as a key for the this institutionalization of the basis of a society, they need to consider some of the concepts of culture, literature and language they may refer in order to establish balanced and regulated views of these ideas. Neil presents language as a relationship between language and culture 1 and defines it as being used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. Then, it comes to a question: what importance does language perform in this matter? Without language all the contents or knowledge cannot be thought of or even constituted, as does show an article about linguistic determinism and the influence language operates over our thoughts 2. She considers the impossibility of dissociating language and thought due to the fact that language structure and organization bare the very roots of the thoughts as we know and they are only possible to be realized because of language. Considering the great connection of language and thought, this bond ascends the discussion of culture and literature. From the use of language to the artistic manifestations in language, it is mandatory to discuss what exactly literature is, although it is complicate to talk about it without comprehending culture itself. But it shall be prudent to focus on each of them at a time. 1 NEIL, Aubrey. The Relationship Between Language & Culture and the Implications for Language Teaching from 2 BIRNER, Betty. Does the language I speak influence the way I think? The Linguistic Society of America. Available at:

4 According to Anthony Burgess 3, Literature is the use of words in an artistic way and it is possible to identify that for this writer the Beauty in the words is a work for/by artists just as drawing, painting, drama, music etc. He also emphasizes that words have been created meaningfully in their basis. That is to say that they possess meaning and power in terms of the concepts within the words creation process. Literature has held poetry and different manifestations of poetry since its beginning. Some of these manifestations are Lyric, Dramatic and Epic Poetry and they can be found in actual pieces of arts such as screen plays and drama scripts. They have changed in certain ways but have also conserved the arts within the language. Now, we come to a complex topic, Culture. It involves so many varied views of what culture is. It is believed basically that culture is related strictly to the concept of nation, mainly in the sense of geography and traditions. Halversosn (1985) presents the concept of culture in a differentiation between a Culture versus culture. Culture (capital C ) would mean the achievements of a people as reflected in their history, social institutions, works of art, architecture, music and literature, opposed to culture (regular c ) that would mean customs, traditions and practices that people carry out as part of their everyday lives. Another concept that should be taken into consideration is that culture is based on communication. This concept slightly differs in Hall s and Koester s views of culture. For Hall (1959) all kinds of verbal or non-verbal language that a people use to communicate enable them to organize their ideologies and for Koester (1999) culture is a process through which people undergo as they think, do and feel in order to communicate across cultures. Balancing these two views, it is plausible to say that as a need to communicate peoples use their language and certain their ideologies in order to establish their differences, or specialties. Besides, for Kohls (1994) the general concept of culture plays an important role to understand the fact that the contrasts between cultures that produce cross-cultural conflicts or misunderstandings is emphasized, thus, this concept qualifies the formation of values, attitudes and behaviors of not a culture specifically, but it applies to all cultures. 3 In The influence of Biblical Literature in English Literature and Culture

5 Bearing these concepts in mind and since educators have to be aware of their core importance throughout the formal education, teachers and educators need to reckon the linguistic strategies that are necessary for an individual to express thoughts, ideas and, consequently, necessary to enable one to make his point accurately and effectively in his society. So, not only can the academics expand their views of simply passing down knowledge but also they can enable awareness in learners conscious about each individuals participation in a people s culture. Knowing the concepts, studying the differences, reflecting about the possibilities and the influences of language and literature in cultures contribute for a more meaningful work of a teacher. Besides, only formal exposure or presentation of these concepts do not guarantee any relevance in scholars practices, but certain it does function to a more critical intervention in rethinking curricula and in providing a more democratic vision of what a class is. Furthermore, educators are conservers of cultural facts and traditions but they cannot discard a need of improving their participation in broadening views of forming cultures. They can do that every single time they get in contact with the individuals they are civilizing, better said, they must remember their power to make individuals much more aware of their own actions towards the conceptualization of cultures. Without it, certainly, cultures would not have evolved and with the educator s efforts to building a more open perspective of his own culture and of other cultures, they will advance in a more elaborate manner. REFERENCES NEIL, Aubrey. The Relationship Between Language & Culture and the Implications for Language Teaching available at BIRNER, Betty. Does the language I speak influence the way I think? The Linguistic Society of America. Available at: WILLIAMS, Raymond. Culture and Society. (Foreword and Conclusion). Available at: BAUGH, Albert & CABLE, Thomas. A history of the English Language (Chapters 1 and 11). London: Routledge, MORAN, Patrick R. Teaching Culture: Perspectives in Practice. Heinle & Heinle, 2001.