Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
volume 6 (2015) Issue 1
Cultural
Perceptions and Language Attitudes
in
Second Language Learning -
A
Survey among University Students in Portugal
José
María Santos Rovira (Lisbon, Portugal)
Abstract
Stereotypes
fill foreign languages and cultures with pre-established ideas. We
set out to confirm if the old proverb saying that learning a foreign
language will open a new window to the world could be authenticated,
as well as to define the main factors in the moving process from a
stereotyped vision of the target language and culture to a more
realistic one. With these aims, in May 2014, we developed and
administered a questionnaire to 156 students of Spanish at the
University of Lisbon (Portugal) and carried out a narrative inquiry
with 27 Portuguese students to confirm if the foreign language
learning process transformed their preconceived ideas about the
language and the culture of Spain. Based upon the results, we suggest
that preconceptions and language attitudes deeply influence the pace
and the level of proficiency of the target language reached by
students.
Key
words:
Spanish, Portugal, cultural perceptions, language attitudes,
sociolinguistics
Resumen
Los
estereotipos están siempre presentes en las lenguas y culturas
extranjeras, en forma de ideas preestablecidas. Por ello, nos
propusimos confirmar si el antiguo proverbio que dice que aprender
una lengua extranjera es abrir una nueva ventana al mundo podía ser
demostrado, así como definir cuáles son los elementos principales
que intervienen en el proceso de cambio desde una visión
estereotipada de la lengua y la cultura metas hacia una más
realista. Con estos objetivos, en mayo de 2014, desarrollamos y
realizamos un cuestionario a 156 alumnos de español en la
Universidad de Lisboa (Portugal), así como una serie de entrevistas
de investigación a 27 alumnos portugueses, para confirmar si
realmente el proceso de aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera
transforma sus ideas preconcebidas sobre la lengua y la cultura
españolas. Basándonos en los resultados obtenidos, sugerimos que
los prejuicios y las actitudes lingüísticas ejercen una profunda
influencia en el ritmo y el nivel de dominio de la lengua meta
alcanzado por los alumnos.
Palabras
clave: Español, Portugal, percepciones culturales, actitudes
lingüísticas, sociolingüística
1
Introduction
The
relation between cultural perceptions and language attitudes is a
topic deeply studied throughout the last decades (Baker 1992, Dörney
et al. 2006,
Driscoll et al.
2013, Garrett 2010, Hall 2013, Hernández 2004, Moran
et al. 2014,
Samovar et
al. 2009, Spencer-Rodgers & McGovern 2002, Ting-Toomey &
Chung 2012, Vez 2009). The way we communicate with others and the way
we unwittingly judge them are strongly tied to our own culture and
values, showing a deep link between language and ideology:
Language attitudes and language ideologies
permeate our daily lives. Our competence, intelligence, friendliness,
trustworthiness, social status, group memberships and so on are often
judged from the way we communicate. (Garrett 2010: 3)
Consequently,
it becomes impossible to dissociate cultural perceptions and language
attitudes, as they are both branches of the same tree. As it is
obviously impossible to dissociate the way we think and the way we
speak, it is also impossible not to connect our culture and our
language. Language attitudes join cultural perceptions, so people´s
discourses reflect their approaches to life and to others. Our own
culture constrains, in many modes, the way we speak and the way we
judge others´
speech, will lead
us to set up an idea about them, not just through their behaviour but
also through their words. In some cases, it could be positive, as it
allows us to find fellows, but, at the same time, it disposes us to
undermine others only because we do not share or understand their
viewpoints.
Cultural
perceptions and language attitudes affect not only thoughts and
behaviours, but also the command we can reach in a foreign language.
In fact,
the question of how personal variables like attitudes, motivation or
pre-established ideas
influence
on the
foreign language learning process is also one of the most studied
topics in linguistics (Dörnyei 1990, Dörnyei 1998, Dörnyei &
Skehan 2003, Isabelli-García 2010, Masgoret & Gardner 2003,
Risager 2011, Yashima
et al. 2004,
and Williams
et al.
2002). As it is commonly agreed, stereotypes fill foreign languages
and cultures with pre-established ideas. In fact:
Culture refers to the customs, behaviours
and beliefs that frame people’s lives. It influences attitudes,
preferences and habits and contributes to an individual’s identity
and their sense of self. Culture is, therefore, both enabling and
constraining. By developing a greater understanding of the influence
of culture, an individual learns more about themselves and others.
(Driscoll et
al. 2013: 147)
Accordingly,
we set out to confirm if the old proverb saying that learning a
foreign language will open a new window to the world could be
authenticated. Our
second target was to define
which ones the
main factors in the moving process from a stereotyped vision of the
target language and culture to a more realistic one are.
2
Preconceptions about ´the other´
Preconceptions
about ‘the other’ are deeply linked to prejudices and
stereotypes. "The tendency to reduce the foreign 'other' is deep
within the roots of society generally" (Holliday et al.
2010: 23), thus the way we think
of our
counterparts and the way we judged them are highly influenced by our
own vision of the world around us. According to
it,
what we perceived about a person’s
culture and language is what we have been conditioned by our own
culture to see, and the stereotypical models already built around our
own. (Kramsch 1998: 67)
We
are not original people in
sensu stricto,
but products of a broader cultural community which models our vision
of reality, and languages, as products of the broader community,
reflect these visions. This brings us to the question of whether
culture is the only reason, or at least the main one, to be
considered as ‘the other’. However, human complexity goes far
beyond and literally anything could be named as 'otherness'. In any
human group, the ones who do not strictly share the same values –
I.e. the ones who show the slightest difference, e.g. the ones who
come from or look like or act or believe or think or speak in a
different way - could be considered as ‘the others’. There is no
specific characteristic which points out a mark of otherness. If a
group of people who share the same nationality confront an individual
who does not, nationality will be the reason to mark otherness. If
all share nationality, but one speaks a different mother tongue, this
language will be his mark of being different. If all share
nationality and language, but one has a different appearance (such
as a different ethnic origin), this will be the factor
to mark the otherness. If all share nationality, and language, and
race, and ethno, but one has a different belief or religion, this
belief or religion will be the mark. If all share nationality,
language, race, ethno, and religion, but one thinks in a different
way (e.g. politically) or even has different preferences (e.g.
supporting a different sports team), these preferences will be the
key factor to exclude him from the 'community’ and label him as
‘the other’:
In every large community, a mode of
thinking, a distinctive type of reaction, get itself established, in
the course of a complex historical development, as typical, as
normal. (Sapir 1949: 311)
Consequently,
almost any variation from what is normal will be considered as
atypical and so filled with preconceptions. Nevertheless, it is
universally acknowledged that nationality and language
mark a noteworthy difference among people. Both
concepts used to be strongly united, at least in Europe, with few
exceptions. In Europe,
there has been a
long tradition of monolingualism, as most of the states have based
their formation on a unified national language, which would be the
language of the dominant group. The languages of other groups could
be tolerated, even
got some
rights, but "for dominant groups, their own rights have often
been, and are still, invisible: they take them for granted"
(Skutnabb-Kangas 2012: 235). For centuries, idioms have been objects
which could be used to name who is national and who is not, instead
of tools for communication. So
"the
emergence of the concept of languages as separate entities is related
to European ideologies as they have developed at least since the
1700s" (Heller 2007: 60). Besides, the idea that political
borders show not only territory, but also "the limits of culture
and identity" (Llamas 2010: 227) flourished.
On
the contrary, the world is full of examples
which show that this idea is wrong. Political borders have no real
correspondence, neither with the limits of language
nor
with culture or identity. A simple view of a few European countries
will show this openly. Switzerland is one of the best
exemplifications of a state whose political
borders include
several languages (and cultures) such as French, German or Italian.
On the other hand, we can have a look at two different states,
Germany and Austria, which share a common language and whose
linguistic or cultural differences are not bigger than the ones
between different regions within Germany. In addition, a historical
perspective will evidence that political borders are human-invented
divisions, created by people whose purposes were, simply, to get
power and richness, not to join or split communities according to
their languages, cultures or identities. Thus, to having a certain
nationality is a simple twist of fate. One of the best examples of
this premise is the
situation of the citizens from
the former
Yugoslavia. People who were born in the same state and with the same
´national language´, now are nationals of different countries and
have different ´national languages´.
As
a result of this false identification between state and language,
European language attitudes looked traditionally at multilingualism
as an enemy of the state. This has been the common European position
until recently and still there are lots of states and people around
the globe
who continue thinking
in the same way.
In other cases, at least in Western Europe, after World War I, when
some states began to worry about others´ languages. Nowadays we can
confirm that the previous negative attitudes towards different
languages has moved a step forward and changed "to a more
positive evaluation of multilingualism" (Jessner 2008: 16), as
one of the benefits of globalization.
Portugal
is one of the
most monolingual countries
in Europe, as there is no other real language spoken. However,
Portuguese students deal with other languages from childhood, as
movies in the country are
generally shown
in their original language, both at cinemas and on television. Even
so, when confronted with a new language, students have some
preconceived ideas about it and its native speakers in
their minds. In
the specific case of Spanish, the most common idea in Portugal is
that it is a very easy language thanks to its similarities with their
own (Marques 2012: 128). Furthermore, the facts that Portugal and
Spain are neighbouring countries, lots of Portuguese people have
visited Spain at least once in their lives and listen
to or read news
about Spain on a daily basis, make them think it unnecessary to learn
anything about Spanish culture (Moreira 2013: 53).
A
simple talk with a handful
of
Portuguese students could verify this attitude. Marques (2012: 128)
quotes some of the clichéd preconceptions about Spanish language: "I
chose Spanish because is very easy to communicate with"; "it
is an easy language"; or "it is very similar to
Portuguese". And she also continues her work with other clichéd
ideas about Spanish people and culture (Marques 2012: 130):
"Spaniards are hot, lively and funny"; "talking about
them makes
me remember festive days"; "they are people who like to
sleep their
siesta";
"they drink alcoholic beverages double as much as Portuguese
people and feel good"; "they are very lively people who
like parties and nights"; "they have a very particular
culture"; "it is one of the most traditional cultures of
the world"; and "Spanish culture is more interesting than,
for example, English. I think Spanish culture is funnier". Other
scholars have also described the same kitsch-related points of view,
both for language and culture, as Moreira (2012: 32): "We use to
hear that [Spaniards] speak very loudly and all at the same time and
arrive later at meetings"; Santos Rovira (2013: 54): "for
Portuguese speaking students, the most of the Spanish grammar is
similar to their own mother tongue´s";
or Araújo (2012: 66): "Happiness and fun always appear in
opposition to our own
fado and
nostalgia".
Will
the deeper knowledge of the language / culture contribute to change
their way of thinking?
This
question
is what
we tried to unveil with our questionnaires and narrative inquiries.
3 Learning
a Foreign
Language:
Opening
a Window
to the World
(or not)
A
few decades ago, Pinker published an unusual work pointing out that
"there is no scientific evidence that languages dramatically
shape their speakers´ ways of thinking" (1994: 58). But we have
to disagree with him and support several works which clearly show
that he was wrong, such as Kramsch (1993: 43: "native speakers
of a language speak not only
with their own individual voices, but through them speak also the
established knowledge
of their native community and society"), Whorf (1956: 213: "we
dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages")
or Wierzbicka (1997: 5: "a person´s conceptual perspective on
life is clearly influenced by his or her native language").
Furthermore,
anytime we go abroad, to a country with a different language and
culture, we find, beyond
doubt, that our own culture deeply influences the way we think, the
way we behave and, hence, the way we speak. This attribute has a
profound impact on language attitudes, modelling our discourse in our
mother tongue.
For
this reason,
in
the process of learning
a foreign language, the impact of the cultural related thoughts and
prejudices would become one of the main components to mark our
progress on this task. The crucial barrier most students have to
surpass is to change their minds so as to wider their vision of the
world and to see through others´ eyes, as stated by Holliday: "the
learning of a second or additional language... is a process which is
inextricably linked to issues of culture and identity" (Holliday
2010: 119).
Several works have developed different theories about how the
language learning process affects the learners’
minds, but no proper conclusion has been achieved. There is common
agreement that learners’
attitudes towards the target language and culture will unequivocally
influence their
progress
in
that language (Dörnyei 1990, Dörnyei 1998,
Gardner &
Lambert
1959;
Isabelli-García 2010,
Lotherington 2004,
Masgoret &
Gardner
2003,
Risager 2011,
Skehan 1991), but some specific ideas have to be developed further.
It is still confusing why some students change their minds as they
get deeper into the language but others do not. Theoretically, "the
acquisition of a second or further language may result in learners
reconsidering the cultural ‘reality’ around them"
(Prieto-Arranz
et
al.
2013: 19), but this is just partially true, as "not everyone
reacts in the same way to the host culture… not all cultural
contact is successful… it is not as easy for everyone to adjust to
new ideas" (Lochtmann &
Kappel
2008: 20).
Learning
a foreign language will not always open a window to the world, as for
some students, it becomes extremely difficult to change their
prejudices and move to a broader understanding of other ways of
thinking. When considering foreign languages and cultures, a
chauvinist
perspective could appear:
White children may become incapable of
really hearing other cultures and, thus, learning from them. For as
long as mainstream students think that another’s language is
inferior to theirs, they will probably not bother to understand it,
and therefore, there will be much about the other that they will
always fail to understand. (Samovar
et al. 2006: 121)
The
mere learning process of a different language is not the crucial clue
to avoid prejudgement on foreign cultures and ideas, and the
a priori
attitude of the learner may be the answer. When the beginner has a
low-profile consideration of the target culture, he will
hardly be able
to go beyond his preconceptions and identify himself as a new member
of that community. The enriched cultural identity which ensues from
the learners’ fusion of his own cultural background and the new
cultural elements acquired through learning the new language (Sudhoff
2010: 32), will probably not be achieved by everyone who starts the
learning process. Only those who could leave behind their
preconceived
viewpoints
could really get into a new language and culture, because cultural
presuppositions are, undeniably, "a hindrance for communication"
(Liaw &
Johnson 2001:
235). This unsettled theory has also
been confirmed
by Dörnyei & Skehan:
Attitudes related to a L2 community exert a
strong influence on one´s L2 learning. This makes sense, since few
learners are likely to be successful in learning the language of a
low-status community. (Dörnyei & Skehan (2003: 613)
Thus
not only the degree of command of the new language is affected by
those premises.
4 The
Case
of Portuguese University
Students
Learning
Spanish as a Foreign
Language
Taking
into account recent works on cultural perceptions and language
attitudes on Spanish by Portuguese students (Araújo 2012,
Cunha 2011,
Marques 2012,
Moreira 2012,
Moreira 2013,
and Venâncio
2013), in May 2014, we administered a questionnaire to 156 students
of Spanish as a Foreign Language at the University of Lisbon
(Portugal), and
carried out a narrative inquiry with 27 Portuguese students, with the
aim of defining their cultural perceptions and language attitudes on
Spanish. The ideal character for this survey was a Portuguese native
speaker, student of Spanish as a foreign language at the university
level and who could have visited Spain, but no for such a long period
as
to get a good knowledge of it.
The
first block of questions was designed to create a brief
sociolinguistic profile of the individuals and to check if it matched
our
‘ideal’
character.
We asked
them
about their mother tongue, their birthplace and their age. The first
question confirmed that all of them were Portuguese native speakers.
Answers to the second question corroborated that most of them (144)
were born in Portugal, and the other twelve were born abroad (four in
Brazil, four in Venezuela, two in Angola, one in Cape Verde and one
in Guinea-Bissau) but had been living in Portugal for a long period:
Figure
1: Birthplace
The
age rate was as follows: 111 students were between 17 and 25 years
old, 23 were between 26 and 35 years
old, 12 were
between 36 and 45
years old and 10
students were older than 45:
Figure
2: Age
We also
asked them if they had
ever been to
Spain, and the big majority of the students replied in
the affirmative (136).
The 20 students who replied
negatively were among the youngest (17
to 25 years
old), and only 14 students were born in Portugal. These results
confirmed what had
previously
been exposed in
Cunha (2011: 180): the main reason for the knowledge about Spain in
Portugal was
that most of
the population had
visited the country. Moreover, some of them had also visited other
Spanish-speaking countries, such as Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica,
Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and
Venezuela.
A
second block of questions was designed to analyse students’
previous ideas
about the Spanish language. Before starting their studies, students’
common opinion was that it was
a very easy language for them thanks to its similarities with theirs,
and also that it was
a very important
language in the world because it is spoken in a lot of countries, as
well as a language needed for several activities and jobs. As a
result, the whole of the students considered the study of the Spanish
language as
interesting
(around 20% considered it as very interesting), matching the
conclusions obtained by previous works (Marques 2012: 128,
Moreira 2013: 48). In addition, there was a group of students who
answered that they decided to learn Spanish because speaking
Portuguese and Spanish would give them a good advantage in their
professional careers, as "they [Portuguese and Spanish] are
the biggest linguistic block in the world" (Venâncio 2013:
328).
Notwithstanding,
several pre-conceived ideas appeared,
mainly when referred to cultural topics. Although it is true that
Spain and Portugal
share some cultural similarities
as a result of their common history along centuries, there are also
differences. But most students do not take these
into account. Around 76% of them replied that there were
no
such cultural differences between both countries, so, according to
them, they did
not need to study it. A simple detail will show
that this
is an inaccurate idea.
When
asked about the attitudes they did
not like about
Spanish people, a common answer was related to the
latter’s
discourse behaviour, perceived as a lack of reliability. Nowadays, in
Spain, is very common to use the informal second person pronoun in
daily interactions, with the only exception of job-related or very
formal situations. By contrast, in European Portuguese, the forms of
address reach an extraordinary level of complexity and use to be very
formal even in daily interactions. As a result, when Spanish people
with a low or non-existent
command of
Portuguese, visit the country and interact in
the way they are
used to, "violating social appropriateness in the target
language" (Blum-Kulka 1983: 49), this
will be
understood by locals as a lack of reliability. This kind of
misunderstanding is quite common in any interaction between people
from different cultures. Kowner (2002: 339) describes
a very similar scenario:
Many Japanese perceive communication with
non-Japanese as an unpleasant experience and tend to avoid it… This
article seeks to provide a supplementary approach to Japanese
communication difficulties with foreigners and Westerners in
particular: That is, the problem of status violation. The present
study shows that in an encounter with foreigners of equal status,
Japanese perceive the communication style of their counterparts not
only as highly distinct from their own, but also as similar to the
communication style of high-status Japanese in an encounter with
lower-status compatriots. Based on these findings, it is argued that
during intercultural encounters Japanese tend to feel that their
social status is violated, to propagate this feeling through their
culture, and ultimately to dislike and to be apprehensive about such
encounters.
So
far, the majority of people
show a tendency towards
reproducing
their speech style regardless of their counterpart’s
customs, neglecting cultural differences. In this particular case,
disregarding the cultural distinctness between Portuguese and Spanish
leads to
a misconstruction of the behaviour of ´the other´. Even
people who studied foreign languages make the same mistakes,
as stated in
Blum-Kulka:
transferring native
language pragmatic competence and applying linguistic competence in
the second language does not necessarily ensure appropriate and
effective speech-act realization in the second language. (Blum-Kulka
1983: 49)
This
is not just a personal mistake
of identifying
variation between languages
or cultures, but
an in-system failure which refers
to language teaching from
primary school to university. As explained by Moloney:
Teachers most frequently understood
culture, however, to mean the ‘visible’ or distinctive aspects of
a country’s culture (for example, festivals and food) and often
taught this in isolation from the language itself. While these
aspects of culture remain important, and much loved, teachers now
need to understand that, like the metaphorical iceberg, the far
greater part of culture is most often ‘invisible’, embedded
within everyday language, behaviour and relationships.
(Moloney 2013: 214)
The
result is that language learning usually provides students with very
limited opportunities to apprehend the cultural side of the language.
In fact,
while the cultural dimension is referenced
within lessons, there are limited opportunities for children to
question, explore or reflect upon the impact of culture either on
their own lives or on the lives of others. (Driscoll et al. 2013:
146)
In
the educational
system of Portugal,
the situation is roughly
the same as in
any other country. Foreign languages are taught from primary to
tertiary levels, and culture is referred to just as a folkloric part,
which results in cultural
misunderstandings.
Returning
to to our
survey, we felt interested in finding out how long students
had studied
Spanish. The
duration of language-learning
represents a
very important factor, due to which we could arrange different stages
in the learning
process which could show whether
the more an
individual is involved in
the target
language, the more he or she will change his or her language
attitudes in relation to it. According to the students´ answers, 51
had been studying Spanish for less than a year, 72 for 1 to
3 years, 20 for
4 and 6 years,
and 13 longer than 6 years. Thus,
we had a good range of students at different stages of the
language-learning
process to develop
proper research:
Figure
3: How long have you studied Spanish?
The
narrative inquiry conducted was also an invaluable source of
information on cultural perceptions and language attitudes among
university students in Portugal. Among the 27 students who took part
in the narrative inquiry, seven started with a very positive point of
view of Spain, 15 from slightly
positive
one and five from slightly
negative
one. In most cases, these ideas (the positive and the negative ones)
came from pre-established clichés they regarded as
accurate
even with little or no evidence. During this activity, those students
who
started from a very or
slightly
positive
point of view adopted a more and more positive view, in accordance
with the depth of their knowledge about Spain and the
Spanish-speaking world. Unlike them, those students
who
started from slightly negative point of view, changed their minds
only slightly or not at all throughout the learning process, and they
continued
believing in the same pre-established ideas as before.
Another
key point of
the survey was students’
interest in
living in Spain, as students or as workers. So, in our questionnaire,
students were asked if they
considered going
to study in Spain an interesting option, and the majority replied in
the affirmative
(143). The only 13 students who replied negatively were among the
ones who had studied Spanish for a short period (eight students for
less than a year and five students between one
and three
years) and all were among the youngest (17-25 years old).
Undoubtedly, the ones who participated in the narrative inquiry and
started from a negative point of view were also among them.
We also
obtained similar
results when asking if working in Spain was an interesting choice:
126 students
replied in
the affirmative and
the 30 students
who replied
negatively were among the ones who had studied Spanish for a short
period of time
(19 students for
less than a year and 11 students between
one
and three
years); in addition, 27 students were among the youngest (17-25 years
old), and 3 students were among the oldest (+45 years old). As
previously mentioned,
those students
who took part in the narrative inquiry and started from a negative
point of view were also among them.
Asked
about the reasons why
they felt
interested in going to study or work in Spain, the group who started
from positive feelings clearly
admitted that
they wanted to
get deeper into the language and the culture of Spain and
feel as part of
the community during their stay. On the other hand,
the group who started from a negative point of
view did
not feel
interested in being part of the community or in getting deeper into
the culture.
The way
students dealt with the usual stereotypes about Spain was also a
fascinating field of
research.
Although all of them heard the same commonplaces all
along their
lives, not everyone assumed that they were real. Among the 27
students who took part in the narrative inquiry, nine looked upon
them as legends of ancient times. The other 18 students
commenced from a
stage where they credited that there was
any evidence to support it. But while eleven students admitted that
there was had
been moment when
they shifted to a more realistic position, seven
students have
been thinking in
the same way up to now. Comparing their answers to this question with
earlier ones, we found that among the nine students who looked upon
stereotypes as legends of ancient times, seven
replied that they had
started from a
very positive point of view when they began studying Spanish, and two
from slightly
positive one.
Among the eleven
students who
admitted to have shifted from a stage where they credited any
possible evidence
to support stereotypes to a more realistic position, all of them
replied that they had
started from
slightly
positive point
of view. And among the 7seven students who continued thinking in the
same way, five
had replied that they started from slightly
negative point
of view and two
from slightly
positive one.
One more
question focused on students’
goals when
enrolled in the subject. 18 students stated
that they wanted to obtain as high a level as possible in the foreign
language, i.e.
near-native
competence, so
as to boost their
professional careers. But when asked
if sounding and
acting as a native was one of their goals, only eight
out of 18 students reacted positively; ten
students said
that they wanted
to keep their
Portuguese identity at any circumstance; the other nine
students
considered that reaching an intermediate language level would be
enough for them. This attitude surprised
us as we had
always thought
that speaking or even acting in a foreign country or context natives
could cause a loss of self-identity but help
us to be an
enriched individual. Nevertheless, this situation has been described
as habitual in
several works (Dörnyei 2009,
Knutson 2006,
Yihong et
al. 2007). The fear to lose one’s
identity when speaking a foreign language reveals that almost
everyone understands that
the language he
or she speaks is
intensely linked to its culture
and that it is
impossible to set apart this pair of deeply
rooted elements.
5 Conclusions
In the
present paper,
we have demonstrated that there is an unavoidable relationship
between language and culture, as well as between cultural perceptions
and language attitudes. In addition, preconceptions on foreign
languages and cultures are widespread among people of any nation and
generally cause
numerous misunderstandings.
Based upon the results of our
questionnaire
and the narrative inquiry
conducted, we can confirm that the more the students get into a
foreign language or
culture, the
better they will understand the differences, the prejudices and the
stereotypes about the ´other´.
Students who are at the early stages of their language learning
process are the ones who have more prejudices, while students at
later stages, who
generally have a
better knowledge of the target language or
culture, have modified or abandoned them.
Nevertheless, the fact that the cultural side of the language is
rarely taught within any foreign language program provokes
long-lasting
misconceptions,
that prevail
almost until students reach a very high level of proficiency.
Our
results also
show that negative preconceptions are a burden to learn a foreign
language, so those
people who start
from a negative
consideration of
the target language or
culture are unable to reach a good
command of the language or culture in question.
On the other hand,
students who start from an enthusiastic consideration show much more
progress in terms of
their linguistic abilities, not to mention their capacity to change
their perspectives. According to these results, it is clear that
anybody with a good understanding of a foreign language and culture
can hardly
reject it or feel uninterested in it. Just the ones who have not or
just little command of the
language in question
can look at it in a disdainful mood. As exposed before,
in most cases,
Portuguese
students start with some pre-established ideas about Spain and the
Spanish language, but only the ones with a positive consideration
will leave these
ideas behind and
forge ahead to a better understanding. Inevitably, they will be also
the ones who may
reach a very
good command of the target language.
Introducing
a proper study of the cultural side of
language in any
language-learning
program would
make a real difference as
far as students’ competence is concerned. The consequence of this
approach, however, is that
language teachers would have to leave aside their
traditional views on teaching culture and move to a better
integration of
culture in
the foreign language classroom.
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Author:
Prof.
Dr. José María Santos Rovira
Departamento de Linguística Geral e Românica
Faculdade de Letras
Universidade de Lisboa
Alameda da Universidade
1600-214 Lisboa
Departamento de Linguística Geral e Românica
Faculdade de Letras
Universidade de Lisboa
Alameda da Universidade
1600-214 Lisboa