Culture in teaching English as an international language in CLT curriculum

Culture in teaching English as an International Language in CLT Curriculum Student's Name Institutional Affiliation Culture in Teaching English as an International Language in CLT Curriculum Language is a means of expressing our emotions, desires, feelings, needs and thoughts. These are expressed in symbols, words or gestures, all of which can be considered language. Language has been defined as a basic form of communication that addresses the physical, verbal and the biological forms of communication. To learn a foreign language means more than just mastering its grammar, vocabulary, and phonology. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and the use of culture in English language teaching have been widely debated. Some have criticized the incorporation of culture in the teaching of English as an international language while others have passionately defended it, arguing that it is valuable in facilitating learning and understand of language. Most scholars believe that learning a foreign language results to the acquisition of the norm and culture of the target language by the learner. This paper will discuss the role that culture plays in the teaching of a foreign language. Around the globe, English is ranked as the most commonly used language. It first spread during the colonial period and continued thereafter due to the superiority of USA in both economics and politics. It is used in fields such as tourism, education, science, aviation and commerce and even in daily conversation around over the world. Most people now learn English to achieve certain goals. However, some scholars still question whether culture is also taught along with the English language. This has been a feature of debates about English language teaching for almost two decades by scholars of applied linguistics and sociolinguistics. This debate has resolved into two viewpoints. The first view is that the "target language culture" should be incorporated into English teaching to bring the learners into the culture of their teachers (Byram & Flemming, 1998). The second viewpoint is that target language culture should not be incorporated into the English classrooms (Kachru & Nelson 1996). This viewpoint rejects the use of the target language culture into foreign language teaching classrooms. Some people are of the idea that the culture of the target language should be part of the teaching process of the target language. However, others argue that English should be taught using a culture free approach (Kramsch & Sullivan; Alptekin, 2005). Culture is believed to be having a dual character, both as a culture carrier and a mode of communication. Therefore, language without any culture associated with it, it is not a language as it is divorced from people in a particular culture. The two are intertwined and if they get separated they lose significance of what they carry (Jiang, 2000). Learning a language is learning a culture and, consequently, language teaching is cultural teaching. Therefore, language teachers should acknowledge the presence of culture in teaching foreign languages by enhancing the cultural awareness of the learners. Tomalin (2008) asserts that the rol...