LANGUAGE IN A CULTURAL CONTEXT

Part 1

ANTHROPOLOGY, WHAT?!

In this section of Part 1, you will approach the English language as anthropologists. You may think of anthropologists as people who study little-known cultures, deep in the jungle, writing observations in a journal or making recordings of an obscure language; but anthropology is the study of all human cultures, including English-speaking cultures. As students of the English language, you should consider yourselves students of the Anglophone world, a vast network of diverse cultures of English speakers which is alive and buzzing around us today, from the street corners of Singapore to the cornfields of Iowa.

DID YOU KNOW…

You will not have to look hard to find evidence to learn about these cultures. All you have to do is look at film posters, text messages, advertisements, or websites. These are all carriers of cultural information, and for the sake of study, we will call these pieces of evidence ‘texts’. Texts are not just books. They are covers of magazines, the graffiti found on billboards, the poetry read in cafes, or the speeches of politicians. They are manuals, letters, and tweets.

ALL AROUND THE WORLD

Your study of Anglophone cultures is going to take you around the world. While you may often think of English-speaking countries as places such as the United Kingdom, the USA, or Australia, you will also explore countries like Nigeria, South Africa, and the Caribbean.

MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL

Texts are little mirrors that reflect cultural values. You should approach them with the same care and scrutiny that an anthropologist would use.

CULTURE AND CONTEXT

Throughout this study, you will find out how culture and context help shape the meaning of texts and tell us more

about the Anglophone world.

VOCABULARY WORD #1

Anglophone: Refers to the places in the world where

English is spoken

VOCABULARY WORD #2

Text: Is any written work or transcribed piece of

speech. For the sake of our studies, we will think of texts as clues that lead to a better understanding of one of the many Anglophone cultures, and these clues can range from e-mails to poems and from advertisements and posters to books.

VOCABULARY WORD: #3

Culture Can have two different meanings:

It describes the values, goals, convictions and attitudes that people share in a society. Parts 1 and 2 of the IB English language and literature course are particularly interested in this aspect of culture.

It refers to the fine arts and a society’s appreciation of the arts. Parts 3 and 4 of the course are particularly concerned with this, through a study of literature.

VOCABULARY WORD: #4

Context: Refers to the circumstances that surround

the writing and the reading of a text. Trying to understand why a text was written (the purpose) and whom it was written for (the audience) are good starting points for understanding context.

ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE

The number of English language users in the world is expanding as rapidly today as it has for the past 400 years.

Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher and writer, once said that the world is becoming a ‘global village’. He was referring to the way in which people with similar interests are reaching out and making contact with each other, forming networks through various media and a common language.

English has become the common language that facilitates this process of convergence.

English is the worlds’ number one LINGUA FRANCA.

VOCABULARY WORD: #5

Global Village: Describes how members of a social group can be spread around

the world, but be interconnected though various media.

VOCABULARY WORD: #6

Lingua Franca Is a language spoken by people who do not share a native language.

VOCABULARY WORD: #7

Convergence: In linguistics, describes what

happens when people come together and accommodate for each other through their use of language.

POP QUIZ

1) How many people speak English as a native language? A) 200 million B) 400 million C) 600 million D) 1 billion

POP QUIZ

2) How many people speak English as an additional language? A) 300 million B) 400 million C) 600 million D) 1 billion

POP QUIZ

3) How many people are learning English today as a foreign language? A) 300 million B) 400 million C) 600 million D) 2 billion

ANSWERS:

1) C/600 million 2) C and D/In between 3) D/2 billion

VOCAB WORD: #8

Cultural Bias Is not being objective, but judging

something from another culture with reference to what is usual in your own culture.

VOCABULARY WORD: #9

Bilingualism: The cultural phenomenon of people using two or more languages regularly.

VOCABULARY WORD: #10

Language: Is a system of communication that is

mutually intelligible among all members of a society.

VOCABULARY WORD: #11

Accent: Describes the way in which someone

pronounces a language.

VOCABULARY WORD: #12

Dialect: Is a variety of language that is unique in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.

READ AND LEARN

In the IB Language and Literature work books: Read pages 8-19

Take notes on each of the individual sections in your journals

Write down the key vocabulary words from all of the green boxes in your journals.

THE BIG 5-REVIEW

As you now know, texts can be seen as pieces of evidence to help us better understand a culture. To unlock this evidence, various tools are necessary to analyze texts more carefully. Just as detectives need forensic tools to understand crime scenes, you too will require tools to help you reconstruct the contexts in which the texts were written.

CLOSE READING

You will need to continue to develop skills that enable you to engage in close reading: the practice of analyzing and interpreting texts.

You will approach a text in the same way a detective approaches a crime scene.

There are 5 main categories to focus on while analyzing and interpreting texts: the BIG 5

BIG 5

1) Audience and purpose Who wrote the text? Who was it written for? Why did the writer write it?

BIG 5

Content and theme What is the text about What is the main message? What is the authorial intention?

BIG 5

Tone and mood What is the writer’s tone? How does the text make the reader

feel?

BIG 5

Stylistic devices What stylistic devices does the writer use and to what effect?

Structure What kind of text is it? What structural conventions are

use?