BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN MULTICULTURALISM AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Journal Title: The Dawn Journal - Year 2012, Vol 1, Issue 2
Abstract
The needs of the 21st century demand a citizenry that is culturally sensitive and internationally focused, with an orientation toward the future rather than the past. Every child is born with a language acquisition device having innate properties that plays a role in acquiring knowledge of language. As Whorfian hypothesis goes, it is the conceptual categorization of the world that is determined by the structure of the language. According to C. Andrade, the Cultural Anthropologist, ‘the cultures have consensual domains having cognitive schemas that are inter-subjectively shared by social groups.’(as quoted in Manjali, 1998). These are throughout and forever reconstituted by cultural blending and children learning a second or a foreign language have to deal with the absence of similar cognitive domains. The article reviews research on the level for learning a language, the assets of multiculturalism and second language acquisition, the problems that arise from lack of recognition for other languages and cultures, the ways to change current language education, and the integration of international language policies.
Authors and Affiliations
Deepika Nelson, Julia Devardhi
DIAGNOSTIC FEEDBACK MODEL IN DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILLS IN ESL LEARNERS – AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
Engineering classrooms often contain mixed-ability students with less interest in language study. These students come from different backgrounds and different mediums of instruction. Grammar translation method, communica...
LITERATURE AND IDENTITY: AFRICA AND THE DIASPORIC EXPERIENCE
Literature across ages and continents have functioned as the embodiment and interpreter of a peoples’ culture, a conveyor of a people’s language as well as their philosophy, politics, psychology and national character. T...
TED HUGHES’ ANIMAL POEMS: AN EMBODIMENT OF VIOLENCE OR VITALITY?
Ted Hughes, a leading contemporary British poet appears to explore, through his creative and poetic imagination, the intensity of archaic energies largely in animal world. He is commonly termed “animal poet” as he compos...
YOU CAN SPEAK IN ENGLISH WITH ÉLAN: A REVIEW
In today’s world of globalization pronouncing a word correctly is as important as using correct syntax. People understand how embarrassing it could be if a word mispronounced means something else. It may lead to un...