Cultural mistakes in English language

Feofanova VarvaraGrade 9School 852Moscow, Zelenograd

Hypothesis

Learning and understanding a foreign language means the interest for the cultural life of this country. Without sufficient knowing of the culture even well-educated non-native speakers can make a lot of mistakes when speaking a foreign language.

Language as culture which is an impact of one on another.

Goals• To mark one of the most serious problems in

learning a foreign language which is that we try to translate sentences from our native language to a foreign one word by word.

• To point at necessity of re-thinking the concept of English language lessons for Russian students that need to be more concentrated on English culture, but not on tortuous grammar that is less important for everyday life and international communication.

• To help to broaden the mind and increase the interest to study English and use it correctly.

Task

1. To use different methods to analyze and study the problem.

2. To explore the books and other sources of information about this problem.

3. To define main aspects of the problem after accumulation enough information about the topic.

4. To work out a method of social research.

5. To create some advice after analyzing the research

Introduction

Language is grammar, vocabulary, lots of new rules and expressions.

But if you know all the rules and have vocabulary that is rich enough, does it mean that you know the language?

Actually not yet.

Learning and understanding a foreign language means the interest in the cultural life of this country.

We are sure that without sufficient knowing of the culture even well-educated non-native speakers can make a lot of mistakes when speaking a foreign language.

Language is a decisive factor in forming our views of the world because it provides speakers with a set of elements, including grammar, which predispose them to perceive their environment in certain patterns.

Lexical items do not exist in a cultural vacuum, and it is often hard for a non-native speaker to realize which “key words” critical to the understanding of a culture have quite different associations within another language and culture.

The Americans believe in the power of positive thinking. As for them everything is ‘fine’ or ‘great’.

The Americans and the Russians have completely different concepts about what the word ‘bad’ or ‘kind’ mean. Americans tend to emphasize ‘intelligence’ and ‘mind’ more than ‘heart’ or ‘soul’.

Research

After accumulation enough information we created a test for the students of high school to check what they will choose in embarrassing situations.

After analyzing the results of four classes we realized that even high-educated students, that get good marks in English classes, made many mistakes in questions connected not with the grammar but with the knowing of English culture.

Categoricalness and NegativityMany negative constructions needs reworking in English language if an English-speaking Russian is to avoid sounding unfriendly.

It takes time to get used to the idiomatic equivalents in English for these Russian expressions. Of course, English has negative expressions, but they are generally expressed in a less categorical and more polite form than in Russian.

Passive Voice and ImpersonalityDifferences in the way languages and cultures use the active and passive mood are reflected in vocabulary, idioms and grammatical constructions.

The differences in attitude are clearly reflected in the use of language. Pessimistic determinism still remains deeply ingrained in Russian linguistic structures and idioms.

Finesse and Colocations

In English language there is whole a rank of tricky words. False friends are pairs of words or phrases in two languages that look or sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning.

There are comic situations

They are comedians

The Discussion After the analyzing the results of our test we made a presentation for the students of high school.

After these special ‘cultural-language lessons’ we created a list of advice together.

Conclusion

I. Think about the idea that you want to express but not of the sentence that you want to translate.

II. Explore English history. It will help you to understand English culture better and will broaden your mind.

III. Watch English films without translation. You will notice a lot of useful constructions, idioms and patterns. And you will certainly improve your listening skills.

IV. Read books in English language. One of the most important peculiarity in this case is that you don’t have to understand every word that you see, you have to understand the idea.

V. Go to the English-speaking country. Full-immersion in the world of English language will open up new horizons for you. You will be able to see the ordinary life of English-speaking people and notice every detail.

VI. Explore English culture. That item includes reading books, watching films, exploring English history and interest about every part of the English culture. No doubt, you must love English culture, if you want to learn English language!

Использованная литература

1. Lynn Visson ‘Where Russians go wrong in spoken English’.

2. Edward Sapir ‘Language Race and Culture’.

3. Edward Sapir ‘An Introduction to the Language of Speech’.

4. Benjamin Lee Whorf ‘Language, Thought and Reality’.

5. Anna Wierzbicka ‘Semantics, Culture and Cognition’.

6. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale ‘The power of Positive Thinking’.

7. David Katan ‘Translating Cultures’.

8. Genevra Gerhard ‘The Russian’s World: Life and

Language’.

THANKYOU FOR YOUR

ATTENTION !