language is the most important part of cultural identity essay

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Speaking, writing and reading are integral to everyday life, where language is the primary tool for expression and communication. Studying how people use language – what words and phrases they unconsciously choose and combine – can help us better understand ourselves and why we behave the way we do.

Linguistics scholars seek to determine what is unique and universal about the language we use, how it is acquired and the ways it changes over time. They consider language as a cultural, social and psychological phenomenon.

“Understanding why and how languages differ tells about the range of what is human,” said Dan Jurafsky , the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor in Humanities and chair of the Department of Linguistics in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford . “Discovering what’s universal about languages can help us understand the core of our humanity.”

The stories below represent some of the ways linguists have investigated many aspects of language, including its semantics and syntax, phonetics and phonology, and its social, psychological and computational aspects.

Understanding stereotypes

Stanford linguists and psychologists study how language is interpreted by people. Even the slightest differences in language use can correspond with biased beliefs of the speakers, according to research.

One study showed that a relatively harmless sentence, such as “girls are as good as boys at math,” can subtly perpetuate sexist stereotypes. Because of the statement’s grammatical structure, it implies that being good at math is more common or natural for boys than girls, the researchers said.

Language can play a big role in how we and others perceive the world, and linguists work to discover what words and phrases can influence us, unknowingly.

How well-meaning statements can spread stereotypes unintentionally

New Stanford research shows that sentences that frame one gender as the standard for the other can unintentionally perpetuate biases.

Algorithms reveal changes in stereotypes

New Stanford research shows that, over the past century, linguistic changes in gender and ethnic stereotypes correlated with major social movements and demographic changes in the U.S. Census data.

Exploring what an interruption is in conversation

Stanford doctoral candidate Katherine Hilton found that people perceive interruptions in conversation differently, and those perceptions differ depending on the listener’s own conversational style as well as gender.

Cops speak less respectfully to black community members

Professors Jennifer Eberhardt and Dan Jurafsky, along with other Stanford researchers, detected racial disparities in police officers’ speech after analyzing more than 100 hours of body camera footage from Oakland Police.

How other languages inform our own

People speak roughly 7,000 languages worldwide. Although there is a lot in common among languages, each one is unique, both in its structure and in the way it reflects the culture of the people who speak it.

Jurafsky said it’s important to study languages other than our own and how they develop over time because it can help scholars understand what lies at the foundation of humans’ unique way of communicating with one another.

“All this research can help us discover what it means to be human,” Jurafsky said.

Stanford PhD student documents indigenous language of Papua New Guinea

Fifth-year PhD student Kate Lindsey recently returned to the United States after a year of documenting an obscure language indigenous to the South Pacific nation.

Students explore Esperanto across Europe

In a research project spanning eight countries, two Stanford students search for Esperanto, a constructed language, against the backdrop of European populism.

Chris Manning: How computers are learning to understand language

A computer scientist discusses the evolution of computational linguistics and where it’s headed next.

Stanford research explores novel perspectives on the evolution of Spanish

Using digital tools and literature to explore the evolution of the Spanish language, Stanford researcher Cuauhtémoc García-García reveals a new historical perspective on linguistic changes in Latin America and Spain.

Language as a lens into behavior

Linguists analyze how certain speech patterns correspond to particular behaviors, including how language can impact people’s buying decisions or influence their social media use.

For example, in one research paper, a group of Stanford researchers examined the differences in how Republicans and Democrats express themselves online to better understand how a polarization of beliefs can occur on social media.

“We live in a very polarized time,” Jurafsky said. “Understanding what different groups of people say and why is the first step in determining how we can help bring people together.”

Analyzing the tweets of Republicans and Democrats

New research by Dora Demszky and colleagues examined how Republicans and Democrats express themselves online in an attempt to understand how polarization of beliefs occurs on social media.

Examining bilingual behavior of children at Texas preschool

A Stanford senior studied a group of bilingual children at a Spanish immersion preschool in Texas to understand how they distinguished between their two languages.

Predicting sales of online products from advertising language

Stanford linguist Dan Jurafsky and colleagues have found that products in Japan sell better if their advertising includes polite language and words that invoke cultural traditions or authority.

Language can help the elderly cope with the challenges of aging, says Stanford professor

By examining conversations of elderly Japanese women, linguist Yoshiko Matsumoto uncovers language techniques that help people move past traumatic events and regain a sense of normalcy.

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Language and culture.

Ee Lin Lee Ee Lin Lee Department of Communication Studies, Western Washington University
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.26
Published online: 07 July 2016

Language is an arbitrary and conventional symbolic resource situated within a cultural system. While it marks speakers’ different assumptions and worldviews, it also creates much tension in communication. Therefore, scholars have long sought to understand the role of language in human communication. Communication researchers, as well as those from other disciplines (e.g., linguistics, anthropology, psychology, and sociology), draw on each other’s works to study language and culture. The interdisciplinary nature of the works results in the use of various research methods and theoretical frameworks. Therefore, the main goal of this essay is to sketch the history and evolution of the study of language and culture in the communication discipline in the United States.

Due to space constraints only select works, particularly those that are considered landmarks in the field, are highlighted here. The fundamentals of language and the development of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis in leading to the formation of the language and social interaction (LSI) discipline are briefly described. The main areas of LSI study—namely language pragmatics, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, and the ethnography of communication—are summarized. Particular attention is paid to several influential theories and analytical frameworks: the speech act theory, Grice’s maxims of implicatures, politeness theory, discursive psychology, critical discourse analysis, the ethnography of speaking, speech codes theory, and cultural discourse analysis. Criticisms and debates about the trends and directions of the scholarship are also examined.

conversation analysis
discourse analysis
ethnography of speaking

The Fundamentals of Language

A major task of language researchers is to understand the complexities entailed in the structures of talk in order to unfold and understand sociality, including human nature, cultural values, power structure, social inequality, and so on. Researchers in language, culture, and communication study language situated in cultural nuances in order to understand language use in enhancing intergroup and intercultural dialogue. Although language enables learning and bonding, it also confuses interlocutors with contradictory yet deep and rich multi-layered meanings, such as (mis)interpretation of intentions, violation of normative conduct, and repair of conversations that have gone awry.

In a way, language not only construes our perception, but also constructs our social reality by manifesting actual social consequences. For example, the word race represents something that does not exist in physical reality, but it has real implications and consequences (e.g., discrimination, social disparity, unequal access to healthcare, etc.). Here, language allows the creation of actual and persistent perceptions (e.g., bad, inferior, non-deserving, and so on) that determine aspects of people’s lives. In fact, the role of language in influencing interlocutors’ perception and communication remains one of the most popular opening lines in empirical studies focusing on language and culture.

How Language Shapes Perception

Known as linguistic relativity, the notion that language influences our thinking about social issues derives from Edward Sapir’s works in anthropology and linguistics in the 1920s (Mandelbaum, 1963 ). Sapir studied the lexical dissections and categorization and grammatical features from the corpora obtained during his fieldwork over several decades. While studying the languages of different North American Indian tribes, including those living in Washington and Oregon in the U.S. and Vancouver in Canada, Sapir found, for example, that the Hopi language did not have lexical equivalents for the English words time, past , or the future . Therefore, he suggested that the Hopi worldview about temporal communication was different from the English worldview. In his lectures Sapir promoted the understanding of language as a system embedded in culture. Thereafter, based on Sapir’s findings, researchers studying language inferred that if there was no word for, say, you in a certain language, then speakers of that language treat you as nonexistent.

Benjamin Lee Whorf, a student of Sapir’s, later suggested that language could, to some extent, determine the nature of our thinking. Known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, or linguistic determinism, the notion that language is a shaper of ideas or thought inspired further empirical testing (Whorf, 1952 ). This led some researchers to conclude that speakers of different languages (e.g., Polish, Chinese, Japanese, English, etc.) see their realities differently. The investigation of the effects of languages on human behaviors, as influenced by Sapir’s and Whorf’s works, continues to be a popular topic in various academic disciplines.

During its postwar rebuilding efforts overseas in the 1930s, the U.S. government recruited linguists and anthropologists to train its personnel at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). While linguists researching the micro-level elements of languages successfully taught FSI officers how to speak different languages, anthropologists studying the macro-level components of culture (e.g., economy, government, religious, family practices, etc.) taught the officers how to communicate effectively with people from different cultures (Leeds-Hurwitz, 1990 ). The research and training collaboration between linguists, anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists at FSI showed that the learning of a foreign culture was not merely about acquiring language skills or translating from one language to another, but a holistic understanding of language in a wider context.

While the teaching of foreign languages to FSI officers was efficient, teaching anthropological understanding of foreign cultures was more challenging. Moreover, during the 1940s the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis and the notion that language frames people’s worldview were contested in empirical findings. About the same time, Edward Twitchell Hall, who is credited with founding the field of intercultural communication, strongly promoted his belief that effective communication between two people from different cultural backgrounds (i.e., intercultural communication) should combine verbal (i.e., speech) and nonverbal (i.e., non-linguistic) communication embedded in a cultural context (Hall, 1966 ).

Citing efficiency, researchers at the time developed language translation programs that enabled the quick learning of intercultural communication. In this approach of linguistic universalism, researchers assumed structural equivalence across languages—that word-by-word translation can foster cultural understanding (Chomsky, 1972 ). This shift of direction in academic research challenged Sapir’s proposition of the understanding of culture and communication based on common conceptual systems—the notion that meanings and values of concepts cannot be truly understood without understanding the cultural system.

Regardless of the competing viewpoints, research on how speakers of different languages operate under different language and communication systems continues to date. Researchers have also widened the scope of the language and culture program to include the study of language use and functions (i.e., communicative purposes) in and across different cultural systems. Although the translation of the linguistic corpora into the English language is commonly featured in proprietary research publications, analyzing discourse data in the native languages is preferred. Language is therefore treated as intact with the cultural system. This line of study, despite differences in methodological and theoretical frameworks, forms the basis for a specific discipline within the communication field called language and social interaction (LSI).

The LSI discipline focuses on the study of human discourse and human interaction in situatedness. Scholars pursuing this line of research seek to understand the development of speech and language processes in various settings, from small group to interpersonal, including face-to-face and those mediated by technology (see International Communication Association [ICA] and National Communication Association websites, respectively). The scholarship employs qualitative and quantitative methods and includes verbal (i.e., speech) and nonverbal communication (i.e., nonlinguistic cues) (see the ICA website ). The various methodological and theoretical frameworks used include social psychology, ethnography of speaking, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, and narrative analysis. Although well-established and housed in the communication field, works in LSI are interdisciplinary.

While LSI studies also include nonverbal communication as a language system, scholarship on speech—whether naturally occurring, elicited, mediated, or written—outnumber those focusing on nonverbal communication. The paucity of nonverbal scholarship in the LSI discipline underscores the challenges of recording nonverbal communication for data analysis (Fitch & Sanders, 2005 ). Although studies pertaining to how social life is lived in situated conversation and language is used in various interactional settings dominate LSI research discourse, the study of nonverbal communication as language deserves its own coverage as a (sub)discipline. Consequently, this essay focuses on the scholarship on speech in LSI. The following sections review a selection of the LSI subdisciplines organized by research methods, or more commonly conceptualized as analytical frameworks and procedures: language pragmatics, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, and the ethnography of communication. The review highlights a few major theories or theoretical frameworks in each subdiscipline, namely the speech act theory, Grice’s maxims of implicatures, politeness theory, discursive psychology, critical discourse analysis, the ethnography of speaking, speech codes theory, and cultural discourse analysis.

Language Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of language usage or talk in interaction. Researchers who study language pragmatics investigate the meanings of utterances in relation to speech situations in the specific contexts of use. Two theoretical frameworks that are commonly cited in language pragmatics are the speech act theory and Grice’s maxims of conversational implicatures, from which the influential politeness theory derives. These theoretical frameworks emerged from the examination of language independently from context, including situational factors that influence the cultural assumptions of the speaker and hearer.

Speech Act Theory

In an attempt to understand utterances in interaction, Austin ( 1962 ) explained speech acts as communicative acts in which speakers perform actions via utterances in specific contexts. Called performatives , these are illocutionary acts in which the speaker asserts a demand through utterances. Illocutionary acts contain force— that is, they allow the speaker to perform an act without necessary naming the act (e.g., apology, question, offer, refuse, thank, etc.). Austin illustrated three types of force: (a) locution , the words in the utterances; (b) illocution , the intention of the speaker; and (c) perlocution , the consequential effects of the utterance upon the thoughts, feelings, or actions on the hearer.

The speaker’s illocutionary act is said to be happy when the hearer understands the locution and illocutionary forces. In order for the speaker’s illocutionary act to be happy, the utterance has to fulfill felicity conditions. Felicitous illocutionary acts are those that meet social and cultural criteria and bring about effects on the hearer that the speaker intended (Searle, 1969 ). Thus, illocutionary acts are conventionalized messages, because their performance is an engagement in rule-governed behavior (also see Goffman, 1967 ).

Searle extended Austin’s concept of speech acts and elaborated on the speech act theory by identifying the conditions necessary for the realization of speech acts. For example, to promise, the speaker needs sincerity and intentionality; to declare the marital union of two partners, a priest or a judge has to be present. Hence the successful performance of a speech act depends on whether the constituent conditions of a particular speech act are fulfilled, or a particular speech act is realized in a contextually appropriate manner (i.e., in relation to sociocultural factors).

Searle developed a typology to categorize speech acts: (a) representatives , where the speaker says how something is, like asserting; (b) directives , the speaker tries to get the hearer to perform some future action, such as requesting and warning; (c) commissives , the speaker commits to some future course of action, such as pledging and promising; (d) expressives , the speaker articulates his or her psychological state of mind about some prior action, such as apologizing and thanking; and (e) declaratives , performatives that require non-linguist institutions, such as christening or sentencing. These conditions must be fulfilled for the speaker to effect the specific act.

The speech act theory can be used to describe utterance sequences—for example, to predict antecedents and consequents in a conversation. Thus, when a violation of the typology occurred, speech act theory successfully predicted repairs and other signs of troubles in the conversational moves. However, Searle’s taxonomy was criticized for several reasons. First, while Searle treated illocutionary acts as consisting of complete sentences in grammatical form, such acts can be very short utterances that do not follow the complete object-verb-subject structure (e.g., “Forge on!”). On the other hand, the speaker may need to utter several sentences to bring about effects on the hearer (e.g., advising). Second, Searle assumed that the felicity conditions for successful performances are universal, but later studies found that the conditions are indeed specific to the culture.

Furthermore, Searle subscribed to a linear, speaker-to-hearer view of transaction that dismissed the interactional aspect of language. The hearer’s role was minimized; specifically, the hearer’s influence on the speaker’s construction of utterances was ignored. Searle also neglected perlocutionary acts, which focus on the intention of the speaker. Instead, he focused solely on the linguistic goal of deliberate expression of an intentional state while overlooking extralinguistic cues. In short, the speech act theory could not account for intentionality and variability in discourse.

Grice’s Maxims of Implicatures

By moving beyond the linear (i.e., speaker-to-hearer) view of transaction, Grice proposed the cooperative principle ( 1989 ). He observed that interlocutors engage in collaborative efforts in social interaction in order to attain a common goal. In Grice’s view, collaborative efforts do not mean agreement; they mean that the speaker and the hearer work together in the conversation. According to the principle, participants follow four conversational maxims: quantity (be informative), quality (be truthful), relation (be relevant), and manner (be clear, be brief). Since these four maxims vary by culture, the interlocutors need to have culturally nuanced knowledge to fulfill these maxims.

According to Grice, meaning is produced in a direct way when participants adhere to the maxims. When the speaker’s intentions are conveyed clearly, the hearer should not have to interpret the speaker’s intentions. This occurs with conventional implicatures where standard word meanings are used in the interaction. However, in actual social interaction, most meanings are implied through conversational implicatures in which one or more of the conversational maxims are violated. Due to normative constraints, a speaker who says p implicates q , and the hearer would then need to infer the implied meanings; for example, what is being said and what is beyond words in a recommendation letter.

In short, Grice’s maxims of conversational implicatures are used to explain why people engage in different interpretations rather than rely on the literal meanings of utterances. The maxims attend to implied meanings that constitute a huge part of conversation and also the role of the hearer. Nonetheless, the cooperative principle was criticized for privileging the conversational conventions of middle-class English speakers. Additionally, Grice did not scrutinize strategic non-cooperation, which remains a primary source of inference in conversation (Hadi, 2013 ).

Politeness Theory

Influenced by Grice’s maxims, Brown and Levinson ( 1987 ) proposed the politeness theory to explain the interlocutor’s observation of conversational implicatures in order to maintain the expressive order of interaction. Brown and Levinson observed politeness strategies that consistently occurred in their field data across several languages: Tzetzal and Tamil languages in Asia, and the British and American forms of English. Despite the distinctive cultures and languages, they observed outstanding parallelism in interlocutors’ use of polite language to accomplish conversational goals. Politeness is the activity performed to enhance, maintain, or protect face or the self-image of the interlocutors.

To illustrate language universality in politeness, Brown and Levinson proposed a socialized interlocutor—nicknamed a model person (MP)—as a face-bearing human with rationality and intentionality when communicating. To avoid breaching social equilibrium, the MP, whom Brown and Levinson identified as the speaker, conforms to social norms to be polite. In performing a speech act, the MP cultivates a desirable image (i.e., positive social worth), pays attention to the hearer’s responses, and ensures that nobody loses face in social interactions (e.g., feels embarrassed, humiliated, awkward, etc.).

Since face is emotionally invested (e.g., actors get upset) and sanctioned by social norms, actors are said to engage in rule-governed behavior to pay homage to their face. Due to the emotional investment, face threats are likely to occur when actors perform facework. Brown and Levinson described two basic face wants: positive face , the desire for one’s actions to be accepted by others, such as approval from others; and negative face , the desire for one’s actions to be unimpeded by others. A threat to positive face decreases approval from the hearer (e.g., acknowledging one’s vulnerability), whereas a threat to negative face restricts one’s freedom to act (e.g., requesting a favor).

According to the politeness theory, the speaker can choose whether or not to perform face-threatening acts (FTAs). When performing FTAs, the speaker will go on or off record. In going off record, the speaker uses hints or utterances that have more than one attributable intentions, so that he or she does not appear to have performed a speech act. For example, the speaker who utters “Oops, I don’t have any cash on me” to the hearer after they have dined together in a restaurant is using an off-record strategy to suggest that the hearer foot the bill. In contrast, going on record means that the speaker performs the FTA (i.e., baldly without saving face) with or without redress. With redress, the speaker indicates that he or she does not intend to violate social equilibrium by performing the FTA (see further discussion below). Without redress, the speaker directly expresses his or her desire; for instance, the speaker commands the hearer to pay for lunch by saying, “You should pay this time.”

The speaker can use either positive or negative politeness strategies when performing FTAs with redress. Positive politeness strategies are used to attend to the hearer’s positive face. For example, in the restaurant scenario, the speaker can choose to compliment the hearer in order to establish solidarity by saying, “You have always been so generous …” On the other hand, negative politeness strategies are used to avoid imposing on the hearer’s negative face. For example, by seeking permission, “Would you consider paying for lunch? I will return the favor in the future,” the speaker acknowledges that the hearer is not obligated to perform the action of footing the bill.

According to the politeness theory, the speaker wants to use the least amount of effort to maximize ends by considering the weight of performing the FTA. Brown and Levinson postulated a formula: Wx = P (S, H) + D (S, H) + R, where W stands for the weight of the FTA; P the relative power of hearer (H) over speaker (S), which is asymmetrical (e.g., if H is an authority); D the social distance between H and S, which is symmetrical (if H speaks another dialect); and R the ranking of imposition of the FTA in a particular culture. They suggested that P and D were universal with some emic correlates. Thus, in calculating Wx, S will consider the payoffs of each strategy. For example, in using positive politeness strategies, S may appear to be friendly, whereas in using an off-record strategy, S may appear manipulative by imposing on H, who gets S’s hints and then performs a future act. In using an on-record strategy, S may choose to be efficient, such as in an emergency (e.g., Ambush!).

After three decades, politeness theory remains one of the most tested theories. However, amongst its criticisms, the theory is said to account for intentional politeness, but not intentional impoliteness. The significant attention paid to the speaker’s utterances, albeit with a consideration for the hearer’s face, reveals the assumption of conversations as monologic. In some respects the theory followed the trajectory of Searle’s and Grice’s works in that the performance of utterances is conceptualized as a rational cognitive activity of the speakers. In particular, speakers are assumed to generate meanings and action, whereas hearers are treated as receivers who interpret the speech performance. Therefore, the politeness theory is unable to fully explain interactional organization in talk exchanges.

Conversation Analysis

During the 1960s, empirical science centered on the prediction of the effects of abstract ideas on communication and social life. Common predictors tested include personality types, cognition, biological sex, income level, and political stance. Social scientists who studied language commonly adhered to the quantitative paradigm; they conducted experiments, used elicited conversations, and analyzed responses containing rehearsals of recollected conversations. The study of mundane rituals, however, was not of academic concern.

Erving Goffman, a sociologist, later made a radical theoretical move that differed significantly from the mainstream empirical studies. Goffman stated that orderliness was empirically observable from everyday conversation. He argued that since socialization shapes the social actor’s competencies, conversation maintains moral codes and institutional order. In other words, sequential ordering of actions in social interaction reflects the macro social institution (e.g., politics, business, legal systems, etc.).

Goffman’s works were viewed as a paradigm shift in the social sciences. He called attention to the orderliness that is observable in ordinary conversation—an area of investigation that other scientists neglected. Furthermore, unlike the early works in language study, Goffman’s theoretical framework no longer focused solely on the performance of speakers in conversations. Instead, meaning making—that is, the examination of the participants’ understanding of one another’s conduct—took precedence. Goffman did not test his ideas, nor did he develop any set of empirical methods that allowed the testing of his ideas.

In search of an empirical analysis of conversation, Harold Garfinkel, another sociologist, expanded on Goffman’s ideas. Garfinkel ( 1967 ) proposed that ethno-methods (i.e., the study of people’s practices or methods) inform the production of culturally meaningful symbols and actions. He noted that social actors use multiple tacit methods (e.g., presuppositions, assumptions, and methods of inference) to make shared sense of their interaction. Thus, conversation is a place where participants engage in mundane reason analysis, and conversational sequential structure—the organization of social interaction—reveals membership categorization.

The subdiscipline of conversation analysis (CA) was further expanded when Harvey Sacks and Emanuel Schegloff, who were later joined by Gail Jefferson, studied suicide calls made to the Center for the Scientific Study of Suicide, Los Angeles (Sacks, 1984 ). They investigated how sequential structure is managed in institutional talk. Conversation analysts study conversation sequence organization, turn design, turn taking, lexical choices, the repair of difficulties in speech, and the overall conversational structure. They analyze linguistic mechanisms (e.g., grammar and syntax, lexis, intonation, prosody, etc.) in naturally occurring conversations.

Institutional talk, as examined in later CA studies, focused on those that have fewer formal constraints as institutional practices (e.g., phone calls, doctor–patient interaction, and classroom instructions), but not those that have rigid structures within formalized rituals (e.g., a religious wedding ceremony, a sermon, etc.). Institutional CA studies accelerated in the past few decades, allowing the identification of macro-level societal shifts through the management of social interaction in talk (Gee & Handford, 2012 ).

In general, CA theory postulates that talk is conducted in context. Participants’ talk and actions evoke context, and context is invoked and constructed by participants. Sequencing position in conversations reflects the participants’ understanding of the immediate preceding talk. As such, sequential structure reveals socially shared and structured procedures (Garfinkel, 1967 ). Thus, CA is the study of action, meaning, context management, and intersubjectivity.

CA is qualitative in methodology, even though later scholarship involved statistical analysis. The method is criticized for several weaknesses, among them: (a) the analysis and presentation of select segments of conversation lack rationale; (b) most CA studies are restricted to studying conversations in North America and Europe; (c) since multiple identities are at play in conversations, those that are consequential for social interaction remain ambiguous and debatable in analyses; and (d) the boundaries between pleasantries (e.g., small talk) and institutional talk are at times fuzzy in institutional CA (Have, 1990 ). Nevertheless, with a range of sub-areas quite well developed, CA is said to form its own discipline.

Discourse Analysis

Discourse Analysis (DA) is a broad term for different analytical approaches used to examine text and talk. Discourse is considered language use in general, and language is viewed as a form of action. The distinctions between the different approaches used in DA are based on the influences of the early works or traditions in conversation analysis and ethnomethodology, discursive psychology, critical discourse analysis and critical linguistics, Bakhtinian research, Foucauldian research, and even interactional sociolinguistics (Gee & Handford, 2012 ). However, the very different approaches and practices in DA have sparked disagreements among researchers about their applications and distinctions.

Data used in DA range from written to spoken, such as recorded spontaneous conversation, news articles, historical documents, transcripts from counseling sessions, clinical talk, interviews, blogs, and the like. Socio-historical contexts are often included in DA. As a tool for analyzing text and talk, DA has significantly influenced the study of language and culture. Two of the most popular DA approaches used in communication studies are Discursive Psychology (DP) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).

Discursive Psychology

DP evolved in the early 1990s from Derek Edwards and Jonathan Potter’s works, in which they expressed dissatisfaction with the ways psychologists treated discourse. In psychology, utterances are treated as a reflection of the speaker’s mental state. Hence, talk is considered reflective (Edwards & Potter, 2005 ). However, in DP talk is considered constructive; language use is thus viewed as a social action or function. This means that people use language to make sense of what they do in a socially meaningful world. Therefore, language is treated as a tool to get things done.

In DP, researchers study the details of what people say (e.g., descriptions, terms, lexicons, or grammar). Researchers are concerned with how these features have particular effects or bear functions, such as shifting blame, denying responsibility, and providing counterarguments. DP researchers seek to understand the interests, attitudes, and motives of the speakers, particularly, why people use language the way they do and how they manage and construct identities.

Language use in news media coverage provides a good example for DP analysis. For example, the August 2015 news coverage about corruption in Malaysian government offices supplies rich vocabularies for analyzing the speakers’ motives. Under the leadership of Bersih (an organization whose name literally translates to clean in the Malay language), an estimated half a million street demonstrators peacefully gathered in Kuala Lumpur, the country’s capital, for a public demonstration that lasted two days. The demonstrators demanded transparency in the country’s governance, including fair elections. They urged the Prime Minister, Najib Razak, to resign following a critical exposé published in The Wall Street Journal . The Prime Minister was reported to have transferred the equivalent of US$11 billion from a government development firm into his personal bank account (Wright & Clark, 2015 ). Prior to the Prime Minister’s counterattack, the press labeled the demonstrators rally goers . However, the Prime Minister and his acolytes in government in turn used descriptors such as criminals, crazy, unpatriotic , and shallow-minded culprits to label the demonstrators traitors to their country.

The description above shows the way the speakers used language to construct their reality and their relationship to that reality. In this case, DP researchers would analyze and illustrate how the Prime Minister and his government officials co-construct shared meanings in interaction, such as particular realities, beliefs, identities, or subjectivities. For instance, the government can be seen as attempting to exercise control over the public demonstrators (through discourse) in order to defend governmental power. Thus, by labeling the demonstrators culprits , the government asserted its identity as the authority— the elite power that runs the country and decides what goes.

DP researchers assume that each speaker has multiple identities, and the identities can only be performed successfully with the consent of the listeners (Antaki & Widdicombe, 1998 ). The researchers also assert that the productive examination of discourse must be considered within the context of language use, such as the institutional setting and local sequential organization of talk. For example, a proper analysis of the Malaysian public demonstration above must include an understanding of the context of the public demonstrators’ dissatisfaction with governmental corruption and citizen’s demand for transparency in governance—a longstanding issue since the country’s independence from Britain. Thus, indexicality—the understanding that the meaning of a word is dependent on the context of use—is essential in DP analysis (Potter, 1996 ).

Perhaps one of the strongest criticisms of DP is the researchers’ reluctance to interpret macro-social concerns. DP researchers insist that the analysis of text and talk should depend on the context exactly as construed by the language used. This means that extratextual information should not be inserted in the analysis. Therefore, DP cannot be utilized to interrogate broader social concerns, such as politics, ideology, and power (Parker, 2015 ). As such, context is limited to and constituted by the interactional setting and functions of utterances.

DP is also criticized for casting speakers as conscious and agentic—that is, as autonomous subjects who manipulate language to do things. Speakers’ intentionality in attribution is thus considered fixed in their minds. Such an assumption in fact closely resembles that of traditional psychology—the very idea that DP researchers attempted to shift away from (Parker, 2015 ). Moreover, the analyst’s interpretation is crucial in unfolding an understanding of the discourse. The analyst’s knowledge and statuses thus influence his or her interpretation of the language used by speaker and can be a weakness if the analyst may conform to some sort of ideology that impacts data interpretation.

Critical Discourse Analysis

Of all the approaches used to study DA, CDA is one that takes a macrosocietal and political standpoint (Van Dijk, 1993 ). Critical discourse analysts examine how societal power relations are enforced, legitimated, maintained, and dominated through the use of language. The sociohistorical context of the text is emphasized. The examination of social problems requires the analyst to be well versed in multiple disciplines. Commonly, the analysts are motivated by particular political agendas or ideologies, and they seek to challenge certain ideologies (Fairclough, 2005 ). Therefore, based on, say, the motivation to fight social inequality and oppression, an analyst may seek out selected texts or talks for study. It is in CDA studies that the abuse, dominance, and unequal distribution of social goods are called into question.

Social theorists whose works are commonly cited in CDA include Pierre Bourdieu, Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Karl Marx, Jürgen Habermas, and Michel Foucault. Typical vocabulary in CDA studies includes power, dominance, hegemony, class, gender, race, discrimination, institution, reproduction , and ideology . Topics examined include gender inequality, media discourse, political discourse, racism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, and antiSemitism. Critical discourse analysts seek to answer questions such as: How do elite groups control public discourse? How does such discourse control the less powerful group (in terms of mind and action)? What are the social consequences of such discourse control? (Van Dijk, 1993 ). The dominant social groups in politics, media, academics, and corporations are scrutinized in terms of the way they produce and maintain the dominant ideology.

Critical discourse analysts explore three contextual levels of discourse: the macro, meso, and micro (Van Dijk, 1993 ). At the macro level, analysts focus on the understanding of relationship between the text and broader social concerns and ideologies. At the meso level, analysts examine the contexts of production and reception of the text, and the ideologies portrayed. The analysts ask questions such as: Where did the text originate? Who is (are) the author(s) and the intended audience of the text? What perspectives are being promoted? At the micro level, analysts scrutinize the forms and contents of the text through linguistic features and devices in order to reveal the speaker’s perspective or ideology. Linguistic features and components studied include direct and indirect quotations, terms used to refer to individuals or groups, sentence structure and grammar (e.g., active and passive voice), and premodifiers (e.g., non-Muslim citizens or Muslim-Chinese citizens).

While analysts frequently favor institutional texts (e.g., a journalistic report) in their analyses, everyday conversation is also included. In fact, everyday conversation is considered social group discourse that can be used to reveal societal norms and shared beliefs. According to van Dijk’s studies of racism in everyday conversation, he found that the speakers’ utterances of “I am not racist, but …” and “We are not a racist society, but …” are in fact a reproduction of institutional talk. He called this specific type of talk a double strategy of positive self-representation and negative other-denigration.

While the multidisciplinary nature of CDA seems beneficial, it is also one of its biggest criticisms. In particular, critical discourse analysts are often accused of not productively using a combination of multiple approaches. Indeed, the more linguistically-oriented studies of text and talk overlooked theories in sociology and political sciences that focus on social and power inequality issues. On the other hand, those that focus on sociology and political sciences did not rigorously engage in DA. Moreover, the relationship between discourse and action coupled with cognition remains inconclusive (Van Dijk, 1998 ).

The Ethnography of Communication

The ethnography of communication originated from ethnology in the 1800s and found a home in in anthropology. Bronislaw Malinowski, a Polish anthropologist, pioneered the ethnographic methods. He intensively recorded the methods he used in his fieldwork when studying the Trobrian Islanders of Papua New Guinea in 1914 , including intrinsic details about the people, their language, and their daily life (Murdock, 1943 ). Franz Boas, a German anthropologist who lived among the Inuit in the late 1800s, further propounded on the necessity for language training among ethnographers who wished to decode the emic (i.e., native) perspective (Muller-Wille, Gieseking, & Barr, 2011 ).

Ethnographers study social norms, meanings, and patterns of life by examining symbolic activities ranging from speech to social artifacts. By writing on culture, recording people, and natural history, ethnographers describe, analyze, and compare people from different communities. The painstaking work involved in ethnography provides rich data that are highly nuanced. Ethnographic works are said to be the portraits of social life. Oftentimes, interviews are used concurrently, along with other methods (e.g., textual analysis) to obtain community members’ interpretation and explanation of the communicative activities. Data analyses are conducted along with (i.e., not after) data recording in the field.

While an ethnographer may generate questions for investigation before entering the field, he or she must remain flexible and receptive to other important questions that may emerge on site. The focus of investigation might shift because theoretical sensitivity—the review of literature prior to fieldwork—may not sufficiently orient the ethnographer to actual interactions. This is because the behaviors and activities that the ethnographer purports to study may have changed due to cultural shift. The use of such an inductive method allows the study of language and culture without theoretical constraints.

Ethnographers may compare the behaviors cross-culturally when a sufficient number of studies of the cultures of interest become available. Since the voices of community members are given precedence, ethnographic reports rely heavily on and present people’s utterances, as well as fine details of observations. In fact, early ethnographic works in anthropology tend to exhaustively cover many life aspects about a community, though the search for nuances and painstaking details, coupled with the ethnographer’s prolonged engagement in the community, pose constraints of time and resources. However, in the 1960s, ethnography took a new turn with the greater emphasis on the study of language use.

The Ethnography of Speaking

The prominence of ethnographic studies focusing on speech in language and culture began in the 1960s with Dell Hymes’s study of language use. Hymes, who was trained in anthropology and linguistics, sought to understand speech patterns, functions, and speaking in situatedness. He departed from microlinguistics (which focuses on semantics, turn-taking, prosody, and conversational structure) to pursue a more holistic account of interaction in context. Hymes emphasized the examination of nonverbal cues, tone of conversation, evaluation of the interlocutors’ conduct, the setting of the interaction, and so forth.

Speaking is considered fundamental in understanding social reality. Hymes’s ethnography of speaking (later called ethnography of communication) is a method for analyzing communication in different cultural settings. Hymes’s ( 1972 ) SPEAKING mnemonic or schema, developed as an etic framework for the etic understanding of social interaction, provides an inductive tool for examining social and cultural elements through the means and ways of speaking. Each letter in the SPEAKING mnemonic represents a different element of a speech act: S represents the setting or scene; P , the participants and participant identities; E , the ends; A , the act sequence and act topic; K , the key or tone; I , the instrumentalities; N , the norms of interaction and interpretation; and G , the genre.

The SPEAKING mnemonic is one of the most widely used theoretical and analytic frameworks in ethnographic studies. Although Hymes developed it to study spontaneous conversation, recent communication studies has broadened the scope of the data to include textual analysis and computer-mediated communication. Such pluralities are, in fact, inherent in people’s ways of speaking and despite some criticisms (e.g., Hymes proposed using his methods to study muted groups, but researchers who wish to listen to minority voices must also learn to listen to the dominant ones), the ethnography of speaking’s theoretical framework has withstood the test of time. It was the inspiration for Gerry Philipsen’s ( 1992 ) speech codes theory—another important heuristic theory in the ethnographic study of language and culture.

Speech Codes Theory

In addition to Hymes’ ethnography of speaking, Philipsen drew from Bernstein’s coding principle ( 1971 ) to postulate his speech codes theory. Bernstein argued that different social groups manifest different communicative practices and linguistic features. These differences are influenced by and, in turn, reinforce the groups’ coding principles—the rules that govern what to say and how to say it in the right context.

According to Philipsen, people’s ways of speaking are woven with speech codes—the system of symbols, meanings, premises, and rules about communication conduct that are historically situated and socially constructed. Therefore, examining a community’s discourse can tease out people’s understanding of the self, society, and strategic action. Philipsen posited five propositions for studying the relationship between communication and culture:

People in different speech communities exhibit different ways of speaking, with different rules for communicative conduct informed by their socially constructed symbols and meanings.

Each code gives practical knowledge about the ways of being in a speech community.

People attach different cultural meanings to speech practices.

Metacommunication (i.e., talk about talk) reveals important worldviews, norms, and values of the people.

The common speech code reveals the morality of communication conduct. For example, community members’ discourse about should not s reveal the should s that they value.

Using the five propositions, Philipsen argued that the speech codes theory can reveal the ways of speaking and reinforce a group’s speech codes. Indeed, the theory has informed the vibrant scholarship on ways of speaking and meaning-making across different global cultural communities. For example, Lee and Hall’s ( 2012 ) study of Chinese Malaysian discourse of dissatisfaction and complaint-making, with and without a formal goal of resolution—called, respectively, thou soo and aih auan— unearthed previously unexplored cultural values of the speech community. Lee ( 2014 ) developed the study further to understand the assumptions of personhood among Chinese Malaysians.

Cultural Discourse Analysis

The speech codes theory also served as the foundation for the development of Donal Carbaugh’s cultural discourse analysis theory. Carbaugh, a former student of Philipsen’s, proposed the cultural discourse theory (CDT) as a way to understand culturally shaped communication practices. According to CDT, cultural discourses are constituted by cultural communication and codes. Culture is an integral part but also a product of communication practices that are highly nuanced and deeply meaningful and intelligible to cultural participants (Carbaugh, 1996 ). Cultural participants draw on diverse communication practices and thus create diversity within and across cultural communities.

Cultural discourse analysts study key cultural terms that are deeply meaningful to the participants; for example, oplakvane , which is a distinctive way of speaking to assert Bulgarian personhood (Carbaugh, Lie, Locmele, & Sotirova, 2012 ). Such cultural terms are an ongoing metacultural commentary that reveals implicit cultural knowledge, the taken-for-granted knowledge, such as beliefs, values, and assumptions about the self.

Three types of questions typically guide cultural discourse analysis (CuDA) are: (a) functional accomplishment (What is getting done when people communicate in this specific way?); (b) structure (How is this communicative practice conducted? What key cultural terms are used to give meaning to the participants? What deep meanings do the terms create?); and (c) sequencing or form (What is the act sequence of this communicative practice, in terms of interactional accomplishments, structural features, and sequential organization?).

The analyst approaches a CuDA project with a particular stance or mode of inquiry. Carbaugh identified five modes of inquiry that enable analysts to tease out important cultural ingredients in a topic of investigation: the theoretical, descriptive, interpretive, comparative, and critical. For example, the theoretical mode enables analysts to understand the basic communication phenomena in the speech codes of a community and therefore to refine what and how to listen for culture in their discourse before venturing into the field. The five modes chart a rough linear design; the analyst must accomplish the preceding mode before embarking on the subsequent mode. The first three modes (i.e., theoretical, descriptive, and interpretive) are mandatory in any CuDA project; however, the last two (i.e., comparative and critical) may or may not be accomplished in a single study (e.g., in an exploratory study).

Cultural discourse analysts typically use Hymes’s SPEAKING framework and Philipsen’s speech codes theory as guidelines for their subsequent analyses in the descriptive and interpretive stages. The analysis of implicit cultural meanings in CuDA can be structured using five semantic radiants or hubs: being , acting , relating , feeling , and dwelling . Using CuDA, analysts can tease out people’s understanding of who they are (being); what they are doing together (acting); how they are linked to one another (relating); their feelings about people, actions, and things (feeling); and their relationship to the world around them (dwelling). The cultural discourse analyst’s task, then, is to advance cultural propositions (i.e., statements containing the taken-for-granted knowledge) and premises (i.e., values or beliefs). These are statements that shed light on the importance of a particular communicative practice among members of a speech community (e.g., beliefs about what exists, what is proper, or what is valued).

While the theories in the ethnography of communication have gained a lot of prominence in the LSI discipline, they have also enriched it. For example, Hymes’s SPEAKING framework, Philipsen’s speech codes theory, and Carbaugh’s CDT have all added depth and rigor to LSI data analysis. Evidently, to navigate through the language and social interactions of a community to which the researcher is not an insider, he or she needs to gain communicative competence (Hymes, 1962 ). Specifically, the researcher needs to know how to communicate like the insiders in order to articulate and explain the behaviors and communicative phenomena to other outsiders. The researcher also needs to gain competence particularly in the multidisciplinary methods of LSI.

However, neither reliance on English as lingua franca for LSI research nor the practice of hiring translators are sufficient for undertaking this line of inquiry successfully. Therefore, many LSI studies recruit international scholars to participate in their research projects. While this is a common practice, especially in CuDA, the researchers’ cultural interpretations and the subsequent translation of the data into the English for publications need to be done with utmost care in order to maintain the integrity of cultural nuances. Moreover, while the scholarship has strived to give voice to muted, non-dominant groups internationally, the dearth of cross-comparative studies—a goal and a tradition of ethnography—is a great concern. In that sense the study of intercultural interaction using the ethnography of communication has not yet come of age in this increasingly globalized and complex world.

This essay outlines the history and evolution of the study of language and culture by the main areas of study in the LSI discipline. The four main areas summarized are language pragmatics, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, and the ethnography of communication. Influential methodological and theoretical frameworks reviewed cover the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, speech act theory, Grice’s maxims of implicatures, politeness theory, discursive psychology, critical discourse analysis, the ethnography of speaking, speech codes theory, and cultural discourse analysis. Finally, the essay examines major criticisms of the theories and applications, as well as possible future directions of scholarship, when and where appropriate in the discussion.

Relationship Between Language and Culture Essay

To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
As a template for you assignment

Introduction

What is culture, relationship between language and culture, role of language in cultural diversity, reference list.

How does culture influence language? An essay isn’t enough to answer this question in detail. The purpose of the paper is to clearly highlight the issue of intercultural communication with reference to language and identity.

Language and culture are intertwined. One cannot define or identify cultural orientations without citing variations in how we speak and write. Thus, to explore the relationship between language and culture, this essay will start by defining the terms separately.

Culture describes variations in values, beliefs, as well as differences in the way people behave (DeVito 2007). Culture encompasses everything that a social group develops or produces.

Element of culture are not genetically transmitted and as such, they have to be passed down from one generation the next through communication. This explains why it is easy to adopt a certain language depending on the shared beliefs, attitudes and values.

The existence of different cultures can be explained using the cultural relativism approach which stipulates that although cultures tend to vary, none is superior to the other (DeVito 2007).

Learning of cultural values can be done through enculturation whereby individuals learn the culture of their birth. Alternatively, one can be acculturated into a culture that is divergent from their basic culture (DeVito 2007).

Language is the verbal channel of communication by articulating words that an individual is conversant with. This is aimed at relaying information. In other words, it is the expression of one’s culture verbally (Jandt 2009).

Language is the first element that helps an individual to distinguish the cultural orientations of individuals. Through language, we are able to differentiate between for example, a Chinese national and a Briton. The main functions of language are generally for information purposes and for the establishment of relationships.

Different cultures perceive the use of language differently. Whereas an American regards it as a useful communication tool, a Chinese will use their language to relay their feelings and to establish relationships.

It is through such variances of language that different cultures have placed on the usage of their language show the link between the two study variables (Jandt 2009).

Intercultural communication refers to communication between people from different cultural backgrounds. Due to the differences in cultures, there is a high probability that a message will be misunderstood and distorted.

Difference in languages leads to challenges in the interpretation of for example, politeness, acts of speech and interaction management. Normally, differences in languages lead to impediments in understanding. This is due to the difference in perception in as far as values are concerned.

Language shapes our lines of thought and as such, it is the core element that shapes how people perceive the world. The way people communicate is largely due to their cultures of origin. Language increases the rate of ethnocentrism in individuals thus furthering their self-centeredness in culture.

As a result, they are less responsive to the different means of communication that are not similar to their own values and beliefs (McGregor eta al 2007).

Language further heightens the aspect of accelerating cultural differences as it openly showcases the variations in communication. In turn, this view tends to impede negatively on intercultural efforts, thereby having a negative impact on the communication between individuals of different cultural orientations.

There is need for individuals to evaluate the usage of language in order to effectively interpret the shared meanings that are meant to be communicated. It is important therefore that individuals from a multi cultural context look at each other beyond their differences in order to enable effective communication.

DeVito, J A. (2006) Human communication the basic course, 10 th edition. Boston, Mass: Pearson / Allyn and Bacon.

Jandt, F E. (2007) An introduction to intercultural communication: identities in global community . Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.

Mohan, T, McGregor, M T, Saunders, H & Archee, S. (2008) Communicating as a professional . Sydney, Australia: Cengage Learning.

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Cultural Identity Essay

27 August, 2020

12 minutes read

Author: Elizabeth Brown

No matter where you study, composing essays of any type and complexity is a critical component in any studying program. Most likely, you have already been assigned the task to write a cultural identity essay, which is an essay that has to do a lot with your personality and cultural background. In essence, writing a cultural identity essay is fundamental for providing the reader with an understanding of who you are and which outlook you have. This may include the topics of religion, traditions, ethnicity, race, and so on. So, what shall you do to compose a winning cultural identity essay?

Cultural Identity Paper: Definitions, Goals & Topics

Before starting off with a cultural identity essay, it is fundamental to uncover what is particular about this type of paper. First and foremost, it will be rather logical to begin with giving a general and straightforward definition of a cultural identity essay. In essence, cultural identity essay implies outlining the role of the culture in defining your outlook, shaping your personality, points of view regarding a multitude of matters, and forming your qualities and beliefs. Given a simpler definition, a cultural identity essay requires you to write about how culture has influenced your personality and yourself in general. So in this kind of essay you as a narrator need to give an understanding of who you are, which strengths you have, and what your solid life position is.

Yet, the goal of a cultural identity essay is not strictly limited to describing who you are and merely outlining your biography. Instead, this type of essay pursues specific objectives, achieving which is a perfect indicator of how high-quality your essay is. Initially, the primary goal implies outlining your cultural focus and why it makes you peculiar. For instance, if you are a french adolescent living in Canada, you may describe what is so special about it: traditions of the community, beliefs, opinions, approaches. Basically, you may talk about the principles of the society as well as its beliefs that made you become the person you are today.

So far, cultural identity is a rather broad topic, so you will likely have a multitude of fascinating ideas for your paper. For instance, some of the most attention-grabbing topics for a personal cultural identity essay are:

Memorable traditions of your community
A cultural event that has influenced your personality
Influential people in your community
Locations and places that tell a lot about your culture and identity

Cultural Identity Essay Structure

As you might have already guessed, composing an essay on cultural identity might turn out to be fascinating but somewhat challenging. Even though the spectrum of topics is rather broad, the question of how to create the most appropriate and appealing structure remains open.

Like any other kind of an academic essay, a cultural identity essay must compose of three parts: introduction, body, and concluding remarks. Let’s take a more detailed look at each of the components:

Introduction

Starting to write an essay is most likely one of the most time-consuming and mind-challenging procedures. Therefore, you can postpone writing your introduction and approach it right after you finish body paragraphs. Nevertheless, you should think of a suitable topic as well as come up with an explicit thesis. At the beginning of the introduction section, give some hints regarding the matter you are going to discuss. You have to mention your thesis statement after you have briefly guided the reader through the topic. You can also think of indicating some vital information about yourself, which is, of course, relevant to the topic you selected.

Your main body should reveal your ideas and arguments. Most likely, it will consist of 3-5 paragraphs that are more or less equal in size. What you have to keep in mind to compose a sound ‘my cultural identity essay’ is the argumentation. In particular, always remember to reveal an argument and back it up with evidence in each body paragraph. And, of course, try to stick to the topic and make sure that you answer the overall question that you stated in your topic. Besides, always keep your thesis statement in mind: make sure that none of its components is left without your attention and argumentation.

Conclusion

Finally, after you are all finished with body paragraphs and introduction, briefly summarize all the points in your final remarks section. Paraphrase what you have already revealed in the main body, and make sure you logically lead the reader to the overall argument. Indicate your cultural identity once again and draw a bottom line regarding how your culture has influenced your personality.

Best Tips For Writing Cultural Identity Essay

Writing a ‘cultural identity essay about myself’ might be somewhat challenging at first. However, you will no longer struggle if you take a couple of plain tips into consideration. Following the tips below will give you some sound and reasonable cultural identity essay ideas as well as make the writing process much more pleasant:

Start off by creating an outline. The reason why most students struggle with creating a cultural identity essay lies behind a weak structure. The best way to organize your ideas and let them flow logically is to come up with a helpful outline. Having a reference to build on is incredibly useful, and it allows your essay to look polished.
Remember to write about yourself. The task of a cultural identity essay implies not focusing on your culture per se, but to talk about how it shaped your personality. So, switch your focus to describing who you are and what your attitudes and positions are.
Think of the most fundamental cultural aspects. Needless to say, you first need to come up with a couple of ideas to be based upon in your paper. So, brainstorm all the possible ideas and try to decide which of them deserve the most attention. In essence, try to determine which of the aspects affected your personality the most.
Edit and proofread before submitting your paper. Of course, the content and the coherence of your essay’s structure play a crucial role. But the grammatical correctness matters a lot too. Even if you are a native speaker, you may still make accidental errors in the text. To avoid the situation when unintentional mistakes spoil the impression from your essay, always double check your cultural identity essay.

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Language: The Essence of Culture

By Kelsey Holmes, Greenheart Club Program Assistant

“If culture was a house, then language was the key to the front door, to all the rooms inside.” — Khaled Hosseini, Afghan-born American novelist and physician

Language is one of the most important parts of any culture. It is the way by which people communicate with one another, build relationships, and create a sense of community. There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today, and each is unique in a number of ways.

Communication is a core component of any society, and language is an important aspect of that. As language began to develop, different cultural communities put together collective understandings through sounds. Over time, these sounds and their implied meanings became commonplace and language was formed. Intercultural communication is a symbolic process whereby social reality is constructed, maintained, repaired and transformed. As people with different cultural backgrounds interact, one of the most difficult barriers they face is that of language. Check out the graphic below that shows how language has evolved over time!

Cultural identity is heavily dependent on a number of factors including ethnicity, gender, geographic location, religion, language, and so much more. Culture is defined as a “historically transmitted system of symbols, meanings, and norms.” Knowing a language automatically enables someone to identify with others who speak the same language. This connection is such an important part of cultural exchange – check out this list of useful phrases from the Greenheart Club!

Learning a language can be daunting, but it’s an important way to connect with people from different cultures. Watch the video below for inspiration – this 17 year old speaks over 20 languages!

Feeling up for the task? Watching movies or TV in different languages is a great way to start. If you’re feeling even more motivated, seek out language courses offered in your community, check out online learning communities, or download an app like Duolingo to begin your path to broader, more effective, and more personal communication! What are some ways that you connect with people cross-culturally?

Language and Identity: the Construction of the Self

When it comes to language, one of the first words that comes to mind is communication. However, language is also an important part of one's identity and is required for all aspects of interacting with the surrounding world. Identity is what one projects into the world and how one wants to be perceived by others. Moreover, identity formation requires a certain level of awareness as it involves individuals to make a conscious decision that impacts a change in their identity. Family, social interactions with peers, and geographic location are three aspects that show a correlation between language and identity throughout one’s life. This article will discuss this relationship and provide some examples of identity in language use to demonstrate how identity is not static but rather changes over time as a person’s language evolves.

language is the most important part of cultural identity essay

Family Influence on Language and Identity

Family plays the most important role in the development of a child’s linguistic skills. These skills are influenced by the positive verbal input children receive from their parents in their home environment. According to psychologist Catherine Snow (1972), the speech children hear spoken around them is their sole source of information about that language (p. 549). As children grow, they learn their mother tongue – their first language – which gives them the ability to communicate with their parents. Given the amount of time children spend interacting with their parents on a regular basis, it is no surprise that, by transmitting speech skills targeted to develop their own form of communication, parents play a critical role in their children's language development. However, developmental psycholinguists have assumed that, in reality, children hear just a random sample of adult utterances, characterized by all the stutters, mistakes, garbles, inconsistencies, and complexities which are common in adults’ speech to other adults (Snow, 1972). In other words, children are largely exposed to various kinds of speech in a home environment. This process makes them perceptive to everything and, by nature, children are encouraged to imitate their parents’ behaviour, particularly in speech. That is the reason why the mother tongue has a significant impact on the personality and psychological development of an individual: it shapes their distinct identity through childhood, when young speakers are most closely connected with their parents.

Mother tongue is also an important part of a child’s culture, identity, and beliefs. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), “our values, beliefs and identity are embedded within language” (Farhat, 2018). This implies how the importance of culture is in determining how a person is defined. One's values and beliefs have a significant impact on how they think, behave and see the world. Rovira (2008) states "Language is intrinsic to the expression of culture" (p. 66) implying that it is through expressed language that culture and values are transmitted. There is a strong connection between an individual’s mother tongue and their culture, yet if children do not speak their parents' language, it might be difficult to identify with their roots. In order to better understand this concept, an example is provided below.

According to a case study done by Thomas and Cao (1999), the Linh Cao family, of Vietnamese and Chinese descent, demonstrates how a three-generation family can invoke identity changes. The Cao family immigrated to the U.S. in 1979 from Vietnam due to political and economic instability. While the grandparents spoke Hainanese (a Chinese dialect) and Vietnamese, the father spoke Hainanese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and a little English. The mother spoke Vietnamese, Hainanese, and very limited English. With these premises, it is interesting to analyze the impact of such a situation on the children. In fact, the age gaps between the children resulted in considerable differences regarding their language experiences. Linh was born in Vietnam and her first language was Hainanese, which she speaks very little of now. She studied Mandarin when she first started school, but following the Communist takeover in Vietnam 1975, Linh had to learn how to read and write Vietnamese. In fact, the Vietnamese government sought to eliminate any Chinese influence and demanded that all Chinese schools in Vietnam teach Vietnamese. Her sister who is one year younger speaks Vietnamese fairly well and has recently improved her Mandarin and Hainanese, even though she prefers English. Their two younger siblings, on the other hand, were two and three years old when they arrived in the U.S. and are now completely fluent in English, but their Vietnamese vocabulary is severely limited and, particularly when communicating with their parents, their conversation is restricted to a “yes/no” dialogue. On the contrary, the older siblings are able to converse with their mother in Vietnamese with ease, but they occasionally get stuck when they have forgotten a specific word or expression. When this happens, their mom offers to assist them as she understands what they are trying to say. Based on this study, it is evident that when a child shifts to a common language spoken outside the home environment, maintaining communication within an immigrant family becomes challenging if the language of origin is not preserved. As children mature, it is important to observe the dynamics of this transition as speakers clarify their values and gain a sense of coherence in their identities.

Identity Development in Adolescence

As adolescents go through changes in their language development, they become more aware of how others perceive them because acceptance by a peer group becomes extremely important. This awareness often affects the way one uses language, specifically how one modifies speech patterns in order to achieve a particular social standing within their peer group (Durkin & Conti-Ramsden, 2007). As a matter of fact, adolescents are often responsible for linguistic innovations and modifications, some of which are built into the general structure of language over time. This is especially true at the lexical level, since young people are generally creative with language and like to borrow new words from other languages and even from other jargons – a specific type of language used by a particular group or profession.

Slang is another type of informal language typically spoken by adolescents within social groups. For example, young speakers might use the words awesome, sick or wicked to mean “really good.” The use of slang represents how young people express what is going on in society and how they are responding to their surroundings, where informal communication is easier than using formal language . Young people speak differently than adults do. Some modifications that occur in their language, such as alterations in speech or grammar, persist, while others diminish over time. When these changes stay, we notice a shift in language. According to Fuller (2007), the fact that adolescents have a specific language makes it easier for them to connect with other adolescents and helps build self-confidence (p. 106). These young people develop a distinctive way of speaking that effectively communicates who they are and how they respond to the social influences they encounter. This clearly demonstrates how language choice creates a powerful bond between social identification and group unity. It is no wonder that as adolescents struggle to find their way in the adult world, their need to be accepted by their peers, displayed by their use of language, makes it simpler for them to blend in and establish a specific identity.

The Influence of Geographic Location on Identity

Numerous studies have found out that geographic location has a significant impact on language variety and dialect emergence. That is, when speakers of the same group are geographically apart, they are more likely to use language differently. According to Abdulfattah and Mansour (2017), all languages have dialectical variations. These dialects can differ in phonology, morphology, spelling, vocabulary, and syntax from the standard language, but with language continually changing, it may not be obvious to an outsider what is considered to be the true language. Abdulfattah and Mansour claim that linguistic diversity is influenced by one’s geographical background (p. 221). For example, geographic location is an essential factor in the variation of dialects spoken throughout England. In the North East region, for instance, English speakers pronounce bus as /bus/, which differs from Received Pronunciation, which is the accent traditionally associated with education and privilege. Abdulfattah and Mansour write "It is also claimed that location has been essential in the emergence of a new variety of English that came to be known as General American English which is different from the UK varieties" (2017, p. 221). When people immigrated from England to America, they brought their language with them. However, as a result of contact, the spoken language began to change in many ways.

Today, there are many different dialects within both British and American English. An expression attributed to Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw is, 'Two nations divided by a common language.' This quote reinforces the idea that barriers of geographic location become linguistic barriers. These barriers can occur between people who speak the same language but are from different regions of the same country. They may have difficulty understanding each other and this can lead to conflict, frustration, offence, and confusion, all of which block effective communication. If one decides to relocate to a city for work purposes where a different dialect is spoken, that person may encounter misunderstandings and misinterpretations with their colleagues, and as a result, a strain in interpersonal relationships might take place. Furthermore, when dialectical and accent differences occur, the use of slang and regional colloquialisms can lead to more misunderstandings and communication gaps, among other issues. Linguistic struggles can alter an individual’s identity entirely, since language barriers can hinder the flux of sharing ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Because of this, successful communication between people should never be taken for granted.

Language is the main instrument used for communicating with others, but it is also a fundamental part of our identity and is required for all aspects of environmental interaction. In considering the amount of time that parents spend with their children in forming their communicative style and building their character, family is without doubt the most significant factor in children's language development, which contributes to the shaping of their identities. As children mature into adolescents, their identities shift as they become more aware of how their peers perceive them, impacting their language use in such a way as to represent their social standings. Finally, geographic location produces dialect differentiation, which can lead to language barriers, making communication between people who speak the same language difficult. Based on these three factors, one can conclude that identity is never static and varies throughout time as a person’s language evolves in a determined social context.

Bibliographical References

Abdulfattah, O., & Mansour, A. (2017). Geographic location and linguistic diversity. International Journal of English Linguistics , 7 (4), 220–229. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v7n4p220

Durkin, K., & Conti-Ramsden, G. (2007). Language, Social Behavior, and the Quality of Friendships in Adolescents with and without a History of Specific Language Impairment. Child Development , 78 (5), 1441–1457. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4620714

Farhat, S. (2018). Our values, beliefs and identity are embedded within language . United Nations. https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/02/1003191

Fuller, J. M. (2007). Language choice as a means of shaping identity. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology , 17 (1), 105–129. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43104134

Hobsbawn, E. (1996). Language, culture, and national identity. Social Research , 63 (4), 1065–1080. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40971324

Kallifatides, T. (1993). Language and identity. Harvard Review , 4 , 113–120. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27559761

Romaine, S. (1994). Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Rovira, Lourdes C. (2008). The relationship between language and identity. The use of the home language as a human right of the immigrant. REMHU - Revista Interdisciplinar da Mobilidade Humana, 16 (31),63-81. ISSN: 1980-8585. https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=407042009004

Snow, C. E. (1972). Mothers’ speech to children learning language. Child Development , 43 (2), 549–565. https://doi.org/10.2307/1127555

Thomas, L., & Cao, L. (1999). Language use in family and in society. The English Journal , 89 (1), 107–113. https://doi.org/10.2307/821364

Valentine, G., Sporton, D., & Nielsen, K. B. (2008). Language use on the move: Sites of encounter, identities and belonging. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers , 33 (3), 376–387. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30131224

Visual References

Figure 1: Bolychevsky, I. (2018). Exploring good common principles for a digital identity system [Artwork]. Opendatainstitute. Retrieved from:

https://theodi.org/article/exploring-good-common-principles-for-a-digital-identity-system/

Figure 2: Roberts, J. (2019). For babies, the process of learning how to speak is a highly interactive one [Photography]. European Commision. Retrieved from:

https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/sites/default/files/hm/field/image/childlanguage.jpg

Figure 3: Palacios, L. A. (2021). Idioma de Nueva Zelanda [Image]. Growproexperience. Retrieved from: https://growproexperience.com/nueva-zelanda/idioma-de-nueva-zelanda/

Figure 4: Bratcher, E. (2018). How to overcome language barriers when hosting global events [Image]. Associationsnow. Retrieved from:

https://associationsnow.com/2018/04/overcome-language-barriers-hosting-global-events/

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YOUR LANGUAGE, YOUR IDENTITY: THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL IDENTITY IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

August 2021
International Journal of English Language Teaching 5(4):109-119
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Your Language, Your Identity: The Impact of Cultural Identity in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

2020, Journal on English Language Teaching

Language is part of one's identity. Many a research has been conducted to prove that there is a strong relationship between language and identity. Nelson Mandela in his appease quotes once said, “ If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his mother tonguage, that goes to his heart. ” We all acknowledge, language is a means of communication, words establish meanings within the discourses and discourse vary in power. Language is having one of the powerful objects which completely shape one’s personal Identity. Without language, no culture can maintain its existence. Language is one of the primary and powerful means to explain us what we want, expect, and convey to the counterpart. In this changing world language is the one which identifies total ins and out of a speaker and listener. Today’s world is based on multilingualism; however, the scope of the mother tongue cannot be undermined. It is the mother tongue which establishe...

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The practice of teaching English as global language that has been widely spread in Indonesia does not fit to promote Indonesian local culture. Most of English language teaching practice pays much attention to students’ understanding relates to their local culture, but the whole process of English Language Teaching (ELT) itself denotes that students do not really apply their local culture in the English language learning. The effort of integrating local culture in ELT is still far from the concept of particularity, practicality, and of possibility. This article provides a conceptual perspective on the role of English as Lingua Franca (ELF) – Informed Approach in ELT in terms of preserving students’ cultural identity. It starts with describing the important issues dealing with the topic, evaluate the previous studies, building argument, and drawing conclusion and recommendation. The article concludes that the approach needs to be more informed in the whole process of ELT in terms of ...

Editorial Department

English has become a global language with over 380 million people speaking it as their first language and over 200 million people taking it as their second language. Another billion of people are in the process to learn it. English has been majorly associated with the western nations such as US, Canada, or the UK. However, with the world's globalization majorly in the economic sector, English has been seen to play a great role in facilitating communication between people of different linguistic backgrounds. Again, globalization in the education sector where people move to other countries to study has also influenced the development of English. English has become the world's language of communication as it is used in various sectors; for example, commerce, technology, politics, and diplomacy. English is everywhere; we can see it everywhere we move. However, the effects of this globalization have affected the society in various ways; loss of cultural identity is one of the major effects that are associated with the globalization of English. This paper is going to examine the globalization of English and how it affects the language acquisition and cultural identity of the people taking it as a second language like the third world countries in Africa and Asia. Globalization of English its effects on cultural identity The globalization of English language can be understood in various aspects; for example, as an instrument for economic success or the creator of new inequality class, a tool for cross-cultural communication and awareness, and as a passing phase of lingua franca (Johnson, 2009). Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concepts of English globalization and also its effects on cultural identity. This paper examines how second English language learners use English at the expense of their traditional languages. It also examines how second language acquisition influences one's cultural identity. Research evidence from various articles used in this paper confirms that the globalization of English is detrimental to the cultural identity of the given group. Language is considered as one of the most effective ways of determining a person's identity and cultural background. This means that without language, it can be difficult to establish one's cultural identity. Again, many people use English frequently when they communicate; however, as Ged (2013) explains, second language acquisition may lead to the loss of some aspects or knowledge about the first language. The effects of second language acquisition can be both negative and positive. Johnson (2009) explains that globalization of English language and its effects on cultural identity needs to be understood in three main aspects which will be discussed in this paper; for example, English as an instrument for economic success, English as a tool for cross-cultural communication, and also English as a passing phase or lingua franca of the past. Through the analysis of these three major dimensions, we will be able to establish the effects of English globalization on cultural identity.

Ibrahim Alfarhan

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concepts of English globalization and also its effects on cultural identity. This paper examines how second English language learners use English at the expense of their traditional languages. It also examines how second language acquisition influences one’s cultural identity. Research evidence from various articles used in this paper confirms that the globalization of English is detrimental to the cultural identity of the given group. Language is considered as one of the most effective ways of determining a person’s identity and cultural background. This means that without language, it can be difficult to establish one’s cultural identity. Again, many people use English frequently when they communicate; however, as Ged (2013) explains, second language acquisition may lead to the loss of some aspects or knowledge about the first language. The effects of second language acquisition can be both negative and positive. Johnson (2009) explains ...

This paper aims at discussing the possible relations between language, culture and identity construction in the fi eld of foreign language teaching and learning. Most specifi cally, it searches for verifying to what extent the language and culture “binomial” may infl uence the construction of the identity of learners and teachers of English. KEY-WORDS: culture; language; identity construction.

Sharifa Daniels , Brenda Leibowitz , Antoinette Van der Merwe , Idilette van Deventer

The study on the relationship of identity, language and teaching and learning was conducted by a team of eight members at one institution in the Western Cape. The aims of the research were to investigate the relationship between language, identity and learning, to show how this investigation can benefit dialogue about transformation, and to facilitate the capacity development of the team as researchers. The research design made use narrative and educational biography in semi-structured interviews with 64 staff members and 100 students. The study supports views of identity as constructed and non-unitary. It shows how language, both as proficiency in the dominant medium of communication and as discourse, is a key component of identity in a higher education institution. Language and discourse also function as primary influences on acculturation and integration into academic practices. Language is interwoven with other aspects of identity and it is both a resource and a source of identification and affiliation. The research demonstrated that dialogue and self reflection can be facilitated via research into identity, teaching and learning, and that this can be beneficial for both the interviewees and the research team.

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Writing An Excellent Cultural Identity Essay For All Levels

Before starting an identity essay, it’s important that you first consider what the assignment prompt is asking you to do. This kind of writing is closely associated with narrative writing because it can be quite personal, but sometimes you will need to write about others. In the latter case, you should refer to some cultural identity essay examples to learn how to talk about a cultural group you may not feel a part of without causing any offense. An identity essay can be tricky if you don’t fully understand the definition, so we will discuss it a bit in this article as well as give you a few ideas on the subject worth your consideration.

What is Cultural Identity?

The widely accepted definition of cultural identity is that it is the concept or belief of belonging to a specific group of people. This is, of course, filled with many sub-factors and is debatable because of the various cultural, historical, and generational characteristics (among others) that one can use to classify oneself or a group. It can be a bit complicated and many experts suggest that is no absolute definition since the characteristics one chooses to use often expand to overlap with others.

Students may find themselves having to write an essay response for an application or a personal narrative that asks them to answer the question “What is my cultural identity?” and not have a clear idea of where to begin. In such cases, it’s probably best for students to review an identity essay example to develop a better understanding of the best method for defining and writing a logical response. With a little bit of practice, students will get a full grasp of what readers are looking for when dealing with this subject. As for the structure and format, you can follow a typical five-paragraph essay outline.

12 Essay Topics on Identity Issues

The following 12 topics deal with a variety of areas appropriate for an identity paper assignment for high school, college, and graduate school courses. We encourage students to consider each one carefully and thoroughly, and then to apply their own twist to the ideas presented in order to make the subject truly personal:

Language is an essential piece of what makes us who we are culturally speaking. But many people take their families traditional forms of communicating for granted and instead adopt a new language to fit in with their surroundings. Write a cultural identity essay about myself where you discuss being bi-lingual.
Describe a real-life experience that helped you connect with a group in a self-identity essay. This can be a connection you felt with family, friends, or strangers. It should be something that you believe has influenced you to become the person you are today.
How did the foods that you ate and the language that you spoke at home when growing up, affect the way you identify? Write a culture and identity essay focused on your family and upbringing. Consider how things were different from you than others in your neighborhood.
Do you identify as an American or do you hold on to another country’s culture? Write an American identity essay where you explore what it means to be an American and whether or not the blinds between being single or multi-cultural is still relevant today.
How does the way we communicate with family, friends, and strangers influence the way we think about identity? How are these two things linked and how important is the former to the latter? Write a language and identity essay exploring this relationship, and consider using personal examples.
Write an ethnic identity essay comparing and contrasting two different groups of people that are often combined in generalized discussions. For instance, Chinese and Japanese, Mexican and Salvadorians, or English and Scottish, etc. How are these generalizations offensive and why are they still prevalent in media and the way people perceive them?
With so many people conducting various day-to-day activities, are we to blame for being victims to cyber-crimes? Give an example of such a crime in an identity theft essay that examines cause and effect – and take an unbiased approach towards casting blame.
Examine how American Literature of the 20th century lends itself to common beliefs about ethnicity and equality in a racial identity essay. Do writers set racial boundaries that are encouraged or promoted in today’s society or do they aim to bring down such boundaries by citing the existence of such barriers?
Give an explanation behind the personal identity definition. For instance, how does one’s personal identity change over time as a result of environmental and social factors that have a great influence on the way one may view him or herself?
Write an essay about identity in the 21st century. Consider the different ways in which people are generally more inclined to be untruthful when it comes to stating beliefs over the internet as a result of anonymity without checks. Does this strengthen people’s perception of their own identity or does it take them further away from reality?
Write an essay about identity in a world where social media communication has become the primary way for people to communicate with masses who they don’t know personally. Think of followers on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and a user’s quest to reach out to more people and increase followers and fans.
Describe how an identity essay introduction for something like a university admission or scholarship application can give the wrong impression if it is poorly written. What are the most important qualities that should be expressed in the opening paragraph?

Finding High-Quality Writing Assistance on the Web

In order to learn more about proper structure and format for a personal identity essay, students are encouraged to visit a professional academic writing service online. There they will find a variety of resources, including identity essay examples, custom-written templates, and original topics to fit specific assignment prompts. For an affordable price, students can also hire a professional to write, review, edit, or proofread a cultural identity essay to ensure they hand in an assignment that meets the highest standards of academic quality at any grade level.

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I Am Proud of My Cultural Identity

Categories: Cultural Identity

About this sample

Words: 1139 |

Updated: 7 November, 2023

Words: 1139 | Page: 1 | 6 min read

Chen, K., Shao, A., Jin, Y., & Ng, A. (2020). I Am Proud of My National Identity and I Am superior to You: The Role of Nationalism in Knowledge and Misinformation. Available at SSRN 3758287. (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3758287)
Schwartz, S. J., Zamboanga, B. L., & Weisskirch, R. S. (2008). Broadening the study of the self: Integrating the study of personal identity and cultural identity. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(2), 635-651. (https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00077.x)
Smolicz, J. (1981). Core values and cultural identity. Ethnic and racial studies, 4(1), 75-90. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.1981.9993325?journalCode=rers20)
Hall, S., & Du Gay, P. (Eds.). (1996). Questions of cultural identity: SAGE Publications. Sage. (https://sk.sagepub.com/books/questions-of-cultural-identity)
Lucy, S. (2007). Ethnic and cultural identities. In Archaeology of Identity (pp. 96-119). Routledge. (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203087572-10/ethnic-cultural-identities-sam-lucy)

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The widely accepted definition of cultural identity is that it is the concept or belief of belonging to a specific group of people. This is, of course, filled with many sub-factors and is debatable because of the various cultural, historical, and generational characteristics (among others) that one can use to classify oneself or a group.
Cultural Identity Essay
Essay On Cultural Identity. Culture identity development is an important part of every life due the emergence of self through primary and sociocultural contexts (Ecklund, 2016). These stages of development are made up of either a dominant or a non-dominant group and intersectional adaptation. More specifically, cultural identity is a self ...
I Am Proud of My Cultural Identity: [Essay Example], 1139 words
I am a strong Mexican American female from the south of San Antonio and I am proud that this is my cultural identity. A person's identity is shaped by many elements such as nationality, physical appearance, race, ethnic group, religion, and language. All of these elements may affect one's identity but only few of them affect them significantly.

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