EFFECTS OF NATIVE CULTURE ON LEARNING ENGLISH AS AFOREIGN LANGUAGE IN BAGLADESH: A CASE STUDY
Keywords:
Language, culture, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, mediation of culture, EFL learningAbstract
Culture, while learning a language, plays a vital role. Culture of the target language is given
much importance in learning. However, the native culture interference is also not neglected. This
study speculates whether native cultural aspects, like students’ religious beliefs, students’
geographical background, student teacher relationship, teaching system and class size affect
learning English as a foreign language in Bangladesh. Through a survey on 200 students from
two private universities and an intense one on one interview of 9 teachers of one university, data
is collected for this mixed method study of qualitative and quantitative research . The results are
discussed in light of Sapir Whorfian theory, which has never been tested in the context of
Bangladesh and Interculturality is used as a theoretical basis to emphasize on the solutions.
Recommendations are made for the teachers so that they would find out possible solutions and
help students to overcome the barriers caused due to cultural differences. According to the
students, the most affective factor that creates a barrier in learning English is teacher-student
relationship with teaching system being the second and students’ geographical background being
the third affective factor. Teacher interviews solidify these findings. Along with these barriers
teachers opine that students’ religious belief, and class size also play major roles as cultural
barriers in learning English as a foreign language with most of the students being unaware of
these issues. Well trained Teachers as instructors and culture bridging materials could minimize
cultural barriers in learning English as a foreign language in Bangladesh. More exposure to the
target culture as well as raising awareness of the issues related to cultural barriers help learners
enhance the knowledge of the world and enable co-ordinate with the linguistic as well as cultural
factors of learning a foreign language.
