Culture and Second Language Aquisition: Arabic Language as a Model

This study is an examination of the role and impact of culture and culture literacy on second language acquisition. It will adopt the qualitative approach, using multiple case study design, interviews and observation, to generate somehow rich descriptions of the role of culture on second language acquisition. The study used a sample of the international students studying Arabic at the Language Center at The University of Jordan. Multiple methods of data collection over a period of four months were used. The researcher collected data through in-depth interviews and nonparticipant observations. The purpose of this study is to examine to which extent culture, with all its elements and components, helps learners of Arabic boost their language and linguistic skills. Living an Arabic culture (the Jordanian culture as an example), enriches learners’ language skills and accelerates their progress due to the direct interaction with the people and their native culture. This will enable them to interact, using the language they acquire, in complex cultural situations raising their self-confidence and encouraging them to use the language more effectively gaining new ways of thinking and widening their linguistic and cultural competence.

COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS IN SECOND LANGUAGE AQUISITION

The paper sets out to prove that the influence of the learner’s first/second language on the acquisition and use of other languages may be minimized, and ultimately eliminated, if the process of language teaching and language learning centers on the conceptual structures underlying the semantics of language units. Such conceptual structures (the conceptual inner form) shaping the peculiarities of the mode of expression characteristic of the given language community determine the choice of words in the process of communication and word combinability; if applied in second language teaching and learning they help avoid subconscious translation from the learner’s first language into a second/third, thus bringing down the interfering effects.