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II. Relationship between Culture and Vocabulary
2.1 The Role of Vocabulary
A important role of vocabulary in teaching processes, first stated by Stephen Krashen in The Natural Approach is like this: “Vocabulary is basic for communication. If acquirers do not recognize the meaning of the key words used by those who address them they will be unable to participate in the conversation. If they wish to express some idea or ask for information they must be able to produce lexical items to convey their meaning”(155). And Taylor also highlights the importance of vocabulary knowledge: “In order to live in the world, we must name it. Names are essential for the construction of reality for without a name it is difficult to accept the existence of an object, an event, a feeling” (1).
Words are basic tools in human communication, therefore they control the main part of people’s life – relationships between people and associations with the surrounding world that people live in. The linguist David Wilkins once summered up the importance of vocabulary in his book Linguistics and Language Teaching: “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”(137）. The larger one's vocabulary, the easier it is to express one’s thoughts and feelings. A language which was learnt with a poor vocabulary might find it difficult to read, write and hard to understand what others speak and fail to speak correctly. Thus, this might cause many misunderstandings in the real life communication and be wrongly interpreted by the receiver. The learner’s knowledge of words is also equally important in developing and improving their reading ability, in promoting and fostering listening comprehension, and in enhancing their communicative skills. This knowledge contributes students to be more fluent and proficient in the four basic linguistic skills. So, it’s necessary for learners to enhance and increase their knowledge of words as many as possible in order to communicate efficiently in a foreign language.
2.2 The Nature of Culture
According to Brooks, out of numerous definitions of culture, two are of the biggest importance for people interested in teaching language in context: “Culture as everything in human’s life” and “Culture as the best in human life”(11). Rivers expresses his idea of the word culture as: “Children growing up in a social group learn different ways of doing things, different ways of expressing themselves, different ways of looking at things, what things they should value and what things they should despise or avoid, what is expected to them and what they may have expected of others. These attitudes, reactions, and unspoken assumptions become part of their way of life without their being conscious of them. Yet culturally determined features may be recognized in their actions, social relationships, moral convictions, attractions and revulsions; through the institutions their social group establishes and conservers; and in the art and literature which the members of the group produce and appreciate”(316) . Goodenough’s widely cited definition of culture defines the term in the following way: “A society’s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members. Culture is not a natural phenomenon; it does not consist of things, people’s behavior or emotions. It is rather an organization of these things. It is the form of things that people have in mind, their models of perceiving, relating and interpreting them”(675).
In this sense, Culture is a knowledge which is shared and connected with people. And culture refers to all aspects of a shared life within a certain society. It is a set of rules and behavior structure of the people who live in one nation, which consists of the basic model of life and the society. Language is seen as a container and initiator of meaning. It is an important aspect of the anthropological phrase of culture and the two aspects of language and culture that can never be separated.