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Cultural Transfer and Creating Cultural Awareness in Teaching Turkish As a Foreign Language: a Sample from Gaziosmanpaşa University Tömer

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Cultural Transfer and Creating Cultural Awareness in Teaching Turkish As a Foreign Language: a Sample from Gaziosmanpaşa University Tömer Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.8, No.9, 2017 Cultural Transfer and Creating Cultural Awareness in Teaching Turkish as A Foreign Language: A Sample from Gaziosmanpaşa University Tömer Adem İşcan * Beytullah Karagöz Merve Konyar Faculty of Education, Gaziosmanpaşa University, Taşlıçiftlik Campus, 60150 Tokat, Turkey Abstract Culture and language are two phenomena that have existed by influencing each other for centuries. It is impossible to think independently of the culture on which the language is cultivated, nor on the language, which influences culture. One of the best signs of mastering a language is the ability to understand the cultural elements and the cultural codes that a language carries. There is a need for transferring of cultural elements in order to achieve foreign language learning in the best possible way. In this way, it is aimed to teach the target language in the most natural way and to ensure that the language competencies of the students are at the highest level. In the globalizing world, that the language teaching has gained different dimensions and new developments on cultural transfer have been seen. The most important of these are intercultural communication and cultural awareness. During language teaching, awareness of the target culture positively affects intercultural communication. In this study, 19 students who are learning Turkish at Gaziosmanpaşa University TÖMER -Center for Teaching Turkish- were given a questionnaire in order to learn their ideas about cultural transfer while learning a foreign language and the obtained data were examined in accordance with the possibilities provided by qualitative research and the findings were interpreted. Among the results obtained, it has been seen that the majority of the students in the general framework have a positive attitude towards cultural learning. The reasons behind the students' attitudes on approaching culture learning kind of a negative way are also investigated. The findings of the students on how and at what level the culture transfer should happen were interpreted and all the findings were synthesized in the conclusion. At the end of the research, some suggestions on teaching Turkish as a foreign language were presented. Keywords : Foreign Language Teaching, Cultural Transmission, Teaching Turkish 1. Culture The Turkish Language Institution refers to the concept of culture in the Great Turkish Dictionary as "the whole of material and spiritual values created in the process of historical social development and the means of measuring the dominance of man in its natural and social environment used to create the to transmit them to the next generations " (TDK, 2016 ) When we look at the different definitions of the culture, the Oxford online dictionary defines culture as " the social behavior, traditions and ideas of a community or a group of people " (Oxford Living Dictionaries, 2016) The concept of culture in the general framework can be defined as a set of behaviors, beliefs and ideas that are formed by the collective human society that has come together for a specific purpose, which have agreed norms, common interests, traces from the past that shape the future. The culture has a lot of definitions in various sources. However, there is a general definition of culture, as it has been pointed out as a group of cultures or a clan, some nations and communities with cross-border international partnerships and human communities within a certain geographical region, symbols and complex reference systems. (Fox, 1999, p. 89) Culture is the sum of the accumulations. Mehmet Kaplan defines culture as " manipulating and developing everything which is material and spiritual ". (Kaplan, 1983, p.38) Culture is transferred to the next generation by influencing generations for centuries and being washed by the age of that generation. Again, as expressed by Kaplan (1983, p. 39), culture can interact with the culture of other countries. Therefore, it would not wrong to say that the culture is alive. Because the culture of a society can lose some of its features over time, or it can incorporate new features into its own. In short, we can define culture as common values, norms, and rules as a whole, which are passed on from generation to generation that hold people together. In this sense, culture is a crucial means of understanding the characteristics, values, and sensitivities of a society. 2. The Relationship between Culture and Language The distinction between human beings and other living things is the ability to express thought and think in a logical framework and to understand communication. People think in the context of the language they are in, understand the output they receive from their environment, and engage in communication with other people. In this context, language is an important tool for people to communicate, think and produce meaning, and to understand messages. 53 Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.8, No.9, 2017 When language is regarded as a means of communication and transmission, it is a fact that culture is transmitted through generations and intercultural languages. Everything expressed in language, verbally or written, falls within the scope of culture. (Kaplan, 1983, p. 186) It would not be wrong to say that thought and speech cannot be considered independently of each other, as Vygotsky claimed, who advocates that they are intertwined, cultures and languages develop together and influence each other. (Vygotsky, 1986, p. 211). " Every nation has its language and cultures for centuries. At that moment, it takes some elements from every soil it passes through, like a flowing river. " (Kaplan, 1983) Since the early ages they have started, they have influenced or been influenced by different languages and cultures, by increasing or decreasing its features, and have reached their current non-stable conditions. Language and culture are also alive and open to interaction that they cannot be expected to be fixed and strict. In short, culture is a phenomenon that nourishes language and language is a means of carrying culture. Language and culture are the basic building blocks that hold a nation together. If the language or culture disappears, it is not possible to talk about the continuation of a nation or community. Throughout the history of the world, hundreds of languages are destroyed on the earth, which is the result of the disappearance of their culture. When the relation between language and culture is taken into consideration, culture is the most important guardian and the main keeper for the transfer, development and transport of language (Demir and Açık, 2011, p.54) Language is like a mirror reflecting a society’s customs, traditions and cultural elements, and language is the most significant matter of fact that helps individuals to understand a society in a cultural context. 3. The Relationship between Foreign Language and Culture Knowing a foreign language is not only being aware of the linguistic characteristics of the language. Learning or teaching a foreign language cannot be restricted to mastering the phonological, morphological or syntactic properties of that language. (Chlopek, 2008, p.10) At the same time, it is necessary to be aware of the culture it carries. As long as the learned information does not go beyond memorization, the individual will not have the pleasure of using that language and will not have the ability to express a strong language usage. (Yiğit & Arslan, 2014, p.2) Knowing the culture of the target language, rather than merely enriching the general culture, will benefit the analysis of the semantic differences that occur between individuals in that language, that is, the natural flow of that language. The purpose of learning a foreign language is to know what, where, when, and how to talk with cultural competence. (Demir and Açık, 2011, p. 55) An individual with all this can be called competent in the exact sense of the target language. Individuals shape their own viewpoints according to the language they use and the culture that the language carries. For that reason, foreign language learning endeavor also includes an effort to learn the culture that the target language carries. Teaching a language independently of the culture it carries makes it difficult to learn the target language. What's more, it does not only make it harder, but it also limits the proficiency of learners. In short, in order to know a language literally, individuals need to learn the language of that language. (Yiğit and Arslan, 2014, p.3) 4. Cultural Awareness In the globalizing world, communication between individuals keeps becoming easier and people from all over the world are able to communicate with each other instantly. This development has led to the demarcation of the borders between countries and to the interaction of distant cultures with each other. Now, individuals can easily communicate in and interact with a foreign language. But this has led to the recognition of the concept of "cultural awareness ". Cultural awareness can be defined as understanding culture and being aware of the different beliefs and ideas. Cultural awareness is an important concept that we need to consider when we communicate with people from different cultures. For that reason, it requires to think about what exactly the person to whom we are communicating means or to think about what other people give the meaning to what we actually express. People evaluate and comment on situations in different ways. Sometimes, a situation that can be very sensitive in some cultures may be expressed humorously in another culture. Due to the lack of cultural awareness, there may be misunderstandings between individuals. Misunderstandings often happen at times when people suppose that their own rules are applicable to others. For example, the Japanese consider it disrespectful to look directly at their eyes.
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