听力原文

Part 1, Listening Comprehension

SECTION A MINI-LECTURE

Classifications of cultures:

Good morning everyone, today we’ll look at culture or rather classifications of cultures.Usually when we deal with different people, we deal with them as if we were all members of thesame culture. However, it’s possible that people from different cultures have differentassumptions about the world, regarding such important and basic ideas as time, personalspace. And this is the view of Edward Hall. And Edward Hall is an anthropologist who spent alarge part of his life studying American Indians, their culture, their language, but he wasdifferent from a lot of other anthropologists who just study one culture. He was interested inthe relations between cultures, how cultures interact, what Hall believes is that cultures can beclassified by placing them on a continuing, ranging from what he called high-context to low-context.

OK, what is a high-context culture? A high-context culture is a culture in which thecontext of the message or the action or an event carries a large part of its meaning andsignificance. What this means is that in a high-context culture more attention is paid to what’shappening in and around the message than to the message itself. Now let me give youexamples. First in terms of personal space, generally speaking in a high-context culture,because there’s a greater dependency on group thinking, people lean towards heavier sensoryinvolvement or closeness to people. And they have less respect for privacy, for personalspace. If you go into that culture, people might stand closer when they’re talking to you. Theymight touch more and if they’re justled in a crowd, they won’t feel violated. And also peoplefrom a high-context culture pay attention to body language. Because remember what I said,the definition of a high-context culture is that more attention is paid to the context of themessage than to the message itself. And part of the context is body language. Second interms of time, people in high-context cultures are considered to have what is called apolychronic attitude toward time. Here “poly” means multiple and “chronic” means time. Whatthis means is that they believe people, things, events have their own time and there can’t be astandard system of time for everything. What this leads them to believe is that you can’temphasize punctuality. Things happen when they are supposed to happen. So there’s adifferent attitude toward time. There is no set standard of time. You can’t control time.Everything has its own sense of time. So it’s a culture that pays little attention to time, to clocktime.

Now, let’s move on to low-context culture. A lower context culture is just the opposite. Alow-context culture is one in which the message, the event or the action is a separate entity,having meaning onto itself, regardless of the surroundings or the context. That the message,the event, the action has meaning in itself. So what this means in a low-context culture is thatpeople pay more attention to the event itself rather than to the context which surrounds theevent or the message. For example, in terms of personal space again. There’s more emphasison individuality, so the concept of privacy is very very important whereas before as I said ina high-context culture they might not even be concerned with privacy or personal space. Butin a low-context culture, there’s a feeling that we each have our own personal space. If you gettoo close, if you don’t knock on doors before entering, that’s an invasion of privacy; peoplefeel violated. There’s a respect and desire for privacy, and you also see that people might payless attention to body language because as I said the message is, the message is everything.They are not going to worry about all the details around it. What you say is the important thingor what you do is the important thing. Another example of a low-context culture is people’sattitude towards time. In terms of time, I said before there was a polychronic sense of time in ahigh-context culture. What do you think there would be in a low-context culture?Monochronic! Right! A monochronic sense of time and by that we mean that there is one time.And that concept means that people in a low-context culture believe that there’s one standardof time and that should be for everything. And so I’m not willing to hear “Oh, the traffic washeavy. That’s why I am late. ” or “Oh, I slept late.” People in a low-context culture would bemuch more upset with lateness because they feel that everyone should follow the same time;there shouldn’t be all this flexibility with time and they expect punctuality. And they look attime as almost a commodity that they use expressions like “use time”, “to waste time”, “tospend time” or “time is money”. All of these expressions reinforce the concept that time isactually something you can hold onto. So what this is all about is that Hall expresses thatpeople need to be aware of these different consumptions or concepts about reality. And hethinks that this has all kinds of relevance no matter what you’re doing, if you’re in business,negotiations, interpersonal relations. If you’re dealing with people from different cultures in anyway, it’s going to affect every part of your life. In any multicultural situation, theseassumptions need to be taken into account for successful interactions.

Ok, today, we’ll take a brief look at Edward Hall’s view of culture, mainly his classification ofhigh or low context culture with some examples. Next week, we’ll look at some more examplesof cultures on the continuing between high-context and low-context cultures.

SECTION B INTERVIEW

I: Interviewer

H: Dr. Harley

I: Good morning, Dr. Harley. Thank you verymuch for coming on our radio talk. We know thatyou are an applied linguist specializing in second language acquisition.

H: Right.

I: So, today. Urmm…we’ll look at this issue.Now, first Dr. Harley. Could you please tell us whatis second language acquisition?

H: Well, second language acquisition is “happenswhen a child or adult has already becomecompetent at a language. Then, urmm…theyattempt to learn another.”

I: Ok, most people think, including me, itis difficult to learn another language. What are thereasons? Why is it so?

H: Well, there are a number of reasons forthis. Urmm…first, there have been research studies.They have shown that some aspectsof language learning especially syntax are more difficultbeyond a certain age,say after around 12 years of age.

I: So, age plays an important role inlanguage learning?

H: Yes. But that’s not the only reason.

I: Oh, is that so?

H: Yes. For example, time and interest. Oldchildren and adults often have less time andmotivation to learn a secondlanguage.

I: Mm…

H: Another reason related to thesimilarities and differences between one’s other tongue and asecond language. Wefind that learners will experience difficulty when their mother tongue andthesecond language they are learning differ. In general, the more idiom syncretic feature is

(10分15秒) in a particular language relativeto other languages, the more difficult it will be toacquire.

I: Perhaps this is the key issue. Differencesbetween languages cause language learningproblems.

H: Well, this may be one of the issues here,but this cannot be the whole story, as not alldifferences between languagescause difficulty. Let me give you an example.

I: OK.

H: Research has found that many heirs (10分42秒)by Czech speakers learning English weremade on syntactic constructions inwhich the two languages do not differ.

I: Oh, really. The picture is morecomplicated than we’ve imaged.

H: Definitely yes. Each language learningsituation is different. So reasons vary a lot from caseto case.

I: Now, Dr. Harley. Since learning a secondlanguage is a difficult process, you know, in one wayor another. Are there anymethods so far if they give methods to teach a second language(11分12秒)?

H: There again. No method is absolutelyeffective in all situations. Some may prove effective,others may not. I mean,all depending on specific conditions. But generally speaking, there area numberof methods that have been used to teach a second language.

I: Could you mention a few?

H: For instance, there is the traditionalmethod. This method is based on translation from onelanguage to another andemphasizes grammar teaching.

I: Mm…

H: And then you have direct method, which focuseson conversational skills and all teachingmust be carried out in the secondlanguage.

I: Oh, I see. Any other methods?

H: Yes. For example, the audiolingual method.This method emphasizes speaking and listeningbefore reading and writing.

I: How interesting!

H: Then you have the immersion method. Thismethod teaches learners exclusively throughthe medium of the second language.

I: How?

H: Well, it simply means that you can notspeak mother tongue. Everything must be done in thelanguage you are learning. Tome, the most natural method of learning a new language is what Icall submersion.That is, to go to that country and be surrounded exclusively by speakersofthat language.

I: Thank you very much, Dr. Harley, forintroducing some of the language teaching methods.Now let’s move on to somethinga bit theoretical. Since second language acquisition andteaching are fascinatingarea for researchers, are there any theories to explain second languageacquisition.

H: Yes, many theories and models have beenput forward by researchers so far. Today, I’d liketo mention the five hypothesesproposed by Stephen Krashen.

I: OK.

H: The five hypotheses, or what he calls, themonitor model of second language learning.

I: What does it mean?

H: OK. The first hypothesis is the acquisitionand learning distinction hypothesis. Accordingto Krashen, children acquire theirfirst language largely unconsciously and automatical, butadults could only learna second language consciously and effortfully. And adults could indeedacquire thesecond language, at least in part.

I: Right. Then what’s his second hypothesis?

H: His second hypothesis is the natural orderin acquisition hypothesis. Basically, he meansthat the ordering which learnersacquire syntactic rules is the same in both languages.

I: Oh, that’s something really new to me.

H: The third hypothesis is the monitor hypothesis,which is central to his theory. Here again,we come across the distinctionbetween acquisition and learning. According to this hypothesis,the acquisitionprocesses create sentences in the second language, right? But learningenablesthe development of a monitoring process to check and edit this. The monitor usesknowledge ofthe rules. That’s why, as I said just now, learning is a conscious process.

I: This mean, in learning, you useknowledge of the language to make sure what you say orwrite is correct. Isthat so?

H: Yes. His fourth hypothesis is thecomprehensible input hypothesis. In order to move fromone stage to the next, thelearner must understand the meaning and the form of the input.This emphasizesthe role comprehension. And finally, the active filter hypothesis. Thissuggestsattitude and emotional factors are also important in second languageacquisition.

I: I guess Krashen’s model has provided auseful framework for second language learning.

H: Yes, it indeed has and it has also provedto be one of the most influential theoreticalapproaches to teaching a secondlanguage.

I: OK, Dr. Harley. Thank you once again fortalking to us about second language acquisition.

H: Pleasure.