Is culture the fifth skill?

     If a person is knowledgeable about the linguistics and language/s, this person knows that there are four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. But is there a fifth skill? Should culture be taught in the field of teaching a second or foreign language? An article of which a summary is offered here deals with these topics, written by Barry Tomalin, a guest writer for Teaching English website.

What do we mean by 'culture'?

What culture covers is the commonly held traditions, values and ways of behaving of a particular community, ‘daily life’ and also cultural artefacts, such as the arts or sports. This is all interesting and sometimes useful knowledge and it is often included in textbooks.

There is also another level of understanding of culture. This covers how cultural awareness is built, what qualities are needed to deal successfully with other cultures, and how to operate successfully with people from other cultures. This is often considered to be a business skill for adults. It could be argued that the teaching of culture in ELT should include these things:

·         Cultural knowledge
The knowledge of the culture’s institutions, the Big C, as it’s described by Tomalin and Stempleski in their 1995 book ‘Cultural Awareness’.

·         Cultural values
The ‘psyche’ of the country, what people think is important, it includes things like family, hospitality, patriotism, fairness etc.

·         Cultural behaviour
The knowledge of daily routines and behaviour, the little c, as Tomalin and Stempleski describe it.

·         Cultural skills
The development of intercultural sensitivity and awareness, using the English language as the medium of interaction.

Culture – the fifth language skill

Why should we consider the teaching of a cultural skills set as part of language teaching and why should we consider it a fifth language skill, in addition to listening, speaking, reading and writing? There are two reasons. One is the international role of the English language and the other is globalisation.

Many now argue that the role of the English language in the curriculum is a life skill and should be taught as a core curriculum subject like maths, and the mother tongue. The reason for this is globalisation and the fact that to operate internationally people will need to be able to use a lingua franca. For the next twenty to thirty years at least, that language is likely to be English. That means that English will be a core communicative skill and will need to be taught early in the school curriculum.

The second argument is globalisation itself. You could say, ‘We are all internationalists now’. We are or will be dealing with foreigners in our community, going abroad more, dealing at a distance with foreigners through outsourcing or email, phone and video-conferencing. Kids are interchanging experience and information through travel schemes and networks like Facebook. This is the time to develop the intercultural skills that will serve them in adult life.

You can learn a lot of cultural features but it does not teach you sensitivity and awareness or even how to behave in certain situations. What the fifth language skill teaches is the mindset and techniques to adapt your use of English to learn about, understand and appreciate the values, ways of doing things and unique qualities of other cultures. It involves understanding how to use language to accept difference, to be flexible and tolerant of ways of doing things which might be different to yours.  It is an attitudinal change that is expressed through the use of language.

Retrieved April 25, 2016, from British Council’s site Teaching English site: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/culture-fifth-language-skill