SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND THE CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS

BACKGROUND

Today many people are attempting to master more than one language. It is undeniable that acquiring two or more languages may gain some benefits. Being a bilingualist or multilingualist would imply social and economical advantages. They would be commonly regarded as a group of people that has higher social status since the acquisition of other language requires a tremendous effort. A part from that, this skill may bring on an income or extra income if the possessors apply it in particular occupations such as interpreters, translators, or language teachers. Moreover, in this article I would like to argue that second language acquisition also implies the acquisition of the second world view. Then I will try to reveal how it happens. Furthermore, some suggestions on pedagogical methods to assist in the process of second language acquisition are presented.

METHOD AND THEORY

1. Method

            Second language acquisition is commonly discussed but its implication on cultural competence is very limited. Here the writer need to perform writing on the base of it and therefore a descriptive method is used for this kind of research. For more addition, writer makes a biblical research hoping that this kind of activity will lead to a comprehensive understanding in this very limited discussion.

2.1 Theory

O'Grady et al. (1997) defined language as “a system of communication, a medium for thought, a vehicle for literary expression, a social institution, a matter for political controversy, a catalyst for nation building” (p.1). Human beings as the users of language have skill and capacity in accepting input, manipulating, and then producing information about phenomenon in the world. The process of producing words, arranging them into grammatical order that eventually form a unit that contains meaning involves cognitive means.

Similarly, culture deals with the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. Kessing (1979) stated “a culture is, in a cognitive sense, a system of knowledge, a composite of the cognitive systems more or less shared by members of a society.” (p.13).both language and culture share a general idea, i.e. a system associated with cognition. In terms of cognition, different cultures and languages, to some extent, may indicate different procedure of obtaining knowledge and comprehending through line of thinking, skills, experience, and the sensory faculty. Kessing (1979) provided an evident of a particular phenomenon that is viewed differently by people from different cultures. He stated “In, culture after culture, one's predecessors are viewed as having gone ahead (“before”) along a line of march we are following, and one's life experiences are seen as having “left behind” (“past” = passed). Manggaraian culture permutes this model by conceptualizing the time periods associated with those who has gone before (ise empo, ‘people in front') as being in front of and downward from the present.  This evidence supports the idea that different cultures may have different point of view of the same phenomenon.

Another authentication of different cognition of culture and language variance can be observed from a linguistic feature. In this case, the mind-as-body metaphor (referred to Kessing's term) can be another hint of how people as users of a language perceive phenomenon in the world. For example, to express that a child is intelligent or clever, English will say the child is bright. Meanwhile, Indonesian will say anak itu otaknya encer (the child's brain is liquid/watery). English views cleverness as like light, but Indonesian regards it as fluid. The two differences of the use of body metaphor may point out that they have different perception on the same phenomenon. To sum up, a language and culture may indicate a particular way of thinking. People from the same language and culture are likely to have the same cognition. They will probably have similar perception and feeling on phenomena in the world. On the contrary, users of different languages and cultures may differ in expressing the phenomena in the world. It is strongly influenced by their ways of thinking.