Deep Language and Culture Learning

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of the themes of this book. It points out that despite obvious connections, language and culture are often considered separate domains of learning—acquisition of linguistic knowledge and skills versus development of awareness or higher ordered perception or cognition. This split makes it difficult to consider both within a single pedagogical framework. This work hopes to help reconcile this dilemma. It argues that language learning itself should be seen as an intercultural endeavor, similar to adjusting to a foreign environment. It introduces a deep learning approach to understanding this process. Deep learning refers to the process of embodying complex domains of socio-cognitive knowledge, and distinguishes between surface (conceptual and explicit) knowledge, and deep (intuitive and implicit) knowledge. While language and culture are largely separate at the level of surface knowledge, they are argued to be interrelated domains at the level of deep knowledge. The deep learning perspective allows us to see language and culture learning as fundamentally similar processes. This chapter also includes a brief introduction to the Developmental Model of Linguaculture Learning (DMLL), the core offering of this book.