British Culture Research Articles

TEACHING CULTURE IN THE MODERN ESP CLASSROOM

For several decades now, it has been realised that teaching a foreign language means much more than just focusing on the four basic language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking); it also encompasses teaching about culture. Teaching culture in the modern English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classroom is focused on building students’ knowledge of cultures while simultaneously developing their language skills. Although this approach to ESP is not new, this paper will analyze the basic principles of teaching culture and possible challenges in the process. In addition to this, it will show authentic classroom examples, present practical ideas for instructors and show what benefits teaching culture bring in the modern ESP classroom.

The Discourse of Sighs in Medieval English Literature

ABSTRACT The very ubiquity of references to sighing in medieval English literary culture has meant that the significance of sighs has remained hidden in plain sight. Yet the introduction of sighs into medieval reimaginings of biblical and other sources underlines how much sighing is part of late medieval affect. A dual quality to sighs makes their interpretation depend on context: sighs may express negative or positive responses. As nonverbal vocalizations, sighs constitute a mode of communication, while in devotional tradition the penitent’s sighs may offer a means of bringing into being a desired spiritual state. Chaucer’s poems show him aligning sighs with significant speech, most intensively in Troilus, where Chaucer suggests sighs’ communicative role and their different kinds, while exploring their interconnections with breathing and emotion, and how sighs can powerfully transcend speech with what is left unsaid.

The travelogue cooking show in a sub-state nation: Representing Scotland in British food television

Food television offers a new and unique lens on national identity, the Anglo-Scottish relationship, and their cultural representation in contemporary Britain. This article is based on the analysis of three British travelogue cooking shows, first broadcast between 1995 and 2011, about Scotland and its food. The programmes analysed exemplify and reinforce long-standing cultural constructions of the relationship between England and Scotland as sub-state nations of the United Kingdom, as well as illustrating and creating new national scripts, notably in relation to class and gender. These ‘homeland’ travelogue cooking shows consistently associate Scotland with a defined set of local and traditional foods, closely associated with a Romantic construction of Scotland, its history and landscape. However, the programmes also indicate wider changes in British and Scottish food culture during this period, including the rise of the local food movement and the increasing economic success and cultural confidence of the Scottish food and drink industry. The article highlights the role of celebrity chefs in the cultural construction of contemporary British sub-state national relationships.

Images of Arabs and Islam in Burton’s Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah

The study aimed to discuss the position of Arabs and Islam in Western culture, concentrating on the British Victorians whose main conception of Arabia concerned the desert and the exotic orient. The increasing political and economic interest of the British government in Arabia led to more focus on Muslim Arabs in the Near East and the Arabian Peninsula, beginning with Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt c. 1799, and escalating as Suez and the Ottoman Empire became more intertwined with the British imperialism. Missions and tours for various reasons went to the Near East and the Arabian Peninsula to discover and bring information for the Western Empires specially, the Royal Geographical Society. On the other hand, the growing body of science concerning the Arab world came under the umbrella of orientalism, including all writers, novelists and travelogues concerned with ‘the orient’. One of the oriental travellers was Burton, whose mission to visit the two Islamic holy places Al-Madinah and Mecca was a classic and romantic one. Burton’s mission was not only to supply his sponsors with geographical and scientific information about Suez, the Arabian Peninsula and the two holy places, but he had other personal motivations that affected his work; Personal Narrative of A Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah. Continuously, the study applies investigative, descriptive analysis and critical analysis methods to answer the above questions. The study consists of four sections. Section one presents an introduction in five subsections: problem of the study, hypotheses of the study, significance of the study, methodology of the study and finally, structure of the study. Section two presents Victorians’ views of Muslims in three subsections: Victorian thinking and culture in Britain; Islam in the Victorian literature; and Victorian travelogues. Section three comprises a thematic analysis of Burton's Pilgrimage, concentrating on his liberal and ethnographic interests that motivated his imperialism. At the last section, the study discusses the final results, the study limitations and recommendations for the studies about Burton.

The British Lion’s Triumph over the Bengal Tiger: The Royal Combat and the Allegory of Imperial Dominance

This article shows how the allegory of British-tiger rivalry became a distinct feature in 19th-century British imperial visual culture to imagined imperial attitudes over India. After the second Anglo-Mysore war (1799) between the East Indian Company and the Tipu Sultan, in 1808, a visual description of lion-tiger bloodshed was issued as a medal by the East India Company to reward its troops. Such a description shows a lion, representing the British nation’s suppression over a Bengal tiger, the royal emblem of Tipu Sultan. After this, the same imagery served to be imagined and visualised the British dominance and control over ruthless and unwilling India. Moreover, in such an allegory, a fiction of dead white women was added to invoke nationalism among Britons. This raises a feminist issue of how this fictional image of victimised women fulfils the British masculine agenda of imperialism and nationalism while the women remain deprived.

A Comparison of Chinese and British Tea Cultures from the Perspective of Cross-Cultural Communication and the “Tea Language” Translation

As the Chinese saying goes, “The seven necessities of life: firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea”, which shows the important place the tea occupies in the hearts of the Chinese. With the advent of globalization, countries all over the world have gradually become an organically integrated economic and cultural whole, and China’s tea has travelled across the ocean to the west, developing a unique and exotic western tea culture. Despite the fact that British tea comes from China, there are significant differences in tea culture between the two countries. This paper explores the deeper reasons behind the differences between Chinese and British tea culture through a comparative analysis and put forward some strategies and methods for the translation of “tea language” based on these cultural differences. The differences between Chinese and British tea culture are discussed in terms of the development of tea culture, tea drinking etiquette and the spirit of the tea ceremony, which are created by the differences in cultural background and ideology. Analyzing Chinese and British tea culture from different aspects enables us to make better use of tea culture and observe tea drinking etiquette in cross-cultural communication, reduce the language barrier formed in translation and understanding, and reduce the cultural conflict, thus promoting the exchange and development between Chinese and British tea culture and making tea culture shine on the world stage.

The portrait of Jane Austen in chick lit style (“Jane in Love” by R. Givney)

The article studies Rachel Givney’s novel “Jane in Love”, which conjectures the biography of Jane Austen who is considered to be the mother of chick lit. The study proves that Givney uses: 1) the principles and techniques of chick lit, a modern literary genre of the post-feminist era, at the same time revising the matrix of chick lit; 2) a fabulous narrative theme, discovered by V. Propp, which also undergoes some revision. Givney rethinks the happy ending conceptually important for chick lit and for the fairy tale with regard to a psychological novel devoted to an artist who has found his voice and his place in world literature. In her narrative about Jane Austen, a time traveler, the writer conceptualizes her significance for modern English culture and the Englishmen structuring her novel with formulas-codes of Jane Austen’s oeuvre. The main storyline of her novels is devoted to the complexities of love, and their plots assume a certain set of components. A love affair with a happy ending in the spirit of the Cinderella fairy tale is the main formula of Jane Austen’s novels, which is in demand in chick lit. R. Givney reduces this formula and fills it with a new content: her Jane Austen sacrifices a man for the sake of the future.

The Mayflower and Historical Culture in Britain, 1620–2020

Abstract In 2020 the Anglo-American world marked the 400th anniversary of the trans-Atlantic Mayflower voyage with a programme of activities. Intensive and focused interest in the story of the Mayflower is not a new phenomenon—especially in the United States, where it is the bedrock of the nation’s ‘origin story’. But the tale of the Pilgrims has historically also captured the British imagination. This article outlines a chronology for understanding the cultural importance in Britain of this voyage, from the New England chroniclers to the postcolonial critiques of historians today. In between, it offers a thematic analysis of the different groups which could use the story in their construction of morality and identity, from Romanticists and abolitionists to Anglo-American diplomats and civic boosters. Understanding the afterlife of the voyage in this long perspective, we argue, provides us with a more nuanced understanding of how ideas of history develop and evolve within broader arenas of politics and civil society. We use the concept of historical culture: an approach that is attuned to the interplay between memory, public history, heritage and popular history, and across forms of media (novels, plays, film) and spaces of interaction (cities, politics, movements). As the vogue for commemoration continues to exert power in Britain and beyond, and so does an increasing demand for more critical approaches to historical redress, we thus develop a critical framework that understands the powerful draw of ‘history’—both past and present.

Unternehmen Kolibri: Of Hitler and Hummingbirds

Abstract The hummingbird’s biological and cultural associations with beauty, sweetness, and docility belie a longstanding symbolic association with violence and danger. Taking the Nazis’ surprising adoption of the symbol as a point of departure, this essay traces this association to its Mesoamerican origins, and follows its emergence in European and British culture through travel writing, naturalism, commercialism, and popular culture, reflecting on how an evolving understanding of the birds’ behavior and morphology influenced its symbolic history.

Investigation of the Impact of Bilingualism on the Identity of a sample of Bilingual English learners

This paper aims to investigate how learners of English at ALbaydha University and ALYemeni Institute perceive themselves as being bilinguals and how being bilinguals can affect their core identity. Also it investigates whether they understand being bilingual, based on how well they use and speak the English language and how often it is used or influenced by the factors of English culture which make them use it instead of their local language culture, inside and outside college, to gain prestige without taking into consideration that the change will affect their core identity. This paper is qualitative in nature based on a questionnaire administered at ALbaydha University and ALYemeni Institute students as non-native English learners who study English to obtain Bachelor Degree or Diploma in English language. The most unexpected findings that emerged show that despite studying English and having some skills in using the language none of the participants perceived him/herself as being bilingual, there is no evidence of language shift, and the core identity takes first status in most situations. Additionally, English choices do not dominate most of bilingual conversations but the local language is the dominator. All participants are proud of their identity and do not accept to replace it by another. They do not believe that being bilingual will affect their core identity. It is also noted that all participants behave carefully during their use of the English language and avoid any direct contact with English culture or adopting any of its norms of life though they prove to be equally competent in both local languages
 Key words: bilingualism and bilinguals, identity, code switching, identity in language education. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Fomentar el uso de la metodología CLIL para promeover el aprendizaje de vocabulario en contexto

Introducción CLIL is a powerful methodology to improve the fluency and the oral communication skill of any learner. It also provides learners an opportunity to study content from different perspectives and complements other subjects rather than competing with them. Further, it motivates and boost learners’ confidence in both, language and subject matter, and develop thinking skills from the start. CLIL helps in bringing updated practices into the curriculum since students learn one or more of their school subjects in a targeted language, frequently in another second language. Moreover, in order to master a language, a learner must have a large repertoire of words in mind to be able to understand the language. Vocabulary is a centre part of language ability and generates the foundation for learning how well scholars speak, read, write, and listen. It is without a doubt that vocabulary is seen as a key to all language skills since it covers all lexical items learners need to know to meet their numerous educational and general needs. Objetivos The goal of this research work as to determine the importance of using the CLIL methodology in an EFL class to increase students’ vocabulary learning of students from Unidad Educativa UK. In orderr to achieve this, it was importan to to conceptualise the fundamental theory of CLIL methodology, to analyse the essential theory of vocabulary learning and to identify the strategies and activity students have been exposed to learn vocabulary within the CLIL methodology. Método Cuantitativo, descriptivo no experimental. Principales resultados Results come from the survey applied to students, and it is important to mention that the questions analyzed were the most relevant in relation to the main four ones mentioned before: subject that most help student to learn the English language, students develop a project at the end of each term, Students not only learn the language but also the English culture and students work cooperatively in the classroom, students have learned vocabulary due to Maths, Science, Language, and Social Studies during their school life. After all, the questions were multiple choice questions as well as using a Likert scale. Never (1) Rarely (2) Sometimes (3 ) Often ( 4) Always (5). After analyzing them, it is deduce that most learners learn English in the language class with an average of 86,7. Consequently English is best learned in the language class than in the Math and Social Studies. Further, students develop a project at the end of each term in order to expose students to the language, it reflects that goals are planned for the long term because things cannot be achieved overnight with a mean of 3,47. In addition, English culture is learnt by students with a mean of 3,17. Therefore, it can be concluded that the institution really cares about preparing students to get used to the English culture when they go abroad. Last but not least, learners work cooperatively most of the time with a mean of 3,93. Consequently, students have the chance to share knowledge and ideas which is very helpful to practice the language. In relation to the language skills, results displayed that students have improved their language skills since they were exposed to many situations where they argued their points of view about the different topics of the subjects. Moreover, learners learnt a vast variety of terminology from each subject due to it helped them to learn new words. Conclusiones CLIL is a modern method that aims at teaching subjects such as Science, Math, Social Studies, but mainly Language. Additionally, students have the chance to learn vocabulary by employing various strategies and activities as the following ones: they used memory, cognitive, metacognitive, and activation strategies. Nevertheless, memory, cognitive, and activation strategies are the most used. To illustrate that, relating information to a specific word using synonyms was the most used activity. By comparison, the metacognitive strategy was the least used one. In that sense, concerning information to a certain word by using antonyms was the least used activity. In addition, projects are planned and presented at the end of each semester to familiarize students with the language. Also, because English is an international language, students learn English in context as they learn English culture. Finally, students have the opportunity to collaborate and share their knowledge and ideas which is very useful for language practice.

Translating tai chi and transforming qigong in British media culture

There are a growing number of studies of the history and spread of taijiquan and qigong. However, there are few studies of taiji or qigong in the media. Based on a study of British media archives, this article traces the construction and representation of taijiquan (‘tai chi’) in British media. In doing so, it establishes and evaluates the meanings and values that have been imputed to the practice in British media discourse. It first examines key representations of tai chi before the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, but proposes that the pandemic changed its status. It argues that popular understandings of COVID-19 as a respiratory infection led to an upsurge of interest in ‘breath-focused’ practices. In this context, taiji could have stood to gain in popularity. However, the article suggests that the difficulties of learning taiji – especially during a time of social isolation – meant that it was not taiji but the related and hitherto lesser-known practice of qigong that saw an increase in popularity. It concludes with a reflection on ‘authenticity’ and the status of some new translation-constructions of hybrid taiji-qigong practices.

China English and Chinese culture

In his short list of predictions for the future of English, written in 2006, David Graddol wrote that ‘Asia may determine the future of global English’ (2006: 15). India and China especially, he suggested, were likely to be the major influences on how the concept of English as a global language would develop. As Asian economies grew, so did their political status, potentially offering a different model for the global ecology of languages. Nearly two decades on, we are beginning to see notable shifts in the way English is perceived in different parts of the world. As a variety in an Expanding Circle country (Kachru, 1985), English in China has conventionally been seen as a foreign or international language, and the concept of an indigenized variety has received less discussion than it has in Outer Circle countries. But with shifts in geopolitics, the conventional rationales for naming practices around English in China may no longer be applicable. The discussion below is centred, therefore, around the issue of what might be a better term to capture the contemporary reality of English use, and attitudes to this use, in China; and on how an emergent variety, associated with the term China English, is becoming a more and more accepted part of linguistic culture in Chinese society.

Exploring Culture as a Step in the Development of Intercultural Skills

Objective: This study aims to analyze the reflections of a group of ninth graders from a Colombian high school about their culture during the development of an intercultural-based classroom project. Method: This qualitative action research study was grounded in an intercultural approach for language teaching. The study used a questionnaire and the written production of students to collect data which were analyzed using thematic and frequency analyses. Results: The findings suggested that the inclusion of cultural topics motivated the students and enhanced their awareness of the value of their culture and the impact of racism and discrimination within their sociocultural context. Similarly, a few elements of culturally relevant pedagogies, such as factual knowledge about culture, cultural competence, and critical consciousness, emerged from the voices of the students. Discussion and conclusions: Addressing the local manifestations of culture in English as a Foreign Language classrooms open the path for discussions on social issues and recognize the relevance of one’s cultural landscape. Nevertheless, the systematic integration of culture in language teaching at the national level is a task that remains to be achieved.

Postcolonial Trace in the Translation of Bumi Manusia

Abstract. Bumi Manusia as a postcolonial novel became a vehicle for Toer to articulate his national identity as Indonesian during the Dutch colonialism. Its translation into This Earth of Mankind posts two questions of whether or not power relations are brought in the translation and how the translator represents Indonesian culture in English. In order to answer the two, postcolonial translation approach was employed. This research is qualitative for it aims at analyzing the text. Seven data were selected based on two indicators representing the most relation between the colonized and colonizer or postcoloniality of the Dutch East Indies and were analyzed employing Baker’s translation strategies. The findings reveal that there are unequal relations between the source language (Indonesian) and the target language (English). In This Earth of Mankind, the translator does not show Indonesian cultural representation. There are great loss of information, omission, biased information, and great loss of impactful meaning of the source language in the target language that create another colonial domain and leave colonial trace in the target language.Keywords: Postcolonial Translation, Bumi Manusia, Postcolonialism, Colonialism, Power Relations

State–business–civic partnerships in children’s film policy: the roles of the CFD/CEF Advisory Council in post-war Britain

ABSTRACT Established in 1951, the Children’s Film Foundation (CFF) contributed to the growth of children’s film culture in Britain. This paper aims to show how the CFF’s active involvement of public authorities, film industry organisations and educationalists resulted in partnerships between them and in the growing production of children’s films in Britain. Drawing on under-investigated archival materials, this paper argues that the Advisory Council of the Children’s Film Department and Children’s Entertainment Films, precursors of the CFF, offered significant platforms for mediation between public authorities, industry organisations and educationalists, and for shaping new beliefs about child audiences and children’s cinema, which resulted in both the film industry’s and educationalists’ support for, and commitment to, producing films with entertaining and educational values. The case study demonstrates how the CFF overcame a commerce – culture dichotomy. It therefore offers a more nuanced understanding of state–market–civic relations in British cultural policy.

Commerce and Cultural Diplomacy: The British Council in Iran during the 1970s

This article examines UK cultural diplomacy in Iran during the 1970s. As the primary UK-based agency operating in this field, it pays particular attention to the British Council’s activities. The paper examines how escalating oil prices in the 1973–4 Arab Oil Embargo’s wake compelled the agency to move away from English language teaching provision and more towards cultural policies. Anthony Parsons, the UK Ambassador to Iran, helped frame these initiatives. Together, they organised the 1977 Festival of Britain in Tehran, which showcased high-brow British culture. The paper makes three key points. First, it illustrates the extent economic imperatives shape UK cultural diplomacy. Second, it reveals the UK Embassy and British Council’s reticence to interact with Iranians, with framing events like the Festival of Britain as purely commercial opportunities. Finally, the paper demonstrates how popular indifference, combined with the Iranian Revolution’s outbreak, undermined the UK’s cultural diplomacy campaign.

Языковая репрезентация эмоционального состояния субъекта в русской и английской фразеологии

The aim of the study is to create a classification of Russian and English phraseological units describing a variety of emotional states of the subject and their external manifestations. This classification will reveal the significance of certain emotions and ways of their verbalisation in Russian and English linguistic cultures. The scientific novelty of the paper lies in describing the structural-semantic features of phraseological units expressing the emotional state of the subject, as well as in comparing the data obtained with the theories presented in psychological research. As a result of the analysis, Russian and English phraseological units describing positive (joy, happiness, calm, relief, interest) and negative emotional states (rage, anger, irritation, embarrassment, shame, sadness, despair, worry, anxiety) were systematised and characterised. According to their component composition, there are phraseological units that include somatisms, colourative elements, zoonyms, phytonyms, as well as names of various natural phenomena. Phraseological units with the meaning of an emotional state primarily pay attention to the inner feelings of a person, as well as their nonverbal manifestations. In most cases, they reflect the stereotypical ideas of native speakers about the manifestations of emotions and help to identify them.

BÜCHNER, BORDERS AND THE CONVERGING OF ‘CROWDS’: JACK THORNE'S WOYZECK (2017)

ABSTRACTAs an important site of cross‐cultural exchange, theatre translations performed in Britain form key routes for international writers to be introduced to, and to influence, British audiences and theatre‐makers. This article introduces Jack Thorne's 2017 adaptation of Woyzeck by Georg Büchner, performed at the Old Vic Theatre in London, as a case study to trace how British theatre practitioners and institutions frame and utilise German texts and playwrights to construct an image of German (theatrical) culture in Britain. I will focus on institutional practice in the first instance, tracing how the Old Vic Theatre framed this production as appealing to two different ‘crowds’ and how Woyzeck relates to the Old Vic's stated institutional aims. This will be combined with performance and textual analysis that draws out the ways in which the production thematises borders and cultural difference. While theatre in translation can be seen as a bridge between different national cultures, I ultimately argue that this Woyzeck adaptation highlights, and indeed propagates, divisions between British and German (theatrical) cultures.

An Examination of the British Council’s Social Media Strategy in China: Insights and Implications

The rapid advancement of internet technology has ushered in the age of new media, significantly altering the means of language and cultural transmission. In this era, social media platforms demonstrate superior effectiveness, interactivity, timeliness, and convenience, outpacing traditional media outlets, and hence have amassed vast user populations. As a central player in the international promotion of English language and culture, the British Council keeps pace with these developments by employing social media for outreach. This paper scrutinizes the British Council's communication data on major Chinese social media platforms, analyzes its current practices and potential deficiencies based on the Lasswell's 5W communication model, and proposes potential strategies for improvement.