Page 40 - SREENARAYANAGURU OPEN UNIVERSITY

● Topic sentence: Cultural awareness as a fifth skill of com-
○ It is the first sentence of the munication refers to a set of following abilities:
paragraph.
○ It shows the main idea of the f The ability to perceive and recog-
sentence. nize cultural differences. (“Oh, so
○ It tells us about what the that is how you are supposed to
paragraph is about. give flowers in Russia!”)
● Supporting sentences: f The ability to accept cultural dif-
○ They develop the topic idea ferences. (“From now on, I must
presented in the topic sentence. remember to give an odd number
○ They give more information of flowers.”)
about the topic and develop the f The ability to appreciate and val-
paragraph. ue cultural differences. (“Isn’t
○ They give more data through it interesting that the number of
examples, charts and diagrams. flowers holds significance!”)
● Concluding sentence
○ It is the last sentence of the 1�3�6 Bilingualism
paragraph.
○ It restates the topic sentence. We learn to speak our mother tongue from
○ It also summarises the main home and our second language from school. In
point in the topic. India, we learn English and Hindi or other lan-
guages along with our mother tongue. We can
also learn other foreign languages by taking
1�3�5 Cultural Awareness special coaching. The use of two languages in
In American culture, it is acceptable to give teaching, especially to foster learning in stu-
flowers to the hostess of a dinner party. The dents, is the part of a bilingual system.
social act of giving flowers may not be accepted Bilingualism means our ability to speak two
in any other country. To understand our social languages. It is acquired early by children in
surroundings where we live is important. It the regions where adults speak two languages
develops our culture. It differs from place to or more like the use of Malayalam and English
place. in a Malayali household. The ability to speak

In addition to the basic communication two or more languages is called Multilingual-
skills(listening, speaking, Reading and Writ- ism.
ing), we can add one more skill. This fifth skill Advocates of bilingual education argue that
is cultural awareness. Culture is an integral it accelerates learning in all subjects and allows
part of language instruction. To teach about students from marginalised communities to
culture is different from learning vocabulary feel integrated in the formal education system.
and grammar.
Translation plays an important role in a
Culture is fluid and cannot be defined bilingual or multilingual society. Transla-
whereas vocabulary and grammar are concrete. tion is not changing languages from one to
Culture as the fifth skill stresses the learner’s another, it is more than that. It can construct
ability to distinguish, understand, and ulti- bridge between two languages. It allows you to
mately accept cultural relativity. experience different cultural phenomena which

34 SGOU - FYUGP - SLM - English for Communication