Cultural bias and Sociolinguistics

Abstract

Peoples and individuals around the globe continuously develop their own communicative habits. With each generation, adjustments to changing circumstances are made-economic circumstances, natural circumstances, and, for instance, mobility circumstances. The outcome of such transitions is cultural variation, which is visible in hierarchical social systems, belief systems, legal systems, traditions, attire, and all kinds of rituals. Communicative systems are part of culture, and they deserve a role in research focussing on language and communication. However, applying culture as a variable is a challenge, not only because of the cultural variation between peoples and individuals but also because the effects of culture on actual language utterances are hard to measure. Another issue is the dominance of Anglowestern cultural patterns in many analyses. This paper explains these issues and critically reviews the various criteria that well-known cultural models-like the one by Hofstede (1980), Lewis (1969), and Hall (1959, 1976)-use to categorise cultures. Examples of such criteria are: region, relationship with uncertainty, femininity/masculinity, and power relations. The paper concludes by giving a number of practical solutions to the challenge of treating culture as a variable in sociolinguistic research. These solutions are related to, amongst others, the reviewing process for journals, widespread norms of 'good academic language', author/editor selection, cross-cultural academic cooperation, and sharing of funds.

Students’ Intercultural Competence Forming System By Means Of Foreign Language

“…2) Computer presentations about the home country and foreign countries; These working methods and techniques being implemented in the learning process and based on informing students about the country's history and culture, on monitoring their knowledge increase the students' motivation and interest in the country of the language being studied (Achilov & Makarova, 2016;Smakman, 2019).…”

Introduction: education, the environment and sustainability

“…It also places distinctly more emphasis on socio-cognitive (inter-) personal competences in contexts of work. It maintains the previous model's emphasis on (inter-)cultural competence, but no longer anchors it a discrete category of sociolinguistic and textual descriptors (Smakman, 2019). Instead, it offers a transversal, situated description of the many (inter-)cultural, transcultural and multicultural aspects of a translator's work.…”

Reasons Of Communicative Failures When Using Proverbs In Russian-Chinese Communication

“…The methodological basis for the scientific search was an approach from the point of view of intercultural communication. The study of intercultural communication was put in line with philosophical ideas (Hall, 1968) and today has acquired many positions and views on the changing communicative systems of peoples (Klyukanov, 2021;Smakman, 2019). Leading scientists in the field of Chinese theoretical direction, considering issues closely related to the problems that relate to the building of crosscultural ties, including communication arising between cultures, Hu Wenzhong (2011), Jia Yuxin andLiu Xun (2000) draw one of the conclusions in his work, offering us the definition of the term "intercultural communication" as communication between people of different cultural backgrounds.…”