YOUR LANGUAGE, YOUR IDENTITY: THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL IDENTITY IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Waquar Ahmad Khan

Abstract


Language is part of one's identity. Many a research has been conducted to prove that there is a strong relationship between language and identity. Nelson Mandela in his appease quotes once said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his mother tonguage, that goes to his heart.” We all acknowledge, language is a means of communication, words establish meanings within the discourses and discourse vary in power. Language is having one of the powerful objects which completely shape one’s personal Identity. Without language, no culture can maintain its existence. Language is one of the primary and powerful means to explain us what we want, expect, and convey to the counterpart. In this changing world language is the one which identifies total ins and out of a speaker and listener. Today’s world is based on multilingualism; however, the scope of the mother tongue cannot be undermined. It is the mother tongue which established our identity, who we are, and from where we come from. It is the mother tongue which reveals about me and my location in macro and micro level. This paper discusses about how our language related to our identity, and the impact of cultural identity in teaching English as a foreign language.

 

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global language, cultural identity, cross cultural communication

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejel.v5i4.3249

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