Implications of culture on learning and teaching foreign languages An Islamic psycholinguistic approach

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1 Implications of culture on learning and teaching foreign languages An Islamic psycholinguistic approach Dr. Anke Iman Bouzenita Assistant Professor Dep. of Fiqh and Usul al-fiqh IIUM Abstract: Whoever learns the language of a people is safe from their evil. This saying implies the objective of learning foreign languages from an Islamic perspective. The term language may be understood as more than a set of grammar and vocabulary. It implies to acquire knowledge about the shared cultural concepts of the (native) speakers of the target language and evaluate them against the own. It may therefore well be stated that sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics are part and parcel of any Islamic approach on learning and teaching foreign languages. The paper will highlight the Islamic outlook in these fields. The paper will expose the difference between learning a foreign target language as spoken by a majority of Muslim speakers (as is the case of Turkish, Persian or Bahasa) and one mirroring the cultural background and history of a majority of Non-Muslim speakers (as in English, German or Japanese) in psycholinguistic terms of identification and assimilation with the target language and the community of its speakers. It will try to assess the implications of this difference for the learner and the teacher of the target language. 1. Introduction: The Islamic concept on learning and teaching foreign languages What is the relationship between learning foreign languages and Islam or being a Muslim, someone may ask. Is there any? It is repeatedly stated that Islam is a way of life rather than a religion. As a matter of fact, from an Islamic perspective, any human action needs to be evaluated prior to undertaking it, as obligatory or recommended, optional, discouraged or prohibited. Language learning is not an exception to this. With the knowledge that every legally responsible person (mukallaf) will be held accountable for his deeds, the fiqhī evaluation of any action is utterly important. But this is not the only point of relation to Islam. Language, as is commonly known, is a major identity creating trait. Language is the expression of common shared concepts or culture, it provides us with the linguistic categories and terms to express and evaluate the world around us, describe our emotions, formulate our ideas. It may even be stated that the language we use decides about the way we think and perceive reality. Muslim scholars, particularly of 1

2 the Islamic sciences, Usūl al-fiqh, Ilm al-kalām, but also philosophy, have always devoted themselves to studying language in its manifold aspects, not only its grammatical structures, but also its origin, its encoding of concepts, and its relation towards identity. Having said this, this paper will try to elucidate the approach to foreign language learning on an Islamic basis within the confines of a conference paper. Based on the Sunnah of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and his companions after him, it will try to formulate an Islamic approach towards learning (and teaching) foreign languages. It has been narrated in the Sunnah that the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) asked Zayd b. Thabit, who acted as his secretary and is therefore also known to be the scribe of wahy (revelation), to learn Hebrew, the writing of the Jews, because the Prophet did not trust the Jews and their translation. Zayd is reported to have learned it in about 15 days, upon which he wrote letters in Hebrew on behalf of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and translated the Jews letters for him. 1 Ahmad also narrates that the Prophet asked Zayd whether he mastered Syrian, as they received letters in this language. Upon his negative response, he ordered Zayd to learn it. Zayd accomplished the task within 17 days. 2 It seems that these quotations have already testified to an important function of learning foreign languages: To make sure that the message that is to be conveyed is encoded in the foreign language without any distortion. It ought to be noted here that Zayd had an official function as a state secretary to the state leader, the Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.). The often quoted saying Whoever learns the language of a people is safe from their evil seems to be a summary of basic concepts laid down by the Sunnah of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and his companions (may Allah be pleased with them). Although it is not a testified ĥadīth of the Prophet, it seems to be reflective of a particular attitude towards foreign language learning. We may understand the term language here as more than just a set of words and grammatical rules, but rather extend it to non-verbal communication and the concepts and shared ideas as expressed in a particular language. There are different aspects to mastering a foreign language in this context; one of them has already been mentioned: Mastering a foreign language enables the speaker to verify the correct translation of a communication without distortion. An important strategic aspect not only with regard to foreign relations. We may concede from the sunnah of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) that learning a foreign language is permissible or even recommended (mandūb). According to the degree of its necessity and the circumstances, it may even reach the level of an obligation (farď) to acquire knowledge on a foreign language and the cultural background it expresses. 1 Tirmidhī, Ĥadīth no. 2639; Abū Dawūd, Ĥadīth no. 3160; Aĥmad, Ĥadīth no Musnad Aĥmad, Ĥadīth no

3 The caliph Umar b. al-khaţţāb (may Allah be pleased with him), said: Do not learn the gibberish of the Non-Arabs, and do not enter upon them in their churches on the day of their festivities, as the wrath of Allah descends on them. 3 This statement cannot be understood as a prohibition to learn foreign languages, but rather refers to a particular way of speaking which does not befit a Muslim personality. It also draws a link between non-arabic languages and their adab, way of delivery and delivered concepts and non- Islamic worship. We may concede from this that if learning a foreign language, we ought to abstain from a way of communicating which contradicts Islamic adab and should not absorb the non-verbal communication and concepts affiliated and carried by that language. 2. Categorization of (foreign) languages and its implication on teaching and learning The notion of a foreign language as used in this article refers to any other than the mother tongue. However, as this is a very rough description, we ought to specify the differences between different categories of languages with their varying degrees of ability to express Islamic cultural concepts and the implications for the learner and teacher here. a) Arabic The language of revelation Arabic as the language of revelation and linguistic key to understand the details of the message definitely has a special standing in this respect. Even if we do acknowledge that Arabic is a foreign language in terms of being another than the mother tongue for the largest part of the Islamic Ummah, it is not foreign at all in terms of cultural affinity. Every Muslim all over the world, even if not a speaker of Arabic, knows to recite parts of the Qur an in Arabic. I will try to outline the importance of Arabic for the Muslim individual and community and clarify the implications for the Muslim learner. The final and universal message has been revealed in Arabic, a fact that the Qur an emphasizes in about ten ÉyÉt. 4 Allah s.w.t. says in SËrat YËsuf, verse 2: We have verily revealed it as an Arabic Qur Én, so that you may understand. In SËrat al-zumar, 28, Allah s.w.t. says: An Arabic Qur Én without any distortion, so that they may fear Allah. In SËrat al-naíl, 103, the text states: And this is a clear Arabic language. The main aspect of the Qur an being a miracle, al-ñijéz, is the inimitability of its language. The disbelievers of the time have been challenged to produce only ten sections or surahs like it, if they do not believe in its divine origin (SËrat HËd, 13). Being unable to meet this first challenge, they were later asked to produce only one sërah like it (SËrat YËnus, 38). For the Arabs at the time, who were masters of their language, this was the ultimate intellectual challenge and the rational proof that the Qur Én is revelation: A text in a language used by humans who are masters of the same language, but still not able to 3 Abd al-razzāq, al-muşannaf, Beirut, 1983, vol.1, p.411, no SËrat YËsuf, 2; al-ra d, 37; ÙÉhÉ, 113; al-zumar, 28; FuÎÎilat, 3; FuÎÎilat, 44; al-shëré, 7; al-zukhruf, 3; al-aíqéf, 12; al-naíl, 103;al-ShuÑarÉ, 195 3

4 imitate the smallest section of it 5, can only have a divine source. Still, the disbelievers never answered the challenge intellectually, but rather preferred to respond to it with the force of arms, as history shows. Among the factors of the disintegration of the Islamic state and the beginning of intellectual decline, historians mention the negligence of Arabic. This dimension is simply explained: Given that the language of Qur Én and Sunnah is Arabic, its thorough study is indispensable for understanding these texts of revelation and actualizing their relationship to reality. The main importance of the Arabic language with regard to the message lies in the very fact that it is the tool to acquire deep or specialist knowledge on the Islamic sciences. The sciences of Qur Én and adêth, Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh) and its theoretical foundations (UÎËl al-fiqh) and theology ( Ilm al-kalém) cannot be acquired without an understanding of Arabic and its linguistic structures. To be familiar with the linguistic means characterizing the way in which the language communicates ideas (al-baléghah) is essential to understand the implications of the texts of revelation. The process of ijtihéd, deriving legal rules from these sources, draws to a fundamental extent on the knowledge of Arabic. No Arabic, no ijtihéd. No ijtihéd, no process of intellectual activity, no derivation of legal rules for new cases, intellectual stagnation. Interestingly enough, secularizing and nationalist tendencies throughout history have always, in an initial stage, attempted to undermine this natural link between Islam, the Arabic language and the Ummah s unity. As is widely known, the prime attack against Islam after the demolition of the Ottoman Islamic Caliphate included latinizing the formerly Arabic script of the Ottoman language, next to prohibiting Islamic dress code, under the pretense of modernization. From , the call to prayer was carried out in Turkish, and there were serious official attempts at changing the language of Qur anic recitation in prayer to Turkish. 6 In the aftermath of the breaking up of Soviet hegemony, a number of newly independent states with a majority Muslim population saw discussions on the script to be used for their national languages: Arabic, Latin or Cyrillic? The decision on the script system to be used was an indicator to the cultural affiliation that was sought pro-islamic, pro-western or pro-russian? The script system a learner is first educated in will have a decisive impact on his cultivation in later years: Cognitively, even if mastering more than one language and even if given the choice, a person will most likely always opt for the writing system he grew up with as a key to access information. Given that Islamic knowledge will be more authentic in Arabic, its original language, than in any translated version, this factor may decide about the cultivation of an entire generation. In terms of policy making, any ministry of education in any part of the Islamic world decides over the overweighing 5 The shortest section or surah of the Qur Én, SËrat al-kawthar, consists of only ten words (articles not counted as independent words). 6 Aydar, Hidayet : MuÍÉwalÉt al-atrék iqamét shañé ir al-ñibédah bi l-lughat al-turkiyyah fê Ìaw maqéîid al-sharêñah, MaqÉÎid al-sharêñah and its realization in contemporary societies, Conference Proceedings, Kuala Lumpur, vol.2, pp , p.493. Anyway, none of these have been ingrained in the population and their religious practice. 4

5 cultural affiliation of generations to come by deciding on script systems (where there is a choice), the foreign languages in the syllabus and the amount of time devoted to their study. Next to its importance as the key to understand and study the Islamic sciences and an Ummah wide identity creating bond, there also is a psycholinguistic perspective to mastering Arabic that ought to be mentioned here. Arabic has quite a unique way of forming words from a basic root of three (sometimes four) letters. In this way, whole word groups are formed belonging to the same associative network. The result of this is a network of meanings (shabakat al-dalélét) which is carried on with the term itself. As long as this network is accessible which is the case for the Arabic speaker the affiliated meanings are accessible in all their dimensions, too. As this network gets lost in translation to other languages, or is not naturally part of them, a lot of these dimensions of possible meanings and inherent links are not accessible. This requires some examples for illustration: In the Arabic language, the word pattern, vocalization and inserted letters, enable the speaker to designate different concepts belonging to one associative group. For the original root k t b, you can form kataba, to write, as well as the participle maktëb, written ( letter, in a colloquial context used to designate destiny or what has already been written down ), kétib, writer, kitéb, book, maktab, office, maktabah, library, and so on. In other words, associated things and concepts are generally verbalized by the same group of consonant radicals. Any newly arriving concept or thing can be given its term according to the associative group of radicals. (For the sake of completeness, we should annotate here that foreign words may also be assimilated into Arabic ( arabicised ) by adapting them to the word pattern.) Being aware that the linguistic structure provides the speaker with the tools of categorizing the world around him and expressing these categories and concepts, we may infer that a speaker of Arabic does organize the world around him in logically structured associative word groups. To give another example of the impact the network of meanings has, we may refer to an Éyah in SËrat al-ñalaq: Read, in the name of your Lord Who created, Who created the human being from an Ñalaq. Read, and your Lord will be the most generous. The root word Ñallaqa means to stick to, or to cling or adhere to. The term Ñalaq is also used to designate clotted blood, or a leech. However, any translation fixes one meaning to the exclusion of the others. Should you translate it as a clot of blood, or a leech-like creature, the more scientifically appropriate translation of the embryo in the blastocyst stage which might look like a clot, or resemble a leech in later phases of development, and which actually clings to the womb; this interrelation is lost. As people in the time of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) did not have any information on the stages of embryonic development, they may or may not have grasped the relation between the probable meanings of the word and the described reality, and it was only for our generations to fully understand the implication of the text. 5

6 What has been described here as a network of meanings is an important tool and prerequirement for an intellectual dynamism which is inherent to the Arabic language. Learning Arabic, for all these reasons, needs to be treated on a different level than learning any other language. In an Islamic context, it should consequently have the first priority in education. The term special language instead of foreign language has already rightly been coined for Arabic for Muslim learners. b) Languages which have been formed to express Islamic concepts, Islamic languages Second in our list, it ought to be mentioned here that, for the Muslim language learner with an Islamic cultural background, particularly for a learner who has a command of Arabic, it will be easier to learn other Islamic languages like Turkish, Persian, Urdu, or Malaysian. The reason for this obviously being that these languages have, during history, formed the linguistic means and terminology to express Islamic concepts. As all the languages spoken by a majority Muslim community of speakers, they have taken on a large part of Arabic loan words to express particular Islamic concepts, or have found original ways of expressing the same Islamic concepts which are particularly understood in their Islamic framework. Languages like Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Malaysian, Swahili and many others have taken on a large amount of Arabic vocabulary. A Turkish speaking learner of Arabic, or a Malaysian speaking learner of Persian, will come across a number of déjà-vus while occupying himself with the target language. Learning any of these target languages can be seen as a means to understand and preserve the Islamic heritage as expressed in them. c) Languages pertaining to a non-islamic cultural group Generally, when we refer to learning and teaching foreign languages today, we have languages of a different cultural context in mind, such as English, French, German, or Chinese and Japanese. In other words, we mean a target group of languages which are vehicles to express another than the Islamic cultural background. We may refer to the experience of our Muslim predecessors in the field of foreign language learning: As is well known of Islamic history, the Abbasid rulers emphasized on translating all the available manuscripts on sciences and philosophy from Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Persian and other important languages of the time. The importance of foreign languages to accomplish this task was well acknowledged. However, the translation movement relied to a large extent on highly qualified specialists, a lot of them of Christian or Jewish background, for the task, and it did consequently not trigger an organized endeavour to learn and teach foreign languages. We may also observe that, once the task of translating the available manuscript material into the main language of cultivation was completed, there was no need for a furtherance of foreign language studies on a wider scale. 6

7 The incorporation of foreign language learning on a large and organized scale is a product of modernity. It may be worth looking at the factors which have led to the organized foreign language learning as part of the syllabus in the Islamic world. Learning European foreign languages was a privilege to the ruling and wealthy classes in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. The cultural affiliation this produced in the societal elite of the Islamic world is notorious. An anecdote of history tells us that the last Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Mejid, was taken in surprise by the abolishment of Khilafah as pronounced by Kemal Atatürk on March 23 rd, 1924, while lying on his bed reading Montaigne. 7 (We may ponder on what may have gone differently in history had this last person to fill this position been more versatile in Islamic jurisprudence or strategic studies.) The first delegations which were sent to the Western world to study European sciences, especially the military science, in the time of the Egyptian Khedive Muhammad Ali in the beginning 19 th century were sent off with the intention to make up the information and development gap that had obviously arisen between the Islamic world and Europe. Studying European languages was seen to be a means to overcome this gap. The Khedive consequently founded an institute for translation and foreign languages, headed by al- Tahtawi. 8 Christian missionary schools soon spread in Egypt, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Islamic world. Characteristically, the exposure to the European culture and civilization in a time where the backwardness of the Islamic world was striking left an admiring impact in a large part of that generation, and instead of technology and weaponry as planned, European ideas found their ways into the Islamic world, too. A large scale exposure to foreign languages in the Islamic world took place during colonialism, and this background seems to bear an impact on the psychology of dealing with foreign languages as opposed to the native tongue until today. French colonialism was to a very large extent a language colonialism. Native languages being banned from organized colonial education, generations of children in the French colonies around the world had to memorize the famous sentence Nos ancêtres les Gaulois étaient blonds Our ancestors, the Gauls, were blond. The cultural confusion of the elite, as, mind you, school education in the colonies was only accessible to a chosen few natives to be able to express themselves only in the colonialist language, led to a cultural disaster and intellectual dependence which is persistent until today. As a very dramatic reaction to this, we may tell the story of Edmond Laforest, a famous Haitian writer, who committed suicide by tying a French Larousse dictionary (insignium of the French language) to his neck and throwing himself off a bridge. 9 Colonization has had a huge impact in the field of language and identity to date. Less dramatic than our suicide example, but persistently, we may observe urban elites in the former colonized 7 Reiss, Tom: The Orientalist. Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life. Random House, New York, 2005, p retrieved on Kramsch, Claire: Language and Culture, Oxford Introduction to Language Study, Oxford University Press, 1998, p.65. 7

8 regions of the world who would prefer speaking the former colonialist language to their native one and thereby distinguish themselves from the uneducated, and large parts of the populations of Islamic regions who are unable to express themselves properly in their native tongue. We need to understand the role language has played in the process of cultural alienation and secularisation during the last two centuries of political dependence of the Islamic world in order to build our own theories of foreign language learning and define our demands. The objectives of learning a foreign language of the mentioned category today may range from economic reasons (for instance, somebody works for a Chinese company and needs Chinese for professional reasons), reasons of research and cultural interest, studying abroad and others. These reasons coexist with the before mentioned strategic objective of knowing your enemy. Another important objective in learning and teaching foreign languages definitely is the aspect of dañwah, of inviting people to Islam. Islam being a universal message addressing all of mankind, the call to it needs to be conveyed to diverse peoples in diverse languages. If we understand that conveying the message of Islam is wéjib, an obligation, then whatever is necessary to fulfill this obligation becomes obligatory in its own right, based on the fiqhê principle mé lé yutimmu al-wéjib illé bihi, fahuwa wéjib. In other words, there is an obligation of acquiring foreign languages with the purpose of fulfilling the demand of delivering the message of Islam worldwide. This obligation may be individual (farì Ñayn) or communal (farì kiféyah), depending on the circumstances. 3. Practical implications As a matter of fact, we need to differentiate between the young and the adult learner with regard to foreign language acquisition of category three. The question of cultural dominance or undesired interferences as imparted by language is not particularly pressing for the adult learner who has already gone through the process of acculturation and character formation. However, it is up to the teacher to instill awareness of differences between the Islamic cultural background and the cultural framework of the target group even on the adult student, particularly in an Islamic institution of higher learning, and he should not force the student into imitating or accepting cultural patterns and forms of verbal and non-verbal communication that are in contradiction to Islamic concepts. To give an example for illustrating purposes, essay writing in English should not produce demands to write an essay on your boyfriend, or to describe your last outing with your girlfriend, nor should the chosen texts contain pornographic material. For teaching some courses, the available standardized teaching material needs to be adjusted 8

9 according to the setting. If, for instance, you are teaching German in an Islamic cultural setting and use standardized German material, you will have to exchange a lot of the exercises dealing with drinking alcohol, going to the pub, etc. As for young learners who have not yet acquired their cultural immunity, more emphasis should be given to suitable teaching material. Pattern drills for the English present tense, for instance, should not resemble a On Mondays, I go to the pub. On Tuesdays, I sit at home and drink a glass of wine. On Wednesdays, I go out dining with my girlfriend. pattern, but rather incorporate the students cultural background. The At 6 o clock every morning, I stand up, take my ablution and pray şalāt al-fajr pattern is more up to it. At the same time, the teacher ought to abstain from instilling prejudice about the native speaker of the target language by clinging to cultural stereotypes in pattern drills, which may be a more difficult task to accomplish. The teaching material has to be given primary attention in this context. Although the examples given above were quite simplified with regard to their communication of undesired interferences in Islamic education, we ought to raise the question of a hidden curriculum here. If teaching materials for learners of Islamic cultural background are chosen or even designed which impart lessons within the lesson, by choosing texts in favour of homosexuality, or atheism, or other concepts interfering with the Islamic background, they may lead to a confusion of the young learner. It may be worth subdifferentiating here between English and other foreign languages of this group, as English may well be said to have become a lingua franca or even mother tongue of a large number of Muslim speakers. It thereby has formed an Islamic vocabulary and may well be seen as a language pertaining to the before mentioned category for that matter. Foreign language teaching, if properly handled, can be a means to instill understanding for others based on the own Islamic cultural identity. With the purpose of Da wah, the aim is not to harden stereotypes, but rather to provide explanations, always bearing in mind that certain cultural concepts may be barriers to accepting Islam, while others may be inviting a person to see the same ideas in the Islamic din. More often than not, a reflecting and aware Muslim teacher will find himself in a position to have to correct and clarify the learners understanding of Islam. What absolutely needs to be avoided is an unreflective overidentification of the learner with the target language and group. Becoming a global player, in contemporary terms, demands to know who you are. 4. Conclusions Language is an identity creating trait. The recommendation to learn foreign languages needs to be accompanied and guided by an Islamically based awareness that different languages express different cultural concepts. Depending on the framework, objectives and age of the learner, foreign language teaching and learning may become a means of cultural dependence as well as a foundation for understanding and requirement for 9

10 da wah. Arabic, albeit being another than the native language for most, should not be treated on the same par with languages reflecting a non-islamic cultural background. 10