Promoting Cultural Neutralization: Culture Bump and How to Overcome it at English Tertiary Education in Bangladesh

Abstract

Language is one of the basic elements of any culture. To learn a language properly, it is vital to have the proper orientation of the culture that language belongs to. Due to the fact, when a learner does not find the expected behavior from the target culture or does not find any aspect of that culture “normal”, he feels demotivated to learn the language. This paper attempts to explore whether, in a tertiary English classroom of Bangladesh, a teacher finds any obstacle to teach ESL/EFL and the general outlook of the learners towards Western culture. With the help of 35 ESL/EFL instructors and learners of Bangladesh, the author studies to understand their present impression on diverse culture in the classroom and to find some recommendations to achieve a culturally neutral environment for ESL/EFL education. Through an open-ended questionnaire, the participants have conveyed their assertion that, if the aspect of cultural variance is overlooked, it will have a drastic impact on the learning process or even some significant misinterpretations will occur in cross-cultural communication. Hence teacher should balance out between native and target culture and create a neutral ambiance suitable for ESL/EFL learning.