لخّصلي

CULTURE AND LANGUAGES FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES:
Languages for specific purposes (LSP) have not usually been considered as areas in which culture is particularly relevant. In fact, early approaches to LSP have consistently ignored elements of language which have not been seen to be directly associated with the particular discipline area under discussion (Widdowson 1983). As a result, many syllabuses for LSP have not included much beyond a narrow description of the language structures and functions involved in the discipline (Munby 1978) and many discussions of LSP have not gone much beyond identifying specialist vocabulary (Fossat and Maurand 1976; Kočourek 1981, Phal 1971). Widdowson (1983) has argued against too narrow a view of what constitutes language in the LSP context, but cultural dimensions have still not been emphasized to a large degree. LSP is, however, highly culturally contexted, both within the culture of the discipline itself and also in the more general culture of the speech community (Liddicoat 1997b). The papers by Schmidt and Hanna and Cowley have each addressed the issue of the place of culture in LSP Schmidt indicates the sorts of cultural knowledge needed by qualified nurses receiving language training in Germany and argues that the hospital is not a culturally neutral environment, but rather that nurses need information about German hospital culture in order to be able to be able to function effectively in this environment. Hanna and Crowley emphasize the problematic nature of the multiple levels of culture in action in a French for Business classroom, indicating that aspects of the target language culture, of the business culture and of the classroom culture are all present and potentially competing. These chapters indicate the desirability of further investigation of the role of culture in LSP and interactions between culture and language within all language teaching contexts. They make the point clearly that there is no language use without culture and that culture is central to communication. They also open a new dimension which involves the interaction of a professional culture and a general culture, both of which may be unfamiliar to the language learner. This unfamiliarity with the professional culture may stem from either a lack of prior exposure to the professional culture, as seems to be the case with Cowley and Hanna's business students, or from different understandings of the professional culutre in different societies, as in the case of Schmidt's nurses. These studies both point to the multiple complexities of language and culture involved in professional contexts and challenge the more decontextualized approaches to language teaching sometimes used for teaching languages for professional purposes.