ARAB STUDENTS AND ENGLISH: THE ROLE OF IMPLICIT CULTURE

As one learns a language, she or he learns to view the world as one’s culture views it. Krober and Kelly claim a culture contains “implicit” designs for living. The objective of the study is to uncover “implicit” dimensions of the Arabic and English languages by using survey data gathered in Amman and Cairo. First, we have found that respondents answer the same questions differently depending upon the language in use. For example, we observed shifts in the use of primary group relations rules as opposed to second group relations rules in the workplace. Second, when the Arab students are answering questions in English, they may not think of only the Arab world but a greater part of the world—perhaps a sign of greater cognitive flexibility and diversity. Third, on the basis of these and other findings in the present study we would posit that a key reason for our inability to grasp certain elements in English grammar that are incomprehensible to the Arabs or the Japanese, no matter how expertly explained, may be caused by implicit dimensions of the concept inherent in English language that defy explication.

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