Culture, language and education
The research of the three chosen countries
ⵈⵉⵛ EGYPT ꔙ𐦲ꬮ
Egyptian oral tradition distills human experiences that can be
recontextualized in artistic forms such us the oral arts. Type of oral tradition
that contain a sensory residue of past cultural life (Scheub, 1985) As it was
mentioned by a San performer "A story is like the wind: it comes from a
distant place, and we feel it (cited by Scheub, 1985),
In the ancient Egypt, the mediator between the oral performer and the
audience was the scribe. He was responsible of writing summaries of tales and
poems. Besides, Scribes not only wrote down the oral materials; they apparently
felt free to rephrase, rearrange and transpose, omit sentences, add information,
elaborate on advice, and generally shape the imagery, sometimes even having an
effect on the content (Scheub, 1985). Thus, the Egyptian oral tradition enabled
the riddle to become lyric, the lyric to become heroic poetry, heroic poetry
and the tale to become epic.
In the early years of it literary tradition, a lot of proverbs and
autobiographies were the path to strengthen the wisdom literature. However, by
the time the Memphrite state of the Old Kingdom had collapsed causing
starvation and a civil war, Literary genres had already multiplied from wisdom
literature, hymns and autobiographies to political and social creeds that
emerged, along with philosophical discussions in dialogue form, complaints and
critiques, royal testaments, and prophecies.
Then, during the second Intermediate Period (1775 to 1575 B.C.), when
the Hyksos armies invaded Egypt, a new literary genre appeared. During this
“period of empire” (as it was called), the papyri, that has its roots in the
lyric poetry, is used to embrace the love poem. It had a new paralleling of
images that was used to be orally performed at banquets.
玈玄 JAPAN 玅玆
The Japanese oral tradition embraces songs, proverbs, folktales,
storytelling and the katarimono (Type of narrative that is orally delivered or
performed). In Japan, most epics, like Heike monogatari (Tale of the Taira
House), are still been read out loud or chanted using a manuscript or printed
text as kôdan (libretto) (Thornton, 2003). However, others like ninjôbanashi
(“tales of human sentiment”) came to an end by the mid-1910s after rising a
number of derivative arts, including comic monologues (rakugo) and silent film
narration, and even contributed to the colloquial style of modern Japanese
literature (Miller, 1996).
Inside the Meiji storytelling, the Muraku’s narrative Shiobara Tasuke no
den depicts the most relevant characteristics of this type of oral tradition.
Such us larger epic tales of many nights’ duration that were chopped into
pieces by the storyteller. Besides, by 1903 storytellers had already favored humorous
over dramatic episodes giving a comic tone to episodes.
All in all, oral tradition survives in manuscripts in terms of
“traditional narrative,” Which has had a standard convention where a context is
given at the beginning and then, it has a promising ending.
ঙফজ INDIA অ॥ৌ
Indian oral tradition is one of the richest in the world. The retelling
of myths, tales, stories, epics, chants and verses (like the romantic Ghazal)
has been done in different languages between Persian, Arabic, Brajbhasha and
Shaman (which is spoken by just few hundred people). Besides this particular
characteristic, there are some others that depicts the great splendor of this
country.
To mention, the Vedas, which have passed through countless generations,
are one of the most emblematic examples of how oral transmission has worked in
India. These sacred scriptures of Hindu teaching contain a very large number of
mantras that must not be modified. This, due to they are considered the words
of God in human speech (Mathur, 2017. P8). Then, its impressive that India
first ancestors created their own system called “pathas” or recitation style.
Mainly, the purpose was to memorize through recitation the correct
pronunciation, utterance, enunciation and intonation of those mantras. By
keeping the correct voice pitch, its varying power during articulation, the
length it must dwell on a particular syllable, uniformity, continuity, and so
on (Mathur, 2017. P9). Because of this, UNESCO herald Vedic chant as a
Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity a tribute to a
unique canon considered the oldest unbroken oral tradition in existence
(Mathur, 2017. P9).
Alike Vedas, traditional beliefs, customs and stories have passed from
one generation to others by word of mouth. “Kamsel”, a ritual that takes place
every three years is proof of this ancient folklore. Apart from this, oral traditions can be
influenced by local languages or dialects that transmit cultural traditions.
However, external aspects such as globalization technological development and
socio-economic changes have impacted the oral and folk tradition in such a way
that they can eradicate those traditions. This is the case of Thugerry. This
tradition may or may not have lasted in its original form on account of the
development and evolution of the Indian society but it may very well have grown
and evolved in to something more sinister (Mathur, 2017. P31). However, a
series of acts led in 1836 banished Thugee.
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REFLECTION: The importance of the oral cultural
traditions in the development and teaching of the English language 👀
It has been clearly defined that language is part of a huge social
construction called culture. In this sense, the experience gathered from the
research done in three different countries allows us consider that oral tradition
keep alive the culture. Hence, the language. Then, in English teaching
environments oral traditions are relevant for their ability to contextualize
but also as a strategy to acquire a target language.
To go deep in this assertion, it is worthy mentioning that language is a
social practice that expresses cultural reality (Kramsch, 1993. Cited by Oxford
(2018. P403). Then, oral tradition gets students to have a real context in
order to promote its understanding and clarify use. Alike the katarimono in
Japan. This type of narrative that is orally delivered or performed contains
stories, poems and a rich cultural background that is transmitted to new
generations in order to keep alive the most relevant aspects of this culture.
But also, to help them understand why Japanese people act, speak or, may be,
think in the way they do. In other words, without this contextualization, it
would not be possible to understand words or expressions in real cultural
contexts.
On the other hand, by means of cultural oral traditions some language
learning experiences are also passed to new generations. This way, language
learning strategies can also be taught in learning environments. When talking
about learning strategies, Rebeca Oxford says that they are conscious,
learner-regulated thoughts and actions for developing specific skills and
general proficiency (Oxford, 2018. P 405). Event that is quite similar to what
happens with the Vedas in India. These are sacred scriptures that have been
passed from one generation to other by means of “pathas” (a memorization
system). This resourceful strategy has kept Indian Mantras the same in terms of
intonation, rhythm and pronunciation for years. Then, we can conclude that
strategies that are developed, implemented and, as time goes by, taught are
definitely useful to strengthen a learning process. All in all, teaching
English language can be supported by the implementation of strategies that come
from the oral tradition.
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Conclusion
First off, I can say that culture is an extensive area and language is
the car that takes us to know that place and, during that adventure, there are
certain factors that may affect the cultural understanding alike the language
learning. Thus, travelers (learners in this metaphor) must develop cultural
empathy intercultural and understanding competences.
Besides that, oral tradition plays an important role as long as
throughout it second language students are able to contextualize concepts that
are difficult to be understood in the mother language. Besides, learning
experiences can be transmitted by means of this oral tradition in order to help
pupils identify strategies that facilitate learning.
References
Mathur. A. 2017. Oral Traditions, Myths & Legends
of India. Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development.
Miller, J. 1996. Early Voice Recordings of Japanese
Storytelling. Brigham Young University https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10355/64749/OralTradition11-2-Miller.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Oxford, Rebecca & Gkonou, Christina. (2018).
Interwoven: Culture, language, and learning strategies. Studies in Second
Language Learning and Teaching.
Scheub, H. 1985. A Review of African Oral Traditions
and Literature. Retrieved from: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/3535C7E0D8938BB326FC782CF332705E/S0002020600012087a.pdf/review_of_african_oral_traditions_and_literature.pdf
Thornton, S. 2003. Japanese Oral Tradition. Project
Muse. Arizona State University. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/51609/pdf