Foreign Language Learners' Explicit and Implicit Knowledge

Foreign Language Learners' Explicit and Implicit Knowledge

RADUMILO, Sunčana Tuksar

Key words: EL, the Internet, Asia, an Eye-catcher, Gangnam Style ABSTRACT The pop culture domain on the Internet enforces the penetration of the Asian world into the West; the„shift“of EL from Lingua Franca to an eye - catcher happens within the click of a mouse. There are apparently contradictory trends in the evolution of English, whereby on the one hand global technologies promote a uniform language, and on the other non-native speakers use the technologies and the language to promote themselves. Asia borrows from Western culture, perpetuates own stereotypes, and makes mix-and- match compounds where „the authenticity is not respected, only the aesthetic elements are borrowed“. * Thus English more and more bears the significance of a scene or illustrations used in anime and tokusatsu shows (an eye-catcher), or serves as a “bridge” to cross the language barriers, the example of both being a phrase Hey sexy lady in a Korean song Gagnam Style. The method is old, the technology is new; EL not only distributes a cross-cultural diversity, but also assumes a role of a marketing cash cow and the blockbuster of all times. However, the Western world turns tables on the (Asian) borrowed compilations and steals them back: the applicability of such „cultural twist“ is seen in the Crackin Gangnam Style version of the song featuring in the Wonderful Pistachios Get Crackin Commercial at Super Bowl 2013.** English in popular culture is a medium of international communication, true, but it has become the tool of non-native speakers adapted to both match and promote individual cultural identities.

Article
PeerReviewed

IBU Publishing

2013-05-03

1965