Author: Tarun Patel

English language practitioners earlier emphasized on developing four skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing in order to develop learners’ proficiency in English. It had been thought that if learners developed proficiency in these four skills then they could use the language effectively. In addition to these four skills, they added vocabulary and grammar components. But they generally ignored another important aspect that has assumed importance in the process of language learning as well as language use. That component is culture. In recent years language experts have recognized its importance in language teaching. For this reason, it has been termed as the fifth skill for language learners that “enhances students’ over all learning experience”(Kramsch 1993 p. 1). The role of culture was over looked earlier by practitioners as language educators as language education was thought to be a process of mastering the linguistic codes. It was mostly confined to language skills plus vocabulary, grammar and punctuation.