United Kingdom and United States: Geography, History, and Culture

Posted on Mar 21, 2025 in Social sciences

Geographical, Historical, and Cultural Aspects of English-Speaking Countries

Didactic Application of Significant Geographical, Historical, and Cultural Aspects

This essay aims to study the most important English-speaking countries, providing the reader with a geographical, historical, and cultural outline of each one. For this purpose, I will first deal with the United Kingdom. Second, I will concentrate on the United States. Finally, I will highlight the importance of developing Sociocultural Competence in the EFL Classroom.

The United Kingdom

The United Kingdom (in full, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; abbreviation: UK) is made up of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It is a member of the Commonwealth and the European Community. The population of the UK in 2010 was estimated at 62,041,708 inhabitants in an area of 244,110 km². The capital city is London, and the currency is the pound sterling (£1 = 100 pence). It is a constitutional monarchy with two legislative houses (House of Lords with 707 members as of April 2010, and House of Commons with 650 members). The chief of state is the sovereign—Queen Elizabeth II—and the head of government is the Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Bearing these general characteristics in mind, I will concentrate on three main aspects: Geography, English History, Culture, and Education.

Geography of the United Kingdom

• Land Area: The UK is divided into lowlands (elevation less than 100 m above sea level), uplands (between 100 and 600 m), and highlands (above 600 m).
• Climate: The UK has a temperate climate, warmed by the North Atlantic current and by southwest winds. The mean annual temperature is 6º C in winter in the extreme north of Scotland and 11ºC in Southwestern England.
• Flora and Fauna: Forests cover less than one-tenth of the total area of the UK and are concentrated chiefly in Northeastern Scotland and Southeastern England. Oak, elm, ash, beech, pine, and birch are the most common trees. Fauna includes red deer, fox, otter, squirrel, and rabbit.
• Mineral Resources: The UK has very few mineral resources. By the late 20th century, the mines of Cornwall and the iron-ore deposits of north-central England were uneconomical to work. Moreover, coal, once the primary British energy source, has also declined steadily since the early 1950s. However, a valuable, relatively new energy source is the nation’s proven petroleum and natural gas reserves, mainly in the British sector of the North Sea.

British Population

A census occurs simultaneously in all parts of the UK every ten years. At the most recent census in 2001, the total population of the United Kingdom was 58,789,194, the third-largest in the European Union, and the twenty-first largest in the world. In 2010, this was estimated to have grown to 62,041,708.

For centuries, people have been going to the British Isles from many parts of the world, some to avoid political or religious persecution, others to find a better way of life or to escape from poverty. The proportion of foreign-born people in the UK remains slightly below that of some other European countries, although immigration is now contributing to a rising population, accounting for about half of the population increase between 1991 and 2001. Citizens of the European Union have the right to live and work in any member state, and one in six immigrants were from Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004, with larger numbers coming from New Commonwealth countries, particularly South Asia. People from South Asia accounted for two-thirds of net immigration in 2005, mainly fueled by family reunion. Transitional arrangements apply to Romanians and Bulgarians whose countries joined the EU in January 2007.

English History

The early pre-Roman inhabitants of Britain were Celtic-speaking people. Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC, but the island was not subdued by Rome until the first century AD. In the 5th century, Nordic tribes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded Britain, driving many Celtic inhabitants into Cornwall and Wales. During the 8th and 9th centuries, Vikings, particularly Danes, raided the coasts of Britain and often sent conquering armies. In the 11th century, Scotland came under the influence of the English throne. In the 12th century, Henry II (1154-1189) conquered Ireland. Later, in the 13th century, Edward I (1272-1307) conquered Wales. The Tudors (15th century) became the ruling family of England following the War of the Roses. Henry VIII established the Church of England. Elizabeth I (16th century) challenged Spanish supremacy of the seas, and in 1588, the Spanish Armada was defeated. In the next century, Oliver Cromwell ruled the country under Puritanism; however, the monarchy was restored with Charles II. In the 18th century, England and Scotland formed the kingdom of Great Britain; during the reign of George III, the American colonies won independence in 1783. This was followed by a period of war with revolutionary France and the empire of Napoleon Bonaparte. In the 19th century, Great Britain and Ireland joined to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In the 20th century, after World War II, the Irish Free State became the Irish Republic and left the Commonwealth. For that reason, terrorist acts increased between Roman Catholics, seeking union with the Republic of Ireland, and Protestants, wishing to remain part of the United Kingdom. Finally, in 1973, the UK joined the European Union. In 1997, Labour won a landslide victory.

In the 2001 General Election, the Labour Party won a second successive victory, and the country’s economic expansion continued greatly despite the effects of the September 11th attacks in the United States. Following these attacks, the United States began the so-called War on Terror, beginning with a conflict in Afghanistan aided by British troops. Despite huge anti-war marches held in London and Glasgow, Blair gave strong support also to the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 2003. Forty-six thousand British troops, one-third of the total strength of the British Army (land forces), were deployed to assist with the invasion of Iraq, and thereafter British armed forces were responsible for security in southern Iraq in the run-up to the Iraqi elections of January 2005.

2007 saw the conclusion of the premiership of Tony Blair, followed by the premiership of Gordon Brown (from 27 June 2007). 2007 also saw an election victory for the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) in the May elections. They formed a minority government with plans to hold a referendum before 2011 to seek a mandate to negotiate with the Government of the United Kingdom to achieve independence for Scotland. Most opinion polls show minority support for independence, though support varies depending on the nature of the question. However, a poll in April 2008 that used the proposed referendum wording found support for independence had reached 41%, with just 40% supporting retention of the Union. The response of the unionist parties has been to call for the establishment of a Commission to examine further devolution of powers, a position that has the support of the Prime Minister.

In the wake of the economic crisis of 2008, the United Kingdom economy contracted, experiencing negative economic growth throughout 2009. The announcement in November 2008 that the economy had shrunk for the first time since late 1992 brought an end to 16 years of continuous economic growth. Causes included an end to the easy credit of the preceding years, a reduction in consumption, and substantial depreciation of sterling (which fell 25% against the euro between 1 January 2008 and 1 January 2009), leading to increased import costs, notably of oil.

On 8 October 2008, the British Government announced a bank rescue package of around £500 billion. With the UK officially coming out of recession in the fourth quarter of 2009—ending 6 consecutive quarters of economic decline—the Bank of England decided against further quantitative easing.

The United Kingdom general election of 6 May 2010 resulted in the first hung parliament since 1974, with the Conservative Party winning the largest number of seats but falling short of the 326 seats required for an overall majority. Following this, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats agreed to form the first coalition government in the UK since the end of WWII, with David Cameron becoming Prime Minister and Nick Clegg Deputy Prime Minister.

English Culture and Education

With regard to English cultural aspects, two main considerations must be undertaken: pop culture and education. Widespread changes in the UK’s cultural life occurred after 1945. The Beatles were only the first and best-known of the many British rock music groups. British clothing designers for a time led the world as innovators of new styles for men and women. After World War II, the most important social development was the rising standard of education.

By law, all children of compulsory school age (between 5 and 16) must receive a full-time education. The UK introduced a National Curriculum in 1992, and state schools are required to adhere to it until students reach age 16. However, independent or ‘public’ schools are not obliged to do so.

The National Curriculum defines four ‘key stages:’

• Key stage 1: up to age seven (Years 1 and 2)
• Key stage 2: age seven to eleven (Years 3, 4, 5, and 6)
• Key stage 3: age eleven to fourteen (Years 7, 8, and 9)
• Key stage 4: age fourteen to sixteen (Years 10 and 11 – preparation for academic and equivalent vocational qualifications)

National Curriculum core subjects are: English, mathematics, and science; Welsh is a core subject in Welsh-speaking schools. Foundation subjects are design and technology; information and communication technology; history; geography; modern foreign languages; music; art and design; physical education; religious education; and citizenship.

Northern Ireland follows a similar framework; however, schools can develop additional curriculum elements to express their particular ethos and meet pupils’ individual needs and circumstances. The curriculum also includes the Irish language in Irish-speaking schools.

When students reach the age of 16 and have completed their GCSEs, they have a few options to choose from:

1. Find work
2. Academic Qualifications
3. Vocational Qualifications

At the university level, each university has its own syllabi. In general, the Bachelor’s degree (B.A. and B.Sc.) is given to students after three or four years of study. The first postgraduate degree is normally that of Master, conferred for a thesis based on at least one year’s full-time work. Recently there has been an increase in Master’s degrees based mainly on coursework and examination. In Scotland, the degree of Master of Arts is given as a first degree, being equivalent to an English Bachelor’s degree. Everywhere the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is given for a thesis that is an original contribution to knowledge after usually three years’ further study beyond the Master’s Degree.

The United States of America

Now that I have analyzed Ireland, I will turn to the characterization of the USA. In order to do so, I will first give some general considerations; then I will examine geography and population; next, I will study the history of the USA and, finally, I will consider American culture and education.

The United States of America is a federal republic composed of a national government, 50 state governments, and a federal district, the District of Columbia. There are 48 contiguous states occupying the mid-latitudes of the continent, together with the state of Alaska (the largest) at the northwest extreme of North America and the island state of Hawaii, lying in the Pacific Ocean. There are two legislative houses (Senate with 100 members, and the House of Representatives with 435 voting members). The head of state and government is the President, currently Barack Obama. The capital city is Washington, D.C. The monetary unit is the dollar ($1 = 100 cents). The total area is 9,529,063 km², and its population estimate for 2010 is 309,834,000.

Geography of the United States

The continental United States may be divided into five major physiographic regions. They include the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Appalachian Mountains in the east and the southeast; the interior lowlands, covering the nation’s vast midsection; and the Western Cordillera, and, contained within its branches, the Western Intermountain Plateaus. The Hawaiian Islands, of which the Islands of Hawaii and Maui are the largest, were formed almost entirely by volcanic action. Alaska, another geologically active region, consists of an insular and cordilleran area in the south; interior basins, plains, and tablelands; the Brooks Range in the north; and the tundra-covered Arctic Plains in the far north.

The hydrology of the contiguous United States is dominated by the Mississippi River Basin. The country’s other major network of inland waterways consists of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. West of the Rockies, nearly all of the rivers are strongly affected by aridity; only three large river systems reach the Pacific Ocean: the Columbia, the Colorado, and the San Joaquín-Sacramento system of California’s Central Valley. The precipitation pattern of the USA may be depicted as two comparatively humid coasts separated by a progressively more humid (west to east) interior. Both Alaska and Hawaii are very humid. The climate is generally milder along both oceanic coasts than it is in the interior.

About one-fifth of the territory is arable; the area sown to cereal grains by itself is equivalent to the combined areas of Spain and the United Kingdom. The Central Lowlands and the Great Plains, now largely devoted to agriculture, originally supported tall grasslands and short grasslands, respectively. The country also possesses vast rangelands and pasture lands, and forests. Alaskan vegetation ranges from coastal rain forests to the tundra and permanent frost of its northern-coastal plain. Hawaii’s plant life is luxuriant and tropical. Animal life is composed of both indigenous wildlife and introduced species. The United States is rich in both metallic and energy minerals, and it is among the leading producers of many minerals such as copper, lead, gold, silver, petroleum, natural gas, etc.

Population of the United States

The United States is not a homogeneous but rather a pluralistic society. The notion that it has been a great “melting pot” in which people from all nations and cultures have blended into what are called “Americans” is in many respects a myth. The United States population is projected by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 309,834,000, including an estimated 11.2 million illegal immigrants. The third most populous nation in the world, after China and India, the United States is the only industrialized nation in which large population increases are projected.

The people of the United States in the late 20th century comprise a large white majority (80%), a black minority of 13%, and smaller numbers of Asians, American Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts, and Pacific islanders (7%). The Hispanic population (of any race) amounts to 15% of the entire population.

English is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws standardize English. In 2006, about 224 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language. The Asian and Native American groups maintain a sufficient sense of community to keep their languages alive. Indeed, locally, members of these communities are numerous enough to make a problem of the issues of bilingual education and government services.

History of the United States

The thirteen colonies that became the United States were just one of many attempts to build empires in North America. The Spaniards reached Florida around 1513; the French began their exploration of the Mississippi valley in 1673, and the Russians reached Alaska in 1741. The most successful colonizers were the British; in 1617, Jamestown became the first permanent British settlement and the foundation of the Virginia colony. It was followed 13 years later by the “Pilgrim Settlement” at Plymouth.

Most of New England was settled by Puritans fleeing either the harassment of Charles I or the orthodoxy of Massachusetts Bay, the most important Puritan settlement.

It was on July 4, 1776, when America declared her independence, and victory over the British came in 1783. Articles of Confederation were created to govern the new nation; however, a new Constitution was created in 1787, ratified in 1778, and took effect in 1779. George Washington was the first President. Under the new Constitution, the movement west, later called “Manifest Destiny,” began. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, whose Republican party advocated the prohibition of slavery in federal territories, led South Carolina to secede, joined by 10 other Southern states by the next year. Lincoln denied the Southern states’ right to secede. The resulting Civil War traumatized the nation. The assassination of Lincoln resulted in a punitive scheme of reconstruction which did not heal the South’s wounds. Actually, segregation became universal after the withdrawal of North troops and would not ease for almost a hundred years.

Business interests were encouraging the United States’ involvement abroad. The war against Spain brought with it widespread territories and world prominence. But this prominence meant that the United States could not remain outside of World War I. Its entry was decisive in bringing about an Allied victory. The decade that followed the war was a period of isolationism, prosperity, and Protestant morality and reaction against it. All this came to an end in 1929 when the stock market crashed, and the Great Depression began. Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation revolutionized the country, but full recovery was never achieved until war production became massive on the eve of World War II. The Allied victory in 1945 left the United States the leader of the Western world but embroiled in a cold war with the Soviet Union. This cold war was the cause for American intervention in Korea (1950-53) and Vietnam (1961-73). The Vietnam War caused a moral crisis in the United States. Demonstrations forced attention on basic civil rights under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The 1970s economic problems, notably inflation and unemployment, gave way to a period of economic reassessment in the late 1980s (Reaganomics) despite an increase in social inequalities. The 1990s have as significant concerns the changing relationships with the economic powers of Japan and Germany and the disintegration of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries.

At the beginning of the new millennium, the United States found itself attacked by Islamic terrorism, with the September 11, 2001 attacks in which 19 extremists hijacked four transcontinental airliners and intentionally crashed two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. The twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed, destroying the entire complex.

In response to the attacks, under the administration of President George W. Bush, the United States (with the military support of NATO and the political support of some of the international community) launched Operation Enduring Freedom, which overthrew the Taliban regime, which had protected and harbored bin Laden and al-Qaeda. With a coalition of other countries, including Britain, Spain, Australia, Japan, and Poland, in March 2003, President Bush ordered an invasion of Iraq dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom, which led to the overthrow and capture of Saddam Hussein.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused severe destruction along much of the Gulf Coast, devastating New Orleans. The handling of this catastrophe by Bush was largely criticized and reduced his popularity over the country. On November 4, 2008, amid a global economic recession, Barack Obama was elected president. He is the first African American to hold the office. In 2010, he oversaw the enactment of major health care and financial system reform. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that began in April 2010 became the largest peacetime oil disaster in history.

Culture and Education in the USA

American culture has produced many outstanding writers and artists. The country’s 19th-century literature was dominated by such names as Twain, Poe, Melville, Whitman, and James. Among the great American writers of the 20th century, we can mention the following: Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Mailer, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller. Apart from this, the motion picture has been popular and internationally influential. Some filmmakers can be named: Howard Hawks, George Cukor, Orson Welles, and Frank Capra. The country has developed several distinctive types of popular music: jazz, blues, country and Western, and rock and roll. It has also led important artistic tendencies such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop-Art, and Minimalism, and architecture in Chicago.

In relation to education, a distinction should be made: state schools, known as “public schools,” which are free, and private schools, which charge fees. Eight out of ten children attend public schools. The school year runs from early September to mid-June. The main types of school are elementary school, for children aged 6-12 or 6-14, and high school, for students aged 14 or 15 to 18. There are also junior high schools for 12-15-year-old students. There is no fixed school-leaving age, but all states require a child to attend school between 6 and 16. Classes are organized in grades:

• Grade K: kindergarten or nursery school
• Grades 1 to 5: elementary school pupils
• Grades 6 to 8: junior high school students
• Grades 9 to 12: senior high school students

There is no national curriculum, but basic subjects in elementary schools are language arts, penmanship, science, social studies, music, art, and physical education. In high school, they are English, science and mathematics, social studies, and physical education. There are no national examinations. Pupils are assessed on a continuous basis. Students wanting to go to university must take the Scholastic Aptitude Test or SAT.

The United States has over two thousand universities. Students who have completed high school and would like to attend college or university must attend what is referred to as an undergraduate school. These are schools that offer either a two-year degree (called an associate degree) or a four-year degree (called a bachelor’s degree) in a specific course of study. That course of study is called the major. While most schools that offer a four-year degree will admit students who have not yet chosen a major, all students are required to select (or declare) a major by their second year at school. Students who complete an associate degree can continue their education at a four-year school and eventually complete a bachelor’s degree. Bachelor’s degrees are four-year courses (freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior). Students who have obtained a bachelor’s degree can continue their education by pursuing one of two types of degrees. The first is a master’s degree. This is usually a two-year degree that is highly specialized in a specific field. Students are sometimes admitted to a master’s degree program only if they have a bachelor’s degree in a closely related field. However, there are many exceptions to this, such as with students who want to pursue a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) degree. Students who want to advance their education even further in a specific field can pursue a doctorate degree, also called a PhD. A PhD degree can take between three and six years to complete, depending on the course of study chosen, the ability of the student, and the thesis that the student has selected. The thesis is a very intensive research paper that must be completed prior to earning the degree. It is always required of students pursuing a PhD and may sometimes be required of students pursuing a master’s degree (depending on the school).

Sociocultural Competence in Primary Education

We have studied the main geographical, historical, and cultural aspects of the most important English-speaking countries. Such detailed knowledge must obviously not be expected of our pupils, but the attainment of a basic sociocultural competence is one of our goals. This goal was defined by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in September 1982 as one of the general measures to be implemented concerning the learning and teaching of modern languages:

“To ensure, as far as possible, that all sections of their populations have access to effective means of acquiring a knowledge of the languages of other member states (…) that will enable them to satisfy their communicative needs and in particular. (…) to achieve a wider and deeper understanding of the way of life and forms of thought of other peoples and of their cultural heritage.”

The key question is how this sociocultural knowledge relates to and is formulated in language, and in particular a second language. Pavlenko and Lantolf (2000) argue that traditional models of second language acquisition account for the way we acquire lexical, phonological, and grammatical units of knowledge, but that in order to understand language use in context, and therefore the pervasiveness of culture in communication, a model which accounts for learning as participation is necessary. Celce-Murcia et al. (1995: 24) suggested a model consisting of the following components of sociocultural competence:

Sociocultural Factors

• Participant variables (age, gender, status, social distance, and relations).
• Situational variables (time, place, and social situation).

Stylistic Appropriateness Factors

• Politeness conventions and strategies.

Cultural Factors

• Sociocultural background knowledge of the target language community.
• Awareness of major dialect or regional differences.
• Cross-cultural awareness (differences, similarities, strategies for cross-cultural communication).

Non-Verbal Communicative Factors

• Kinesics factors (body language).
• Proxemic factors (use of space).

As Handford (2002) claims, the role of the teacher is to provide this information in the most accessible and meaningful way possible. The controllable environment of the classroom is ideally suited for this purpose (Widdowson, 1990). Interestingly enough, raising cultural awareness, and more precisely the development of intercultural competence, becomes even more important in the Organic Law of Education 2/2006, passed on the 3rd of May. In the R.D 1513/2006, the fourth and last block of contents presents those socio-cultural aspects Primary students must be familiarized with. These socio-cultural aspects include: a) respect for human dignity; b) the importance of overcoming negative stereotyping; c) intercultural competence for living in a multicultural reality; d) guidance on how to live with respect for differences; e) promotion of mutual enrichment through cultural encounter, etc.

We may use activities focusing on the following aspects to foster the acquisition of sociocultural competence in Primary Education, dealing with information about: famous English people; typical customs and holidays; popular songs and tales; shops; cities; etc.

Conclusion

To sum up, what I have developed in this essay is a framework of the most important English-speaking countries: the United Kingdom and the United States. For this purpose, I have given a detailed description of each country, concentrating on the following aspects: geography, population, history, culture, and education. In addition to this, the concept of sociocultural competence has been developed based on making students show an understanding attitude and respect for the English language, its speakers, and their culture. For this purpose, I have pointed out the aspects necessary to achieve this goal in terms of each cycle. Finally, I have presented the main pieces of information about English-speaking countries that may be analyzed in Primary School, such as famous English people, typical customs and holidays, or popular songs and tales.

Bibliography

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