英語本科畢業(yè)論文談英語教學(xué)中導(dǎo)入文化背景知識的必要性

1、本科畢業(yè)論文談英語教學(xué)中導(dǎo)入文化背景知識的必要性學(xué)生姓名： 學(xué)生學(xué)號： 200310206001 院（系）： 外國語學(xué)院 年級專業(yè)： 2003級英語本科1班 指導(dǎo)教師： 二七年六月on the necessity of leading cultural background knowledge in english teachingdeng xiaofeng under the supervision oftan jie school of foreign languages and culturespanzhihua universityjune 2007contentsabstractke

2、y words摘要關(guān)鍵詞introduction1.the important role of cultural background knowledge in english teaching2a. being helpful to english reading2b. being able to improve the ability of communication3c. arousing the studying interest of students5.the contents of english cultural teaching8a. custom and social po

3、liteness of english culture8b. the cultural connotation of vocabulary8c. the situation of the society9d. the non-verbal expression9. classroom-teaching cultural background knowledge9a. comprehending the deep meaning of words through texts9b. making use of scene communications10c. making use of exerc

4、ises after class11. some existing problems and the solutions12a.the limitation of aquiring background information12b.being lack of good english atmosphere13c. having no enough chances to experience13d. the factors of teachers14conclusion16acknowledgements17bibliography18abstractlanguage is a part of

5、 culture and affects culture. some sociologists think that language is the foundation of culture. seeing from another aspect, language is affected by culture. in a word, language and culture affect each other; if someone would like to comprehend a language, he must know of culture of that language f

6、irst, at the same time, if he wants to comprehend culture, learning the language is the first step. for learning a foreign language, persons should not only master pronunciation, grammars, vocabulary and idioms, but also know how to use the language to express their thoughts, habits, and action. in

7、fact, learning language and knowing culture can not be separated. the basic goal of foreign language teaching is to enhance and develop cross-cultural communicative ability of students. therefore, bringing cultural background knowledge bases on a goal that is to improve cross-cultural communicative

8、ability of students. to achieve this goal, cultural teaching in foreign language education should contain two duties: introducing cultural knowledge and developing cross-cultural communicative ability. this article elaborates emphatically the importance of cultural teaching in english teaching and g

9、ives a set of classroom-teaching methods for the purpose of enhancing the cross-cultural consciousness of students. and it introduces some methods to improve the cross-cultural consciousness and the sensitivity of students in english teaching, and the methods to improve the cross-cultural communicat

10、ive ability from different channels. at the same time, this article discusses some existing problems and the counter solutions in the process of english cultural teaching.key wordsenglish cultural teaching; cultural background; cross-cultural communicative ability摘要語言是文化的一部分，并對文化起著重要作用。有些社會學(xué)家認(rèn)為，語言是文

11、化的基石；從另一方面看，語言又受文化的影響，反映文化。語言與文化互相影響，互相作用；理解語言必須了解文化，理解文化必須理解語言。學(xué)習(xí)一種外語不僅要掌握語音，語法，詞匯和習(xí)語，而且還要了解他們?nèi)绾斡盟麄兊恼Z言來反映他們社會的思想，習(xí)慣，行為；要懂得他們的“心靈之語言”，即了解他們社會的文化。實(shí)際上，學(xué)習(xí)語言與了解語言所反映的文化是分不開的。外語教學(xué)的根本目的是培養(yǎng)具有跨文化交際能力的高素質(zhì)人才，因而外語教學(xué)中文化傳授應(yīng)以提高學(xué)生的跨文化交際能力為目標(biāo)。為實(shí)現(xiàn)這一目的，外語教學(xué)中的文化傳授必須涉及到兩個層次的任務(wù)：即傳授文化知識和培養(yǎng)跨文化交際能力。本文重點(diǎn)論述了文化教學(xué)在英語教學(xué)中的重要性，提出

12、了一套旨在培養(yǎng)學(xué)生跨文化意識的課堂教學(xué)策略。通過對學(xué)生跨文化交際意識的現(xiàn)狀調(diào)查重點(diǎn)闡述在英語教學(xué)中進(jìn)行文化教學(xué)，培養(yǎng)學(xué)生跨文化交際意識的內(nèi)容、方法和途徑。探討怎樣在英語教學(xué)中，從不同的層面來培養(yǎng)學(xué)生的跨文化意識和敏感性，提高其跨文化交際能力。同時，也總結(jié)出在文化傳授的過程中，存在的一些問題以及相應(yīng)的解決辦法。關(guān)鍵詞英語文化教學(xué); 文化背景; 跨文化交際能力introduction the modern foreign language teaching emphasizes enhancing cross-cultural communicative ability of students.

13、culture refers to a collection of material and spiritual civilization that are created by a nation. as for english teaching, it includes the history, the geography, the local condition, social customs, the life styles, the literature and arts, the religious philosophy, the idea of value of english-s

14、peaking countries. it is admitted that the traditional english teaching plays an important role in english knowledge education and the basic language skills training. however, the communicative ability of students has not developed actually. it is common that many students have good grammars, rich v

15、ocabulary, and can speak perfect english, but in fact, they often fail in communicating with foreigners. therefore, how to enhance the sensitivity of students between chinese and foreign language and how to enhance their cross-cultural communicative ability are worth of thinking over by the english

16、educators.the important role of cultural background knowledge in english teachingwhat should be taught in english teaching? there are different kinds of answers depending on different people. traditional grammar- translation method holds that vocabulary, grammars and even sentence patterns should be

17、 taught in english teaching, which results in the cramming teaching of grammar and vocabulary, and the rote memorization of sentence patterns. these advocators take it for granted that once students grasp most of them, they will be a great master in english. but they neglect a factor: although it ca

18、n equip students with a solid linguistic knowledge, it may produce a batch of students who are incapable of responding to the actual situation. knowing certain knowledge about western cultural background, students can master the true thoughts and inner ideas of english language more quickly and corr

19、ectly, therefore they can study and use english correctly to improve the efficiency of learning. a. being helpful to english reading.english reading ability is a kind of comprehensive ability, there are many kinds of styles of english articles, although they know meaning of each word and have no dif

20、ficulty with the structures of sentences in the process of reading, if they have no cultural background information about the article, then it is hard to understand the true meaning of the article. for example, there is a simple dialogue between zhangjuan and david from an english textbook. zhangjua

21、n:-are you english?david:-no, im not.zhangjuan:-but you speak english.david: -thats correct.zhangjuan:-where are you from then? canada? david:-no, im from britain.zhangjuan:-but i thought you said you werent english. david:-right, im british, but im not english. zhangjuan:-what are you then?david:-i

22、m scottish, im from scotland.zhangjuan:-wheres that? david:-its to the north of england, its part of britain.zhangjuan:-have you got a map to show me? im puzzled. in this dialogue, why does zhangjuan feel puzzled? because zhangjuan is lack of the cultural background knowledge about england and brita

23、in. usually england stands for britain, but strictly speaking, england refers to the people of england, because england is just a part of britain, though england has broad land, large population, it can not stand for scotland, wales and ireland whose people are also not willing to be named england p

24、eople but being happy to accept scottish, as for british, they can accept it, this is why david says: “i am british, but i am not english. i am scottish.” in this dialogue, if students grasp this cultural background knowledge, it is very easy to comprehend this dialogue. at this time introducing cul

25、tural background knowledge is very important and it is not necessary to explain words and grammar which are very simple. therefore, leading cultural background knowledge is helpful to english reading.b. being able to improve the ability of communicationdifferent countries have their own habits and c

26、ustoms; there are many different habits and customs between english-speaking countries and china. thus if english learners want to communicate with the foreigners effectively and correctly in daily life, they should understand the cultural background knowledge of western nations as comprehensively a

27、s possible, especially something that is different from chinese culture, for example, western persons respect of privacy of others( generally they do not inquire of private things, the age, the income, the housing and marriage of other persons) when saying hello, they do not ask something that they

28、have already known, for example, if a person is reading, they will never ask like this“ are you reading?”. at the same time, they do not ask others if they have had meals (unless they want to ask others to have a meal); when receiving praise, they will show thanks. there is a dialogue of “mainly rev

29、ision” in an old english teaching material：-would you like another piece of bean curd?-yes, please. its delicious. did you cook it yourself? -yes, of course. its very easy. ill teach you if you like.-how about some more beef? theres plenty more. -well, just a little, please. -let me give you some mo

30、re chicken. and have another pancake. -theyre better when they are hot. -no, thanks. id had enough. -what about you, bob? a bowl of soup? -im full; thank you.-what a delicious supper! next time you must come to us.here students are requested to have a general understanding about the table manners an

31、d some differences between china and western countries about asking other people to have a meal. the chinese treats, they always like to increase wine or food for their guests again and again because they always worry whether their guests are full or not .the western persons, especially the american

32、s, when there is a party, the male master or the hostess usually gives the guests food or wine only once, if they want more, they will not pretend or they will be hungry or thirsty. when hosts give a guest a glass of wine, please remember: drink a little but not drink all. masters hope that guests d

33、o it by themselves, do not be cautious, and eat any as long as they like. if they really dislike some vegetables, they may say to the hosts that they are not used to this dish honestly, but politely, and they will eat up the food in their plate, drink up the wine in their glass. if a guest want to c

34、ommunicate with english when having a meal, he has to know the different habits between china and western countries otherwise he will be hungry or he will be very awkward.when persons communicate with foreigners, they can not translate their dialogues word by word. if they do this, maybe it will res

35、ult in a joke because of some differences. for example, when an english person says that it rains cats and dogs outside, if the chinese person does not know this proverb and the difference of cultures, he may feel very confused. therefore, their communication fails. c. arousing the studying interest

36、s of students in the process of english teaching, introducing cultural background knowledge may give students a way to enter the palace of western culture, they can understand western cultural thoughts, feel the strange style of foreign land, taste the different custom of western society and know ma

37、ny things that they have never known, then day by day, they will find it is interesting to learn cultural background knowledge. for example, in teaching abraham lincoln, teachers can introduce the struggle experiences of lincoln from a common person to american president, the purpose is to make stud

38、ents feel the eternal charm of a great personality; in the process of teaching computers, teachers may introduce the world-shaking change that is brought by the computer technology and the modern communicative technology, as well as the fast development of america. in the new teaching material olymp

39、ic games, teachers may explain some information about the olympic games and the development history of athletics which aim is to arouse the interest of students. for example, if winter comes, can spring be far behind? (冬天來了，春天還會遠(yuǎn)嗎？) as soon as learners see “if”, then the grammar relations of two sen

40、tences become very clear. however chinese is different from english, “打得贏就打，打不贏就走，還怕沒辦法?” the famous saying of chairman mao which looks like a combination that is built by some verbs, and there are no connection words in this short sentence, but because of the whole meaning, the sentence is very nat

41、ural. this is because that english pays much attention to the right shape and chinese emphasize the right meaning, westerners pay much attention to logos and logical thinking, and chinese emphasize changeable idea and agility. teachers make students understand this kind of cultural difference of thi

42、nking habits which affects the language expression, the result is that it is helpful to the students to learn english grammars and reduce some faults about chinese english, at the same time, learning these can make english expressive ability of students better than before. there are 160 students who

43、 have studied english for about eight years, and have basic knowledge of english and understand some differences between chinese and english. but how does their cross-cultural consciousness of communication? how do teachers carry on cultural teaching? and what things should they teach? then there is

44、 a research about cultural consciousness of these students: consciousness of cultureabcde1、in the process of learning english，is it necessary to learn english culture?a、yes, very necessary b、yes, necessary c、yes, but not too much d. not necessary e、sorry, i do not know1010606025255560602、in the cour

45、se of studying english, which kind of culture do you care for? a、sorry, i never care for b、english proverb c、english literatured、english films e、english songs101020202020909020203、how do you deal with practice of language ability and learning english cultural knowledge? a, care for language ability

46、only b、care for cultural knowledge onlyc、the two are important both d. cultural knowledge is not important than language ability e. cultural knowledge is more important than ability of language 3030001616110110444、my main method of learning cultural knowledge is: a、i do not know b、depending on learn

47、ing in spare time c、dislike, never learn d、learn from teachers e、not only learn from teachers but also depending on myself 303010104040606020205、whether it is helpful to english study when you learn some english culture? a、not helpful b、a little helpful c、helpful d、very helpful e、extremely helpful55

48、25256060303040406、if introducing culture how long do you thinking one lesson? a、five minutes b、ten minutes c、fifteen minutes d、twenty minutese、more than twenty minutes404060603030202010107、after class, how long do you think we should spend on extending our cultural area each week?a、one hourb、two hou

49、rs c、three hours d、four hourse、more than four hours80803030202020201010 ( 方曉 2006.)from the research above we can see that most students have certain awareness of cross- cultural communicative consciousness but not strong. and the basic goal of teaching english is to achieve success of cross-cultura

50、l communication and another aim is to communicate with people who have different cultural backgrounds. therefore, english teachers have the responsibility to improve the ability and consciousness of cross-cultural communication of students. in the process of teaching english, to make students know m

51、ore information about the culture of english-speaking countries, english teachers should follow a principle that is “scientific and practical, take the teaching material as the center”, at the same time, if it is necessary, teachers can select or skip some teaching materials. the principle of “scien

52、tific and practical” refers that the knowledge of english cultural background knowledge which is taught by teachers should link with our daily life, and as for some chinese language habits which will affect communication of learners, teachers should compare and repeat several times. the principle “t

53、aking the teaching material as the centre” requires that when explaining some knowledge about the cultural background, teachers should take the teaching material as a basic point. teachers ought to make good use of the teaching materials to introduce cultural background knowledge. .the contents of e

54、nglish cultural teachingwhen teachers lead cultural background knowledge in class, to choose which kinds of culture can not be neglected.a. custom and social politeness of english culturecultural customs contain the life ways, the thinking habits, and the value thoughts of english-speaking countries

55、. social politeness includes greeting, regards, expressing thanks, making apologies, saying goodbyes, giving telephone calls, requests, invitations and so on. english learners should learn some standard usage of words and learn some forbidden sentences in the daily life. then they can comprehend some language phenomenon happening in some special occasion. for example, when they meetwesterners, they will not ask“have you eaten?”b. the cultural connotation of vocabularythe cultural connotation of vocabulary refers to