BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH IN MIDDLE SCHOOLS

1、background knowledge teaching in english in middle schoolsname: tong mengyuan(佟夢媛)major: english education(英語教育)grade: 2007(class 5)college: college of foreign languagesdate: march 14th, 2011tutor: lu li(路莉) abstract：as we all know, middle school phase is an important phase for the chinese students

2、to learn english, so it has become very important to improve the english communicating ability of middle school students. english, here, as a main course of students, plays a more and more important role in middle school in china. in recent years, the cultural background knowledge in english teachin

3、g has attracted great attention. the investigation shows that cultural knowledge learning is helpful for improving language level and competence. also, successful cross-cultural communication requires students acquaintance with the differences between the two cultures. therefore, the teaching of cul

4、tural background knowledge in english class should occupy an important place in middle school. this paper first expounds the inseparability of language and culture to help readers know more about the relationship between them. then, it analyses the goal and importance of cultural background knowledg

5、e in language teaching in middle school. next，it introduces the approaches to the culture background. in fact, rich cultural knowledge is contained in language structure and vocabulary. to great extent, language comprehension relies on being familiar with cultural tradition, customs, history, though

6、ts and so on. language learning and culture learning can not be separated. language is just like the running water. it changes in every moment, for culture background changes from time to time. if language is a flower, culture will be the soil for this flower. as a teacher, we should give students t

7、he living language: both flowers and soil. that is to say, we should teach them both the language and the culture background knowledge.key words: background knowledge language english teaching論文摘要眾所周知，中學(xué)階段是學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)英語的重要時期，因此，增強中學(xué)生的英語交際能力變得尤為重要。英語，作為中國中學(xué)生的主要課程之一，變得越來越關(guān)鍵。近些年來，英語教學(xué)中的文化背景知識教學(xué)引起了人們的注意。研究表明，文

8、化背景的學(xué)習(xí)能有效提高學(xué)生的語言水平和能力。而且，成功的跨文化交際離不開學(xué)生豐富的文化背景知識。因此，對文化背景知識的學(xué)習(xí)在中學(xué)英語課堂中變得越來越重要。本文首先介紹了語言和文化的不可分割性來幫助讀者進(jìn)一步了解語言和文化的關(guān)系，然后分析了文化背景學(xué)習(xí)的目的和重要性。最后給出了文化背景學(xué)習(xí)的方法和途徑。實際上，豐富的文化背景知識包涵了對語言結(jié)構(gòu)和詞匯的掌握，同時在很大程度上，語言的理解又依賴對文化傳統(tǒng)，風(fēng)俗習(xí)慣，歷史思想等的掌握。因此，語言學(xué)習(xí)和文化學(xué)習(xí)是不可分割的。語言就像是流動的水，無時無刻不在變化，文化業(yè)如此。如果語言是鮮花，那么文化則是培育鮮花的土壤。作為老師，我們應(yīng)該教授學(xué)生全面的知識

9、，也就是說，我們既要教給他們語言，又要教授他們文化背景知識。關(guān)鍵詞： 文化背景；語言； 英語教學(xué)contentsi. introduction .1 a. the definition of language.1 b. the definition of culture.2 c. the relationship between language and culture.3ii. the goals of culture background knowledge5 a. getting familiar with different situation.6b. understanding so

10、cial variables.6 c. evaluating foreign culture.7 d. developing cultural creativity7iii. the importance of culture background knowledge in language teaching.8 a. necessity of background knowledge in listening and speaking.8 b. necessity of background knowledge in reading.9 c. necessity of background

11、knowledge in writing and translating10iv. approaches to culture background knowledge.11 a. providing cultural background information in class12 b. providing authentic materials.13 c. culture lecture.15 d. projected media16v. conclusion.17notes19bibliography206background knowledge teaching in english

12、 in middle schoolsi. introductionlanguage and culture are inseparable, learning a foreign language means learning a foreign civilization and culture. whats more, cultural awareness is the assurance of using language appropriately.mistakes have frequently been made when we use english, owing to our l

13、ack of the culture background knowledge. the new english course standards (2002) for middle schools has added cultural teaching as one of its main parts; much research has been done about it. but what and how to teach it in middle schools still needs systematic study.a. the definition of languagelan

14、guage is the social production and the symbolic system carried on from generation to generation by people who live in this society. and in particular language speech may reflect the social relations between the speaker and addressee, which manifest the interrelationship between people. language is a

15、 vehicle of transmitting thought and information, language distinguishes human from animals，and is very essential to mankind. a broad accepted and tentative definition of language is: language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for communication. so language has features of duality, arbitra

16、riness, productivity, displacement inter-changeability transmission, (li shiqiang, 2003).b. the definition of culture culture is an ambiguous and intriguing concept. there are many kinds of definitions. richard e. porter and larry a. samovar define culture as the deposit of knowledge, experiences, b

17、eliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, timing, rules, spatial relations, concepts of universe and material objects and expressions acquired by a large group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. according to new encyclopedia britannica def

18、ines cultures as peculiar to mankind together with material objects that are part of this behavior and consists of languages, ideas, beliefs, customs, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of arts, rituals, ceremonies and so on. the concept of culture was first defined in print by e.b. taylo

19、r, who provided the first profound scientific understanding of the nature of the term. according to him, culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of society”. for anthropologists, cultur

20、e has long meant the way of life of people, the sum of its learned behavior patterns, attitudes, and material things. “culture” in the contemporary teaching of languages may be understood in broad and narrow senses. it may refer to the “intellectual refinement” and artistic endeavor, or the apprecia

21、tion of music, literature, the art and so on.this is in the sense of “high culture”, or culture in its broad sense, omen referred to ns culture with a big c. “culture with a big c” focuses on “the sum total of a peoples achievement and contribution: art, music, literature, architecture, technology,

22、scientific discoveries and philosophy”. on the other hand, culture may also refer to whatever to a person must know in order to function in a particular. this is in the same as in good enoughs definition of the term. it reads that a societys culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or to b

23、elieve in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and to do so in any role that they accept for any one of themselves. good enoughs definition is culture in its narrow sense, often referred to as culture with a small c. “culture with a small c” includes “the behavior patterns of the

24、life style of people: when and what they eat, how they make a living, the way they organize their society, the attitudes they express towards friends and members of their families, how they act in different situations, which expressions they use to show approval and disapproval, the traditions they

25、must observe, and so on”.c. the relationship between language and cultureat present, more and more scholars come to an agreement that culture and language influence each other deeply and greatly. for example, the religious culture that reigned human society for several thousands of years help to dev

26、elop different national consciousness, different cultural content and different understanding to language. people with different cultural background express themselves in different ways. on the one hand, language, as a part of culture, largely influences the forming and developing of culture, and it

27、 is a mirror that reflects the culture of a certain community. for example, in britain, the number “13”is regarded as an unlucky symbol, which means unfortunate. so people in western countries always try to avoid holding any ceremonies, parties on 13th, or inviting 13 persons together.on the other h

28、and, language is influenced and shaped by culture. people with different background express themselves in different ways. in western, acquaintances always greet each other with “how are you?” while in china; people say, “have you eaten yet?” that is because in old china, lots of people suffered from

29、 hunger. greeting with “have you eaten?” could show their warm heart and deep concern to others. each culture is unique. learning a foreign language well means more than merely mastering the pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms. it also means seeing the world as native speakers of that language

30、see it, learning the ways in which their language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society, learning to understand their “l(fā)anguage of the mind”. in a word, culture and language are inseparable. some people describe their relationship with following formula: language (flesh) + cultu

31、re (blood) = a living organism. it is vivid. language plus culture equal a living organism: language is flesh and culture is blood, without culture, language would be dead; without language, culture would have no shape.ii. the goals of culture background knowledge since the native speaker of any lan

32、guage has built into his language repertoire his unique cultural assumptions and values, foreign culture acquisition should be duly and dexterously incorporated into the english teaching. the above mentioned goals can be considered as references in teaching chinese students. but we must especially t

33、ake the following into consideration (hu wenzhong, 1994). the first is the english language context, the chinese context and the english speaking cultural context. furthermore, the unity of english acquisition and culture acquisition is achieved in an ideal manner. there may be some english teachers

34、 who are still haunted with the fear that foreign culture acquisition might constitute a threat to the chinese national identity. this is an understandable fear, for it certainly would be a tragedy if the learners should acquire bilingualism at the cost of losing their national identity (qin xiubai,

35、 1988). does foreign acquisition pose a threat to our national identity? will it jeopardize our cultural norms and values? these questions cannot be answered with certainty because the answer depends on how we handle the problem. we can find numerous people who are bilingual or even bicultural and,

36、yet, who remain as devoted as ever to their native culture.the crux of the matter lies in the goals of foreign culture acquisition. in china, cultural goals should at least encompass the following.a. getting familiar with different situationforeign culture acquisition should aim at familiarizing stu

37、dents with the mundane situations of the english-speaking countries-their customs and habits, life-style, generally-accepted world outlook, etc. culture is often viewed as a way of life, or as a blueprint that guides the behavior of people in a community and the most obvious cultural differences. it

38、 is believed, that americans tend to be dominated by a psychomotor view of time and space and they readily and sincerely accept such concepts as time is money and procrastination is the thief of time; frenchmens concept of time and space is more cognitive with a static, centralized and universalisti

39、c view. americans think of distance in relatively broad categories and believe that 60 miles is but an easy jaunt; frenchmen view distance in narrow categories and consider that 60 miles or 100 kilometers is a considerable travel distance. here, national character studies carried out by anthropologi

40、sts deserve our particular attention, for these studies often provide us with cultural stereotypes based on reasonably accurate descriptions and generalizations.some cultural stereotypes can surely help students to understand some aspects of the english culture even thought they are, of course, over

41、generalizations. students should be reminded frequently that foreign culture acquisition inherently involves overgeneralization.b. understanding social variablesforeign culture acquisition should aim at enabling students to understand the interaction between language and such social variables as age

42、, sex, race, social classes, and occupation, for these social variables affect the way people speak and behave. english programs for english majors can adopt the functional approach, laying emphasis on how english is used in different socio-cultural situations and seeking to explain how the form of

43、language has been determined by the functions it has evolved to serve. in the real social life, thus combining the english language learning and foreign culture acquisition.c. evaluating foreign culture background knowledgeforeign culture acquisition should be aimed at cultivating the students abili

44、ty to evaluate the culture of the target country in an objective manner. to familiarize oneself with the life-styles and the cultural values and norms of the target country does not mean to accept them indiscriminately. here a critical eye is essential. a strong critical sense that does not smack of

45、 bias or prejudice will enable efl learners to understand and appreciate cultural diversity without losing sight of their national identity or their native cultural norms and values (qin xiubai, 1988).d. developing cultural creativityforeign cultural teaching should be aimed at developing students c

46、ultural creativity. here cultural creativity can be defined as a creative power to be obtained through learning language and culture in foreign language education in china. through learning and comparison, the learners turn externally available knowledge into their own internal knowledge and therefo

47、re get a power for creating new things and a motivation to make progress. in respect of this consideration, to study independently on the part of students is very important.iii. the importance of culture background knowledge in language teaching according to american linguist charles carpenter, cult

48、ural background knowledge is the knowledge about culture, which is connected with peoples daily life. it includes the national traditional culture, customs, history, geography, and so on. each culture has its own cultural background. with the development of cross-cultural communication, cultural bac

49、kground knowledge plays an important role in english teaching. a. the necessity of cultural background knowledge in speaking and listeningto many students, listening comprehension is a difficult part in english learning. although they have spent much time on it, little achievement has been acquired.

50、 to some easy materials, they know only the literal meaning, but can not understand the connotation. an important reason is that they are not familiar with cultural background of the english speaking countries.there are two jokes often talked about by american:a: where are you from?b: i will ask her

51、. (alaska)a: where are you from?b: how are you? (hawaii)a may think b has given an irrelevant answer. but if a knew something about geographical knowledge of the usa, and the names of two states of the usaalaska and hawaii, he would not be surprised at “i will ask her”, or “how are you”. in view of

52、this, the introduction of cultural background is necessary in the teaching of english listening.likewise, speaking is not merely concerned pronunciation and intonation. the successful communication with native english speakers requires acquaintance of western culture. for example, in english, there

53、are many euphemisms for listeners hard to know the speakers actual mood. for example, when one asks: “what do you think of my coat?” and the other answers: “i think the pocket is very nice”, it shows his dislike. when one asks: “do you kike our teacher?” the answer maybe, “well, i dont know him very

54、 well.” listeners should know the implication of the speakers. usually, the westerners say pleasant words to the full or evade direct answering.therefore, in oral english training, teachers should pay much attention to factuality of language and adopt some material approaching to daily life, which w

55、ill help the students to speak english appropriately to the occasion, to understand western way of life and customs etc.b. the necessity of culture background knowledge in readingreading can be thought of as a way to draw information from a text and to from an interpretation of that information. how

56、ever, this definition does not really tell us much about what happens when we read and how we comprehend a text. actually, reading comprehension is remarkably complex, involving many processing skills that are coordinated in very efficient combinations. because we also read for different purposes, t

57、here are many ways to read a text, further complicating any definition. seen in this light, the ability to read is a remarkable type of expertise that most humans develop; it is not generally well understood, nor is its development widely recognized for the significant cognitive achievement that it is.reading is also a complex skill in english learning. it requires more than a certain language basis, the competence of reading comprehension and ones language level, knowledge of cultural background is also important. for example, in english, the