On Cultural Awareness Building in English Teaching at Middle School

1、 核心提示：on the secondary school english teaching and cultural differences of students consciousness abstract people learn a language is to carry out communication, either verbal communication or non-verbal communication to be constrained by culture. in the tradition of english teaching, such as vocabu

2、lary, phrases, grammar knowledge of english has been widely concerned about the content, while the english language as the cultural background of a nation been greatly neglected. a result, students study a few years the english language, and cultural differences between native and english-speaking n

3、ation is still ignorant of the customs. thus, in communication with foreign friends, there have been many bias, error, or even a joke. 1 this article aims to wake up in the english teaching middle school counterparts during the infiltration of focus on cultural awareness; of english in secondary sch

4、ool teaching how to implement language teaching and cultural awareness training and interwoven, integrated; from high school students beginning awareness of cultural differences , to lay the foundation for future cross-cultural communication; the same time, hope this is start a discussion, in order

5、to attract more colleagues concerned about this issue in the course of time off from teaching to train more, the existing solid foundation of language knowledge, but also skilled cross-cultural communicative competence of the integrated foreign language talents. key words: cultural awareness; school

6、 english teaching; communication; cross-cultural communicative competence on cultural awareness building in english teaching at middle schoolabstract the purpose of learning language is to communicate, but there are some cultural barriers in language or non - language communication. in traditional e

7、nglish teaching, much attention is paid to knowledge such as vocabulary, phrases, grammatical rules and so on, while the cultural background of the language is ignored.as a result, students who have learn english for many years haxe no sense of the differences between the two languages in their cult

8、ural backgrounds and the customs of the people who speak the language the ignorance has caused lots of disagreements, misunderstangings and even laughingstocks in their communication with the native speakers. 1 therefore, my aim is to call for a good understanding of the importance of cultivating th

9、e students competence of the cross-cultural communication. in the meantime, we hope that we can reach the goal in the nearest future to enable the students to meet the demands of the new era and the ever-developing society. key words: cultural awareness, middle school english teaching, communication

10、, cross-cultural communicative competences i. introduction mr. brown, the famous linguist once said: language, the same cultural heritage as a nations communication tools, is the culture itself, cultural expressions, customs and way of life that people most visible and most effective description and

11、 presentation. (brown, 1994:170) as we all know, with the rapid scientific and technological progress and rapid development of society, the worlds positive development of globalization and integration. peoples of the worlds increasing interaction and closer ties, especially after chinas accession to

12、 the wto to strengthen exchanges with the outside world, so that the use of foreign languages has become increasingly frequent and widespread. english is the worlds most widely used language, chinese people should learn to communicate in english, they must understand the culture of english-speaking

13、countries, especially the communication culture. therefore, not only to improve students english language skills, but also improve their cross-cultural communication. 2 this is a necessary requirement of our foreign language teaching quality of the training, knowledge and ability to structure and te

14、aching methods and means such as making the necessary adjustments and changes, abandon our previous foreign language as a pure language teaching tool for pragmatic tendency, paying attention to language teaching cultural knowledge, while strengthening the import, and train students on the sensitivit

15、y of cultural differences, tolerance of cultural differences and deal with the flexibility to adapt to growing international economic exchange and increasing the need for national competition. byram and morgan pointed out that : students need a cross-cultural communication skills, they can benefit f

16、rom the language of education. 3 second, foreign language teaching need to strengthen cross-cultural teaching (a) the relationship between culture and language and content of cross-cultural communication 1, the relationship between culture and language people often say: to be bilingual, one must be

17、bicultural. (to master both languages, we must grasp the two cultures.) famous linguist prado in his sixties, the language of science teaching methods (language teaching: scientific approach) also pointed out: we do not have the background can not teach the language, the language is part of the cult

18、ure. therefore, do not know how cultural patterns and norms, can not really learn the language. 4 culture in a broad sense and narrow sense. broader culture may be the practice in human history created by the process of material wealth and spiritual wealth, the sum can refer to people as a whole way

19、 of life; narrow culture refers specifically to social ideology can be refers to education, philosophy, literature, art and other aspects of spiritual wealth. in foreign language teaching, culture refers to the language countries, geography, customs, traditions and customs, arts and culture, form th

20、e norms, values and so on. language is a part of social and cultural nation, but also reflects the nations social culture. for example, the eskimo language has seven words to distinguish different types of snow, and for growth in the equatorial african tribes, their language, there are no snow is th

21、e word. this example proves a general principle: the cultural characteristics of different characteristics lead to different language. thus, learning a language and understanding of language reflects the culture are inseparable. 5 2, cross-cultural communication of meaning the so-called cross-cultur

22、al communication, referring to the ethnic traditions of different cultures and different cultural backgrounds, various contacts in the community involved in all aspects of cultural life. the meaning of cross-cultural communication can also, by extension, to refers to the mass media and other fields

23、related to culture and related issues. 6 scholars have studied the content of cross-cultural communication, summary, or less, including the following topics (jia yu-new, 1994: 52): 1. the concept of cross-cultural communication theory; 2. philosophy of cross-cultural communication; 3. affect cross-c

24、ultural communication, communication behavior and encoding and decoding process factors; 4. verbal and nonverbal behavior of different cultures; 5. effective communication. overall, cross-cultural communication theory and research, fully embodies the theme of the foreign language teaching, as one of

25、 the goals of foreign language teaching is to enhance cross-cultural communication ability of students to cultivate cross-cultural communication professionals. 7 (b), to strengthen foreign language teaching in the specific reasons for cross-cultural teaching 1, cultural differences are barriers to c

26、ross-cultural communication english teaching in our schools, some teachers the importance of cross-cultural understanding lack of knowledge. some believe that, so long as language, culture and customs of a common sense understanding to solve. undeniable cultural phenomenon of coupling exists, as in

27、english long hair and short wit (hair long, informative short); idle is the root of all evil (lazy is the root of all evil), and so with the chinese understanding of basic the same. however, common sense usually carries with it the stigma of cultural background, it is because of different cultural b

28、ackgrounds differ. entirely in chinese to understand the language used is often a discrepancy. if english better be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion. the chinese language is (rather be beheaded, do not do pteris.). pteris beheaded lion tail on a dogs head. this thing is a difference between

29、 metaphor. chinese proverb from the cultural traditions in some of the story, in english too. some people think that cross-cultural communication is to strengthen the students listening, speaking, reading and writing ability of the four. of course, the four cross-cultural communication ability is an

30、 important foundation, but it is not all. communication with different objects in different cases, the presentation of the same ideological and cultural background is closely linked. in foreign language learning, language mistakes in understanding each other easily, and pragmatic failure, and cultur

31、al misunderstandings often lead to communication failure, significantly increased the possibility of cultural conflict. therefore, emphasis on improving language skills, we must improve the pragmatic competence, cross-cultural communication. 2 strengthen the cultural awareness is the key to language

32、 learning knowledge do not know how cultural patterns and norms can not truly learn the language, do not have the cultural background can not teach the language. from a specific cultural background, language does not exist, and if do not understand the target language culture (target culture), we ca

33、n hardly understand the meaning of certain words project. on the english and chinese, for example, due to historical, beliefs, habits of different people reading the same words often have different understanding, perception and evaluation. for example, the dragon in chinese is a sacred symbol, a tot

34、em of the chinese people. many words as descendants of the dragon on the dragon, chinese dragon, tappi dance, the hustle and bustle and so it reflects the chinese culture of respect and love the dragon. however, in the west, the bible is an evil thing and the evil dragon symbol. so british and ameri

35、can press to asian tigers of translation through cultural converted translated four tigers of asia rather than four dragons of asia. foreigners more on dogs, cats, mice and other small animals, fallen in love with, embodied in their culture, they may often you are a gay dog or he is a lucky dog sort

36、 of praise. for the chinese, many years of cultural accumulation will make you start is very difficult to accept this analogy and the admiration of western. 3, strengthen the cultural knowledge of teaching is the key to achieve the goal of language teaching the development of communicative competenc

37、e is the main objective of language teaching. language ability is the basis of communicative competence, but with the language does not mean that have a communicative competence. more and more people have reached a consensus that communicative competence should include the five areas: the four skill

38、s (listening, speaking) together with social competence (ie, people of different cultural backgrounds and carry out appropriate communication skills). we must understand the language ability and pragmatic competence in social life are complementary to understand the composition of cultural knowledge

39、 is an important aspect of communicative competence, is to achieve the important goal of language teaching curriculum. third, cross-cultural infiltration of foreign language teaching the principles of teaching, content, practices and parties law (a), secondary school english teaching and cultural aw

40、areness and penetration into the principles of 1, the applicability of the principle of the imported content of cross-cultural communication teaching and the students have to learn a language closely related to the content, so students can improve english language and foreign culture, interests, imp

41、rove their study efficiency. 2, the principle of moderation the suitability of the selected materials and teaching methods in teaching suitability. select the main choice of material should pay attention to the contents of those who represent the mainstream culture, but also take into account intere

42、sting. the cultural content of teaching during teacher should be careful not to blindly talk, should encourage and create opportunities for students to explore their own style, study style learning. 3, the principle of adaptability refers to cross-cultural communication teaching must take full accou

43、nt of their language level, cognitive ability and physical, mental status, attention gradually, attention deep and surface to enable students to gradually understand the cultural content of the quality, especially in the initial stage of learning english should help students of english national cult

44、ure and the similarities and differences between chinese and western cultures have a rough understanding of teaching english-speaking countries involved in cultural knowledge, should be closely related to the daily lives of students around them and inspire students to learn english interest. in the

45、higher stages of learning english, students come in contact through a foreign culture, to help students broaden their horizons and improve their similarities and differences between chinese and foreign cultural sensitivity and discernment, and thus increase the capacity of cross-cultural communicati

46、on and awareness. 8 (b) secondary school english teaching content of cross-cultural awareness infiltration as students master the knowledge of the language is limited, covers a narrow topic to talk about content and more with everyday life, more in-depth conversations needed to further expand the kn

47、owledge of grammar and vocabulary. the content of our culture into everyday language should be based, including the title, introduction, greeting, farewell, congratulations and taboo language, etc., reflect the culture of thinking and expression of two different ways. such as: 1, address words (addr

48、essing) refer to different habits of western habits. english-speaking countries often to men, mr, president called miss (unmarried) or mrs (married). if you do not know whether the other party is married, can ms, which is the product of the british feminist movement. call family members and relative

49、s of older people called anglo-american dad, mum, grandpa, grandma, aunt or uncle, but prefers to use the name to call, or even parents or grandparents also address him by name. chinese students know the teachers means that the teacher, hence good morning, teacher. (teacher zhao) argument, in fact,

50、the english teacher is a profession. chinese thinking applied to the phenomenon of english are comrade l-i, uncle wang , nurse zhang such names. in the anglo-american countries in addition to specific job titles, such as judges, doctors, doctors, professors, clergy endures usually address him by nam

51、e. 9 2, privacy chinese people meet for the first question and age, marital status, income to that concern, but english people are more disgusted with this, that these are related to personal privacy. such as how old are you, mrs read? ah, its a secret! why is mrs read refused to say their age? beca

52、use english-speaking countries who want to be in each others eyes seemed full of energy, panacea, secret of their actual age, especially women. another example is the chinese people expressed concern about the where are you going? (where are you going?) and what are you doing? in english on a spying

53、 others privacy, surveillance, and welcome other peoples words. 3, hello greeting the chinese people are accustomed to the daily asked: do you eat you? (have you had your dinner?) if you like english people say they think you would like to invite them to dinner. english-speaking countries usually gr

54、eeting weather, health, transport, sports and hobbies for the topic. 4, thanks and gratitude in general, we chinese people rarely use among family members, thank you. if used, sound will be strange, or the mutual relations with distance. in the english-speaking countries thank you for almost all occasions, between all, even between parents and children, brothers and sisters are no exception. send a bottle of drink, prepare a table meal, the other will say thank you. public places, no matter wh