With the success of China's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games and its entry into the WTO, English, especially spoken English, is playing an increasingly important role in today's society. How to better carry out cross-cultural communication has become the primary problem to be solved at present. As an English teacher, I feel more responsible. English teachers should not only teach students grammar, but also pay attention to teaching cultural differences. This paper discusses the importance of cultural factors in English teaching, the cultural differences between China and other English-speaking countries, and how to carry out intercultural communication teaching in middle school English teaching.

The English name of "intercultural communication" is "cross-cultural communication". It refers to the communication between native speakers and non-native speakers, and also refers to the communication between people with different language and cultural backgrounds. Because different nationalities live in different ecological, material, social and religious environments, their respective language environments have produced different linguistic habits, social culture, customs and other contextual factors. Different cultural backgrounds lead to different ways or habits of speaking. In communication, people always like to explain each other's words in their own way of speaking, which may lead to inaccurate inference of each other's words, thus resulting in conflicts and contradictions. Therefore, as English teachers, we should not only teach students grammar, but also pay attention to teaching cultural differences.

First, pay attention to the importance of cultural differences in teaching

In recent years, with the acceleration of reform and opening up, foreign exchanges have become increasingly frequent, and exchanges between countries have become more and more extensive, especially with the improvement of social informatization. The opening of the Internet has enabled more people to stay at home and participate in cross-cultural exchanges. With the changes and requirements of the times, many language teachers show great interest in it. Studying these mistakes in cross-cultural communication is of great practical significance to our English teaching. Because English teaching is not only to impart language knowledge, but also to cultivate students' communicative ability and the ability to use English for cross-cultural communication. Just learning the pronunciation and grammar rules of a foreign language and mastering a certain vocabulary does not mean that you can communicate fluently when you learn this foreign language. In cross-cultural communication, if the two sides can't enter the same cultural background, it is easy to get confused or misunderstood, which will lead to communication failure. Therefore, the majority of English teachers should regard cross-cultural education as an important part of English teaching.

Second, the differences in communication culture between China and English-speaking countries.

According to the new English teaching requirements, the current junior high school English textbooks have been adjusted in terms of teaching materials and contents. The dialogue in this paper focuses on the communicative functions of language, such as greetings, self-introduction, phone calls, compliments and thanks. These dialogues fully reflect the cultural differences between China and English-speaking countries.

(1) Chinese and western customary address are different. English-speaking countries usually call men Mr and women Miss (unmarried) or Madam (married). If you don't know whether your partner is married or not, you can use Ms, which is the product of British feminist movement. It should be noted that: Miss can be used to address women alone, and Mr or Ms is usually used with their first name or surname, not with their first name alone; Mrs can only be used with her husband's surname or her own surname. Sir and Madam are generally not used with surnames or first names, but are used alone. In China, people are used to calling each other by their first names, such as Comrade Li, Manager Wang and Teacher Lin. In Britain and the United States, except for certain titles, such as judge, doctor, doctor and professor, people are generally called by their first names in a friendly and natural way.

(2) Introduction Society introduces itself and others, which can be divided into formal occasions and informal occasions. When introducing a visiting guest or an important person at the meeting, the host said, "I am very happy to introduce Professor Wang, the headmaster of Peking University." This introduction is both solemn and appropriate. In informal situations, introductions are much more casual. When you bring your friends home, you can introduce them like this: "Mom, this is Joan, my classmate." "Joan, I want you to meet my family. This is my father, ... "And so on. When introducing two people, we should generally pay attention to the following order: first male, then female; First young and then old; First low and then high; First guest, then master; First lady, then wife; First near, then far, and so on.

Whether in China or English-speaking countries, friends are used to greeting each other when they meet in the street. In this respect, there are also differences between them. In English-speaking countries, people only greet each other with some simple greetings, such as "Hello!"

"Hello!" "Hello!" Wait a minute. In China, if students don't understand these cultural differences, when they meet foreigners, they will use China people's habits to say hello, such as "Have you eaten?" Have you eaten? "Where are you going?" Where are you going? "Are you going to work?" Are you going to work? Wait a minute. For all these questions, foreigners will be confused. They will think you are inviting them to dinner, or you are in trouble and need their help. I once read an article about a young English lady who came to work in China. At first, she didn't know the language, culture and customs of China. One day, she went to the bank, just entered the door, a silver.