[key words]; Cross-cultural awareness; Cross-cultural communication; Differences between language and culture
With the development of globalization, China has joined the WTO, and with the approach of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, international exchanges are becoming more and more frequent. The society urgently needs all-round diplomatic talents with cross-cultural communication ability. How to adapt English teaching to the needs of social and economic development and how to improve students' intercultural communication ability are new requirements for English teachers and current English teaching. As the basic stage of English teaching, middle school pays attention to cultivating students' cross-cultural awareness, which has become an important part of the new curriculum standards. English teachers in middle schools are facing new challenges in the teaching of culture and English language knowledge. However, due to our testing system, teachers' academic level and students' learning methods, middle school culture teaching is still weak, and students' intercultural communication ability is low.
Keywords cross-cultural awareness; Cross-cultural communication; Cultural and linguistic differences
1. Introduction
Professor Deng Yanchang once said: "Learning a foreign language well does not simply mean mastering its pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. In fact, language learning is inseparable from cultural learning. " The fundamental function of [1] language is communication. Successful English teaching is to help language learners develop good communicative competence. But now we can also see that after years of English study, it is still difficult for students to communicate with native English speakers. The reason is that they lack knowledge of western culture. Therefore, English teachers are faced with a problem: imparting cultural background knowledge to students in English teaching and improving their intercultural communication ability. Cultural awareness shows that foreign language learners have mastered the cultural knowledge of the target language and have strong adaptability and communicative competence. In addition, they can think and react to this culture like native speakers. Although learners have realized the differences, it is very difficult to cultivate and improve their cultural awareness, because they often unconsciously try to impose their own culture on the target language, which greatly hinders effective cross-cultural communication. 〔2〕
2. The necessity of cultivating cross-cultural awareness in middle school English teaching.
2. 1 outline requirements
Language is an arbitrary system of sound symbols through which members of the speech community communicate, interact and spread their culture. [3] This definition is given to emphasize that the function of language is not only a tool for communication, but also an important carrier of culture. Therefore, learning a foreign language is the process of learning the language and its culture for communicative purposes. English Course currently points out that the ultimate goal of English teaching is to cultivate students' intercultural communication ability. Culture is the content of language; Every language reflects its own culture. People's language should adapt to the context. What to say, how to say it, when to say it, and to whom to say it are all determined by potential beliefs and values. As Wolfson (1983) pointed out, "When communicating with foreigners, native English speakers are often quite tolerant of pronunciation or grammatical errors. In contrast, violating the rules of speech (pragmatic failure) is often understood as impolite, because native speakers are unlikely to realize the relativity of sociolinguistics. [5] The new English Syllabus for Senior High School points out that full-time senior high school English students should not only master vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, but also correctly grasp the relationship between language teaching and cultural understanding. Therefore, we should carry out cultural teaching in middle schools to improve students' cross-cultural awareness.
2.2 Existing teaching materials
Nowadays, intercultural awareness and intercultural communicative competence have been written into the new English curriculum standards. The newly arranged textbooks for junior and senior high schools involve some western cultures, such as greetings, western festivals, literature, music and body language. Then culture becomes an important part of English teaching. In order to save time, it is unwise to teach English only and ignore cultural introduction. Obstacles in English learning sometimes come from the lack of cultural knowledge.
Some teachers blame the students' poor reading and listening comprehension on language defects. They believe that as long as students master the meaning of every word, sentence and article, they will have no difficulty in understanding the whole article. This idea is not correct. English reading materials inevitably convey western culture. When we teach Christmas and Thanksgiving, some cultural background knowledge about these festivals can help students overcome the obstacles in the text and master the language knowledge better. In addition, many words in middle school textbooks are related to cultural background, such as "old", "name", "dog", "pork", "beef", "lookout", "breakfast" and some words expressing colors. For example, in textbooks, "blue" and "green" are not only the meanings of colors, but also have their own implied meanings. In English, "Blue" is often associated with unpleasant feelings, and "in a blue mood" or "having the blues" means sad, gloomy or depressed emotions. "Blue Monday" (the first day of work or school a week after a happy and happy weekend) has a similar meaning. Also, in English, "green" is also used to mean an inexperienced person or a newcomer who is not familiar with local customs. Language and culture co-evolve and influence each other. According to the new English curriculum standards, teachers should not ignore cultural factors in English teaching in middle schools. In middle school English teaching, cross-cultural awareness can not be ignored.
3. The present situation of cultivating cross-cultural awareness in middle school English teaching
China has now become a full member of the WTO, and Beijing will host the 2008 Olympic Games. More importantly, our country has been taking effective measures to further open up and reform its policies. Therefore, more and more Sino-foreign cooperation and exchange projects will be held. There should be more students with cross-cultural ability to meet this demand. It is necessary to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds. But what is the result of English teaching in our middle school? Despite spending a lot of time, energy and money on English teaching, it is difficult to find a middle school student in China who can successfully communicate with westerners after studying English for six years. In fact, learning a foreign language well means more than mastering pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms. This also means learning to look at the world like a native English speaker. Therefore, language and culture should be taught at the same time. However, there are still many problems in the cultivation of cross-cultural awareness in middle school English.
3. 1 Teachers' attitude
Nowadays, most middle school English teachers still follow the traditional grammar-translation method. They neglected the cultural teaching in English teaching. The new curriculum standard emphasizes the necessity of cultivating students' cross-cultural ability. However, at present, in the high school stage, the college entrance examination still seriously affects teachers' teaching concept. It is most valued by students, teachers and authorities. In order to help students get high marks in language ability, teachers spend a lot of time explaining vocabulary and grammar knowledge in class. In this case, students' language knowledge has been improved, but their intercultural communication ability has not been enhanced. In fact, it violates the English teaching objectives and the principles of quality education. Mr. Winston Baalbeck, an American expert in foreign language teaching, pointed out that teaching language instead of culture is the best way to cultivate a fool who is fluent in spoken English. [8] Obviously, the consequences are serious. What's more, some teachers regard cultural teaching as their extra burden. They lack experience in cultural teaching and are not confident to be tour guides. At the same time, they have no desire to continue learning; They prefer to let students learn cultural knowledge by themselves. In this case, the cultivation of cross-cultural awareness can not achieve the ideal effect.
3.2 Students' Motivation
Motivation refers to the factors that determine a person's desire to do something. It is generally believed that students who study English in order to communicate with native English speakers have the strongest motivation. However, most middle school students in China learn English only to pass the exam; Therefore, they have no strong desire to communicate with people in the target language. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that they are not interested in English cultural knowledge, but are addicted to grammar learning and vocabulary construction. Although most students are interested in western culture, they rely too much on their teachers and fail to seek deep understanding through their own efforts.
3.3 Students' poor cross-cultural communication skills
Although some teachers attach importance to improving students' language ability, especially reading ability, they ignore cultural differences in English teaching. Therefore, they can't introduce the culture of English-speaking countries to students, which leads to students' "communication barriers". Crunch's keen observation should not be ignored;
"It can be said that culture in language learning is not an optional fifth skill attached to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing. From the first day, it has been behind the scenes, always ready to upset excellent language learners when they least expect it, make the limitations of their hard-won communication skills obvious, and challenge their ability to understand the world around them. " 〔9〕
The following examples show the results of students' lack of cultural knowledge:
(1) There are many idioms in both Chinese and English, but in middle schools, English teachers rarely introduce them. Therefore, students usually translate literal idioms, which has caused many misunderstandings. For example, when students want to describe: "At the sports meeting, all the athletes are alive and kicking", they may say: All the athletes on the sports field are as lively as dragons and tigers. In China, "dragon" is a symbol of "strength" and "full of energy", while in western countries, it means "disaster" and "evil". If you describe a person as a dragon, it means that this person is a devil. So it is more appropriate to say here: athletes are full of energy. In Chinese, "dog" is usually used in derog, but in English, it is given a conservative meaning. For example, "lucky dog" means "lucky person" and "happy dog" means "happy person".
(2) Take another dialogue as an example:
Student: (eager to strike up a conversation and praise)
Sir, you look a lot like the pop star Billy Chow.
Teacher: (with wide eyes)
That's bullshit！ I am not like him.
Quite a few students in China will be confused when they hear this conversation. "Why is the teacher so angry at this polite compliment?" Do students' incorrect pronunciation or grammatical errors reveal language incompetence? The answer is no. What the student made was not a grammatical mistake, but a pragmatic one. China people and English speakers are quite different in how to praise others. For a China person, being compared to a movie star or a famous singer can be regarded as a compliment. But English speakers believe that personal identity trumps interpersonal similarity. The student in the above example translated his Chinese compliments into English, which caused the teacher's anger. This is why we say that ignorance of the target language culture is a huge obstacle to language acquisition.
(3) Now let's look at a student's composition. In addition, middle school students often use Chinese thinking mode to express themselves when writing English papers.
If students are asked to write a composition about "My parents and me", many students may start like this: Most parents love their children. They take good care of their children. They care about their studies and are willing to help them as much as they can. Some parents love their children too much and allow them to do whatever they like. Some parents are strict with their children. My parents love me, but are strict with me ... "
In fact, "the difference between Chinese and western ways of thinking plays an important role in writing." China people are used to spiral thinking, while the British and Americans are used to linear thinking. This difference in thinking often leads to misunderstanding. " [10] In writing, China students like to explain many things first, and then get into the subject. Sometimes students' compositions are perfect in grammar and logic. But when a foreigner reads it, he or she may be confused. They may think that the topic of China students' papers is not clear. Because they like to "cut to the chase" when writing.
Generally speaking, the present situation of cultivating cross-cultural awareness in middle schools is not satisfactory. Most students lack cultural sensitivity and intercultural communication ability. In this case, they can't meet the needs of national political and economic development.
4. Cultivating students' cross-cultural awareness in middle school English teaching
4. 1. Principles of cultivating cross-cultural awareness
Only knowing the role of cultural knowledge is not enough to improve students' communicative competence. The key problem lies in the content and method of cultivating cross-cultural awareness, that is, how to improve cross-cultural awareness. Therefore, culture teaching in middle schools should follow the following principles: (1) classification principle; (2) the principle of adaptability; (3) practical principles [11]
4. 1. 1 principle of classification
Grading principle refers to the step-by-step selection and teaching of English cultural content according to students' language level and ability. Cultural information cannot exceed students' comprehensive ability.
4. 1.2 principle of adaptability
In fact, the concept of English culture is so broad that we can't cover all the contents of middle school. Adaptability means that teachers should introduce some cultural knowledge information related to the text when analyzing the text. At present, middle school teachers are used to spending a lot of time on vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure. Therefore, cultural exchanges are restricted or even eliminated. To overcome this problem, teachers can encourage students to read after class.