In college foreign language teaching, influenced by traditional teaching, it is quite common to attach importance to language forms and ignore cultural factors in English teaching, which makes quite a few teachers form a relatively fixed way of thinking and teaching mode: they only pay attention to whether students master language forms correctly or use language fluently, but pay less attention to the cultivation of students' pragmatic and behavioral abilities under cross-cultural conditions. The important purpose of English teaching is to cultivate students' communicative competence in English. If you want to use English properly, you must be familiar with English-related cultures. In English teaching, we should attach importance to the teaching of cultural factors, integrate language teaching with cultural teaching, and cultivate students' awareness of English culture, so as to achieve the teaching purpose of improving English communicative competence.

First, the relationship between language and culture

Culture is a huge category, language is the expression of culture, and the language of a society is an important part of social culture. The culture we are talking about refers to the sum total of a society's achievements in material life and spiritual life. The measure of a language and culture is not how much it is mastered, but the ability to use the language skillfully and practically. In the process of learning English, most students mainly recite by examination. Instead of using English in life, these students learn English by leaning back words and phrases and sitting in their seats to do problems every day. Observe the daily life of foreigners and expand students' accumulation and understanding of life. Help them accumulate life, thus invisibly accumulate language ability and improve their cultural quality. Let students feel the unique values, psychological state, way of thinking, customs, moral standards and language habits formed in this social and cultural background, understand the similarities and differences between mother tongue culture and target language culture, and create conditions for them to better master foreign languages in communication with the outside world and use them accurately, appropriately and appropriately for different people on different occasions. Language is produced in a certain social life, historical tradition and cultural background. Language is an important tool for learning culture, and people acquire cultural literacy in the process of learning and using language. The ultimate goal of foreign language teaching should be to cultivate language application ability, and the cultivation of communicative competence can not be separated from the understanding of the culture of the country where the language is learned. Learning a language means learning the culture it represents. Language application ability is the basis and means to acquire multicultural knowledge. On the contrary, with certain language knowledge and application ability, acquiring more cultural knowledge is the prerequisite for further improving language application ability. We know that one of the important goals of learning a foreign language is to gain the ability to further learn the culture of the country, so in the process of learning English, English cultural content should be introduced into the whole process of English teaching. When learning English, only by knowing and mastering the cultural background of the country can we truly understand and use the language properly. Introduce foreign customs and language expressions to students, and introduce the similarities and differences between eastern and western cultures. Students can use language appropriately in different situations and contexts to achieve the purpose of communicating in English. Help them further understand the world culture and related British and American cultures, social life and customs, and find out the similarities and differences between China and the West in these aspects. Each language has a different cultural background, which not only teaches students knowledge, but also gradually cultivates students' sensitivity and recognition ability to two cultures. Therefore, in foreign language teaching, the deeper and more detailed students' understanding of the culture to which the target language belongs, the more helpful it is for them to understand and master the language accurately.

Second, foreign language teaching and cultural teaching relationship

We believe that foreign language teaching has two goals: one is to cultivate students' ability to obtain professional information by using English as a tool; The second is to cultivate students' ability of written or oral communication. In his book Teaching Culture: Strategies for Foreign Language Educators, Seelye pointed out: "The highest goal of cultural teaching is to cultivate students' cultural understanding, attitude and communication skills needed to behave appropriately and communicate with others in the target language society. "The cultural background knowledge of each language is quite extensive. From the goal of foreign language teaching and the role of cultural background knowledge in language teaching, cultural background knowledge includes two kinds: knowledge culture and communication culture. The so-called knowledge culture refers to the linguistic and non-linguistic factors that do not directly affect the accurate transmission of information. It includes politics, economy, history, religion, law, education, philosophy, literature, art and so on. Communicative competence is the linguistic knowledge that a person uses all possible linguistic and nonverbal means to achieve a certain communicative purpose. Communicative competence involves language, social culture and psychology. The language used in communication not only helps human beings to exchange ideas, communicate emotions and think aloud, but also can change various imaginations. In the process of communication, we should not only know the meaning of language, but also know the social and cultural significance, which is the whole way of life in any society. In the face of extremely rich culture, first of all, teachers should guide students to understand the cultural connotation of vocabulary in teaching, so as to avoid speaking Chinese and English words one by one. After several years of English study, the students who entered the university have mastered some language knowledge such as pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar rules, but in fact they know little about the cultural connotation behind these knowledge. For example, in English vocabulary learning, most students associate Chinese translation with "corresponding" memory. In this way, they will subconsciously think that the meanings of Chinese and English words are equivalent, and will not pay attention to and understand the emotional color and cultural connotation of words. In fact, the emotional color of words reflects the subjective attitude of language users towards the objective world. Due to the differences in historical, cultural and social backgrounds, English speakers and China people have different feelings about the same thing, which is bound to be reflected in the language. Therefore, the literal meaning of English and Chinese is equivalent, but many times the deep meaning is not completely equivalent, and the colors of praise and criticism are different. Secondly, in the process of college English teaching, teachers consciously introduce the geography, history, politics, economy, customs and religious customs of English-speaking countries, broaden students' knowledge, broaden students' horizons, make students understand the social and cultural background of English-speaking countries and strengthen their thorough understanding of the language they have learned. The differences between Chinese and English cultures may be reflected in various aspects, but the fundamental differences come from social customs, traditional living habits and values. Language does not exist in isolation. It is deeply rooted in national culture and reflects national beliefs and feelings. In English teaching, only by fully understanding the cultural differences between China and Britain, proceeding from the actual situation of students and respecting the social culture of English-speaking countries can we consciously break through cultural barriers and move towards more harmonious communication. The process of learning a language is also a process of understanding and mastering language and culture. However, college English teaching is a multi-level comprehensive process. Involving cultural factors in normal English teaching is helpful to cultivate and improve students' cultural sensitivity, and to help students really master and accurately use the target language, because language and culture are inseparable. In the process of language teaching, teachers should adopt appropriate teaching methods and means to improve students' cultural concepts and ways of thinking. In college English teaching, teachers should not only regard culture teaching as an indispensable part of foreign language teaching, but also run through the whole process of foreign language teaching.

Author: Cui Guihua Unit: School of Foreign Languages of Yanbian University

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