On Teaching Cultural Background Knowledge in English Reading at Senior Middle Schools 高中英语阅读中文化背景知识的传授.doc

高中英语阅读中文化背景知识的传授on teaching cultural background knowledge in english reading at senior middle schoolsabstractpeople like to use the global village to describe the present world. because of frequent cross-economy, cross-culture communication, the world has become smaller and smaller. in view of frequent international communication and the international status of english, chinese must learn english well so as to catch up with the world.broadly speaking, learning a foreign language is learning that nations culture .when we study english，we should study cultures related to english speaking countries. english reading is a very important aspect in english learning, and it is deeply influenced by cultural background knowledge. in the process of teaching english reading, teachers should teach students cultural background knowledge which is very important for students to improve their reading ability. the english teaching reform has been implemented for many years, and the syllabus also puts more and more attention to cultural background knowledge teaching. but the current situation of reading teaching in senior middle schools is not satisfactory. in china, reading has long been viewed as a passive process. most teaching methods adopted in reading class are simply to read the text quickly, retell the text, answer questions, do multiple choices and so on. the result of such teaching methods is that students lose their interest in learning and neglect the acquisition of cultural background knowledge. students always misunderstand text even if they know the meanings of every word because of lacking cultural background knowledge. there is a long way to go to change the situation.the main causes of misunderstanding in english learning are multiple. however the fundamental reasons are the fact that chinese and westerners are different in thinking pattern, ethical standard and value system, religion, custom and so on. to solve these problems, we need to recognize the importance of teaching cultural background knowledge in senior middle schools and familiarize the principles used to teach cultural background knowledge in english reading. as an english teacher, he or she should have a good command of some roads and ways to teaching cultural background knowledge, and put them into the teaching of english reading flexibly, such as enhancing teachers own cultural background knowledge, changing teachers role and improving students autonomy, assigning extensive reading task to students, selecting appropriate reading materials, properly using multi-media and adopting initiative teaching approach. only by this way can we greatly improve students reading ability.key words: culture background knowledge; english reading; senior middle school37内 容 摘 要人们常常用地球村来描绘当今社会，由于频繁的国际经济、文化交流，世界变得越来越小了。基于英语的国际交流中的频繁应用及国际语言的角色，中国人们必须学好英语与世界接轨。学习一门外语，广义上来说，就是学习那个国家的文化，我们学习英语也就是要学习英美国家的文化。英语阅读是英语学习中的一个重要方面，也受一定的文化背景知识的影响。英语阅读教学中，文化背景知识的传授对提高学生的理解能力具有很大的帮助。英语教育改革在我国已施行多年，教学大纲也越来越重视文化背景知识的传授。但是高中阅读传授的现状还是不容乐观。在中国，有相当长的时间里阅读被看成一个被动过程。老师在课堂上采用的阅读教学方法都是简单的快速读课文、复述课文、回答问题、做选择题等。这样导致学生失去了学习英语的兴趣，忽略文化背景助手的获得。学生在阅读过程中由于文化背景知识的缺少，即使知道每个词的意思都很可能理解错误。要改变高中英语阅读教学的现状，我们还有很多需要改进。导致英语阅读学习中这些问题的因素很多，基本因素上中西方拥有不同的思维模式、不同的道德准则和价值体系、不同的地理特征及不同的宗教习惯。解决这一难题必须认识到高中传授文化背景知识的重要性和了解文化背景知识传授的原则。作为一名英语教师还必须掌握并能灵活运用一些文化背景知识的传授方法，如：扩展教师自身的文化背景知识、变换老师角色提高学生的学习自主性、设计学生的泛读任务、合理选材、合理利用多媒体及运用主动性教学法等。只有这样才能大大提高学生的阅读能力。关键词：文化背景知识；英语阅读；高中contentsintroduction01 some remarks about teaching cultural background knowledge in english reading at senior middle schools21.1 a brief survey of culture21.2 importance of teaching cultural background knowledge in english reading at senior middle schools41.2.1 requirements of current teaching condition in english reading51.2.2 requirements of reading process82 causes of misunderstanding in english reading at senior middle schools122.1 different in thinking patterns122.1.1 integrative thinking vs analytical thinking122.1.2 concrete thinking vs abstract thinking132.1.3 subjective consciousness vs objective consciousness142.2 different in ethical standards and value systems142.3 different in geographical features152.4 different in religions and customs163.1 principals of teaching cultural background knowledge183.1.1 immerse students into original material183.1.2 encourage students to respond to the content of a reading text183.1.3 match the task to the topic193.2 possible ways of teaching cultural background knowledge in senior middle school203.2.1 enhancing teachers cultural background knowledge203.2.2 changing teachers role and improving students autonomy223.2.3 assigning extensive reading task to students243.2.4 selecting appropriate reading materials283.2.5 properly using multimedia293.2.6 adopting initiative teaching approach30conclusion33bibliography36acknowledgements37introduction learning a foreign language is learning the nations culture that contains two aspects. one aspect is to learn their cultural knowledge; the other is to learn the language which is considered as the carrier of culture. english reading is an importance aspect of english learning, and it is influenced by cultural background knowledge. reading is a principal part of english learning. in english learning, elements which influence reading are multiple such as linguistic knowledge, cultural background knowledge, language skills, and intelligent factors, so on and so forth. mastering linguistic knowledge of phonetics, vocabulary, grammar is helpful to decode word symbols. however in the process of reading, many chinese students have already acquired the above knowledge, but they still cannot comprehend texts comprehensively and thoroughly, so understanding the cultural contents of what one reads is very crucial to reading comprehension.language is the carrier of culture, peoples words and deeds reflect certain cultural background knowledge consciously or unconsciously. every social community possesses its own certain thinking patterns, values, customs, and ways of life. for “the influence of background knowledge to comprehension is larger than language knowledge.”1, many studies indicate that without sufficient background knowledge of social culture, the readers cannot comprehend the deep meanings of texts. the importance of teaching cultural background knowledge is widely recognized and accepted. in china, some linguistic scholars and english teachers have been dealing with cultural interference in intercultural communication and reading. even though, some problems still remain and deserve further study. far less attention is attached to culture features in reading practice. courses and materials of target culture are very limited and usually considered as secondary. teaching methods are direct and effective roads to imparting cultural background knowledge to senior middle school students. high-quality english teacher must have rich cultural background knowledge and acquire a certain amount of teaching reading skills to broaden students cultural horizons, to improve students english communicative competence.what and how to teach are still the two problems puzzling english teachers. they are more than problems of teaching method because they are also influenced by political situations. culture is all pervasive and complex. 1 some remarks about teaching cultural background knowledge in english reading at senior middle schoolslanguage is the carrier of culture, and english reading is a part of learning english. to emphasize the importance of cultural background knowledge in english reading in senior middle schools, we need to know briefly about culture first. let us begin from the very beginning and start with an brief understanding of culture.1.1 a brief survey of culturethe concept of culture was first developed by anthropologists at the end of the nineteenth century. the first really clear and comprehensive definition was provided by the british anthropologist edward b.tylor, the father of culture anthropology. in his work named primitive cultures (1873), tylor defines culture as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs and any other capabilities as a member of a society”2. since tylors time, definitions of culture have proliferated. so far, the definition of culture which is widely accepted is that the total accumulation of beliefs, customs, values, behavior and communication patterns that are shared, learned and passed down in an identifiable group of people.cultures have widely different characteristics. nevertheless, through the comparative study of many different cultures, anthropologists have arrived at an understanding of the basic characteristics that all cultures share. these general features are as follows:(l) culture is learned. it is socially acquired rather than biologically inherited.(2) culture is shared. it is a set of shared ideals, values, and standards of behavior in a language system.(3) culture is symbolic. culture is symbolically expressed and transmitted. symbolizing means assigning to entities and events meaning which are external to them and not able to be grasped by themselves alone 3. language is the most typically symbolic system within culture.(4) culture is integrated. each aspect of culture is tied in with the other aspects. culture is a multidimensional and complex system. just like the case of the definitions of culture, many kinds of classifications have been suggested for the convenience of discussion. in the book meaning across cultures, nida divides all the elements of culture into five categories, namely ecological culture, material culture, social culture, religious culture, and linguistic culture. 1.2 importance of teaching cultural background knowledge in english reading at senior middle schoolsevery country or region has its unique common culture. as we enter this current period of globalization and multiculturalism, the world is becoming “a global village”, and the world seems to be getting smaller and smaller. meanwhile, china is having much communication opportunities with foreign countries to speed up social development in various fields, such as politics, economy, culture, technology and so on. this contact is mainly carried out in forms of spoken or written language. it is easier for a learner to get reading materials than to get listening materials or practice oral english with foreigners. and reading materials are thought to be the main resources for perusing and absorbing culture background knowledge. foreign educationalists deem: “there are two kinds of mistakes in communicative regular that is linguistic mistakes and cultural mistakes, and the latter one matter much more” 4. an american linguist indicated that “native speakers may always forgive mistakes in pronunciation or grammar; on the contrary, contravention of communicative regular was considered to be impolite” 5. because native speakers is unlikely to recognize the relativity of sociolinguistics. chinese students always caused perplexity, embarrassment even blackout of conversations because of lacking cultural background knowledge. reading is the main process to obtain cultural background knowledge, so the teaching of culture background knowledge is essential in commanding a language.1.2.1 requirements of current teaching condition in english readingbecause of some historical reason, the extensive use of english in world wide web and the prosperity of english-speaking countries, english has become the most widely used language in the world. english is considered as the second language in many other countries, and those governments regard the teaching of english as one of the most important part in their educational objectives. from the view of international english study development, the teaching of english as the second language in those countries commonly contains these features:1) the teaching syllabus aim at satisfying the need of personal development, emphasize on communicative competence and pinpoint the actual use of english. 2) curriculum of english in senior high school adopts the combination of required course and elected course. the main effect is to stress teaching of reading. some countries exclusively set a reading course in the curriculum.3) widely using of multi-media teaching resources manifests the logos of individualized education.4) the assessment system focuses on the linguistic application competence, especially the process of language acquisition, not only the examination result.however, most senior school students in china are obsessed with neec (national entrance examination for college) when learning english. so the motivation of learning english is just a means to pass the examinations and get high scores in english proficiency tests. and the teachers of english are just the facilitators of realizing this goal. most of the time has been spent in learning vocabulary, structures and grammar through lots of drills, practice and consolidation. if the teaching of cultural background knowledge in english does not benefit the proficiency of english tests, there will be no necessity for teachers and students to spend time on it. such is the case of teaching cultural background knowledge in english reading at senior middle schools. accordingly, the teaching of culture becomes optional, let alone thinking over how to teach culture background knowledge in efl classroom or do such kind of research. culture learning often divorces from its language learning. quite a lot of students have lost their interests in english. and english is regarded as an inactive subject instead of a living language, and students maintain a slow speed of reading comprehension. even if some teachers recognize the importance of teaching culture, the usual way to add some cultural background knowledge or reference to its relative dialogues or texts in chinese. and the students are seemingly interested in listening to it when no response is expected from them. whats more, most cultural background knowledge is offered by teachers reference books. in the process of learning and practicing, learners have just cognitively known about the differences and tried to memorize and reproduce similar dialogues. seldom do they inquire about the reasons for these differences and discuss the similarities between the two cultures. nor do they realize the feelings of the interlocutor caused by the conflicts during the communication, let alone developing a reflective thinking of modifying any inappropriate behavior in intercultural communication. the educational objective of foreign language teaching is to foster language communicative competence. communicative competence cant depart from culture background knowledge of target language. new english curriculum standard also displayed the tendency to cultivate communicative competence and teach of cultural background knowledge. for the first time “cultural awareness” is prescribed in the new english curriculum standard. but the theory, research and practice of intercultural communication still have a long way to go before they reach satisfactory results. 1.2.2 requirements of reading processwhat do we mean when we mentioned“reading” ? it is hard to answer this seemingly simple question. unlike some basic factors in linguistics that usually have clear concepts or definitions, reading, as a common linguistic phenomenon existing in most languages, has not yet got a very authoritative definition. different linguists have different opinions about the definition of reading. for many years, four basic definitions of reading have driven literacy programs.(l) reading is what reading is and everybody knows that: usually this translates to “reading is mating sounds to letters”. (2) reading is the process of understanding messages in written or printed materials.(3) reading is a strategic, interactive and meaning constructing process which is influenced by a readers prior knowledge.according to the first definition, learning to read means learning to pronounce words. according to the second definition, it means learning to identify words and get their meaning. according to the third definition it means learning to bring meaning to a text in order to get meaning from it. from this definition we can see that some researchers begin to realize the significance of the readers background knowledge and strategy to reading comprehension. although these definitions reflect long-standing views of reading, current literacy research supports a more comprehensive definition of reading. (4) reading is a mental process of human being that involves learning to pronounce and identify words and guess their meanings, further, bring meaning to a text in order to get a meaning from it. in the process, basic skills are needed 6.this new definition includes all of the above definitions and places learning skills in the context of authentic reading. it highlights the readers prior knowledge and reveals the nature of reading. that is, reading is an interactive process. according to the california department of education, the heart of a powerful reading program is the relationship between explicit, systematic skills instruction and literature, comprehension and language. while skills alone are insufficient to develop good readers, no reader can become proficient without culture.1.2.3 requirements of transfertransfer, driving from the latin transfer means to carry, to bear, to print or otherwise copy as a drawing or engraved design from one surface to another. transfer is divided into two major types: positive transfer and negative transfer. in 1957 robert lado claims: “individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings, and the distribution