Intercultural Communication And Foreign Language Teaching.doc

intercultural communication and foreign language teaching跨文化交际与外语教学摘要：来自不同文化背景的人们，他们在风俗习惯、思维方式、价值观及宗教信仰方面存在显著的差异。在跨文化交际过程中，常常由于文化差异使得双方发生误解冲突，甚至导致沟通的失败。文章分析了不同的文化对语言运用的影响，强调在外语教学中要增进文化意识、文化知识的导入，借以提高外语教学水平。关键词：跨文化交际：文化意识：外语教学abstract:people from different background vary in customs, ways of thinking, values, and religions, ect. it is the cultural differences that often lead to misunderstanding, conflicts, and even failure in intercultural communication. this article analyzes how cultural differences influence the use of language, emphasizing the enhancement of cultural consciousness and the learning of cultural knowledge, improving the level of foreign language teaching. key words: intercultural communication; cultural consciousness; foreign language teachingwith the development of means of transportation and communication, different countries and different races are in contact with one another increasingly. during the course of intercultural communication, how to avoid or clear up a misunderstanding or leap over the obstacles in different cultural forms gets more and more universally concerned by foreign language teachers, linguists and psychologists. language and culture are an indivisible whole and language is a carrier of culture. politzer once said, when we teach languages, we should teach culture. if we dont do th is, it shows that we are processing a meaningless job, which only can make students arouse misunderstanding(qtd. in guo lihua 57). although this idea tends to go to extremes, cultural teaching should be merged into the language teaching. this importance is beyond doubt. language is the means by which people communicate with each other; the basic purpose of learning language is the realization of communication. in order to realize the successful intercourse, people should make the languages appropriate terms, that is, the proper language should be used on a proper occasion or express in a proper way besides using a language properly, especially phonetics, grammar and vocabulary. people from different cultural background have acquired different cultural education, lifestyles, customs, ways of thinking, values, and so on. during the course of foreign language teaching, teacher should enhance their cultural consciousness and realize the close relations between language and culture. they should also know english communicative abilities include language abilities and cultural knowledge. teacher should merge the cultural knowledge into the course of the whole language teaching. from the following two points, i think cultural differences influence peoples daily communication; the enhancement of cultural consciousness and the learning of cultural knowledge is the inevitable way to improve foreign language teaching. 1.cultural differences influence the use of language each language has a soil for existence, so any form of languages has its own cultural connotation. for example, the original definition of individualism in webster dictionary (ninth edition) is a theory maintaining the political and economic independence of the individual and stressing individual initiative, action and interests; also conduct or practice guided by such a theory. in the u.s., one of the distinctive features of americans is their individualism. in the early day of immigration, typical image of individualist is a pioneer that carries a rifle with him and a hatchet in his hand. the pioneers were eager to make progress, treasured the personal fights and dared to treat the government and law with indifference. tiffs kind of spirit was handed down as the cultural quintessence of the whole people. among many modern western communities, people treat the personal freedom and fights as realizing an active self-value expression. so individualism can be entrusted an active significance to summarize this spirit. in china, individualism is defined as a kind of wrong thought that personal interests are placed above the interests of people; all things are to be considered from this point. an individualist only concern about himself, without considering others interests (modern chinese dictionary 1984). chinese society maintains that ones personal interests should be subordinated to the interests of the collective and advocate perfectly impartial, utter devotion to others without any thought of self. in this cultural atmosphere, individualism becomes the derogatory term (gao yihong 103).in our contacts with english-speaking countries, foreigners are not accustomed to silent attitudes of chinese people.reporters dont answer the questions of audience; hearers dislike asking questions, but only listen to it calmly. during the course of talking, the hearers dont give a clear response. these phenomena are very common in china. while in america, the silence of chinese people is considered as a great insult to them. to tell the truth is better than to keep silent. however,chinese people emphasize the use of silence and think that pause and silence have profound implications. in their opinions,pause and silence can produce an astonishing result. they often regard silence is gom as a golden rule.in culture, owing to different cultural connotations, a common appellation will arouse different emotions. a short essay from an american chinese professor mr. peng zhongkang was published in the overseas edition ofren min ri bao. it says that american professor davis was invited to give lectures in china. three months later, davis was very unhappy about chinese people. the reason is that most chinese people called him mr. davis. he corrected it many times but many people still called him like that. so davis thought chinese people deliberately played down to him in fact, in chinese traditional culture, people respectfully called a person with academic qualification mr. in chinese peoples opinions, this is a serious and close thing, such as chinese people call mr. lu xun, mr. go moro, mr. zhao shuli, ect. they dont play down to them at all, yet this shows our respect for them. if davis knew about much more chinese culture, i think he should have accepted that with pleasure when people called him mr. (du xuezheng 79-80).in privacy, chinese people and western people have different views. in chinese traditional culture, it seems that there is no concept to the privacy. during the long feudal society, the feudal emperors reigned supreme in the feudal states. subjects of a feudal ruler must be absolutely loyal to the emperors. individuals cant, in the slightest degree, have their secret and privacy. in interpersonal relationships, chinese people like to flaunt a true gentleman is calm and at ease; the small man is freocul. chinese peoples attitudes to privacy are neither sensitive nor scruple. but in western countries, women, especially they keep their mouths to shut concerning their age. of course, they hope that others dont ask these questions. in china, people often inquire about others age. western people seldom disclose their private property and income but chinese peopleoften ask about others income per month, even ask others bank savings. with the development of chinas economic reform and the opening-up policy, the western concepts were introduced into china, which helps to enhance chinas privacy consciousness. owing to the traditional culture, up to now, chinese peoples concepts are always having an obvious brand of chinese culture. western people think chinese may not accept one thing that is considered as privacy in western countries (hu wenzhong, 1999 13).in personal honor and modesty, western people adore the individual struggle. they never gloss over their confidence and honor when they achieve great success. on the contrary, chinese culture doesnt show off personal honor but promote modesty. chinese people oppose someone to crack him up while western people are often dissatisfied with chinese modest manner, which deny themselves. your english is very good. no! no! my english is very poor. you have done a very good job. no, i dont think so. its the result of joint efforts.this kind of modesty, in western peoples views, does not only deny him, but also deny others compliments. this modesty wont work in capitalist competitive market. in social ceremony, chinese people are always exchanging a few words of greeting when they meet. for example,have you had your meal? or where are you going? western people think you will ask them to a meal or interfere with their privacy. this can cause misunderstanding. in fact, when they meet, they often say, hello! or how do you do! or nice day, isnt it? etc. if someone praises a chinese person, he often shows some modest words: shame or ob. it is nothing or my humble home, etc. while western people are always answering with pleasure thank you. chinese people seldom say thank you especially between close friends and family, western people always saying this. even if between close friends and inside the family. when chinese people receive a present, they often put it aside and are afraid of being said to be greedy. but western people are very different. they open it immediately and say good or thank you. in china, hosts are always toasting wine and picking up food for their guests again and again; but in the west, people have their own habits, especially in america, hosts only offer the food once. if you want to have more, just help yourself to it. dont pretend to be refined. the hosts wont offer a second time. hosts like their guests to help themselves. after a dinner, chinese people often say, be slow or take care or good-bye to their guests. in the west, people only say good-bye! or see you later! or see you next time! and so on.in speech and stipulations of an agreement, different cultures often have different habits on how to express their willing, demands and opinions. chinese people prefer indirect ways. they often exchange conventional greetings before talking business. in the course of talking, they often give in to the other side and seldom contradict the other side directly. on the contrary, western people like to come straight to the point at the beginning or express their ideas directly. moreover, western people usually explain their propositions and then state their reasons, but chinese people usually state their reasons before explaining their propositions (koreo 22-23). in how to refuse or deny the other side, western people are accustomed to blunting directly. chinese people think this is not the proper way to handle. they are always taking an ambiguous attitude to cope with the other side. sometimes they make empty promises or affirmative answer. it is very easy for western people to misunderstand (hsu 304). furthermore, most western people wage a tit-for-tat argument and criticism against the other side.in china, chinese people often use much more hints and roundabout ways to the other side; implicit criticism sometimes conceals the extols. even if western people use the modern means of communication, they often report their names in an active way when someone rings them up, but chinese people never like this, they are very cautious. different cultures in speech and stipulations of an agreement also express on non-verbal act, such as gestures, movements, expressions, expression in ones eyes, body, contact space distance and location, and so on. chinese people especially pay attention to their gestures. they straighten their clothes and sit properly. their feelings are very serious, their speech and behaviors are very well behaved. these are the best expressions for personal training. the gestures of western people are very casual when they talk with others and they treat the non-verbal act as an auxiliary way. they are no more serious manners except some formal occasions. when someone places his feet on the table in chatting, they seldom fuss about this. but chinese people consider this phenomenon as an uncultivated manner.in a word, cultural connotation is very profound, so there are many factors that influence the intercultural communication. the contrast between chinese culture and western culture is conducive to discovering the different cultural connotations. the purpose of comparison is not to create or exaggerate the groups characters but bring to light the different cultural conflicts, explore the regulative features, gain an objective view of the differences of cultures, and foresee the different cultural conflicts in communicating. in the course of intercourse, people should take the initiative and conscious attitudes to eliminate the cultural interference, avoid the cultural conflicts, and create a harmonious atmosphere that the two sides can accept.2 inspirations for teachingform the following four points, i will state my opinions.(1)to enhance cultural consciousness by introducing the differences between the eastern and he western cultures in culture, values are the deepest part. it will be a relative stability once values have formed. outlook of ones value warns people: what is good and what is bad; what is true and what is fake, and so on. cultural values guide the peoples values and behaviors. in the course of intercultural communication, different values come into conflicts. for example, chinese people prefer to express their intentions in mild and implicit way; they dislike conflicting face to face. western people consider chinese people are unpredictable or making a detouring with them. in fact, chinese people are neither unpredictable nor making a detour that is because chinese people stress harmonious relationships. western people think the thoughts of chinese people are not very clear or lack sincerity. seemingly, they are only two different ways of expression. but they are conflicts of different cultural values.(2)to introduce the meaning of cultural vocabularysemantics divides the vocabulary into conceptual meaning and cultural meaning. conceptual meaning is the language meaning of vocabulary. cultural meaning refers to the emotional coloring of vocabulary, style meaning and metaphor meaning. for example, dog is of no difference in conceptual meaning between chinese and english, but there is a great deal of differences between the two in cultural meaning. dog is often used as a derogatory sense in chinese. we can know it from idioms, such as a cornered beast will do something desperate; like a dog threatening people on the strength of its masters power be bully with the backing of a powerful person; a person who offers bad advice, etc. in western countries, there is a very popular proverb, love me, and love my dog. dog is a lovely pet and is regarded as one of the best friends. people like some qualities of a dog, such as loyalist, reliability, bravery, cleverness, etc. people often calla dog as a neuter term or a common clattery term, such as a lucky dog; a gay dog; every dog has his day, etc. (zhao zhengqing103-107). in ancient chinese legends, dragon was considered as a kind of miraculous animal that can give a rainfall through controlling the directions of the moving clouds. in chinese feudal society, dragon symbolized emperors. our chinese nation regarded ourselves as the descendants of the dragon. people often call the dragon with a common clattery term we can also know it from idioms, such as long to see ones son become a dragon (i.e. win success in the world);like dragons flying and phoenixes dancing lively and vigorous flourishes in calligraphy; the dragon and the phoenix bringing prosperity-excellent good fortune, etc. in western countries, dragon symbolizes evil or darkness; he makes people feel terrified. in common sayings, dragon is referred to a fierce, severe person or an arrogant and domineering person (guo lihua 59).(3)to encourage students to read materials widely, obtain cultural knowledge in many waysmans knowledge is not innate but comes from social practice. the way to increase ones cultural knowledge is manifold. if you are a sensitive reader, you can obtain a great deal of information from your reading. contrast with native speakers of english is also important although this is not possible for every one. watching english or american films helps too although, regrettably, not every who has the chance learns. one needs to be culturally aware or sensitive in order to accumulate knowledge of popular culture (flu wenzhong 1987 72). i think, to a chinese student, english and american works will make them from another cultural atmosphere, know about different values, customs, religions, social relations, cultural features, etc. newspapers and magazines are the direct ways to know social stratum and all kinds of social problems that are happening; besides, film and television works can also help students gain the rich cultural knowledge.(4)to improve the level of classroom teachinga successful class should also create many scenes, choose and use some ways, such as role-play, group-discussion,pair-work, stimulation and seminar, etc. besides some necessary language cultural knowledge given by the teacher. at the same time, a teacher should also encourage students to communicate with others widely. in class, teacher plays a very important role as a controller, an organizer, a prompter, an investigator and a resource (carter 2). teacher may organize the classroom teaching with pictures, slides, films, televisions, videos, multimedia and audio-visual aids, improve the teaching efficiency and enlarge the accumulation of cultural knowledge. many educators encourage language teachers to broaden their readings to include, besides literature, studies by social scientists, ethnographers and sociolinguists on both their society and the societies that speak the language they are teaching. in teaching, teachers s