（英语语言文学专业论文）大学英语教学中跨文化交际意识的培养.pdf

3 摘 要 外语教学的目标是培养学生的交际能力在中国英语教 学属于外语教学的范畴长期以来在英语教学过程中重在 培养学生的语言能力即听说读写四会能力却极少导 入相关的社会文化知识众所周知随着高科技和经济的迅猛 发展世界正变得越来越小人们也提出了地球村这一概念 毫无疑问在这个时代不同文化背景的人际交往更为频繁 为了确保跨文化交际的顺利进行人们必须对不同的文化有相 当的了解对交际中的文化差异有充分的认识因此文化导 入必须与语言知识教授同步进行 本文以文化与交际的相互作用为视角从文化对交际过程 各组成因素的影响为切入点探讨英语教学中跨文化意识培养 的实际操作 4 abstract the goal of foreign language teaching is to cultivate students communicative competence. in china, elt is in the domain of foreign language teaching. for a long time, in the process of teaching, particular stress has been put on developing students linguistic competence, which include listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities, while little attention is paid to the introduction of socio-cultural knowledge of the target language. it is well-known that with the rapid development of high technology and economy, the world is becoming increasingly small and the notion of “global village” has also been presented. there is no doubt that, in this era, we interact with people of different cultural backgrounds much more frequently than before. to guarantee an effective intercultural communication, people should have a good command of different cultures and fully understand the cultural differences in communication. therefore, culture introduction should be incorporated simultaneously in language teaching. from the aspect of the interrelation and interaction between culture and communication, this paper goes through the impact by culture on the elements in intercultural communication process to explore the problem of cultivating intercultural communicative awareness in college english teaching. 1 chapter i introduction in 1999, a revised college english syllabus clearly restates that the goal of foreign language teaching is to cultivate the students communicative competence. as a matter of fact, the notion of “communicative competence” is nothing new in the foreign language teaching field. hymes, an american sociolinguist, coined this term in order to contrast a communicative view of language with chomskys theory of linguistic competence. in his view, a person who has come to possess communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability to use language with respect to (1) grammatical accuracy (2) feasibility (3) appropriateness (4) actual operation. his theory broadens the horizon of language teaching. and it offers insight to linguists and educators who want to break the limits of analyzing language structure in foreign language teaching. later, widdowson, swain and canale, littlewood proposed different versions of category which include the knowledge and skills needed to fulfil communicative aim. the theoretical foundation of these categories all entails both linguistic competence and socio-cultural competence. on one hand, judged from linguistic structure, language is a system of symbols. on the other hand, language is a tool of communication in terms of its function. a persons socio-cultural knowledge restricts how he exploits his linguistic potential. it is generally believed that if he lacks socio-cultural knowledge relevant to the target language, a person can hardly use a language accurately and appropriately and be an effective intercultural communicator. in the past two decades, great efforts have been made to improve the efficiency and effectiveness in college english teaching. it delights us to find that the majority of the students have made some improvement in their listening and spoken abilities. their english is no more regarded as “dumb and deaf” one. they are more enthusiastic and confident to talk in english with their chinese teachers and fellow classmates. however, most of them still encounter a lot of difficulties when interacting with native english speakers, mainly because they are ignorant of cultural differences. for instance, many chinese students greet their foreign teachers by saying “hello! where are you going?”, “where have you been?” or “have you had your meal?” and the like. as we know, this kind of greeting is considered inappropriate in western culture and is likely to get westerners unhappy or even offended. from this example we may say that lack of cultural awareness interferes with the real understanding and appropriate use of the target language. as we can see, language and culture are inseparable. it is commonly accepted that language is a part of culture, and that it plays a very important role in it. they are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture. some people believe that knowledge of 2 other countries and their cultures is as important as proficiency in their language, and such knowledge is dependent on foreign language learning. in the course of elt in china, great attention should be paid to teaching culture of the target language as well as to teaching linguistic knowledge. culture introduction should be integrated with language teaching in many aspects and at multiple levels so that learners intercultural communicative skills can be enhanced. nowadays, with the rapid development in science and technology, the world has become smaller and smaller and the global village has come into being. both the globalization of economy and immigration have further brought people together. such changes add diversity to our social life since we can not avoid contacting people from other cultures. meanwhile, english is recognized as a world language. under such circumstances, both the language educators and learners can not ignore the importance of culture any more. understanding cultural diversity and cultivating intercultural awareness may not only help students better facilitate their use of language but also make them more effectively communicate with other people around the world to meet the needs of future monographic study and career demands. this thesis is an attempt to offer some suggestions on how to cultivate intercultural communicative awareness in college english teaching. it also reminds us of why culture is a valuable component of foreign language programs, and shows us how we might go about incorporating it into our teaching. first, the role culture plays in communication will be examined. then we will focus on the elements in intercultural communication, for the purpose of revealing the fact that many interaction breakdowns are caused by the ignorance of cultural diversity. in chapter iv, we will explore the present situation of college teaching in china and propose some techniques in cultivating intercultural awareness in english teaching. a brief contrastive analysis between english and chinese in word meaning and sentence patterns will be presented in chapter v, also with the aim of identifying and understanding cultural differences. 3 chapter ii communication and culture 2.1 definition of communication we begin by examining communication because to understand intercultural interaction, we must first understand human communication. understanding human communication means knowing something about what happens during an encounter, why it happens, what effects it brings about, and finally what we can do to influence and maximize the results of that event. communication- our ability to share our ideas and feelings-is the basis of all human contact and the main form of human behaviors. almost everyone needs social contact with other people, and this need is met through the exchange of messages that serve as bridges to unite otherwise isolated individuals. messages come into being through human behavior. when we are asking the way, we obviously are behaving. and other people may respond to our behaviors. in this way, we transmit something to someone else. as for its definition, scholars have not yet formed unanimous views, mainly because of (1) the complex nature of communication and (2) the issue of intentionality and unintentionality. (samover, porter, stefani, 2000) communication is complex, for the process of communication involves many components. just think for a moment of all the bodily activity that accompanies even the simple act of saying “hello” to a friend. from the stimulation of our nerve endings to the secretion of chemicals in our brain, to the moving of our lips to produce sound, thousands of components are in operation. communication becomes even more complex when we add cultural dimensions. although all kinds of culture use symbols to share their realities, the specific realities and symbols employed are often quite different. for instance, chinese usually smile or nod their head in a casual manner as a form of greeting and japanese bow formally in silence, and yet a lot of americans greet their friend with a full embrace. communication behavior is intentional. as miller and steinberg describe communication as the process whereby one person deliberately attempts to convey meaning to another. we intentionally send messages to change or modify the behavior of other people, and therefore we select our words or actions with certain degree of consciousness. when parents see their naughty little boy making noises in the living room, which makes them unbearable, they are likely to say “keep quiet ”, rather than “are you enjoying yourself?”, in the hopes that their words would change the boys behavior. in this case, it is clear that the words “keep quiet ”are selected consciously and parents send their messages with a clear purpose of making the boy better behave. some scholars propose that the concept of intentionality of communication 4 behavior is too limited and fails to account for all the circumstances in which messages are conveyed unintentionally. they believe that communication, much like culture, often takes place “without awareness” and it can influence other people whether or not such influence is intended. we occasionally do something without being aware of it. this is especially true of nonverbal behavior. habits such as fingernail biting, frowning, staring and smiling, for instance, occur many times without conscious awareness. we frequently behave unintentionally. for instance, if we are embarrassed we may blush or speak with vocal disfluency. although we do not intend to blush or to stammer, we do so anyway. again, these unintentional behaviors become messages if someone sees them and gives meaning to them. from what we have discussed above, we can safely maintain that communication is a complex, multidimensional process. it can be conscious and unconscious. when we engage in intercultural communication, it is important to keep it in mind that our actions have the potential to convey many meanings. the seemingly innocent act of showing the soles of your feet to a stranger in korea could send negative messages that hamper the rest of the encounter. in this paper, we may define communication in the following way: communication is a process which happens whenever meaning is attributed to conscious or unconscious behavior. in other words, when someone perceives our behaviors and gives response to them, communication, verbal or nonverbal, takes place. 2.2 definition of culture what is culture? scholars have had a difficult time forming one central theory or unanimous views. we now have more than 200 definitions about culture. these definitions range from an all-encompassing concept “ it is everything” to some narrow ones “ it is opera, art or ballet”. sapir (1921) says, “ culture may be defined as what a society does and thinks”. hoebel and frost (1976:6), who see culture in nearly all human activities, define culture as an “integrated system of learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not the result of biological inheritance.” for them, culture is transmitted and maintained through communication and learning. “culture consists of all the shared products of human society” (robertson, 1981). this means not only such material things as cities, organizations and schools, but also non-material things such as ideas, customs, family pattern, and languages. culture is so broad in its scope that “there is not one aspect of human life that is not touched and altered by culture”. (hall, 1977:14) in his book language and culture, claire kramsch defines culture as “a membership in a discourse community that shares a common social space and history, and common imaginings. even when they have left that community, its members may retain, wherever they are, a common system of standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating and acting.”(claire kramsch, 1998) these and other definitions may be somewhat different, but all points to the 5 fact that culture is all pervasive, including not only customs and habits, ideas and beliefs but also the artifacts made by humans. putting it simply, culture refers to the entire way of life of a society. it is certain that within each culture there are numerous co-cultures and specialized cultures. now we need to clarify what our reference is when we use the term culture. when referring to culture in this paper, we are applying the term to the dominant culture found in each society. following the definitions of sociologists and anthropologists, our term culture refers to the total pattern of beliefs, customs, institutions, objects, and techniques that characterize the life of a human community. 2.3 understanding communication and culture culture and communication, although two different concepts, are directly linked. why do people in china and korea put dogs in their ovens, but people in the united states put them on their couches and beds? why do chinese eat with chopsticks and europeans use forks and knives? why do people in iran pray five times a day, but people in las vegas sit up all night in front of slot machines? why do chinese write in square characters and englishmen speak english? the general answer to these questions is the same: people feel, live and think in the way that their cultures consider proper and when culture differs, communication practices also differ. the link between culture and communication is crucial to successful intercultural communication. it is through the influence of culture that people learn to communicate. a japanese, an arabian, or an american learns to communicate like other japanese, arabians, americans. their behavior can convey meaning because it is learned and shared; it is cultural. people view their world through categories, concepts, and labels that are products of their culture. the power and influence of culture can be seen in these behaviors and perceptions. when a father tells his son to say “thank you” when someone gives him a compliment, he is learning culture. when a little girl observes and imitates what her mother does at home, she is learning the roles of gender in a culture. as hall reminds us, “culture is communication and communication is culture.” the ways in which we communicate, the circumstances of our communication, the language and language style we use, and our nonverbal behaviors are all primarily a response to and a function of our culture. cultural similarities make the sharing of meaning possible. and as cultural diversities tend to differentiate the experiences and perceptions of the world, the communication practices and behaviors of the individuals reared in those cultures will also vary. as we will discuss in the following chapters, a successful intercultural communicator understands and accepts cultural differences as well as appreciating similarities. 6 chapter iii intercultural communicative awareness 3.1 understanding intercultural communication intercultural communication, as its name implies, is concerned with communication among people from different cultural backgrounds. as we have discussed in chapter ii, communication is the basis of all human contacts and the main form of human behavior. nowadays, with the rapid development of science and technology, the world has become smaller and smaller and notion of global village has been presented. as a resident of the global village, we engage in intercultural interaction much more frequently than before. in recent years, with the opening policy to the outside world, many of us have more opportunities, as statesmen, business partners, exchange scholars, friends, spouses, etc, to interact with people whose cultural background is different from ours. when negotiating a major contract with the koreans, asking the way to an englishman, greeting our american friend by a hug, we are all engaging in intercultural communication. in a word, intercultural communication occurs whenever people of various culture backgrounds come in contact with each other. a new horizon has appeared as a result of the gradual recognition of english as a world language. the rapid economic development and scientific and technological progress of english speaking countries have attracted more and more people to learn english. as a super-power, the u.s.a is active in world politics. in addition, it is internally a composite of many cultural traditions and a large number of immigrants and it is nicknamed “melting pot” or “salad bowl”. these factors explain why a new discipline known as “intercultural communication” has been promoted since the late 1970s mainly in the united states. intercultural communication is a branch of communication. it draws theories, concepts and methods from communication, sociology, psychology, cultural anthropology, philosophy and international relations. thus it is an interdisciplinary subject. as the rise in economic importance of the asian and pacific rim countries has attracted more and more attention from the western countries to the trading markets in this region, the teaching foreign culture in language programs has been influenced by this discipline. one of the goals of this paper is to help increase students intercultural