福建省光泽第一中学高中英语教师论文 A Study on Culture Teaching in Senior English Class.doc

福建省光泽第一中学2014高中英语教师论文 a study on culture teaching in senior english classabstract: new english curriculum standard points out that “culture awareness” is one of the basic objectives in english teaching, and teaching culture is as important as teaching knowledge and skills. however, there are many problems in instructing culture in current english teaching. in this paper, the author analyzes the current situation of culture in senior english teaching by studying the requirements in the new english curriculum standard, examining the culture elements in new senior english for china and making a survey on culture learning and teaching. then the author sums up several appropriate principles and strategies of culture teaching which can be applied to senior english class to improve students culture awareness and language knowledge. key words: language and culture； culture teaching； culture teaching strategies. 摘要：高中英语课程标准明确指出，文化意识目标是五项基本目标之一，在教学中培养学生的文化意识与培养学生的语言知识和语言技能同等重要，在教学中实践文化教学势在必行，但是目前的英语文化教学还存在诸多问题。笔者通过解读新课程标准对文化意识目标的要求，分析高中英语教材中的文化因素，以及实践分析问卷调查，总结了目前高中英语文化教学的现状及主要存在的问题，总结概括了一些切实可行的文化教学原则和策略以更好的培养学生的文化意识和语言能力。关键字：语言与文化; 文化教学; 文化教学策略contentsintroduction.11. language and culture.21.1 definitions of culture.21.2 the relationship between language and culture.41.3 the importance of culture instruction in senior english.52. present situation of culture instruction in senior english.72.1 prescription of culture instruction in the new curriculum standard.82.2 cultural elements in nsefc.102.3 a survey on culture learning and teaching in senior english class.122.3.1 design of the questionnaire.122.3.2 analysis of the results.133. culture instruction in senior english class.153.1 principles of culture instruction.153.2 strategies of culture teaching.173.2.1 culture aside.183.2.2 culture capsules and culture clusters.183.2.3 contrasts.193.2.4 mini-dramas and video films.203.2.5 newspapers, magazines and literature.21conclusion.23bibliography.25appendix.26appendix.27appendix.28appendix.29introductionwith chinas entering into wto and successful bid to host the 2008 olympic games, english has become one of the most important subjects in middle schools. globalization has increased the contact of people from different countries in the fields of economic co-operation, academic exchanges, travel etc. cooperation between china and foreign countries in various fields has become a common part of social practice. english as a tool of communication has been playing an important role in carrying out international exchange and cooperation. in this condition, people have come to realize that the lack of knowledge about foreign cultures may bring about many pragmatic problems when communicating with foreigners. in 2003, the authorities of the ministry of education of china carried out the new english curriculum standard to meet the requirements of the society. in the new english curriculum standard, “cultural awareness” is one of the five basic objectives in english teaching. therefore, culture teaching has become one of the most popular subjects in senior english teaching research. in west countries, the research on culture teaching began in 1960s. many western linguists made researches on the subjects, such as nostrand, brooks, stern, hinkel, etc. they made significant achievements in their researches. for example, hinkel edited a book on culture teaching named culture in second language teaching and learning. this book seeks to reexamine the relationship between culture, language teaching, and learning by showing how cultural factors influence many different aspects of second language learning and use (hinkel, 2001). however, in china, it is in the mid 1980s that many scholars began to conduct researches over the impact of culture teaching on foreign language learning. hu (胡文仲,1992) claims that culture knowledge and culture teaching should be more emphasized in foreign language class and chinese students should be cultivated with culture sensitivity and communicative competence. hu and gao (胡文仲&高一虹, 1997) wrote foreign language teaching and culture in which the authors introduce and analyze every aspects of culture teaching in foreign language teaching systematically. chen (陈申,2000) wrote culture teaching in foreign language teaching in which the author examines chinese attitudes towards foreign culture and analyze the relationships between language, language teaching and culture. therefore, culture teaching is an essential part of foreign language teaching. thus, today in chinese high schools, learners and teachers no longer view foreign language learning as exercising on pure linguistic forms because such focus cannot meet the demands of social development. hence, culture teaching is to be integrated with language teaching in senior english class as a way to improve learners communicative competence. however, in reality, the situation and results of culture teaching in chinese senior high english class are far from satisfaction due to the lack of attention and systematic teaching strategies. in this paper, the author mainly deals with the current situation of culture teaching and obstacles in senior english class and tires to explore the principles and strategies which can be used in senior english class at present.1. language and culture in the past thirty to forty years, many linguists have devoted themselves to the study of language and culture, and put forward their own opinions from different perspectives. culture is such a complicated thing that no one can simply draw a conclusion of the issue, especially when it comes to its relationship with language. but it is no doubt that the relationship between language and culture is inseparable.1.1 definitions of culture the definition of culture differs in different field of subjects. roughly calculated, there are more than 250 definitions according to qi (戚雨村,1994:13). the author lists some authority definitions of culture as follows: the first profound scientific concept of culture was put forward in print by sir edward burnet tylor in 1871 (cited in 陈申, 1999) who believed culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” tylors definition is wide enough that includes almost everything men have made.porter and samovars definition has been widely cited in many research papers and books. they (2000:8) say:culture is the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religions, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. according to them, cultures therefore include everything from rites of passage to concepts of the soul. as for the broad definitions of culture, it is impossible for a curriculum to cover “everything” about foreign culture in any foreign language program. so the english as a foreign language teachers have to look at various theoretical concepts closely and consider their validity in the context of language pedagogy. in recent years, socio-linguists and efl teachers have expanded the notion of culture in language education from “culture with a big c” to “culture with a small c”. “culture with a big c” focuses on “the sum total of a peoples achievement and contributions to civilization: art, music, literature, architecture, technology, scientific discoveries and philosophy”. “culture with a small c” includes “the behavior patterns of the life style of people: when and what they eat, how they make a living, the way they organize their society, the attitudes they express towards friends and members of their families, how they act in different situations, which expressions they use to show approval and disapproval, the traditions they must observe, and so on” (allen&valette, 1977: 325,cited in 鲍志坤,1997). nowadays, it is highly suggested that language education should put emphasis on “small c”. and the author supports this view and hold that language teachers in senior high school should teach “small c” rather than “big c”. 1.2 the relationship between language and culture in the simplest sense, a language is a set of symbols, with rules for combining the symbols, that a language community uses and understand (samovar & porter, 2004:69). it is through language that we reach out and make contact with our surrounding realities. and it is through language that we share with others our experiences of that reality (ibid.:72). however, languages importance in communication is based on the same realities in society which means the same culture. thus, language and culture is inseparable. language is a part of culture, a carrier of culture, and a reflection of culture. one of the most important theories concerning the relationship between language and culture is sapir-whorf hypothesis: human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. it is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. the fact of the matter is the real world is to a large extent unconsciously build up on the language habits of the group (sapir, 1929: 162, cited in hall 2005). from this theory, it is easily to conclude that language is a unique form of culture. every different culture nourishes a distinguished language with a different system of symbols. culture is the basis and one of the most important attributes of language. the formulation and development of a language is dependent on the culture. with the human society develops from time to time, culture changes at the same time. while cultural factors as science, technology, economy and living patterns change, new words, new phrases, new styles will join in the system of language. and then the language will change. on the other hand, language reflects culture in various ways and is indispensable to culture acquisition, transmission and development. firstly, language is a keystone in culture for culture is maintained through language. people use language to receive, store, manipulate and generate symbols. secondly, many cherished heritages have been handed on from generation to generation by means of oral or print communication. thirdly, language organizes and expresses a whole range of cultural information and interpretations of concepts and ways of human life. and the cultural information and concepts are specific form which have acquired from the development of the specific community of language users. thus, it is the language which records the ancestors knowledge and experience that assure human beings civilization today. generally speaking, it is undeniable that language and culture are interrelated and affected mutually. and the intimate relationship between language and culture leads to a inevitable connection between language learning and culture learning. consequently, teaching language must be integrated with teaching culture. 1.3 the importance of culture instruction in senior english in china english has become one of the most important subjects in middle school as well as in colleges and universities. most students in china begin to learn english in primary school, and some of them start in kindergarten. nevertheless, most of them can not communicate naturally and fluently with foreigners after years of study. in most cases, they may write perfect sentences with fabulous words while they come across dozens of misunderstandings in communicating with native speakers. the major problem lies in the different culture backgrounds. that means we hold different views towards moral ethics, thinking patterns, concepts of value and so on. the author will make a comparison between chinese culture and english culture from the following four aspects. first, our values and moral ethics are different from those of western countries. westerners always are proud for themselves when they do something successfully and they tend to accept others compliments. however, it is polite for chinese to be modest. for example, when a foreigner teacher tell you that your english is very good, you probably say: “no, no, my english is very poor.” and it turns out that foreigners do not like our modest way to accept their compliments. whats more, western people prefer being special to being average while chinese always try to be normal. freedom, personality and independence are being treasured in western countries. in china, we emphasize collectivism which means we should act unanimously to make sure the behalf of the whole group or organization. in another word, they highlight individualism and we insist collectivism. second, westerners have different views on social relationships. on the case of social classes, westerners have a stronger faith on egalitarianism. in the west, no matter he is poor or rich, he gets the same rights as others; he believes in himself; and he respects himself as others respect him. as the proverb says: “if working hard, even a cowboy can be a president”, they do their best to be successful. on the other hand, family construction is simpler in america than in china. american family is composed of parents and their kids, while chinese family comprises all the generations from the oldest great grandparents to the youngest grandchildren. this may explain that children in western are maturer and more independent than children in china. third, social amenities are one of the major problems which cause mistakes in communication between chinese and foreigners. there are many examples of this kind of cultural differences in everyday conversations. when chinese meet for the first time, there is no special expression for the occasion, but when most english-speaking people meet for the first time, they often say something like “im pleased to meet you”. and when they apart, they are expected to remark “its nice meeting you” or “its nice to have met you or something similar” (邓炎昌& 刘润清，1989: 29). another obvious difference lies on the way people reply to compliments: americans tend to accept the compliments while chinese generally murmur some reply about not being worthy of the praise (ibid.:33). fourth, a chinese character can be equivalent to an english word for their dictionary meanings, but their connotations may be different. for students of a foreign language, it is essential that they know not only the denotation of words, but also the connotations. serious blunders may be committed because of ignorance of a connotation. when talking about the chinese countryside, english-speaking people in china have occasionally asked: “why do you call rural people peasants? i thought their status had changed and that they are now respected.” to many chinese, the question itself might be puzzling. why not call them peasants? why should the term imply lack of respect? in fact, the english word peasant does not have exactly the same meaning as the chinese 农民. the word peasant means a usually uneducated person of low social status, but the chinese term农民 does not have such derogatory coloration (邓炎昌& 刘润清，1989: 21). the differences between english and chinese are far more than what the author have discussed ahead, and that is why we have to spend so many years to study english. learning a language is not only memorizing vocabularies and understanding the grammar, because the ultimate goal is to use the language. it is the same with english. we learn english, so we should understand westerners expressions and behaviors and communicate with them. however, the truth is, most average students in high school who have spent 8-10 years learning english only can understand a little about foreigners when talk with them and barely can express themselves clearly. all the key point is the english culture which blooms the language. and it is crucial to teach english culture in senior middle school.2. present situation of culture instruction in senior english as the new english curriculum standard carried out, the culture teaching and learning has been paid more and more attention. and most teachers have recognized the importance of culture teaching and instructed culture in english teaching. yet, there are some limitations and problems in culture teaching, in this chapter, the author will investigate the current situation and problems of culture teaching in senior high school by illustrating the prescription of culture instruction in the new curriculum standard, examining the culture contents in new senior english for china and making a survey on culture teaching and learning in senior middle school. 2.1 prescription of culture instruction in the new curriculum standard since 1980s, the foreign languag