论大学英语教学中跨文化交际能力的培养

编号 编号 05044010504401 毕毕 业 学业 学 位 论位 论 文文 20092009 届本科 届本科 题题 目 目 论大学英语教学中跨文化交际能力的培养论大学英语教学中跨文化交际能力的培养 系 部 院 系 部 院 英英 语语 系系 专专 业 业 英语语言文学英语语言文学 作者姓名 作者姓名 常常 巨巨 娣娣 指导教师 指导教师 陈陈 楚楚 雄雄 职职 称 称 讲讲 师师 完成日期 完成日期 20092009 年年 5 5 月月 1515 日日 二二 九年五月九年五月 On the Cultivation of Intercultural Communication Ability in College English Teaching Chang Judi Under the Supervision of Chen Chuxiong English Department Hexi University June 2009 Contents Abstract English i Abstract Chinese ii 1 Introduction 1 2 The Significance of Studying Intercultural Communication 2 2 1 Studying Intercultural Communication Can Reduce the Communicative Obstacles 2 2 2 Studying Intercultural Communication Can Reduce the Communicative Conflicts 2 2 3 Studying Intercultural Communication Can Widen People s Visual and Promote Culture Communication 3 3 The Frequent Conflicts Appeared in Intercultural Communication between Chinese and Western Culture 4 3 1 The Conflicts on Privacy 4 3 3 The Conflicts on Traditional Cultures 5 3 4 The Conflicts on Table Custom 5 4 The Reasons Leading to the Cultural Conflict 5 4 1 The Difference between Thinking Styles 6 4 2 The Difference between Behaviors 6 4 3 The Difference between the Concepts of Value 7 4 4 The Difference between Language Transfers 7 5 The Present Situation and Analysis of the Intercultural Communication 8 5 1 The Present Situation of the Intercultural Communication 8 5 2 the Reasons for Poor of the Intercultural Communication in Colleges 8 6 How to Improve the Ability of Intercultural Communication and Avoid the Culture Conflicts in English Teaching 9 6 1 Transforming the Teaching Concept 10 6 2 Improving the Present Available Teaching Methods 10 6 3 Putting Emphasis on the Training of Non verbal Communicative Ability 10 6 4 Asking the Students to Read More Materials about Western Cultures 11 6 5 Holding the Seminars of the Western Culture 11 7 Conclusion 11 References 13 Acknowledgements 14 i Abstract There are many matters of cultural conflicts in intercultural communication of Chinese culture and western culture and seriously affects the course of communication So it is necessary for us to find the in depth reason and make some plans how to improve the ability of intercultural communication This is the right way to avoid the cultural conflicts There are several cultural conflicts the conflicts on privacy the conflicts on the sense of time the conflicts on traditional cultures and the conflicts on table custom The reason is the difference in the mode of thinking the difference in behavior the difference in the concept of value the difference in language transference With the globalization of the world economy and the popularization of international exchange it is still important to cultivate the students intercultural communication ability in college English teaching However in the teaching of English we usually pay more attention to the form grammar and structure of the language than to the background of the language especially cultural differences As a result problems occur from time to time when students use the language to communicate with English speakers The author of this paper based on her own practice puts forward a few strategies on cultivating students ability of cross cultural communication Key Words college English teaching intercultural communication problems strategies ii 摘摘 要要 在中西跨文化交际中 文化冲突的事件屡见不鲜 严重影响了交往的顺利进行 因此我们很有必要找出深层次的原因 采取一定的措施来培养跨文化交际能力 避 免文化冲突 文化冲突的表现有隐私方面的冲突 时间观方面的冲突 客套语方面 的冲突 餐饮习俗方面的冲突 出现这种现象的原因有思维模式存在差异 行为规 范各不相同 价值取向不同 语用迁移的影响 在经济全球化不断发展的今天 培养学生的跨文化交际能力就显得犹为重 要 而在大学英语教学中 往往比较重视语言的外在形式和语法结构 而对于语言 的文化背景 特别是文化差异重视不够 致使学生在实际交流中存在很多问题 本 文从教学实际出发 提出一些培养学生跨文化交际能力的发法和途径 关键词关键词 大学英语教学 跨文化交际 问题 途径 1 1 Introduction The ultimate goal of foreign language teaching is the communicating with foreigners successfully From a practical sense with the further development of the reform and opening to the outsides world people find that the earth become smaller and smaller Especially when China join in the WTO international exchanges become increasingly frequently and cross cultural communication become an indispensable part in various national life 2008 Olympic Games is a good example It let us feel the importance of learning English and cross cultural communication is inevitable in such event However cultural differences will no doubt bring about cross cultural communication barriers We can also easily find that college students still have many problems in cross cultural communication in college English teaching Therefore we should not simply pay attention to the forms of teaching and should strengthen the leading of language cultures If we pay attention to the cultural differences and their impact for language learning we will cultivate students cross cultural communication ability and make them use language correctly and agilely in reality Communicative competence was advocated by American sociologist Hymes 1972 to counter Chomsky language competence He thought that communicative competence should include the following four aspects 1 possibility 2 feasibility 3 appropriateness 4 efficacy Canale and Swain 1980 thought that communicative competence was made up by the following parts which are linguistic competence sociolinguistic competence discourse competence and strategic competence On the basis of the Canale and Swain s communicative competence Bachman 1990 advocated more complicated communicative competence he thought that communicative competence included linguistic competence strategic competence and psychophysilogical mechanism On the study of the two communicative competence modes Wen Qiufang 1999 and other scholars advocated cross cultural competence besides including forefathers communicative competence And cross cultural competence include three parts which are 1 the sensitivity to the cultural differences 2 the tolerance the cultural differences 3 the flexibility of dealing with the cross cultural differences 2 2 The Significance of Studying Intercultural Communication Studying intercultural communication has great significance It can reduce the obstacles in intercultural communication It can reduce communicative conflicts And it can widen people s visual field and promote cultural communication 2 1 Studying intercultural communication can reduce the communicative obstacles Every nationality has its own history to develop its cultures Different geographic and historical background decides the current situation of the different cultures which leads to the different custom and different behavior standard The intercultural communication if people do not know others cultural background sometimes they can not understand others information correctly Misunderstanding of communication will appear For example in America some Chinese people are invited to enjoy a party in an American s house in winter when they get into the house they don not put off their coat then the host will ask Are you feeling very cold the Chinese people often say Yes rather They do not know in western countries when the guests get into the host s house they should take off their coat to show their politeness But when many Chinese students studying abroad enter into the western people s house the host says Let me take your coat Or Shall I take your coat The students always answer No no they not know this custom in western countries So by studying the intercultural communication people will know different nationality s cultural background which can help people reduce the obstacles to the greatest possible extent intercultural communication 2 2 Studying intercultural communication can reduce the communicative conflicts Communication conflicts are the promotion of the communication obstacle The slight communicative obstacles can lead to the failure in changing information and ideas while the serious communicative obstacles may result in serious mistakes or communication conflicts Le Daiyun 1996 It is just like two persons who can not communicate with each other under the same situation In that case one person s good words to persuade is understood mistakenly to bad words to hurt the two persons may quarrel with each other or even fight with each other For instance an American business 3 man comes to china to do business he is eager to discuss the business as soon as he gets to the destination but Chinese manager will not do this immediately He asks the American businessman to inspect for several days and his secretary to lead the American business man to visit the local scenic spots and historical sites Then he will invite the American business man to have meals again and again All that the Chinese manager does is for the business but the American business man will doubt if the manager really wants to do this business And at last he goes back to America and the business fails American people have clear idea about work and entertainment When they are in the situation workaholic working is the foremost thing Because Chinese manager lacks the knowledge of intercultural communication the business fails So one communication conflict can cause a big amount of economic loss because of the lacking of intercultural communication knowledge Chinese people s modesty may be misunderstood as hypocrisy by western people western people s straightness may be misunderstand as indifference by Chinese people Chinese people s enthusiasm may be misunderstood as red tape by western people western people s promise may be misunderstood as deceitfulness by Chinese people The studying of intercultural communication can promote the communication and avoid the conflicts 2 3 Studying intercultural communication can widen people s visual and promote culture communication Intercultural communication let us see a colorful world And it can let people know what they can study from other cultures to improve their own culture One nationality can develop by its own renovation From little to much from backwardness to advancement and it progresses with the development of society It can also develop by culture communication and increase its own vitality by complementing and enriching foreign culture When scientific techniques were very backward people s communicative ways were also very limited The culture development of every nationality had a characteristic of closeness and slowness and this caused the unbalanced nation of the cultural development of every nationality The development of culture has a close relationship with cultural communication Without cultural communication culture also can not develop Intercultural communication studying can promote the culture communication It helps us 4 to know the foreign culture Lin Tianjin 2003 In many cases if people come from different cultural background know other s communication customs their visual field will surely be widened and their curiosity can be satisfied at a certain extent Studying cultural communication is necessary we should pay more attention to it 3 The frequent conflicts appeared in intercultural communication between Chinese and western culture There are many culture conflicts in intercultural communication between Chinese and western culture it impossible for us to list them out one by one Here some frequent conflicts are listed out 3 1 The conflicts on privacy The privacy sense of Chinese people is comparatively weak Chinese people think individual should belong to the collective They think people should be united and fraternal they think people should care for each other So Chinese people are willing to know the other people s things and others also want to tell them But western people attach great importance to the personal privacy They want to have personal space and they are not willing to tell others their own things So there are many conflicts on privacy between Chinese people and western people For example when Chinese people meet each other the first time they would like to inquire about the other s age marriage family profession and even their income They think this is a polite way to communicate with each other but western people believe these questions encroach upon their privacy 3 2 The conflicts on the sense of time The sense of time of western people is closely related with money The idea that that Time is money has formed in their thought too they set a high value on their time In the daily time western people have a meticulous plan about their time and they have a good habit of coming to date on time In western countries if you want to call on someone you must inform them before you come and you should tell them your coming purpose the time and the place After both of your informed you can make it out But Chinese people use their pleasure Usually Chinese people will not callings as the western people and 5 western people usually fell unsuitable on this course Most western people spend their time on working and studying they seldom spend a lot time to KFC to have a meal they eat their food as soon as possible but the Chinese people in KFC show another situation They eat their food slowly and chat with each other They do not think this is a way to waste time 3 3 The conflicts on Traditional cultures Chinese people pay special attention to modesty When they communicate with others but look down upon themselves They think this is a virtue and this is a polite phenomenon with Chinese characteristics When others praise Chinese people they often show very modest Western countries do not have this phenomenon When they are praised they are often very happy and say thank you to others to show they accept the praise Because of the cultural difference Chinese people often hold that western people are too confident and ignorant In the fact that modesty is one kind of politeness in Chinese cultures But when western people know Chinese people deny their own achievement western people will feel very surprised they think Chinese people are not honest 3 4 The conflicts on table custom Chinese nationality has an excellent tradition of enthusiasm and hospitality In the settings of social communication of on the banquet the enthusiastic Chinese people often give cigarettes to others and drink with each other When Chinese people hold a party even there are a lot foods on the table the host often say some conventional sentences such as There is not much food or This is but a homely meal The host sometimes put some foods to the guest s bowl and they try many ways to let the guest drink more and eat more But in western countries people attach importance to personal authority and personal privacy So guests eat what they to eat they will also not ask the guests to drink and drink till they get drunk 4 The reasons leading to the cultural conflict There are varied of reasons which caused the culture conflict between china and western countries The basic reason is that China and western countries have different 6 culture different history background All of these western will sure bring the difference of people s mode thinking difference of behavior thus conflicts can hardly be avoided 4 1 The difference between thinking styles Culture has an effect on the people s view and cognition Different countries have different cultures So the difference people thinking way must exist You can easily find such difference between Chinese culture and western culture When western people think they would like to attach importance to logic and analysis While Chinese people value which is the characteristic of Chinese traditional culture Chinese people pay great attention to intuition experience and the feeling in the course of communication and they often use this experience and feeling to communicate with people Compared with the thinking way of the western people the mode of think of Chinese people has obvious vagueness after a long time it forms the thinking way It can be explained as the classifying feeling course of distinguishing and simplifying outside object Looking from the essence Chinese people thinking way often neglects the difference of individual objects In all of Chinese people s thinking ways some are right but some are wrong They will affect the intercultural communication directly and cause the failed communication 4 2 The difference between behaviors The specific meaning of behavior is the moral standard and action standard In simple words it is a standard that tell people what they can do and what they can not do Gu Jianguang 1997 When people coming from different cultures communicate with each other a phenomenon that people usually use their own social behavior standard to judge if others behavior is reasonable or not Because of the difference of the behavior standard it always causes misunderstanding or even worse result For example Chinese people like tapping the children s head to show their friend ness But in western countries this is a very disrespectful gesture Their parents will be very angry if they see someone does this to their child So whether you can recognize and use behavior standard correctly in the intercultural communication is very important factor to ensure intercultural communication to go successfully To guarantee the successful intercultural communication one must understand the others behavior standard especially one must know what behavior standard is Then he can avoid the troubles 7 4 3 The difference between the concepts of value People communicative ability always emerges in the development of society Therefore it has close relationship to the concept of value Every culture has its own specific value system This system can help people to distinguish beauty from ugliness kindness from evil Each culture has its different judgment standard In this kind of culture people think it is good while in another culture people think it is bad But each culture has its enough reasons to exist its own cultural system People can not think one value standard is advanced and another standard is not advanced Taking Chinese culture