英语毕业论文 文化背景知识和英语教学

Cultural Background Knowledge and English Teaching

Thesis statement: Culture plays a very important role in English teaching.

I. Introduction

II. Language and culture A. What is culture? B. What is language?

C. The Relationship between Language and Culture

III. The importance of cultural background knowledge in English teaching A. Necessity of cultural background knowledge in listening comprehension B. Necessity of cultural background knowledge in oral English C. Necessity of cultural background knowledge in reading

D. Necessity of cultural background knowledge in writing and translation IV. How to teach Culture background knowledge in the English Classroom A. Situation method B. Special topic method C. Comparison method

D. Combination with extracurricular activities E. Explanation method V. Conclusion

Abstract: For a long time, English teaching is accustomed to the teaching way, which only emphasizes on the grammar and language norm. This, to some degree, prevents the teaching and the learning from going step further. This paper expounds the connotation of culture background knowledge and language, points out the necessity of teaching the cultural background knowledge in English teaching and raises some important teaching methods of cultural background knowledge in the English Classroom.

Key-words: cultural background knowledge, English teaching, communicative competence

Cultural Background Knowledge and English Teaching

I. Introduction

In teaching English as a foreign language, the importance of teaching culture has been widely recognized. However how to teach culture in foreign language education is a problem faced by language educators all over the world. In the present dissertation , the concerning linguistic theories and various ways of teaching foreign culture in the English classroom will be surveyed and studied in the light of Chinese situation . The present dissertation stresses that culture teaching is very essential in the English language education. The teaching of language and the teaching of culture are of the same importance in the English classroom.

Language and culture are closely related. In foreign language education, the definition of culture teaching should include all the human achievements of civilization and the ways of life and the different habits of people. Culture differences are reflected in languages and communicative activities. Furthermore it makes great difference in communication whether learners can understand or know the cultural differences, cultural rules, and even the cultural taboos.

However , in traditional approaches to language teaching , the aims of a language teaching course are very often defined with reference to the four \skills \important a teaching target as the above mentioned language skills .Because of the lack of cultural knowledge; students often make cultural mistakes when they communicate with native speakers.

From years of our experience in studying English, We gradually realize the importance of culture teaching to Chinese students. English teaching should be aimed at developing students’ communicative competence so that they would be able to communicate freely and proper with native speakers of English in various social situations. If they don’t grasp and know the historical culture, customs, habits and behavioral patterns, they won’t be able to use and understand the language correctly. Language should be taught in culture. The two are of the same importance.

II. Language and Culture A. What is culture

“Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another.” (Hofstede, 1991:7)The word

“culture”has many meanings. For example, we some times say that people who know about art, music, and literature are cultured. However, the word culture has a different meaning for anthropologist (people who study humankind). To an anthropologist the word culture means all the ways in which a group of people act, dress, think, and feel.

People have to learn the cultural ways of their community: they are not something that the people in the group are born with.

Instinctive behavior, on the other hand, is a pattern of behavior that an animal is born with. Spiders spinning their webs are an example of instinctive behavior. The mother spider does not teach her babies how to spin webs. (In fact, she is not even there when they are born.) They know how to do it when they are born. This is what we mean by instinctive behavior.

As humans, we learn some of the ways of our culture by being taught by our teachers or parents. We learn more of the ways of our culture by growing up in it. We see how other people in our culture do things, and we do them the same way. We even learn how to think and feel in this way.

All human beings have certain basic needs, such as eating, drinking, keeping warm and dry, and so on. However, the way in which they take care of there needs depends on the culture in which they grow up. All culture s have ways of eating,

dressing, finding shelter, marring, and dealing with death. The foods that we think are good to eat, the kind of clothes we wear, and how many people we can marry at one time are all parts of our culture.

Our own culture seems very nature to us. We feel in our hearts that the way that we do things is the only right way to do them. Other people’s culture often makes us laugh or feel disgusted or shocked. We may laugh at clothing that seems ridiculous to us. Many people think that eating octopus or a juicy red piece of roast beef is disgusting. The idea that a man can have more than one wife or that brothers and sisters can marry each other shock other cultures.

Ideas of what is beautiful differ from one culture to another. The Flathead Indian of North America used to bind the heads of babies between boards so they would have long sloping foreheads. In the Flathead culture, long sloping foreheads were beautiful. Other cultures might think that they are strange-looking and unattractive. Many people cut scars into their bodies or tattoo themselves so that

others in their culture will think they are beautiful. Objects are inserted in holes in the nose, lips, and ears in a number of different cultures in many twentieth-century

societies, rouge, lipstick, eye shadow, perfume, and hair spray are all used to increase attractiveness.

When people die, different cultures dispose of their bodies in different ways. Sometimes bodies are buried. Sometimes bodies are buried in the ground. In many cultures in the past, people were buried with food, weapons, jewelers, and other things that might be useful in the next life. For example, the ancient Egyptians buried people with little human figures made from clay. This clay figures were supposed to work the death person in the other world. A religious group called the parses exposed their dead on platforms for birds to eat. Some people practice a second burial. After the bodies have been in the earth for several years, the bones are dug up and reburied, sometimes in a small container.

These are just a few of the many different customs that are found in different culture. Most of times, the different ways that are the customs of different cultures are neither right nor wrong. It is simply that different people do the same things in different ways

The scope of culture has been widened. The previous view of culture as “intellectual refinement” and “artistic endeavor” has been extended to encompass “the ways of life of a society”. In other word, notion of the culture in language education has been expanded from “culture with a big C” to “culture with a small c”. “Culture with a big C” focuses on the “sum total of， a people’s 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 to 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.” （梁焕强,2003：58）There was a consensus between many language educators that a distinction between “big C” culture and “small c” culture should be made and that the priority should be shifted from the former to the latter in language education.

“Culture” in the contemporary teaching of languages includes these aspects, but much more attention is paid to the everyday life style of ordinary citizens and values, beliefs, and prejudices they share with their fellows within their linguistic and social groups, with due attention to intragroup differences.

By cultural background knowledge, as the term suggests, it is the knowledge about culture in the English-speaking countries’ life background. According to American linguistician Charles Carpenter, cultural background knowledge is the knowledge about culture, which is connected with people’s daily life. It includes the national traditional culture, customs, history, geography, and so on. Each culture has its own cultural background.

In the perennial search to determine what it is that makes discourse in a foreign language to understand, attention has focused during the 1980s on the background of communication: if you do not have that background knowledge and those shared cultural values which enable speakers who are member of the same speech community to communicate easily with each other, then you will find problems in understanding discourse in the foreign language.

What is culture? Hundreds of definitions can be found in the literature on culture. Following the definitions of sociologists and anthropologists, culture refers to the total pattern of beliefs, customs, institutions, objects, and techniques that characterize the life of a human community. “Culture consists of all the shared products of human society” (Robertson, 1981:126). In this sense, it means not only such material things as cities, organizations and schools, but also non-material things such as ideas, customs, family patterns, and languages. Putting it simply, culture refers to the entire way of life of a society, “the ways of a people.” Culture is a national phenomenon. Each nation has been living in its unique geographical and

historical framework in which a unique culture has been established and is developing. As there are no two languages in the world, which are identical in every way, there are no two cultures that are the same in every aspect. There are differences or contrasts between English and Chinese cultures. B. What is language?

We use language every day. We live in a world of words. Hardly any moment passes without someone talking, writing or reading. But what is language? Most linguists agree that language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. All human languages have some important properties in common like this: systematic, arbitrary, symbolic, vocal, used for communication.

C. The Relationship between Language and Culture

Gudykunst and Kim classify intercultural communication as “a transactional, symbolic process involving the attribution of meaning between people from different cultures” (Gudykunst and Kim 1992:13-14). Different nations use different languages, so there will be loss or misunderstanding during interpreting. Language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. It can represent every aspect of culture. Human knowledge, experience, customs, habits and behavioral patterns, social institutions, value systems, beliefs, world views all can be described and evaluated in language. So language is the carrier and container of culture. Without language, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture. In the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking.

III. The importance of cultural background knowledge in English teaching A. Necessity of cultural background knowledge in listening comprehension Maybe we have this experience: when we are listening to something familiar to us, whatever is concerned, usually we are easy to understand. Even if there are some new words in the material, we are able to guess their meanings according to its

context. However, when we encounter some unfamiliar material or something closely related to cultural background, we may feel rather difficult. Even if the material is easy, we only know the literal meaning, but can’t understand the connotation, because we lack knowledge of cultural background. Here is a sentence from a report: “The path to November is uphill all the way.” “November” literally means “the eleventh month of year”. But here refers to “the Presidential election to be held in November”. Another example is “red–letter days”—which is a simple phrase and is easy to hear, meaning holidays such as Christmas and other special days. But students are often unable to understand them .without teacher’s explanation. Below are two jokes often talked about by Americans: 1. A: Where are you from? B: I’ll ask her. (Alaska)

A: Why do you ask her? 2. A: Where are you from? B: How are you? (Hawaii)

A may think B has given an irrelevant answer. But if A knew something about knowledge of the USA and the names of two states of the USA—Alaska and Hawaii, he would not regard “Alaska” as “I’ll ask her”, or “Hawaii” as “How

are you”. In view of this, the introduction of cultural background is necessary in the teaching of English listening.

B. Necessity of cultural background knowledge in oral English

Likewise, speaking is not merely concerned with pronunciation and intonation.

Students can only improve their oral English and reach the aim of communication by means of enormous reading, mastering rich language material and acquaintance of western culture. Therefore, in oral training, teachers should lay stress on factuality of language and adopt some material approaching to daily life, such as daily dialogues with tape, magazines, newspapers and report etc., because the material is from real and it helps students to be well acquainted with standard pronunciation and intonation, to speak English appropriate to the occasion, to understand western way of life and customs etc. Otherwise, misunderstanding and displeasure are inevitably aroused. Let’s look at some examples.

Many fixed English ways of expression cannot be changed randomly. For example, the answer to “How do you do?” is “How do you do?” When asking price, people usually say,” How much, please?” instead of: “How much do you charge me? Or” How much do I owe you”; when paying bill, “Waiter, bill please.” Instead of

“Excuse me, sir. We’re finished eating. How much is it, please?” When asking the other one’s name on the telephone, “Who’s speaking, please?” or “Who is it, please?” Instead of “Who are you?” “Where are you?” What’s your surname?” or “What is your unit?” In English, there are so many euphemisms that sometimes it’s hard to know the other one’s actual mood. So we should pay attention to our answer. For example, when one ask: “How do you like the film?” and the other answer: “I think it’s very interesting”, it shows he doesn’t like it very much instead of the literal meaning “very interesting”. When one asks: “What do you think of my new coat?” and the other answers: “I think the pocket is very nice”, it also shows his dislike. In America and England, usually people don’t say unpleasant words to one’s face, they always say pleasant words to the full or evade direct answering, saying “I don’t know.” For example, when one asks, “Do you like our teacher”, you may answer: “ Well, I don’t know him very well.” Sometimes out of his politeness, when meeting unfamiliar people, he may conceal his true feelings. For example, A asked B: “How are you?” Although B had got a bad cold, his answer was “Fine, thank you”, but not “Not very well, I’m afraid” or other similar answers.

During oral communication, speakers need standard pronunciation and intonation, as well as the suitable use of language for the occasion. There are

numerous examples that we could cite of expressions that are correct according to grammatical rules, but unsuitable for the occasion. Once, after a student gave a lecture, he asked a foreign visitor for his advice. He said like this, “I am desirous

of exploring your feeling on the lecture”—which caused the foreign visitor’s surprise. He said: “Your English is too beautiful to be true.” But the student refused to accept the comment. He said the sentence was extracted from the book. The visitor explained that phrases like” desirous of exploring your feelings” were not fit for spoken language, which should be replaced by “I’d like to hear your views on the lecture” or “May I have your views on the lecture?” A person comforted a bereaved young wife, “I’m terribly sorry to hear that your husband has just died, but don’t let it upset you too much. You’re an attractive young woman. I’m sure you’ll find someone else soon.”

Although the words accord with grammatical rules, they cannot be applied in communication, and at the same time, they betray the social customs. As people are diverse, customs are diverse. It is only natural then that with differences in customs, differences often arise in using of language. For example, when someone praise your English is very good, American and Chinese replies to compliments are different. According to Chinese customs, they generally murmur some reply about not being worthy of the praise, while according to American customs, they tend to accept the compliment with the pleasure. The reply likes “No, I don’t speak good English” — Americans think which seems to criticize the other side, is impolite. C. Necessity of cultural background knowledge in reading

Reading English articles requires a certain language basis, but the competence of reading comprehension is not entirely related to one’s language level. Knowledge of cultural background is also important. Reading is a process affected by integration of one’s language knowledge, cultural background knowledge and other professional knowledge, and a process of continuous guesses and corrections according to available language material, cultural background and logical reasoning. Generally speaking, Chinese people study Chinese without the difficulties aroused by cultural background.

D. Necessity of cultural background knowledge in writing and translation Similarly, writing and translating cannot be separated from cultural background knowledge. In translation, even the very simple expressions cannot be dealt with without any consideration of specific context and customs. We shall take the word “dog” as an example. To English-speaking people, the dog does not carry the same associations as it does to Chinese. The dog is considered to be derogatory, for example, \走狗\，\癞皮狗\，\狗崽子\，\狗头军师\disgusting people. But dog in English, especially in proverbs, is a commendatory term If we translate dog into Chinese“狗” without exception, we may make jokes. For example:

1. Every dog has his day.

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