英语专业毕业论文浅谈文化教学

浅谈文化教学 XXX 摘要：语言，作为文化的主旨，与文化密切相关。学习一种语言不能与其文化相分离。而在高中教学中传统的教学模式常常会忽视文化教学的内容。本论文将会介绍文化教学的定义，文化教学的原则，以及文化与语言，文化教学与语言教学的关系等。并通过分析现阶段高中英语文化教学中所存在的问题提出一些可行性的解决方案和建议，从而更好的促进文化教学在高中教学的应用。 关键词：文化教学 高中英语 英语教学 ContentsIntroduction1I. Importance of Culture Teaching31.1 The definition of Culture.31.2 The relationship between Language and Culture41.3 culture teaching and language teaching5 The situation of Culture Teaching in the senior high school62.1 The requirement of Chinese foreign language teaching syllabus62.2 The misconception of English culture teaching72.3 Limitation of English Teaching method82.4 Incompetence of English teachers9III Strengthening Culture Teaching in Senior English Teaching and Learning113.1 The methods of Culture Teaching113.1.1 Direct lead-in113.1.2 Role-play113.1.3 Duty speech113.1.4 Discussion123.1.5 Applying the mass-media123.1.6 Extra tasks123.2 The principles of Culture Teaching133.2.1. Principle of communication133.2.2. Principle of cultural background143.3.3. Principle of Moderation143.3 Strategies of Culture Teaching at leisure time153.3.1 Extensive Reading153.3.2 Watching movies163.3.3 Using the Internet16Conclusion18References20 Introduction Language, as the keystone of culture, is closely connected with it. Learning language cannot be separated from learning its culture. When learning a foreign language, we should not only learn the pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar , but also learn to understand the world as the native speakers do. In other words, we should try to learn the ways in which the foreign language reflects the values, ideas and behaviors, furthermore, to learn their language in mind. Therefore, we need to know the cultural background as much as possible so that we can get a successful communication in a target language. Otherwise, the ignorance of cultural difference may create barriers, even some unnecessary misunderstanding .In China, most of the teachers in senior high school deem that pass the university entrance examination is the goal of English Teaching. So that they fellow the traditional methods, which only focus on grammar teaching, but ignore the Culture Teaching. As a result, the learners recite the words in the book but lack communicative competence.What s more, after several years English learning, they still cannot speak out free and proper communication in English.Because of the problems above, experts from abroad brought the audio-lingual method and the communicative method, to Chinese classes, but it was not as satisfied as they had expected. They got two reasons: firstly ,because of the mother tongue, when students have difficulties in English they would always like to use it. And the great different cultural gap between text books and their daily life is so hard for them to put what they have learnt into the real practice; Secondly, the influence of traditional teaching ways and the pressure of many kinds of tests and examinations can not arouse students interest and promote their motivation. And then we can not achieve the purpose of language learning: communication. In all, Culture Teaching plays an important role in senior English teaching and students will benefit a lot from it. . I. Importance of Culture Teaching1.1 The definition of Culture Simply put, culture is a system of meaning. (Linen davis ,1999)As we have seen, culture is complex. There are many definitions of culture. Different scholars from different fields percept culture differently. Up to now, there are no well-defined definitions of culture. According to Kroeber and K1uckJohns statistical work, there are more than 150 definitions. Here are only some representative and popular ones:Edward B. Tylor, a nineteenth-century English anthropologist, gives a first definition of culture in his Primitive Culture culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, laws, customs, and other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Even now, the conception of culture has been considered as one of the most classic and precise definitions, which covers most of ways of life of a society. From then on, many definitions of culture have been put forward and tried to make it more comprehensive.Culture may be defined as what a society does and thinks. (Sapir, 1921) Culture is mans medium; there is no aspect in human life that is not touched and altered by culture. This means personality, how people express themselves including shows of emotion, the way they think, how they move, how problems are solved, how their cities are planned and laid out, how transportation systems function and are organized, as well as how economic and government systems are put together and function.(Edward T. Hall, 1959).Culture is seen to involve patterns of everyday life that enable individuals to relate totheir place under the sun. (Seelye, 1981:3)Culture is far more than a mere catalogue of rituals and beliefs. (Rosaldo, 1984) Sheexplains that cultural models derive from the world in which people live and the reality that they construct. All above ideas termed culture differently. But put their ideas together, we could get the conception of culture from three level: material culture, social culture and ideological culture. 1.2 The relationship between Language and Culturelanguage and culture are inseparable and influence eacher. Language is important carrier of culture and originates from culture. Culture is a complex concept that includes language. On the one hand, language is the keystone of culture .First, language is part of culture. Language is created by human and it indicate the difference between mankind and animal. A man with the capability of language must live in a language environment. Only in this case，he can acquire the language. To master a language, one must live in the cultural environment, and make effort to learn the culture. Second, language can record culture and promote the development of culture. Without language, they maintain culture could be impossible. On the other hand, culture is the base of language. The American humanist Spair explained his opinions in On Culture that language owns its base. (Spair145) In other words, groups of people coming from one or several ethnic groups speak the same language. Thus this language can pass down from generation to generation. And meanwhile, it is also the reflection of the whole culture of their life and customs.In sum, culture is related to language and vice versa. Culture and language are inseparable to each other, and the understanding of one requires the understanding of the other.1.3 culture teaching and language teachingThe relationship between culture and language is inseparable. It leads to language teaching and culture teaching closely connected. Culture is highly significant in foreign language teaching and learning. Politzer (1959) states view as this: if we teach language without teaching at the same time the culture in which it operates, we are teaching meaningless symbols or symbols to which the student attaches the wrong meaning.; similarly, Byram (1989) holds that culture learning and language learning can not take place independent of each other. Generally speaking, the relationship between language teaching and culture teaching is the same as purpose and means. Culture teaching is means, it serves language teaching. As we know, the purpose of learning a foreign language is communicating with the people speaking that language, that is, for the purpose of intercultural communication. Culture teaching aims at strengthening but not weakening language teaching. Only through instilling cultural elements in class can students acquire English language well.Yet, language teaching provides the conditions for culture teaching. Without mastery of language, learners cannot learn culture well. So culture teaching and language teaching are interactive and mutually supportive. The situation of Culture Teaching in the senior high school2.1 The requirement of Chinese foreign language teaching syllabusThe new syllabus for Senior High School English points out that the aim of English teaching in senior high school is to develop the students comprehensive ability of using the language, which is based on the students language skill (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and language knowledge (phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, function ). while culture awareness (culture knowledge, culture understanding, intercultural communication and culture ability ) ensures the appropriate use of the language. The develpoment of communicative ability as one of the aims of English teaching is stressed in syllabus. And culture awareness is proposed initially to be part of the content of English teaching in the syllabus. There is not a obvious boundary among language skill, language knowledge, affect, learning strategies and culture awareness, so the syllabus is a flexible standard for English teachers.In order to achieve the ultimate goal of English teaching in senior high school, culture language can not be ignore, just as each language can not be separate from its own culture. The lack of knowledge of ones own culture will lead to meaningless communication or failures.Nowadays, the Chinese situation of English teaching is that the culture and language are badly unbalanced. We can see them in the aspects below. 2.2 The misconception of English culture teachingNowadays, although many scholars have propose the necessity of culture teaching, some senior high schools still adopt traditional teaching concepts. English teachers pay more attention to students ability to get high score, but less to their ability of communication. As a result, students just focus on writing and listening, but not speaking, which makes them unable to catch the step of the social development. For many years, a teacher taught students only with a textbook and an old teaching case. Most people think that language consists of phonetics, grammar and lexicon. So when English teachers are teaching English, they pay more attention to language form, structure, grammar but ignore the vast sea of culture behind. And English teachers spend more time on discussing the grammatical rules, which causes students have less interested in learning English. The aim they learn English is just to get high scores inexam. English teachers neglect culture s role in classroom. Students are the owners of classroom, teachers should help them to find ways to solve problems but not let them think and learn under teachersthought. However, many Chinese teachers of English in the senior high schools consider that the brief introduction before each unit is culture teaching. They do not aware culture teaching is an important part of communicative competence. In fact, the emphasis throughout is on learning rather than teaching in class.Currently, senior high English shows a vivid world for students. It has wide materials selection, most of the reading parts in each unit are related to all aspects of social life and provide the typical knowledge of culture background all over the world. Such as: Marco Polo, Helen Keller，Albert Einstein, Modern Heroes and History Makers, The Silk Road, City of Pompeii, the New Zealand. As an English teacher his duty is not only help students to grasp key points of each part, but also guide them to understand the culture information. So that, when the students learn the language, they could feel the culture of foreign countries and broaden their horizons. 2.3 Limitation of English Teaching methodBeing lack of cultural awareness, teachers usually explain grammar to the students and ask them to copy sentences. At the same time, students write the notes, hardly have chance to speak or discuss. Because English teachers use the method focusing on grammar, students are weak in writing and reading, let alone speaking. Without English cultural accumulation, students mode of English thought is weak. So many students are not interested in learning English.A good teaching design is the art of mixing techniques, activities and materials. When planning lessons, we should realize each lesson should include various kinds of learning activities. This will arouse students interest and increase their motivation in English. Such as role play and short speech are important in English class, because they give all students a chance to benefit, furthermore during the students prepare for them, they will search and learn the cultural knowledge by themselves. Each student has a different way of learning. But in most cases, teachers in senior high school use only one type of activity. Most of the activities are the traditional types, such as reading the dialogue, reciting texts, doing translation. These activities for the students are fixed where students feel deadly bored instead of appreciating them and accepting them.How should be carried out cultural input in English teaching? Diversifying methods of language teaching is a most important thing .The action of teaching and learning is carried out by teachers and students. In the last years, teaching was always referred to teaching content, teaching methods and teaching materials. There was not much discussion about what to learn and how to learn. However, teaching can be defined as: Helping somebody learn something by giving information about it; showing someone how to do something so that they be able to do it themselves. Under the situation of develop the students communicative competence, the traditional teaching method that the teachers teach and the students recite should be changed. It should turn to that the students learn mainly and the teachers play a guide role, enabling the students to learn. At the same time, teachers should improve double-culture study; enhance their comprehensive abilities to double cultures. Furthermore，teachers should develop their abilities of expressing native cultures in English .Only if the teachers have both two abilities, they can guide students to study in the process of teaching, arouse students learning activity effectively，and direct students to solve problems by themselves. Learning language is not fixed, but flexible, only if we carry out Bi-directional Interaction between teacher and student, the process of English learning can turn to the process of cultural learning and cultural communication.2.4 Incompetence of English teachersNowadays most of English teachers in China have been trained through the teaching approaches. But instead of an English environment outside the classroom, they have the overloaded work, the pressure of exam and the less opportunities to live and study abroad. As state above teachers need for enlarge development opportunities. There is no doubt that teacher development is essential in culture learning.Because of some historical reasons, there exists a popular phenomenon that many teachers who are non-college-graduators are teaching English in senior high schools. It is very clear that many English teachers lack cultural knowledge basis. We Chinese study English in Chinese culture context. So Chinese students have many different problems in language using. These problems are different from grammar problems, they are not always a firm and unalterable ones. we call them as“cultural mistakes” . As we know, color words always have many connotations. Lets take “red” as an example. Generally, “red” stands for a symbol of celebration and happiness in China as well as in the western countries on some occasions. Such as “paint the town red” means to go out and have a revel, usually celebrate something, and “red letter day ” is a special day to celebrate and commemorate . While, in Chinese, it give people another image of revolution and socialism, such active things. In English, its meaning different from Chinese. For example: “red flag” is used to referring a dangerous signal and “in the red” means to have a debit side of an account. So teacher should be familiar with the culture, especially the westerners tendency of thought and appreciation. Meanwhile, a teacher should stress this to the students, through which they will communicate effectively in the cross-culture environment. But in many areas, especially rural areas, English teachers begin to learn English when they were adults. Many teachers themselves do not have accumulation of foreign culture, nor do know how to teach it effectively in a class. And English teachers don t notice foster studentsinterest in English. The poor cultural incorporation becomes an obstacle for the teachersown further improvement of English teaching. Therefore, currently English teachers in senior high school are not fully competent, they impart the grammar but not the cultural awareness and training of effective learning strategies into their students. Actually as English teachers, it is not enough to teach students how to speak and listen to English or how to read and write in English. He/she should at the same time infiltrate strong cultural awareness into students mind and try to build up their interests and confidence in learning English. This has become part of our teaching aims. III Strengthening Culture Teaching in Senior English Teaching and Learning3.1 The methods of Culture TeachingDuring the culture teaching, English teachers can take the following different teaching methods:3.1.1 Direct lead-inWhen the studengts meet something within cultural background in the text, they are always puzzled. because they rarely touch it after class. In terms of this, English teachers should prepare some typical cultural informations about the text and make good use of them in class. So that the English lesson will be more interesting and more colorful. Furthermore, the students will become more active and have more eager to learn.3.1.2 Role-playRole-play will help students to make good use of materials. There are some texts appearing in the form of scripts, which we can make good use to perform, like “The million pound bank note ” from senior high English book3. During role-play the foreign culture will give students deep impression. The students also can write some small stories in this way they will totally be immersed in another new world.3.1.3 Duty speech Duty speech is an activity for students to choose any topic they like to talk about, which is always done by students at the beginning of the class. Its a good way to develop students interest in English culture because they can explore the topics by themselves. In this way, students can not only practice their oral English, but also help them to understand English culture. They can choose topics related to the textbook, which is a perfect way for students to get cultural background. Certainly, they can choose topics which they are interested without considering if the topics are related to what they are learning.3.1.4 DiscussionDiscussion is a good way to practice oral English. A group-learning environment, can lead students to learn and improve their oral expression. During disscussin they can convey their own ideas and learn more from each other. At last, they will get a relatively complete and vivid picture of foreign culture. For example, when they learn “Christmas Day ”, they can first talking about the customs of Christmas Day in the west, then it will become much easier to continue the text.3.1.5 Apply