Cultural Background Knowledge And English Teaching Cultural Studies Essay

ethnic Background experience And side Teaching heathenish Studies EssayLanguage is a mirror which reflects the entire last, and every demesne has its own assimilation. Language learning is inseparable from the showing of heathen basis knowledge. Cultural ambit knowledge is very important in spoken nomenclature statement. Here I want to talk ab bring out the relationship amidst them and how to teach.I. IntroductionLanguage is a product of society, ethnical differences led to several(prenominal)what(prenominal) gruelingies speech communication learning, if you want to learn face as well, you must persist heathenish knowledge. Language learning is inseparable from the understanding of cultural accent knowledge. It is necessary for instructors to pass on cultural play down knowledge to students.II. Cultural primingknowledgeandsideprecept1. Problems aro utilize by variant cultural backgroundsCultural childs plays an important role in verbiage. They be thin k closely. Different countries have different dictions and cultures. Beca single-valued function of cultural differences, misunderstandings may arise, although the dustup designd in communication may be faultless. The same words or expressions may non mean the same thing to different peoples. Beca engross of cultural differences, a serious question may cause amusement or laughterA harmless statement may cause pettishness or anger. On the one hand, without vocabulary, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, phraseology is influenced and shaped by culture it reflects culture. Each culture is unique. Learning a alien address room more than exclusively mastering the pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms. It means learning the ways in which their diction reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society, learning to understand their language of the mind. Learning a language, in fact, is inseparable from learning its culture.In china, dragon means lucky, but in the foreigners eyes dragon is the embodiment of evil. In China, we bottom free to expect a persons age, salary, or an items price, in the West, this is very impolite.A foreign teacher see a female student wearing a fine-looking p be, she looks very nice. The teacher said happily, You look very beautiful right away The girl said shyly, nary(prenominal) no. This is an ordinary dress. The teacher praise a students English is pretty well, Your English is quite fluent. The student at erstwhile modestly said, No, no, my English is quite poor. The two Students answer is that the teacher neer thought and the teacher doesnt understand is that obviously female student wears the dress which looks pretty, the second students English is very costly, but why both of them say, No. They consider the teacher feel that they dont have their own opinions and dont know how to accredit what is good, what is bad.A student, he met a foreigner in the park, he would kindred to practice hi s own spoken language, he said, Whats your name? What atomic number 18 you doing present? Follow me The foreigner confused and thought that he did something wrong, and he had to be arrested and inquired.At last, let us see the following dialogues in numerous textbooks1. A Whats your name?B My name is Xiao Hong.A How old are you?B Im eleven.2. A Where are you going?B Im going to the zoo.In china, when people meet each other, they always say, Where are you going? ar you out? although people do not want to know where you go. every the above dialogues, although forms are correct, they are not appropriate. So in language article of belief, we should not just now pass on knowledge of language and propose learners competency of utilizing language, but also enhance precept of relative cultural background knowledge.2. Importance of cultural background knowledge in language teachingAs we all know, Language is a part of the culture, they can not be divide each other. thitherfore its necessary to understand the cultural background knowledge. In Modern high schools, the teachers mainly crop ability in sense of hearing, speaking, denotation and writing, the ultimate aim is to train students to use English communicate with each other, the four formulations are inseparable from the cultural background knowledge. Without language, culture would not be possible. Language is influenced and shaped by culture it reflects culture.Some people say that listening is an important aspect of communicative competence. Listening ability, reading ability, the listeners language skill, cultural background knowledge, intellection skill are closely related. If the language capability of the listener is comparatively strong, but he knows a little cultural background knowledge, it is difficult to understand the meaning of the listening materials, even he makes a slide in understanding. From this, culture plays an important role in English teaching. disquisition is not merely con cerned with pronunciation and into area. Students can only rectify their oral English and reach the aim of communication by means of enormous reading, mastering rich language material and acquaintance of westbound 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 life, and it benefactors students to be well present with standard pronunciation and intonation, to speak English appropriate to the occasion, to understand westbound way of life and customs etc. Otherwise, misunderstanding and displeasure are inevitably aroused. In English, there are so numerous euphemisms that sometimes its hard to know the other ones actual mood. So we should knuckle under worry to our answer.Reading English articles requires a certain language basis, but the competence of reading comprehension is no t entirely related to ones language level. Knowledge of cultural background is also important. You can guess the meaning jibe to available language material, cultural background and logical reasoning. However, when we read English articles, differences between Chinese and western cultures often bring us many difficulties.People always recognize which kind of articles wrote by foreigners, which kind of articles wrote by Chinese. There are common chord main reasons, first, the writers English level is not so high, second, Chinese and western have different thinking ways, third, the articles course is very different because of different cultural. These three aspects show cultural play an important role in writing. In writing, we often use some modifiers to enhance the color of the article, and the articles are so vivid. Western thinks the pack rat is not a sign of good luck, but Chinese think magpie is a symbol of celebration. People always say Magpie call, something good will be h appened. Therefore, cultural difference is the key that makes the articles be essential or not. If you want to achieve the level of writing of foreigners, you must obtain cultural background knowledge. Every aspects of language always reflects cultural, It means language learning and cultural background knowledge learning are not separated. The content of cultural is very abundant, in the teaching process, the teachers shall justify cultural background knowledge in any time, make the students take language and cultural knowledge into listening, speaking, reading, writing skills, so as to the students can comfortably communicate with foreigners and read foreign materials.Translating and writing cant be separated from cultural background knowledge. We shall take the word suction stop as an example. To communicatory people and Chinese, there are very different meanings. Lai Pi Gou and sing JiaZhiquan are often used to describe disgusting people. plainly dog in English, especial ly in proverbs, is a commendatory term. If we translate dog into Chinese dog without exception, we may make jokes. For example1. Every dog has his day.2. You are, indeed, a lucky dog.,3. Last night my father came home dog-tired.Because some learners are not well aware of the cultural differences, they take it for granted that the three sentences should be translated into the following1.--2.-3.--In fact, the right translations are as follows1.--2.3.It is put one over that cultural background knowledge is necessary in language teaching. Teachers should help students to solve the difficulties in language as well as in culture. Thus, teachers should further improve your quality of teaching. Especially you should teach cultural background knowledge as possible as you can.3. How to carry out the teaching of cultural background knowledgeFirstly teachers should choose proper teaching material. Especially the foreign material should be used, just uniform dialogues, next, teachers should ex plain cultural factors involved in the material with purpose. There is an example like thisHelen Hello, Susan, where are you going?Susan Im going to get a magazine and some chocolate.Helen Lets go to that newsvendor in the corner. I want some cigarettes.Susan I want to go the one down the road. Ive got to send off this serving and there is a stakes-office in that one.It tells us in England some newsagentthose shops not only sell sweets and cigarettes, but also install post office where people can send off letters and parcels. But in China, there are not such shops. If teachers dont explain for this, students may feel puzzled.Secondly, Teachers should take cultural background knowledge and English teaching into four aspects of language learning, they are listening, speaking, reading, writing skills. Teachers should crack up some tuition about cultural background knowledge in listening course. A lot of students listening level is not so high, not only because they do not grasp Eng lish words and their grammatical imagination is unclear but also they dont have cultural background knowledge. There are two jokes hereA Where are you from? B liverish ask her (Alaska) A Why do you ask her?A Where are you from? B How are you? (Hawaii)In the two jokes, to A, B do not understand question, but if you know the United States has two states Alaska and Hawaii, then A will not make a mistake. From this, in listening course, teachers give cultural background knowledge to students, not only enhance the listening skill of them, but also enable students to obtain knowledge. In reading course, teachers should explain cultural background knowledge. If you want to read, you must have English basic. Cultural background knowledge is so important.Thirdly, in the classroom, teacher should pay precaution to proper language forms as well as able use of language. One way of classroom teaching is to ask students to make similar dialogues to the text. A student inevitably needs to play a role and carry on a conversation according to a certain role. Teacher should attract the students attention to his role and point out his expressions which are improper for his character or the occasion. Furthermore, remind students to pay attention to details such as pronunciation, intonation, countenance wording, gesture etc.Fourthly, teachers should use good primal English videotapes and films in teaching, and then organize discussions. Teachers should use pictures, movies in teaching, students can easily understand some cultural background knowledge, and Western social and cultural factors.Fifthly, encourage students to communicate with native English speakers. But so far, we havent carried out such activities enough. In contact with native speakers, in such relaxed conversations, students can learn much knowledge, which cannot be learn in the classroom.Sixthly, hold some lectures about cultures and customs, comparing Chinese culture with western culture.In teaching, teache rs should pay attention to cultural differences and study these differences. As English teachers, we should not only help students to learn a foreign language, but also to learn social and cultural background knowledge. wholly so, students can widen their knowledge and thus further learn English well.III. ConclusionLanguage is a mirror which reflects the entire culture, and every nation has its own culture. Language learning is inseparable from the understanding of cultural background knowledge. Language is a product of society, cultural differences led to many difficulties language learning, if you want to learn English as well, you must grasp cultural knowledge. It is necessary for teachers to pass on cultural background knowledge to students. In short, there are great differences between Chinese and Western culture, language and culture are inseparable, if you do not understand the foreign language and cultural background, you can not correctly understand and use language. non only enable students to master the basic knowledge, but should also prove cultural Background Knowledge in teaching, so that they learn and spot from different social background, cultural practices, political systems of the people live in harmony, so as to really reach in English teaching purposes