英语教学中的文化教育

中学英语教学中的文化教育摘要：语言是文化的载体和表现形式。

语言离不开文化，文化又存在于语言当中。

英语教学应当包括英语文化教学。

如果在英语教学中只重视语言知识的教育而忽视文化教育，其结果使培养出来的学生不可能真正掌握英语知识，跨文化交际能力也无从谈起。

本文阐述了文化教育是实现运用语言进行交际的关键，语言的得体性离不开社会文化知识。

因此要加强英语教师对文化教育重要性的认识，从而培养学生具备较强的跨文化交际能力。

关键词：文化教育;英语教学;跨文化交际Cultural Education in the EnglishTeaching of middle school studentAbstract:Language is the carrier and the expression of culture ,Language can not stand alone without culture, culture exists in languages.English teaching should include the English culture teaching,If English teaching only emphasize the education of the knowledge of language and ignore the cultural education, it will result in making the trained students can not really master the English knowledge,and the competence of Intercultural communication cannot mention either.Culture education is the key to achieve the communication by using language.Gentle and Courteous of language relate with social cultural knowledge.So we have to strengthen the English teachers's recognition of the importance of cultural education.Thus cultivate students to have strong ability for the cross-cultural communication.keywords:Cultural education; English teaching; Cross-cultural communicationIndroduction：Along with the English gradually become an international language,the number of people in our country get to learn English will be more and more.But the main purpose of middle school student learning English is seems to overcome the barrier of communication. However, compared with the language barrier, the cultural barriers in the cultural exchange is harder to cross, while the latter are often ignored by language learners.In fact, there are three elements of English learning,basic knowledge of Language, language skills and cultural background knowledge.These three complement from each other, closely related.English teaching is not only a linguistic knowledge teaching, and more it should include the diffusion of cultural knowledge.if we Want to let the students learn English well, Not a single one can be omitted from the three.I. The Necessity of Cultural Education1.1 Cultural differences are obstacles of cross-cultural communication obstaclesThe process of modernization accelerated the circulation of spiritual and materialproduction.It Will make each nation into a common "global village",Intercultural communication has become each nation indispensable part of our life.However, cultural differences are the obstacles of cross-cultural communication , overcoming the barriers of cultural differences communication has become the problem the whole world are facing.If an enterprise want to make their products sell well ininternational market, it need not only excellent economic and technical skill, but also need good understanding of the culture of other countries.which Make thisproduct meetspeople's psychological need in packaging design and practical aspects .The Chinese also proud of being descendants of the dragon ,However, in the eyes ofwest,they has no emotion to the dragon.they will even consider "dragon" as a terrible monsters .Imagine that if an entrepreneur do not well understand it ,sell the"dragon" pattern of the products to the international market, how can this product stimulate the temptation to the west? how can it create benefit to the enterprises ?1.2 Culture education is the key to achieve the communication by using languageDevelopment of communicative ability is the ultimate goal of nguage ability is the basis of communicative ability.However, having the language ability doesn't mean have communicative ability.More and more people have reached a consensus, namely ,the communicative competence should include five aspects:Four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) Add social ability (i.e.the appropriate communication ability of the people with different cultural backgrounds),But in the teaching, the teacher often attached much importance to the external form of language and the grammar structure, namely train students to build the sentence of grammatical rules .And ignore the social environment of language , especially cultural differences of language .lead to students do not know what should say in different occasion.Thus ignore students' communicative ability.therefore,the cultural differences of language was raised as an important problem in teaching.II.The content of Cultural EducationIn the English teaching practice, cultural differences and the interference of students mainly manifested in the following six aspects:2.1 The Connotation of VocabularyVocabulary is the foundation of the language and one of the three factors which is (phonetics, grammar, vocabulary) .it plays a veryimportant role in the English Teaching of middle schoolstudent,"Without grammar, studentcan't express a lot of things, and Without vocabulary, people cannot express anything."British famous linguists D A Wiking think that. interms of English learning. The vocabulary ability directly affects thelanguage skills improvement .Some students spend a lot of timememorizing words, but when they are In the practical application , theyCan't use the vocabulary in the certain cultural environmentcorrectly. Therefore, learning the vocabulary, is not the mechanicalmemory that spelling of words and the cognitive significance. But tounderstand the language vocabulary connect with the culturalbackground. Only when we understand the lexical culture connotationand the background and can we know how to use the languageaccurately.When talking about the reason of the differences between English vocabulary and culture in the English Teaching of middle schoolstudent ,we know that ,the life-style and the thinking-style in differentnationalities h ave the same side and the different side. Chinese and thewestern people living in different the cultural context, and this culturaldifferences cause different language phenomenon . Therefore ,Chineseand western culture differences are obviously appear in somevocabulary .roses . roses is the symbol of love and Happy in the Western. Thisidiom originally refers to the flower bed of a beautiful fragrant rose .itcan also extended to the meaning of Cozy and comfortableenvironment .Meanwhile, when we talk the meaning of "a green hand",it 's Literal meaning make chinese people confused. "How can a handbe a green hands? A ctually, it means the person who is still not skilledwith a work .In China-English intercultural communication, kinship terms often present because satisfactory equivalents are not always available. Thestatement linda's brother married Micheal's sister is not easy to renderin Chinese without further information about whether the brother isolder or younger than linda and whether the sister is Micheal's elderor younger sister.2.2 Ways of addressIn the teaching material" By pep" Lesson14 “The upstairs”, the apologetic sentence“I＇m sorry to trouble you，comrade．”"Comrade" is a call peculiar to the socialist countries .In the country ,they don't used the Sir and Madam to call strangers.If we and people of our state with comrade proportionality, they will feel puzzled.In English title. People usually use Mr, Mrs and Mr in the formaloccasions. British and American people often usually want people to call their name directly ,when they give Self-introduction at the first meeting, they will have their names called. For example I'm William Holland. But please call me Bill. Bill is abbreviated form of William.This Not only among the close friends , Adults and children can alsobe called names directly.In JEFC Book3 Lesson34 UncleWang＇s Factory,The students call a worker for "Uncle Wang ".This is the phenomenon of Chinese thinking.Chinese relatives appellation terms have the tendency of generalization use,Often used in between unrelated.Young people ofen call the elders "uncle", "aunt";and call the people of equals age "brother", "sister".But in China, the relatives appellation terms n will not widely used for socializing.If we call the elders “UncleSmith”、“AuntieBrown”,The other will feel weird to listen this.Only in the closely situation will they use such this relatives appellation terms and even without surname, with only name, such as "UncleTom",With only name, such as "UncleTom"in the culture.The students know the meaning is back "teacher".and also call the teacher whoes family name is "wang"as "teacher wang".In fact, teacher in China is only a career with the virtue of respect the teacher,"Teacher" has is more than a profession, and becomes a kind to the person's milnwood.Because of this cultural differences, student misunderstand it.Moreover,they also get used to call "Secretary Tang，Nurse Zhang"and so on.Other countries feel unimaginable to this .Western countries generally call people " Mr，Mrs ,Miss ".2.3 Idioms and proverbsIdioms ,proverbs, and sayings are an important part of the language and culture of a society. They are often hard to understand, especiallyidioms, and harder to use correctly .however ,their proper use in alanguage is often a mark of a person's command of the language.Speech or writing without them lacks color and is uninteresting, butoveruse or improper use makes the language sound affected andunnatural. It is often said that nothing marks a foreigner more than hisunnecessary use of idioms.An idiom is a phrase which is an established and fixed part of a particular language. Idioms are the essence of language; they bear theculture differences reflected in idioms are mainly shown in four aspects. They are differences in environment, custom, religion and history. Cultural differences have great influence on idiom formation, and the cultural factors in idioms are difficult points in idiom translation. To solve this problem, proper methods should be used to make the translated versions both keep the national features and convey the meaning of the original.For example: In English, we can not change the Idiom "leave no stone unturned" to "leave no brick unturned", "live from hand to mouth (subsistence) ", can not be written as "live from the hand to the mouth", or "live from a hand to a mouth". In Chinese, "uneasy" can not Translation for "six on the seven". A sampling of sayings is given below, some have been chosen because their pithy wisdom may particularly interest English speakers. a few may be similar in their message, but difficult to understand because their literal meaning is foreign to the English mind. "Frank advice is like good herbal medicine; hard to take, but ultimately beneficial. "no further explanation is need foe this, although it is likely that many people in the west have never take herbal medicine and can only imagine how bitter the taste canbe ."Neither adjust your shoe in a melon patch; or your hat under a plum tree." for the sake of rhythm, nor straighten your hat neath an apple tree.2.4 Greetings and farewellsTo learn English language knowledge, but also need to learn the culture of the English and American country. Only by understanding the cultural background and the knowledge of American countries, can we learn and use English language for cross-cultural communication correctly .In many aspects of daily life, there are some differences between Chinese and Western culture.2.5 Compliments and praiseWhen hear the praise, Americans tend to accept, but the Chinese but will be modest .Praise is the act that people make positive statement about other person. It will bring people more happy and health. Especially, children need praise very much. Their good performance will earn praise, and then, they will study harder. Because praise will increase their self-confidence. In daily life, we should use praise more. People will afftected by your praise and do a better job. After all, nobody likes criticism. So, don’t mean about your praise. It can bring you good relationship.Some words in Chinese is very well when praise, but when you speaking with foreigners, it will have the opposite effect. For example ,A foreigner go to the chinese ' house, when he see the flower of the owner grow very well, he show the expression of appreciation. But the owner say "I like flowers, but I don't know how to rear flowers. "Although he is modest to say the truth, Others would doubt that he do that only want to get the praise.Cultural differences also exist in who can be complimented. People often hear the American women talk about how hard their husbands work, And praise their children a clever child, what a good marks them make in school. In chinese, this would be considered bad taste, They will not praise the family members when talking with others. Chinese people do not like that his wife is praised by a man .The remark "your wife is lovely!" would be regarded as almost indecent by many people. But for Westerners, this is perfectly normal and natural.Westerners never be overly modest, they will be thankful to the compliment and show a belief of self-confidence.2.6 PrivacyWhen Chinese people met the first time they ask about age,it,They think these involve individual privacy.For example , there is such a dialogue in the JEFC Book1Lesson16 saying"“Howoldareyou，MrsRead？”“Ah，it＇sasecret！"Why Mrs Read refused to tell her age?Because the country people hope that they are energetic and young in each other's eyes . they like to hidden their ages, Especially the women.Chese people like to expressed their concern by ask（Whereareyougoing？) or （Whatareyoudoing？）.In the west, ask about people's privacy will not be welcomed.III. The method of cultural education3.1 Cultural education from the textbooksStrengthen the comparison of the differences between Chinese and western culture,make greetings, address, gratitude, humility, praise, expressed of concern and topics of conversation,values in chinese and western culture naturally permeate to the English teaching. In a word, a sentence , a dialogue, even an article.Identify the country's history, involving folk, science and technology, sports, celebrities, geography, big events and so on.3.11 Cultural education from the vocabulary teachingSocial and cultural life in each side will reflect the culture. Such as dog, is symbol of a man is best friend of a man in western culture, so it have the saying "Love me, Love my dog" And in Chinese culture, the dog is a slave and nidering followers. explain meanings of words in the cuturalbackground ,students can easily learn related words and use appropriately and effectively.3.12 Cultural education from the dialogue teachingLanguage is the carrier of culture. Because the differences of value , mode of thinking, ethics, religious beliefs, customs, social etiquette, lifestyle cause differences in language communication. If lack of knowledge in this aspect, probablywill not to judge and understand each other's word sconsciously with the nation's cultural standard, or communicate with foreigners in the nation's way . it is easy to produce misunderstanding.For example, the Chinese greeting people used to ask: "have you eatten?" He'll think that you wanted to go to dinner with him . while English people like to greet topic normally with weather, health, transportation, sports and hobbies .3.13 Help the students understand the culture of Nonverbal communicationIn daily life, people don't just using the language, and also through gestures and postures, clothing, such as the hairdo nonverbal language to convery a message, thoughts, and has a rich cultural connotation as language . These non-verbal language, mostly from conventional social acquisition, different countries, different nationalities have different posture language. If stick out your tongue, goes back again in Chinese ,it often is self-knowledge discourteous or lost, even in the way to embarrassing European people, this is an insult to others, even disdain and provocation. Teaching ishould let students understand some relevant posture language knowledge, inaddition ,make they know the importance of non-verbal communication and the different meanings in different culture background .3.2 Using the various channels and means to absorb and experience the foreign culture3.21 Collect some items and pictures of theEnglish nation and let students understand the foreign art, history and local customs.3.22 Use the English movies, television, video and other material to give students intuitive feeling. This not only help to show the image of the local customs of foreign to the students , but also can help with exercising the hearing of the students, and even help them to learn the authentic pure English.3.23 Organization English corner, English soiree etc, to create the various forms of language environment. Which can deepen the cultural knowledge of practical application and enables the student to deeper impression of the knowledge. And organizethe feast selectively according to the actual situation, make students well understanding the cultural atmosphere of the english-speaking countries.3.24 Make full use of English festivals to introduce a variety of English festivals to students .Conclusion :All in all, English language teaching can't simply note language teaching, and it must strengthen the indroduction of language and culture, pay attention to language cultural differences and it’s effect of language. Only in this way, can students correctly use the language in practice..。