英语毕业论文 文化背景知识和英语教学(4)

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.

百度搜索“77cn”或“免费范文网”即可找到本站免费阅读全部范文。收藏本站方便下次阅读，免费范文网，提供经典小说教师教学英语毕业论文 文化背景知识和英语教学(4)在线全文阅读。