Cultural Background Knowledge and English Teaching

主要讲文化背景对英语学习的影响,值得我们学习这一方面的知识

Cultural Background Knowledge and English Teaching

Once an American was visiting home of a Chinese. As the visitor saw the host‘s

wife, he said,― Your wife is very beautiful.‖ The host smiled and said:― Where?‖—wh

ich caused the American‘s surprise, but still he answered: ― Eyes, hair, nose…‖—an a

nswer that the host found a bit puzzling. The surprising was caused by different cultur

es. ―Where? Where?‖ meaning ―in Chinese is a kind of humble saying. But the Ameri

can understood it as ―Which parts of the body are beautiful?‖ So, the reason for both s

ides‘ misunderstandings was differences in customs and habits. Each was expressing a

nd understanding what the other said according to his or her culture.

Events like these are fairly common when people of different languages and cult

ures communicate. Because of cultural differences, misunderstandings may arise, alth

ough the language used in communication may be faultless. The same words or expre

ssions may not mean the same thing to different peoples. Because of cultural differenc

es, a serious question may cause amusement or laughtera harmless statement may cau

se displeasure or anger. Because of cultural differences, jokes by a foreign speaker ma

ybe received with blank faces and stony silence. Yet the same stories in the speaker‘s

own country would leave audiences holding their sides with laughter.

Language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. On the one han

d, without language, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is infl

uenced and shaped by culture; it reflects culture. In the broadest sense, language is the

symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural bac

kgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking. Langu

age and culture interact and understanding of one requires understanding of the other. Cultures differ from one another. Each culture is unique. Learning a foreign language

well means more than merely mastering the pronunciation, grammar, words and idio

ms. It means learning also to see the world as native speakers of that language see it, l

earning the ways in which their language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of t

heir society, learning to understand their ―language of the mind‖. Learning a language

, in fact, is inseparable from learning its culture.

However, it has been given not enough care to in our teaching for a long time. Althou

gh many students have acquired four skills—listening, speaking, reading and writing

according to the demand of our traditional syllabus, they often make mistakes in appli

cation of language to real life, because our teaching and teaching materials attach imp

ortance to language forms but ignore the social meanings of language forms and langu

age application in reality. We can see the following dialogues in many textbooks:

1. A: What‘s your name?

B: My name is Li Hong.

A: How old are you?

B: I‘m twenty.

A: Where do you come from?

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