The Role of English Culture in English Teaching in Middle School1

1、the role of english culture in english teaching in middle school contentsabstract1key words.1i. the relation of culture and language1ii. the importance of culture in language teaching4iii. part three: the purpose of learning culture.7iv. the way of fostering the students culture.84.1 ways of encoura

2、ging students interest in culture84.2 ways of improving students culture94.2.1 literature94.2.2 film and television94.2.3 reading.104.2.4 teachers.10v. goals.12vi. conclusion13references.13摘 要： 文化知识在英语教学中起到非常重要的作用，对英语学习者有很大的帮助。文化知识的提高可以帮助学生提高英语实际交际能力，避免在生活中出现尴尬情况。在实际生活中，一个好的师生关系是非常重要的，所以老师和学生要相互尊重。如

3、果老师过于严厉 那么他的学生就会失去学习的兴趣和动力。另一方面来说， 如果老师过于友好和谦让，那么学生就会变的越来越懒惰不向学习了。作为第二语言的老师应该了解文化知识在他们所教课程中的作用，只有把文化和所教课程紧密联系起来才能使学生熟练运用第二语言。 关键字：文化 语言 交际 英语教学 背景 信息 动机abstract: cultural knowledge plays a very important role in teaching of english, it can help english learner. the improvement of cultural knowledge

4、can help students to improve the actual communication ability, and avoid awkward in really life. in order to have a good teacher-student relationship, it is important that the teacher a and the student respect each other. if the teacher is too strict, de frightens the student, the students will not

5、learn well. on other hand, if the teacher is too friendly and permissive, the student may become lazy and stop working hard. second language teachers should identify key cultural items in every aspect of the language that they teach. students can be successful in speaking a second language only if c

6、ultural issues are an inherent part of the curriculum.key words: culture language community english teaching background words nation information motivationi. the relation of culture and language in our life language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language, the two are intricatel

7、y interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture. culture is a way of life. culture is the context within which we exist, think, feel, and relate to others. it is the“glue”that binds a group of people together. several centuries ago, john

8、 donne (1624) had this to say about culture in his devotions upon emergent occasions (number 17) no man is an island , entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent ,a part of the main； any mans death diminishes me , because i am involved in mankind；and therefore never send to know for who

9、m the bell tolls；it tolls for thee.culture is our continent, our collective identity. larson and smalley(1972：39)described culture as a “blueprint”that guides the behavior of people in a community and is incubated in family life, it governs our behavior in groups, makes us sensitive to matters of st

10、atus, and helps us know what other expect of us and what will happen if we do not live up to their expectation. culture helps us to know how far we can go as individuals and what our responsibility is to the group. different cultures are the underlying structures that make round community round and

11、square community square.culture might be defined as the ideas, customs, skills, arts, and tools that characterize a given group of people in a given period of time. but culture is more than the sum of its parts. “it is a system of integrated patterns, most of which remain below the threshold of cons

12、ciousness, yet all of which govern human behavior just as surely as the manipulate strings of a puppet control its motions”(condon 1973：4) “integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, languages, practices, beliefs, values, customs, courtesies, rituals, manners of int

13、eracting and roles, relationships and expected behaviors of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group; and the ability to transmit the above to succeeding generations” (goode, sockalingam, brown, & jones, 2000).from that we can understand language is not only part of how we define culture, it also

14、 reflects culture. culture is not only like the definition, it have a much broader concept that is inherently tied to many of the linguistic concepts taught in second language classes. george peter murdock (1961:45-54) cites seven “universal” of cultural patterns of behavior: 1. they originate in th

15、e human mind; 2. they facilitate human and environmental interactions;3. they satisfy basic human needs;4. they are cumulative and adjust to changes in external and internal conditions:5. they tend to form a consistent structure;6. they are learned and shared by all the members of a society;7. they

16、are transmitted to new generations. culture is defined by many people; in fact, every person can own himself opinion about culture. culture can not only be a concept, but it must as an environment and influence on people life. from another aspect language as cultural representation, it has many mean

17、s. many people give a lot of definitions, for example:language is a system of arbitrary, vocal symbols which permit all people in a given culture, or other people who have learned the system of that culture, to communicate or to interact (finocchiaro 1964:8). language is a system of communication by

18、 sound, operating through the organs of speech and hearing, among members of a given community, and using vocal symbols possessing arbitrary conventional meanings (pei 1966:141). language is any set or system of linguistic symbols as used in a more or less uniform fashion by a number of people who a

19、re thus enabled to communicate intelligibly with one another (random house dictionary of the english language 1966:806).language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication (wardhaugh 1972:3).language is any means, vocal or other, of expressing or communicating felling or tho

20、ught. a system of conventionalized signs, especially words, or gestures having fixed meanings (websters new international dictionary of the english language 1934;1390). language is a systematic means of communication ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks

21、having understood meanings (websters third new international dictionary of the english language 1961:1270).still other common found definitions found in introductory textbooks on linguistics include the concepts of (1) the generatively or creativity of language, (2) the presumed primacy of speech ov

22、er writing, and (3) the universality of language among human beings.a consolidation of the definitions of language yields the following composite definition.1. language is systematic and generative.2. language is a set of arbitrary symbols.3. those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual

23、.4. the symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer.5. language is used for communication. 6 language operates in a speech community or culture.7. language is essentially human, although possibly not limited to humans.8. language is acquired by all people in much the same way language

24、 and languages learning both have universal characteristics.learning of english language not only understands the language meaning, but also knows the language stand for the culture. students must know the culture knowledge and use the language; in fact, students cannot truly master the language unt

25、il they have also mastered the cultural contexts in which the language occurs. (national standards in foreign language education project, 1996, p. 27) in “language and human behavior” (bickerton, 1995) lanuuage received much unusual credit. bickerton point out that the term language has been put to

26、a varietyof uses as well as misuse, as in language of flowers or body language of a person, so many people confuse language with communication. certainly anything that communication may be called a language because it derives from the ides that in language they can do nothing but communicate. howeve

27、r, language has additional capabilities such as storing information or carrying out thinking process. human suddenly acquired language and the emergence of language directly led to the development of intelligence and unexampled revolution in human history. language is a social phenomenon, and each l

28、anguage stands for one culture. to some extent, language and culture develop simultaneously as an idea is firmly held that language occupies a very special position in culture when we compared them.language mirrors culture. culture can be desirables as a blueprint that guides the behavior of people

29、in a community. language and culture are not separable. language is a part of culture and it is influenced and shaped by culture. just as sapir said: “language is a guide to social reality.” so english teaching must pay attention to the culture, the culture is a key element of english teaching, teac

30、her frost students increase language and culture knowledge. ii. the importance of culture in language teachingboth learner and teachers of second language need to understand cultural differences, to recognize openly that everyone in the world is not “just like me,” that people are not all the same b

31、eneath the skin. there are real differences between groups and cultures. we can learn to perceive to perceive those differences, appreciate them, and above all to respect, value, and prize the personhood of every human being.in english teaching process, english culture is different from chinese cult

32、ure, but in teaching process some english teachers only pay attention to english language knowledge, ignore the english culture teaching, and disregard the difference of culture between china and english. as a result our students only know one culture that is chinese culture. so when they are commun

33、icating with foreigners they use chinese traditional ideas and chinese expression. therefore, our students have good pronunciation、grammatical knowledge and vocabularies. but in real communication they cannot be prettied express, even misapprehend. how to solve it? language teaching must link with t

34、he culture teaching. chinese and english culture has many difference aspects. first, difference the same words in different situations. word is most active and animate factor in language, therefore sense of a word can show different culture. for example, in china red symbolizes of happiness, auspici

35、ous. but in western country people always associate it with the danger, blood and death.second, difference the grammatical structure. compared chinese structure with english structure we can find their differences. for example, in china “south” implicates respected、honor、high; “left” denotes mean an

36、d low. so “right ” in english expresses the correct、honest an praise. but “left ”always implicate dishonest、incorrect and stupid. third, difference the culture background. chinese and english have different background culture. in western country if people hear praise or compliments they never gloss

37、over their pleased mood. but in china when people hear some praises they always say modest words even belittle themselves. four, difference body language. in western country people always use some exaggerations body language to express their mood. for example, embrace or kiss and so on, express thei

38、r regards and goodbye. but in chinese people usually use “handshake”.between western country and chinese culture have many differences, so some time make some mistakes or misunderstands. some times we always come across culture shock. culture shock is common experience for a person learning a second

39、 language in second culture. culture shock refers to phenomena ranging from mild irritability to deep psychological panic and crisis. culture shock is associated with feelings in the learner of estrangement, anger, hostility, indecision, frustration, unhappiness, sadness, loneliness, homesickness, a

40、nd even physical illness. persons undergoing culture shock view their new world out of resentment and alternate between being angry with others for not understanding them and being filled with self-pity. edward hall (1959: 59) describes a hypothetical example of an american living abroad for the fir

41、st time:things in the cities look pretty much alike. there are taxis, hotels with hot and cold running water, theatres, neon lights, even tall building with elevators and a few people who can speak english. but pretty soon the american discovers that underneath the familiar exterior there are vast d

42、ifferences. when someone says “yes” it often does not mean “yes” at all, and when people smile, it does not always mean they are pleased. when the american visitor makes a helpful gesture, he may be rebuffed; when he tries to be friendly, nothing happens. people tell him that they will do things and

43、 do not .the longer he stays; the more enigmatic the new country looks. different nations have different historic develop tracks, as a good learner must comprehend the second language country culture and know the differences. for example, in china agriculture is most important, so people are familia

44、r with ox, because ox is used in agriculture everyday. but in english country they use horse for agriculture, so the horse replace the ox, in their mind only have idioms such as “eat like a horse” “a willing horse” “horse laugh” “horse sense” and so on. between china culture and english culture have

45、 the same conceptions, but their implied meanings are different. for example, in china “dragon” repression king, we chinese people admire a dragon and sing high praise for dragon, because dragons in china stand for auspicious luck. however, in western countries dragon means “evil”, “destructive”, sh

46、ould be wiped out, at the sometimes we have different attitudes to dog. in the west; dog means loyalty, braveness, wisdom, for example “love me, love my dog”, “top dog” and so on.in intercultural communication, even simple things such as saying “yes” or “no” are very important for different culture

47、a “yes” have many means, different things have many ways to say “no”. imagine an american businessman reviewing an important contract with his japanese counter part: the american says, “we are got to work together, the japanese with simile says, “hai”. we can understand in japanese “hai” stands for

48、“yes”. sometimes, different colors in different countries have different implications. generally speaking, red color represents festival, auspicious, lucky. but it represents pure love that white in the west, so in the wedding, the bride generally wears the white wedding gauze kerchief. so learning

49、english language must be familiar with their culture background.it is feasible to think of culture shock as one of four successive stages of acculturation: the first stage is the period of excitement and euphoria over the newness of the surroundings. the second stage-culture shock emerges as individ

50、uals feel the intrusion of more and more cultural differences into their own images of self and security. in this stage individuals rely on and seek out the support of their fellow countrymen in the second culture, taking solace in complaining about local customs and conditions, seeking escape from

51、their predicament.the third stage is one of gradual, and at first tentative and vacillating, recovery. this stage is typified by what larson and smalley (1972) called culture stress: some problems of acculturation are solved while other problems continue for some time. but general progress is made,

52、slowly but surely, as individuals begin to accept the differences in thinking and feeling that surrounding them, slowly becoming more empathic with other persons in the second culture.the fourth stage represents near or full recovery, assimilation or adoptions, acceptance of the new culture and self

53、-confidence in the “new” person that has developed in this culture.iii. the purpose of learning culture english as a language is used to pass information; some people use it very well. but some people cant do it very well, why? that because the background cultures are different, if you understand ba

54、ckground culture that you can communicate very successfully, in fact, english language is used to communicate, language give human being access to what was thought and experienced, as well as a way of passing new information to future generations. language is a part of culture; it also shapes and co

55、lors our experience around us.english culture must be used in english teaching. english culture is a key element to increase students knowledge and skills of intercultural communication. we should be known how to express our meanings when we communicate with foreigners. when we are writing an essay

56、the structure should be complete, the purport should be very clear. when somebody asks us some english customs we can tell them. samover and porter（1999）suggest the first step being good intercultural communication is to know your own culture and to know yourself. in other words. to reflect thoughtf

57、ully on how you perceive things and how you act on those perceptions. the second step, the more we know about the different cultural beliefs, values and attitudes of our global neighbors, the better prepared we will be to recognize and to understand the differences in their cultural behaviors.genera

58、lly speaking intercultural communication has three basic substances.first, world outlook is different from values. second, the language communication ability. third, the elements of non-language. through experiment, birdwhisted ray finds in the communication the non-language information account for 65%. it shows that in the communication the non-language element is very important. for example, ja