Culture Input in English Language Teaching

1、英语学习中的文化导入culture input in english language teachingcontentsabstract.1key words.1i. introduction2ii. the concept of culture.4iii. the meaning of culture input in english language teaching5iv. the necessity and principles of culture input in english language teaching54.1 culture input in internationa

2、l communication.74.2 language is communication84.3 teaching is for communication. 8v. instructional strategies for teaching language and culture95.1 role play .95.2 authentic materials.95.3 proverbs105.4 culture capsules105.5 literature .115.6 film，television and internet13vi. conclusion.12reference

3、s.13culture input in english language teaching摘 要： 在当今世界，文化导入在语言教学中扮演着愈来愈重要的角色。语言不是孤立存在的，它是深深地归根与文化之中的。本文对文化的概念、意义、价值以及教学的原则进行了论述。一方面文化导入可以帮助学生运用多种方法来学习英语，还可以对学生的知识和技能进行扩充，有助于增强学生的文化意识并了解文化间的相互差异。另一方面，文化导入可以帮助学生克服英语学习中遇到的问题，提高学生的意识观念。所以文化导入必须成为英语教学的一个重要的部分，让它在发挥出更大的作用。关键词：文化 导入 英语教学 语言abstract: in t

4、he world, culture input plays an increasing important role in english language teaching. language cant exists separately, it takes deeply root in the national culture. so this paper discusses the concept, research meaning, and value of culture input in english language teaching. for one thing, cultu

5、re input in english language teaching help students to become a ware of the ways in which culture specific perspectives are acquire and communication. student could also expand their repertoire of knowledge and skills to interpret the worldview and communication patterns of members of other cultures

6、，also helps us to increase our awareness of students own culture. for another, culture input helps students to overcome potentially embarrassing problems, and enhance students understanding of worldviews. therefore culture input must become a part of important in english teaching, make it exert grea

7、t importance. key words: culture input english teaching languagei. introductionin the recent ten years, the relationship between the foreign language teaching and the culture input is increasingly attracting peoples attentions. culture input makes the students gradually accumulate the cultural knowl

8、edge and raise their cross-cultural consciousness. through the study of other languages, students gain knowledge and understanding of the culture that use that language; in fact, students cannot truly master the language until they have also mastered the cultural contexts in which the language occur

9、s. (national standards in foreign language education project, 1996, p. 27). this digest discusses the importance of incorporating culture into second language teaching and recommends strategies for infusing cultural issues in classroom instruction. some teachers and researchers have found it effecti

10、ve to present students with objects or ideas that are specific to the culture of study but are unfamiliar to the students. the students are given clues or background information about the objects and ideas so that they can incorporate the new information into their own worldview. an example might be

11、 a cooking utensil. students would be told that the object is somehow used for cooking, and then they would either research or be informed about how the utensil is used. this could lead into related discussion about foods eaten in the target culture, the geography, growing seasons, and so forth. the

12、 students act as anthropologists, exploring and understanding the target culture in relation to their own. in this manner, students achieve a level of empathy, appreciating that the way people do things in their culture has its own coherence. it is also important to help students understand that cul

13、tures are not monolithic. a variety of successful behaviors are possible for any type of interaction in any particular culture. teachers must allow students to observe and explore cultural interactions from their own perspectives to enable them to find their own voices in the second language speech

14、community.culture and communication are inseparable because culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what, and how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and circumstances under which variou

15、s messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted culture is the foundation of communication.have a younger teacher come from american, one day, she hear to there are english corner in the park, so she look on it. many english learners see foreigners in the park, and the same time, some peo

16、ple scramble speak english with her. after, people ask her, “what about you?”. she answered, “i feel im in a police station, because they always ask me whats your name? how old are you? are you married? how many children do you have? how much do you earn in china? what does your husband do?”.this ex

17、ample tells me, culture is very important in our english language teaching. culture is taught implicitly, imbedded in the linguistic forms that students are learning. to make students aware of the cultural features reflected in the language, teachers can make those cultural features an explicit topi

18、c of discussion in relation to the linguistic forms being studied. at any rate, foreign language learning is foreign culture learning, and, in one form or another, culture has, even implicitly, been taught in the foreign language classroomif for different reasons. what is debatable, though, is what

19、is meant by the term “culture” and how the latter is integrated into language learning and teaching.to be part of a culture means to share the prepositional knowledge and the rules of inference necessary to understand whether certain propositions are true given certain premises. to the prepositional

20、 knowledge, one might add the procedural knowledge to carry out tasks such as cooking, weaving, farming, fishing, giving a formal speech, answering the phone, asking for a favor, writing a letter for a job application.linguistic competence alone is not enough for learners of a language to be compete

21、nt in that language. language learners need to be aware, for example, of the culturally appropriate ways to address people, express gratitude, make requests, and agree or disagree with someone. they should know that behaviors and intonation patterns that are appropriate in their own speech community

22、 may be perceived differently by members of the target language speech community. they have to understand that, in order for communication to be successful, language use must be associated with other culturally appropriate behavior.culture is taught implicitly, imbedded in the linguistic forms that

23、students are learning. to make students aware of the cultural features reflected in the language, teachers can make those cultural features an explicit topic of discussion in relation to the linguistic forms being studied.foreign language learning is comprised of several components, including gramma

24、tical competence, communicative competence, language proficiency, as well as a change in attitudes towards ones own or another culture. for scholars and laymen alike, cultural competence, the knowledge of the conventions, customs, beliefs, and systems of meaning of another country, is indisputably a

25、n integral part of foreign language learning, and many teachers have seen it as their goal to incorporate the teaching of culture into the curriculum foreign language teaching. it could be maintained that the notion of communicative competence, which, in the past decade or so, has blazed a trail, so

26、 to speak, in foreign language teaching, emphasizing the role of context and the circumstances under which language can be used accurately and appropriately, falls short of the mark when it comes to actually equipping students with the cognitive skills they need in a second-culture environment. in o

27、ther words, since the wider context of language, that is, society and culture, has been reduced to a variable elusive of any definitionas many teachers and students incessantly talk about it without knowing what its exact meaning isit stands to reason that the term communicative competence should be

28、come nothing more than an empty and meretricious word, resorted to if for no other reason than to make an “educational point.”ii. the concept of culturewhat does the word culture mean? it may mean very many things. for example, we sometimes say that people who are able to read and write or who know

29、about art, music and literature are cultured. for different people, the word has a different meaning.“culture may be defined as what a society does and thinks.” “culture is mans medium; there is not one aspect of human life that is not touched and altered by culture. this means personality, how peop

30、le express themselves, including shows of emotion, the way they think, how they more, how problems are solved, how their cities are planned and laid out, how transportation systems function and organized, as well as how economic and government systems are put together and function.”“the culture of e

31、very society is unique, containing combinations of norms and values that are found nowhere else.”(intercultural communication in english p38, 74, 119)professor hu wenzhong integrates the language cultural results that have been researched and divides culture into five aspects:(1). verbal communicati

32、on: vocabulary, idiom, grammar and text(2). non-verbal communication: countenance, expression in ones eyes, gesture, posture, and body distance and sub language(3). communicative customs and etiquette: greeting, praise, titles, calls on friends, be a guest and give somebody a present(4). social stru

33、cture and human relationships: family relationships, relative relationships, friend relationships, company relationships and social relationsin fact, culture is really a large and evasive concept, very complex and difficult to define. it is that there have been at least over 150 definitions of cultu

34、re; but none of them seems to be able to tell us everything about culture.it could be argued that culture never remains static, but is constantly changing. in this light, robinson dismisses behaviorist, functionalist, and cognitive definitions of culture and posits a symbolic one which sees culture

35、as a dynamic system of symbols and meanings whereby past experience influences meaning, which in turn affects future experience, which in turn affects subsequent meaning, and so on. it is this dynamic nature of culture that has been lost sight of and underrated in foreign language teaching and ought

36、 to be cast in a new perspective. learning a foreign language can be subversive of the assumptions and premises operating in the home culture, which requires that learners be offered the opportunity for “personal growth,” in terms of personal meanings, pleasures, and power. as kramsch notes, from th

37、e clash between the native culture and the target culture, meanings that were taken for granted are suddenly questioned, challenged, problematized. however, in order to question and reinterpret culture, “observers” must first become aware of what it means to participate in their own culture and what

38、 the contents of culture areiii. the meaning of culture input in english language teachingwe know, culture input plays an increasingly important role. the english books understand the importance of culture input in english language teaching. culture input encourages students to communicate with othe

39、rs form different culture backgrounds.it is important to increase culture input in aspects of our lives.first, for students, the course of culture input could help students to become aware of the ways. students would also expand their repertoire of knowledge and skills to interpret the worldview and

40、 communication patterns of other cultures. another objective could be the ability to identify areas of misunderstanding and dysfunction in an interaction and to interact or mediate successful in intercultural settings. such a general course might be one of the ways to keep up with the globalization

41、process and it could be the beginning of taking globalization more seriously.second, culture input in english language teaching also helps students to increase students awareness of students own culture. students should observe similarities and differences in cultural behavior.third, culture input h

42、elps students to overcome potentially embarrassing problems, resulting from different conventions of behaviors, politeness and gestures.forth, culture input can enhance students understanding of individualism and collectivism.fifth, culture input may contribute to the prevention of stereotyped image

43、s of other societies.iv. the necessity and principles of culture input in english language teachinglanguage cant exists separately, it takes deeply root in the national culture, and reflects this national beliefs and emotions, therefore language is not only the cultural constituent, but also the cul

44、tural carrier and refraction. american linguist e.sapir in a book language said, “language does not exist apart from culture, and that is, from the socially inherited assemblage of practices and beliefs that determines the texture of our lives. language expresses cultural reality, and language symbo

45、lizes cultural reality; it is language that has played a major role in socializing the people and in perpetuating culture, especially in print form; in addition, culture also affects its peoples imagination or common dreams which are mediated through the language and reflected in their life (dai wei

46、dong & he zhaoxiong 2002).linguists and anthropologists have long recognized that the forms and uses of a given language reflect the cultural values of the society in which the language is spoken. linguistic competence alone is not enough for learners of a language to be competent in that language.

47、language learners need to be aware, for example, of the culturally appropriate ways to address people, express gratitude, make requests, and agree or disagree with someone. they should know that members of the target language speech community might perceive behaviors and intonation patterns that are

48、 appropriate in their own speech community differently. they have to understand that, in order for communication to be successful, language use must be associated with other culturally appropriate behavior.teaching english should follow a series of principles. from the point of view of the dialectic

49、al materialism, the principle of teaching english, which highly reflects the methodological theory and the norm concerned, must be considered as a generally acknowledged truth.owing to the lack of sufficient evidence, the hypothesis among the rules of english teaching or summarizes of teaching exper

50、ience are also regarded as principles. therefore principles, such as the adequate use of the mother tongue in teaching, which has been proved by both positive and negative practices, actually reflect the objective rules of english teaching.since his principles are sub-divided from those of foreign l

51、anguage teaching, it stands to reason that they should keep congruity with the features of foreign language teaching. and as a part of school curriculum, the principles of english teaching do not contravene the teaching principles of the curriculum. serving the educative aims, they are conditioned b

52、y the educational principles. so, the system of english teaching principles, as a subsidiary one a multi-level system of teaching principles, is not isolated.this system involves at least five aspects:(1). pedagogical principles, which are suitable for education as a whole, such as the principle of

53、developing in an all-around way-morally, intellectually and physically.(2). the general didactic principles, which are suitable for the entire subject with the english course involved.(3). the teaching principles of foreign languages, which are suitable for teaching all kinds of foreign language, su

54、ch as those of spiral repetition and gradual accuracy in learning a foreign language.(4). the principles of english teaching, which are suitable for the teaching of english as a foreign language, applicable only to classroom activities, such as the teaching of phrasal structures in the language.(5).

55、 the principles of teaching english knowledge and skills. they are appropriate for teaching phonetics, grammar and vocabulary or teaching the communicative skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. such as, in teaching vocabulary, we should teach some culture, open students eyes.principles

56、 of effective teaching and learning for students extend to effective professional development for teachers. to be successful, professional development must be long term, and it must incorporate opportunities for learning that center on teachers and students. hawley and valli (1999) suggest eight pri

57、nciples of effective professional development: it should be driven by an analysis of teachers goals and student performance; it should involve teachers in the identification of what they need to learn; it should be school based; it should be organized around collaborative problem solving; it should

58、be continuous and adequately supported; it should be information rich; it should include opportunities for the development of theoretical understanding; and it should be part of a comprehensive changing process. because in-service teacher education on language in teaching and learning must address teachers attitudes toward language and toward students who speak languages