BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE TEACHING IN ENGLISH IN MIDDLE SCHOOLS

1、background knowledge teaching in english in middle schoolsabstract：as we all know, middle school phase is an important phase for the chinese students to learn english, so it has become very important to improve the english communicating ability of middle school students. english, here, as a main cou

2、rse of students, plays a more and more important role in middle school in china. in recent years, the cultural background knowledge in english teaching has attracted great attention. the investigation shows that cultural knowledge learning is helpful for improving language level and competence. also

3、, successful cross-cultural communication requires students acquaintance with the differences between the two cultures. therefore, the teaching of cultural background knowledge in english class should occupy an important place in middle school. this paper first expounds the inseparability of languag

4、e and culture to help readers know more about the relationship between them. then, it analyses the goal and importance of cultural background knowledge in language teaching in middle school. next，it introduces the approaches to the culture background. in fact, rich cultural knowledge is contained in

5、 language structure and vocabulary. to great extent, language comprehension relies on being familiar with cultural tradition, customs, history, thoughts and so on. language learning and culture learning can not be separated. language is just like the running water. it changes in every moment, for cu

6、lture background changes from time to time. if language is a flower, culture will be the soil for this flower. as a teacher, we should give students the living language: both flowers and soil. that is to say, we should teach them both the language and the culture background knowledge.key words: back

7、ground knowledge language english teaching论文摘要众所周知，中学阶段是学生学习英语的重要时期，因此，增强中学生的英语交际能力变得尤为重要。英语，作为中国中学生的主要课程之一，变得越来越关键。近些年来，英语教学中的文化背景知识教学引起了人们的注意。研究表明，文化背景的学习能有效提高学生的语言水平和能力。而且，成功的跨文化交际离不开学生丰富的文化背景知识。因此，对文化背景知识的学习在中学英语课堂中变得越来越重要。本文首先介绍了语言和文化的不可分割性来帮助读者进一步了解语言和文化的关系，然后分析了文化背景学习的目的和重要性。最后给出了文化背景学习的方法和途径

8、。实际上，丰富的文化背景知识包涵了对语言结构和词汇的掌握，同时在很大程度上，语言的理解又依赖对文化传统，风俗习惯，历史思想等的掌握。因此，语言学习和文化学习是不可分割的。语言就像是流动的水，无时无刻不在变化，文化业如此。如果语言是鲜花，那么文化则是培育鲜花的土壤。作为老师，我们应该教授学生全面的知识，也就是说，我们既要教给他们语言，又要教授他们文化背景知识。关键词： 文化背景；语言； 英语教学contentsi. introduction .1 a. the definition of language.1 b. the definition of culture.2 c. the relat

9、ionship between language and culture.3ii. the goals of culture background knowledge5 a. getting familiar with different situation.6b. understanding social variables.6 c. evaluating foreign culture.7 d. developing cultural creativity7iii. the importance of culture background knowledge in language tea

10、ching.8 a. necessity of background knowledge in listening and speaking.8 b. necessity of background knowledge in reading.9 c. necessity of background knowledge in writing and translating10iv. approaches to culture background knowledge.11 a. providing cultural background information in class12 b. pro

11、viding authentic materials.13 c. culture lecture.15 d. projected media16v. conclusion.17notes19bibliography204background knowledge teaching in english in middle schoolsi. introductionlanguage and culture are inseparable, learning a foreign language means learning a foreign civilization and culture.

12、whats more, cultural awareness is the assurance of using language appropriately.mistakes have frequently been made when we use english, owing to our lack of the culture background knowledge. the new english course standards (2002) for middle schools has added cultural teaching as one of its main par

13、ts; much research has been done about it. but what and how to teach it in middle schools still needs systematic study.a. the definition of languagelanguage is the social production and the symbolic system carried on from generation to generation by people who live in this society. and in particular

14、language speech may reflect the social relations between the speaker and addressee, which manifest the interrelationship between people. language is a vehicle of transmitting thought and information, language distinguishes human from animals，and is very essential to mankind. a broad accepted and ten

15、tative definition of language is: language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for communication. so language has features of duality, arbitrariness, productivity, displacement inter-changeability transmission, (li shiqiang, 2003).b. the definition of culture culture is an ambiguous and intr

16、iguing concept. there are many kinds of definitions. richard e. porter and larry a. samovar define culture as the deposit of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, timing, rules, spatial relations, concepts of universe and material objects and expression

17、s acquired by a large group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. according to new encyclopedia britannica defines cultures as peculiar to mankind together with material objects that are part of this behavior and consists of languages, ideas, beliefs, customs,

18、 codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of arts, rituals, ceremonies and so on. the concept of culture was first defined in print by e.b. taylor, who provided the first profound scientific understanding of the nature of the term. according to him, culture is “that complex whole which includes

19、 knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as member of society”. for anthropologists, culture has long meant the way of life of people, the sum of its learned behavior patterns, attitudes, and material things. “culture” in the contemporary te

20、aching of languages may be understood in broad and narrow senses. it may refer to the “intellectual refinement” and artistic endeavor, or the appreciation of music, literature, the art and so on.this is in the sense of “high culture”, or culture in its broad sense, omen referred to ns culture with a

21、 big c. “culture with a big c” focuses on “the sum total of a peoples achievement and contribution: art, music, literature, architecture, technology, scientific discoveries and philosophy”. on the other hand, culture may also refer to whatever to a person must know in order to function in a particul

22、ar. this is in the same as in good enoughs definition of the term. it reads that a societys culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or to believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and to do so in any role that they accept for any one of themselves. good enoughs de

23、finition is culture in its narrow sense, often referred to as culture with a small c. “culture with a small c” includes “the behavior patterns of the life style of people: when and what they eat, how they make a living, the way they organize their society, the attitudes they express towards friends

24、and members of their families, how they act in different situations, which expressions they use to show approval and disapproval, the traditions they must observe, and so on”.c. the relationship between language and cultureat present, more and more scholars come to an agreement that culture and lang

25、uage influence each other deeply and greatly. for example, the religious culture that reigned human society for several thousands of years help to develop different national consciousness, different cultural content and different understanding to language. people with different cultural background e

26、xpress themselves in different ways. on the one hand, language, as a part of culture, largely influences the forming and developing of culture, and it is a mirror that reflects the culture of a certain community. for example, in britain, the number “13”is regarded as an unlucky symbol, which means u

27、nfortunate. so people in western countries always try to avoid holding any ceremonies, parties on 13th, or inviting 13 persons together.on the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture. people with different background express themselves in different ways. in western, acquaintances al

28、ways greet each other with “how are you?” while in china; people say, “have you eaten yet?” that is because in old china, lots of people suffered from hunger. greeting with “have you eaten?” could show their warm heart and deep concern to others. each culture is unique. learning a foreign language w

29、ell means more than merely mastering the pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms. it also means seeing the world as native speakers of that language see it, learning the ways in which their language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society, learning to understand their “language o

30、f the mind”. in a word, culture and language are inseparable. some people describe their relationship with following formula: language (flesh) + culture (blood) = a living organism. it is vivid. language plus culture equal a living organism: language is flesh and culture is blood, without culture, l

31、anguage would be dead; without language, culture would have no shape.ii. the goals of culture background knowledge since the native speaker of any language has built into his language repertoire his unique cultural assumptions and values, foreign culture acquisition should be duly and dexterously in

32、corporated into the english teaching. the above mentioned goals can be considered as references in teaching chinese students. but we must especially take the following into consideration (hu wenzhong, 1994). the first is the english language context, the chinese context and the english speaking cult

33、ural context. furthermore, the unity of english acquisition and culture acquisition is achieved in an ideal manner. there may be some english teachers who are still haunted with the fear that foreign culture acquisition might constitute a threat to the chinese national identity. this is an understan

34、dable fear, for it certainly would be a tragedy if the learners should acquire bilingualism at the cost of losing their national identity (qin xiubai, 1988). does foreign acquisition pose a threat to our national identity? will it jeopardize our cultural norms and values? these questions cannot be a

35、nswered with certainty because the answer depends on how we handle the problem. we can find numerous people who are bilingual or even bicultural and, yet, who remain as devoted as ever to their native culture.the crux of the matter lies in the goals of foreign culture acquisition. in china, cultural

36、 goals should at least encompass the following.a. getting familiar with different situationforeign culture acquisition should aim at familiarizing students with the mundane situations of the english-speaking countries-their customs and habits, life-style, generally-accepted world outlook, etc. cultu

37、re is often viewed as a way of life, or as a blueprint that guides the behavior of people in a community and the most obvious cultural differences. it is believed, that americans tend to be dominated by a psychomotor view of time and space and they readily and sincerely accept such concepts as time

38、is money and procrastination is the thief of time; frenchmens concept of time and space is more cognitive with a static, centralized and universalistic view. americans think of distance in relatively broad categories and believe that 60 miles is but an easy jaunt; frenchmen view distance in narrow c

39、ategories and consider that 60 miles or 100 kilometers is a considerable travel distance. here, national character studies carried out by anthropologists deserve our particular attention, for these studies often provide us with cultural stereotypes based on reasonably accurate descriptions and gener

40、alizations.some cultural stereotypes can surely help students to understand some aspects of the english culture even thought they are, of course, overgeneralizations. students should be reminded frequently that foreign culture acquisition inherently involves overgeneralization.b. understanding socia

41、l variablesforeign culture acquisition should aim at enabling students to understand the interaction between language and such social variables as age, sex, race, social classes, and occupation, for these social variables affect the way people speak and behave. english programs for english majors ca

42、n adopt the functional approach, laying emphasis on how english is used in different socio-cultural situations and seeking to explain how the form of language has been determined by the functions it has evolved to serve. in the real social life, thus combining the english language learning and forei

43、gn culture acquisition.c. evaluating foreign culture background knowledgeforeign culture acquisition should be aimed at cultivating the students ability to evaluate the culture of the target country in an objective manner. to familiarize oneself with the life-styles and the cultural values and norms

44、 of the target country does not mean to accept them indiscriminately. here a critical eye is essential. a strong critical sense that does not smack of bias or prejudice will enable efl learners to understand and appreciate cultural diversity without losing sight of their national identity or their n

45、ative cultural norms and values (qin xiubai, 1988).d. developing cultural creativityforeign cultural teaching should be aimed at developing students cultural creativity. here cultural creativity can be defined as a creative power to be obtained through learning language and culture in foreign langua

46、ge education in china. through learning and comparison, the learners turn externally available knowledge into their own internal knowledge and therefore get a power for creating new things and a motivation to make progress. in respect of this consideration, to study independently on the part of stud

47、ents is very important.iii. the importance of culture background knowledge in language teaching according to american linguist charles carpenter, cultural background knowledge is the knowledge about culture, which is connected with peoples daily life. it includes the national traditional culture, cu

48、stoms, history, geography, and so on. each culture has its own cultural background. with the development of cross-cultural communication, cultural background knowledge plays an important role in english teaching. a. the necessity of cultural background knowledge in speaking and listeningto many stud

49、ents, listening comprehension is a difficult part in english learning. although they have spent much time on it, little achievement has been acquired. to some easy materials, they know only the literal meaning, but can not understand the connotation. an important reason is that they are not familiar

50、 with cultural background of the english speaking countries.there are two jokes often talked about by american:a: where are you from?b: i will ask her. (alaska)a: where are you from?b: how are you? (hawaii)a may think b has given an irrelevant answer. but if a knew something about geographical knowl

51、edge of the usa, and the names of two states of the usaalaska and hawaii, he would not be surprised at “i will ask her”, or “how are you”. in view of this, the introduction of cultural background is necessary in the teaching of english listening.likewise, speaking is not merely concerned pronunciati

52、on and intonation. the successful communication with native english speakers requires acquaintance of western culture. for example, in english, there are many euphemisms for listeners hard to know the speakers actual mood. for example, when one asks: “what do you think of my coat?” and the other ans

53、wers: “i think the pocket is very nice”, it shows his dislike. when one asks: “do you kike our teacher?” the answer maybe, “well, i dont know him very well.” listeners should know the implication of the speakers. usually, the westerners say pleasant words to the full or evade direct answering.theref

54、ore, in oral english training, teachers should pay much attention to factuality of language and adopt some material approaching to daily life, which will help the students to speak english appropriately to the occasion, to understand western way of life and customs etc.b. the necessity of culture ba

55、ckground knowledge in readingreading can be thought of as a way to draw information from a text and to from an interpretation of that information. however, this definition does not really tell us much about what happens when we read and how we comprehend a text. actually, reading comprehension is re

56、markably complex, involving many processing skills that are coordinated in very efficient combinations. because we also read for different purposes, there are many ways to read a text, further complicating any definition. seen in this light, the ability to read is a remarkable type of expertise that

57、 most humans develop; it is not generally well understood, nor is its development widely recognized for the significant cognitive achievement that it is.reading is also a complex skill in english learning. it requires more than a certain language basis, the competence of reading comprehension and on

58、es language level, knowledge of cultural background is also important. for example, in english, there are many allusions drawn from history, religion, literature etc., they often appear in english works and have become common household terms. “a catch-22 situation”, it is an impossible situation, one in which the solution or success depends on mutuall