浅谈初中英语中的文化教学(1)(4)
2014-11-26 02:14
导读：3.1.2 Communicative competence The term communicative competence is used in contrast to Noam Chomsky’s term linguistic competence, which is understood as the tacit knowledge of language structure an
3.1.2 Communicative competence
The term communicative competence is used in contrast to Noam Chomsky’s term linguistic competence, which is understood as the tacit knowledge of language structure and the ability to use this knowledge to understand and produce language. For Chomsky, competence simply means knowledge of the language system: grammatical knowledge in other words. However, if we look at how language is used in real communication, we have to accept that real language use involves far more than knowledge and ability for grammaticality. In Hymes’s (1979:15) words, there are “rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless”, which simply means, besides grammatical rules, language use is governed by rules of use, which ensure that the desired or intended functions are performed and the language used is appropriate to the context.
According to Hymes (1979), communicative competence includes four aspects:
(i). knowing whether or not something is formally possible (grammatically acceptable), which is roughly equivalent to Chomsky’s linguistic competence;
(ii). knowing whether something is understandable to human beings;
(iii). knowing whether something is in line with social norms;
(v). knowing whether or not something is in fact done: Do people actually use language this way?[7]
In other words, communicative competence entails knowing not only the language code or the form of language, but also what to say to whom and how to say it appropriately in any given situation. Communicative competence includes knowledge of what to say, when, how, where, and to whom.
Along with the rapid development of English-speaking countries, English has become a world language. More and more international affairs and business promote the “intercultural communication”, which calls for the teaching and learning of language and culture.
There are several patterns involved in inter-cultural communication. Since all members of a cultural group do not share cultural patterns in exactly the same way, and any participant in communication only presents partial public and personal, what learners must pay attention to is that what they should know includes the alien culture and the communicative skills.
3.2 Culture education of junior English in China
It is absolutely necessary to stress the culture education in English teaching and learning. Before discussing how to carry out this education well, we should probe into its current situation. Only with the full realization of its merits and shortcomings, can we make full use of the advantage and bypass the disadvantages, and will the culture education go on more effectively.
3.2.1 Problems in Culture Education of China
Obviously, we can see that, in most areas of China, the junior students’ cultural ability of target language is comparatively poor. The failure to provide the students with an introduction of the culture of English-speaking countries in the teaching process, leads to an unsuccessful communication for their incapacity of comprehending or conveying culture-loaded information. That is what we call “communication block”. Then we can see that Chinese learners of English have difficulty in communication with native speakers of English despite a good command of the linguistic knowledge. Some Chinese students, though they got excellent scores in exams, failed in cross-cultural communication. That’s what we are considered as “High Grade, Low Ability”.
