浅谈初中英语中的文化教学(1)(6)
2014-11-26 02:14
导读：(iv). Knowledge of politics, economies, history, geography, literature and contemporary social situations of the English—speaking countries. (v). Understanding of the differences of values and mind-
(iv). Knowledge of politics, economies, history, geography, literature and contemporary social situations of the English—speaking countries.
(v). Understanding of the differences of values and mind-sets between the Chinese and the westerners, which includes outlooks on life and universe, interpersonal relationships, ethics, verbal expressions and so on. [8]
For the development of students’ preliminary culture awareness, teachers in junior or senior high schools needs to follow the principles of “relevance, practicality and gradual improvement”. They should introduce the necessary parts of culture in the English—speaking countries in a selective way.
The principle of relevance demands the content of culture teaching either relate to or broaden the teaching materials. And the materials of language should be also used in culture teaching, that is, it should be combined with language teaching.
Practicality principle requires that culture teaching should reflect the major parts of daily communications. For those cultural factors, which interfere with communications, a full explanation and repeated practice are mostly needed for students’ future communication.
The principle of gradual improvement maintains that culture teaching should be commensurate with the aged and cognitive capacity of the students. Step by step, they will find themselves increasingly at ease with the unfolding western cultures. [9]
On the one hand, as the English Teaching Syllabus states, the culture knowledge is as important as the basic skills, both of which are integrated parts of the teaching goals. On the other hand, learners’ basic skills including listening, peaking, reading, writing and translating are closely related with the culture information.
(1) It is the principle of English teaching that listening and speaking take primacy over reading and writing. And the process of listening and speaking often begins with greeting. Without enough culture knowledge, mistakes may arise. For example, when we go shopping, the shop assistant always offers help by asking customers “What do you want?” But it is strange for the English-speaking people who usually greet as “What can I do for you?” or “Can I help you?”
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The purpose of listening is to understand the speaker’s meaning in words and exchange information successfully. Sometimes, they only catch the denotation of the words, but fail to consider the most important part, which is the contextual meaning of words and sentences. For instance, the sentence “I am not sure I’d like to do that” is seemingly like considering a matter, but in fact, it is a polite expression of refusal.
(2). Reading and writing materials often convey western culture, which always demand learners to read between lines. Lack of such knowledge will weaken the comprehensive grasp of the real meaning, especially when they are looking over literature works. For example, in English, the color “purple” is the symbol of noble and wealth. If learners don’t understand this, they may not be able to know that the sentence “He is born to the purple” means “ He is born in a noble or wealthy family”. [10] This illustrates the cultural impact on the words’ connotation. Another example is “dragon” which symbolizes evil, whereas its translation “龙” means power and authority in China Only with such a realization, could the readers understand the meaning of “butcher dragon” in English.
