Intercultural Communication in English-Teaching in Junior School
1. Introduction
1.1 Importance of intercultural communication
Intercultural communication is communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event. This thesis mainly talks about intercultural communication in English---teaching in junior school. This topic has become the most important in language research recently. Worldwide interest in intercultural communication grows out of two assumptions. First, we live in an age when change in technology, travel economic, and political systems, immigration patterns, especially the emergence of Internet, have created a world in which we increasingly interact with people from different cultures. And whether we neither like it nor not, will those interactions continue to grow frequently and intensely. Second, people now know that the influence of culture affects communication in subtle and pound ways. Our cultural perceptions and experiences help determine how the world looks and how we interact in the world.
1.2 Intercultural communication.
It’s understandable for the Chinese to ask each other “where are you going?” “Have you eaten?” or “Are you married?” when they meet. They really don’t want to know your privacy! These questions are just signs of greetings in Chinese way. But to the westerners they are very impolite and rude. Maybe they will offend their feeling and make the interaction unsuccessfully. Why do the same verbal messages lead to the different results? That is because of the different cultures. From the examples above, we can understand the importance of the culture and how it influences the international communication.
This thesis is divided into several parts in the terms of theory, at first, we discuss about the importance of intercultural communication, the relationship between culture and communication, “culture is one of the most important systems within which communication occurs. Communication is closely linked to culture because communication expresses, sustains and alters cultures.”[1] P86 More important, we discuss about the characteristics of communication and culture in detail in order to better understand intercultural communication.
Language is important to human activity because it is how we react out or to make contact with others. It permits us to remember the past, deal with the present, and plan for the future. It is impossible to separate the use of language from culture.
At the end of the article, we talk about the influence on education,,the principle of teaching culture and teaching materials in English---teaching in junior school. According to the theories and the current situation of English---teaching in China now, as an English teacher, we must realize that we should put culture---learning into English---teaching! We mustn’t separate the English language itself from its culture. We should teach some English culture background knowledge integrating with the textbooks.
1.3. The purpose for this thesis
The purpose of the thesis is that we should pay more attention to the culture---learning during English---teaching. In English classroom, we not only teach the English language itself, but also introduce English culture background knowledge, improve the students’ ability of intercultural communication, enhance their culture consciousness, avoid the misunderstanding because of pragmatic mistakes.
2. Communication and culture
Human beings have a common nature. This common nature draws them close, but habits and customs keep them apart.
2.1 Define communication
It is difficult to find a single definition of human communication; there are various definitions about the communication. The reasons why it is difficult to locate a single definition of communication is the complex nature of communication.
2.1.1. Complexity of communication
Think for a moment of all the bodily activity that ac