Cultivating Students’Cultural Awareness in Senior English Teaching
[Abstract] Language is the carrier of culture. The process of learning a foreign language should be the process of learning cultural contents of this language at the same time. We may really master a foreign language only when we can understand its cultural connotation. From the perspective of cultural linguistics, to learn a language is to learn another culture, and to teach a language, teach another culture. One of the major purposes of SEFC teaching practice is to cultivate students’ communicative competence in English. Communicative competence contains both language competence and cultural competence, which is subjected to quite a few social and cultural factors. Thus English teachers should make great efforts to cultivate students’ cultural awareness. However, in Senior English teaching practice, little attention has been paid to the cultural connotation of the language, both teachers and students are poor in cultural awareness. In view of the current situation in SEFC teaching practice, the writer of this paper aims at exploring some methods to cultivate students’ cultural awareness. Only with the combination of language competence and cultural awareness can students achieve the purpose of communication. 高中英语教学中的文化意识培养 [摘 要] 语言是文化的载体，学习语言的过程也应该是学习语言文化的过程。只有真正了解语言中所包含的文化涵义，才能够真正掌握一门语言。所以，从语言学角度讲，学一门语言是学一种文化，教一门语言也是教一种文化。高中英语的教学目的是培养学生运用英语进行交际的能力。交际的能力不仅包括语言能力，而且包括对与语言使用密切相关的社会文化因素充分了解和掌握的文化能力。这就要求英语老师要加强对学生文化意识的培养。然而在我国的高中英语教学中，文化知识的输入问题还没有得到广大师生的足够重视，师生文化意识薄弱。针对高中英语教学中的现状，本文作者力图探索培养学生的文化意识的方法。只有在语言能力与文化意识培养相结合的情况下，学生才能做到有效交际。 2.Present condition of cultural educatio
[Key words] language; culture; cultural differences; cultural awareness
[关键词] 语言；文化；文化差异；文化意识
1.Introduction
Every country has its own peculiar culture. Because of cultural differences, misunderstandings may arise. A harmless statement may cause displeasure or anger; a serious question may cause amusement. Therefore, for language learners and teachers, it is of great importance to be aware of differences between home culture and target culture. Cultural awareness is helpful to achieve effectiveness in language teaching and learning. In fact, “learning a language is inseparable from learning its culture.” [1]
There is close relationship between language and culture. “Language is the carrier of culture and culture is the content of language. There is no language without culture content.”[2] “As a mirror of culture, language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture”[3] They evolved together and have been mutually dependent through their history. Understanding one requires understanding the other. In the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and cultural backgrounds as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking. Following the definitions of sociologists and anthropologists, the term culture “refers to the total pattern of beliefs, customs, institutions, objects, and techniques that characterize the life of a human community.”[4] Language is the most important of culture and it reflects culture. And at the same time, it is influenced and shaped by culture. Cultures differ from one another, so languages diverse. With differences in cultures and in languages, it is natural that cross-cultural communication is not always easy.
Therefore, teaching English well means more than merely teaching students the vocabulary, structures, and grammars. It also means teaching them how to slip into the English culture. Learners should be informed of how native speakers of English see the world and how the English language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society. In other words, to have a good command of grammatical rules of a language contributes to correctness of sentence structures while familiarity with as much cultural knowledge of that language as possible guarantees appropriateness of discourse.
