Cultivating Students’Abilities of Cross-cultural Communication in English Teaching in Middle School [摘 要] 在传统的英语教学中，诸如词汇、短语、语法等英语知识内容受到了广泛的关注，而英语作为一个民族语言的文化背景却被大大地忽略了。结果，学生学了几年英语，对英语和母语之间的文化差异，以及说英语民族的风俗习惯仍一无所知。从而，在与外国朋友的交际中，出现过许多偏差，误解，甚至笑话。 1. Introduction
[Abstract] In traditional English teaching, much attention is paid to language knowledge such as vocabulary, phrases, grammatical rules and so on, whereas the cultural background of the language is ignored. As a result, students who have learned English for many years have no sense of the differences between the two languages in their cultural backgrounds and the customs of the people who speak the language. The ignorance has caused lots of disagreements, misunderstandings, and even laughingstocks in their communicating with the native speakers.
As we know, with the rapid development of technology and society, the globalization is the main-stream of world development. Because of the frequent communication and close connection between the people all over the world, and especially after China entered the WTO, foreign languages are used more and more widely. During the cross-cultural communication, if one is ignorant of the culture and customs of the other, he or she is surely unable to have a good understanding of the other and can’t carry on the communication further. As English is the most widely used language, it’s quite necessary for us to know the culture and customs of the people of the English-speaking countries. That’s the reason why we need not only to improve the language skills, but also to cultivate the studentes’ abilities of the cross-cultural communication.
This paper mainly deals with the relationship between the language and culture, the necessity of cultural education, the principles and content of cultural teaching and how to build the students’ cross-cultural abilities in middle school English teaching.
[Key Words] intercultural communication; English teaching; cultural introduction; cultural knowledge
中学英语教学与跨文化交际能力培养
众所周知，随着科技的飞速进步和社会的迅猛发展，世界正向全球化和一体化发展。世界各国人民日益频繁的交往和更加紧密的联系，特别是中国加入世贸之后与外界交往的加强，使外语的使用也变得越来越频繁和广泛。不同文化背景的人们在相互交际中回避不了文化差异问题。在交际的过程中，人们如果不了解对方的文化和风俗习惯，就不可能进行有效的交际。英语是世界上使用最广的语言，中国人要学会用英语进行交际，就必须了解英语国家的文化，特别是交际文化。因此，英语教学不仅要提高学生的语言能力，还要提高学生的跨文化交际能力。
本文分为五个部分：第一部分简单介绍了语言和文化的关系；第二部分阐明了在中学英语教学中进行文化教育的必要性。第三部分讲述了实施文化教学的过程中所应遵守的原则。第四部分分析了进行跨文化交际能力培养所应导入的文化内容。第五部分说明了在中学英语教学过程中怎样实施跨文化教育的途径和具体方法。
[关键词] 跨文化交际; 英语教学;文化导入;文化知识
Language is just like a mirror that reflects its national culture. Sociologists and anthropologists believe that culture comprises all products of human activity, including fields of literature, art, music, architecture, philosophy, scientific and technical achievements as well as aspects of customs, life-style, code of conduct, worldly wisdom and social organization, etc. Languages are generally accepted words and rules drawn from speech. Language is the carrier of culture and culture is the content of language. There is no language without culture content. Therefore learning culture knowledge has become a major part of teaching English to Chinese students. International communication is communication between people whose culture perception and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event.
Worldwide interest in intercultural communication grows out of two assumptions. First, we live in an age when changes in technology, travel, economy, 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 like it or not, these interactions will continue to grow in both frequently and intensely. Second, people now know that the influence of culture affects communication in a subtle way. Our culture perceptions and experiences help determine how the world looks and how we interact in the world.
However, as we look back to see the situation in China’s schools. We see that, for several decades, language
