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2.5 The Students’ Actual Knowledge of Language http://www.paper51.com In most rural areas in China, Englishcourse starts from junior school. The students have little time to involve inthe English learning, just because they must help their parents on the farm,since they are not only students but also labors in their families. Therefore theyknow so many cows, horses, chickens, wheat, corn, mountains, streams, tractorsand so on. Because they live far from cities, most of them do not have chanceto go to the cities, so they do not know the Hamburg, McDonald, KFC,Ford, Volt, let alone serf on the internet. Most of them live in a large family, they have a lotof relatives in their communities, they like to address “Laoshenzi”, “Sandagu”(aunty);“Laoqishu”, “Biaojiujiu”, “Erbaibai”(uncle); “Gunainai”, “Yilaolao”(grandma); “Jiuyeye”,“Tangwaigong”(grandpa) and so on in dialects. They would like to convey toothers what they themselves wish to share, for example: happiness and sorrow,success and failure…and few influences ofthe media or any foreign tourists make cross-cultural encounter in their dailylife. In junior schools, the studentscan learn some new words and grammars from teachers’ class teaching. They cantell what the words’ or sentences’ meanings and they can get a high score inthe exams, they know the keys to them can be from teachers’ repetition. But atthe end, the students do not know why they call “Laosanshu” as unclerather than old third uncle in English. They have the limitedlanguage knowledge at this point. It is helpless to compare the home culture tothe target one and to use English well either. From above, the teachers should culturethe students with the cross-cultural thoughts to overcome the negative culturaltransfer. http://www.paper51.com
3. Analyze of Negative Cultural Transfer in Communicative Englishin Rural Junior Schools 内容来自www.paper51.com
3.1Terms of Address 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com “Sometimes different terms ofaddress can be equally misleading for Chinese learner of English or Englishlearners of Chinese” (戴伟栋, 2005:133). The misleading root is the different cultures, and in therural areas of China, most of children live in big families, they have verycomplex relationships and terms of address. But in English, it has just thegeneral terms such as uncle, aunt, grandpa, grandma…therefore, the negativecultural transfer may arise, the rural students would title their father’younger brother as “second/third uncle”, or others like “Liu big sister” and soon. They do not know why they can not title them like this, and the teachershave not told them the reasons but just tell them “the answer is wrong.” Maybethe teachers themselves do not know the reasons either. Many students may callMiss Li as “Li teacher”, and in many areas in China, when the class begins, thestudents greet “good morning, teacher!” not “good morning, sir!”, of coursethey do not know that “teacher” is just a name as a profession. copyright paper51.com |