玉 溪 师 范 学 院 copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com 本 科 毕 业 论 文 paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comhttp://www.paper51.com 文化教学在英语学习中的重要性 paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com
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paper51.com 姓名: 吴翠 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 学号:2006061113 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 指导教师姓名: 李 跃 勤 http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com职 称: 副 教 授
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http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 专 业 名 称 : 英 语 教 育 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 申请学位级别: 学 士 paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 论文提交日期 2010年5 月 copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com 学位授予单位: 某某师范学院 http://www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 二○一○年五月
内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com On the Importance of Culture Teaching inEnglish learning copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com
http://www.paper51.com Wu Cui 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Supervisor
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.comLi Yueqin
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com A ThesisSubmitted as a 内容来自www.paper51.com paper51.com PartialFulfillment for the Degree of
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内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com SCHOOL OFFOREIGN LANGUAGES 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com YUXU NORMAL UNIVERSITY 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com
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paper51.com Statement of Authorshippaper51.com Except where referenceis made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material publishedelsewhere or extracted in whole or part from a thesis presented by me foranother degree or diploma. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comNo otherperson’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of thethesis. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.comThis thesishas not been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma in anytertiary institution.
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copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Acknowledgementshttp://www.paper51.com I would like to express mygratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of my thesis. A specialacknowledgement should be given to Li Yueqin, my supervisor. She spends a lotof time and energy to provide substantial guidance on my essay. Without his consistent instruction,this thesis could not have reached its present form.
copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Iam also greatly indebted to the professors and teachers at the Department ofEnglish who taught me knowledge needed to finish this paper.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Ialso owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gaveme their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problemsduring the difficult course of the thesis.
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http://www.paper51.com Abstract 内容来自www.paper51.com In modern society, cultural exchange between nations hasbeen increasing continuously and culture is especially important in thecontemporary English teaching and learning process. The importance of culture in foreign language teaching hasbeen recognized by Chinese scholars and educators in the early 1980s. Sincethen teaching of culture has played a very vital role in foreign languageeducation. Language is a part of culture and shaped by culture; it is also thecarrier of culture and reflects cultural features of a community in which thelanguage is spoken. Language and culture are closely related. From the angle oflanguage teaching and learning, to teach a language is to teach anotherculture; to learn a language is also to learn another culture. This thesismainly analyzes the importance of culture teaching in English learning and approachesto teach culture in English class.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Key words: culture teaching; English teaching;learning strategies
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paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 摘 要 paper51.com copyright paper51.comhttp://www.paper51.com 现代社会文化交流日益密切,尤其在当代英语教学过程中尤为重要。早在二十世纪八十年代,中国学者和教育专家们就已经认识到了文化教学在外语教学中的重要性,从那以后文化教学成为外语教育过程中非常重要的一部分。语言是文化的一部分,受文化影响,在文化环境中形成发展。语言承载文化,同时又反映文化特征。语言与文化紧密相连。从语言教学的角度讲,教一门语言也是教一种文化,学一门语言也是学一种文化。本文主要分析了文化教学在英语学习中的重要性以及如何在英语教学中进行文化教学。 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 关键词:文化教学;英语教学;学习策略 copyright paper51.com paper51.comhttp://www.paper51.com
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内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Contents
copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Statement of Authorship...…………………………………………………………..i paper51.com copyright paper51.com Acknowledgment ……………………………………………………………….......ii copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….iii
copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com摘 要………………………………………………………………………………...iv
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..1
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 1.1 The background of theResearch……………………………………………..1
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com1.2 The Importance ofCulture Teaching in English Learning…………………...2
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 1.3 The Scope of the Study……………………………………………………....3 paper51.com copyright paper51.com1.4 Research Question…………………………………………………………....3
copyright paper51.com paper51.com2. Literature Review………………………………………………………………….4 copyright paper51.com paper51.com 2.1 The Definition ofLanguage…….....................................................................4
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 2.2 The Definition of Culture................................................................................4
copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com2.3 The Relationshipbetween Language and Culture...........................................5 http://www.paper51.com paper51.com 2.4 Related Theory……………………………….…...……………………….....6
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 3. Goals of Culture Teaching………………………………………………………...6 paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 4. Approaches to Teaching Culture..………………………………………………...8 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com4.1 Through Teacher’s Introduction………………………………………...........8 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 4.2 Through Activities…………...…………………………………………….....9 copyright paper51.com paper51.com4.3 Through Reading………..……………………….…………………..……...10 copyright paper51.com paper51.com4.4 Through Lectures…………………………………..…………………….....10
paper51.com copyright paper51.com5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...10
http://www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Reference…………………………………………………………………………….12 copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com
http://www.paper51.com paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 1. Introduction内容来自www.paper51.com 1.1 The Background of the Research http://www.paper51.com paper51.comFor a long time, culturehad once been ignored in foreign language teaching and learning people alwaysfocused on the teaching and learning of a foreign language itself, not payingclose attention to the cultural background of this language. They took it forgranted that as long as they learnt the grammar and vocabulary of English well,they could express anything and communicated with others easily. However, whenthey came into contacting with native speakers in real life, they foundalthough they could make up grammatically and semantically correct sentences,some of them were not appropriate or feasible in the current situation; evenviolated the cultural principles in the target language community, thuscommunicative failures occurred at times. In recent years, with theinternational exchanges and trades increasing greatly, interculturalcommunication has become more popular; and with the great progress in foreignlanguage teaching field, the importance of culture in English teaching andlearning has been fully recognized. Close attentions have been paid to theresearches of the relationship and interaction of language and culture as wellas the culture teaching in English teaching and learning. People have learntthat language is not simply a matter of neutral codes or grammatical rules.Each time people select words,form sentences,and send a message either oral or written,they also make cultural choices. If they use language withoutbeing aware of the cultural implications,they may not communicate effectively with each other and cannot send the right messages. It’s quite obvious that culture and language areintertwined and shaped by each other. Therefore, when people learn a language,what they need is not only to learn the language itself,but also to learn its culture in which the target language isused. That is to say when learning English, people should not confinethemselves only to the study of linguistic forms but also to integrate culturalbackground information related to them. Only in this way can language learnersreally learn a language well and can use this language appropriately andeffectively in their communication.
paper51.com paper51.com 1.2The Importance of Culture Teaching in English Learning http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comAs China succeeded in entering WTO, anera of globalization and information is coming. Scientific and economicexchanges and trades among nations have been increasing greatly. People fromdifferent language and culture background need to communicate with each othereffectively. English, obviously, becomes the most useful language in the world.In our country, English learning has become the nationwide enthusiasm andtrends since the beginning of this century. So many people of different ages,social status and occupation have begun to learn English. English teaching andlearning in and out of campus has made a great progress. Yet, we also find thatafter many years of English study, some people still find it difficult tocommunicate with native English speaker. One of the main reasons is that theyspeak English without knowing the culture in which the target language is used.For us Chinese, for example, when we meet a friend in the street, we usually say:“Hi, have you had your meal?” or “Where are you going?” It is a very normalgreeting in China,but in western countries, the above questions are just questions, not greetingsat all. They may think you’re inviting them to dinner if you ask about theirmeals. Instead, they’ll just give each other a smile or greet with a “Hi,” they’llshake hands only in some formal situations. In china, people always like to ask:“How old are you?” or “What’s your salary?” to show their kindness and concernsto others, while in western countries, these questions are considered veryprivate, it’s very impolite to ask such questions. From these examples, we canfound that each country has its unique culture shaped by its geography,politics, history, custom and many other factors. Meanwhile, we know thatlanguage is the carrier of culture, the variety of culture embodies in thelanguage, thus appears the fact that the same words usually express thedifferent meanings in different cultural context. Therefore we can come to theconclusion: in foreign language teaching and learning, culture teaching plays avery important role; it’s very vital and necessary to teach and learn theculture of the target language while teaching and learning English.
copyright paper51.com paper51.com 1.3 The Scope of the Study
http://www.paper51.com The thesis principallyresearches the importance and necessity of culture teaching in English class, aswell as the effective approaches to teaching culture along with teaching thelanguage.
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 1.4 Research Questions
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 1) What is language and what isculture? paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 2)What is therelationship between language and culture? 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com3) What arethe goals of teaching culture?
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 4)How to teach culture in English class? paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 2. Literature Review
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 2.1The Definition of Language
http://www.paper51.com “Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for humancommunication”(He Zhaoxiong & Mei Deming,1999:9).
http://www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com This definition hascaptured the main features of language like this: systematic, arbitrary,symbolic, vocal and used for communication. Language is extremely important tohuman interaction because it is how we reach out to make contact with oursurroundings. Language is the tool that enables us to share our experienceswith others. Language is a set of symbols used and understood by a largecommunity of people,plus the rules for combining those symbols. Language does morethan just permit us to communicate with one another;It is the process by which people became involved in theorder of the physical and social environment.
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 2.2 The Definition of Culturehttp://www.paper51.com “Culture is any of the customs , worldview, language, kinshipsystem, social organization, and other taken-for-granted day-to-day practicesof a people which set that group apart as a distinctive group ”(Scollon, 2000:13). 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comCulture is not only a characteristic of individuals but alsothe property of a community. Societies are programmed by culture, and thatprogramming comes from similar life experiences and similar interpretations ofwhat those experiences mean. Culture involves learned and shared behaviors,norms,values and material objects. It also encompasses what peoplecreate to stand for values, attitudes and norms.
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 2.3 The Relationship between Language and Culture
内容来自www.paper51.com From the definition of language and culture,it can be found that language and culture are intertwined. Itis impossible to separate them. We can analyze the relationship betweenlanguage and culture from the aspects of the following.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Firstly,language expresses cultural reality. It is the carrier ofculture,take the word “dragon” for example,it is in every sense a positive term in China. Its commonassociations are“good luck and fortune,wisdom,royal and noble etc.” But in English ,the word “dragon” refers to a dreadful creature like a crocodile or snake,and it is associated with fierceness and derogatory sensewhen used to describe a person. From the example we can know the language notonly expresses facts,ideas,or events,but also reflects the people’s attitudes,beliefs,world views and so on. When people use their mother tongue,they also acquire the specific culture of this language and become socializedin certain ways. But when they move to another country or a community,they may be recognized easily as a newcomer outside theculture of that country or a community. This implies that language embodiesculture. In a word,language expresses cultural reality.
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com Secondly,as the carrier of culture,language also affects the development of culture.
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comA culture is shared by asociety. Members of the society agree about the meanings of things and aboutthe causes. Each culture consists of several elements: how a social grouprepresents itself,its technological achievements,monuments and works of art and of its historical identityrecorded and passed down by the pop culture,all of them compose of its social identity-its culture. For example,when people mention the United States,they may think of its pop songs,its advanced technology,and Hollywoodmovies. Certainly,its culture would be incomplete without the Declaration ofIndependence and the other historical events. It is the culture, or the socialidentity of American. People in a culture share symbols of it. The most obviousset of symbols is language. The language plays an important role in socializingits people and perpetuating culture,especially,in print form. paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comThirdly,the culture also affects people’s imagination or commondreams which are mediated through the language and reflected in their life.They serve a metaphor for its cultural reality. The well-known American dreampersonified by Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin is just an illustration.
copyright paper51.com paper51.com 2.4 Related Theory
copyright paper51.com paper51.com Since 1980s, researches ofimportance of culture teaching in language teaching have gained more and moreattention. Claire Kramsch (1993) emphasizes the importance of context andculture in language teaching. He believes:“Culture in language teaching is not an expendable fifthskill, tacked on, so to speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening readingand writing.” In the late 1980s, Byram(1989) observed that culture represents “hidden”curriculum in second and foreign language teaching, and he also pointed outthat language teaching rarely took place without implicitly teaching theculture of its speakers because language invariably refers to their knowledgeand perception of the world, and the concepts of culture, as well as thelearning of culture(Byram,1989:610). Other linguists and scholars have alsoproposed many effective ideas and opinions, which help widen language teacher’shorizon as well as strengthen the need to teach and learn culture. copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com
paper51.com 3. The Goals of CultureTeaching 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Learning a foreignlanguage well does not simply mean mastering its pronunciation, grammar andvocabulary. In fact, the learning of a language is inseparable from the learningof its culture. English teaching is incomplete without teaching of culture.According to these, the teaching of culture has following goals.
内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.comThe first is to helpstudents to develop an understanding of the fact that all people exhibitculturally-conditioned behaviors. 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com The second is to helpstudents to develop an understanding that social variables such as age, sexsocial class, and place of residence influence the ways in which people speakand behave. copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com The third is to helpstudents to become more aware of conventional behavior in common situations inthe culture of target language.
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com The fourth is to helpstudents to increase their awareness of the cultural connotation of words andphrases in the target language.
copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com The fifth is to helpstudents to develop the ability to evaluate and refine generalizations aboutthe target culture, in terms of supporting evidence.
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comThe sixth is to helpstudents to develop the necessary skills to locate and organize informationabout the target culture.
copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comThe seventh is to stimulatestudents’ intellectual curiosity about the target culture, and to encourageempathy towards its people. http://www.paper51.com paper51.comThis list of goals isdefinitely an improvement on Huebener’s (1959:182-183)list of desirable outcomes. At any rate, the aim of teaching culture is toincrease students’ awareness and to develop their curiosity towards the target culture,helping them to make comparisons among cultures (Tavares & Cavalcanti,1996:19). These comparisons, of course, are not meant to underestimate foreigncultures but to enrich students’ experience and to sensitize them to culturaldiversity. 内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 4. Approaches to Teaching Culture
paper51.com paper51.com The fundamental functionof language is to communicate. Successful English teaching is to help languagelearners cultivate a good communicative ability. Since cultures of differentnations vary greatly, misunderstandings and difficulties in interculturalcommunication arise when there is little or no awareness of divergent culturalvalues, beliefs, behaviors, and so on. How can we overcome as many of thosedifficulties as possible so as to ensure smooth communication with people fromdifferent background? The answer is that cultural awareness plays an important role.In the following, I’ll focus on the approaches to teachingculture in English classroom. copyright paper51.com paper51.com4.1 Through Teacher’sIntroduction paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comThis is the main method used in China now, and seems very useful.In this method, the teacher plays a dominant role and acts as a main provider.He can add cultural knowledge to his language teaching whenever he finds itnecessary. The students couldn’t acquire enough culture knowledge if theteacher didn’t introduce correspondently culture knowledge with the teaching ofthe required contents of language. So the teachers should make a one-term orone-year teaching plan for English language knowledge teaching, and along witha general plan for English culture teaching. The teachers are required to teachculture in the whole teaching process. Special introduction on some topics canbe made, such as “body languages in English communication”, “different meaningsof terms with colors in English and Chinese”.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com 4.2 Through Activities http://www.paper51.com paper51.com Activities,such as pair work, group work, and role play can also be used in teachingculture. In Senior English text book, the topic of one passage is bodylanguage. It tells us different meanings of body language in differentcountries. For example, when greeting to others, a Chinese will give you ahand-shaking, while Americans would like to hug each other. To let the studentsunderstand the cultural differences better, after reading the text, teacherscan ask some students to act out the body language in different situations. Therole-play not only shows how well the students understand them, but also givesthem a vivid impression; it not only helps the students understand culturaldifferences, experience foreign culture, but also provides opportunities fororal communication practice.
paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Another way to introduce western culture to students isthrough out-of-class activities. Well organized and guided, the activities outof class can help students benefit a lot. Out-of-class activities can be ofvarious kinds, students can watch TV /VCD/DVD or see films about British orAmerican history, society, art, and literature. They can listen to music orsing songs of the target language. Stories can be told about the country.Newspapers, magazines, and reading materials can be read. Problems aboutculture which can not be solved in class may be discussed and solved out ofclass. In short, out-of-class activities provide students opportunities to havea more thorough study or discussion of the problems which are related toculture, which are relevant to their English language learning, or which theyare interested in. http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com4.3 Through Reading 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Reading is another good way to approaching culture. Mostcultural knowledge, such as location of the native country, its people,religion, customs, etc. can be learned through reading. This not only providesstudents with various kinds of background knowledge of the target language, butalso offers a practical reading practice for students. Reading in class, or out of class, means thatstudents themselves can read more in spare time.
内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com Teachers maymake use of what have been published in Britainor in the USA which give theintroduction of the background to Britain,background to the USA, thelife in the USA,and other books concerning the cultural knowledge of western countries. paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 4.4 Through Lectures
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Lecture isanother practical way in teaching culture, especially in introducing thegeneral background knowledge. Through these lectures, students may have ageneral idea of the western culture, and then come to realize that language isculturally bound, and that is necessary to learn something about culture whenthey learn a foreign language.
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paper51.com 5. Conclusion
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com To sum up, language and culture areclosely related, language is the carrier ofculture. It contains cultural information and reflects the thinkingcharacteristic of a nationality. Culture restricts the language, because languageis deeply influenced by the culture. So language and culture are inseparable.That is why culture teaching plays an important role in English learning. Weshould learn more culture about western countries and develop our awareness ofstudying foreign culture, so that we can make quicker reactions to the foreignculture. Itis important to teach culture in English education. Only if culture wereintegrated in language teaching, the whole teaching process would be complete.Language and culture are of the same importance. Teacher should take differentactions to raise the cultural awareness of students in the language teaching inorder to reach the final goal of communication appropriately and effectively.
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内容来自www.paper51.com Reference
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com
内容来自www.paper51.com Byram, M. http://www.paper51.com Claire,K. 1993. Context and Culture in Language Teaching [M]. Oxford UniversityPress.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Huebener,L. E. UnderstandingCulture and helping Students Understand Culture, 1998 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comLessard-Clouston, M. 1997. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Scollon Ron. 2000 Tavares, R., Cavalcanti, I. DevelopingCultural Awareness in EFL Classrooms [J]. English Forum,July-September, 1996 copyright paper51.com paper51.com 陈宗伦,2008,《当代英语教学理论与实践》。武汉:中国科学技术大学出版社。 http://www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com何兆熊、梅德明,1998,《现代语言学》。 北京:外国教学与研究出版社。 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com刘书林,2006,《英语教学新概念》。武汉:中国科技大学出版社。
paper51.com copyright paper51.com 许力生,2006,《跨文化交流入门》。浙江:浙江大学出版社。 copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com张爱琳,2003,《跨文化交际》。重庆:重庆大学出版社 内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com paper51.com
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