Introducing Cultural Elements Into The Present College English Syllabus

Cultural factors have been paid more attention in our foreign language teaching since 1 980s, which is an outstanding change in FLT in China. Culture and language are closely related with each other. Language is a part of culture and plays an important role in it. Some social scientists uphold that language is the keystone of culture. Without language, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is influenced by culture and reflects culture. Understanding one requires understanding the other. Learning a foreign language not only means mastering the pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms, but also means learning how the native speakers of that language see things, see the world, and how they use language to reflect their ideas, customs, behavior of their society and values. So learning a foreign language is inseparable from learning its culture. Based on the theories of semantics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics, the dissertation is intended to attach great importance to cultural factors in foreign language teaching and learning. The author of the present paper puts forward the argument that we should add cultural elements to our present College English Syllabus.