Culture Acquisition In Extensive Reading Course

Intercultural communication was introduced into China by Hu Wenzhong and other scholars in the 1980s. Ever since then many Chinese scholars and foreign language teachers have been working in this field and have tried to apply the findings in their research to English teaching. ERC (Extensive Reading Course) has been considered as the essential component of EFL (English as Foreign Language) teaching and learning. Unfortunately, in China, reading has long been viewed as a passive process. Most teaching methods adopted in ERC are to read the text quickly, retell the text, answer questions, do multiple choices and so on. The result of such teaching methods is that students lose their interest in ERC and neglect the acquisition to culture.Culture is a vast topic. People may define the term from different perspectives. Simply speaking, culture refers to the entire way of life of a society. Language is a part of culture and is influenced and shaped by culture. Language and culture are independent and interwoven. Understanding of one requires understanding of the other. If one is to use a language well, he must know the culture of the people who speak the language. In the communication between people of different cultures, the greatest barrier lies not only hi the differences of languages, but also in those of cultures, which permeate all aspects of human life. Cultural mistakes are even more serious and irritating than linguistic ones.Therefore, the importance of the target culture teaching has been drawing attention ever since.It is now widely recognized that communicative competence is the goal of foreign language teaching. The theory of communicative competence was first proposed by Dell Hymes in 1971. It refers to the ability to apply the grammatical rules of a language to form grammatically correct sentences and to know when and where to use these sentences and to whom. Communicative competence includes the understanding of different cultures and the power to create new things, which is called cultural creativity.ERC is a prominent constituent in English teaching and one of the key points to improve students' cultural ability and communicative competence. Although no one would deny the importance of culture teaching in ERC, culture teaching at most time is almost an empty talk because there is no clear knowledge about the notion of culture teaching, no adequate cultural information in reading materials, no corresponding teaching techniques nor concrete guidance as to what the teacher is supposed to be aiming at. Most teachers still habitually teach only linguistic knowledge.This thesis analyzes the communicative competence and the necessity of culture acquisition in ERC. Based on the analysis, the author stresses the content of culture teaching is most close to everyday life and basic to successful communication. Finally, the paper provides some suggestions on teaching methodology for foreign language teachers, aiming at adding cultural factors into ERC teaching and enhancing students' cultural creativity so that they can communicate effectively. This thesis consists of seven chapters.Chapter One serves as an introduction stating the study on culture teaching, the development of culture teaching and the teaching of ERC in China. This part also shows the organization of the dissertation.Chapter Two talks about the nature of reading, the current situation of ERC in China is not satisfactory. The GT (Grammar Translation) -centered or the "cramming" approach results in students' incapability in communication with English-speaking people.Chapter Three presents the theories of communicative competence by D. Hymes, Canale and Swain, which have led to a change of focus on English teaching. The perspectives provided by the concept of communicative competence direct language teaching away from the only concern with language skills to concern with both languageskills and language use.Chapter Four surveys the concepts of language, culture, communication and their relationships. Extensive Re...