On The Cultivation Of Cultural Consciousness In English Teaching In Secondary Normal Schools

Language is not only the cultural carrier but also the cultural manifestation. Language develops as the development of nations. Language is a component of the social national culture. Different nations have different culture, history and customs, which are shown in different nations'languages. Language and culture cannot be separated with each other. Teaching English is teaching a language. So culture should not be neglected.The aim of foreign language teaching is to train students'cross-cultural communication abilities. Modernization accelerates the circulation of spiritual and physical products and leads each nation into a common"global village". Here cross-culture communication becomes the indispensable part in life of each nation. Different cultures emerge from different natural environments and social conditions. Different cultural psychology and communication stipulation often cause conflicts, inharmoniousness, misunderstanding and even failure of communication.Cross-cultural communication is not only the language exchanges, but also the culture exchanges. English teaching is not only language teaching, but also culture teaching. I think language teaching and cultural teaching ought to be integrated organically in English teaching. The cultivation of students'cultural consciousness is an important part in the foreign language teaching.At present, we only pay attention to language knowledge and neglect the cultivation of the cultural consciousness in English teaching in secondary normal schools. Teachers have realized the significance of culture consciousness, but teachers'thoughts and teaching behaviors have deviations in the process of teaching due to various reasons. Cultural teaching is in a disordered state. So this paper aims to make a research on how to cultivate students'cultural consciousness in English teaching in secondary normal schools.This paper first discusses the relationships among language, culture and communication and points out the significance of the cultivation of students'cultural consciousness. Then by using a questionnaire and interviews, the state of the cultivation of cultural consciousness in English teaching in secondary normal schools is investigated. Problems are discovered and the reasons to the problems are analyzed. Finally the suggestions on how to cultivate students'cultural consciousness are proposed.