A Study Of Cross-Cultural Communication In English Teaching For High Schools

Cross-cultural communication is the main characteristic of the international cultural exchanges in the 21^st century. The basic concept is that cross-cultural communication is a very complicated process for people from different cultural backgrounds to interact. In cross-cultural communication, different cognitive behaviors, values and ways of thinking and different interpretations of the same things often lead to failure in communication. Therefore, two kinds of competence, language competence and cultural competence, are badly needed in cross-cultural communication.The English Language Curriculum Standards for High Schools (hereafter referred to as the Standards) issued in 2004 by China's Ministry of Education has placed even greater emphasis on the cultivation of cultural awareness than ever before and taken cultural awareness as an important aspect of the integrated use of language. Therefore, in English teaching, as long as we effectively carry out cross-cultural communication teaching and focus on the cultivation of students' cross-cultural awareness, students can achieve the two kinds of competence needed in cross-cultural communication.By means of overview of cross-cultural communication research and cultural essence, based on the objectives in the Standards and investigation made by the author and in connection with the current situation of TEFL in high schools of China, this thesis focuses on the main contents of cross-cultural communication teaching and also puts forward a series of practical techniques as well as classroom activities to fulfill this significant project. It is divided into four chapters.The first chapter illustrates the connotations of culture, communication and cross-cultural communication and their relationships, overviews the current situation of cross-cultural communication research both at home and abroad, and discusses the theories of communicative competence, constructivism and humanism in cross-cultural communication teaching.The second chapter describes the main teaching aspects of cross-cultural teaching in high school English teaching according to the Standards, and then, discusses cultural differences between the different values of the East and the West from three aspects of verbal, nonverbal and values.The third chapter conducts a survey of cross-cultural communicative awareness in teaching and learning for high school English. It also analyzes and contrasts the findings of researches.The fourth chapter presents the major teaching methods for training cross-cultural communicative awareness of high school students, discusses strengthening cultural import and penetrating cultural awareness, summarizes cultural differences, tells how to create more extracurricular cultural atmosphere and develops cultural sensitivities in cross-cultural teaching.In a word, it is not only necessary and but also feasible to carry out cross-cultural communication teaching and cultivate the students' communicative competence in high schools. Only in this way can students achieve the ultimate goal of language learning.