A Study Of Cultural Infiltration In English Reading Teaching In Junior Middle School

The task of English teaching is not only to teach students the basic knowledge of language,but also to cultivate students’ ability of using language to communicate.Language is closely related to culture,so only by strengthening cultural learning can we really improve our communicative competence.The English curriculum standards for Compulsory Education(2011 edition)(hereinafter referred to as the standards)list cultural awareness as one of the comprehensive language abilities of students.It points out that the culture teaching should be strengthened in English teaching to cultivate students’ cultural awareness.Therefore,it is necessary to infiltrate culture in English reading teaching.This thesis aims to investigate the cultural infiltration in the teaching of English reading in junior high school,find out the problems and put forward some improving countermeasures to solve the problems.In order to study the cultural infiltration in junior middle school English reading teaching,the following questions are put forward: 1.What is the current situation of cultural infiltration in English reading teaching of junior middle school? 2.What are the problems of cultural infiltration in English reading teaching of junior middle school? 3.What are the countermeasures of the cultural infiltration in the teaching of English reading in junior middle school? Based on the data which are collected from 307 junior middle school students and 11 English teachers from one Middle School in Rizhao,Shandong Province,it investigates the cultural infiltration in English reading teaching in junior middle schools through classroom observation,questionnaires and interviews.SPSS19.0 and EXCEL are used for statistical analysis of the relevant data and materials to carry out the results of the study.The results show that the current situation of cultural infiltration in English reading teaching is as follows: First of all,the bottom-up reading teaching model is mostly used in English reading class.Under this mode,reading teaching emphasizes on the teaching of basic language knowledge,such as vocabulary and grammar,and neglects the infiltration of cultural knowledge.Secondly,the proportion in reading teaching is out of balance,language teaching is still the main part in reading classroom,but the content of cultural infiltration is less.Finally,the method of cultural infiltration of teachers is boring and single,teachers’ oral teaching is the main method,and the degree of students’ participation is low.The research data indicate that the following problems exist in the cultural infiltration of English reading teaching in junior middle school.On the one hand,the problems existing in the students are as follows: The students’ own cultural level is not balanced,and the students have a good grasp of intellectual culture,but lacking communicative culture;students have low autonomy in cultural learning and seldom learn culture by themselves;the way of students’ cultural learning is single,and students’ acquisition of cultural knowledge mainly depends on the teaching of teachers;students do not pay enough attention to cultural learning and neglect the importance of cultural learning in reading comprehension.On the other hand,the problems existing in teachers are as follows: Teachers’ understanding of cultural infiltration is not enough,and they do not have a deep understanding in the connotation of cultural consciousness or cultural infiltration;teachers do not pay enough attention to cultural infiltration,the cultural infiltration in reading teaching is less;teachers’ method of cultural infiltration is more boring and single.In view of the above problems,the study puts forward the following countermeasures for students and teachers.The countermeasures for students are as follows: Strengthening students’ study of communicative culture and improving students’ ability of intercultural communicative;enhancing students’ awareness of cultural learning,to improve the enthusiasm of students in cultural learning.The countermeasures of teachers are as follows: Strengthening teachers’ learning of the theory of cultural infiltration,and improving their own cultural quality;balancing the proportion of English language teaching and culture infiltration in English reading teaching.Teachers should not only teach language knowledge in reading,but also infiltrate culture;teachers need to try their best to excavate the cultural materials in the reading materials,to enrich the cultural content of the reading teaching,and enrich the methods of cultural infiltration.