On The Differences Of Space Language In Chinese And Western Cultures

ANSTMCTThe ulthae aho of foreign langUage leamin is princiPally fOr cross- culed. -conunamcation. Obviously, the trachg of cross--cultural coInInwhcation cpmPetenceis of great importance in the process of fOreign langUage teaching and letalg. Tolearn and UnderStand the target cultUr, esPecially the deeP culthe which is rathrdifficult but mportan, is one of the taSks of training cross-culW coInInwhcativecoInPerence.Space langUage, one of the categories of non-verbal coInInwhcation and oneelemellt of deeP culfores, includes space message and space oriellwtion. It not onlyinfluences peoPle's perceptioD. but also detennins people's behaviors, Which affectscrossM coInInwhcation. Accoffeg to the thcories of sPace as well ascoInInwhcation by Hall and some other anthrpologists and lingustics, I haVe madea contalive analysis of the sPace concePtS and their reflechons in our lives inChinese and Ainrican cultures. By contrasting PrOxedcs, personal SPae, theattAnes toWars croWding and body touch, huInan and object tewhoriality andseating arranements in Chinse and AInerican culthes, contraSing the mentalreflection of sPace Ianguage -- the dffeellt fOrms and reguations of "privacy"in Chinse and Ainerican cultUres, we can find that Chinese people have lesspersonal space. They can tolerate croWdrig and have less sensitivity towards hUmanand object tetritoriality About the seatin arrangements, the Chinse lthe to adoPtthe hadihonal arrangemot, While Ainerican PeoPle lfae to adoP the horse-show andmodular arranemellt. So we can draW the conclusion: In Chinese culttIre,'1ogetherness" is very booM Which is contrary to "aPed-ness" in weStem cultas.Chinese people make use of walls, rals, etc. to regUIate or protect their privacy,IIwhile American people make use of 搒pace?to regulate or protect their privacy.Finally, the paper points out that space concept is related to the culture of different countries, American people have a frontier spirit, they are ready to move all the time, while Chinese people like to stay in one place. Individualism is the core of American value system. This feature is reflected on the use of space and its mental reflection. They lay emphasis on individual privacy. For Chinese people, the core of value system is collectivism, so they lay emphasis on collective privacy. To protect privacy, Chinese people make use of walls, etc. to isolate from others, while American people make use of space to make a boundary. Actually, this boundary exists in people抯 mind. Because of social reform and international contacts, space language in our county are inclined to change.In a word, making the contrastive analysis is neither to show ethnocentrism and xenophobia. We can make use of the space language to benefit our cross-cultural communication and foreign language teaching.