A Study Of English Language Teaching From A Cultural Perspective

Language is a social phenomenon, closely integrated with the society and culture, and it is heavily restricted by the cultural setting of the language user in various aspects. Language is a mirror, reflecting the history, value systems, and mode of thinking of a certain ethic group. Language and culture are tightly integrated with each other in the sense of 1) culture includes language; it is one of the member of the big family of culture; 2) language is the carrier of culture. It records all the material and spiritual achievement of human beings in history. It is generally accepted that language and culture are inseparable and the learning a foreign language involves the target culture learning. We English teachers cannot teach English successfully without teaching the culture related to it. In order to keep up with the ever-increasing growth in demand for communication with the outside world, English teachers in China are encouraged to adopt every possible effective way for teaching English in the Chinese context. More and more English teachers in China have come to realize that learning a language does not stop at ability to produce and understand grammatically correct sentences. It is accepted that the goal of English teaching is to equip students with communicative competence. The importance and necessity of TCT in CET has been drawing increasing attention ever since and there are some advantages: Firstly, the role of culture in language teaching is theoretically decided by the relationship between culture and language and the notion of communicative competence; secondly, With the development of public transportation and communication technology and our open policy, far more chances than ever before have been available to contact people with different cultures; thirdly, our new syllabus emphasizes communicative competence which gives us a clear guidance. It is evident that far more attention has been given to TCT in recent years, but there are still some problems remain unsolved or deserves further study ion TCT in CET in China: Firstly, TCT is attached far less importance to that it deserves, especially in the teaching process; secondly, language learning in the classroom continues to be conceived as a training rather than as real communication; thirdly, what to be taught about the target language, and how to teach culture in FLT depends on the personal preference and choice of the teacher. Based on theories of semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and the current situation in college English teaching in China, this thesis makes an attempt to explore some culture-loaded teaching practice and intercultural communication-based approaches. The thesis aims to develop the learners? communicative competence and facilitate cross-cultural communication and understanding.