The Teaching Of Culture In The English Language Education

In teaching English as a foreign language, the importance of teaching culture has been widely recognized. However how to teach culture in foreign language education is a problem faced by language educators all over the world. In the present dissertation, the concerning linguistic theories and various ways of teaching foreign culture in the English classroom will be surveyed and studied in the light of Chinese situation. The present dissertation stresses that culture teaching is very essential in the English language education. The teaching of language and the teaching of culture are of the same importance in the English classroom.Language and culture are closely related. In foreign language education, the definition of culture teaching should include all the human achievements of civilization and the ways of life and the different habits of people. Culture differences are reflected in languages and communicative activities. Furthermore it makes great difference in communication whether learners can understand or know the cultural differences, cultural rules, and even the cultural taboos.As we know, communication is rule-governed. People expect culturally determined patterns of behavior or rules to govern their interactions. In communication, rules prescribe behavior by establishing appropriate and acceptable responses to communication stimuli for various social context within the larger culture. Social settings usually stimulate which rules are appropriate for a particular situation, but it is culture that constructs the rules, which are culturally diverse. Although cultures have many of the same social settings or contexts, they may employ different rules. To be successful ininternational communication, it is essential that you know not only your own culture's rules but also the cultural rules of the people with whom you are interacting.However, in traditional approaches to language teaching, the degree of proficiency that a learner achieved is described in terms of his mastery of "structures"梩hat is, of the phonology, morphosyntax, and lexicon of the target language. The aims of a language teaching course are very often defined with reference to the four "language skills": understanding speech, speaking, reading and writing. What matters is whether or not梠r to what degree-he has learned the sounds of target language, a certain amount of grammar, and certain number of words. Culture teaching is not taken so important a teaching target as the above mentioned language skills.The view is now questioned since it neglects appropriatness of various social and cultural situations, which are very essential to successful communication. And because of the lack of cultural knowledge, students often make cultural mistakes when they communicate with native speakers.From years of my experience in teaching English, I gradually realize the importance of culture teaching to Chinese students. English teaching should be aimed at developing students' communicative competence so that they would be able to react freely and proper with native speakers of English in various social situations. Language should be taught in culture. The two are of the same importance.The present dissertation is under guidance of the theories of communicative competence by D. Hymes and the functional grammar by M.A.K. Halliday, answering the questions such as the importance of culture teaching, the content, scope and essence of culture, and the methods of culture teaching. The dissertation is composed of six parts.Chapter One is an introduction, stating the importance of culture teaching in foreign language education and the problems faced by English teachers in teaching culture and stressing that foreign language teaching should aim at not only language skills but also students' communicative competence, which includes the grammar ability, socialinguitic system, semantic competence and strategic skills. This chapter also includes the structure of the present dissertation.Chapter Two is based on the theories of communicative c...