On Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence In Senior English Teaching

Being a member of the human society, it is impossible for us not to communicate every day. With the development of communication and transportation, the globalization of world economy, and the widespread population migrations that lead to more and more frequent interpersonal and intercultural communications, the earth has become a "small village". However, communication is closely related with culture, and cultural differences will cause difficulties; principles and taboos will surely appear in intercultural communication. Thus, intercultural communicative competence becomes a required ability for citizens in the 21st century to survive and live meaningfully and productively.Especially, the success of applying for the Olympic Games, acceding to WTO, holding APEC and so on are stimulating our foreign language education. To communicate effectively with people from different culture, an individual needs to develop an intercultural competence- that can be built from the ability of intercultural awareness, sensitivity and competence. In short, respect for other culture is the foundation of effective intercultural communication.It is known that the study on intercultural communication at home and abroad was started very late, so the practical and valuable research onintercultural communication approaches to English teaching in Senior Middle School in China is rather rare. Based on the relevant theory, this thesis has divided the relevant cultural knowledge in Senior English for China (SEFC)-the present English textbook into two kinds: One is Cultural Knowledge Information; the other is Cultural Communication Information. Furthermore, some intercultural communication teaching approaches by connecting the teaching content are suggested.At the same time, this paper also tends to analyze the relationship of communication and culture, the function of foreign language teaching in developing communicative competence. Besides, this paper tries to analyze from the angle of the reform of educational system, teaching materials and teaching methods in China, and at the same time reveal their relationship, and relationship between them and the teaching results. This paper holds that first, Chinese students and teachers should have more freedom in teaching and learning; second, the old teaching materials which mainly emphasize the knowledge of language and emphasize the knowledge of culture should be changed; third, the old teacher-centered method should be changed, too. On the contrary, teaching should be student-centered. Only through these reforms, can Chinese students really master a foreign language, develop communicative competence, and learn how to improve intercultural awareness, and finally achieve effective communication.The aim of this research into intercultural practical communication is toprovide English teaching in Senior Middle School of China with valuable reference so that English teaching in this level can be carried forward more effectively.