On The Cultivation Of The Cross-cultural Awareness In Junior Middle Schools Through Task-based Approach

The thesis is to focus on the cultivation of the cross-cultural awareness of junior middle school students. Culture knowledge and language knowledge are closely related. There is an increasing trend to pay attention to the importance of understanding foreign culture and developing cross-cultural skills in the teaching of foreign language. It is now increasingly recognized that foreign language teaching and foreign culture teaching cannot be separated. English teachers have recognized the importance of developing learners' cross-cultural awareness.According to Hanvey (1979), there are four levels of cross-cultural awareness. How can we cultivate the junior middle school students to reach the preliminary stage. The author makes an experiment for the culture teaching through the task-based approach. By means of the experiment and preceding and post questionnaires data analysis, a conclusion is reached that the students have gained both the language skills and the culture knowledge through completing the tasks that are elaborately designed by the teachers. Acquisition of the culture knowledge cultivates the students' cross-cultural awareness.An experiment is done between the two classes. One is taught by the 3P approach, and the other is taught by the task-based approach. The experiment shows that the task-based approach is the suitable approach for the students to learn the foreign culture and foreign language. Furthermore, language, culture and communication are integrated intricately. Language reflects culture in communication activities. The link between culture and communication is crucial to successful communication and cross-cultural communication. The task-based approach can provide and create more opportunities for students to participate in authentic communication.