A Survey Of Culture Instruction In Senior High School English Classroom Teaching

With the implement of the new Senior High School English Curriculum Standards all over the country, more people have realized the importance of culture instruction in teaching English. It is believed that in order to successfully realize the goals of English teaching, culture instruction must be integrated with language teaching in order to increase students'cultural awareness and develop their intercultural communicative competence.The author tries to find out the present situation of culture instruction in senior high school English teaching by using literature method, interview method, and questionnaire method. This paper firstly analyzes the development of culture instruction both in home and abroad and also the research about its contents, principles and methods. Then this paper explores the relationship between language and culture, and it is believed that they are inseparable and have a great effect on each other. Then two questionnaires and an interview are conducted to find out the present situation of culture instruction in senior high school English teaching,which includes the attitudes of students and teachers towards culture instruction, the obstacles and teachers'roles in culture instruction and the ways how students gain culture knowledge.Then some conclusions are reached out. Firstly, most teachers have realized the importance of culture instruction and admitted that culture instruction is the key to language learning. Secondly, most students are very interested in culture knowledge and have realized the importance of culture instruction. Thirdly, although they have realized the importance of culture instruction, it is not well carried out in actual teaching. Fourthly, the main obstacle in culture instruction is that teachers and students do not have enough time and energy. The reason is that senior high students face the pressure of exams and they have to learn the language knowledge for most of the time. Fifthly, although students have many ways to acquire the culture knowledge, they are likely to learn it in class.Finally, some suggestions have been put forward to improve culture instruction in senior high school English classroom teaching.