Cultural Introduction In College English Teaching

As the world economy and the science and technology develop quickly, cross-cultural communication between China and the outside world is becoming more frequent and wider, which poses a real challenge to the present college English teaching. How to cope with the development of the 21st century? To cultivate talents with intercultural language abilities is urgent. Cross-cultural communication is a new term for some readers, but in reality, although we are not conscious about it, we practice cross-cultural communication often. When our foreign minister negotiates with the leaders of a foreign country, it is cross-cultural communication. When we socialize with foreign travelers, foreign students and teachers, we are performing cross-cultural communication. Even when we do not contact with the foreigners directly, cross-cultural communication is still undergoing. For instance, reading foreign novels, watching foreign movies and TV programs are ways of cross-cultural communication. As readers and audience, we have different cultural backgrounds with the writers, directors and actors; therefore, understanding foreign novels and movies is a complicated process of cross-cultural communication. (Hu Wenzhong 2004: 11) In the recent two decades, one of the prominent characteristics of the foreign language teaching in our country, especially of the English teaching, is that culture has been given more attention. There does exist a cultural barrier between the Chinese and the foreigners, which cannot be seen and felt and holds back the successful communication. Communication cannot be separated from cultural background, so culture and cultural comparison between Chinese and other cultures are unavoidable in foreign language teaching. Whether we are interested in culture or not, as foreign language educators and learners, we should be conscious about the problems occurred in the process of cross-cultural communication. Therefore, the transmission of culture in the college English teaching class is vital to fostering students'cultural awareness.The thesis is written on the basis of the research achievements of scholars home and abroad on culture teaching since 1960's. A detailed analysis of the socio-cultural test displays that cultural factors play an important role in college English teaching and the writer of the thesis tries to discuss the cultural transmission in it deeply. There are six parts in the thesis, including four chapters and the introduction and conclusion. The introduction presents the research background, which briefly describes the significance of culture teaching, the present situation of foreign language teaching in China and the current situation of college English teaching. It is pointed out that much attention is paid to linguistic knowledge, such as sentence structure, grammar and phonetics in the college English teaching in China, while the context of the language and the culture are ignored. Consequently, communication errors and pragmatic misunderstandings among learners and native speakers occur. Culture teaching is advocated in this part to cope with the situation.Chapter one is a brief historical review of culture teaching and its trends in foreign language teaching in the west countries and China. The present situation of culture teaching and research of the college English teaching in China has been discussed. The review indicates that culture teaching is increasingly valued in the west and China in foreign language teaching.Chapter two provides a theoretical basis for the paper. The definition of language and culture and the relationship between them are included. To illustrate that language is a part of culture and plays an important role in it, the author cites some famous educators'statements about the relationship between language and culture; culture would not be possible if there is not language. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture and reflects culture. Therefore, language learners should not only study the cultural context (language and culture) but that they should be aware of the interaction between language and culture.Chapter three is a survey of the Chinese college students'culture competence. The survey methodology is introduced in terms of objectives, subjects, instruments and data analysis, and the results reflected in the socio-cultural test and the questionnaire are analyzed in depth. The survey constitutes of two parts: a cultural test and a questionnaire. The analysis of the test results reveals that the cultural competence of the Chinese college students is at a low level and is far behind their linguistic competence. Accordingly, it is urgent to transmit culture in college English teaching. It is shown through the questionnaire that the Chinese college students hold a favorable attitude to culture teaching in college English teaching and they are interested in people's way of life, customs, culture background in the target language and the cultural differences between their native culture and the target culture.The contents, principles, goals and methods of culture teaching in college English teaching are discussed in chapter four. The contents of culture teaching should be: first, people's way of life, including ways of thinking, beliefs, values and religions. Second, social customs and cultural differences: cultural distinctions and connotations of words; cultural differences in everyday conversations; idioms, proverbs and sayings; metaphors and association; taboos; language of respect and humanity, privacy. Third, nonverbal communication and body language. Fourth, the general background of people and societies is another part. Culture teaching in college English teaching in China should be on the basis of the college English level of the students. We can employ different approaches in class and after class to cultivate students'intercultural communication competence. The approaches of culture teaching suggested in the paper are as follows. Firstly, when teachers find the cultural differences between Chinese and the target language in the process of teaching the target language, they should remind the students to have a discussion and motivate the curiosity of the students about the culture of the target language. Secondly, when teachers teach vocabularies, cultural information can be added to them, this way, students can get to know the connotation of the words and phrases. Thirdly, culture can be taught by means of textbook. Fourthly, teachers can teach culture through visual materials, such as English short subjects and movies. Fifthly, students can learn cultural information through means of music, pictures and stories. Sixthly, students can study culture by performing role-play activities. Seventhly, foreign teachers can be invited to give lectures on foreign customs to the Chinese college students. Eighthly, teachers can teach culture through lectures on a specific topic.In the conclusion, the author points out that English teaching is highly valued in China, and the importance of culture teaching has been widely realized by most of the scholars and teachers, however, there is much difficulty in putting the theory of culture teaching into practice in college English teaching owing to the educational system at present. In addition, no cultural textbooks are available in China. Therefore, there is a long way to go towards a cultural dimension of English teaching in the colleges and universities of China.