The Study On Culture Teaching Methods In Senior High School

Language is the carrier of culture. Language and culture are inseparable. In China, however, we attach great importance to the memory of vocabulary and mechanic drill of grammar, instead of fostering students’ culture awareness. In the academic field, more and more scholars began to realize the importance and necessity of culture teaching. To some extent, language teaching is culture teaching. On that basis, scholars in China have carried out a series of researches and published a lot of articles on what to teach and how to teach culture in English classrooms.The research in this paper is intended to get a clear view of the current situation in culture teaching and learning in middle school classrooms. The following questions are addressed:Firstly, what’s the current state of culture teaching in middle school? Is it possible to carry out culture teaching in middle school? Second, What kind of specific methods do teachers in this school employ in the process of culture teaching? What methods do they use most, what do they use least? Third, what are students’ responses to different methods? What kinds of methods of culture teaching are most conducive to raise students’culture awareness and enhance their cross culture proficiency?The study is carried out in a qualitative way through in-depth classroom observation and semi-structured students interview. From the research, we have several findings:the teachers and students in X High School in Beijing generally lay strong emphasis on culture teaching. As for the specific methods, the author classified the methods observed in the classrooms under five categories, namely, overview introduction, culture analysis and comparison, role-play, culture problem solving and literary works analysis. The possible suggestions are:Teachers can diversify methods of culture teaching step by step from easy activities and tasks to difficult ones. Different tasks and homework can be given according to the different levels of students. In terms of overview introduction method, apart from direct presentation and explanation, teachers can make most of the culture knowledge in the textbook, explore further to impart in-depth knowledge to students and learn to apply multimedia technology to create intercultural communication environment. As for literary works analysis, on one hand, teachers should pay attention to students’ reading amount, on the other hand, they are supposed to equip students with reading strategies and provide them with necessary guide during analysis and discussion.