A Survey And Preliminary Research Of Culture Introduction In Primary School English Teaching

In the field of foreign language teaching, culture teaching has been atopic that people are quite concerned. It is said that language is closely relatedto culture. In theory, there is no doubt that culture teaching is a part oflanguage teaching. However, China’s research is more concentrated inuniversities and middle schools in stead of in primary schools.In the traditional primary English teaching, teachers pay more attentionto students’ basic skills, such as listening, speaking, reading and writing.Because most English teachers believe it is not helpful for students’ results toteach culture knowledge in English class, they neglect intentionally cultureintroduction. As2001English Curriculum Standards implemented, it isnecessary to integrate culture into the primary school English teaching inChina.The purpose of the thesis was to learn problems of current cultureteaching and provide some appropriate principles, contents and strategies ofculture teaching in primary school. Firstly, the writer describes the relevanttheories of cultural introduction, including some definitions of language andculture, culture teaching and so on. And then, the writer conducted two typesof questionnaires，one of which was given to40English teachers from4primary schools and the other one was given to200students from the sameschools. The schools, teachers and students were selected randomly fromLinhe District, Bayannaoer City, Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.Through the analysis of survey results, the author thought that teachersshould be conscious and flexible to combine language and cultural contentfrom the initial stage of English learning. On the one hand, this reflects thelaw of language and implements the new concept of curriculum reform. Onthe other hand, it expands students’ horizons and stimulates students’ interest in learning English. As international communication has become morefrequent, there has been implementation of a feasibility and practicality onculture teaching in primary schools. Certainly, according to the pupils’ agecharacteristics, cognitive abilities and knowledge structure, this paper putsforward the concrete principles, content, and strategies of cultural teaching inprimary school English class.Firstly, culture teaching in primary school English classroom shouldfollow the following main principles: Principle of Phase, Principle ofModeration, Principle of Applicability as well as Principle of Sustainability.Secondly, the main contents of culture teaching in primary school are asfollows: thinking modes, social norms, value concept and basic cultureknowledge.Finally, culture teaching in primary school should include the followingstrategies: relying on existing textbooks and comparing consciouslySino-Western cultural differences; making use of the multi-media; creating adense environment of cross-cultural communication.