A Study On The Cultivation Strategies Of Cross-cultural Awareness In English Reading Teaching Of Senior High School

National English Curriculum Standards for General High School(2003)clearly pointed out: contacting and understanding cultures of English-speaking countries is conducive to students' understanding and application of English language.Therefore,teachers should expand the scope of students' exposure to foreign cultures and improve their sensitivities and identifications to the similarities and differences between Chinese and foreign cultures.Based on this,this thesis makes quite a few researches on cultivating students' cross-cultural awareness in English reading teaching in senior high school,hoping to attract the attention of teachers and students to cultural knowledge and improve students' cross-cultural awareness.The main research methods used in this thesis are questionnaire method and experimental method.Studies at home and abroad are reviewed on the cultivation of cross-cultural awareness in English reading teaching.Furthermore,the concepts of cross-cultural communication theory and cross-cultural awareness are narrated.And then the thesis describes the relationship between them.The importance of cultivating cross-cultural awareness is also described in detail when it comes to English reading teaching.The current situation and problems of students' cross-cultural awareness are found out through the questionnaire survey to 100 students in English learning.Through the analysis of the survey result,it is discovered that most students do not pay enough attention to the importance of culture factors in language learning in practical English learning.Students often misunderstand the real intention of the writer due to lack of relevant background knowledge.It is found on the basis of personal teaching experience in the NO.One Senior High School of Yucheng County that students lack various learning channels to obtain cultural knowledge and the knowledge that they acquire is not systematic.Based on that,the study puts forward strategies to cultivate students' cross-cultural awareness: disseminating cultural background knowledge in classroom teaching;carrying out extracurricular activities to enhance students' cross-cultural awareness;cultivating students' cross-cultural awareness in daily life.In the empirical experiment,the strategies above are carried out in the experimental class for an academic year,while the traditional teaching model is still used in the control class.Students in the two parallel classes are tested on the reading comprehension before and after the experiment.By analyzing the data of test scores through the SPSS software,we can see that the experimental class exceeds the control class for the grades after the experiment.We can also see that students in the experimental class have great enthusiasm in English learning and they have improved the learning efficiency through the evaluation of learning effectiveness.Compared to the control class,their cross-cultural awareness and cross-cultural communication ability have improved greatly.This verifies the feasibility of the training strategies proposed in the present thesis.It is hoped that this study can provide some scientific and practical guidance for teachers to cultivate students' cross-cultural awareness and help students develop their comprehensive ability to use English language.