李文
北京明德汇文教育咨询有限公司
Abstract
Culture is an important factor that guides language learners, especially beginners, to get started and cultivate interest in learning. But in fact, in the domestic middle school English teaching, influenced by the test-oriented education, English teaching often ignores the cultural penetration and only stays at the level of rote memorization of listening, speaking, reading and writing. This paper will start from the characteristics and status quo of English teaching in middle schools, and analyze the enlightening and guiding role of cultural infiltration in middle school English teaching.
Introduction
With the deepening of international communication and the continuous development of language teaching theories, people have gradually realized the important role of language in information exchange and cultural inheritance, and have a deeper understanding of the nature of language. Cultural factors are in language learning and communication. As American linguists said in "Language Theory", "language does not exist without culture." It can be seen that language and culture go hand in hand, and language is an important part of culture, a form of expression of culture, and a product of culture. (Luo, 2002) The connotation and extension of language and culture determine on the one hand that language teaching cannot replace cultural teaching in foreign language teaching; on the other hand, language and cultural teaching cannot be completely separated and cannot be partial or neglected.
1.The importance of permeating culture in middle school English teaching
1.1Analysis of the characteristics of middle school English teaching
The English subject is a language subject that closely combines memory and practice. It is also an all-encompassing and extensive knowledge subject. It is also a literary subject that integrates the philosophy of life and the experience of human growth. Therefore, there are many contents of "rote memorization" in the classroom teaching of middle school English in China: memorizing words, memorizing tenses, memorizing fixed collocations, memorizing grammar rules, memorizing good expression methods, memorizing sentence patterns, memorizing paragraphs and memorizing articles, in order to achieve flexible application in the end. (Guo, 2003) However, English teaching in middle schools ignores cultural penetration, which makes language teaching not a complete process. Only paying attention to language and neglecting culture often leads to cultural mistakes and even cultural conflicts.
1.2Analysis of the status quo of middle school English teaching
Nowadays, English teaching in domestic middle schools either completely ignores the infiltration of language background and cultural knowledge, or simply introduces the culture that appears in the textbook relatively. Just like the close relationship between Chinese and Chinese culture, English and Western culture are also inseparable. (Feng, 2004) The meaning of certain elements in the language comes from a specific cultural background. Only by digging deep into the cultural content behind the language, Students can feel the charm of English language and fully interpret language culture.
2. The enlightening effect of permeating culture on middle school English teaching
2.1 Theoretical guidance
Different nations have different cultures, and culture is considered to be the totality of ubiquitous and all-encompassing human knowledge and behavior. (Feng, 2004) English Curriculum Standard also points out that "in foreign language teaching, culture refers to the historical geography, local customs, traditional customs, lifestyle, literature and art, norms of conduct, values, etc." (Chen, 2011) The relationship between language and culture is inseparable and complementary. Language is the communication tool of culture. When one culture enters another culture through language, because of the different language structure, the connotation of culture will change more or less. From this point of view, language has played a certain role in restricting the development and dissemination of culture.
2.2 Realistic guidance
In middle school English teaching, on the one hand, middle school students are characterized by curiosity, competitive spirit, and strong desire for performance; on the other hand, middle school English learns less content, mostly simple conversations that occur frequently in life. (Cao, 1998) Therefore, in view of these characteristics of middle school English teaching, teachers should focus on cultivating students’ interest and good learning habits, and focus on improving students’ learning enthusiasm.
One of the tasks of foreign language teaching is to carry out the education of related cultural background knowledge while carrying out language teaching. "English Curriculum Standards" emphasizes that teaching should gradually penetrate "cultural awareness" and cultivate students' ability to use language comprehensively. (Zhang, 2007) Applying "cultural penetration" to middle school English teaching means not only teaching language knowledge itself, but also effectively integrating culture into the teaching process, and constantly cultivate students' English cultural awareness, cultivate students' ability to continuously develop English learning, and be independent Construct the knowledge and ability of the English system. (Yang, 2002)
Teachers should combine intuitive teaching, heuristic teaching and emotional teaching to cultivate students' independent ability and thinking ability, increase knowledge and interest, and cultivate students' conscious learning ability and social responsibility. (Jia, 2004) The teaching of any language is inseparable from the understanding of the cultural connotation of this language, and the understanding of the cultural background of the formation and use of this language.
2.3 Cultural guidance
For English learners, mastering a foreign language is to better communicate with other cultures and to promote traditional Chinese culture to other parts of the world. For students who are just starting to learn English, foreign language teaching should allow students to deepen their understanding of Chinese culture through the comparison of Chinese and foreign cultures, understand the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western cultures, infuse students with traditional culture, and establish a view of "Eastern and Western cultures are inclusive". (Yang, 2002) In this way, Chinese culture can achieve a win-win situation in the increasingly fierce international competition, so that excellent traditional Chinese culture can go abroad and into the world, and at the same time, excellent foreign culture can enter China and enrich our cultural content.
3.Infiltrate cross-cultural awareness at the right time and effectively break through the cultural barriers
In English learning, the differences between Chinese and Western cultures have brought many problems to students. The primary task of teachers is to be good at using various methods to penetrate cultural awareness in a timely manner, improve students' sensitivity and adaptability to cultural differences, and actively integrate into the new cultural environment, to truly implement the effectiveness of English teaching. (Guo, 2003)
3.1Based on the teaching materials, combined with the background to reveal the cultural connotation of words.
The difficulty of vocabulary teaching is the cultural connotation of words. Teachers should be based on the book, focusing on the textbook itself, in order to introduce or supplement relevant cultural background knowledge, and compare it with other cultures if necessary, so that students not only know their superficial meanings, but also understand their cultural connotations. (Zhang, 2007) For example, in English, ox, cow, sheep represent animals, and beef, mutton, and pork represent the same meat. Through the study, students know what they are and why they are, and understand the interesting development of animal and meat vocabulary. (Cao,1998) During the 250 years when the Normans ruled Britain, many British became servants of the Normans. They raised livestock for the Normans and cooked food for the Normans. Therefore, most of the words used to express animals raised specifically for meat are from Old English, and the words of meat for human consumption are derived from French. (Feng, 2004) The teacher asked the students to retell the two kinds of words according to the content of the text, clarify the relationship between the two types of words, and naturally understand the cultural background involved. This kind of teaching plays a leading role in helping students understand the differences of English words and the stories behind them, so that they can pay attention to the accumulation of such words in their daily learning, and learn based on understanding. (Cao,1998) For example, there is an article about stand-up comedy. Before teaching, the teacher leads the students to preview: divide the students into groups of 3 to 4 people, and the division of labor within the group is free. One part collects the characteristics, categories, development status, representative characters and masterpieces of Chinese comedies, and the other part collects the related Information about stand-up comedies. Finally, the students are organized to discuss in the group, and exchange information with each other, then analyze the similarities and differences between the two comedy forms, and finally collate the research results, and display them in the whole class in tables, courseware, or articles, etc. In this kind of teaching, students can better play their participatory and subjective initiative, and enhance the ability of inquiry learning and inductive analysis. (Jia, 2004) At the same time, in the comparison of the two forms of comedy, they became familiar with the cultural customs of China and the West, and improved their cross-cultural communication skills.
3.2To conduct research study on English and strengthen the comparison of cultural differences between China and the West
The differences between Chinese and Western cultures in verbal and non-verbal communication, conversation topics, and values are naturally permeated into English teaching, so that students have a deep understanding of the differences between the two cultures and continuously improve their English literacy. Students can deepen their understanding of cultural customs through various forms of research, such as watching videos, visiting foreign teachers, browsing the Internet, and cultivating the spirit of cooperation and innovation. (Chen, 2011) The combination of the two will definitely improve students' sensitivity and discrimination ability to the similarities and differences of Chinese and foreign cultures, and enhance their intercultural communication skills.
3.3Create a cultural context for communication and improve the effectiveness of speech teaching
Effective classroom teaching requires teachers not only to let students remember the relevant communicative terms and understand the necessary cultural background knowledge, but also to set up a specific communicative context, flexible use of role performance, two-person dialogue, group discussion and other methods to encourage students to carry out oral or written, bilateral or multilateral speech practice activities according to specific situations.
Conclusion
Language and culture are closely related and interdependent. Language teaching and culture teaching are complementary and inseparable. Therefore, cultural teaching occupies an extremely important position in high school English teaching. While learning English language knowledge, students should strengthen their learning of relevant cultural knowledge. This is not only a requirement of the new curriculum standards, but also a requirement of cross-cultural communication skills. However, there are still many problems in permeating culture in middle school English teaching, and there are still many roads to be explored. This requires our English teachers to work together, and it is necessary to update and improve teaching concepts and teaching methods, do their best to mobilize students' interest and curiosity, and lay a solid foundation for their future language and communication skills; they should also have a deep understanding and familiarity with language. More importantly, students should be able to deeply understand and be familiar with the relationship and connotation of language and culture, so as to train generations of cross-cultural communication talents.
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