Cultural Awareness in English Instruction.doc
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1、Cultural Awareness in English InstructionThesis statement: Cultural awareness is a very import in reading instruction; more attention should be paid to improve the students cultural awareness.Outline I. IntroductionII. Cultural differencesA. Chinese and western cultural differences in customs B. Chi
2、nese and western cultural differences in value orientationC. Chinese and western cultural differences in religionD. Chinese and western cultural differences in hierarchyE. Chinese and western cultural differences in traditions and ethicsF. Chinese and western cultural differences in courtesyG. Chine
3、se and western cultural differences in social relation 1. Equality concept VS class concept 2. Nucleus family VS extended familyH. Chinese and western cultural differences in historical backgroundIII. The methods to raise cultural awareness in reading instructionA. Comparison methodB. Drama methodC.
4、 Cultural aside . ConclusionI. Introduction With the development of the world, English has become an important information carrier. In order to open the door to the global village, we should try our best to find the key and it has become a necessity for Chinese students to study English well. Howeve
5、r, it is never an easy thing to learn English, and during the process of studying English, students inevitably come across a number of difficulties. In general, English study can be divided into four parts, which are listening, writing, speaking and reading. And in the course of learning how to read
6、, students usually are not in a position to get the key point and as a consequence, they can not acquire any useful information in spite of the innumerous efforts that they have made.Some reading, although has not bumped into a new word in the reading process, and does not have the grammar barrier,
7、but it is difficult for the students to know the meaning of the whole reading passage, especially when the students lack certain knowledge of the cultural context (谢珏 2000:15). However, taking the present condition of cultural education in senior English teaching into consideration, we are puzzled b
8、y the phenomena that so many students who have begun their English study since they were children still feel difficult to understand the authors thoughts, and they are still elusive when they communicate with foreigners. From the perspective of NEEC (National Entrance Examination for Colleges), Engl
9、ish is considered to be important to all senior school students. For most students, the motivation of learning English is just treating it as a means to pass the exams and get high scores in English proficiency tests. And the teachers of English are just the facilitators of realizing this goal. Teac
10、hers greatest concern is given to the mastery of linguistic knowledge and skills. Students spend most of the time on learning vocabulary, structures and grammar through lots of drills, practice and consolidation so as to memorize those linguistic elements and reproduce them. But cultural knowledge i
11、s ignored. In this case, culture is often separated from its carrierlanguage. Both teachers and students cultural awareness are poor. English reading ability is one kind of comprehensive ability. There are so many English article literature styles, including the certain background knowledge. Some re
12、ader, although has not bumped into a new word in reading process, and encounters no grammar barrier, it is difficult to know the meaning of the whole reading passage, especially when the students lack the certain knowledge of the cultural context, which leads to the failure in communication and unde
13、rstanding. English learning is not learning a language, and students should learn English on the basis of its special cultural background. Thus cultural awareness in reading instruction becomes absolutely necessary. It plays an important role in English learning.II. Cultural Differences There is not
14、 one aspect of human life that is not touched and altered by culture (Samovar& Porter 2004:28). Different countries have different customs. There are huge differences between china and the western countries. Therefore, to understand the literatures written by the west authors, one should know about
15、the cultural background of the western nation as exactly as possible, especially the difference between the Chinese and western culture. Language learning and cultural learning are not separable, so the cultural differences should be involved in English learning (胡斌 2003:4).A. Chinese and Western Cu
16、ltural Differences in CustomsManners and customs are rooted in peoples own lives and social structure. Different social structure will inevitably form different customs, which involve a wide range of aspects, such as economy, politics, religion and so on. For example, a young Chinese tourist sat in
17、a London caf and ordered tea. Twice he asked for more hot water to top it up while putting the saucer on the cup to keep the tea warm, as he would have done at home. The waiter grew impatient. “This Chinese is too stingy to pay for more tea. And doesnt he know the saucer goes under the cup to catch
18、the drips?” The Chinese man noticed the displeasure on the waiters face and lost patience himself. “This western waiter is really stingy and silly! Why is he so reluctant to serve me hot water? Why does he put the lid under the cup?” he got angry, and left the caf steaming with resentment.Another ex
19、ample in China, our Chinese people regarded ourselves as the descendants of Chinese dragon (Long), and the dragon is the symbol of the Chinese nation, while dragon means to most westerners a symbol of evil, an evil monster that destroys and therefore must be destroyed(Deng 2003:55). So when students
20、 describe a person energetic, they should say “He/She is full of vim and vigor.” Instead of “He/She is as lively as a dragon and tiger.” Still like in English lion is the king of beasts, and stands for courage and majesty. One dictionary definition about lion is “a famous and important person.” What
21、 lion to British is what Long (dragon) to our Chinese. However, our Chinese do not have a good impression of the lion, such as “狮子大开口”, often making derogatory sense.B. Chinese and Western Cultural Differences in Value Orientation Every culture has its unique value system of good and evil, of beauty
22、 and ugliness. The criteria are also different, in this culture that is good, but in another culture maybe that is bad. They exist reasonably within the system of their own culture, and by no means can we interpret a value standard as being advanced while the other being backward. Values in English
23、and Chinese culture are different, and the most prominent one is the collectivism and individualism. For example, the word “individualism” in Chinese has strong derogatory sense, because in Chinese culture, we are pursuing collectivism, that is, the realization of personal value is his contribution
24、to society, and thus no “individualism” and “personal struggle.” But in English culture. The greatness of the value of a man lies in the strength of his personal struggle. Thus “individualism” is a complimentary word in Britain and the U.S. In short, due to the different social backgrounds of cultur
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