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1、On Teaching Culture in Middle School English ClassroomsAbstract: The teaching of culture is an indispensable part of foreign language teaching. This thesis explores the teaching of culture in the middle school English classroom. It will be demonstrated that teaching a foreign language in middle scho
2、ol is not just to give a homily on syntactic structures or learning new vocabulary and expressions, but mainly incorporates, or should incorporate, some cultural elements, which are intertwined with language itself. Specifically, some consideration will be given to the relationship between culture a
3、nd middle school foreign language teaching and principles of teaching culture. Furthermore, an attempt will be made to incorporate culture into the classroom by means of considering some techniques and methods currently used. The main premise of the paper is that effective communication is more than
4、 a matter of language proficiency. And apart from enhancing and enriching communicative competence, cultural competence can also lead to students understanding and respect toward different culture.Keywords: culture; English teaching; cross-cultural communication; culture awareness1. Introduction1.1
5、Research purposeThe modern society accelerates the circulation of material and cultural products. It brings all the nations into a global village and it makes cross-cultural communication an indispensable part in all nations life. However, the cultural differences are the barriers in cross-cultural
6、communication. So the world is concerned on how to remove the barriers in cross-cultural communication. Language and culture are closely related, each influencing and shaping the other. In learning language knowledge, to acquaint oneself with the knowledge of culture is the key point. One can hardly
7、 learn a language well without knowing the cultural pattern and rules of the target language. To foster the students abilities in cross-cultural communication, it is necessary to incorporate culture into the English classroom. The role of cultural learning and teaching in the foreign language classr
8、oom has been the concern of many teachers and scholars and has sparked considerable controversy. This paper is concerned with the status and objectives of teaching culture in middle school English classroom. More specifically, it explores the principles and approaches of incorporating culture into t
9、he middle school English classroom.According to Straub, what educators should always have in mind when teaching culture is the need to raise their students awareness of their own culture, to provide them with some kind of metalanguage in order to talk about culture, and to cultivate a degree of inte
10、llectual objectivity essential in cross-cultural analyses. What is more, another objective permeating the teaching of culture is to foster the understanding of the target culture from an insiders perspective. In this paper, the author also discusses how to use teaching materials and how to design cl
11、assroom instruction to incorporate culture into the middle school English classroom. 1.2 Research background1) Research situations in foreign countriesCulture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, so to speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
12、It is always in the background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language learners when they expect it least, making evident the limitations of their hard-won communicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world around them. (Kramsch 1)In foreign language educ
13、ation, the importance of teaching foreign culture has been widely recognized. However, there are diverse proposition and arguments about the pedagogical treatment of culture. How to teach culture in foreign language education is a problem faced by language educators all over the world. The problem i
14、s not simple a pedagogical one. It is very complicated since the answer relies on our understanding of the relations between home culture and foreign culture, the relations between language and culture, and the role of foreign language education in a given cultural and political context. The teachin
15、g of culture is not akin to the transmission of information regarding the people of the target community or countryeven though knowledge about (let alone experience of) the “target group” is an important ingredient (Nostrand 118). It would be nothing short of ludicrous to assert that culture is mere
16、ly a repository of facts and experiences to which one can have recourse, if need be. Furthermore, what Kramsch seems to insinuate is that to learn a foreign language is not merely to learn how to communicate but also to discover how much leeway the target language allows learners to manipulate gramm
17、atical forms, sounds, and meanings, and to reflect upon, or even flout, socially accepted norms at work both in their own or the target culture.2) Research situation in ChinaIn early 1980s, Mr. Xu Guozhang gave a speech titled the Cultural Connotation of Words and English Teaching.It indicated that
18、the foreign language teaching field started to show its attention on the relationships between culture and foreign language. After that, some articles on culture and foreign language teaching were published. In 1988, Mr. Hu Wenzhong published his essay collections Cross- Cultural Communication and E
19、nglish Study. It collected some essays on the comparison study on English and Chinese culture. In 1989, Deng Yanchang and liu Runqing edited Language and Culture-the comparison between English and Chinese culture. The work made a comparison between the different vocabulary, idioms, culture and body
20、languages of the two languages. The common ground of the research work is that foreign language teaching should foster the students abilities of cross-cultural communication. Culture is an indispensable part of foreign language teaching. In 2001, for the first time in history, the fostering of stude
21、nts awareness of culture was listed as one of the goals in the English Teaching Curriculum Standards. 2. The relationship between culture and English teachingLanguage is part of culture. The Chinese language is part of the Chinese culture and English is part of the English culture. There is no cultu
22、re that has no language as its part. Language and culture are not separable. Human knowledge and experience are described and stored in language. Customs, habits and behavioral patterns can be described and analyzed in language. Social institutions, value systems, beliefs, world views can be describ
23、ed, analyzed and evaluated in language. In short, language can represent every aspect of culture. Language is the mirror of culture.The close relationship between language and culture is readily shown by the fact that culture is transmitted from one generation to the next through language for the co
24、ming generation to learn. While children learn their native language, they also learn their native culture and are eventually accepted as members of their culture. Language learning and culture learning are not separable (王振亚21).In short, language and culture are closely related, each influencing an
25、d shaping the other. To teach a foreign language implies to teach the culture in which it is spoken. A language can never be taught in a cultural vacuum. Based on the research achievements home and abroad, people came to a common ground that foreign language teaching should focus on cultivating the
26、students abilities of cross-cultural communication and their awareness of culture. In cross-cultural communication, people are required with not only the knowledge of phonetics, grammar, vocabulary, language function, but also the understanding of the culture carried in target language. If not, misu
27、nderstanding caused by cultural barriers may occur. So its important to cultivate the students sensitivity over the target language in middle school English classroom. 3. The objectives of teaching culture in the middle school English classroomGenerally, foreign language teaching should foster the s
28、tudents awareness of culture and their ability of cross-cultural communication. From the foreign language teachers point of view, Tomalin and Stempleski illustrated as follows,1.To help students to develop an understanding of the fact that all people exhibit culturally-conditioned behaviors.2. To he
29、lp students to develop an understanding that social variables such as age, sex, social classes, and place of residence influence the ways in which people speak and behave.3.To help students to become awareness of conventional behaviors in common situations in the target culture.4. To help students t
30、o increase their awareness of the cultural connotations of words and phrases in the target language.5. To help students to develop the abilities to evaluate and refine generalizations about the target culture, in terms of supporting evidence.6. To help students to develop the necessary skills to loc
31、ate and organize information about the target culture.7. To stimulate students intellectual curiosity about the target culture, and to encourage empathy towards its people (吕良环188). The new English Curriculum Standards describes the development of culture consciousness in eight levels. It can be gen
32、erally concluded as two parts, i.e. to master the knowledge of the target language culture and foster the students abilities of using the cultural knowledge of the target language in real communication situation. Whats more, the teaching of foreign culture should also focus on students cultural crea
33、tivity. Creativity is a power to create new things. Its a human capacity developed by learning(陈申230). Chinese students should learn how to solve Chinese problems in learning from foreign culture and we should encourage them to learn from the interaction between home culture and foreign culture. 4.T
34、he principles of incorporating culture into the middle school English classroomClassroom teaching is the main approach for the students to learn the English culture, so it is important to incorporate culture into the English classroom. Then what principles should be followed while incorporating cult
35、ure? Based on the middle school students real situation and the characteristics of English culture, the following principles should be followed. 4.1 Teach culture systematically. The students culture knowledge structure is limited if the teacher just incorporate culture knowledge according to the ne
36、ed of teaching content. When the teachers make a one-term or one-year teaching plan for English language knowledge teaching, they should also make a general plan for English culture teaching. The teachers are required to teach culture in the whole teaching process. Special introduction on some topic
37、s can be made, such as “body languages in English communication”, “different meanings of terms with colors in English and Chinese”.4.2 Teaching culture step by stepTeach culture in different phases.It refers to the incorporating of culture should give consideration to the learners age and their abil
38、ities of cognition. On the beginning level, the students can have a general understanding of the difference between the English culture and Chinese culture. The culture knowledge taught can be those closely-related with students daily life or those what can arouse the students interest in English le
39、arning. On the higher level of English learning, the students are encouraged to broaden their sight-field to improve their sensitivity over the difference between Chinese and English culture.4.3 Integrate other subjects in culture teachingThe integration of school curriculums is one feature of the c
40、urriculum reforms in many countries. English can be combined with other subjects. While choosing the content for culture teaching, teachers may combine the similar contents in other subject into his/her lessons, such as the content of world history and world geography. Such being the case, the stude
41、nts would be more interested in the teaching content. The integration of the different subjects helps students to learn well. 4.4 The principle of serving for communicationCulture teaching must be commensurate with the dynamic aspects of culture. As Lessard-Clouston notes, students will indeed need
42、to develop knowledge of and about the L2 or FL culture, but this receptive aspect of cultural competence is not sufficient. Learners will also need to master some skills in culturally appropriate communication and behavior for the target cultureCultural awareness is necessary if students are to deve
43、lop an understanding of the dynamic nature of the target culture, as well as their own culture.The chief objective for English learning is to carry through cross-cultural communication. People with different cultural background may misunderstand each other because of the conflict between different c
44、ultures. To avoid such conflict, students need to master certain amount of cultural knowledge and apply it in according to the practical need of communication.4.5 Use diverse measures to incorporate culture.The development of modern teaching technology makes our teaching more colorful. Teachers may
45、provide the channels for culture learning from the aspects of vision, listening and feeling. To meet students different learning styles, real objects, videos, CDs, television, Internet, magazines, literature works, photos and songs can be used as teaching materials. 5. The approaches of incorporatin
46、g culture into the middle school English classroomA question for our discussion is how can we incorporate culture into the foreign language curriculum, with a view to fostering cultural awareness and communicating insight into the target civilization?The teachers task is to stimulate students intere
47、st in the target culture, and to help establish the foreign language classroom “not so much as a place where the language is taught, but as one where opportunities for learning of various kinds of culture are provided through the interactions that take place between the participants”(陈申113).Accordin
48、g to Straub, what educators should always have in mind when teaching culture is the need to raise their students awareness of their own culture, to provide them with some kind of metalanguage in order to talk about culture, and to cultivate a degree of intellectual objectivity essential in cross-cul
49、tural analyses. What is more, another objective permeating the teaching of culture is to fosterunderstanding of the target culture from an insiders perspectivean empathetic view that permits the student interpret foreign cultural behaviors accurately. ( Prior to considering some concrete techniques for teaching culture in the foreign language classroom, some guidelines have been provided in the previous part.5.1 Incorporating c
