The interest is successful one half. If the students are interested in study, it can enhance the effect of the teaching greatly.
4 Method of Improving Awareness of Culture teaching
From above analysis, we can conclude that knowing language forms only is inadequate for the needs of communication. English learning has rich culture meaning. It’s not only the process of mastering, but also that of touching and recognizing cultural thought patterns of the English people. But, for an English teacher, what kinds of culture can be taught in English teaching?
4.1 Making comparison and contrast
4.1.1 Word
Word is the smallest unit of a language that can be used by itself. (Bolinger and Sear, 1968) In English, there may be a single word for a certain object, creature or concept, whereas in Chinese, there may be several words even quite a large number and vice versa. For example, one English word “uncle” is equal to 伯伯，叔叔， 姑丈， 姨丈， 舅舅，ect.; one Chinese word “副”is equal to vice, associate, assistant, deputy, lieutenant, under-,etc. Therefore, in teaching teachers should make a comparison of the customs and traditions between Chinese and English culture. For example, both English and Chinese, words have their symbolic meanings. In English “Sunday” means the first day of a week whereas in Chinese it’s the last day. In Chinese “dog” is usually used in a derogatory sense as 皐alking dog”, “dog’s eyes look down upon people”. In English, it has commendatory sense. “lucky dog” means “lucky person”, “a Jolly dog” means “happy man”.
4.1.2 Culture content in communication words
With the development of civilization, people pay more and more attention to situation, relationship, strategy, intension and influence of communication. Because of differences the culture between Chinese and English, there are some differences of communication in some situation. For example, “Greetings” “Compliments” “Thanks and Apologies” It can be explained as follows:
(ⅰ) Greetings
It is quite natural for people to greet each other
when they meet. Greetings,
which are very important to human society, do not convey much prepositional meaning. But if one fails to greet another person when they meet, the consequence can be serious. Though greetings are important, they are not conduced in the same way in different cultures. In English, speakers often use some fixed expressions to greet others, like “How do you do?”, “How is everything?”, “How are you ?”, “Good morning.”, “Good afternoon.”, “Hello.” and “Hi”. And in China, such greetings as 吃饭了吗？去哪儿？出去呀？干什么去？去上班呀？and你好！are still used frequently and extensively. [16](p23)
(ⅱ) Thanks
In both English and Chinese there are expressions of gratitude. Differences lie in what to thank for and whom to thank. English speakers think that everyone is treated as individuals. So the kindness shown in whatever way should be appreciated explicitly. They say “thank you” to anyone who helps them, even to good friends or family members. In contrast the Chinese people tend to thank the one who has done them a major favors several times.
(ⅲ) Compliments
It is generally accepted that showing modesty is to be polite. When being complimented, English speakers would be likely to accept it by saying “thank you” or “I’m pleased to hear so” to show their pleasure and appreciation; while the Chinese would probably try not to accept the compliment to show their modesty and politeness. Both are trying to be polite and modest and probably think they are behaving suitably. And it is hard to say who is right and who is wrong because of cultural differences. The point is that in order to learn a second language well, one has to acquire its culture as well.
Thus, by comparison, students can have an awareness of the differences between the two cultures. It is note worthy that comparison and contrast helps learners
better understand different cultural judgments. Comparison and contrast also helps learners explain different cultural behaviors, and it can avoid just explaining another’s behaviors according to the learners’ own standards. Only by comparison and contrast can one distinguishing acceptable culture and unacceptable culture, thus preventing learners from accepting the target culture uncritically.
4.2 Exploring culture-based activities
Linguistic behavior is part of human behavior that differs from culture to culture. The communicative activities here refer to those involving learners’ active participation in communication, such as role-play, information-gap activities, problem-solving activities, etc. In role-plays, students can act out a miscommunication that is based on cultural differences. For example, after learning about ways of addressing different groups of people in the target culture, such as people of the same age, students could role play a situation in which an inappropriate greeting is used. Other students observe the role-play and try to identify the reason for the miscommunication. They then role-play the same situation using a culturally appropriate form of address. If an English teacher wants to present the learners with the general practice of eating out in a restaurant, the best way is probably to provide the learners with English instructions about how to find the table reserved, how to order and how to pay and so on, which can then be followed by the learners’ role-play. This will not only show how well the learners understand them, but also help give them a vivid impression. This technique is useful in which it can help combine with the cultural content and communication-oriented activities.
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