2. 2 Cultural influences on English language teaching
It’s obvious that the teaching situation and teaching methods used in English language teaching in China need to be changed to involve culture instead of language knowledge only. To further explain the importance of culture teaching we need to know what extent cultural background knowledge influences language learning and teaching, and how can we take advantage of that influence. To account for the roles which culture plays in language learning and teaching, it is necessary to demonstrate the functions it may perform in the components of language learning and teaching, such as listening, speaking, reading, and translating.
2. 2. 1 Influence on vocabulary
Language is the carrier of culture, while vocabulary is the basic element of language. Cultural differences will undoubtedly exhibit on the vocabulary, and the explanation of vocabulary will also reflect the national or cultural differences. Take color for example. In Chinese, “blue” is concerned in “肃穆、美好”, while in English “blue” implies “depression” (沮丧), such as “be down with the blues”(沮丧不振), “in a blue mode” (情绪低落); “Green” in Chinese means “春天、希望”, but in English “greenhorn” refers to “无经验的新手”. In Chinese, “红茶、红糖、红眼病” are all expressed with the word “red” (红), but the English correspondents are “black tea, brown sugar, green-eyed.” Take another example. Chinese “龙” is colored with dignity, which are shown in Chinese traditional phrases as “真龙天子、望子成龙、龙凤呈祥”, whereas in western countries, dragon is never dear to them, for it represents devil[3]. In a word, culture is a comprehensive composite with abundant implication, and each factor in it may be exhibited on words. Learning vocabulary, as well as attaching importance to cultural factors, is important and crucial.
2. 2. 2 Influence on listening
In the study of foreign language, particularly in training the listening ability for better understanding, learners usually complain that they have spent a lot of time in learning and practicing their ability of listening comprehension, but their progress is not very obvious. In order to achieve this purpose, they seem to try their best to do anything they can. Some, for example, have bought tape recorders to stimulate their learning process and to improve their listening ability, and have spent several hours on it every day. However, when meeting new listening materials, they still could not understand them. The reasons for this may be various, but some of them have been identified. Among them are their small vocabulary, weak grammar, and vague pronunciation. And a more important reason is that they lack necessary cultural background knowledge of the language they have learned. Listening is closely related to the culture, politics and economy of the target language. In judging one’s listening ability, we are in fact considering his comprehensive ability, including the English level, intellectual range, analytical, imaginative ability, etc.
Most people may have such kind of experience: when they are listening to something in which the events involved are familiar, whatever they are, e.g., reports, news, stories, lectures; or art, sports, science or economy, it is much easier for them to understand. Even though there may be some new words in it, they can guess the meaning in accordance with the context. On the contrary, it may be difficult for them to understand, if the listening materials are closely related to the cultural background knowledge they are not familiar with. Sometimes the materials may be easy and they can get the pronunciation of each word from the tape, but the lack of necessary cultural background knowledge may hinder their full understanding. If, for example, a student comes across a sentence like: Edward Kennedy went downhill since Chappaquiddick, he will not find it difficult to understand the structure of the sentence. But if he doesn’t know that “Chappaquiddick” is a name of a place in America, which is used in this sentence to refer to the traffic accident E. Kennedy suffered, he cannot understand the real meaning.
From what have been discussed above, it is obvious to see how important the role that culture plays in the listening ability, that is, culture is one of its unalienable attachments. It can hinder our progress of listening, and it can also help it. So we should notice the existence of culture and try to take advantage of it.
2. 2. 3 Influence on speaking
The ability of speaking, just like listening, is not a matter only referred to pronunciation or intonation. People need to spend a great amount of time on reading to understand the cultural background knowledge of the target language; only in this way can they successfully communicate with others. Therefore, in training oral English, teachers should emphasize the practical use of the language, and try to use the materials from daily life, which can help people use proper sentences in proper context. Otherwise, one may make mistakes or have misunderstanding for the reason of lacking related cultural background knowledge, even if he may have been well trained in the linguistic aspect of the language,. For this, the experience of a young interpreter is a case in point:
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