文化教学与外语教学中的跨文化意识的培养

摘要：语言是交际的信号，也是文化的载体。来自于不同文化的人们之间的交流越来越频繁。而且，跨文化意识能够使得学习者更好的学习英语，开拓学生的国际视野和加强他们的交际能力。

关键词：文化教学；跨文化意识；培养；原则

1. Introduction

During the past decades the foreign language teaching has gradually developed into a well-established subfield in linguistics science. So the importance of cultivation of learners' intercultural awareness interests a lot of language teachers. In the book “Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics”， Goodenough said the relationship between language and culture is： “A society’s language is an aspect of this society’s culture.” The relationship between language and culture are “the part and the whole” relationship （Di Chengxin，2002）. Language is the load and reflection of culture. Without knowing the culture of one nation， how could we learn the language of the nation well？

2. The Principles in the Culture Teaching and Cultivation of Cross-cultural Awareness in the Foreign Language Teaching

How to conduct culture teaching in foreign language classes and what principles or approaches we should follow in culture teaching still remain problematical. In order that students acquire cultural competence， culture teaching in foreign language classes must have definite objectives and teaching principles through which the objectives are realized. And now the paper puts forward and illustrates the three culture teaching principles in foreign language classes， namely Cognitive Principle， Assimilative Principle， Comparative Principle and the Tolerant Principle. （Zhao Houxian，2002）

2.1Assimilative Principle

On culture teaching classes it is not enough only to help the students understand and able to explain the target culture. The most important problem lies in making the useful parts of the target culture serve us. This is called assimilative principle.

Assimilation is for the sake of better developing and enriching one’s own culture. Every culture links up with other cultures， with each absorbing something from each other and helping each other to develop， together forming a new world culture.

2.2 Comparative Principle

The comparative principle compares the learners’ own culture and the target culture so as to find out their similarities and differences. As we all know， comparison helps us better understand the target culture， of different cultural judgments and helps us explain different cultural behavior， avoiding just explaining another’s behavior according to our own standards. Only by comparing can one distinguish the differences and improve the abilities of distinguishing acceptable culture and unacceptable culture， thus preventing us from accepting the target culture uncritically.

3. Some Strategies to Culture Teaching and the Cultivation of Cross-cultural Awareness

3.1 Use of Various Materials

With the development of today’s science and technology， it’s possible for students to enjoy the latest movies， videos， TV programs and plays which are all in original version of the target culture. They can not only enjoy the actors and actresses’ wonderful performance， but also learn things about everyday situations and useful expressions of foreign culture. Nowadays， computer is widely used. By surfing the Internet， learners can learn the target culture. The students can learn cultural knowledge through computers.

4. Conclusion

In order to acquire intercultural communicative competence and be cultivated with intercultural awareness， students must gain a good knowledge of the cultures related to the target language. By strengthening the importance of cultivation of intercultural awareness， foreign language teaching will have a bigger effect on students' comprehensive education， and the position of foreign language teaching will also be raised. Cultural teaching is the most important part for the cultivation of intercultural awareness. Cultural teaching benefits the cultivation of students' intercultural awareness and intercultural communicative competence. Thus， we， esp. the language teachers should pay much more attention to the cultivation on learners' intercultural awareness.

Reference：

[1]Brown， H. D. Principles of language learning and teaching[M]. Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 2002.

[2]H.D. Brown. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New Jersy： Prentice-Hall. 1980.

[3]H.H. Stern. Issues and Options in Language Teaching. London： Oxford University Press. 1996.

（作者单位：山东师范大学外国语学院）