How to Teach English through Culture英语论文.doc

How to Teach English through CultureAbstractEnglish teaching is more and more important in current world. How to teach it well becomes a hot point in modern English teaching. This paper will discuss it from the angle of culture.Culture and language are closely tied. Culture influences language deeply and widely. One culture shapes one language and it forms the characteristics of the language. So it is necessary to teach English through culture. At the same time, language reflects culture and it is the carries cultural information when it expresses its literal meaning, so teaches should teach English through culture.How to teach English through culture? They should begin with three aspects, which are the words, idioms and customs. They have a close relationship with culture. The associative meaning of words, which constitutes of connotative meaning, stylistic meaning and affective meaning, ties to culture deeply and will hinder students language ability if it is not be taught. Teaching idioms is another way to teach English through culture for many idioms have culture backgrounds. Customs cannot be ignored if teaches want to teach English well, for customs directly come from culture and presented thought language.Teaching English through culture is really important and essential. It is an efficient skill and will play a significant role in English teaching.1. IntroductionIt is widely accented that culture and language are closely related and it is impossible to ignore culture when teaching. Culture influences language deeply and widely. By contrast, language reflects culture from every aspect. They have a close relationship with each other. As a result, it is impossible and wrong to separate them from each other. In order to successfully teach English, teachers must be willing to recognize and accept beliefs and values that do not match their own. Otherwise, “students may have problems in cross-cultural communication if they lack understanding of compassion for the value systems of others.” It is a natural rule and efficient skill for teachers to teach English by means of culture. In other words, English cannot be taught well without culture. In the next, we will talk about the ways of English teaching through language.2. Ways To Teach EnglishHow to teach English through culture? To answer this question, it is necessary to find out what are the ingredients they both have. This paper wants to elaborate this question from the words, idioms and customs that belong to both the culture and language. At the same time, they are the basic elements of the two which will play an important role in English teaching if they are completely mastered by the students. Teaching English through culture should be begun with the three aspects.2.1 WordsWords, as a community, are the basic element of every language. Understanding words rightly means much in language learning. Generally speaking, almost every English teacher takes words seriously for they are really very basic and important. The sense of teaching words is right. However, it is not easy for some teachers to achieve the goal that they have expected before. Why is that? The answer is that they overlook the cultural factor.2.1.1 Associative meaningFew words have a single meaning. Of all the meanings a word has, teachers usually pay much attention to the common meanings while ignoring other meanings which may lead to culture shock and negative transfer. According to lexicology, words meanings consist in two aspects -one is conceptual meaning and the other is associative meaning. The common meanings that teachers usually value belong to conceptual meaning. But as for the associative meaning which will guide students to understand English culture.“Associative meaning is a community concept, which mainly includes the connotative meaning, stylistic meaning and affective meaning” (Wang Shupei and Li Dong 1983:57). Misunderstanding them will yield to mistakes in English learning. So it is necessary to draw teachers attention during their English teaching. This paper will talk about them one by one.2.1.1.1 Connotative meaningConnotative meaning is one the important meaning of words. Usually, it associates with culture but the culture is invisible just from the surface of the words. Teachers can introduce English culture through connotative meaning of words. For example, the word “red” has many connotative meanings which are not widely know by students. Almost every students knows red is one of the most common colors, but few of them know its connotative meanings in English culture. In Englishmens eyes, it stands for blood, violence, vice and so on. People use it to depict vigor, passion, energy, happiness and so on. It is a tradition to use the color “red” in a wedding. The bride and the bridegroom should wear red clothes; the candles should be red ones; the bed should be covered with red cloth. In Chinese peoples eyes, red is the most auspicious color that for good things in its culture. If a teacher does not tell the connotative meaning to the students, the students will directly implant the connotative meaning of red in Chinese into the English culture which is just opposite and will give rise to mistakes. This is a negative transfer caused by connotative meaning. It proves that connotative meaning closely related to its culture and teachers should make full use of it to teach English.2.1.1.2 Stylistic Meaning Stylistic meaning is another meaning students should know but they usually misuse in different situations. Teachers should pay attention to discern them for students. For instant, “daddy” is an informal word referring to father, which is mainly used by children. However, “father” is a neutral one in stylistics that can be used in many situations. As for the “male parent”, it is very formal that is regarded as a term and seldom used in daily life. Although they are of the same conceptual meaning they cannot substitute for each other in different situations.2.1.1.3 Affective meaning The third way to teach words is to mention affective meaning for students. Culture will endow words with different affective meaning even they have the same conceptual meaning. Take the group “slim-thin-skinny” for example. Expressing the same meaning, slim is commendatory, thin is neutral, but skinny is derogatory. It is the culture that makes them different. Discerning the affective meanings for students is necessary, which will make them think and use English as native speakers as possible. English is full of such words. If teachers dont pay much attention to them, they will find their students ability to use English is limited.Teaching English through words, or rather through the associative meaning is very efficient. It will make the class vivid and closely attract the students attention, for it provides background which students are very interested in as well as useful for them. Through this way, the teaching effect and the horizon of students will be improved at the same time. Not only will the students increase their knowledge about English culture. And it will help the students to form an open attitude toward the foreign world.2.2 IdiomsIdioms are the second aspect we will mention on English teaching through culture. There are many idioms tied to culture or even coming from culture. Teaching idioms is a good way to improve the teaching effect.Every idiom is closely related with its culture and we can say idioms are born from the culture soil. Teaching idioms is in fact another way to teach culture.Usually, an idioms meaning is not just the literal meaning presented by the words. It needs to be explained from a deeper level. It is the teachers observation to guide students to understand the idioms. It is proved to be an efficient and useful way to teach English. For example, one of them is“Carry coals to Newcastle”. Literally students may think it just means to carry coals to a place that abounds in coals. With the background knowledge, the students will understand that it means wasting energy in doing something that is unnecessary. If teachers dont tell the backgrounds to students, it will be difficult for them to guess out the real meaning and it will be impossible for them to use such idioms as native speakers. Another example, the idiom “come out of the ark” in legend. It meaning is to say one is the boat named ark” in legend. It meaning is to say one is out of time, for ark is an ancient thing which is written in the Bible (Ke Ping 1991:91) so idioms are very important for English teaching if a teacher wants his students to learn complete and deep English. Besides this, teaching idioms is like telling stories, which will expel the monotony from dull grammar rules and make the class lively and vivid. At the same time, it helps students learn more and enlighten their intelligence. Teachers should realize that learning idioms well means laying a successful base to English well.2.3 CustomThe third and most important way to teach English through culture is to introduce English customs. Customs directly stem from culture and presented in language. Only understand the customs in a foreign language, there appear quarrels, conflicts and even violence in communication. Such problems that tie to culture cannot be avoided by language itself. It is very necessary to tell some common customs to students to promote their ability in language using and communicating.As we mention above that customs come from culture and different culture decide different features of customs. Making clear of English culture is helpful to understand English customs. Contrasting with Chinese culture which is indirect, English culture is inclined to open and direct. So different customs are produced. Lets research it from some common custom cases.It is well known that modesty is regarded as an important and basic virtue in Chinese customs, so it is a convention to depreciate yourself when someone praises you. If you dont do so, others will think you are conceited which is not accepted in Chinese customs, so it is a convention to depreciate you are conceited which is not accepted in Chinese customs. However, it is natural to say “Thank you “when someone praises you in English customs. If you depreciate yourself in Britain, people will think either you are hypocritical or you dont agree with them. It will lead to misunderstanding even distance between the two sides, for you dont understand each others customs. This is a case of culture shock caused by different customs. In this case, we can conclude that different customs. In this case, we can conclude that different customs have different definitions of “modesty” and dont transfer it for it is not allowed and accepted.It is necessary to tell the students the custom of visiting friends, for they may make friends with foreigners. In China, one can directly go to the friends home without informing before and it will not be considered as impolite. Because in Chinese peoples eyes, friends are so familiar that they have the right to visit each other freely. But in English society, it is polite to visit a friend when you receive an invitation. It is impolite and rude to visit a friend without an invitation. People will think you are an intruder and do not respect others. This is a characteristic case of common custom in different cultures and it should be valued by both the teachers and the students.Another custom that should be mentioned is the forms of addressing. We know that China is famous for politeness and manner, and this is particularly presented by means of address. In China, there is a polite rule that guides people to address. For example, young people cannot call the regarded as impolite and unaccepted which should be corrected. But it is a common thing to call seniors directly, which shows people are equal and familiar instead of impolite. The case of superiors and juniors is the same. In China, juniors dont call their superiors with their names. Instead, they call their official position for respect. The situation is different in English culture. Except the special situation, everyones name can be called in most occasions. This is a noticeable difference between Chinese and English. Teachers should point out it for students in order to improve their language ability and avoid negative transfer which may lead to misunderstanding in their communication practice.3. ConclusionThis paper discusses the culture and English teaching which are often met in practice. We have seen that culture and language are so closely associated that they cannot be separated of words and grammar. As we have discussed at the beginning, culture influences language deeply and widely and language reflects culture from many aspects, so it is necessary and useful to do English teaching integrating with its culture.Teaching English through language is really very important. It meets the objectivity of learning a foreign language. As a result, it must achieve more than the common ways. Language cannot be separated from culture and it cannot be taught well without culture. 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