Culture and Foreign Language Teaching

ＣｕｌｔｕｒｅａｎｄＦｏｒｅｉｇｎＬａｎｇｕａｇｅＴｅａｃｈｉｎｇAbstract:This paper argues that cross-cultural communication between Chinese and Foreigners often runs into trouble. Some factors which block communication lie in culture-governed structures of language. In view of the fact that the cultural messages are reflected in people’s daily use of language, culture elements should not be overlooked in FLT. This paper attempts to explore the ways of including culture teaching in the language classroom.Key words:Culture Foreign Language Teaching CommunicationⅠCulture Studies are NeededCulture is communication and communication is culture. Communication varies with culture and culture varies with communication. The difference in culture and communication inevitably result in miscommunication and misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication. That can be illustrated by the following reasons:a: The language which we speak is not one but many, where each dialect or register has its own habits and values deriving from its local culture;b: The culture in which we live is not one culture but many, each with its own values, customs etc., and each should be as honored as any other culture;c: Other people’s views, values, traditions, feelings, cultures, are as valid and valuable as our own.So obviously what Gillian Brown means to say is that the differences in background knowledge of certain social tradition and lack of shared cultural values will certainly give rise to problems in understanding participants of cross-cultural interaction.ⅡCulture Knowledge is Needed“Culture might be defined as the ideas, customs, skills, arts, and tools which characterize a given people in given period of time.”(Brown H.D.1980:123-24).Languages and cultures are closely related to each other. Language usage reflects the culture of a society. This relationship between language and culture forms one important aspect in second language acquisition. The use of language can not exist outside a certain society or social context; language is not only a tool for communication, but also a means to reflect cultural features of a nation. (Halliday, 1973:.41), the premise for second language learners to communicate with native speakers and understand social meaning is to have a common cultural standard and background knowledge(Giglioli P.P. 1972:6), so, if we want to learn a language, we should and must be aware of the culture of its speakers.However, as we look back to see the situation in most of our China’s universities and colleges, we see that, language teachers and scholars have not been able to pay attention to the role of cultural knowledge in language teaching. What have been emphasized mostly are the students, motivation, the teachers, skills of teaching and the teaching materials. But this is far from enough. One very important component in foreign language teaching has been neglected. That is, the awareness of the role of cultural traits in foreign language acquisition. It is very hard for one to master a foreign language and communicate very well with its native speakers without a good knowledge of that people’s cultural traits and cultural standards, because each language contain a certain amount of cultural features that other languages do not have. Language develops with the development of a people’s history and culture, and the language itself is one part of that society, language is a mixed embodiment of culture. Culture establishes a context of cognitive and affective behavior for every member in a certain society, and we only tend to perceive reality strictly within the context of our own culture, not other cultures. As an ingrained set of behavior and modes of perception, culture is very important in the learning of a foreign language, because any language is a part of a certain culture. The acquisition of a foreign language is also the acquisition of a foreign culture.ⅢProblems and RemediesSince the use of language can not exist outside a certain society or social context; language is not only a tool for communication, but also a means to reflect cultural features of a nation. (Halliday, 1973:.41), the premise for second language learners to communicate with native speakers and understand social meaning is to have a common cultural standard and background knowledge(Giglioli P.P. 1972:6), so, if we want to learn a language, we should and must be aware of the culture of its speakers.Attention should be paid to the role of cultural knowledge in language learning in China’s universities and colleges. It is unthinkable and very hard for one to master a foreign language and communicate very well with its native speakers without a good knowledge of that people’s cultural traits and cultural standards, because each language contains a certain amount of cultural features that other languages do not have. Language develops with the development of a people’s history and cultur e, and the language itself is one part of that society, so the language is a mixed embodiment of that culture.So we can see that the teaching and learning of a foreign language by emphasizing the structure of that target language is imperfect. In the English teaching, we are quite aware of the following cultural inappropriateness that our students often make.a)Sociolinguistical inappropriateness: ways of greeting and addressing people.b)Cultural unacceptability: the use of self-deprecation strategies in expressing modesty. The Chinese people often deny compliments when other people praise them.c)Conflict of different value systems: invasion of privacy. The Chinese people like to show friendship and intimacy by inquiring other people’s privacy. (Cui Shuzhi, 1986:36)d)Over-simplification or over-generalization: Chinese students have stereotyped concepts about other societies. What a Chinese student thinks of an America or a British is subjective rather than objective: in a Chinese student’s eye’s, al l Americans are very rich and friendly, and all British are conservative and mean and silent people. The students’ attitude toward western people is heavily biased, and the reason for this is that they have very little knowledge about western cultures.So far, a foreign language teacher, is inescapably a teacher of culture,remedies for these cross-cultural difficulties may be as follows:a) More information on customs, habits and behavioral patterns of English native speakers should be included in the textbooks. Teachers ask students to pay attention to finding out more about such cultural elements in the texts while they are reading.b) If conditions permit, teachers can use video films and English instructional films, and ask students to observe cultural traits while watching. Teachers can ask students to do the same thing when they read books on various subjects.c) Well trained teachers with a lot of cross-cultural experience can give lectures on western cultures: They can compare Chinese culture with Western culture. I thinkthis is the most effective way, for in China there are few better opportunities than this.Foreign language teachers can never put their teaching emphasis on pronunciation and grammar only, because this is very dangerous as to the fostering of students’ ability in communication. If we, as foreign language teachers, can put more emphasis on cultural interferences in language teaching, and add more content to this respect in our teaching, then many mistakes in communication caused by a lack of cultural knowledge may be avoidedⅣTeaching CulturesIt is still a topic of academic discussion whether or not this culturally specific knowledge is teachable. My personal belief is that it is unrealistic to expect all aspects of a certain culture to be covered in classroom teaching and be fully perceived without real contact with it. Personal participation in real use of the target language will provide the direction for awareness of culture-specific elements, which is just what cross-cultural communication depends on, but can hardly only be learned in classroom settings. Personal experience provides the most effective access to a complete view of a culture.However, this does not mean that culture is absolutely non-teachable through school education. As a consequence of highly developed technology, there are various ways to experience foreign cultures, such as movies, video-tapes, and interactive pictures on the Internet. These means can be applied fully in classroom settings so that language learners may have first-hand experience with the authentic target language and its related cultural contexts. In a nutshell, one important principle of language teaching is that cultural awareness should grow simultaneously with the knowledge of the target language. As long as this principle remains functional in the minds of teachers and learners, active and effective measures can be developed to the benefit of cross-cultural communication.ⅤCultural Contrast——the Basic ApproachCultural contrast is the basic approach to cross-cultural communication research. Only by comparison can we have a better understanding of our own culture, other cultures and the differences and conflicts between them. The major principles thatunderlie contrastive analysis are as follows:a)What should be done is differentiation but not evaluation. Every culture has its merits and demerits. Since the objective of cross-cultural communication is to further mutual understanding and to establish friendly communication between different cultures, making positive and negative comments on this or that culture will only result in more serious cultural conflicts.b)Differentiation is the keynote of cultural contrast. Attention should center on cultural differences and cultural conflicts so that communicative interference and cultural mistakes can be avoided.c)Mainstream culture is the focus of attention. “Mainstream culture” here refers to the culture of the standard language taught at schools and used in mass media. For example, cultural factors in Chinese “putonghua” are our focus of research.d)It is communicative norms but not social phenomena that are to be compared. Social phenomena are complicated, and a common problem in cross-cultural communication is that people are easily misled by this or that individual incident or acts that have observed in a foreign culture. It is the social norms of a culture that people form other cultures need to learn about. Of course it is very difficult to achieve this objective. That is why cultural contrast is also an important topic in cross-cultural communication research.e)What should be done is synchronic contrast. It is against the guideline of cross-cultural communication research to compare the past of one culture with the present of another, or substitute the past of a culture for its present.f)Quantitative analysis is important in achieving a correct understanding of the social norm of a culture, and a correct mode of thought is the key to make the analysis true to the essence of the culture. In observing a culture, “one que stion should always be asked Is the particular item that has been observed an individual accident or an essential part of the mode of living?’ Not all the actions are equally significant In our observations of the life’ of the speaker of the language, we s eek to learn, we must arrive at some conception of the pattern of living’ as a basin upon which to classify and evaluate the particular items we note .Experience is a whole in which each part affects all the rest” (Eries 1945)ⅥCulture in ClassroomLanguages and cultures are closely related to each other. Language usage reflects the culture of a society. This relationship between language and culture forms one important aspect in second language acquisition. The use of language can not exist outside a certain society or social context; language is not only a tool for communication, but also a means to reflect cultural features of a nation. , the premise for second language learners to communicate with native speakers and understand social meaning is to have a common cultural standard and background knowledge, so, if we want to learn a language, we should and must be aware of the culture of its speakers.In FLT classroom, language teachers play an important role in establishing students’ default attitudes towards a new culture. How students perceive the target culture depends to some extent on teachers’ guidance. In order to promote the cultural understanding, language teachers can find ways and use techniques in classroom language teaching:a)Textbooks: In English textbooks, there are many elements that reflect the culture of the west. Of course, extracts from literary works are most typical and useful. In fact, the occurrence of such cultural elements is suitable for teachers to focus on in class-if teachers have noticed them. The teachers can ask students to pay attention to places where cultural traits, social customs and habits are embodied in text they study. Furthermore, once the students have acquired this kind of cultural knowledge, they will learn to pay attention to some “cultural taboos” as they communicate with native English speakers.b)Lectures: Well-trained teachers with a lot of cross-cultural experience can give lectures on western cultures; they can compare Chinese culture with western cultures.c)Role-play: in ESL classroom, role-play is a means of helping students to overcome cultural “fatigue”, role-play promotes the process of cross-cultural dialog while at the same time, it provides opportunities for oral communication.d)Other materials and techniques: readings, films, simulation games, culture assimilators are now available to language teachers to assist them in the process of language teaching in the classroom.e)Other ideal ways: sending students to English speaking countries or areas to practise their English with native speakers or invite foreigners to come to the classroom or teach or have a lecture to the students.So if the foreign language teachers can place more emphasis on cultural interferences in foreign language teaching, and add more content to this respect in our teaching, then many mistakes in communication caused by a lack of cultural knowledge may be avoidedReferences:[1]Brislin, R. Understanding Culture’s Influence on Behavior. Fort Worth, TX:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers,1993.[2]Cui Shuzhi., Teaching of Basic English—On Relationship Between Language Teaching and Background Knowledge.Journal of Foreign Languages,No.1. Shanghai,1996.[3]Giglioli,p.p.,Language and Social Contex.t, Penguin Books, 1972.[4]Halliday,M.A.K..Exploration in the Functions of Language. New York,1977.[5]Smith, munication and Culture. New York: Holt,Rinehart, &Wilson,1996.。