浅谈初中英语中的文化教学

1. Introduction
Along with the more and more frequent international cooperation, English, as a bridge between China and the world, plays a role of the utmost importance. But, the neglect of the culture background brings about lots of misunderstanding and obstacles in communication. Therefore, it is a must to pay enough attention to the culture education in the process of English learning, considering it as an indispensable part of language learning. In China, most of us begin to learn English from junior. The culture education of this stage is not so satisfying and exists lots of problems, such as the weak culture awareness, the unreasonable design of textbook, the quality of teachers, the ignorance of culture teaching because of pressure of exams and so on. To improve the situation needs the cultivation of culture awareness, the reformation and proper choice of textbook and the adjustment of evaluation systems. Admitting the mistakes and improving them is of great importance, and meanwhile, we should recognize the desirable measures, such as some good current culture teaching approaches and extracurricular activities.
Therefore, the present paper will discuss about the problems and merits of the culture education of junior English in China, probe into how to introduce culture backgrounds in EFL teaching and explore the improvements for it.

2. Culture and language
2.1Definition of Culture and Language
What is culture? Facing this heatedly debated issue, people gives hundreds of answers.
English word “culture” is a loan word from Latin in which it mainly meant, “cultivating or trilling the land”. As time passed, its meaning was extended from physical activities and production of food to include metal, moral, aesthetic, educational and intellectual activities. For example, the National Center for Cultural Competence in U.S.A defines culture as an “integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, languages, practices, beliefs, values, customs, countries, rituals, manners of interacting and roles, relationships and expected behaviors of a racial, ethnic religious or social group; and the ability to transmit the above to succeeding generations”. (Goode, Sockalingam, Brown, and Jones, 2000) [1]
The following definition advanced by Daniel Bates and Fred Plog (1990) is generally regarded as the most complete one:
Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors and artifacts the m embers of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.[2]
     “Culture” in the contemporary teaching of language may be understood on broad and narrow senses, divided into two kinds: “Culture with big C” which focuses on “the sum total of a people’s achievement and contribution: art, music, literature, technology, scientific discoveries and philosophy” and “Culture with a small C” which includes “ the behavior patterns of the life style of people: when and what they eat, how they make a living, the way they organize their society, the attitudes they express towards friends and members of their families, how they act in different situations, which expressions they use to show approval and disapproval, the traditions they must observe, and so on”.[3]
Language can be defined in many ways depending on the characteristics one wishes to stress. Therefore, it is difficult for us to arrive at a single definition. However, a good example of an all-inclusive descriptive definition is as follows;
A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which the members of speech community communicate, interact, and transmit their culture.
This definition given by Albert B. Cook Ⅲ emphasizes not only the function of language being a tool of communication, but also the one of its being an important vehicle of culture. [4]
As it is known, language has at least two rule systems: one is the structural system, which consists of phonology, morphology and syntax; the other is the use system, which is closely bound up with social behavior and social. Situation and determines whether language is used appropriately or inappropriately.
2.2 The Relationship between Culture and Language
Why is culture so important for foreign language teaching? The answer lies in the close relationship between language and culture.
Firstly, the relationship between language and culture is that between a part and the whole. Culture has several components, one of which is language. The Chinese language is part of Chinese culture and English is also part of English culture. Every culture has its own disparate culture.
Secondly, language is the carrier and container of culture. Human knowledge and experience are described, stored and evaluated in language including customs, habits and behavioral patterns, social institutions, value systems, beliefs, world views even the visual and auditory arts. To be sure, culture can exist in the form of materials. But language as the medium of communication is indispensable in their production and use. For example, during the production, the cooperation between the workers is carried out through language. Even the manuals of the products such as the washing machine are a proof of the fact that language can represent every aspect of culture.
Thirdly, as a mirror of culture, language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture. Words, grammar, language use, idioms and proverbs are all shaped to varying degrees by culture. Take the words for example; “Tai ji” is very familiar to our Chinese whereas there is not a word related to it in English because it is the special culture production in Chinese history.
Fourthly, language also exerts its influence on culture. The nature of this influence is best captured by American structural linguists Charles Hockett when he says that “languages differ not so much as to what can be said in them, but rather as to what it is relatively easy to say in them”.[5]  Let’s cite an example to clarify the meaning of this statement.  For example, the kinship relations can be expressed more easily in Chinese than in English because Chinese have more kinship terms. “奶奶” and “外婆” are equivalent to only one word “grandmother” in English. This fact helps to reinforce the concept of kinship relations, which is important to the Chinese people.
In a word, language and culture is closely related, each influencing and shaping the other. To learn a foreign language implies to learn the culture in which it is spoken. A language can never be in a cultural vacuum. Culture is learned through language. Without language as the medium for formal or informal instruction, no culture could ever be learned.

3. Culture education of junior English in China
3.1 Importance and necessity of Culture Teaching
3.1.1 Culture Barriers in communication
As Clememt Attlee once claimed, “The people of the world are on islands shouting at each other over seas of misunderstanding.” [6]  Owing to different time, space and nations, cultures have their unique contents, which cannot be equalized to others.
Being settled during its own process of development, each culture contains its special belief system, behavior patterns and criteria of normal or abnormal words and deeds. What fits in one culture web may not fit in another. More or less, the differences between cultures constitute Culture Barriers, which will cause communicative problems of people in different cultures. From the aspect of communicative competence especially the inter-culture communicative competence, culture teaching is necessary and important enough to be brought to focus.
3.1.2 Communicative competence
The term communicative competence is used in contrast to Noam Chomsky’s term linguistic competence, which is understood as the tacit knowledge of language structure and the ability to use this knowledge to understand and produce language. For Chomsky, competence simply means knowledge of the language system: grammatical knowledge in other words. However, if we look at how language is used in real communication, we have to accept that real language use involves far more than knowledge and ability for grammaticality. In Hymes’s (1979:15) words, there are “rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless”, which simply means, besides grammatical rules, language use is governed by rules of use, which ensure that the desired or intended functions are performed and the language used is appropriate to the context.
According to Hymes (1979), communicative competence includes four aspects:
(i). knowing whether or not something is formally possible (grammatically acceptable), which is roughly equivalent to Chomsky’s linguistic competence;
(ii). knowing whether something is understandable to human beings;
(iii). knowing whether something is in line with social norms;
(v). knowing whether or not something is in fact done: Do people actually use language this way?[7]
In other words, communicative competence entails knowing not only the language code or the form of language, but also what to say to whom and how to say it appropriately in any given situation. Communicative competence includes knowledge of what to say, when, how, where, and to whom.
Along with the rapid development of English-speaking countries, English has become a world language. More and more international affairs and business promote the “intercultural communication”, which calls for the teaching and learning of language and culture.
There are several patterns involved in inter-cultural communication. Since all members of a cultural group do not share cultural patterns in exactly the same way, and any participant in communication only presents partial public and personal, what learners must pay attention to is that what they should know includes the alien culture and the communicative skills.
3.2 Culture education of junior English in China
    It is absolutely necessary to stress the culture education in English teaching and learning. Before discussing how to carry out this education well, we should probe into its current situation. Only with the full realization of its merits and shortcomings, can we make full use of the advantage and bypass the disadvantages, and will the culture education go on more effectively.
3.2.1 Problems in Culture Education of China
Obviously, we can see that, in most areas of China, the junior students’ cultural ability of target language is comparatively poor. The failure to provide the students with an introduction of the culture of English-speaking countries in the teaching process, leads to an unsuccessful communication for their incapacity of comprehending or conveying culture-loaded information. That is what we call “communication block”. Then we can see that Chinese learners of English have difficulty in communication with native speakers of English despite a good command of the linguistic knowledge. Some Chinese students, though they got excellent scores in exams, failed in cross-cultural communication. That’s what we are considered as “High Grade, Low Ability”.
What leads to the existence of such a serious situation? It is necessary for us to probe into the causes.
A fact is that the culture awareness is so weak during language learning and teaching that both the students and the teachers consider culture education as a subsidiary part of language study, paying little attention to it. What’s more, even some teachers do not have enough culture information to provide the students, let alone guiding them to complete successful communication.
The old evaluation systems weaken the cultivation of students’ culture ability greatly. It is unfortunate that, although we know it is unwise, facing the pressure of the exams in which there are items testing students’ grammatical knowledge, reading ability and set phrases, to save time, lots of teachers focus on words, linguistic points, idioms and grammatical structure in order to enhance students’ basic linguistic competence.
From 1949 to the beginning of 1980s, the grammar translation method had been playing an important part in foreign language teaching, inclining to overemphasize phonetics, grammar and vocabulary but to ignore the differences of cultures. This kind of teaching method influences the culture education very much. As a result, the relationship of the culture ability and other linguistic skills is not in balance.
Another problem is the textbook. Some out-of-date textbooks, which are responsible for the pattern drills of English seldom used in everyday conversations, are still used.
From the discussion, we can realize that to promote the culture education of junior English demands the solution of those problems above, which will be discussed in Chapter Four.
3.2.2 Requirements of culture education in teaching
The aim of the English Teaching Syllabus currently in effect in China stresses the basic skills of ing, speaking, writing and translating, while the most important goal of English teaching should be to foster the ability of communication. As the total curriculum goals structure shows, along with language skills, language knowledge, language learning tactics and emotional attitude, cultural awareness has become an integrated and basic component of the comprehensive language application ability. The syllabus also adopts the international standards of the different acquirement levels of culture, consisting of Level One to Level Nine.
As the specific aim of the syllabus regulated, culture teaching in junior high school shall accommodate the following contents:
(i). Cultural factors that interfere with verbal communications. It includes the standard functions of hails, greetings, thanks, apologies, farewells, phone calls, requests, and invitations; choice of topics; taboos; euphemisms; social conversations and etiquettes.
(ii). Expressions in nonverbal communications, such as gestures, body motions, costumes, and varying attitudes towards time and space.
(iii). Cultural connotations of words like the demonstrative category, affective meaning and associative meaning of words, and the application of the idioms, proverbs and usages which embody cultural backgrounds.
(iv). Knowledge of politics, economies, history, geography, literature and contemporary social situations of the English—speaking countries.
(v). Understanding of the differences of values and mind-sets between the Chinese and the westerners, which includes outlooks on life and universe, interpersonal relationships, ethics, verbal expressions and so on. [8]
For the development of students’ preliminary culture awareness, teachers in junior or senior high schools needs to follow the principles of “relevance, practicality and gradual improvement”. They should introduce the necessary parts of culture in the English—speaking countries in a selective way.
The principle of relevance demands the content of culture teaching either relate to or broaden the teaching materials. And the materials of language should be also used in culture teaching, that is, it should be combined with language teaching.
Practicality principle requires that culture teaching should reflect the major parts of daily communications. For those cultural factors, which interfere with communications, a full explanation and repeated practice are mostly needed for students’ future communication.
The principle of gradual improvement maintains that culture teaching should be commensurate with the aged and cognitive capacity of the students. Step by step, they will find themselves increasingly at ease with the unfolding western cultures. [9]
On the one hand, as the English Teaching Syllabus states, the culture knowledge is as important as the basic skills, both of which are integrated parts of the teaching goals. On the other hand, learners’ basic skills including listening, peaking, reading, writing and translating are closely related with the culture information.
(1) It is the principle of English teaching that listening and speaking take primacy over reading and writing. And the process of listening and speaking often begins with greeting. Without enough culture knowledge, mistakes may arise. For example, when we go shopping, the shop assistant always offers help by asking customers “What do you want?” But it is strange for the English-speaking people who usually greet as “What can I do for you?” or “Can I help you?”
The purpose of listening is to understand the speaker’s meaning in words and exchange information successfully. Sometimes, they only catch the denotation of the words, but fail to consider the most important part, which is the contextual meaning of words and sentences. For instance, the sentence “I am not sure I’d like to do that” is seemingly like considering a matter, but in fact, it is a polite expression of refusal.
(2). Reading and writing materials often convey western culture, which always demand learners to read between lines. Lack of such knowledge will weaken the comprehensive grasp of the real meaning, especially when they are looking over literature works. For example, in English, the color “purple” is the symbol of noble and wealth. If learners don’t understand this, they may not be able to know that the sentence “He is born to the purple” means “ He is born in a noble or wealthy family”. [10] This illustrates the cultural impact on the words’ connotation. Another example is “dragon” which symbolizes evil, whereas its translation “龙” means power and authority in China Only with such a realization, could the readers understand the meaning of “butcher dragon” in English.
    English writer Pennycook describes the thinking methods of Chinese and English in the book Image of the other as following: [11]
      ↓          
       English                      Chinese
     As the pictures show, Chinese are accustomed to thinking in a spiral way whereas English in a linear way, which influence their writing very much. English—speaking people may not be able to catch the meaning of our Chinese composition that is good at grammar and logic, because their writing always comes straight to the point.
(3) Every culture has its own unique characteristics basing on its historical and geographical environment. Clear and proper translation needs accurate understanding of the original work. For example, the idiom “apple of one’s eye” in the sentence “Mary is the apple of her father’s eye” means “a cherished person or objects or something that is extremely precious to a person”. The idiom comes from the Bible, as one of the great Israeli kings, King David says to God, “Guard me as the apple of eye, hide me under the show of wings.”[12]   Unless with help of culture knowledge, will the learners give an accurate translation.