Chapter One INTRODUCTION
1.1 Significance and the Purpose of the Study
Nowadays, with the rapid development of globalization, various cultures across theworld get mixed together. However, due to different cultural backgrounds,misunderstandings and conflicts are likely to take place during the communication process.The mutual understanding and dialogue between different cultures is a necessaryprerequisite and basis for reducing conflicts and promoting communication. Therefore, thesixth plenary session of the seventeenth central committee of our Party firstly put forwardthe aim of building our country into a culturally powerful country.The strategic plan has put forward new and higher requests for English teaching. Inorder to meet the demands for globalization and international communication, it isnecessary to pay attention to and strengthen the education on the society and culture ofEnglish-speaking countries while teaching English language in China.Language is a carrier of culture. It is a tool that we use to exchange our thoughts andcultures with others. People rely on the use of language to communicate with others andlanguage itself has the function of accumulating and storing human being’s social andhistoric experience. Therefore, there is a close relationship between culture learning andlanguage acquisition.Foreign language teaching is a systematic project. It is not only required to follow itsown law of development, but also the development of human being’s cognition. Therefore,while teaching language knowledge, it is necessary for teachers to help students acquire theculture and social customs of foreign countries and enable them to realize the pluralism ofculture as well as cultural diversity.
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1.2 Structure of the Thesis
The thesis is composed of five chapters.Chapter one is an introduction, which introduces the background and the significanceof the study including the importance and necessity of culture teaching.Chapter two includes four parts: the first one is the theoretical foundation of thisthesis, including the definition of language and culture as well as the relationship betweenlanguage and culture; the second one is the classifications of English cultural backgroundknowledge in senior high school, such as idiom, religious culture, history culture, politicalculture, folk culture as well as British and American culture; the third part is the currentstatus of reading teaching in rural areas both in China and in Taixing Secondary SeniorHigh School and the fourth part is the literature review about the related studies home andabroad on the relationship between culture background knowledge and reading materialteaching.Chapter three is the methodology of the survey including the research questions,subjects, instruments, procedures as well as data collection and analysis.Chapter four is about the research results and discussion. In this chapter, theinformation from the pre-test and the post-test as well as the results from the questionnaireare presented and discussed.Chapter five is the conclusion. The major findings, pedagogical implication of thisthesis and suggestions for future study are all concluded in this paper.
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Chapter Two LITERARURE REVIEW
2.1 Language and Culture
Language is an important component of social life. We are so familiar with it becausewe use it to express our thoughts and feelings every day. However, language is a secret forus. What is language? It is a question that disturbs philosophers and linguists for manyyears. After the persistent pursuits and exploration on this question, different definitionshave appeared. These definitions can be generally divided into three divisions: theinstrumental theory, the symbolic theory and the social theory.The instrumental theory can be regarded as the initial and well-received theory acrossthe world. Lenin and Stalin are the representative figures of this theory. Lenin definedlanguage as the most important communication tool (1916), and Stalin defined it as a toolwhich people use to communicate thoughts with each other in order to promote mutualunderstanding. (1953)This theory has been widely applied in the linguistic study of our country. It givesChinese linguists very valuable inspirations for the deep-going exploration both in theoryand in practice, which can be reflected in many linguistic works. For example:What is language? Language is the tool to express thoughts or feelings. (L. Wang,1985)As for the basic function of language, language is firstly a communication tool… andalso a thinking tool. (Gao & Shi, 1963)
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2.2 Classifications of English Cultural Background Knowledge in Senior High School
Every nation has its own unique culture, which contains its own unique historical andgeographical background. However, cultural background knowledge is so all-inclusive andcomplex that teachers cannot combine all the knowledge with reading teaching. Therefore,the contents of cultural teaching must be carefully selected. An English textbook is one ofthe main sources of the acquisition of English language and cultural awareness. Richmaterials of cultural background knowledge can be found in the current senior high schoolEnglish textbooks, Advance with English, which is beneficial to students’ culturalawareness. Generally speaking, cultural background knowledge in senior high school canbe classified as follows: Idiom is the result of language development and plays very important role in culturalteaching. Idiom originates chiefly from Greek or Roman myths, the Bible, folklore,literature, daily life and history.
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Chapter Three METHODOLOGY ....20
3.1 Research Questions....20
3.2 Subjects....20
3.3 Instruments.....21
3.4 Procedures......22
3.5 Data Collection and Analysis.......25
CHAPTER Four RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ....26
4.1 Results from the Questionnaire....26
4.2 Discussion of the Results from the Questionnaire.....27
4.3 Results from the Pre-test and the Post-test ....28
4.4 Discussion of the Results from the Pre-test and the Post-test......29
Chapter Five CONCLUSION.......31
5.1 Summary of Major Findings ........31
5.2 Pedagogical Implications.......32
5.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Study.....34
Chapter Four RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter provides the results of the pre-test, the questionnaire as well as thepost-test and the factors and reasons of the results are discussed. It will be divided into fourparts. The first part presents the results of the questionnaire. The second part deals with thediscussion of the results from the questionnaire. The third part shows the results of thepre-test and post-test to verify whether cultural background knowledge teachingapproaches have a positive effect on reading comprehension. In the last part, the discussionof the results from the pre-test and the post-test will be written in details. According to Table 4-1, Questions 1 to 4 and Question 10 concern the students’interest in culture of English-speaking countries and investigate whether they are interestedin English culture when they read books, watch TV and surf the Internet. 42% of thestudents are interested in English culture. However, only a few students often show greatconcerns about English culture when they read books watch TV and surf the Internet.There are about two main reasons concerning this phenomenon. One is the students’passive learning habit. Most of the students are passive in studying. They will not finishthe homework until the teachers and parents urge them. Few of them have the motivationto read English books or watch English programs. Another reason is the limit of time andenergy. In Taixing, students are required to get to the school before six-forty everymorning and leave school after ten o’clock in the evening. The heavy study burden makesthem very busy and they have no time and energy to learn more about English culture.Even if they have some time surfing on the Internet, most of the students will choose toenjoy movies or play games rather than learning English cultures.
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Conclusion
Many researches on cultural background teaching have been conducted for a longtime. Meanwhile, many scholars and teachers have published a large number of works andarticles related to culture teaching, yet few of their researches are connected with culturalintroduction in English reading teaching of Senior High School students, especially thestudents in rural areas.Therefore, this study aims to find out the difficulties in culture teaching of the SeniorHigh School students in rural areas in Taixing and the effective ways to teach culturalbackground knowledge in order to improve English reading. In order to fulfill this study, apre-test, a post-test and a questionnaire related to cultural background knowledge will beapplied to obtain more accurate and valid data. According to the analysis of the statistics,the author had some major findings:First of all, most of the students are interested in English culture and they think thatlearning English culture has a positive effect on their language study. However, only a fewstudents often show great concerns about English culture when they read books watch TVand surf the Internet as a result of their passive reading habit and limited time. In addition,most of the students find their teachers pay too much attention to the language andgrammar teaching compared with the culture teaching and they regard their English lessonsjust as the preparations for the examinations.
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Reference (omitted)
