How to Bring Target Culture into Foreign Language Teaching

株洲市荷塘区星光小学 汤旭 

内容摘要：  文化与语言学习紧密相连, 学生成为学习活动的主角，老师是学习活动的引导者——把握了这样的关系，就能够使目标语文化融入到学生的语言学习之中，促进学生对目标语文化的理解和吸收。

关键词：  目标语文化； 外语教学； 教学方法 

Introduction

    English teaching has had a long history in China. At the very beginning, it was immature. We didn't know the advanced theory of English teaching. So the teachers pay much attention to the textbooks. They just teach their students grammar, pronunciation, words and sentences in class. They seldom hold activities in class, and seldom talk about foreign countries' cultures. At that time, most of the students had no interest in English learning. They just view it as a task of the country's education.

    But as time goes on, English teaching in China has been developing quickly. Many new methods and theories are accepted by our English teachers. Great changes have taken place in this field. English teaching is no longer confined to the textbooks or examinations. Many teachers have come to realize that the aim of teaching English is to help the students to communicate with others, to teach them more about foreign countries, not just to pass different kinds of examinations.

    Now, the teaching of target culture has become a very important part of our daily foreign language teaching. Teachers should promote the students' awareness of culture while teaching English in the classroom.

    Different countries have different cultures. But among these differences, we can find some similar points. So the aim of bringing target culture into English teaching is to let our students understand that our world is a unity though it has many different countries.

    First we should make this question clear: what culture do we teach in class? In Europe and North America, teachers usually teach their students about American/Canadian lives, including history, geography, institutions, literature, art, music and so on. Gail Robinson, a very famous American researcher in the area of cross-cultural education, has made a research about the question " What does culture mean to you?" among many English teachers. The answer falls into three categories: products, ideas and behaviors.

    Products: literature, folklore, art, music

    Ideas: beliefs, values, institutions

    Behaviors: customs, habits, dress, foods, leisure

These are the elements of culture.

    Second, we should use some materials to help our students to collect cultural information. There are course textbooks, audio-cassettes, radio broadcasts, TV broadcasts, videos, cuttings from newspapers, magazines, etc. Teachers should arrange these materials well for the class. The most important thing is to give the students some practice after the teachers'  explanation. When all the materials are ready for class, approach should be taken into consideration now. Generally speaking, there are three ways:

--Work together in pairs or small groups to gather the segments of    information;

--Share and discuss what they have discovered;

--Interpret the information within the context of the target culture and in     comparison with their own culture.         

I.  Students are the protagonists in target culture teaching

To bring target culture into foreign language teaching is a very arduous task. It can’ t be done by teachers alone. It would be vain if the teachers just standing on the blackboard, and talking about foreign cultures.

At present, more and more English teachers have realized the importance of target culture. And they are beginning to insert cultures into their teaching. But most of the teachers still teach their students under a traditional pattern. Here are two ways of giving the students an impression of the Christmas dinner: 1.The teacher tells them the American like eating turkeys in the Christmas dinner directly. 2.Playing a video about Christmas. When the students see the big turkey on the table, they would know that turkeys must be the American’s most favorite food. Obviously, the second way is advanced and effective.

So in my opinion, the best way to bring target culture into foreign language teaching is to view the students as the protagonists. Let them comprehend the target culture by themselves. Teacher is just the guide, his job is to lead the students to discuss the target culture in the class, and to help the students when they have difficulties.

    When I was a junior student in college, there is a curriculum called "Teaching Methodology". In that course, the professor has emphasized the target culture. In every lesson, she would spend 15-20 minutes on target culture. On Christmas Day, she drew a Christmas tree on the blackboard and hung a pair of stockings on the wall. At the beginning of the class, she asked us to say something about Christmas. After that she made some supplements to our answers. Then she played a song called "Christmas Eve" which is easy for us to learn. Quickly, we could sing it, and then, we played together, singing the song, drawing pictures, etc. On that day, we remembered the Christmas culture by heart when we were playing together.

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