Teaching Reflection ofCulture Teaching in Middle School

廖杨

Ⅰ.The Problem of English Culture Teaching

Nowadays， there are still many problems in English culture teaching. The author will analyze the problem in English culture teaching from teachers and students .

1. The problems of teachers

For implementation of the task of integrating culture and foreign language teaching，the role of teachers proves to be a key issue. However，few teachers can offer any experience in a foreign culture. English teachers think it is the total that learning English is to learn English grammar and vocabulary. Students not only have worse expressions and ideas but also have poor communication abilities. English teachers use poor teaching method，and just“ see the tree but not the forest”. They pay more attention to understand the words and sentences，but little attention to cultural factors.

However，language is not only a symbol，but also a social practice. If English teachers do not know the importance of culture teaching，most of the students could not know how to use the language in its social context.

2. The problems of students

Communicative ability is in a constant social and cultural environment on how to use language to achieve the purpose of communicative capabilities.

The important effect of students communicative ability is the students mother language. Students use the Chinese expression to learn English. For example， they translate the sentence “作為一名大学生，他三天两头往图书馆跑” as “As a college student， he runs to the library three days and two heads.” Students do not realise the difference between Chinese and western culture.

Ⅱ.Remedies for the Problems

1.Techniques of cross-cultural teaching

Developed activities can be organized ranging from observing colleagues classes，reading academic journals and books，and attending conferences， workshops，collaborating with other teachers in classroom research or other professional projects. Telecommunications network can also be best used to improve teacher development.

At the same time，rigorous teacher education must be set up. One of the most often cited factors related to excellence in foreign language education is a well-trained teaching corps.

In order to improve teaching skills and become a qualified English teacher， he/she should master relevant disciplines such as Linguistics，Psycholinguistics， Social linguistics，Psychology， Pedagogy，Second language Acquisition and Language Teaching. Pre-service training that integrates academic subject studies with pedagogical studies and teaching practice is considered one of the most successful aspects of foreign language education in several countries.In some countries，including the Netherlands and the United Kingdom，study and work abroad programs contribute to the high level of language proficiency among foreign language teachers.

2. Training students social cultural awareness

On 21st century， Chinese and foreign communication has never reached the levels before. In this case，it is a question that how to train studentssocial cultural abilities. The important part of teaching content is language and culture. Thus，in English teaching，teachers not only should train and improve their language skills，but also pay attention to studentscross-cultural communication abilities. Knowing the relation between language and culture，studentsresearch is one of the most powerful tools that the teacher can use in middle school，because it combines their interests with the classroom. For example，after the first class， the teacher asks students to search the Internet in the library and find information on any aspect of the culture that interests them. This cultural knowledge is involved in the text. Then students explain to their group what they have learned about it. Then what English teachers can do to train students cross-cultural communication skills？

Reading can provide students with background information about the cross-culture. Readings include novels， magazines， newspapers and history books.

Videos can be also useful materials for introducing the cross-cultural to students. One example of a video is“Go Through America”which was welcomed by many middle school students many years ago， because it presented a series of dramas about some Chinese students who visited many American cities， mountains and rivers， and famous universities all over the US. Students can directly experience everyday life in the US through the video.

I suggests that attention should be paid to cultural teaching in English class at present. Hopefully，it will give some inspirations to other English teachers to make their teaching process more acceptable and helpful to the students.

（作者單位：湖南省洞口县醪田中心学校）