Expanding students' cultural horizons in the cultivation of cross-cultural awareness

Expanding students' cultural horizons in the cultivation of cross-cultural awareness

Paper Keywords: cultural awareness, cultural differences, cultural experience

Abstract: Language and culture are inseparable. Learning language requires learning culture. Cultivating children's cross-cultural awareness is one of the basic goals of English education, which is of great significance for eliminating children's English communication barriers, deepening children's understanding of English and cultivating children's interest in learning English.

Primary school is the initial stage of English learning. Teachers should gradually expand the content and scope of cultural knowledge according to students' age characteristics and cognitive ability, so that students can roughly understand the similarities and differences between English-speaking countries and Chinese and foreign cultures, initially cultivate students' cross-cultural awareness, promote students' English learning, and lay a good foundation for their lifelong learning.

First, the infiltration of cultural awareness in the daily language teaching process

The third-grade students in rural primary schools began to learn English, and there was no English learning environment. They can only be exposed to English in three English classes a week. Teachers should make full use of teaching materials, infiltrate relevant cultural knowledge in the daily language teaching process, and cultivate students' transnational cultural awareness. When teaching family members, students should be told that kinship terms in English are much simpler than those in Chinese. For example, the word aunt in English can be included in Chinese? Aunt? Aunt? Aunt? Aunt? Wait for several identities. When teaching the words about food and three meals a day, introduce the differences between Chinese and foreign eating habits: China people's staple food is rice, so they are used to using chopsticks, bowls and spoons; Foreigners like to eat beef, chicken, duck and mutton. Usually with plates, forks and knives.

Only by accumulating certain foreign cultural knowledge can students be sensitive to the similarities and differences between their own culture and foreign culture, that is, cultural awareness; Only when students have certain cultural awareness can they adjust their language output awareness according to foreign cultures and improve their intercultural communication ability.

Second, let students know about foreign cultures through online videos.

The infiltration of cultural awareness should not be limited to simple textbooks and classroom teaching. In today's open information, you can feel the foreign cultural atmosphere through TV and computer network without leaving home. Teachers of junior students use the Internet to download some videos for students to see, which helps them to get a preliminary understanding of foreign customs. For senior primary school students, Baidu can guide students to find out the origin of some important festivals and how people from different countries spend them. Teachers should make full use of multimedia audio-visual teaching equipment, use English movies, TV, slides, video pictures and other materials to give students an intuitive feeling, fully tap and use all resources and conditions related to students' learning activities, explore and explore active and effective ways, infiltrate cultural awareness and cultivate students' cross-cultural communication ability.

Third, use important festivals to strengthen students' awareness of transnational culture.

What best represents culture and reflects national habits are various festivals and celebrations. Teachers can put the teaching of at Christmas before 65438+February 25th, and organize students to decorate the classroom with Christmas trees, stockings and gift boxes. On the day of the festival, students can feel the thick Christmas atmosphere as soon as they enter the classroom. At the same time, teachers can guide students to compare Christmas with the Spring Festival in China, encourage students to find out the similarities between the two festivals, then compare their differences and understand them from a cultural perspective. Teachers can make full use of April Fool's Day, Thanksgiving Day, Easter and other important festivals to present students with colorful background knowledge, such as April 1 day? April Fool's Day? Teachers can play a kind joke with students, so that students can understand that teachers are not lying or playing pranks, so that students can truly and intuitively feel foreign cultures, which not only improves students' interest in learning English, but also allows students to immerse themselves in it and apply what they have learned.

Fourth, let students feel the similarities and differences between Chinese and English cultures in comparison.

Comparing the similarities and differences of cultures is a very important and effective means to cultivate transnational cultural awareness, especially conducive to deepening the understanding of Chinese and foreign cultures.

After learning the word teacher, the students know what the teacher means. Teacher? Some students changed Mr. Shen to Mr. Shen. Through explanation and comparison, students can understand that teachers are only a profession in English. China people have a tradition of respecting teachers and valuing morality. Teacher? It is not only a profession, but also a respect for people. Another example: In China, can young people be called Wang Xing elders? Uncle Wang? Aunt Wang? ; Can you call Li's colleague? Li Ge? Sister Li? . But in English, kinship terms are not widely used in social intercourse. What if we call our elders whose mother tongue is English? Uncle Hei? Brown brothers? The other party must feel puzzled. Teachers can't teach vocabulary and sentence patterns in isolation, but must put them in a certain cultural background, pay attention to the comparison between the two cultures, and let students understand the connotation of vocabulary culture, so that students will have the awareness of transnational culture and think in English when using English to communicate. Only in this way can we avoid communication obstacles in English learning in the future.

Five, experience in practice, grasp in application.

Teachers should design some communication environments that are close to students' lives and easy to cause cross-cultural communication failure. freetalk？ Through ingenious design, we can draw the differences between Chinese and western cultures from the communication between teachers and students and further expand them, which can leave a deep impression on students. For example, after learning clothes words, create one? Models? During the competition, let the students experience others' compliments on your clothes. You should be very excited to say: Thank you! ? After learning the greeting farewell language, students are required to greet and say goodbye to teachers and classmates in English every day when they come to school and go home. For example, after learning the words about food and three meals a day, the teacher asked the students to bring plates, forks and knives, let them move and talk with their own hands, so as to learn how to use these tableware, thus enhancing their understanding, stimulating their enthusiasm for learning and strengthening their memory. Through practice, I have further deepened my understanding of British and American culture.

Sixth, cultivate in reading and realize in guessing.

Speaking English is not a simple language training and skill acquisition. Simple literary works can make students feel that there is a beautiful world in English from the sublimation of emotions, and then stimulate a strong desire to learn English well. Teachers should create reading environment and reading opportunities for students, such as opening up English learning gardens, opening up English learning gardens on school bulletin boards and blackboard newspapers in each class. Combined with the teaching content, introduce some idioms and famous sayings that students can accept and understand, and compile some English jokes and games that foreign children often play, such as bingo and crossword puzzles, to attract students to participate.

Practice has proved that the richer the students' cultural background knowledge, the stronger their ability to understand the learning content and the more confident they are in learning English. Therefore, in teaching, teachers should gradually expand the content and scope of cross-cultural knowledge according to students' age characteristics and cognitive ability to help students broaden their horizons. Only in this way can they give students a broad space for language development, enrich English connotation while mastering textbook knowledge, and further cultivate students' comprehensive ability to use English. Only in this way can we finally cultivate English communicative competence and achieve the ultimate goal of learning a language? Communication.

References:

[1] English Curriculum Standards Development Team. Interpretation of english curriculum standards. Beijing Normal University Press, 2002.

[2] Lin Huaguo. Cultural differences between China and the West and English teaching strategies. Journal of tonghua normal University No.6, 2005.

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