Cultural Differences between East and West in English Classroom Teaching

Language and culture are inseparable. Without understanding the cultural background of a foreign language, it is impossible to understand and use it correctly. The eastern and western societies are formed and developed on different bases, so people's thoughts, beliefs and customs are different to varying degrees. Because there is no special course to develop cultural background knowledge in middle schools, students often encounter many confused problems in the process of going to school, and even make some jokes in the process of speaking and writing. According to years of teaching, the common mistakes among students are summarized as follows:

First, the title

It is the custom of China people to put their surnames before their addresses, such as Mr. Li and Mr. Wang. In English, the address comes before the surname, such as Mr. Wang. Therefore, students often form wrong pronunciations, such as Mr. Li and Mr. Wang.

Second, the use of some parts of speech.

1. nominative and objective cases of personal pronouns

Because Chinese has no distinction between nominative and accusative. For example, "I" can be the subject of the play; For example, "I am a student" can also be used as an object; Such as "he wants to see me". In English, personal pronouns are divided into nominative and accusative. The nominative case can only be the subject. For example, I am a student and I can't say "I am a student", and "he asked for me" can only say "he asked for me".

2. Use of verbs

There are many forms of verbs in English, such as original word, third person singular, present participle, past tense, past participle, etc., but there are not so many forms in Chinese. It can only express the completion of various actions with the help of words such as "Jiang", "Jiang" and "Yes".

3. The use of possessive pronouns

Students often make the following mistakes in writing. My favorite subject is ...; ; My uncle is ... In other words, my favorite subject is ... my uncle is ... there are no mistakes in Chinese. Due to the influence of Chinese, students made the above mistakes.

Third, word order

We all know that the place names in China are said in descending order. Such as Shimen, Changde, Hunan, China. But the order of English is from small to large. Such as: Class One scored accidentally ... Hunan Middle School

English nouns and prepositional phrases are used to modify verbs, which are placed after verbs, while Chinese is placed before their modifiers. We often see students write sentences like "I like bananas very much", "Mike and I are good friends" and "I am from barstow School". According to English habits, it should be written as "I like bananas very much", "Mike and I are good friends" and "I go to school by bus".

Fourth, some special expressions.

1. There are differences when responding to compliments.

Your coat is very beautiful.

B 1: thank you.

B2: Oh, it's very common.

B 1 English answer, and B2 is our Chinese answer.

In western countries, people generally don't ask other people's age and salary.

Westerners regard age and salary as secrets, and it is impolite to ask, while China people don't care.

The use of prepositions in verbs (abbreviation of verb)

1. There are different prepositions in English.

For example, in the hospital means "hospitalization"; In the hospital, it is said that in the hospital, it is not necessarily hospitalized.

2. The same preposition is used in different sentences

For example, "on" is used for the fruit on the tree, and "in" is used for other things on the tree. For example, "There are some apples on the tree and a bird on the tree". There are "open" pictures on the wall, and "in" windows on the wall.

Sixth, coping strategies.

There are still many cultural differences between the East and the West in the classroom, so how should we face them as teachers?

1. Strengthen one's own cultural accomplishment, and teach students to be "a little".

2. Strengthen vocabulary explanation. For example, we should not only understand its superficial meaning, but also understand its connotation.

3. Pay attention to the understanding of grammar and text structure, and ask students to try to find answers from top to bottom when reading.

4. Use modern teaching methods and multimedia to experience foreign cultural atmosphere.

5. Tell the textbook thoroughly, learn the textbook well, and teach English in English in class, so that students can develop the habit of thinking in English.

In English teaching, students should not only master the basic knowledge of culture, but also strengthen the teaching of relevant cultural background knowledge, so that students can understand the cultural differences between the East and the West, and try their best to overcome the interference of their mother tongue, form good habits, make English learning "alive" and achieve the purpose of English teaching in middle schools.

(Author: Xinguan Town Central School, Shimen County, Changde City, Hunan Province)