Cultural Background Knowledge and English Teaching(2)

In English, there are so many euphemisms that sometimes it‘s hard to know the other one‘s actual mood. So we should pay attention to our answer. For example, when one ask: ―How do you like the film?‖ and the other answer: ―I think it‘s very interesting‖, it shows he doesn‘t like it very much instead of the literal meaning ―very interesting‖. When one asks: ―What do you think of my new coat?‖ and the other answers: ―I think the pocket is very nice‖, it also shows his dislike. In America and England, usually people don‘t say unpleasant words to one‘s face, they always say pleasant words to the full or evade direct answering, saying ―I don‘t know.‖ For example, when one asks, ―Do you like our teacher‖, you may answer: ―Well, I don‘t know him very well.‖ Sometimes out of his politeness, when meeting unfamiliar people, he may conceal his true feelings. For example, A asked B: ―How are you?‖ Although B had got a bad cold

主要讲文化背景对英语学习的影响,值得我们学习这一方面的知识

, his answer was ―Fine, thank you‖, but not ―Not very well, I‘m afraid ‖, or other similar answers.

During oral communication, speakers need standard pronunciation and intonation, as well as the suitable use of language for the occasion. There are numerous examples that we could cite of expressions that are correct according to grammatical rules, but unsuitable for the occasion.

Once, after a student gave a lecture, he asked a foreign visitor for his advice. He said like this, ―I am desirous of exploring your feeling on the lecture‖—which caused the foreign visitor‘s surprise. He said: ―You English is too beautiful to be true.‖ But the student refused to accept the comment. He said the sentence was extracted from the book. The visitor explained that phrases like ―desirous of exploring your feelings‖ were not fit for spoken language, which should be replaced by ―I‘d like to hear your views on the lecture‖ or ―May I have your views on the lecture?‖

A person comforted a bereaved young wife, ―I‘m terribly sorry to hear that your husband has just died, but don‘t let it upset you too much. You‘re an attractive young woman. I‘m sure you‘ll find someone else soon.‖ Although the words accord with grammatical rules, they cannot be applied in communication, and at the same time, they betray the social customs.

As peoples are diverse, customs are diverse. It is only natural then that with differences in customs, differences often arise in using of language. For example, when someone praise your English is very good, American and Chinese replies to compliments are different. According to Chinese customs, they generally murmur some reply about not being worthy of the praise, while according to American customs, they tend to accept the compliment with the pleasure. The reply like ―No, I don‘t speak good English‖—Americans think which seems to criticize the other side, is impolite.

Reading English articles requires a certain language basis, but the competence of reading comprehension is not entirely related to one‘s language level. Knowledge of cultural background is also important. Reading is a process affected by integration of one‘s language knowledge, cultural background knowledge and other professional knowledge, and a process of continuous guesses and corrections according to available language material, cultural background and logical reasoning. Generally speaking, Chinese people study Chinese without the difficulties aroused by cultural background. Chinese proverbs like ―只许州官放火，不许百姓点灯‖, ―平时不烧香,临时抱佛脚‖, ―差之毫厘,失之千里‖ will not influence our understanding of article. The connotation of such new words as ―改革开放‖ ―大腕‖ ―追星族‖ are easily understood, too. However, when we read English articles, differences between Chinese and western cultures often bring us many difficulties.

Following, effect of cultural background on reading will be discussed, with some common terms or expressions in reading material, which is often not understood by Chinese learners unfamiliar with western culture, as illustration.

Many allusions drawn from history, religion, literature etc., often appear in English w

主要讲文化背景对英语学习的影响,值得我们学习这一方面的知识

orks and have become common household terms. But without the knowledge of western culture and history, such allusions are not always easy to understand, and without understanding there can be little appreciation .For example:

a Herculean task—task requiring great power of body or mind. Hercules was a powerfully built hero of ancient Greek mythology. As punishment for a serious misdeed, he was ordered to do twelve virtually impossible tasks. Hercules succeeded in doing all and was rewarded with immortality. Example: It was a Herculean task, but he managed to do it.

David and Goliath (from Bible)—David was a shepherd boy; he killed the Philistine giant Goliath with a shot from his sling and later became king of the Hebrews; in metaphorical use, David and Goliath stand for a contest between two persons, enterprises, countries, etc., in which one is much smaller and/or weaker, but in which the smaller/weaker one wins out.

a Horatio Alger story—any ―success story‖, often considered a myth, of a poor boy who works hard and finally rises to the top, becoming rich, successful, famous; Horatio Alger was a writer whose stories generally had the same such plot. His best-known books are the Ragged Dick series and the Tattered Tom series.

Some of these allusions may be looked up in the dictionary, but with the continuous development of society and language, new allusions have appeared. Unless one is well acquainted with developments of a certain country, one would be at a loss about the meaning and connotations of terms or expressions such as those below:

a Rambo—Rambo is the character …… 此处隐藏：5889字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……