On Cultivation of Cross―Cultural Consciousness in College English Teaching

开篇：润墨网以专业的文秘视角，为您筛选了一篇On Cultivation of Cross―Cultural Consciousness in College English Teaching范文，如需获取更多写作素材，在线客服老师一对一协助。欢迎您的阅读与分享！

Abstract. With the continuous development of the times， cultivating students' cross-cultural consciousness is becoming increasingly urgent. The development of new situation requires that college English teachers should also strengthen students' cultural content education and cultivate students' cross-cultural consciousness， in order to stimulate students' learning interest， optimize students' knowledge structure and improve students' social cultural ability while introducing language knowledge and conducting listening， speaking， reading and writing training for students. Then， how to cultivate students' cross-cultural consciousness in college English teaching？ This paper takes it as the theme for analysis， hoping to improve college English teaching quality.

Keywords： college English teaching； cross-cultural consciousness； cultivation

Introduction

In 2007， "College English Curriculum Teaching Requirement" explicitly lists cultural teaching as one of the main contents of college English teaching. "College English is a comprehensive system， and it takes English teaching theory as the guidance， taking English language knowledge and practice application ability and cross-cultural consciousness as the main content and integrates multiple teaching methods and teaching means in one." Therefore， cross-cultural teaching is an indispensable organic part of college english teaching， which is the essential content of cultivating students' cross-cultural consciousness. In English teaching， teachers should also strengthen students' cultural content education and cultivate students' cross-cultural consciousness， enhancing their cross-cultural communication ability， in order to stimulate students' learning interest， optimize students' knowledge structure and improve students' social cultural ability while introducing language knowledge and conducting listening， speaking， reading and writing training for students. Then， how to cultivate students' cross-cultural consciousness in college English teaching？ This paper takes it as the theme for analysis， hoping to improve college English teaching quality.

1. Status of Cultivating Cross-Cultural Consciousness in College English Teaching

1）Unsolid Cultural Consciousness of Teachers

As the important factor of cultivating cross-cultural consciousness， teachers' importance is very clear. But still some teachers' English teaching activities stay in traditional language knowledge teaching level， and they seldom have the consciousness to cultivate students' cross-cultural consciousness. Some exist wrong concept due to their own teaching view， and they don't have sufficient cognition for cross-cultural understanding， and common people think that it is just a problem of learning English， and they even think that they only need to strengthen the cultivation of listening， speaking， reading and writing ability. For other things， they can solve them according to common sense and habits. On one hand， some are not willing to cultivate students' cross-cultural consciousness for the valuable time due to a tight schedule for class， so they ignore cultural teaching； on the other hand， teachers' cultural knowledge is very weak， they don’t have much time and energy in looking for materials and lecture preparation.

2）Insufficient Learning Initiative of Students

As has been deeply affected by the traditional teaching mode， many students depend on teachers too much， and they have become used to this learning mode in primary school and middle school stage. If teachers don't introduce British and American culture， students will not recognize the close relationship between language and culture. They seldom go through the books of relevant cultural knowledge， not to mention exploring and accumulating the content of this aspect， so they cannot cultivate the corresponding cross-cultural consciousness， which is obviously inconsistent with the requirement for contemporary talents in society.

3） Old Teaching Method

All along， college English teaching mode is single， and teachers take teaching materials as the center for "chalk and talk"， so you can imagine the teaching effect. College English is a course with strong practicality and operation， but in traditional teaching mode， it becomes language knowledge lecture and grammar teaching lecture. In the whole process， students only mechanically accept the grammar rules， and their brains become the "warehouse" of storing words， grammar and sentence structure， without any vitality. This teaching mode will make students lose learning interests and learning enthusiasm， and teaching and learning contradictions have been obvious， not to mention cross-cultural consciousness.

In fact， the cultivation of cross-cultural consciousness is the clear requirement of modern English curriculum standard. "English course standard" promulgated by Ministry of Education in 2001 proposed "contacting and understanding culture of English-speaking countries， which is good for understanding and using English， and also good for cultivating world consciousness." "English curriculum standard" requires teachers to cultivate students' cross-cultural consciousness in teaching， and makes it as an important part of comprehensive language application ability.

Also， cultivating cross-cultural consciousness is still the requirement of quality education development. Quality education proposes requirement for cultivating students' characters， thinking， ability and personality. Task of college English teaching is to cultivate high-quality English talents with profound cultural cultivation. As an important part of English teaching， cultivation of cross-cultural consciousness must cope with the relationship between language and culture， making students fully understand and focus on cultural difference. In view of this， college English teaching must improve the existing series of problems and adopt effective measures to integrate subject teaching content and language teaching content， cultivating students' cross-cultural consciousness in different stages and levels， in order to improve students' cross-cultural communication ability.

2. Suggestions of Cultivating Cross-Cultural Consciousness in College English Teaching

1）Using Cultural Aside Method to Penetrate Cross-Cultural Consciousness

This is the most common method of teachers in classroom. Generally speaking， the texts selected in teaching materials have specific cultural backgrounds. Some are with content background and others are with authors' background. If students don't understand or lack of relevant background knowledge， it will influence their correct understanding for articles. So teachers should take cultural aside form for cultural background introduction before teaching texts. Also， text content should be involved with much content of national policy， economy， culture and geography. And these types of articles have a large amount of information， which can lively reflect the difference between Chinese and western culture， with strong readability. Therefore， teachers should penetrate cultural knowledge in preparing lessons and classes， so college English course is not just pure language communication.

For example， in analyzing English idioms， it can be related with relevant legends， myths， religions， fables and historical backgrounds. It takes "sour grapes" as an example， which is said to be bad things because of not obtaining. This idiom originates from "Aesop's Fables". A fox saw the grapes high and drools with envy， but tries many methods but she hasn't grasped grapes. Finally， she has to leave off， complaining that the grapes are sour. Through the understanding for relevant cultural background of English language phenomenon， students can better understand the meaning to be expressed by English language phenomenon and the contained cultural connotation， reflecting the interest in learning English， to increase the enthusiasm of learning English. Teachers should also improve students' cross-cultural consciousness in world view， life view， values， outlook on life， ethics， education and so on， in order to greatly improve students' comprehensive application ability for language.

2）Using English Films to Improve Cross-Cultural Consciousness

Film is a cultural carrier， which is most direct and vivid reflection of a nation and national culture. A good English film not only stimulates students' learning interests， but also provides a real language environment for them to understand English-speaking countries' life styles， social cultural customs and manners， thinking mode， humanity spirit and values. Contacting and understanding English-speaking countries' cultural connotation are good for students to have better learning and use of English.

Thus， teachers should carefully prepare each English film， including background knowledge introduction， character feature analysis， classic dialogue and topic discussion， and they should organize corresponding matches， such as imitation， character dubbing， cosplay and creative writing. In addition， when teachers select films for cultural introduction， they should select suitable classroom teaching films according to article themes. This corresponding British and American film appreciation with theme and cultural background make students know corresponding cultural background knowledge of British and American countries， conducting systematic and profound introduction for the theme. It not only enriches the materials of this unit， but also is a more intuitive， vivid and image presentation for the cultural background of theme， deepening students' understanding for theme， so as to experience westerners' emotional world， ethics and life view in films through analyzing the involved ideology and characters in films. It can deepen students' sensitive cognition for the country， edifying sentiment and increasing knowledge.

3）Improving Teachers' Own Cultural Accomplishment

We know that cultural background knowledge is colorful and different. In a broad sense， it includes a national politics， economy， history， geography， religion， custom， morality， ethics and other aspects. In a broad sense， terminology， daily language， idiom origin， folk legends and other silent language reflect the important carrier of a national cultural background knowledge. Thus， teachers should cultivate students' cross-cultural consciousness， and they should first have solid cultural literacy， in order to establish the example role for students. In teaching process， they can calmly answer questions about cultural differences proposed by relevant cultural differences.

In addition， college English teachers not only should learn the culture of English-speaking countries， but also include our national culture， and other national cultures. Through multiple cultural understanding for the world， they should constantly broaden their eyesight. It is good for overcoming prejudice to form foreign cultural understanding and tolerate attitude， which is good for enhancing its own cross-cultural consciousness， in order to have influence on students and establish students' broad mind.

4） Combining Rich Extracurricular Activities for Cultural Teaching

Only depending on limited classroom time is hard to achieve deep level for students to have cultural education and cultivate cross-cultural consciousness. In order to make cross-cultural consciousness cultivation strength deeper， teachers should also positively open the second classroom， and provide the chance of understanding English-speaking countries for students. At present， some colleges set up colorful cultural activities， but this type of activities cannot set up teaching objects， such as CET4 students， this will deprive other students' chance to receive cultural education. Teachers can also open professional cultural course， such as optional courses and follow-up development courses， and they can systematically and overall conducting cultural teaching， in order to improve students' cross-cultural consciousness. Also， English teachers can also professionally organize extracurricular reading activities， specifically reading relevant British and American books， and they can guide students to take part in discussion， exchange for mutual thinking.

Practice has proved that reading relevant countries' cultural books and cross-cultural knowledge books are directly good for cross-cultural consciousness improvement. In recent years， there are cross-cultural research book publishments， such as Hu Wenzhong's "beyond the cultural barrier"， Liang Yong's edited "cross-cultural foreign language teaching and research"， Zhang Hongling's "cross-cultural foreign teaching"， Du Xuezeng's "Chinese and English （British countries） cultural idiom comparison"， Rong Linhai's "cross-cultural barrier---exchange with British and American people". These masterpieces are academic and easy to understand， and they are so-called silent teachers for cross-cultural consciousness cultivation.

In short， cultivating cross-cultural consciousness in college English teaching is very important， and teachers and students should constantly learn and realize mutual complement of teaching， to obtain mutual progress.

References

[1] Long Maoju. On cross-cultural consciousness of middle school students in English teaching[J]. Success （Education）. 2009.02

[2] Zhou Rongjie. English teaching should focus on cultivation of cross-cultural consciousness[J]. Inner Mongolia Education， 2008.09

[3] Fang Yuanqun. Cross-cultural consciousness cultivation in college English teaching[D]. Chinese Petroleum University， 2007.

[4] Yin Dan. Cross-cultural consciousness cultivation research in foreign language teaching.[J]. Journal of Changchun Technology University， 2012，10.

[5] Huang Li. Analysis on cultivation of cross-cultural consciousness in English teaching[J]. Journal of Hubei Adult Education College， 2009，03.

[6] Xi Feng. On cultivation of cross-cultural interpersonal ability in foreign language teaching[J]. Northern Economics and Trade. 2008.06