外国语将文化融入外语学习学士学位论文.docx

外国语将文化融入外语学习学士学位论文.docx

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外国语将文化融入外语学习学士学位论文

将文化融入外语学习

IncorporatingCultureintoForeignLanguageLearning

QiuXue

UndertheSupervisionof

ZhangChun

SchoolofForeignLanguagesandCultures

PanzhihuaUniversity

May2006

Contents

Abstract.........................................................................................................................I

KeyWords......................................................................................................................I

摘要.............................................................................................II

关键词..............................................................................................II

Introduction…………………………………………………………………….……...1

I.LanguageandCulture.................................................................................................3

A.Language……….…………...……….……..............................................……....3

B.Culture…………………………………………………………..……………….3

C.TheRelationshipBetweenLanguageandCulture…………..…………………..4

II.IncorporatingCultureintoForeignLanguageLearning……………………………6

（1）PayingAttentiontotheCulturalDifferencesreflectedinLanguages…………..6

A.Vocabulary…………………………………………………………………7

B.PhaticCommunion……………………………………………………….9

C.ThanksandCompliments………………………………………………...10

D.PrivacyandTaboos………………………………………………………11

E.Idioms,ProverbsandSayings……………………………………………13

（2）PayingAttentiontotheDifferencesinNon-verbalCommunication………….15

A.TheMovementofOurBodies……………………………………………16

B.OurUseofSpace…………………………………………………………17

C.OurConceptofTime…………………………………………………….18

Conclusion……………………………………………………………….……….…..20

Bibliography………………………………………………….…………………21

Acknowledgement………………………………………………………………….22

Abstract

Withtheprogressinthefieldofscienceandtechnology,nowadays,wecantalkeasilywithpeoplefromallovertheworld.Wearelearningforeignlanguagesandwebecomemoreandmorefamiliarwithcross-culturalcommunication.Anincreasingnumberofpeoplehavefoundthatcultureisofgreatimportanceintheprocessoflearningaforeignlanguage;withoutculturelearningwecouldnotachieveourpurpose.Wemustincorporatecultureintoourforeignlanguagelearning.Thisthesisisdevotedtoadiscussiononthisissuefromtwoparts.Thefirstpartfocusesonthequestionofwhyweneedtolearncultureinourforeignlanguageacquisition,mainlydealingwiththerelationshipbetweenlanguageandculture,andintroducingyouthefamousSapir-Whorfhypothesis.Thesecondpartdiscusseshowtoincorporatecultureintoforeignlanguagelearning,holdingthatinourlearningprocess,wemustalwayspayattentiontotheculturaldifferencesreflectedinbothverbalandnon-verbalcommunication,andthisisaveryusefulwayforustodevelopourculturalsensitivityandcanenableustouseaforeignlanguagebothgrammaticallyandpragmatically.Thuswecancommunicatewithnative-speakersinasmoothway.

KeyWords

language;culture;interdependence;culturaldifferences

摘要

随着科技的进步，如今我们已经能够很容易地与世界各地的人交流。

外语学习已经成为时代的需求。

随着我们对跨文化交际的不断熟悉，越来越多的人发现在外语学习中起着很重要的作用。

没有对文化的学习我们就不能达到外语学习的目的。

我们必须将对文化的学习融入到外语学习的过程中。

本文将从两个部分对该问题做一讨论。

第一部分讨论为什么要将文化学习融入外语学习之中。

该部分主要介绍文化与语言之间的相互关系，并将介绍萨丕尔-沃夫假说；第二部分介绍如何将文化融入外语学习。

在我们的学习过程中，我们必须时时注意反映在语言和非语言交际中的文化差异。

这是一个培养文化敏感性的有方法，并能使我们不仅能在语法上而且能在语用上正确地使用外语。

由此，我们能更好地与世界各民族的人们交流。

关键词

语言；文化；相互依存；文化差异

Introduction

Asoursocietydevelops,foreignlanguagelearningbecomesmoreandmorepopular.And,nowadays,Englishisgenerallyregardedastheinternationalorgloballanguage.InChina,foreignlanguagelearninghasgainedgreatimpetusespeciallyinrecentyears,whichcanbeillustratedbythefactthatmoreandmoreprimaryschoolshaveopenedEnglishclasses.

ThoughourtheoriesandpracticeforEnglishteachingandlearningdevelopquicklyinrecentyears,thereisoneaspectwhichseemstobeneglectedbymosteducators,thatis,thelearningofcultureinvolvedinthelearningaforeignlanguage.Inmostsecondaryschools,whatmostteachersconcernisgrammar.Afteryearsofhardstudyunderthisguidance,somelearnerscanuseEnglishcorrectly,（Hereby“correctly”,Imean“withoutgrammarorspellingmistakes”）,butnotappropriately.Whentheyareconversingwithanative-speaker,theirwordsmaycausemisunderstanding,sometimesevenleaveabadimpressionontheircounterpart,althoughthelanguagetheyuseincommunicationmaybefaultless.

Oneday,whenIwasinanEnglishcornerheldbyaforeignteacher,theteachersneezedviolently.Thenaboysaid,“Someoneismissingyou.”Andthismadetheteacherconfusedforquiteamoment.Thenwhat’sthereasonforthiskindofbarrierincommunication?

TheanswerliesintheculturedifferencesbetweenChinaandtheWesterncountries.InChina,ifsomeonesneezes,wegenerallyregarditasasignofsomeone’smissingorcursinghim.ButinEnglish-speakingcountries,nosuchanassociationisattachedtothis.Andinsuchkindofsituation,usually,theywouldsay,“Godblessyou”toshowtheircareforthepeopleconcerned.

Asallofusknow,languageisatoolforcommunication.But,evenasentenceisgrammaticallycorrect,ifusedinaninappropriatesituationorbreakthecustomofaparticularpeople,thissentencecan’tachievethepurposeofcommunication,andsometimesitcanevenleadtosomeunexpectedresults.AsstatedinDengYanchangandLiuRunqing’sLanguageandCulture（1991:

2）,“Becauseofculturaldifferences,misunderstandingmayarise;Becauseofculturaldifferences,aseriousquestionmaycauseamusementorlaughter;aharmlessstatementmaycausedispleasureoranger.Becauseofculturaldifferences,jokesbyaforeignspeakermaybereceivedwithblankfacesandstonysilence.Yetthesamestoriesinthespeaker’sowncountrywouldleaveaudiencesholdingtheirsideswithlaugher.”

So,incorporatingcultureintotheprocessofforeignlanguagelearningis,infact,averyimportantaspect.Thefollowingwilldealwiththisissuefromtwoaspects,thatis,whydoweneedtolearncultureinourforeignlanguageacquisition,andhowcanweincorporatecultureinourlearning?

I.LanguageandCulture

A.Language

Aboutwhatislanguage,therearevariousdefinitionsfromdifferentrespects.Forexample,Sapir（1921）defineditas,”apurelyhumanandnon-instinctivemethodofcommunicatingideas,emotionsanddesiresbymeansofvoluntarilyproducedsymbols.”Hall（1968）defineditas“theinstitutionwherebyhumanscommunicateandinteractwitheachotherbymeansofhabituallyusedoral-auditoryarbitrarysymbol.”However,thereis,nowadays,agenerallyaccepteddefinition,”Languageisasystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhumancommunication.”（HuZhuanglinetal,1998）

Languageisthemostimportantmeansofhumancommunication.Humanbeingsgetknownoftheworldthroughtheirlanguages.Theytakelanguageasthemediumfortheirsociallife,usingittoconductdailycommunication,organizeproducingactivities,orexpresstheirideasandemotions.

B.Culture

Culture,inabroadsense,includesLiterature,Art,Music,Architecture,ScienceandTechnology,Philosophy,Language（whichcharacterizesthelifeofthehumancommunity）andsomemeansofnon-verbalcommunication（forexample,themovementofourbodies,ouruseofspaceandouruseoftime）.Usually,peoplecallit‘culturewithabigC’.Initsnarrowsense,culturereferstopeople’swayoflivingandcustoms,includingthemaytheylive,thewaytheyorganizetheirsociety,therelationshipbetweenfamilyorsocialmembers,customs,food,tablemanners,allkindsoftaboos,etc.Thisiswhatsomepeoplecall‘culturewithasmallc’.Toputitanotherway,‘cultureconsistsofallthesharedproductsofhumansociety.’（Robertson,1981）

C.TheRelationshipBetweenLanguageandCulture

Fromtheabovedefinitionsoflanguageandculture,wecanseethattherelationshipbetweenthemisveryclose.

Therearebasicallytwodifferentopinionsonlanguage.Sometakelanguageasasignsystemandthinkitisthetotalsetofsound,grammarandvocabulary.Othersholdthatlanguageandculturerelatewitheachotherclosely,andtheuseofalanguagecannotbeseparatedfromitssocialsettings.Foralongtime,whatlinguisticresearchfocusesonwaslanguageitself,suchasthesoundsystem,thesentencestructure,orthehistoryanddevelopmentofhumanlanguage.Thatis,thesubjectoftheseresearcheswaswhatSaussuredefinedaslangue,butnotparole.

Anthropologistswerethefirsttoresearchintotherelationshipbetweenlanguageandculture.Asearlyasthe19thcentury,theGermanethnologistW.V.Humboldtfirstresearchedintothisfield.Atthebeginningofthe20thcentury,ananthropologicalorientationinthestudyoflanguagewasdevelopedbothinEnglandandinNorthAmerica.Thisnewtraditionwascharacterizedbyitsstudyoflanguageinasocioculturalcontext.Anthropologists,likeBronislawMalinowski,JohnP.Firth,FranzBoas,EwardSapir,andBenjaminLeeWhorf,havedonealotofimportantandcreativeworkinthisfieldandexpressedtheirownunderstandings.Lateron,sociologiststookinterestinthisissue.Inthemiddleofthe60’s,sociolinguisticsroseandsociolinguistshavecontributedalotinthisfield.Peopleofpedagogyhavesteppedupinresearchofthisfield.InChina,thoughtherearesomearticlesdevotedtothediscussionofitinsomeacademicpublications,inall,thereisnoresearchinawiderange.

Intheresearchoftherelationshipbetweenlanguageandculture,thereisaveryinfluentialbutalsoextremelycontroversialtheory,thatis,Sapir-WhorfHypothesis.

Sapir（1926）acknowledgedthecloserelationshipbetweenlanguageandculture,maintainingthattheywere