外国语将文化融入外语学习学士学位论文.docx

1、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Incorporating Culture into Foreign Language LearningQiu XueUnder the Supervision ofZhang ChunSchool of Foreign Languages and CulturesPanzhihua UniversityMay 2006ContentsAbstract.IKey Words .I摘要.II关键词.IIIntroduction.1I. Language and Culture.3A. Language.3B. Culture.3C. The

2、Relationship Between Language and Culture.4II. Incorporating Culture into Foreign Language Learning6 (1) Paying Attention to the Cultural Differences reflected in Languages.6A. Vocabulary 7B. Phatic Communion .9C. Thanks and Compliments .10D. Privacy and Taboos 11E. Idioms, Proverbs and Sayings 13(2

3、) Paying Attention to the Differences in Non-verbal Communication.15A. The Movement of Our Bodies 16B. Our Use of Space 17C. Our Concept of Time .18Conclusion.20Bibliography.21Acknowledgement.22AbstractWith the progress in the field of science and technology, nowadays, we can talk easily with people

4、 from all over the world. We are learning foreign languages and we become more and more familiar with cross-cultural communication. An increasing number of people have found that culture is of great importance in the process of learning a foreign language; without culture learning we could not achie

5、ve our purpose. We must incorporate culture into our foreign language learning. This thesis is devoted to a discussion on this issue from two parts. The first part focuses on the question of why we need to learn culture in our foreign language acquisition, mainly dealing with the relationship betwee

6、n language and culture, and introducing you the famous Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. The second part discusses how to incorporate culture into foreign language learning, holding that in our learning process, we must always pay attention to the cultural differences reflected in both verbal and non-verbal c

7、ommunication, and this is a very useful way for us to develop our cultural sensitivity and can enable us to use a foreign language both grammatically and pragmatically. Thus we can communicate with native-speakers in a smooth way. Key Wordslanguage; culture; interdependence; cultural differences摘 要随

8、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

9、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 As our society develops, foreign language learning becomes more and more popular. And, nowadays, English is generally regarded as the international or global language. In China, foreign language learning has gained great impetus especially in rece

10、nt years, which can be illustrated by the fact that more and more primary schools have opened English classes. Though our theories and practice for English teaching and learning develop quickly in recent years, there is one aspect which seems to be neglected by most educators, that is, the learning

11、of culture involved in the learning a foreign language. In most secondary schools, what most teachers concern is grammar. After years of hard study under this guidance, some learners can use English correctly, (Here by “correctly”, I mean “without grammar or spelling mistakes”), but not appropriatel

12、y. When they are conversing with a native-speaker, their words may cause misunderstanding, sometimes even leave a bad impression on their counterpart, although the language they use in communication may be faultless. One day, when I was in an English corner held by a foreign teacher, the teacher sne

13、ezed violently. Then a boy said, “Someone is missing you.” And this made the teacher confused for quite a moment. Then whats the reason for this kind of barrier in communication? The answer lies in the culture differences between China and the Western countries. In China, if someone sneezes, we gene

14、rally regard it as a sign of someones missing or cursing him. But in English-speaking countries, no such an association is attached to this. And in such kind of situation, usually, they would say, “ God bless you” to show their care for the people concerned. As all of us know, language is a tool for

15、 communication. But, even a sentence is grammatically correct, if used in an inappropriate situation or break the custom of a particular people, this sentence cant achieve the purpose of communication, and sometimes it can even lead to some unexpected results. As stated in Deng Yanchang and Liu Runq

16、ings Language and Culture (1991:2), “Because of cultural differences, misunderstanding may arise; Because of cultural differences, a serious question may cause amusement or laughter; a harmless statement may cause displeasure or anger. Because of cultural differences, jokes by a foreign speaker may

17、be received with blank faces and stony silence. Yet the same stories in the speakers own country would leave audiences holding their sides with laugher.”So, incorporating culture into the process of foreign language learning is, in fact, a very important aspect. The following will deal with this iss

18、ue from two aspects, that is, why do we need to learn culture in our foreign language acquisition, and how can we incorporate culture in our learning?I. Language and CultureA. LanguageAbout what is language, there are various definitions from different respects. For example, Sapir (1921) defined it

19、as,” a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.” Hall (1968) defined it as “ the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbol.” Howe

20、ver, there is, nowadays, a generally accepted definition,” Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.” (Hu Zhuanglin et al, 1998)Language is the most important means of human communication. Human beings get known of the world through their languages. They take lang

21、uage as the medium for their social life, using it to conduct daily communication, organize producing activities, or express their ideas and emotions. B. CultureCulture, in a broad sense, includes Literature, Art, Music, Architecture, Science and Technology, Philosophy, Language (which characterizes

22、 the life of the human community) and some means of non-verbal communication (for example, the movement of our bodies, our use of space and our use of time). Usually, people call it culture with a big C. In its narrow sense, culture refers to peoples way of living and customs, including the may they

23、 live, the way they organize their society, the relationship between family or social members, customs, food, table manners, all kinds of taboos, etc. This is what some people call culture with a small c. To put it another way, culture consists of all the shared products of human society.(Robertson,

24、 1981) C. The Relationship Between Language and CultureFrom the above definitions of language and culture, we can see that the relationship between them is very close.There are basically two different opinions on language. Some take language as a sign system and think it is the total set of sound, g

25、rammar and vocabulary. Others hold that language and culture relate with each other closely, and the use of a language can not be separated from its social settings. For a long time, what linguistic research focuses on was language itself, such as the sound system, the sentence structure, or the his

26、tory and development of human language. That is, the subject of these researches was what Saussure defined as langue, but not parole.Anthropologists were the first to research into the relationship between language and culture. As early as the 19th century, the German ethnologist W. V. Humboldt firs

27、t researched into this field. At the beginning of the 20th century, an anthropological orientation in the study of language was developed both in England and in North America. This new tradition was characterized by its study of language in a sociocultural context. Anthropologists, like Bronislaw Ma

28、linowski, John P. Firth, Franz Boas, Eward Sapir, and Benjamin Lee Whorf, have done a lot of important and creative work in this field and expressed their own understandings. Later on, sociologists took interest in this issue. In the middle of the 60s, sociolinguistics rose and sociolinguists have c

29、ontributed a lot in this field. People of pedagogy have stepped up in research of this field. In China, though there are some articles devoted to the discussion of it in some academic publications, in all, there is no research in a wide range. In the research of the relationship between language and culture, there is a very influential but also extremely controversial theory, that is, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.Sapir (1926) acknowledged the close relationship between language and culture, maintaining that they were