The Study On The Current Situation Of English Cultural Awareness Cultivation In Junior Middle School

With the trend of globalization, people who are with different backgrounds and speak different languages communicate more closely. No matter the commercial, political or other areas need people to communicate. It requires language learners should not only master linguistic knowledge, but also understand the cultural background of a language. With the theory of the relationship between culture and language has been advanced, more and more people realized that language is the main way to express and propagate culture, which is also limited and promoted by the language. They interact and infiltrate to each other. On the basis of this reason, more and more researchers advocate language teaching and culture teaching should be collateral. Under the background of new curriculum reform, the New English Language Curriculum Standards for Junior Middle School placed the cultivation of cultural awareness at the same important position as language knowledge and skill, which aims at to cultivate the comprehensive linguistic competence of the students. From these, we can see the importance and necessity of English cultural awareness cultivation. Besides, the junior middle school period is the crucial period of basic education. What about the current situation of English cultural awareness cultivation in junior middle school? This paper adopts the documentation method, questionnaires analysis method,comparative analysis method and interviewing method to analyze the current situation of English cultural awareness cultivation in junior middle school at Shunqing district, Nanchong city, Sichuan province. Then the writer analyzes and summarizes the problems which appear in the process of cultivating the English cultural awareness and the influential factors of these problems, so that to provide some practical suggestions for the English cultural awareness cultivation in junior middle school.The paper consists of five parts.Chapter one gives a brief introduction of the background of the thesis, the content and aim of the study, significance and methodology of the issue as well.Chapter two gives the definitions of culture, cultural awareness, cultural awareness cultivation and the literature review which describes the related researches of cultural awareness cultivation and cultural teaching, and the empirical and theoretical research on cultural awareness at home and abroad.Chapter three is about current situation of the empirical research on the English cultural awareness. By the questionnaire and interview, the writer investigates the cultural awareness of some students of grade nine and teachers in four junior middle schools of urban and rural areas and the teaching fellow at Shunqing district, Nanchong city. Then she analyzes and summarizes the problems which appear in the process of cultivating the English cultural awareness and the influential factors of these problems.Chapter four involves the suggestions for how to cultivate the English cultural awareness effectly, which are based on the problems and influential factors in chapter three.Chapter five is the summary of the paper that contains the conclusion, limitations of the thesis, and proposes new questions for further research.