Analysis Of Crossing-Cultural Barriers In English Reading At High School And Teaching Strategies

The purpose of the reading is to obtain information.Reading embodies thought exchanges between reader and author .Reading itself is a kind of social intercourse activity. British and American cultural knowledge is an important factor which influences reading to carry out in the social intercourse. The teacher should strengthen the teaching of culture in English reading teaching, in aid of carrying out the real mental state exchanges between reader and author.Reading is the process in which language knowledge, cultural background and other professional knowledge function together. The Chinese students meet a lot of obstacles which are brought by the cultural difference especially in English reading.Culture is a kind of complicated social phenomena. Cultural difference exists in each society , and language is one part of culture. Any language is a certain reflection of the culture and also a cultural media. The cultural factor is the important factor which influences reading comprehension .The paper discusses the essence of reading and the connotation of cross-culture, and explains the decoding process that the language sign is changed into meaning information. The paper points out that the cross-cultural barriers result from the difference of the thinking mode and the concept of value. The cross-culture consciousness in the foreign language teaching should mean the sensitivity of the difference and similarity between the foreign culture and the native culture ,and the awareness to adjust one's own language comprehension and language output according to the culture of the target language(such as English) while using the foreign language. The sensitivity can be developed, and the awareness also can be developed.The formation of cross-culture ability isn't just a simple knowledge learning process. It requests a student to carry out the adjustment of mental layer. The highest degree of developing the cross-culture consciousness is to help a student to have right attitude towards the world culture. Therefore, the purpose of the cross-culture teaching in the foreign language education will never be the instruction which lies in different cultural knowledge. In fact, in the cross-cultural intercourse activity, any culture has the possibility which opens towards the different culture. However, holding one's own culture excessively or following the other culture excessively may cause failure in the social intercourse. Therefore, the important target of cross-culture teaching should be to raise cross-culture consciousness rather than to approve and accept foreign culture.The questionnaire of "the study about English Speaking countries'social culture and its knowledge"shows that most students know little about the culture of English speaking countries. Most of the learners, whose purpose is to cope with examination, lack the interest in studying English .The writer does some experiments on culture permeating in English reading, whose results are effective. The student can integrate the cultural contents of teaching materials under the teacher's leading, understand completely the cultural phenomenon of west nations such as social system, history, race temperament and value etc. and acquire initial understanding of typical model social problems. Only by making use of the cultural information, can the teacher raise a student's ability to discriminate and appreciate foreign culture and improve his English reading analytical ability thus and further.