A New English Curriculum-based Study On Intercultural Communication In English Teaching In Junior Middle Schools

Language, as the most important means of communication, reflects culture. According to the new National English Curriculum (2002:25-28), the general goal of an English course at the elementary education stage is"to cultivate students'comprehensive abilities of applying language.""The forming of the abilities is built upon the students'language skills, language knowledge, affective education, learning strategies and cultural-awareness.…Cultural awareness is the pledge of using language appropriately. Contacting with the culture of English-speaking countries is very necessary for understanding and using English well, for deepening the comprehension and cognition of our domestic culture and for developing students'world consciousness."This thesis is concerned with the teaching of culture based on JEFC textbooks, which takes the new English Course Standards as its source materials, and junior school students as its specific objects.The author discusses the necessity of culture teaching in this thesis. The task of language teaching is to train the students to be able to communicate with people in different cultures. The aim of it is to realize the intercultural communication, thus culture teaching should be carried out in EFL teaching in middle schools.In this study, the author takes communicative competence as one of the major aims of EFL teaching. One important component of communicative competence is intercultural competence. Therefore, developing students'skills in intercultural communication is an objective of the EFL teaching in middle schools.In order to know the current situation of cultural teaching, the author carried a test on cultural knowledge among four hundred students in eight different classes in Qulao Middle School of Guangzhou. The result shows that though the students use the new textbooks, their cultural knowledge is insufficient for cross-cultural communication. Then in culture teaching, the author uses effective methods in her English classes. She guides students to experience the culture atmosphere of English-speaking countries by the use of various audio-visual aids, such as tapes, radio-broadcast, videos, computer aided instruction, film, newspaper and magazines and all kinds of realia. All of these can enlarge students'knowledge of culture. In this way, teachers can carry out culture teaching effectively in English classes.In this paper the author propose some methods, such as culture supplements to the text books, using modern technology, role-play and simulation, comparing cultural differences and task-oriented method to make students understand English culture and develop their inter-cultural awareness and the ability of inter-cultural communication. Here we put forward the principles of culture teaching to be obeyed in middle schools, such as principles of interaction, correlation, appropriateness, progressiveness, and the principle of the flexibility.English teacher in middle schools used to aim at the teaching of language structures and the acquisition of linguistic competence. Now, as we move into communication-oriented approaches, the EFL teachers should realize the importance of cultural teaching and try every means to develop the students'intercultural communication competence through the teaching of textbooks knowledge in EFL classrooms.