Cross-cultural Communication And English Language Teaching

In this paper,I shall attempt a study of certain cultural differences between Chinese and Americans and of the communication barrier resulting from those cultural differences. In addition,I shall suggest some methods of developing the inter-cultural communication skill of college students.First,I shall discuss the definition and the characteristics of culture and communication,the interaction between culture and communication,and the characteristics of inter-cultural communication. According to the theory of culture structure,culture is composed of three layers:the outer layer (the cultural system),the middle layer (cultural activity),and the core. At present,most inter-cultural communication studies deal with the cultural differences in the outer and the middle layer of culture. This paper will focus on the cultural differences between Chinese and Americans in the core of culture. And I shall analyze many examples to study the relationship between the barrier in inter-cultural communication and the differences in the cultural core (the way of thinking,the world view,and the life view). In addition,I shall discuss how to improve the inter-cultural communication skills of college students based on my teaching practice and provide several effective methods of introducing culture into English teaching.