A Study Of The Cultivation Of Intercultural Awareness Of Junior High School Students By New Curriculum Standard-Problems And Strategies

Language is an important part of culture, and culture has great influence on thedevelopment of language. The close relationship between language and culture requires thatstudents should not only learn the language knowledge but also the cultural connotation of thelanguage. So the cultivation of students’ intercultural awareness should be regarded as one ofthe most important tasks in English teaching and learning in junior high school in order toimprove students’ communicative competence of foreign language. According to the NewEnglish Language Curriculum Standards which was published by the Ministry of Education in2001, the cultivation of cultural awareness of the students should be placed at the sameimportant position as language knowledge and skills, which aims at to cultivate thecomprehensive linguistic competence of the students. After reviewing the researches whichdescribe the related researches of intercultural awareness cultivation and cultural teaching, wecan see that compared with the studies on students’ intercultural awareness cultivation in highschools, colleges and universities，there are few empirical studies which takes the students injunior high school as specific objects, and the cultivation of students’ intercultural awarenessin junior high schools is now a weak new area which should be paid enough attention to andneeds more and further research.This study investigates and analyzes the questions of the cultivation of interculturalawareness in junior high school which takes the students in Grade Four and teachers in threejunior high schools in Zhangdian District, Zibo City as specific objects by using quantitativeand qualitative analysis methods. According to the requirements of cultural awareness in theNew English Language Curriculum Standards，a questionnaire is designed to test Englishteachers’ behavior in culture teaching. And a test is designed to investigate students’intercultural knowledge from seven aspects. Ten teachers and ten students were selected outfor the interview to explore the reasons further. The results of the investigation and analysisshow all the English teachers have a relatively high intercultural awareness，but most of themtend to avoid culture teaching and pay more attention to language teaching because of theirlow capacity of intercultural communication. The students are weak in interculturalknowledge. And dominated by the senior high school entrance examination which not include the content related to intercultural communication，the cultivation of students’ interculturalawareness in junior high schools hasn’t been given adequate attention.The write provides some different practical suggestions to the government, the juniorhigh school and the English teachers on how to cultivate the intercultural awareness which arebased on the results of the investigation. The writer thinks that the government shouldincrease the investment of material resources in junior high schools. Also the training ofEnglish teachers should be paid more attention to. The questions forms and contents of seniorhigh school entrance examination should be changed. For senior high school, they should trytheir best to create the English cultural atmosphere actively and invite foreign teachers to takepart in culture teaching. As English teachers, they should excavate the cultural connotation ofteaching materials deeply. And the modern technology should be used in English teaching.Also the teachers should create a learning environment that is rich in culture in the classroomand organize various cultural activities for students. The writer hopes all the suggestions behelpful to make the cultivation of students’ intercultural awareness in junior high schoolssystematic and effective.