Study Of English Proverbs For Culture Teaching In China’s Junior High Schools:A Cross-cultural Perspective

So far, more and more educators and researchers have recognized the close relationship between language and culture. With its simple sentence patterns and profound meaning, English proverbs are the crystallization of folk wisdom of the English people. They are like mirrors, distinctively reflecting the cultural differences of western countries in geography, historical background, customs and values. There is no doubt that understanding and mastering English proverbs will go a long way to the study of English language and its culture. However, even fewer people cast an eye over this rare cultural treasure on the road of exploring English teaching in junior high schools. For students, learning English is a burden rather than a communication tool. For a very long time, in China’s middle schools, both teachers and students have only focused their attention on English grammar, neglecting cultural input. Chinese students in their daily learning always encounter difficulties in the process of learning English proverbs because of misunderstanding its cultural connotation. As a result, most of the students have much difficulty in using English effectively and appropriately in their real intercultural communication. Therefore, in company with case survey, this paper studies related questions, expounding the origins and cultural connotations of English proverbs, integrating culture teaching with language teaching and analyzing how to effectively teach proverbs in English classes.