An Investigation And Research On The Situation Of Cultural Knowledge Introduction In English Reading Class In Senior High School

Reading is an important channel for getting information.Also,teaching of Eng lish reading plays a significant role in English in senior high school.In literature review,the author finds out that a great many of scholars have done research on the factors influencing on student’s reading comprehension.The research result sho ws that except vocabulary,syntax,theme and genre,another factor influencing stude nt’s reading is student’s knowledge of relevant cultural background.However,Few studies on the issues in cultural and background knowledge teaching in high sch ool English reading instruction have been reported.Therefore,the author believes t hat it is significant to investigate the issues and provide some useful pedagogical suggestions according to the teaching practice.So the research questions of this paper are as follows:(1)What problems exist in the teaching of cultural backgrou nd knowledge in high school English reading teaching?(2)What are the possible causes of these problems?(3)What appropriate teaching suggestions can be made for these issues?The subjects are some English teachers and students in chongqing xinhua m iddle school.By classroom observation,questionnaire investigation and interview,the author attempts to explore the current situation of cultural background knowledg e introduction in English reading class from three perspectives including teacher,s chool and student.With regard to teacher,the author focuses on three points:teache rs’ evaluation of the value of cultural background knowledge in reading comprehe nsion,teacher themselves’ cultural background knowledge and teaching activity in English reading class.With regard to school,the author investigates the resources o f the school library.And with regard to student,the author emphasizes on the foll owing aspects including student’s cultural background knowledge acquirement,stud ent’s attitude towards learning cultural background knowledge,the approach to acquire cultural background knowledge,student’s cultural background knowledge foun dation,student’s evaluation of the value of cultural background knowledge in read ing comprehension,extracurricular book reading,student’s evaluation of teacher’s pe rformance in cultural background knowledge teaching in reading class,the relation between cultural background knowledge accumulation and student’s mentality in reading and accuracy in reading comprehension,the teaching methods student pre fer,etc.The interview with teacher,as a supplement of questionnaire investigation,m ainly focuses on the questions as follows.Does students’ lack of cultural backgrou nd knowledge has negative influence on teaching progress in English reading cla ss?How to cope with it?Do you always do comparative teaching?With reading m aterials in the textbook as examples,the paper examines whether the teacher woul d use reading instructions during reading,and if they do,what are their ideas and ways of teaching.What are the problems in cultural background knowledge introd uction in English reading class in senior high school?Based on the analysis of the research result,From the perspective of teacher:teachers do not recognize the role of cultural and background knowledge in stud ents’ reading process.They usually consider the vocabulary and grammar in the re ading materials important during teaching and ignore the cultural and background knowledge input.Another reason is that teachers themselves do not have sufficie nt cultural and background knowledge or the passion to learn.From pre-class,in-cl ass to post-class stage,teachers generally do not present their thinking of cultural and background knowledge in reading instructions,with a weak awareness of a c omparison teaching between Chinese and western cultures and a limited way of t eaching cultural and background knowledge.From the perspective of school:teachi ng resources from schools are insufficient,especially with limited amount and kin d of books in school libraries.From the perspective of students:the alignment bet ween students’ attitudes towards learning cultural and background knowledge and t heir actions in learning is not established.Their attitudes and actions do not matc h,with a lack of motivation in learning cultural and background knowledge.Stude nts are too dependent on teachers in learning cultural and background knowledge during readings.They have limited readings of various kinds after class and do not have a good independent reading ability.Possible causes of the above issues:teachers do not have a good understandi ng of the curriculum standard in cultivating high school students’ cultural awareness;the heavy amount of high school English classes and time limit in reading cla sses;students do not have good guidance in learning cultural and background kno wledge,resulting in weak interest and motivation.