| Nowadays,along with economic globalization and the development of the information technology,the exchanges between countries are becoming increasingly frequent,and the requirements for cross-cultural exchanges are becoming more and more urgent.However,in the context of exam-oriented education in China,teachers pay too much attention to the training of listening,speaking,reading,writing and other language skills,ignoring the introduction of relevant cultural knowledge.Language and culture are not effectively integrated in English teaching,which leads to some difficulties in students’ understanding of the cultural content of the reading materials,and affects the students’ output in thought and language.English classics reading provides abundant resources for teachers to cultivate students’ cultural consciousness.However,due to the limit of the college entrance examination and the current teaching environment,the cultivation of students’ cultural consciousness in the process of English classics reading has not been well implemented.Given that,based on the teaching practice,the author of this thesis tries to study the current situation of classics reading in senior high schools as well as the factors affecting the cultivation of students’ cultural consciousness.This study is intended mainly to solve two problems:(1)What is the present situation concerning the cultivation of students’ cultural awareness in senior high school through English classics reading?(2)What are the factors affecting the cultivation of students’ cultural awareness?This study combines qualitative and quantitative methods,involving 90 students and 4English teachers from Grade 2 of Binzhou Experimental Middle School.All the research subjects completed a questionnaire survey as required,and the four teachers were interviewed and their class teaching were observed by the author.Through the study,the author knows that English classics reading as a teaching method to cultivate the cultural consciousness of the senior high school students has the following characteristics:(1)In terms of students,they show great interest in the cultural knowledge during the English classics reading,but the fact is that they have difficulties in understanding the cultural knowledge entailed in English classics due to their weak English proficiency.Despite the beliefs that learning cultural knowledge does not conflict with the college entrance examination,lack of time to invest in classics reading contributes to their unconsciously ignoring the significance of classics reading,thus resulting in their being unable to cultivate their own cultural awareness.Moreover,it is difficult for students to realize the differences between Chinese and Western cultures in the process of reading.(2)As far as teachers are concerned,there is no doubt that they have realized the necessity of implementing cultural teaching in the English classics reading,but in the practical teaching they do fail to instill the cultural knowledge in the teaching.Undoubtedly,the teachers’ cultural awareness in this aspect needs to be enhanced.The lack of systematic lesson preparation system,unclear cultural teaching objectives,limited classroom activities as well as simple evaluation methods truthfully reflect the present situation of the teachers’ teaching.Based on this understanding,the author further studies the factors which influence the effect of cultural conscious cultivation by reading English classics in three aspects and analyzes in depth the questionnaire survey and interview data as well as the observational record collected in the classrooms of four teachers.As far as the school is concerned:(1)The school does not attach enough importance to the teaching method of English classics reading and does not provide sufficient policy support.(2)Fewer teaching research activities as well as special training related to cultural teaching have been organized.(3)The reading materials provided by the school are relatively limited in amount,and the resources for cultural teaching provided to teachers are relatively inadequate.As far as teachers are concerned:(1)There is an obvious gap between the knowledge store of teachers,most of whom lack sufficient English cultural knowledge to conduct ideal cultural teaching.(2)Influenced by the exam-oriented teaching tradition as well as the school’s teaching evaluation system,most teachers pay less attention to cultural teaching.They pursue high scores for students’ performance,and are not strong-willed enough to use classics reading to consciously cultivate students’ cultural consciousness.(3)The teaching activities organized by teachers in English classics reading are relatively simple,and teachers’ teaching methods is stereotyped,indicating their lack of the ability to deal with cultural knowledge.(4)Teachers lack the consciousness of examining students’ cultural consciousness when they design the tests,ignoring students’ everyday performance evaluation and failing to evaluate the cultural knowledge that the students have gained in English classics reading.As far as students are concerned:(1)On account of their uneven English language proficiency,it is more difficult for students to acquire cultural knowledge through English classics reading.(2)In addition,students are not culturally sensitive enough.(3)On top of these,because of the influence of exam-oriented education,students’ critical consciousness are far from being ideal,which makes it difficult for them to have in-depth thinking and understanding of the cultural phenomenon in the classics,thus affecting the cultivation of their Chinese and Western cultural consciousness.Based on these findings,this study analyzes the potential reasons,and puts forward measures for further improvement.(1)The schools should enhance its policy control,and timely provide school-based courses for reading English classics among the lower-grade students to cultivate their’ cultural awareness;the school should provide students with abundant reading resources;the schools should pay more attentions to the training of teachers’ English cultural awareness in more professional ways,and teachers should be organized for relevant lectures and for various teaching research activities regularly.(2)Teachers should constantly enrich their own cultural knowledge and improve their cultural awareness in their teaching;teachers are supposed to gradually better their cultural teaching methods,conducting necessary everyday performance evaluation and terminal assessment to test students’ mastery of cultural knowledge more effectively.(3)Students should strengthen their own cultural awareness,and correctly evaluate the impact of cultural learning on the college entrance examination and their English proficiency;students should develop the habit of conducting critical thinking by comparing Chinese and Western cultures so as to improve the level of their cultural consciousness;students should arm themselves to tell Chinese stories in English and treat it as their responsibility and a way to learn.This study is intended not only to provide valuable theoretical suggestions for teachers to improve the effects of teaching by reading English classics,but also provide some hints for the English reading teaching in general in senior high schools. |
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