張蕓霞

【摘要】不同的民族有不同的文化背景。對中國學(xué)生來說,在他們的學(xué)習(xí)過程中必然存在中國與西方英語國家的民族文化差異。這些差異對他們的學(xué)習(xí)結(jié)果有很大的負(fù)面影響。因此,在英語教學(xué)中不可忽視中西文化差異。本文主要從中西文化差異產(chǎn)生的原因,差異的表現(xiàn)進(jìn)而談到這些差異對高中學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)成績的影響。

【關(guān)鍵詞】文化差異、影響、學(xué)習(xí)成績、英語教學(xué)

A Talk on Cultural Differences between China and Western Countries and TheirEffects on Learning achievements in English Teaching

ZhangYunxia

【Abstract】

Different countries have different cultural backgrounds. To Chinese students, the differences in national cultural backgrounds between China and the English speaking countries exist inevitably during their English learning. While these differences have passive influence on their learning achievements. Therefore, the cultural differences can not be ignored in English teaching. This thesis mainly refers to the courses of cultural differences between China and western countries, the manifestation and further talk about the effects on students' English learning achievements in High School.

【Keywords】cultural differences effects learning achievements English teaching

Most of students think that learning English is just the thing for them to master well the pronunciations, intonations, grammars and English words. Thus, as long as their pronunciations and intonations are perfect, the grammars are accurate and the numbers of words are huge, they say their English learning are just fine. In fact, it is not what they think. Learning language means not only studying the forms and structures of language, but also understanding the social functions of language and their factors. As to learning English, he or she must know about the histories of English speaking countries, and their geographical features, local conditions, traditional customs, ways of life and value concept and so on. That's to say, as a teacher of English , we may pay more attention to cultivate the students' cultural consciousness, make them comprehend the cultural differences between China and western countries, and improve their abilities of cross-cultural communication as well as their learning achievements.

1. The concept of culture

The concept of culture, actually, is very wide. People living in different history periods understood and explained it in different ways. Also people who lived in different areas understood it differently. So it is different for us to define “culture” accurately.

1.1Understanding the concept of culture in China

The dictionary says that “culture” has two sides. One is broad sense, and the other is narrow sense. The broad sense is that culture includes material wealth and spiritual wealth produced in the course of practice by people. While the narrow sense is only the communicative culture such as social customs, habits and codes of conducts. People formed and developed the culture during long periods of practice. Their modes of thinking and their behaviors reflected their culture.

1.2Understanding the concept of culture in western countries

Looking up “culture” in the dictionary, we can find out its meaning. We know that its primary meaning is not noun “culture” but a verb used to grow flowers and plants, then extended to train people's thought, conducts and art. Later it was used to judge the concept of value, civilization and artic achievements.

Owing to the differences in understanding “culture”, the cultural differences were caused. “Marxism inspected culture from human beings' essence and made a scientific judgment that 'culture is just people' culture which showed the general character of culture. That is, culture is produced by people. All of culture belongs to people”[2][67]Thus, learning English is just knowing of the social conditions in English speaking countries and their customs, value concept and codes of thinking etc.

After we have known the meaning of culture, it is not difficult for us to understand the cause of cultural differences.

2. The causes of cultural differences

“Culture provides the blueprint of how people think, feel and behave in society. A culture imposes rules and orders on its members by providing the patterns that help them know the meanings of their behavior. Members of the same group culture understand the subtleties of their share language, Nonverbal communication, and ways of thinking and knowing. But they may often misread the culture cues of other groups”[3][39] “the same culture group”means culture has a regional feature. It's no wonder that between China and western countries exist the differences in culture. There is such a saying that all that exists is reasonable. That's to say, the existence of everything has its own reasons. The cultural differences have no exception.

2.1Differences in modes of thinking

The mode of thinking is the bridge between culture and language.[4][40]The differences in the mode of thinking is one of the most important causes of the cultural differences between China and western countries. There are different geographical conditions, historical origins, psychological thinking, religious beliefs and different cognitions between China and the western countries.

In China, people pay much attention to “humanistic spirit” which has much something to do with the history of the Chinese Nation. In ancient times, people advocated "kindheartedness, modesty, tolerance, obligation and collectivism". People from generation to generation are influenced by these conceptions. Up to now, we still can feel deep influence of them from our behavior.

Being different from our modes of thinking, western people emphasize individualism,emerged in seeking differences and peculiarities under the atmosphere of science and democracy.

2.2The differences in social system

China has a more than 5000-year history. In feudal society, Confucianism advocated“ benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, fidelity”and socialism emphasizes collectivism. Consequently, we Chinese have such consciousness as morality and justice and always order other people before them. On the opposite side, the Capitalistic culture is on the basic of egoism. The relation between one person and the other is very simple. Their pure affection and consciousness are sunk into the egoism. As a result, this kind of culture enlarges the individual power and destroys the power of group. So we know that Chinese people care much for other people while the western people always take them into account first. It is no wonder that the misunderstanding rises when we Chinese communicate with them. The Chinese students do not know what caused the cultural differences, so that they always think about western people' behavior with our national modes of thinking. In the end, they make mistakes in the situational dialogues.

3.The manifestations of the cultural differences between China and western countries

As we mentioned above, the modes of thinking and the social systems cause the cultural differences. It is helpful for the students to know of the differences in culture during their study, which can help them make great progress in English learning and cross-cultural communication well. There are several cultural differences such as value concepts, moral criteria, social relations, social ceremonies, folk customs, name orders and appellations. We will demonstrate them respectively.

3.1Differences in value concepts and moral criteria

A: Personal Honor VS Modesty

It's well known to all of us that people in western countries adore personal struggle, especially, they are proud of their achievements. They never conceal their confidence, sense of honor as well as the joy after achieving their success. Differing from the western people, we Chinese seldom make a show of our personal honor, but is encouraged to be modesty. For example, we often encounter such a scene.

Foreigner: You have done a good a job.

Chinese: No, I do not think so. It's the result of joint efforts.

What we Chinese said always makes the foreigners feel puzzled. Why do Chinese not admit their achievements? That is because the foreigners do not understand our national culture. We Chinese regard modest as virtue. While western people are just opposite.

B: Self-centre VS Sacrifices

People in western countries have strong sense of self-centre and independence. They are responsible for themselves, and they are not used to caring for and helping others. Also they seldom interfere with other's business. In there opinion, if they accept the help offered by others, they will feel they are incompetent. On the other hand, offering help is only regarded as interference in other's privacy. While Chinese have opposite rule. In China, it is virtue to concern with and help others. Most of us may have read such a story:

A student studying in America was waiting for green light on the side of the street, and then an old woman stood aside him with a lot of packages. When the light turned green, he offered help to the old woman to cross the street. To his surprise, he did not receive thanks from the old woman, but made her unhappy.

Why? What happened to them? The reason is just that the old woman thought she could manage herself, and she did not need any help. But the student did not understand the American culture. He thought he had the responsibility to help the old.

In America, if you want to help others, you had better ask “can I help you?” If you are refused, you needn't take out your hands to help. From the story, we can see the differences between China and America. We students should notice these differences to improve our English.

3.2Differences in folk customs

Owing to the different living regions and environments, both Chinese and western people have different folk customs. For example, the words “red brick” (not famous universities) refers to local universities except Oxford and Cambridge in Britain, because these universities are built with red bricks.[4][70] So language and the folk customs have national characters. The relation between language and folk customs is just the relation between language and national culture. [5][56]

We Chinese always call ourselves the generations of the dragon because the dragon is our national totem and the symbol of auspiciousness. But the Americans regard the dragon as an evil animal. We say “the wit of three cabmen surpasses that of Zhu Geliang, the master mind”, (三個臭皮匠頂個諸葛亮) while “two hands are better than one” in English. We say “He is as timid as a mouse”(他膽小如鼠) but in English speaking countries, people say “he is such a chicken”

As for kinds of colors, our opinions are different from the western countries. We think “red” is a symbol of good luck and auspiciousness. The bride must wear red clothes in their wedding. While in western countries, people think "white" stands for purity and elegance, so in the wedding the brides are in wedding。

3.3Differences in name orders and appellations

There are many differences between China and western countries. The name orders and appellation are included. We know we Chinese name orders are that our families names are put the first place, then the given names follow. While in English speaking countries, the name orders are just reverse. Their given names are followed by their families' names. Let's take Yao Ming, a world-famous basketball player for an example. The Americans call him “Ming Yao” .his family name“Yao” follows his given name “Ming”.

During our English learning, we also find out the differences in appellations. The appellations in English are obviously less than those in Chinese. For example, the word “cousin”, its counterparts in Chinese are “表兄,表弟,表姐,表妹”. From these words we can see that we Chinese distinguish the cousinship exactly. We speak out not only the sex but the degree of seniority. In western countries, people would like to call names directly, even if they are strangers. In their opinion, calling the names directly means they are equal. Equality is what they pursue. But in China, if we call someone's name directly, we are thought impolite, unless they are the same generation.

After talking about the many differences, we may have known the answers to some strange questions during our English learning。

4. The cultural differences have the effects on learning achievements

In English learning, we pay more attention to the pattern of language and ignore the role the cultural differences plays in the students' learning achievements. We know the language is the carrier of culture. When we learn a language, inevitably, we attach the cultural differences related to the language. while the cultural differences deeply affect the students' learning achievements。

First, the cultural differences affect deeply the students on their understanding the situational dialogues.

Let's take a multiple choice from NMET(2003) for example.——Thanks for the lovely party and delicious food.

——_________

A No thanks B Never mind C All right D My pleasure

Those who know little about the western culture may choose answer A, for they have been used to thinking by the mode of mother tongue. In order to show our modesty and generosity, we always refuse praise and thanks from others. It's no wonder that most students choose A.

On the contrary, in western countries, people never mind accepting praise and thanks. Meanwhile they are satisfied with their work accepted.

After learning the different attitudes towards praise and thanks between western countries and China, we know how to answer the question correctly and how to communicate with foreigners appropriately.

Second, the cultural differences stop the students understanding the articles.

The Chinese students have few troubles with cultural backgrounds while they are reading. For example, the idioms “make three calls at the thatched cottage”(三顧茅廬) “ure the tiger out of the mountains”(調(diào)虎離山) can not prevent them understanding the article. But when they are reading an English article, they may have many problems in understanding because of the cultural differences. The word “dream” from the famous speech “I have a dream” made by Martin Luther King has the same basic meaning as Chinese meaning. But “dream” has its extended meaning “unpractical words”. While in English “dream” has another meaning “a fond hope or aspiration”. Obviously, Martin Luther King used the latter that has good meaning.

last, the cultural differences prevent the students' listening.

There are many factors that affect the students' listening, Generally, we can divide them into two parts: language and non-language factor. However, the cultural differences we mention in this thesis belongs to the latter.

Recently, the teachers of English pay much attention to the language and neglect to introduce their students the histories, geographies, cultures and customs of the western countries. However, during their listening, some phrases refer to the English speaking countries' folk customs that we Chinese students do not know. So that they can not understand well. In that case, they have difficult improving their listening abilities.

Concluding Remarks: We have talked about some of the cultural differences between china and western countries. During English teaching, the teachers of English may attach importance to the cultural differences to make the students understand them and arouse their interest in learning English. Through teaching cultural differences, the teachers help the students clear away the obstacles during learning English and improve their learning achievement. As Chinese students, we learn English as foreign language; we must master some histories and cultural knowledge of Western countries. Also we may know of the customs and living habits to improve our English learning.

參考文獻(xiàn)

[1]胡敏 《這樣學(xué)習(xí)英語最有效》[M]中國廣播電視出版社

[2]習(xí)青俠 《外語教學(xué)中文化教學(xué)的層面分析》[J]國外外語教學(xué)1992,2 華東師范大學(xué)出版社

[3]James.A.Johnson & Vivtor l.Dupuis & Diann Musial & Gene E .Hall &Nonna; M .Gollnick Introduction to the Foundation of America Education [M]Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

[4]連淑能 《論中西思維方式》[M]外語與外語教學(xué) 2002,2 大連外國語學(xué)院學(xué)報編輯部

[5]謝法華 《中西文化差異拾零》[M] 文化研究 2002,8 中國人民大學(xué)書報資料中心

な嶄迦掌:2009-11-19