The Importance of English Teachers' Cultural Literacy?

Foreign language is an important tool for international communication, and middle school English teachers should shoulder this heavy responsibility. Obviously, under the background of the development of the world and the new curriculum, a teacher with poor curiosity, narrow knowledge and low cultural literacy will never be competent for English teaching. The following are the articles I collected for you.

1. English teachers must have good cultural literacy, which is determined by the characteristics of the subject.

Language is the carrier of social culture and always reflects the social and cultural traditions of a country. English carries the culture of English-speaking countries, involving the history, geography and politics of English-speaking countries. The presentation of language knowledge, the input of relevant information, the practice of various projects and the cultivation of application ability in English teaching are all inseparable from rich cultural connotations. If our students can speak fluent English outside the classroom, but they have no knowledge of English culture and have not established their own cultural views and values, then our English teaching will fail.

2. English teachers must have good cultural literacy, which is the inevitable requirement of the new curriculum concept.

The new curriculum reform is deeply influenced by constructivism theory, which emphasizes the construction of cognition through one's own experience. Therefore, the role of English teachers should be changed accordingly, that is, from the decomposition, presentation and teaching of knowledge and skills in the past to the guidance, observation and participation in learning activities. Rich cultural atmosphere can stimulate students' curiosity by activating cognition and metacognition, and make language practice, participation, cooperation and communication between teachers and students more natural. For English teachers, the improvement of cultural literacy is the premise of successfully changing their roles.

3. English teachers must have good cultural literacy, which is the requirement of curriculum standards.

The English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School takes "cultivating students' comprehensive language application ability" as the overall goal, replacing "cultivating students' English communication ability" and replacing two basic trainings of "basic knowledge and skills" with five basic trainings of "language skills, language knowledge, emotional attitude, learning strategies and cultural awareness". The goal of the new curriculum standard is to cultivate students' cultural awareness, which not only requires English teachers to introduce teaching materials and students' characteristics in time and properly, but also requires teachers to make systematic cross-cultural comparison and analysis.

4. English teachers must have good cultural literacy, which is determined by the characteristics of teaching materials.

Textbook culture can be divided into mother tongue culture, target language culture and international target language culture. They are neither mother tongue culture nor target language culture, but their variants and are an international language culture. For example, NSEFC, a senior high school English textbook revised and published by People's Education Publishing House according to the new curriculum standard, not only further embodies the idea of task-based teaching in structural treatment and activity design, but also increases the topics and materials that students like.

Ways to Improve English Teachers' Cultural Literacy

In foreign language teaching, culture first refers to the historical geography, customs, traditional customs, lifestyle, literature and art, values and so on of the target language country. Generally speaking, English teachers' cultural literacy should include three aspects: understanding the communication culture and knowledge culture of English-speaking countries, being familiar with the local culture of China, and understanding the English expression of China culture.

1. Learn the traditional culture of China and improve the level of expressing local culture in English.

Mr. Du Ruiqing said: "To cultivate students' sensitivity and insight into British and American culture, we must also guide and help students understand the traditions, evolution and various forms of expression of their own national culture. "As an English teacher, we should first be familiar with all aspects of China culture, know and understand the moral concepts, etiquette norms and life ideals in China's excellent traditional culture, and master the essence of China's local culture. Secondly, we should carefully read some English reading materials introducing China's national conditions, and constantly improve our ability to express China's traditional culture in English, so that we can tell the basic knowledge of the origin and evolution of China culture in English, and teach students the language skills to express China's cultural phenomena in English in time.

2. Study the differences between Chinese and Western ways of thinking, and enhance the awareness of cultural differences between China and the West.

The difference of thinking mode is essentially the expression of cultural differences. Analyzing the influence of cultural thinking on language is helpful for us to accurately grasp the characteristics of English language. The philosophical background of English is the strict formal logic initiated by Aristotle and the rationalism prevailing in Europe from 16 to 18. Westerners' way of thinking is analytical and good at abstract thinking. English is used to describing and explaining things from small to large, from special to general, from individual to whole. Comparatively speaking, China's cultural root is the Book of Changes, and his philosophical background is his understanding of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, which is characterized by intuition and experience. China's thinking is a comprehensive way of thinking. In the ideological structure of the Chinese nation's spiritual culture, the comprehensive view from the whole occupies a prominent position, and this comprehensive holistic view usually ignores the details and component analysis when examining things, and often provides a vague picture of the whole object. In short, the order of Chinese is generally from big to small, from general to special, from whole to individual.

3. Learn Chinese and foreign classic literary works to enhance the understanding of Chinese and Western cultures.

Learning classic literary works is an important way to improve cultural literacy. A nation's outstanding literary works are the essence of its culture and the accumulation of traditional culture. The culture of the specific era described by the author, fluent writing, vivid writing and meticulous description all enabled dusty cultural knowledge. Through study, we can improve our understanding of language and culture. This long-term reading is an inexhaustible motive force to maintain our cultural level forever.

4. Strengthen English reading and enhance the understanding of British and American cultural background knowledge.

Strengthening English reading is an effective way to broaden British and American cultural horizons. English teachers should make full use of their time to read, deeply and carefully understand the history, culture, traditions, customs, lifestyles and even life details of English-speaking countries, and create conditions for improving English teaching. English textbooks and original works published by some English-speaking countries make good use of many materials related to English cultural background and customs. These "authentic" notes focus on explaining cultural differences. The material itself involves certain social factors such as occasions, people, identities and relationships, and is a good material for learning British and American culture. In addition, read newspapers and magazines, such as English "2 1 century", which is a popular English current affairs weekly newspaper founded by China Daily with its rich English editing resources, featuring reporting cultural knowledge of current affairs and guiding English learning; English World magazine has the reputation of "Little Encyclopedia", which enables readers to acquire new knowledge in all aspects of ancient and modern times and at home and abroad in the process of learning and improving their English skills, and the selection of materials is of high grade.

5. Read the textbook carefully, analyze the differences between Chinese and English text patterns, and understand the different expressions between China and the West.

Analyze the differences between Chinese and English discourse patterns and improve the language.

Expression ability. The biggest feature of English word-making is that it adopts formal method and emphasizes the coordination of form and structure, so that readers and listeners can analyze meaning and relationship. English discourse emphasizes subject and topic sentences, pays attention to analysis and reasoning, and develops around the theme in an orderly and hierarchical way. Information is often arranged in a prominent word order: from near to far, straight to the point, first point out the main or important judgments, conclusions, opinions, etc. And then trace back some related sequences from general to specific, such as background, history, environment, situation, reasons, examples and so on. The biggest feature of Chinese word-making is that it adopts parataxis, emphasizes the combination of meanings and ignores the formal structure, so that readers can understand the meaning and relationship. Chinese texts pay attention to themes, events and sequences, and are implicit and coherent. They often just arrange things or meanings to let readers know the relationship. They like to "put facts and reason". Information is often in the natural order: from far to near, step by step, first describe some background, history, environment, situation, reasons, examples and so on. And then point out the main or important judgments and conclusions.

In short, English teachers should establish the idea of lifelong learning, broaden their horizons, improve their knowledge structure, deepen their understanding and knowledge of their own culture, have extensive contact with and understand the cultures of English-speaking countries, improve their sensitivity and ability to distinguish the similarities and differences between Chinese and foreign cultures, and form a profound cultural heritage, so as to adapt to the requirements of the times, be competent in English teaching and realize teachers' professional growth.