張慶月

The status of cultural teaching and the relationship between language teaching and cultural teaching have been an issue of supreme significance.In the past half century，an increasing number of well qualified teachers of foreign languages realized that the culture which is closely related to the target language should be an integrated part of language teaching.Scholars and teachers have reached a consensus that inclusion of culture teaching in language curriculum should be a must.The first part of this thesis introduces the significance and achievements of this topic and the second part discusses a few related analysis，such as the relationship between language teaching and culture teaching and the status and significance of cultural introduction.In the third part，there are some suggestions about how to introduce culture in secondary school class.There are several suggestions about when and how to incorporate culture in class.The last part is an conclusion，and it calls on teachers to incorporate culture in language teaching class and cultivate high-quality foreign language talents.

1.Based on the Textbook and Dig into the Teaching Materials

Unlike English teaching in the university where we have specialized courses to learn English culture，in middle school，teachers manage to arrange some English culture knowledge in the limited class time.According to the relevant background knowledge that the topic brought out，such as some daily customs and ideas：At the banquet，guests，in addition to close friends，will not arrive too early at the hosts house to avoid causing invariant to the host and only close friends are eligible to arrive early in order to help the owner to prepare for the banquet.In business activities and private appointments，different places have different dress requirements，and we are required to be punctual which is the basic etiquette.Moreover，when talking about meeting in class，the teacher should stress that people value privacy to such an extreme that information about age，income，marital status cannot be shared in English culture.In other words，the information mentioned above is personal privacy in English speaking countries，so it is polite and wise to avoid talking about these topics.Thus the teaching material itself implies rich cultural knowledge，so English teachers are ought to figure out cultural materials in the text in order to maximize the effect of culture teaching in class and achieve dual purpose of teaching language skills and English culture.

2.Attach Great Importance to Cultural Differences and Supply Some Culture Background Knowledge

Cultural background knowledge in general can be divided into two types：knowledge culture and communicative culture.Knowledge Culture refers to those elements that do not directly affect the communication between each other and communicative parties will not misunderstand each other because of lacking this kind of knowledge.While communicative culture which may affect the quality of communication，is determined by different cultural background.The knowledge of communicative culture is the key point of cultural introduction and it is more difficult to grasp because it involves a wide range of information，moreover even in English speaking countries，culture and customs are different.Therefore this is also a difficulty in language teaching.About customs：In Britain，peacocks are evil birds because the peacock showing its tail feathers is considered as show-off，and therefore we cannot praise somebody by saying “Shes all pooled up a peacock”.In Australia，the rabbit was considered as unlucky，so we should avoid offering rabbit as a gift to them.About life habits：When talking with the British，cross your leg is considered as impolite.While in USA，you shouldnt present perfume or cosmetics to women.About the way of thinking，actually there are many euphemisms in spoken English and if you are not familiar with these expressions，these will cause serious misunderstanding.Such as “I will be in touch” the literal meaning is to keep in touch but the real meaning of this sentence is equivalent to goodbye.About idioms：The meaning of “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” is the same as the Chinese saying “這山望那山高”.“a walking skeleton” is used to describe a skinny man.So in order to master English and understand the implied cultural element，the teachers should introduce and permeates culture in their class.Only in this way can the students remain flexible in applying the language rather than a robot which can form grammatical sentences.

3.Regular Contacts with Foreigners

The best way to learn a language is to communicate with the native speakers，making themselves in a complete foreign language environment，so the language they learned is more practical and alive.It is also effective to develop good oral communication skills and the ability to think in English for the purpose of making up for the defects of classroom teaching，say，lacking of interaction with students.In addition，secondary school teachers can organize English corners or English lectures and invite foreign teachers to talk with the students about their study and daily life.These methods undoubtedly are great helps to students.In short，there is no fixed way of introducing culture into language teaching but as long as we persist in exploring a path of our own，we will certainly be able to find out more and more better ways of cultural acquisition.

4.Use Visual Teaching Tools to Simulates Different Scenes

An important aspect of students cognitive law is that intuitive teaching process can make abstract knowledge specific，vivid and help students form perceptual knowledge.Well-selected material with highly intensive training simulated situational contexts could help students achieve the aim of learning culture in a comfortable and anxiety-free environment.Teachers should make full use of all available teaching methods，creating a culture and language environment，allowing students to experience cultural differences consciously or unconsciously.Teachers can present some articles and pictures of English-speaking countries，and it is an direct way for students to obtain cultural knowledge，understand foreign art，sculpture，architectural styles and customs.Teachers can play films or videos so as to present the colorful and magnificent life of foreign countries.

With the rapid increase of international communication，international exchanges are more frequent and English is more widely used in international intercourse than any other language today.Applying trans-cultural tactics to foreign languages teaching is important to resisting cultural interference，achieving the goal of foreign languages teaching and training students to be talents able to make trans-cultural communication.National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project has set goals for English teaching and in order to achieve them，common efforts are in urgent need.In many cases，teaching culture just mean to focus on some lessons which is relate to holidays，customary clothing，folk songs，and food.While these topics may be useful in understanding culture of foreign countries，without a broader context or frame they offer little in the way of enriching linguistic or social insight—especially if a goal of language instruction is to enable students to function effectively in another language and society.Understanding the cultural context of day-to-day conversational conventions such as greetings，farewells，forms of address，thanking，making requests，and giving or receiving compliments means more than just being able to produce grammatical sentences.

Practice has proved that cultivating cultural awareness in language teaching is helpful to understanding Anglo-American culture and improving teaching standards.However under the huge pressure of entering the higher school，teachers and students are unwilling to spend time to learn about the culture.If we dont put theory into good use，it would be meaningless to discuss these problems.Moreover，it is hard to incorporate culture in class because language teachers should be familiar with both cultures，which is difficult to achieve in teaching practice.