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Abstract:The thesis focuses on the significance of culture in the intercultural communication and the method of increasing culture awareness for an EFL learner. To begin with, with the concept of communicative competence raised culture is going to be emphasized according to the context of culture. Secondly, with examples, the relationship between language and cultural in cross-cultural communication is discussed. Third, it analyzes cultural differences phenomenon from value system.
Key words :communicative competence;cultural awareness;cross-culture communication;value system.
Ⅰ、Introduction
Many students study English for many years and have a good exam mark but when they communicate with native speaker some conflicts come up because of lacking of cultural awareness. Traditional English test are grammatical competence oriented and in practical use communicative competence which requires cultural competence are demanded.
The thesis investigates and analyzes cultural awareness in EFL learning. Cultural awareness plays a unique role in communicative competence. Where there is language and communication, there will be culture conflict because of the differences between communicators in terms of physical, social and psychological dimensions. Language is a part of culture; it is mirror of culture through which we can see cultural reality hiding behind it. For an EFL learner, not only he or she has to study grammar, vocabulary but also takes cultural awareness as one of the goals in English learning because learning second language is learning the culture of that language. When increasing cultural awareness, one has to not only focus on superficial phenomenon but also get into the cause of it. In this thesis, value difference is discussed as a deep reason for people’s different behavior and in the end some more suggestions for increasing cultural awareness in EFL learning are proposed.
Ⅱ、Communicative competence
Communicative competence was coined by Dell Hymes in 1972, reacting against the inadequacy of Noam Chomsky's distinction between linguistic competence and performance. The four basic questions for communication, according to Hymes, are
Possibility: whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible;
Feasibility: whether something is understandable to human beings
Appropriateness: whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate, happy, successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated;
Performance: whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what its doing entails.
Hymes’ notion of communicative competence can be understood as the knowledge of what a speaker needs to know to communicate appropriately within a particular speech community in which cultural awareness should be emphasized. Without such knowledge, linguistic communication would not be possible and can not be satisfactorily accounted for in a pragmatic sense.
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. From the definition of language we can find “communication” is the main purpose of language. “We shall not come to understand the nature of language if we pursue only the kinds of question about language that are formulated by linguists” (Halliday 1972:3) In the intercultural communication knowledge of culture is necessary and going to be highlighted. Within the definition of communicative competence, it involves the social and cultural knowledge speakers are presumed to have which enable them to use and interpret linguistic forms. What a speaker needs to know depends on the social context in which he or she is using the language.
From four components of communicative competence, are all about ‘when to speak when to remain silent, which code to use , when ,where and to whom, etc’(Halliday 1972:61) according to context. Context determines the speaker’s use of language and also the hearer’s interpretation of utterance. In the process of intercultural communication, culture plays an important role and makes up the communicator’s cognitive environment.
Thus, In cross-cultural communication, interlocutors should not only know about what going on around during the act of speaking,but also be aware about counterpart’s culture difference which may causes some communication barriers. What we like to talk about, how we talk about it, to whom we talk about it, under what circumstances we do not talk about it and in what case we talk about it in another way are all determined by our culture. “Language is a part of culture; it is the mirror of culture through which we can see cultural reality hiding behind it.”(蔡昌卓 2002:99).
Ⅲ、Culture and Language
1. The definition of culture
First let’s trace back to the relationship between culture and communication and have a look at the cross-cultural communication.
“This (culture) means not only material things such as cities, organizations and schools, but also non-material things such as ideas, customs, family patterns, languages. Putting it simply, culture refers to the entire way of life of a society”. (Deng Yanchang, Liu Runqing, 1999).
Culture is “the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its main means of expression.”(P. Newmark 1983:35)
From these definitions, we find something common in definition and characterization of culture, that is: culture is comprehensive and distinctive. It is comprehensive in that culture consists of various aspects of the society including material and moral, concrete and abstract, surface and deep elements, which are interdependent on one another. It is distinctive because of the culture-specific phenomena which mean distinction of one culture from another one.
2. Culture in cross-cultural communication
Then what is cross-cultural communication? It refers to the communication activity done by people of different cultural backgrounds. It is an overlap discipline designed to reveal the process of communication among people of different cultural backgrounds---what happens in this process,how does it happen, why does it happen, what’s its results. Cross-cultural communication is a dynamic process characterized by continuous information exchange between people of different cultural backgrounds, with language being the medium.
In cross-cultural communication, cultural awareness and knowledge is essential and has great practical significance.
3.Culture in social intercourse
Here is a dialogue:
Mr. Richardson: I'm Andrew Richardson. My friends call me Andy.
Mr. Chu:I'm David Chu. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Richardson.
Mr. Richardson: No, no, call me Andy. I think we'll be doing a lot of business together.
Mr. Chu: Yes. I hope so.
Mr. Richardson: Hong-fai, I'll give you a call tomorrow.
It is just the beginning of two people establishing their relationship, even so, a calling name may to some extent have effect on their further communication. As we know, Americans use given name indicating a close, friendly relationship. On contrast, Chinese have a rather complex structure of names depending upon situations and relationships. A certain relationship decides which one to use. Isolating just the given name, Hong-fai, is relatively unusual and to hear himself called this by a stranger makes Mr. Chu feel quite uncomfortable. Without knowing this, when two people come from different cultural background may fail to establish their relationship as they expected.
Language and culture are closely and intricately related when such two people communicate their cultures come into contact.
5. The significance of cultural awareness
In How to Do Things with Words (Austin,1962), J.L Austin shows that in using language, people do not just talk or write to one another but rather perform actions, they do things, usually in contexts that combine linguistic and nonlinguistic elements. Part of the context in which they communicate consists of the knowledge, beliefs and assumptions of all concerned.
From this we can see the context of nonlinguistic elements in which a sentence is used contributes a lot to its meaning, the meaning that cannot be accounted for by pure linguistic or grammatical analysis. In cross-cultural communication, culture should be considered as a main context. We have to view one language under a certain cultural background.
Ⅳ、Increasing cultural awareness by knowing the value system of two cultures
1. Some communicative barriers in cross-culture communication
Let’s see some examples of different communicative ways between Chinese and western people in daily life.
Greeting: when two Chinese meet they often say “chi le ma”(have you eaten) or “qu na li”(where are you going) while in western country people usually say “hi” or “hello” instead. If a Chinese meet an American greeting with the question like “Have you eaten?” American may feel strange and may think “do you want me to have dinner together?”
Invitation: For Americans, "I'm going to give a party this week. Come if you like." and "How about joining us for dinner this Friday night?" are proper invitations. While in China, an inviter normally repeats his or her invitation many times to show his/her sincerity and the invitee normally will not accept the invitation until it has been repeated twice or three times.
These are two aspects of differences in social communication code between Chinese and western country.
We take such differences as culture distinctions but when we come to a deep sense--- outlook and value system of the two societies, we may find that these differences are considered as only a corner of iceberg. Distinctive value system exited in two societies which to a large extent plays an important role in forming people’s thought and their behaviors.
2. Associating difference of behavior with value system
Values have played a very important role in culture. A value system represents what is expected and hoped for, required or forbidden. It is not a report of actual conduct but is the system of criteria by which conduct is judged and sanctions applied. Although each of us has a unique set of individual values, there also are values that tend to permeate a culture. In cross-cultural communication, one has to know about the main value system of his or her counterpart so that he can avoid some harmful topic and conversation can continue in a friendly atmosphere.
Value systems in western culture and Chinese culture are different in cognitive value, ethic value, social value etc.
Cognitive value is about how people see the things. Take dog as a example. It is just a kind of animal in explanation of biology but its image is totally different pictured in Chinese and western countries and such differences are expressed so obviously in the two languages. Dog and gou(狗) represent the same animal. in western world it is always endowed with a good wish, such as “lucky dog”, “love me love my dog”,” every dog has its day” etc; while in China, gou(狗) is always a symbol of negative meaning. gou tui zi(狗腿子), gou yan kan ren di(狗眼看人低) etc.
In China, people keep a dog to guard house or keep one’s safety in the past (in countryside nowadays), and dog usually bite strangers. Thus it gives people an impression of savagery; while in western people would like to raise a dog as a company and friend so dog gives people a friendly and loyal image. That’s why even in a word such a big cultural gap exists.
Ethics are also the main reason for those culture differences. It is a system of principles governing morality and acceptable conduct. In short, ethic value is about what is right.
In Chinese culture, Confucianism roots deeply and has a profound impact on Chinese ethic system. Confucianism is a philosophy of human nature that considers proper human relationships as the basis of society. In interpersonal relationship, harmony is valued. Accordingly each member in a group must pay constant attention to the feelings of other group members. Individual’s needs and desires are de-emphasized. Conformity to group norms is cherished by all group members while it is denounced to distinguish oneself from other group members by overdoing and indulgence, which break down harmonious human relationships.
In contrast, Westerners emphasize individualism. They like personal play which can show abilities and personalities to others. Such difference always makes foreign teachers embarrassed by their Chinese students' silence in class. Teacher want students to show themselves but student would like keep silence which is respected in Chinese ethic value.
Individualism is also embodied in western social value and acts a unique role. A lot of communicative phenomenon can be attributed to it. Westerners tend to emphasize their independence and freedom of activity.
Therefore, they anger about people asking their private things such as income, age,family background,politics, religion,maritalstatus, etc. that’s why when coming across a American , you should not greet : “where are you going?” because they regarded it as privacy. Knowing about it, questions like “How old are you?”” How much do you make?”, "Do you go to church?" should be avoid when meet a westerner.
These values are abstract but they go through cultural phenomenon and are embodied every aspects of people’s daily life. Knowing it would help us to understand the counterpart’s manner and avoid taboo topic as well.
Thus, In the process of English culture learning, learners should not only focus on superficial phenomenon but have to understand the deep root which determines people’s behavior. That means one should not only know westerners’ minding of privacy but also know such concept of privacy is originated from individualism of their values so that one can act appropriately when facing various situations.
3.Some more suggestions to increase cultural awareness
As discussed above, in intercultural communication , communicative competence has a great deal with whether the speakers can understand the counterpart’s culture and express themselves appropriately according to context of culture. Learning second language is learning second culture. Thus, how to cultivate cultural awareness to improve intercultural communicative competence has important implications for language learning and teaching.
Language co-exists with culture.We need to learn the culture of society in which the target language is used so that we can achieve not only the linguistic competence but also the communicative competence as well.
Here are some suggestions:
A. Communicative competence can be achieved through the teaching of the English in context. This context should be taken as that of the situation of talk and of the psychological construct of the learner, particularly one’s cultural beliefs and social values. To enable students to use the language appropriately according to the context,the teacher can engage them in communicative interaction activities such as role play. It can help students understanding the situation more sufficiently than only focus on the dialogue on text book.
B. The comparison of different cultural mismatch should be emphasized and embodied in the foreign language teaching material. Teachers should be familiar with the target culture, and in the course of teaching, they should consciously reflect cultural facts and cultural differences in language points. Textbook materials should be approached from a cultural perspective and content about the target culture should be included.
C. Learners should have intercultural awareness from the start. Cross-cultural awareness must he made one of the goals in foreign language learning. Meanwhile, multimedia, such as English films or videotapes, should be used to help learners have a directly observation of English culture.
Ⅴ、Conclusion
Throughout this paper, the goal has been to examine how the cultural factors exist in communicative competence in the process of intercultural communication, and how a EFL learner increase his or her cultural awareness from the point of value system.It is now commonly accepted that learning a foreign language is learning the culture of that language. The goal of English learning is to equip learners with communicative competence which asks interlocutors to not only pay attention to linguistic competence but more attention to non-linguistic element---context of culture. It asks learners not only to produce a grammatical correct sentence but also to fit it into the given context, avoiding offensive questions and rude manners which may possibly cause intolerance of the counterpart from different cultural society. Thus, cultural awareness must be made one of the goals in EFL teaching and learning. Teacher and student should pay attention to the negative effects of lacking cultural awareness in cross-cultural communication so as to enable them to see the importance of cultural factors in communication. What’s more, when analyzing cultural differences, teachers should not only talk about superficial phenomenon but also analyze them from the value system which decides people’s behavior so that student may not puzzle when facing unfamiliar situation.
References:
[1]M.A.K Halliday.1972. Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning .Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
[2]Mark Aronoffand Janie Rees-Miller. 2001.The Handbook of Linguistics.Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
[3]Austin,J.L.(John Langshaw), 1911-1960. How to do things with words. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
[4]Wolfson,N.1983. Rules of speaking.in J.C.Richards and R.W.Schmidt(eds.)language and communication,London.
[5]Hymes,D.H.1972.On communicative competence. In J.B. Pride & Holms (eds.)sociolinguistics[M]. London: Penguin.
[6]Sperber D, Wilson D. 1995. Relevance: Communication and Cognition (2nd)[M].Oxford: Blackwell.
[7]邓炎昌,刘润清,1999,《英汉语言文化对比》[M],上海:外语教学与研究出版社.
[8]蔡昌卓,2002,《美国英语史》,北京:北京大学出版社.
Key words :communicative competence;cultural awareness;cross-culture communication;value system.
Ⅰ、Introduction
Many students study English for many years and have a good exam mark but when they communicate with native speaker some conflicts come up because of lacking of cultural awareness. Traditional English test are grammatical competence oriented and in practical use communicative competence which requires cultural competence are demanded.
The thesis investigates and analyzes cultural awareness in EFL learning. Cultural awareness plays a unique role in communicative competence. Where there is language and communication, there will be culture conflict because of the differences between communicators in terms of physical, social and psychological dimensions. Language is a part of culture; it is mirror of culture through which we can see cultural reality hiding behind it. For an EFL learner, not only he or she has to study grammar, vocabulary but also takes cultural awareness as one of the goals in English learning because learning second language is learning the culture of that language. When increasing cultural awareness, one has to not only focus on superficial phenomenon but also get into the cause of it. In this thesis, value difference is discussed as a deep reason for people’s different behavior and in the end some more suggestions for increasing cultural awareness in EFL learning are proposed.
Ⅱ、Communicative competence
Communicative competence was coined by Dell Hymes in 1972, reacting against the inadequacy of Noam Chomsky's distinction between linguistic competence and performance. The four basic questions for communication, according to Hymes, are
Possibility: whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible;
Feasibility: whether something is understandable to human beings
Appropriateness: whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate, happy, successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated;
Performance: whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what its doing entails.
Hymes’ notion of communicative competence can be understood as the knowledge of what a speaker needs to know to communicate appropriately within a particular speech community in which cultural awareness should be emphasized. Without such knowledge, linguistic communication would not be possible and can not be satisfactorily accounted for in a pragmatic sense.
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. From the definition of language we can find “communication” is the main purpose of language. “We shall not come to understand the nature of language if we pursue only the kinds of question about language that are formulated by linguists” (Halliday 1972:3) In the intercultural communication knowledge of culture is necessary and going to be highlighted. Within the definition of communicative competence, it involves the social and cultural knowledge speakers are presumed to have which enable them to use and interpret linguistic forms. What a speaker needs to know depends on the social context in which he or she is using the language.
From four components of communicative competence, are all about ‘when to speak when to remain silent, which code to use , when ,where and to whom, etc’(Halliday 1972:61) according to context. Context determines the speaker’s use of language and also the hearer’s interpretation of utterance. In the process of intercultural communication, culture plays an important role and makes up the communicator’s cognitive environment.
Thus, In cross-cultural communication, interlocutors should not only know about what going on around during the act of speaking,but also be aware about counterpart’s culture difference which may causes some communication barriers. What we like to talk about, how we talk about it, to whom we talk about it, under what circumstances we do not talk about it and in what case we talk about it in another way are all determined by our culture. “Language is a part of culture; it is the mirror of culture through which we can see cultural reality hiding behind it.”(蔡昌卓 2002:99).
Ⅲ、Culture and Language
1. The definition of culture
First let’s trace back to the relationship between culture and communication and have a look at the cross-cultural communication.
“This (culture) means not only material things such as cities, organizations and schools, but also non-material things such as ideas, customs, family patterns, languages. Putting it simply, culture refers to the entire way of life of a society”. (Deng Yanchang, Liu Runqing, 1999).
Culture is “the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its main means of expression.”(P. Newmark 1983:35)
From these definitions, we find something common in definition and characterization of culture, that is: culture is comprehensive and distinctive. It is comprehensive in that culture consists of various aspects of the society including material and moral, concrete and abstract, surface and deep elements, which are interdependent on one another. It is distinctive because of the culture-specific phenomena which mean distinction of one culture from another one.
2. Culture in cross-cultural communication
Then what is cross-cultural communication? It refers to the communication activity done by people of different cultural backgrounds. It is an overlap discipline designed to reveal the process of communication among people of different cultural backgrounds---what happens in this process,how does it happen, why does it happen, what’s its results. Cross-cultural communication is a dynamic process characterized by continuous information exchange between people of different cultural backgrounds, with language being the medium.
In cross-cultural communication, cultural awareness and knowledge is essential and has great practical significance.
3.Culture in social intercourse
Here is a dialogue:
Mr. Richardson: I'm Andrew Richardson. My friends call me Andy.
Mr. Chu:I'm David Chu. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Richardson.
Mr. Richardson: No, no, call me Andy. I think we'll be doing a lot of business together.
Mr. Chu: Yes. I hope so.
Mr. Richardson: Hong-fai, I'll give you a call tomorrow.
It is just the beginning of two people establishing their relationship, even so, a calling name may to some extent have effect on their further communication. As we know, Americans use given name indicating a close, friendly relationship. On contrast, Chinese have a rather complex structure of names depending upon situations and relationships. A certain relationship decides which one to use. Isolating just the given name, Hong-fai, is relatively unusual and to hear himself called this by a stranger makes Mr. Chu feel quite uncomfortable. Without knowing this, when two people come from different cultural background may fail to establish their relationship as they expected.
Language and culture are closely and intricately related when such two people communicate their cultures come into contact.
5. The significance of cultural awareness
In How to Do Things with Words (Austin,1962), J.L Austin shows that in using language, people do not just talk or write to one another but rather perform actions, they do things, usually in contexts that combine linguistic and nonlinguistic elements. Part of the context in which they communicate consists of the knowledge, beliefs and assumptions of all concerned.
From this we can see the context of nonlinguistic elements in which a sentence is used contributes a lot to its meaning, the meaning that cannot be accounted for by pure linguistic or grammatical analysis. In cross-cultural communication, culture should be considered as a main context. We have to view one language under a certain cultural background.
Ⅳ、Increasing cultural awareness by knowing the value system of two cultures
1. Some communicative barriers in cross-culture communication
Let’s see some examples of different communicative ways between Chinese and western people in daily life.
Greeting: when two Chinese meet they often say “chi le ma”(have you eaten) or “qu na li”(where are you going) while in western country people usually say “hi” or “hello” instead. If a Chinese meet an American greeting with the question like “Have you eaten?” American may feel strange and may think “do you want me to have dinner together?”
Invitation: For Americans, "I'm going to give a party this week. Come if you like." and "How about joining us for dinner this Friday night?" are proper invitations. While in China, an inviter normally repeats his or her invitation many times to show his/her sincerity and the invitee normally will not accept the invitation until it has been repeated twice or three times.
These are two aspects of differences in social communication code between Chinese and western country.
We take such differences as culture distinctions but when we come to a deep sense--- outlook and value system of the two societies, we may find that these differences are considered as only a corner of iceberg. Distinctive value system exited in two societies which to a large extent plays an important role in forming people’s thought and their behaviors.
2. Associating difference of behavior with value system
Values have played a very important role in culture. A value system represents what is expected and hoped for, required or forbidden. It is not a report of actual conduct but is the system of criteria by which conduct is judged and sanctions applied. Although each of us has a unique set of individual values, there also are values that tend to permeate a culture. In cross-cultural communication, one has to know about the main value system of his or her counterpart so that he can avoid some harmful topic and conversation can continue in a friendly atmosphere.
Value systems in western culture and Chinese culture are different in cognitive value, ethic value, social value etc.
Cognitive value is about how people see the things. Take dog as a example. It is just a kind of animal in explanation of biology but its image is totally different pictured in Chinese and western countries and such differences are expressed so obviously in the two languages. Dog and gou(狗) represent the same animal. in western world it is always endowed with a good wish, such as “lucky dog”, “love me love my dog”,” every dog has its day” etc; while in China, gou(狗) is always a symbol of negative meaning. gou tui zi(狗腿子), gou yan kan ren di(狗眼看人低) etc.
In China, people keep a dog to guard house or keep one’s safety in the past (in countryside nowadays), and dog usually bite strangers. Thus it gives people an impression of savagery; while in western people would like to raise a dog as a company and friend so dog gives people a friendly and loyal image. That’s why even in a word such a big cultural gap exists.
Ethics are also the main reason for those culture differences. It is a system of principles governing morality and acceptable conduct. In short, ethic value is about what is right.
In Chinese culture, Confucianism roots deeply and has a profound impact on Chinese ethic system. Confucianism is a philosophy of human nature that considers proper human relationships as the basis of society. In interpersonal relationship, harmony is valued. Accordingly each member in a group must pay constant attention to the feelings of other group members. Individual’s needs and desires are de-emphasized. Conformity to group norms is cherished by all group members while it is denounced to distinguish oneself from other group members by overdoing and indulgence, which break down harmonious human relationships.
In contrast, Westerners emphasize individualism. They like personal play which can show abilities and personalities to others. Such difference always makes foreign teachers embarrassed by their Chinese students' silence in class. Teacher want students to show themselves but student would like keep silence which is respected in Chinese ethic value.
Individualism is also embodied in western social value and acts a unique role. A lot of communicative phenomenon can be attributed to it. Westerners tend to emphasize their independence and freedom of activity.
Therefore, they anger about people asking their private things such as income, age,family background,politics, religion,maritalstatus, etc. that’s why when coming across a American , you should not greet : “where are you going?” because they regarded it as privacy. Knowing about it, questions like “How old are you?”” How much do you make?”, "Do you go to church?" should be avoid when meet a westerner.
These values are abstract but they go through cultural phenomenon and are embodied every aspects of people’s daily life. Knowing it would help us to understand the counterpart’s manner and avoid taboo topic as well.
Thus, In the process of English culture learning, learners should not only focus on superficial phenomenon but have to understand the deep root which determines people’s behavior. That means one should not only know westerners’ minding of privacy but also know such concept of privacy is originated from individualism of their values so that one can act appropriately when facing various situations.
3.Some more suggestions to increase cultural awareness
As discussed above, in intercultural communication , communicative competence has a great deal with whether the speakers can understand the counterpart’s culture and express themselves appropriately according to context of culture. Learning second language is learning second culture. Thus, how to cultivate cultural awareness to improve intercultural communicative competence has important implications for language learning and teaching.
Language co-exists with culture.We need to learn the culture of society in which the target language is used so that we can achieve not only the linguistic competence but also the communicative competence as well.
Here are some suggestions:
A. Communicative competence can be achieved through the teaching of the English in context. This context should be taken as that of the situation of talk and of the psychological construct of the learner, particularly one’s cultural beliefs and social values. To enable students to use the language appropriately according to the context,the teacher can engage them in communicative interaction activities such as role play. It can help students understanding the situation more sufficiently than only focus on the dialogue on text book.
B. The comparison of different cultural mismatch should be emphasized and embodied in the foreign language teaching material. Teachers should be familiar with the target culture, and in the course of teaching, they should consciously reflect cultural facts and cultural differences in language points. Textbook materials should be approached from a cultural perspective and content about the target culture should be included.
C. Learners should have intercultural awareness from the start. Cross-cultural awareness must he made one of the goals in foreign language learning. Meanwhile, multimedia, such as English films or videotapes, should be used to help learners have a directly observation of English culture.
Ⅴ、Conclusion
Throughout this paper, the goal has been to examine how the cultural factors exist in communicative competence in the process of intercultural communication, and how a EFL learner increase his or her cultural awareness from the point of value system.It is now commonly accepted that learning a foreign language is learning the culture of that language. The goal of English learning is to equip learners with communicative competence which asks interlocutors to not only pay attention to linguistic competence but more attention to non-linguistic element---context of culture. It asks learners not only to produce a grammatical correct sentence but also to fit it into the given context, avoiding offensive questions and rude manners which may possibly cause intolerance of the counterpart from different cultural society. Thus, cultural awareness must be made one of the goals in EFL teaching and learning. Teacher and student should pay attention to the negative effects of lacking cultural awareness in cross-cultural communication so as to enable them to see the importance of cultural factors in communication. What’s more, when analyzing cultural differences, teachers should not only talk about superficial phenomenon but also analyze them from the value system which decides people’s behavior so that student may not puzzle when facing unfamiliar situation.
References:
[1]M.A.K Halliday.1972. Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning .Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
[2]Mark Aronoffand Janie Rees-Miller. 2001.The Handbook of Linguistics.Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
[3]Austin,J.L.(John Langshaw), 1911-1960. How to do things with words. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
[4]Wolfson,N.1983. Rules of speaking.in J.C.Richards and R.W.Schmidt(eds.)language and communication,London.
[5]Hymes,D.H.1972.On communicative competence. In J.B. Pride & Holms (eds.)sociolinguistics[M]. London: Penguin.
[6]Sperber D, Wilson D. 1995. Relevance: Communication and Cognition (2nd)[M].Oxford: Blackwell.
[7]邓炎昌,刘润清,1999,《英汉语言文化对比》[M],上海:外语教学与研究出版社.
[8]蔡昌卓,2002,《美国英语史》,北京:北京大学出版社.