Abstract
With the acceleration of economic globalization process, the transnational and cross-cultural communications are becoming more and more frequent. The transnational intercourse among peoples with different backgrounds is increasing every day and the cross-cultural communication is becoming increasingly important.
Language is the important means for intercourse, however, in the cross-cultural communication, out of the different cultural backgrounds between the two sides, their thinking modes and values are different as well. People with different cultures also would use their thinking modes and values to measure the counterpart, this would lead to the deviation in the use of language.
So learning English is not the study on language knowledge alone, the more it is the understanding on the cultural customs and habits contained in the language; we can only learn the appearance of language if we separately learn language knowledge not from cultural background. The famous scholar Walson said: “While communicating with foreigners, the native speakers usually are not serious about pronunciation and grammatical errors. In contrast, they usually are not tolerant to the expressions that do not conform to the cultural habits of the country, believing them to be impolite.”
In order to truly learning English well and communicate with English native speakers without communication barriers, it is a must to understand the cultural background of the counterpart, such as social customs and habits, social constitution, history, their belief, ethnic psychology, convention, science and technology and so on.
Keywords: Learning English; Culture, Cross-cultural communication, Intercultural communication
Contents
Abstract I
Contents I
Introduction 1
1. What is intercultural communication and culture…………………………….2
1.1 What is culture? ……………………………………………………………….…2
1.2 What is cross-cultural communication? …………………………………………2
2. Background about the English learning ……………………………………..…2
2.1. Background of English learning. …………………………………………...……2
2.2 The importance of culture in English learning……………………………………3
3. Introduction to the Cultural Differences………………………………… ……4
3.1 Difference in terms of sense of time………………………………………...……4
3.3 Difference of social customs and habits…………………………………………..4
3.4 Different attitudes to private secret……………………………………………….5
4.Overcoming the Problems Aroused by Cultural Differences……………………5
4.1 Understanding domestic culture…………………………………………………..6
4.2 Understanding of western culture…………………………………………………6
4.3 Enhancing cultural awareness of English-speaking countries…………………….6
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………7
References …8
