Cultural Background Knowledge and English Reading

1、Influence of Cultural Background Knowledge on English ReadingPan HuanhuanOutline1. Introduction2. The Influence of Cultural Background Knowledge on English Reading2.1 The Influence of Linguistic Cultual Background Knowledge2.2 The Influence of Authors Background Knowledge2.3 The Influence of Humane

2、Background2.3.1 Mode of Thinking2.3.2 Territorial Culture2.3.3 Religionary Culture3. Some Ways to Develop Cultural Background Knowledge3.1 Learning Cultural Differences in Contrast3.2 Edifing in Literary Works3.3 Appreciating Video Data4. ConclusionInfluence of Cultural Background Knowledge on Engli

3、sh ReadingPan Huanhuan(School of Foreign Languages, Jinggangshan University, Jiangxi Jian 343009, China)Surpervisor: Kang ShangzhenAbstract: English reading is an important part of learning English. To learn English well learners should improve English reading ability. However there are many factors

4、 which affect English reading, such as reading strategies and skills, the reader's emotion and psychology, cultural background knowledge, etc. Among them cultural background knowledge is the most important factor. Different cultural background can bring very big differences for us tounderstand t

5、he English reading content. To improve the ability of English reading comprehesion English learners should broaden their cultural background knowledge, understand the differences between Chinese and western culture so as to better understand the articles.This thesis analyses the influence of develop

6、ing cultural background knowledge on English reading from these three aspects: the language itself, the authors background and humane background. Besides, the thesis also gives English learners some ways to accumulate the cultural background knowledge.Keywords: Cultural background knowledge, English

7、 reading, Influence文化背景知識(shí)對(duì)英語閱讀的影響潘歡歡（中國江西吉安，343009，井岡山大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院）指導(dǎo)老師：康尚珍摘要：英語閱讀是學(xué)習(xí)英語的一個(gè)重要部分，提高英語閱讀能力有助于學(xué)好英語。然而影響英語閱讀的因素有許多，例如、閱讀策略與技巧、讀者的情緒與心理、文化背景知識(shí)等。其中文化背景知識(shí)是一項(xiàng)主要因素。不同的文化背景對(duì)于我們理解英語的閱讀內(nèi)容具有很大的差異。為了提高英語閱讀理解能力，英語學(xué)習(xí)者應(yīng)該拓展他們的文化背景知識(shí)、了解中西文化差異從而更好的理解文章。這篇論文從語言自身、作者背景、人文背景三個(gè)大方面分析了在英語閱讀中文化背景知識(shí)的影響并給出了幾條積累文化背景知識(shí)的

8、方法。關(guān)鍵詞：文化背景知識(shí)，英語閱讀,，影響1. IntroductionMisunderstandings are common as the ever inceasing of intercultural communication when people with different languages and cultures communicate with each other. And foreign language learners always feel confused about the deep meaning of passages when they read,

9、although they have a good command of pronuniciation, grammar and vocabulary. Besides, People who study English may have such experience, know all the words of a sentence or a paragraph and understand all the grammar structure, but still dont understand its meaning. The main reason which causes that

10、phenomenon is that readers do not know some of the social cultural meaning and cultural background of English. People with different cultural background cound have different understandings to the same text. We cannot just rely on vocabulary size, whether grammar specification or not and other factor

11、s to measure our English level. We should be familiar with English speaking countries and their culture. Thus, we can get such a conclusion: If one does not understand the social culture of English, one cannot truly master it and may cause biased understandings. In todays information age, to keep pa

12、ce with the time we should master all aspects of information knowing what happened and take deliberate action. Reading is the main approach to gain information for language learners. Through reading we can also grasp some language knowledge and improve our language competence. Chirstine Nuttall says

13、 that reading is a process in which readers select, classify and interpret information according to experience, information and knowledge they have in their minds.( Chirstine Nuttall, 2003, 11) Reading is a very complicated process of cognition. It not only involves many language knowledge and skill

14、s, but also is influenced by many nonverbal factors, such as reading habits, reading strategies and skills, the readers emotion and psychology, cultural background knowledge, discourse knowledge etc.The purpose of reading is to comprehend. As a positive thinking process, reading comprehesion can be

15、underway below the following two level. One is literal comprehesion level: Readers simply understand literal meaning, such as identifying and remembering clear meaning, details, sequence of events, character features and causation. One is inferential comprehesion level: Readers analysis authors poin

16、t of view, infer the meaning that the author does not mention, such as inferred meaning, text and event order, details and characters, etc.(李翔鷹，2001)And the key to improve reading ability is to improve deep inference comprehesion. As a serious obstacle to deep inference comprehesion, lack of cultura

17、l background knowledge influences reading.At home and abroad, there are many scholars who have discussed the relationship between the cultural background knowledge and English reading. Most of them discuss the relaionship at a certain order. They firstly discuss the relationship between culture and

18、language, then analyze the relationship between the cultural background knowledge and language, finally expound the relationship between the cultural background knowledge and English reading. From my point of view this sequence analysis can make people more easier to understand and accept the schola

19、rs view in papers. However, some of them concentrate too much on analyzing the relationship between culture and language in their papers. Some of them pay much attention on describing the importence of cultural background knowledge. And the effects of cultural background knowledge on English reading

20、 are rarely mentioned and defective.In this thesis I will analyze the influence of cultural background knowledge on English reading comparatively, systematical and respective from linguistic cultual background knowledge, authors background knowledge and the humane background aspects, and puts forwar

21、d four methods of learning and accumulation of cultural background knowledge.2The Influence of Cultural Background Knowledge on English ReadingMost parts of English reading materials are written by English-speaking authors and saturated with national culture of English. For example:A: How about your

22、 tennis doubles partner?B: He has much in common with John McEnroe.This dialogue from the aspect of English words is very simple. But if one does not have corresponding knowledge of foreign culture, it is hard to understand. In the example A is asking what kind a person the Bs double tennis partner

23、is. But if the readers original knowledge framework does not include some certain sports knowledge, don't know John McEnroe is what kind a person, it is hard for him to understand the answer of B; But if the reader knows John McEnroe (McEnroe is a world-class tennis athlete), even more knows tha

24、t John McEnroe is with irritable temper, often against the referee in the game and get himself into trouble. Then the reader can deeply understand Bs answer "He has much in common with John McEnroe. ". And he also can accurately infer Bs double tennis partner is what kind of a person.Edwar

25、d Taylor defined culture as “That Complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits aquired by man as a member of society.”(Taylor, 2010Orig.1871) Professor Hu Wenzhong also has pointed out: “Language is a form of culture. It is impossibl

26、e to learn English well for those people don't know British and American culture.”.(胡文仲，1994,72) English learners lacking cultural background knowledge of English-speaking people, not knowing western social system, customs, social customs, way of thinking and values, will not be able to understa

27、nd English language information rapidly and accurately which includes the actual meaning and the real intention of the speaker. It is without no doubt that cultural background knowledge can influence the reading comprehension. But how does it influence reading? To some extent, cultural background kn

28、owledge can refer to the knowledge about a reading material before we read it. It can be a kind of common sense, or the readers long-term accumulation of knowledge or experience. Cultural background knowledge is quite far-ranging. It includs cultural acquisition customs, folk customs, history, geogr

29、aphy, mythology, biblical, economy, current events, etc. Underneath I will analyze the influence of cultural background knowledge on English reading from the following several aspects.2.1 The Influence of Linguistic Cultual Background Knowledge"We change life experience into our language and ad

30、d meaning to the language. They are influenced and restrained by culture. Languages are different because of different culture . Some semantic exists in a language, but does not exist in another language.".(Lado, 1957:71) Language ,as a part of culture, has its own knowledge. Its own knowledge

31、is one part of the cultural background knowledge. Readers level of English basic knowledge will affect their reading ability. Languages own knowledge includes its system , words meaning, structure, grammatical rules, etc. Among them the words meaning and grammatical rules are main reasons affecting

32、reading. The meaning of words includes literal meaning and implicit meaning. Chinese famous linguistics professor Deng YanChang has said "the connotation of word is different from its literal meaning, it is implicit or additional meaning. ".（鄧炎昌，1989，162）Therefore, English learners not onl

33、y need to grasp the literal meaning of words, but also need to know the implicit meaning. In this way we can avoid serious mistakes in speech and the apearing of understanding deviation. For example, the word peasant, English speaking people often think that in china calling "農(nóng)民" as peasan

34、t is disrespect to them. That is because " peasant " in English and Chinese has different meanings. The word peasant in English contains derogatory sense. In the new Webster's college lexicon the word peasant refers to" not received education, low social status ". British and

35、 American people will naturally think that in such a country which emphasizes the equality why the vast rural inhabitants is known as low status, uneducated person. In fact the word "農(nóng)民" in China does not have derogatory sense. On the contrary this word contains affirmative and positive si

36、gnificance in China. So word meaning has extreme significance to language reading comprehension. It ont only reflects the difference of the word itself use ,but also reflects the cultural and political differences.Besides, Every language has its unique grammatical structure and rules. People code me

37、anings in accordance with the grammatical structure and rules. Only when we understand the grammatical structure and master rules of grammar can we identify components of the sentence and know which part is the subject, predicate or object, and the relationship among the components. Finally we can a

38、chieve the objective of understanding sentences. So having a rich knowledge of vocabulary and mastering grammar knowledge are premise conditions which English learners can understand the reading materials well.2.2 The Influence of Authors Background KnowledgeThe authors background knowledge refers t

39、o the information which is related to the author. It can be the author's writing technique, status and lifestyle. It also can be the age background in which the author is writing. As a result of having different life experience, Some people face life actively while other people view the world ne

40、gatively. Then there are all kins of authors having different characters. They have different cultural background. At the time of writing, they describe and express emotions according to their own situation. So in works authors tend to use some things to express their views about some things in the

41、real world, such as love, hate, criticism, etc.Besides, in different periods one author being affected by the social environment, he can produce different styles of writing and different types of works. Because the life always has ups and downs. As a writer, his works will no doubt be affected by li

42、fe experience. So before reading, having a certain understanding of the author's life, likes and dislikes, styles of writing is favorable to readers. If being a lack of knowledge of the author's background, readers often can produce a lot of misunderstandings. Therefore, one can easily uders

43、tand an article if before reading he has a certain understanding about the author background knowledge.2.3 The Influence of Humane BackgroundThe humane background includes many elements, such as religion, way of thinking, geography, astronomy, art, and social relations, etc. There I will focus on th

44、e aspects of the thinking mode, regional culture and religious culture to shed light on the influence of humane background.2.3.1 Mode of ThinkingDifferent cultural genes determine different national culture and learners modes of thinking. The mode of thinking is a bridge to communicate culture and l

45、anguage. On one hand, the mode of thinking is the concentrated embodiment of all the psychological characteristics. In turn it has restriction on all key elements of cultural psychology. It is reflected in all areas of the national culture. On the other hand, the difference of thinking mode is a mai

46、n reason which causes culture conflict. Because people of different culture have different understandings of the outside world. Then thinking mode will inevitably exist differences.Besides ,on one hand, in the sense of time the Chinese attach great importance to the thinking mode of timeliness while

47、 the western people focus on spatiality. On the other hand, in the specific ways of thinking, the Chinese thinking attaches great importance to macroscopic perspective while westerners focus on microcosmic thinking. They are often reflected in language diversity of narrative structure or written dos

48、course pattern. As the British and American people were affected by the long-term thoughts of western philosophy, they formed the "advocating independence, being different from others" society culture idea. Besides, they also developed the national character of the exerted, frank and strai

49、ghtforward thinking habit. However, due to the influence of several thousand years offeudal autocratic thought the chinese formed the implicative, reserved national psychological characteristics and advocated the doctrine of the mean, circuitous, euphemism, self-evident concept of social consciousne

50、ss. That major difference of thinking mode often present in the discourse of the beginning, middle, end and other series of theme.In a word, English learners should know how the English native speakers think about problems. When reading articles, readers should comprehend the articles with native th

51、inking mode. From the perspective of native English speakers readers can make them get a better understanding of materials.2.3.2 Territorial CultureTerritorial culture refers to the culture which is formed by the influence of regional natural conditions and geographical environment. It displays its

52、influence in which different nationalities use different speech forms to express the same kind of phenomenon or things. Althought these vocabularies which is related to the natural environment greatly enrich language and the speech forms, they present a strong territoriality. That territoriality wil

53、l cause serious obstacles on comprehension to some foreign language learners.For instance, there are obvious differences on the azimuth and the counterparts between Chinese and English because of different regional culture. English romantic poet Shelley wrote at the end of his poem Ode to west wind

54、that " O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind.". This beautiful line which has gone through ages expresses his good vision and firm belief for the future. Due to not understanding the local culture knowledge Chinese readers will feel puzzled to this question. Because in Chinese

55、 mind "東風(fēng)" symbols "spring", "free time" or ”mildness”. It blows the earth green, make all things resuscitation. It is the reason why chinese call it the harbinger of spring. So the Chinese prefer to “東風(fēng)”. While in English the east wind blows from the northern of Europe

56、an continent. It symbols "cold" or "unpleasant". People there hate east wind. They perfer to west wind. Because it bring sping to the British Isles. Besides, when you see the sentence "She is a cat", Chinese may think that this woman is very gluttonous. I am afraid it i

57、s hard to understand that in English-speaking countries it means that "She is a woman of hiding her teeth". That is the reason why the poem called Ode to west wind. Because different nationalities often observe things from different points of view. They only notice some certain side of thi

58、ngs and use it as a metaphor. As time goes by, these metaphors become fixed parts of language, contains the fixed connotation. People no longer weigh other characteristics of things and consider whether mataphors is reasonable or not. So, for the first time the Chinese meet the phrase "drink li

59、ke a fish," it is difficult to think of "牛飲" or "大口大口的喝", because opening mouth is to breath for fish, not to drink water. It is a simple common sense of zoology. In this case we can only "do in Rome as the Romans do". In English chicken is related to poltroonery.

60、Sowe use chicken to modify a timid gay.Hence, the same word has the rich cultural connotation in a kind of language, but not in another language. This lead to a result that a word in one language has elements which is quite different from the other languages in tructural characteristics and expression ways. From different cultures causing by territoria