语言与文化

作为文化一部分的语言和作为文化传播媒介的语言所具有的双重性，确定了语言与文化的不可分割性。The duality that language is not only part of the culture but also part of cultural media determines the indivisibility of language and culture.

其次，语言是文化的载体。语言是一种传播媒介或者交际工具，作为约定俗成的符号系统，语言是文化的载体，能够承载各种信息；语言作为一种文化现象，本身就有着非常丰富的文化内涵。词汇是语言的基本要素，也是语言系统赖以存在的支柱，因此文化差异在词汇层次体现得最为突出、最为广泛。同一个词语在不同的文化中会产生不同的联想意义(Associative Meaning)，如“红色(red)”在中国文化中表示喜庆、欢快、热闹；而在英语国家则是表示愤怒、气愤的意思。“龙(dragon)”在中国文化中是一种能兴云降雨的神兽或神异

动物，是封建时代帝王的象征，也是我们中华民族的象征；但是，在英语国家中，“龙”却被看做是能喷火的可怕的怪物，代表邪恶的力量或势力。

Secondly, language is the carrier of culture. Language is a kind of medium or a communication tool, as a conventional symbol system, language is capable of carrying all kinds of information; as a cultural phenomenon, language itself has very rich cultural connotations. V ocabulary is the basic element of language, but

also the backbone upon which the language system can exist, therefore the cultural differences in vocabulary level is the most prominent and the most widely. The same words in different cultures can produce different associative meanings, such as “red” in Chinese culture represents festive,cheerful,lively and good luck; while in the English-speaking countries it means angry and violence. “Dragon” in Chinese culture is a miraculous animal, it is a symbol of the emperor in the feudal era, but also a symbol of our nation; However, in the English-speaking countries, “dragon” is regarded as the horrible monster which is capable of spraying fire a nd represents evil power or forces.

文化差异在习语(Idiom)中体现得更为突出。习语的形成与语言所属的民族文化是紧密相连的。每个民族都有其自身的民族文化，这就是各民族在生产劳动、生活过程中形成的独特的风格与传统，其中包含着历史、语言、风俗、生活方式、思维方式和婚姻习俗等。习语是经过人们长期使用、千锤百炼而成的语言形式，它在很大程度上依赖于特定的社会文化背景，因此习语比词汇更富于文化内涵。习语产生与文化，反过来，习语又反映文化的各个方面。英国人早期的生活很大程度上依赖于海洋，所以创造了所谓的“海洋文化”，英语中有不少习语源于海上的生活。Cultural differences reflected in the idiom is more prominent.The formation of idioms is closely linked with the national culture

language belongs to. Every nation has its own culture,that is the unique style and tradition all ethnic groups formed in the process of producing labor and living, including history, language, customs, lifestyles, ways of thinking and marriage customs. Idioms are language forms used by people for a long time, and it largely depends on the particular social and cultural background, therefore idioms are more rich in cultural connotation than vocabulary. Idioms generate from culture, in turn, idioms reflect all aspects of culture. The early life of British is largely dependent on the ocean, so it creates a so-called "marine culture", there are many English idioms deriving from the sea life.

再次，语言与文化相互作用。语言与文化的相互作用体现为语言承载文化，文化制约语言。我们可以从两个方面认识和理解语言与文化之间的互动关系。一方面，思维方式是一种文化现象。语言是思维最有效的工具，思维活动需要借助语言来进行，思维的结果也要用语言来表达,思维和语言存在密切的关系。不同民族所生活的自然环境和社会环境有所不同，各民族的思维方式就有各自的特点，思维方式存在的差异肯定会对语言产生极大的影响，具体表现在句子结构、语篇结构、表达方式、逻辑顺序等方面。语言与思维相互影响，相互制约。

Finally, f rom a dynamic view, language and culture interact with each other. The

interaction between language and culture is reflected in that language carries culture and culture restricts language. We can recognize and understand the interaction between language and culture from two aspects. On the one hand, the way of thinking is a kind of cultural phenomenon. Language is the most effective tool for thinking because thinking activities need to be carried out by means of language and the result of thinking also needs language to express, that’s to say there is a close relationship between thinking and language. Different ethnic groups live in the different natural and social environment, therefore the way of thinking of all ethnic groups have their own characteristics, undoubtedly the differences existing in the way of thinking will certainly have a significant impact on the language, specifically embodied in the sentence structure, discourse structure, means of expression, a logical sequence and so on. Language and thinking influence and restrain each other.On the other hand, language is the carrier of culture, culture promotes the development and evolution of language. As a tool of cultural transmission,language plays a very important role in the transmission and penetration of culture. Meanwhile,the transmission of culture also promotes the development and evolution of language. English vocabulary is very rich, and the

main reason includes that the United Kingdom suffered the invasion and conquest of foreign forces in different historical periods, foreign culture and language have a profound influence on English, and English has absorbed or borrowed a lot of words of different languages in its process of transmission.

语言和文化的相互依存性决定了语言教学必须与文化教学相结合。语言承载着文化，文化靠语言传承和传播。两者关系密切，相辅相成。教师应根据学生的年龄特点和认知能力，逐步导入和扩展文化知识的内容和范围，开阔学生视野，使他们掌握跨文化交际策略，提高对中外文化异同的敏感性和鉴别能力。

The interdependence of language and culture determines that language teaching must be combined with culture teaching. Language carries culture, culture inherits and transmits by means of language. Language and culture are closely related and complementary. Teachers should import and expand gradually the content and scope of cultural knowledge based on the characteristics of the student’s age and cognitive ability to broaden their horizons, to equip them with cross-cultural communication strategy and to improve the sensitivity and the ability to identify similarities and differences between Chinese and foreign culture.

1．文化教学的内容。文化教学是指对学生进行跨文化的教学活动，引导学生获得丰富的跨文化知识，养成尊重、宽容、平等、开放的跨文化心态和客观、无偏见的跨文化观念与世界意识，并形成有效的跨文化交往、理解、比较参照、舍弃、合作、传播的能力。文化教学的内容非常广泛，涉及方方面面。

Culture teaching refers to the cross-cultural teaching activities to guide students to acquire a broad cross-cultural knowledge, to develop cross-cultural mentality of respect, tolerance, equality, openness and objective, unbiased cross-cultural concept and world consciousness, and to form effective cross-cultural ability of communication, understanding, comparative reference, discard, cooperation and transmission. The c ontent of culture teaching is very extensive which involves all aspects.

斯特恩(Stem)认为，文化教学应该包括六个方面的内容，即地理知识(目的与国家的地理环境、生活条件等)、个人生活方式(生活方式、思想、价值观等)、人民与社会(目的与国家的政治、宗教信仰、种族等)、历史知识(英、美等国历史)、各种制度(政府体制、教育体制、社会福利、经济制度、军事、政治团体、新闻媒体等)以及艺术、音乐、文学及其他成就文化。

Stern thinks that the c ontent of culture teaching should include six aspects, namely geographical knowledge(geographical environment and living conditions of target language countries), personal lifestyle

(lifestyle, ideas, values), people and society (politics, religion, race of target language countries), historical knowledge (history of countries such as Britain, the United States ), various system (government system, education system, social welfare, economic system, military, political organizations and news media) as well as art, music, literature, and other cultural achievements.

束定芳等对国内文化教学研究进行的综述表明，国内有学者将外语教学中的文化内容概括为三种，即语构文化、语意文化和语用文化；有的把基础外语教育阶段的文化教学内容分为文化行为项目和文化心理项目两大类；有的把文化教学内容分为词语文化和话语文化两大类。

Shu Dingfang’s overview on the domestic culture teaching suggests that some domestic scholars summarize the c ontent of culture teaching in foreign language teaching as three kinds, namely, syntactic culture, semantic culture and pragmatic culture; some divide the c ontent of culture teaching in the basic stage of foreign language education into two major categories: cultural behavior and cultural psychology; some divide the content of culture teaching into two major categories: words culture and discourse culture.

胡文仲认为，文化教学包括五个方面的内容，即语言交际、非语言交际、交际习俗与礼仪、社会结构与人际关系、价值观念。就语言交际而言，它包括词汇、习语、语法和语篇四个内容。词汇是最活跃的成分，也是文化信息最大的成分，因为一个民族所特有的社会组织结构、生活方式、物质环境和精神世界等往往通过它特有的词汇表现出来。Hu Wenzhong thinks that the c ontent of culture teaching includes five aspects, namely, verbal communication, nonverbal communication, communicative customs and etiquette, social structure and interpersonal relationship, values. In terms of verbal communication, it includes vocabulary, idioms, grammar and discourse. V ocabulary is the most active ingredient and is also the largest component of cultural information because the specific social structure, lifestyle, physical environment and spiritual world of a nation are often represented by its special vocabulary.

习语包括成语、谚语、格言、警句和俗语等，属于固定的套语、预制语块或者程式化语言，使用时一般不能随意改动，习语一般来自于一个民族特有的地理环境、宗教信仰、神话传说、文学作品、历史事件、趣闻轶事、风俗习惯、职业、体育运动、人名和地名等，经过长期使用固定下来并传播开来，蕴涵和积淀了深厚的民族特色文化。语法方面，如语言句子结构上的差异往往会给语言教学、学习造成困难，也会给翻译、写作以及跨文化交

际带来麻烦。语篇方面，美国学者卡普兰(Kaplan)于20世纪60年代研究了外籍学生用英语写的作文，分析比较作文的结构和行文方式。研究发现，典型的英语作文行文方式是“直线型”，而母语是东方语言的学生采用的行文方式是“螺旋形”等。他认为，不同的书面语篇模式反映了不同的文化思维模式，英语作文的语篇差异是学生母语文化思维模式的负迁移造成的。

我们认为，在英语课堂教学中实施文化教学，应重视介绍和学习英语国家的文化，培养学生的文化意识和跨文化交际能力，帮助学生形成和建立“文化语言观”。所谓“文化语言观”就是从文化的角度认知和学习语言，不是把语言看做独立于文化系统之外的语符系统，而是把语言系统视为文化大系统的要素之一，而且是构成文化大系统其他要素赖以存在的基础。学习语言或者外语，必须学习文化，反之亦然。这一文化语言观要求外语学习者在学习外语语言内部规则的同时，大量接触所学语种的文化，而且应该培养一种强烈的文化习得意识，掌握语言能力，文化能力。We believe that we should pay attention to introducing and learning the culture of English-speaking countries in the implementation of culture teaching in English teaching to cultivate the students’cultural awareness and cross-cultural communication competence and to help students develop and establish “cultural concept of language”.The

so-called “cultural concept of language”is cognize and learn language from the perspective of cultural, and not considering the language as a language sign system independent of cultural system, but regard the language system as one of the elements of the cultural system which constitutes the foundation of other elements of the cultural system. Learning a language or a foreign language, one must learn culture, and vice versa. This cultural concept of language requires the foreign language learners to get in touch with the culture of the learned language a lot in learning the internal rules of a foreign language but also they should cultivate strong c onsciousness of culture acquisition, master the linguistic c ompetence and cultural c ompetence.

组织学生参与活动，体验和了解文化知识。根据教学需要，教师可以和学生组织一些活动，如英语晚会、游戏，学生通过亲身的体验去学习和了解英语文化知识，感受文化差异。如在圣诞节来临之际，可以组织圣诞晚会，让学生了解英语国家过圣诞节的文化习俗，真实体验节日文化，并达到培养学生创造性的交际能力的目的。Teachers can organize the students to participate in the activities to let them experience and understand the cultural knowledge. According to the needs of teaching, teachers can organize some activities, such as English parties, games, to make the students learn and understand English cultural knowledge, experience the cultural differences through personal experience. For example, as Christmas is approaching, teachers can organize the Christmas party to let the students understand the culture of the English-speaking countries’Christmas customs, have a real experience of festival culture, and achieve the goal of developing the students’ creative communicative competence.