美国情景喜剧在跨文化交际能力培养中效用研究毕业论文.doc

本科生毕业论文On the Effectiveness of American Situation Comedy in Cultivating Cross-cultural Communicative Competence美国情景喜剧在跨文化交际能力培养中效用研究AbstractLanguage is the carrier of culture, and culture lies in language . There are mutual effects and promotion between culture learning and language learning. Culture learning is the foundation of cultivating cross-cultural communicative competence, so we should combine culture learning with developing language competence and cross-cultural language competence. Literature summarization and theoretical analysis are primarily adopted in the thesis on the effectiveness of situation comedy in cultivating cross-cultural communicative competence. The author discusses how to bond culture teaching and language teaching by appreciating the films and TV plays in class to improve learners cross-cultural communicative competence, and the author analyzes common problems of English learners and cross-cultural communicative barriers and how to avoid or even settle these problems. Situation comedies are popular with a great deal of English lovers because of humorous dialogues and pure English. Students pragamatic competence can be improved through situation comedies assistance in English teaching for promoting their cross-cultural communicative competence. 【Key words】situation comedy; cross-cultural communicative competence; appreciation of films and TV plays摘 要语言是文化的载体，文化蕴含于语言之中。语言学习和文化学习相互影响，相互促进，而培养跨文化交际能力的基础正是文化的学习，所以在文化学习的过程中我们应该把文化学习与语言能力发展和跨文化语言能力发展结合起来。本文主要采用文献回顾法和理论分析法研究情景喜剧对大学生跨文化交际能力的培养的效用，探讨英语影视鉴赏课如何把文化教学与语言教学两者结合来提高学习者的跨文化交际能力，分析当代学生学习英语的普遍问题和跨文化交际的多种障碍以及从影视剧欣赏的角度探讨如何避免甚至解决这些问题。情景喜剧因为非常精彩幽默的对白和地道纯正的英语口语而深受广大英语爱好者的青睐。因此在英语教学中，通过情景喜剧的辅助，可以有效提高学生的语用能力，从而最终使得他们的跨文化交际能力得到提高。【关键词】 情景喜剧；跨文化交际能力；影视剧欣赏ContentsAbstractI摘 要IIContents.IIIChapter One Introduction11.1 Background11.2 Significance11.3 Structure2Chapter Two Literature Review22.1 Situation Comedy22.2 Cross-cultural Communication3Chapter Three Language and Culture53.1 Language53.2 Culture63.3 Relations between Culture Learning and Language Learning8Chapter Four Cross-cultural Communicative Competence104.1 Communicative Competence and Cross-cultural Communicative Competence104.1.1 Communicative competence104.1.2 Cross-cultural communicative competence114.2 Cross-cultural Communicative Awareness124.3 Cross-cultural Communicative Barriers and Cultivation144.3.1 Cross-cultural communicative barriers144.3.2 Cross-cultural communicative cultivation15Chapter Five Improving Cross-cultural Communicative Competence in Situation Comedy165.1 Common Problems of English Learning165.2 Appreciation of Films and TV Plays in Cultivating Cross-cultural Communicative Competence185.3 Application of Situation Comedy in Class20Chapter Six Conclusion22References24Acknowledgements2525On the Effectiveness of American Situation Comedy in Cultivating Cross-cultural Communicative CompetenceChapter One Introduction1.1 Background The communications between people from different social cultures and regions have been more and more frequent owning to the globalization. Communicating in cross culture is an obvious feature of the globalizing world where the needs for international talents with specialized knowledge and good cross-cultural communicative competence are very urgent. Fiercer cultural diversity and the conflict between those cultures have been confronting among contemporary college students. Those questions how to build cross-cultural communicators quality system and how to cultivate international talents who can adapt to their national development are important issues to be urgently solved for higher education. It is important and difficult for university personnel trainers to provide the country with global talents who possess specialized knowledge and intercultural communicative competence and directly participate in international exchanges and competitions, and meet new requirements for talented person proposed by international community. With more emphasis put on both language teaching and culture teaching, there are an increasing number of insiders who do not simply think language teaching as imparting language knowledge but combine language competence together with cross-cultural communicative competence for developing students competence to flexibly use cultural knowledge in cross-cultural communicative situations.1.2 Significance Films are from life and can reflect the national culture and contribute greatly to understanding the target language culture better. Consequently appreciating films would be one key channel to input culture and export culture. Original movie series can make class atmosphere easy, and college English teachers should make full use of the media to boost students learning enthusiasm and expand the understanding of western culture, which is to improve students cross-cultural communicative competence. Plots in sitcoms are very amusing and interesting. In addition, their lines are largely classic and humorous . Teaching with situation comedies can ease students anxiety, which not only builds a comfortable studying environment, arousing learning passion, but also creates an occasional laugh so that students fall into initiative and active studying habits so as to meet the ultimate goal to improve learners intercultural communicative competence. 1.3 Structure The thesis consists of six chapters. The first chapter is introduction, including background and significance and structure of the thesis. The second chapter is literature review. The third chapter introduces language and culture and the relations between language learning and culture learning. Then the fourth part indicates briefly communicative competence, cross-cultural communicative competence, cross-cultural communicative awareness and cross-cultural communicative barriers and cultivation. The fifth chapter discusses the improvement of cross-cultural communicative competence in situation comedy, and it refers to three parts as follows: common problems of English learning, appreciation of films and TV plays in cultivating cross-cultural communicative competence and application of situation comedy in class. Finally, the six chapter is the conclusion of the thesis.Chapter Two Literature Review2.1 Situation Comedy Situation comedy, also called sitcoms, is one type of comedy featuring features that shares the fixed common setting, like one coffee shop or an apartment or a house, with now and then jokes as one kind of dialogue(苏莉杰，2012). Although this type of programs has roots in radio, now situation comedies can only be found on television to a great extent. More specifically, sitcoms, involving a fixed cast of actors in one succession of episodes, are either radio set or television series of comedies. Besides, frequently all these characters are dramatically various forms gathered together by situations as well as sharing the same surroundings such as a home or a particular apartment. Usually situation comedies are in length half an hour, where the plot is designed to cover totaling twenty-two minutes in duration and additional eight minutes for another commercial use. Furthermore, in sitcoms the story is either employing plotted applause or taping in advance of a studio audience, which is noted by verbal arguments and quickly settled conflicts.William Asher has been known as a great person who invents the situation comedy, in addition who has guided dozens of the major sitcoms in America. In various periods, American situation comedies show discriminating characters from 1950s to now in the middle of their developing process. In the nineteen fifties family comedies and workplace comedies were two genres of initial sitcoms. More fantastic components were added into live action situation comedies by sitcoms inventor till the middle of the 1960s. Whats more, before nineteen sixties American sitcoms were not filmed in front of the live audiences but post-produced a prerecorded laughter. Situation comedies get down to addressing a large amount of controversial issues in the initial 1970s as well as mostly go back to the three-camera system in front of live audience. As for American sitcoms in the 1980s, plentiful American situation comedies like Growing Pains returned to family; their main topics are about parents and children, nevertheless there were few political issues involved in the sitcoms. Till the middle of the 1990s ongoing plot lines were applied in some situation comedies. Friends, a well-known sitcom, apply an element of soap opera, for example, the casts relations are built little by little over the process of the all stories. 2.2 Cross-cultural CommunicationCross-cultural communication studies the way that people from around the world and varying in their cultural environment or backgrounds exchange and communicate each other properly, in addition to how they strive to complete it intercultural communication well(胡文仲，1999). Diverse cultures will inevitably confront and then conflict, finally combine with each other with the world globalization, peculiarly the growing of world commerce. It is not only language obstacles but also cultural features will affect the process of communication among people in different areas.As is well-known, Edward Hall in his Silent Language (1959) first mentions cross-cultural communication. In the 1960s, the intellectuals in communication conceptualized cross-cultural communication. A great deal of published works reflects a quick progress in the field during the 1970s. Being integrated was the right direction of its development during the 1980s. The nineties witnessed great importance to variation of ways. And great efforts to right colonial and historical misbalances are witnessed by the 1990s. Many cross-cultural communication basic theoretical models are come up with in the late of twentieth century. So what and when can be defined as cross-cultural communication after all? Generally speaking, it is intercultural communication that is such communication among different persons coming from various nations as well as having diverse cultural backgrounds (Kim, 2001). Whats more, a lot of professors confine it to face to face interaction and communication. There is another definition of cross-cultural communication that the communication between human beings with distinct cultural conceptions and different cultural symbols is cross-cultural communication (Samovar et al, 2000). And cross-racial communication, cross-cultural communication and cross-ethnic communication are 3 various modes of cross-cultural communication. Cross-cultural communication involves extensive fields such as communication, culture and humanities, in addition to linguisticss and semilogy and many others, which is based on many related subjects results. Cross-cultural communicating can be made in lots of situations; generally it can be divided into 2 kinds namely verbal communication and nonverbal communication (贾玉新，1997:12).Booming science and technology and advanced communication and transportation both greatly shorten the distance between those people having respectively different social and cultural characteristics, but their estrangement on the psychological is not easily removed. People from different areas have trouble in communicating because of cultural diversity, which usually result in cultural misreading and cultural conflict. Effective communication strategies should be chosen according to various targets to lessen or even avoid communication failure.Chapter Three Language and Culture3.1 LanguageWith the progress of the society, it is beyond doubt that language is born at the very moment; in addition, language is one indispensable element of human life. Because of language we can keep in touch with people around us and come in contact with them. Whats more, we can also through language make our thoughts and experience shared by our friends and relatives or any others. The sentence witnesses its significant role absolutely that language works as the muniment room of history. We can conclude by the very sentence that only we can use language that is also an unique characteristic owned by human beings. There are several different meanings, the most frequently applied and mentioned, of the particular word “language” as follows: (1) all ways to exchange or communicate or express information and thoughts; (2) the special system for the signs, symbols, regulations and so on for transmitting and sending related information; (3) the competence to communicate via the tool; (4) a set of all vocal sounds and their combinations or unions of these sounds where sense is applied and used to express and communicate feelings and experience (Hall, 1959). In accordance with these various methods of language research, there are several diverse and typical definitions of language. One of them is that language can be looked as a structure or a system of these signs and different meanings can be produced by these combined signs, besides, different combinations can produce different and unique meanings (Saussure, 1916). Chomsky (1959) holds a opinion that language is a system of sentences, with each finite length as well as constructed from a finite elements set that focuses on languages characteristics in pure structure. And practical effects of language are also attached great importance into communicative surroundings. Bloomfield (1935) considers language as the interaction between stimulus and reaction. The formula, SrsR, summaries his opinion that means one people can have reaction (R) while another people do the stimulus (S). It is put forward by sociologists that language is considered as social behavior with its particular social function, being one way to communicate and identify social organizations or groups. Although there are many definitions of language, we can find their common traits in accordance with these definitions, namely language is a full set of arbitrary signs or symbols with the view of verbal and non-verbal communication with many others.3.2 CultureCulture is a various, all-inclusive and ubiquitous social phenomenon and we can find it almost anytime as well as anywhere (Xue Jiao，2011). Our ways of adapting and learning mores, customs and language and habits can be greatly influenced by various cultures. In addition, our thinking way, acting way and communicating way all can be shaped by culture too. Since culture is so all-pervasive that we should show great attention to its powerful influence. The number of definitions for culture is up to hundreds, and to be more a