英语英语学习中了解背景文化的必要性本科论文.doc

The Necessity of Knowing the Cultural Background
in Learning English
Abstract: Language is the carrier of culture, culture is the show of language, but also the load of language content. At present, in terms of domestic students, the process of learning English is also the process of cultural accumulation, while Chinese students are learning English in Chinese culture, which would more or less impact on English language learning. Learning English in two cultural will inevitably lead to a variety of cultural differences. Therefore, in order to enable students to master English better, it is necessary to introduce the cultural background properly. This thesis is intend to give advice to students who want to understand the various culture, promote students’ interest in learning English, eliminate cultural barriers and improve their proficiency. In this paper, the problem of cultural barriers in English learning in the translation sector, as the breakthrough point, through the examples, the comparison of cultural differences, understand the necessity of culture in the context of explanation.
Key Words: English learning; cultural background; necessity

I

英语学习中了解背景文化的必要性
摘要：语言是文化的载体，文化是语言的呈现，同时也是语言所负载的内容。目前，对于国内的学生来讲，学习英语的过程同样也是文化积累的过程。语言基本功的掌握是非常必要的，但同时也应该明白，学习一门语言的目的毕竟不是为了记忆词汇、语法规则。语言是交际的工具，人们学习语言的主要目的是交际。而中国学生是在中国文化氛围中学习英语的，母语或多或少地影响着英语的学习，两种文化在英语学习中，势必导致文化在教学中的各种差异。学生缺乏对西方文化背景的了解，存在着因语言、民族、文化传统和思维方式等不同而造成的语言交流障碍，因此，在英语学习过程中应该引导学生了解关注英语国家的各种文化背景，激发学生学习英语的兴趣，消除文化障碍，提高学生的综合应用能力。本文从现今英语学习中遇到的文化障碍问题出发，以翻译板块为切入点，通过列举实例，对比中西方文化的差异，说明了解背景文化的必要性。
关键词：英语学习；文化背景；必要性

Contents
Abstract in English...........................................................................................................I
Abstract in Chinese.........................................................................................................II
1. Introduction 1
2. Language Culture and Thought 2
2.1 Definition of language 2
2.2 The English Language 2
2.3The Relationship between Language and Culture 3
3. Culture in Word Classes 6
3.1 Chinese and English Vocabularies 6
3.2 Color Words and Their Cultural Backgrounds 6
3.2.1 The Similarities of Expressing Red in English and Chinese 8
3.2.2 The Dissimilarities of Expressing Red in English and Chinese 9
4. The Concept of Translation and Culture 10
4.1 The Application of Cultural Background in Translation 11
4.2 The Relationship between Culture and Translation 15
5. Conclusion 17
Bibliography 18
Acknowledgements 19

III

1. Introduction
English as an international common language, in people's social life plays an important role. A language is a system of communication used by the people of a particular country or a region talking or writing purposes. A language system consists of a set of codes that are sounds and written symbols. People in one country or region may speak a language from those in another country or region. We often have the difficulty communicating with people who speak a different language, which forms the language barrier. That why we have to learn a foreign language that is spoken by the people from another country.
Most languages have both oral or spoken, and written forms. English is spoken by the English-speaking people or by the English-speaking population as their mother tongue. When we say mother tongue, we refer it to the language that we learned from our parents when we were children. Mother tongue is in contrast to foreign language. It can also be called native tongue or native language.
During the course of learning English, pay attention to the differences in Western culture, to strengthen cultural background is very necessary, it can help learners reduce the misunderstanding in Western culture, make their own to overcome the "mother tongue interference", to develop good habits of mind,.
The different features of nations result from the difference between their culture and history. According to statistics， about "culture" at least， it has more than two hundred kinds of different definition. Broadly speaking，culture is a social phenomenon, which is the creation of the products for a long time. But it is also a kind of historical phenomenon and is the social history remains. Rather, culture refers to a state or national history, geography， local conditions and people, custom, traditions, lifestyles，society system ,literature and， behavior standards ,way of thinking, values. When we translate something，the background of the culture and the background of history should be considered.

2. Language Culture and Thought
Language, culture and thought are inter-related and interact, influencing and shaping one another, though each is an independent system. Therefore, it is not enough to study a language just as a subject if a thorough and deep understanding of language is wanted .Rather the study should be set in a framework formed by language, culture and thought so as to learn the complicated relation between the three and nature of language.
2.1 Definition of language
What is language? What are the features of language? Many philosophers, linguists and historians have offered different answers to the questions and different definitions of language in accordance with their emphasis on the different aspects of language. No matter how different their views are, “many linguists have agreed to accept the view that language is a system of symbols designed for the purpose of human communication.” “Language is a means of verbal communication,” as is said by Dai Wei dong.
Both definitions emphasize the most important fact that language is used to communicate purposefully, by speaking or writing, expressing ideas and emotions. Communication is the fundamental function of language. Human society wouldn’t operate normally without language as a medium of communication.
Language is a verbal since it is a system of vocal sounds to which meaning is attributed. Spoken language is prior to written language. It is a set of symbol used for the transmission of information.
2.2 The English Language
A language is a system of communication used by the people of a particular country or a region talking or writing purposes. A language system consists of a set of codes that are sounds and written symbols. People in one country or region may speak a language from those in another country or region. We often have the difficulty communicating with people who speak a different language. This forms the language barrier. That why we have to learn a foreign language that is spoken by the people from another country.
Most languages have both oral or spoken, and written forms. English is spoken by the English-speaking people or by the English-speaking population as their mother tongue. When we say mother tongue, we refer it to the language that we learned from our parents when we were children. Mother tongue is in contrast to foreign language. It can also be called native tongue or native language.
Advertising is a reflection of modern spiritual culture . As measures of showing the reality, the language of advertising also is the constituent part of culture. Advertisements adapt the public activity or present the respond of society. Advertisement is a tool of mufti-language arts that deliver information and make language as the carrier（Chen,2000）.Hence, the advertising language should be simple and easily to understand, fluently and clear, at the same time, the rhetorical manner should be pay attention. Chinese and Western advertisement used all kinds of rhetorical to reach the result of merchandise promotion. Consumers have no awareness to add and know the impression of goods after obtaining the spiritual enjoy, and then they plan to buy it.
Thanks to the differences of Chinese and Western culture, the form of representation is diverse. Advertising language also manifests different culture values and thinking pattern. Chinese and Western culture has different cultural background, customs, behavior and ways of life. Therefore, advertisers will no doubt consider the demands of consumers through their cultural background. Here are some examples of advertisement to compare and analyze how the Chinese and Western national culture influence their advertising language.
2.3The Relationship between Language and Culture
As a part of culture, language is the carrier and container of culture. We human use language to describe knowledge and experiences, analyze a person’s custom and behavioral mode and comment social system, value, beliefs, world outlooks and arts such as painting, sculpture, dance, music and etc.
As a part of culture, language is a means of expressing culture customs, it plays an important role in culture. Language can not separate from related culture to be independent. From another aspect, language is affected by culture and reflected the culture. Language is based on the historical and culture factors. The nation’s way of thinking, values, concepts, behavior and habits will affect the development of language . Language and culture influence each other, we should try to understand language and culture and to master them . Every nation has its own culture and language is like a mirror which reflects the whole culture. As the carrier and idea of culture, the representation form of language is influenced and restricted by culture. Understand their abundant cultural background to master the language features easily. Only more exposure to foreign cultures, familiar with different language national history, way of life, value and national psychology, can help widen learners’ sights, know more about the cultural and language differences. Culture promotes the development of advertising language, the language of advertising show its culture to some extend.
Chinese and Western advertising language has its own unique form of language which contain the beautiful scenery of language and culture. Meanwhile, the Chinese and Western social and cultural knowledge which contained in language make us experience the infinitude delight. Chinese and Western advertising language also make us deepen our understanding of alien countries, and bring to the world of cross-cultural exchanges.
Advertising is a reflection of modern spiritual culture . As measures of showing the reality, the language of advertising also is the constituent part of culture. Advertisements adapt the public activity or present the respond of society. Advertisement is a tool of multi-language arts that deliver information and make language as the carrier（Chen,2000）.Therefore, the advertising language should be simple and easily to understand, fluently and clear, at the same time, the rhetorical manner should be pay attention. Chinese and Western advertisement used all kinds of rhetorical to reach the result of merchandise promotion. Consumers have no awareness to add and know the impression of goods after obtaining the spiritual enjoy, and then they plan to buy it.
Due to the differences of Chinese and Western culture, the representation form is diverse. Advertising language also manifests different culture values and thinking mode. Chinese and Western culture exists large different culture background, customs, behavior conduct and way of life. From these aspects, advertisers will no doubt consider the demands of consumer through their culture background. Here are some examples of advertisement to compare and analyze how the Chinese and Western national culture influence their advertising language.
The Chinese nation has insists that the heaven and human units as the harmonious one. Such as: some thing unexpected may happen any time, I have life insurance (The People’s Insurance Company of China). The accident and insurance is a unit and are dispensable. That the business loves customs is showed in this ad that it comes to an agreement between them. At last the goal of the ad comes into truth. But in western culture they insist the standpoint of pluralistic. They pay attention to diversity and changes of material, emphasis especially on the change and difference of the nature, stressed that personal freedom, self-development and personal enterprise.

3. Culture in Word Classes
There are thousands of words in both Chinese and English. But not all words have the same job. Some words express actions, some describe things, some are used to show the relation between words, phrases or clauses. All these words are the “building blocks” of the language.
3.1 Chinese and English Vocabularies
Chinese and English vocabularies vary greatly in the classification and use of words. Some words which have the same meanings in both languages may be of different parts of speech. For example ,like and in /on are prepositions in English while 像 is a noun or verb in Chinese,在 being a noun a verb, an adverb as well as a preposition. Besides, though verbs make up a great part of vocabulary in both languages, they are used more frequently in Chinese while in nouns, preposition, conjunctions and pronouns are more common.
The above mentioned diversities do not come from nowhere but deeply rooted in cultural differences between these two peoples. In the Chinese language, the classification of words generally depends on the national differences such as abstract or concrete, static or dynamic, etc. while in English the criterion is more likely to be the grammatical function of the word. The word classes in English bear corresponding relationship with sentence constituents. This is largely responsible for the differences of word class between the two languages and for the necessity in adopting conversion method in translation.
3.2 Color Words and Their Cultural Backgrounds
Owing to different historical backgrounds, language habits, cultural detail and traditional customs and the like, there are a number of differences in the use of color and color words as well as in understanding and mastering of the same color between Chinese and English.
Color is an objective existence of nature. So in essence, all the nations have the same words in the word. And there are all kinds of words in the world to describe colors, which take up a great place in language area. Every language has phrases or sentences that can’t be understood literally. Even though you know the meanings of all the words in a phrase and understand the grammar of the phrase completely, the meaning of the phrase may still be confused to understand. So it is the case of color terms. And culture and language have a close relationship. In order to communicate smoothly, people should have a good mastering of the different cultures and languages about different countries. And there exist a great number of color terms in both Chinese and English. To some extend, they express the same meaning in both Chinese and English-speaking countries, but, there are also a quite number of