Cultural Differences and English Reading
Comprehension
[Abstract] With English teaching and learning prevailing in China, we have made great progress in this field. However, there are still many problems in our English teaching and learning. A critical one is that students frequently make comprehension mistakes when reading English texts. This kind of comprehension barriers is caused mostly by the cultural differences between Chinese and English language. This paper first illustrates the effects of cultural differences on reading comprehension, then analyzes the causes of cultural differences, and finally develops some tentative methods to help to improve reading comprehension both in English teaching and learning.
[Key Words] cultural differences; reading comprehension; English teaching and learning
1.Introduction
In our traditional English learning and teaching classes, especially in the reading part, the teachers always emphasize the language points and the grammatical structures of the reading texts by analyzing the sentences one by one. As a result, most of the students can only get a superficial understanding of
the meaning of the reading material, which means that the students’reading ability cannot be actually improved. As a matter of fact, English reading comprehension is more of a process of intercultural communication than a material of grammar and language points learning. Consequently, teaching culture in English reading classes is very important. Generally speaking, it is found that whether or not the students can get a complete comprehension of a text and a complete mastery of a foreign language depends on their knowledge of the target culture. This paper focuses on the effects of Chinese and Western cultural differences on English reading comprehension, trying to arouse the echo in English teaching and learning: how cultural content can affect us when we learn a foreign language? We should involve cultural education in English teaching and learning in order to teach or learn it better, which is very significant. To elaborate my opinion, this thesis first illustrates the effects of cultural differences on reading comprehension, then analyzes the causes of cultural differences, and finally develops
some tentative methods to help to improve reading comprehension both in English teaching and learning.
2.Effects of cultural differences on reading comprehension
2.1 The comprehension of words
Words can reflect cultural differences widely. Not only does a word have a direct and superficial meaning in the dictionary, it can also have an implied and affective meaning, which can always be the barriers in reading comprehension (Luo Xiaoling, 2008:114. Consequently, if we learn new English words, it is of great importance for us to know not only their denotations, but also their connotations. Generally speaking, the words that can cause barriers in reading comprehension because of cultural differences between China and the West can be divided into two types: words that have ambiguous meaning and words that have specific meaning.
Words that have ambiguous meaning refer to the ones that have the same denotation but different cultural connotations. For example, the English word “dragon” has its equivalent “龙” in Chinese. Although their denotation is similar, they differ greatly in their connotation. In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, we can find two explanations of the word “dragon”: (1 an imaginary fire-breathing animal in children’s stories. (2 a fierce older woman, esp. one who allows too little freedom to a young girl in her charge. From these two definitions, we can know that “dragon”is not liked in the English culture. And just because of this, “dragon”is always used as a negative word in the western countries. To the contrary, Chinese people are particularly fond of the word “龙”. We call ourselves “Descendants of the Dragon”. The word “龙”in Chinese culture is a noble and auspicious symbol. It symbolizes authority, power, wealth and future. If we know the cultural difference in this respect, we will not
misinterpret the term “t he old dragon”, which actually means “the devil”, as “the dragon that is old”when we encounter it in our reading comprehension. In consequence, we should not simply equate some English word with a Chinese word in reading.
Words that have specific meaning refer to the ones that don’t have their equivalents in another language. That is to say, they only express things and
phenomena that are peculiar to a certain language, and we cannot find any equivalents in another language both in form and in content.An example that is often cited is the word “hippe”. The word “hippe”is a peculiar well-known product of American society which refers to the decadent and passive American young people who are rebellious and discontented to the social reality. They vent their dissatisfaction by wearing long hair, dressing in unusual clothes, believing in sexual freedom and taking illegal drugs and excessive drinking. There is no Chinese equivalent for “hippie”. If we translate it directly as “嬉皮士”in Chinese, it will lose its own cultural connotation. Therefore, this also brings barriers to reading comprehension.
2.2 The comprehension of idioms
Besides words, cultural differences are reflected by idioms as well. And cultural differences reflected by idioms in Chinese and English can also affect
readers in English reading comprehension. Idioms are the pith and the marrow of the language development and they constitute the kernel and cream of a language(Shen Jun, 2005:115.Both Chinese and English idioms contain their own specific cultural information and reflect their own specific cultural features. They are two kinds of different productions of the life experience in different social and regional environment. Hence, they are cultural specific expressions which contain profound cultural connotations. Though idioms are combination of single words, their meaning cannot be simply determined by the meanings of the individual words. Because of this, idioms are hard to understand by readers from a different culture. For example, in the sentence “After playing football, he drank like a fish”, “drank like a fish”means that he drank a lot, which is equivalent to “牛饮”in Chinese. And it is inappropriate to understand it as “drank as a fish” or “drank a little”.
2.3 The comprehension of texts
Cultural differences are by no means confined to words and idioms. They can also be reflected by texts. Language is the record of thinking. Different ways of thinking may result in different types of language(Cheng Hongzhen, 2005:50. Since Chinese people and the western people are different in their mode of thinking, the ways how their texts are structured are also different. And such differences can also
cause barriers to English reading comprehension.
Western people’s mode of thinking is linear. Hence, an English text tends to follow a straight line of development. It often begins with a topic sentence which is followed by a series of subdivisions of the central idea. That is to say, the central idea is usually clear at the very beginning of the text and is gradually developed in a deductive thinking pattern. However, Chinese people’s mode of thinking is roundabout. Consequently, a Chinese text is inclined to follow a circular line of development, which is always developed in a inductive thinking pattern. Take the following paragraph as an example.
I believe that I speak for every sincere and serious representative in the
United Nations, so I am encouraged to believe by the speeches to which we
have already listened this morning. When I say that the anniversary must be
an occasion for an honest assessment of our failures in the past, matched by
an equally determined will to do better in the future, so that we can escape
from frustration and turn the anniversary into an inspiration and
achievement.(Zhu Peiying, 2005:76
In this short paragraph, the speaker first declares his attitude, and then he gives an account of the background and purpose of his statement. This is a typical speech of the English thinking pattern. However, if we turn it into Chinese, we usually put the background and purpose before the conclusion and declaration.
From what has been discussed above, we can know that cultural differences affect many aspects of comprehension: comprehension of words, idioms and texts. “Every stage of comprehension involves readers’ background knowledge of culture.”(Anderson, 1997, 14:369 Therefore, it is of great significance for us English learners to understand the culture of English, which is helpful to reading comprehension. After knowing the influence that cultural differences can have on cross-cultural reading comprehension, let’s see what causes these differences. The following section will illustrate the causes of these cultural differences in detail.
3. Causes of cultural differences in reading comprehension
3.1 Causes of differences by national historical culture
Language itself is not only an important component of culture; it is also the carrier of culture(Sun Yingxu &Zhang Qi, 2006:160. Every kind of language is a peculiar production of a national culture which all has its unique history.
Consequently, they all have their own specific culture-loaded words such as words, idioms and illusions to reflect their things and conceptions. As foreign or second language learners, we often meet barriers when we meet such words in our reading comprehension.
For example, in the sentence “I have let the cat out of the bag already, and I might as well tell him the whole thing now.”, the expression “let the cat out of the bag” is an idiom which originates from a story. In the old New Y ork City, the peasants always put their piglets in the bags to sell them. However, sometimes they would put cats in the bags instead of piglets as cats were cheaper than piglets. And if they were careless, the cat would jump out of the loosen bag and the peasant’s intrigue would be uncovered. Therefore, to let the cat out of the bag means to let slip the truth.
3.2 Causes of differences by regional culture
Regional culture refers to the culture shaped by geographical environment and natural conditions of an area(Zheng Jun & Zhou Longchang, 2002:49. Since different region has different feature of geographical environment and natural conditions, their regional culture are bound to be different. China and the western countries locate in different regions. Hence, they are sure to be distinctive in their regional culture. A typical example is that in British poet Shelley’s poem “Ode to the West Wind”, Chinese readers are always confused
by the sentence “O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind.”since they don’t know the regional cultural knowledge of Britain. In fact, British is an island country which is affected by temperate maritime climate. And because of this, the wind from western sea is warm and moist. Here Shelley compared the west wind to the warm and delightful wind that brings forth spring. However, due to the regional feature, the west wind is always cold in China. And to Chinese people, the west wind means not only coldness but also decline and depression.
3.3 Causes of differences by religious culture
Religious culture is one of the most important components of human culture. It is composed of religious belief and consciousness, which shows different nation’s cultural diversity in the aspect of adoration and taboo(Hao Xiaojing, 2007:126. In our country, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism are three main religions whereas in English-speaking countries, people believe in Christianity and have been influenced by Christian values seriously. The Bible is the holy book of Christianity which is very different from our classical religious books. As a result, in order to improve our English reading comprehension, we should know something about the characters and events in the Bible. For example, Solomon is the king of Hebrew who was famous for his wisdom. Now it refers to the wise man in general. Similarly, Samaritan is a character in Bible who was always willing to help others, and now it can be interpreted as a willing helper.
3.4 Causes of differences by national psychology
National psychology refers to the psychological patterns and features such as personality, affection and values which are formed during a nation’s long process of evolvement (He Naiping, 2008: 94. Both Chinese and English cultures all have a history of ages. Consequently, they differ greatly in their national psychology. Learning English in a non-English environment, Chinese students naturally don’t understand some social customs of the English-speaking countries. For example, there is an article says that every job in England requires more workers than it actually need, as the workers are always slow and lazy at work. When students are asked how to understand “Tea breaks do matter”, an overwhelming majority of them say, “They can be used by the workers as an excuse to take time off from work.” However, the actual meaning of the sentence is “They are the important aspect of the British way of life”. The students misunderstand the sentence because they don’t know that in English people’s daily life, the tea break is very important.
4.W ays to improve reading comprehension in English teaching and learning
Now that we have discussed the effects of cultural differences and the causes of cultural differences on reading comprehension, we know that cultural differences can really have a great impact on English reading comprehension. In the process of
English reading, Chinese students can always meet many cross-cultural barriers of every aspect. Consequently, we should involve cultural education in English teaching and learning in order to improve Chinese students’English reading comprehension, for the more cultural knowledge the students have, the more they can understand the textual materials. In this section, we will explore the ways to improve reading comprehension in English teaching and learning
4.1 Ways to involve cultural knowledge in English teaching
According to Ma Bo (2009:17, a successful English reading teaching should consider adequately the influences that cultural background knowledge can have on students’reading comprehension. It is well acknowledged that readers are more interested in the texts and can comprehend the texts better when the texts are culturally familiar to them. As a consequence, teachers should introduce cultural background knowledge to students before reading and supplying relative cultural background passages to widen students’scope of knowledge and develop students’sense of intercultural communication (Liu Guorong, 2009:192. In order to enrich students’ cultural background knowledge, teachers should select appropriate materials for students to read in class so as to help them minimize cultural misunderstanding and interference and maximize the comprehension of the reading texts (Xu Xuefen, 2004:36.For example, if the reading text is about the United Kingdom, the teacher can prepare some information about the United Kingdom for the students to read. In this way, the
students can not only have a better understanding of the reading material, they can also at the same time know some other knowledge about the United Kingdom besides what has been told in the text, which can in turn help them understand other texts of the same kind.
Besides introducing cultural background knowledge in class, teachers ca n also do some comparison of the two cultures while analyzing the reading materials. As it has been discussed above, there are many differences between Chinese culture and the English-speaking countries’culture, which often cause barriers to students’English reading. Consequently, comparing the differences can also make students better acquire the reading texts.
4.2 Ways to acquire cultural knowledge in English learning
Besides the teachers’efforts to involve cultural knowledge in English teaching, the students should also actively learn cultural knowledge by themselves. “Foreign language learners should be aware of the cultural differences and develop the cultural understandings, attitudes and performance skills needed to function appropriately within a society of the target language and to communicate with the culture bearer.”(Seelye, 1981:39 Following are some strategies for English learners to acquire cultural knowledge effectively.
First of all, English learners should establish an active and positive attitude
towards learning cultural differences. As an old saying goes, “Attitude determines everything”, that is to say that people can do things better if they have a good attitude and vice versa. Consequently, establishing a sound attitude towards learning cultural differences can effectively help the English learners. Secondly, besides the intensive reading in class, English learners should also do some extensive reading outside class. While culture can help us better understand the reading materials, reading materials can also provide us with cultural knowledge. Numerous outside extensive reading can help us learn the foreign culture more comprehensively. Hence, English learners should do more extensive reading after class. Thirdly, English learners can also learn cultural knowledge through English movies and TV programs. Just as an English proverb goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words”, by watching movies or TV shows, English learners can not only learn some native oral English sayings, they can also get a vivid picture of what the people’s life is like in the target culture(Pang Yingping, 2000:44.
5. Conclusion
All in all, the paper has attempted to discuss the effects of cultural differences on English reading comprehension. It is obvious that cultural differences can interfere with many aspects of comprehension: comprehension of words, idioms and texts. From this, we can jump to the conclusion that the teaching and learning of cultural content should be integrated into the process of English
teaching and learning. In teaching and learning English, we should not only attach importance to the vocabulary,
grammar and rules, we should also pay great attention to the cultural knowledge it provides. Only by doing this can we grasp the core of learning a foreign language and teach or learn it better.
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中西文化差异对英语阅读理解的影响
【摘要】随着英语教与学在中国的发展,我们已经在这个领域取得了不小的进展。然
而,中国的英语教与学依旧存在着不少的问题,其中的一个比较严峻的问题就是学生在阅读英语文章时经常出现一些理解上的错误。而这样的错误大部分是由汉语跟英语之间的文化差异造成的。本文首先列举了文化差异对阅读理解所造成的影响,然后通过这些影响分析导致文化存在差异的原因,最后在如何提高英语教与学的问题上提出了一些可行性的
建议。
【关键词】文化差异;阅读理解;英语教与学
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