新旧“Go For It”教材文化导向对比分析(2)

菜单

6.3.1 The Background of the Social Background 14

(i)Age and Work 14

(ii)Gender 14

(iii)Race 15

6.3.2 The Place of the Activities 15

6.3.3 The Attitudes or Opinions of the Character. 16

6.4 Culture Annotation and Literature Appreciation 16

6.5 Practice and Homework. 16

7. Findings and Discussions 17

7.1 The Advantage of the New Version 17

7.2 The Disadvantage of the New Version 18

7.3 Advice for Teachers and Editors 19

7.3.1 Advice for Editors 19

7.3.2 Advice for Teachers 19

8. Conclusion 20

1. The Definition of Culture

There are about four hundred definitions of culture. English anthropologist, Edward B. Tylor (1871) gives the first definition of culture in his book Primitive Culture which has a great influence on the later-on studies. He defines culture from the perspective of anthropology and in a systematic way: culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Hutchins 1995: 353).

A. Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn (1952:256) list about 164 definitions of culture in their work and they sort them into : descriptive, historical, normative, psychological, structural and genetic. Patrick R. Moran (2001: 24) defines culture as “the evolving way of life of a group of person, consisting of a shared set of practices associated with a shared set of products, based upon a shared set of perspectives on the world, and set within specific social contexts”. People in the same situation, they share the same culture.

Geert Hofstede (1973:462) regards the importance of culture for human as the importance of program for computer. He pides the culture into two parts: the first culture and the second culture. First culture, also called culture with a big C, means the achievement and contribution in civilization such as art, music, literature and science. While the second culture (culture with a small C) means the life style and behavior pattern of human beings (Allen and Valette, 1977:325). In this paper, it will take these two kind cultures into consideration, not only the art, the music, and the science but also what people think and do.

2. The Relationship between Language and Culture

First, language and culture cannot be separated. Though as concepts, they are independent, it is commonly believed that language and culture are closely related to each other and depend on each other. “Language does not exist apart from culture” (Sapir 1921:99). While Rivers (1981:315) shares the same viewpoint that language cannot be separated completely from the culture in which it is deeply embedded.

Second, language is part of culture. Culture is a wider system and language is a subsystem of it. Deng Yanchang and Liu Runqing (1989: 3) use following words to describe the relationship between them: language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. Some experts hold the idea that language is the keystone of culture.

Third, language and culture influence each other. Language is influenced and shaped by culture. The language of a particular people reflects particular culture of the people. At the same time, language can also have an impact on culture. The popular Sapir-Whorf hypothesis claims that the structure of the language one habitually uses influences the manner in which one thinks and behaves (Kramsch 2000:11). Different languages offer people different ways of expressing the world around, they think and speak differently, this is the famous “linguistic relativity”. (Wang 2013:7)