Ａ Ｗａｙ Ｔｏ Ｉｍｐｒｏｖｅ Ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ’Ｒｅａｄｉｎｇ Ａｂｉｌｉｔｙ

1．The necessity of getting cultural backgroundknowledge

The teaching of a foreign language ineVitablyinvolves the teaching of foreign caltares． Differentcountries have different caltares．Different schematacan produce different comprehellsion to the sameword or sentence．Take the sentenee“Look at that 1adyall in white walking at the head of the procession!”as anexample，the Chinese reader Would simply think it to be adescriDtion of a funeral，while t0 the westerners，it is awedding ceremony．

2．Approaches adopted to culture teaching

2．1I Making comparison and contrast

The experience of alternative ways of doing tings isthe premise for breaking “conventional ways” anddeveloping a capacity for change．If leamers realize thediversity of ways in which people may achieve what areultimately the same goals of exchange and cooperation，then thev will adopt a more flexible attlitude towards“unconventional ways”of doing things than tllose whoonly know their own tradition but never tllink aboutalternatiyes．This attitude helps the 8tudents to know notonly other caltures but also their own caltare， sineebeneath alternative ways 0f doing things， there is acommonalitv of the aniversal values shared by allcaltures．Therefore．teachers should make comparisonsand contrasts between cultares，which may help learnersto anderstand foreign caltare and their home calture onthe basis of preyiOUS experience and new knowledge．

2．2 Using proverbs in teaching caltural anderstanding

Provers are a significant part of everydav anhuralexpression．Proverbs sometimes are Very pervasiVe incaltures．They can provide significant insights into theway of life 0f the people．Proverbs can reflect difierentcullares．for example．the translaion of“巧婦難為無米之炊”wll be difierent between the Chinese translatorand western translator．A Chinese translator translated itas “Eyen the cleverest housewife can’t make a mealwithout rice．” While the westem translator gave adifierent version． “Even tlle cleverest housewife can’tmake bread withont nour．”Obviously，we can learn fromthis proverb that Chinese and westerners have dietdifierences．Through teaching proverbs students can knowbetter about the calture，and find the fun in learmingEnglish at the same time．

2.3 Distributing a little time to enjoy short humoreusstories

VariOUs educators have advocated the use of cartoonsand other fornls 0f humor in language teaching， butstudents may find humor hard to understand． Just asMorain said， “My students know the people in othercountries eat different foods，speak difierent languages，and fret married，harried and buried in different ways．Butone of the hardest things for them to grasp is that peoplein different countries laugh in special ways their caltureshave taught them to laugh．”The pmblem is that wesomehow have the caltural misnnderstanding．For middle school students。teachers can ofier litle humorous storiesto them．Doing so will not only be a motivating factor intheir study of Engish，but will also benefit them in termsof their sense of integration into the SOCial life of thepeople with whom they are trying to eommunicate．

2．4 Communicative activities

The communicative activities here refer to thoseinvolving learners’ active participation in communicationsueh as role—play， information—gap activities， problem—solving activities，etc．In role—plays，students can act out amiscommunication that is based on caltural difierences．For example，if an Engish teacher wants to present thelearners with the general practice of eating ont in arestaurant， the best way is probably to provide thelearners with Engish instructions about hOW to find thetable reserved，how to order and how to pay and so on，which can thell be followed by the leamers’ mle-play．Here the schema represents a whole situation，and a chainof stereotvpic events or features will be called up in thestudents’ mind in association with the situation．Beforeprovided with the Engish instruction，students are verylikelv to call up the schema of the Chjnese way to eat in arestaurant．However，by acting the role-plays，it will notonly show how well the learners anderstand them，but alsohelp to give them a vivid impression， and set up theschema accordingly．

3．Conclusion

A qualified teacher should have the abiIitv ofDredicting the problems the students will encounter inreading and analyzing the causes of their dimcalties．Thispaper mainly studys one cause，that is，lack of schemata，or relevant cultural background knowledge．Based on theSchema Theory，several approaches are proposed．However，callure is enormous．AU that we can do is toDrovide some pathways to enter into lcaming more aboutthe cahare．After all，we never know everything about ourown calture．We shonld not be disappointed that we cannot teach everything but rather be happy that we are ableto raise intercultural awareness at all．And of course asour anderstanding of caltuml proficiency grows，we willno donbt infuse some new ways to our reading teaching．