Cultural Background Knowledge and English Teaching

Culture background knowledge in English teaching arose in eighties of the twentieth century. It has been closely linked with the reformation and open in China. With the increase of exchange between China and English speaking countries resulting from the reform and opening policy to the outside world, people have come to find that due to the lack of profound knowledge of the culture of the English speaking, "cultural shock"or "cultural conflict" often arises when Chinese people communicate with Westerners, which leads to the realization that the pure-linguistic centered English teaching form cannot meet the demands of the social development any longer. Culture teaching must be introduced into English teaching in order to learn English language well and communicate well.This essay explains the importance of the cultural background knowledge teaching through analyzing the relationship of the language and culture as well as communicating barrier caused by the cultural differences, and it also submits falsifiable suggestions about how to introduce background knowledge into English teaching.