Intercultural Communication and English Reading and Writing Teaching

Abstract

Language is the carrier of culture, learning a foreign language is not just learning words and articles on the surface. Instead, it should be regarded as a cultural learning process. The ultimate purpose of learning a foreign language, therefore, is to have a real understanding of the cultural connotations and to apply them successfully in the practice of cross-culture communication. However, culture teaching is always ignored by teachers in English teaching. Reading is a skill that English learners must master and an important indicator of English proficiency. Reading barriers will have a certain impact on learners' academic performance and daily communication. Meanwhile, Writing is a kind of written form of communication to express thoughts. It involves comprehensive usages of listening, speaking, reading and other language skills. Therefore, in both theoretical and practical teaching domains, problems of writing have been the focus of language educators. However, the students’ writing ability improves comparatively slowly, and the results of teaching are not satisfying owning to the fact that students are not fully aware of the cultural differences between China and the west in the way of expressing. They often fail to think in the western way when writing. Thus, teachers should pay full attention to and seriously study the cultural differences between Chinese and English and apply cross-cultural communication to English reading and writing practice. Only in this way can they help students improve their English level and avoid Chinglish.