The Relationship between Cultural Literacy and English Ability of University Students in Taiwan

Abstract

The present study discusses English majors' English ability and their cultural literacy level. There were 33 participants in the present study. The results of the study show that background knowledge is correlated with one's vocabulary level and speaking ability. This means that those with good speaking ability also have good cultural literacy, while listening comprehension, reading comprehension and writing ability do not significantly correlate with cultural literacy. Second, those with good English speaking ability also perform well in other English areas such as vocabulary range, reading comprehension, writing ability, and listening comprehension. The results show that to achieve communicative efficiency, the speaker should possess sufficient world knowledge. The pedagogical implication of this result suggests that English teachers should strengthen the English learners' world knowledge or cultural literacy and English ability simultaneously to help English learners to achieve communicative efficacy.