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Aural comprehension, which is closely related to the knowledge of American and British culture, politics and economy, in fact, is an examination of one’s comprehensive competence which includes one’s English level, range of knowledge, competence of analysis and imaginative power.
Maybe we have this experience: when we are listening to something familiar to us, no matter what is concerned, usually we are easy to understand. Even if there are some new words in the material, we are able to guess their meanings according to its context. However, when we encounter some unfamiliar material or something closely related to cultural background, we may feel rather difficult. Even if the material is easy, we only know the literal meaning, but can’t understand the connotation, because we lack knowledge of cultural background.
Here is a sentence from a report: “The path to November is uphill all the way.” “November” literally means “the eleventh month of year”. But here refers to “ the Presidential election to be held in November”. Another example is “red–letter days”—which is a simple phrase and is easy to hear, meaning holidays such as Christmas and other special days. But students are often unable to understand them without teacher’s explanation.
Below are two jokes often talked about by Americans:
1. A: Where are you from?
B: I’ll ask her. (Alaska)
A: Why do you ask her?
2. A: Where are you from?
B: How are you. (Hawaii)
A may think B has given an irrelevant answer. But if A knew something about geographical knowledge of the USA, and the names of two states of the USA—Alaska and Hawaii, he would not regard “Alaska” as “I’ll ask her”, or “Hawaii” as “How are you”.
In view of this, the introduction of cultural background is necessary in the teaching of English listening.
Likewise, speaking is not merely concerned with pronunciation and intonation. Students can only improve their oral English and reach the aim of communication by means of enormous reading, mastering rich language material and acquaintance of western culture. Therefore, in oral training, teachers should lay stress on factuality of language and adopt some material approaching to daily life, such as daily dialogues with tape, magazines, newspapers and report etc., because the material is from real life, and it helps students to be well acquainted with standard pronunciation and intonation, to speak English appropriate to the occasion, to understand western way of life and customs etc. Otherwise, misunderstanding and displeasure are inevitably aroused. Let’s look at some examples.
Many fixed English ways of expression cannot be changed randomly. For example, the answer to “How do you do?” is “How do you do?” When asking price, people usually say, “How much, please?” instead of: “How much do you charge me? Or “How much do I owe you”; When paying bill, “Waiter, bill please.” Instead of “Excuse me, sir. We’re finished eating. How much is it, please?” When asking the other one’s name on the telephone, “Who’s speaking, please?” or “Who is it, please?” instead of “Who are you?” “Where are you?” “What’s your surname?” or “What is your unit?”
In English, there are so many euphemisms that sometimes it’s hard to know the other one’s actual mood. So we should pay attention to our answer. For example, when one ask: “How do you like the film?” and the other answer: “I think it’s very interesting”, it shows he doesn’t like it very much