On Cultural Awareness in Middle School English Teaching

This paper focuses on enhancing students' ability of cross-cultural communication and their understanding of cultural differences especially in attitudes and values. Teachers can obtain the goal by providing cultural information, experiencing culture via role-plays, explaining culture with authentic materials and encouraging students to communicate with native English speakers. This article suggests that in middle school English teaching, teachers can provide a relaxed atmosphere for students to have an idea of the differences between their own culture and others' and explain the differences to strengthen students' cross-cultural awareness. It is expected that students can learn a second language not only from the aspect of grammar but of both language and culture.