The weekly column

Article 60, May 2001

Background Knowledge & ELT

By Guo Shesen

Office of English Department
Luoyang University
Henan 471000
P.R China

This topic is familiar to all non-native English speakers who are teaching or studying English at all levels. Background knowledge is essential to understanding correctly and quickly the reading materials and is the basis for fast reading and extensive reading. How much time should be spent on background knowledge in English study has been a heated discussion---as it concerns the overall teaching schedule and the question of which is more important---the English language study or the background knowledge study. Definitely they are both important and have mutual effects on each other. But to a non native English speaker what is the limit to the background knowledge and how to quickly catch or refer to it for better understanding and reading?

When our students get to know the symbol of the Stars and Stripes or the Union flag, they must have learnt the long history from the Mayflower to the War of Independence of America or the history from Germanic Conquest to the three Patrons of Scotland, England and Wales. From this point of view we and students are discussing history rather than the English language.

Last semester there was a speech by Margaret Thatcher in the textbook. At class I had to in the course of explaining the speech, deal with all possible and relating aspects from her brief biography, the British parliament, Commons of Chamber to the Labor Party and Conservative Party and to the Opposition and Shadow Cabinet. Both students and I had shared a class of British politics instead of the language expressed in the speech------actually the language itself and grammar in the speech is much less difficult and complicated than the British politics. I was and am not a teacher specialized in the British history and politics. However, I had to pretend to be one so that the students could understand the speech. When recalling the experience, I am still surprised that the role I played changed so differently.

These are only two examples that learning English is not only learning the language itself but also studying the history, politics, religion, literature, economics… Or teachers and students are baptized in not only the English language but also the English culture (American and British).

From time to time I was worried about the lack of the background knowledge of culture. As we are sailing in the new century when different cultures are interacted with one another through modern communications, media and Internet. As a competent English teacher what is the minimum background knowledge ? Of course the more the better. But what is the possible or approximate limit to the background knowledge in the point of fact that we have limited time and energy and we have other things to do and we must teach the English language in the meantime?

I found a quick solution to it. On the basis of the textbooks of different publishers and versions and suggestions of other teachers I collected several hundreds of items of background knowledge relating to English study. They are most commonly used in English teaching including topics of different fields. I arranged the items alphabetically and integrate them into the database of my program so that they can be easily located. To make the program more conveniently used and spread, I added in editing functions.

I added one more combobox on the form to show the translations of each item as some of them are really difficult and strange to students such as Harlem Renaissance or Hoovervillage. These translations are also accessible to the content as the English items.

To ensure the end user to add new items they consider important, I placed some tools in the program so that the new items can be easily added in or modified dynamically by users. After a short period of time of use, the program becomes a mini library containing the info that is most suitable to teachers or students, who do not have to spend hours searching the background knowledge from the school library. It is really a teaching and learning assistant raising efficiency.

Those who are interested in the program may download it at: http://huagong.3322.net/download/bacgr.zip

If you are interested in the source code or modifications of the program, please write to: guoshesen@21cn.com

The main form of the assistant:

About the author

Guo Shesen (guoshesen@21cn.com ) is an English teacher in the English Department, Luoyang University, Henan Province, P.R China. For more information about Guo and his works, please visit his websites:

Homepage: http://guoshesen.533.net

Guestbook: http://guoshesen.abc.yesite.com

Also: http://enlforum.51.net

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