Abstract:
 Cultural background knowledge is an essential part in foreign language learning because language and culture are inseparable. The inadequate of cultural background knowledge of England and America is the main factor affecting the reading ability of Chinese students. This paper discusses the relationship between cultural background and reading comprehension, and points out the importance of cultivating the students’ cultural background knowledge. Through the discussion of the theory of cultural background and English reading activities, it analyses the influence of cultural background knowledge on reading, and explores some effective ways to enhance the students’ understanding of cultural backgrounds—improving the students’ reading ability by the code of cultural backgrounds, enriching students’ cultural background knowledge through interesting classroom activities, deepening the students cultural background knowledge by selecting the authentic reading materials. The students could also acquire the cultural background knowledge by reading literatures and comparing the difference between Chinese and Western culture.

Key words: Culture; background knowledge; reading ability

摘  要：
文化背景知识是外语学习中的一个不可或缺的部分,因为语言与文化密不可分。英美文化背景知识的缺乏是影响中国学生英语阅读理解能力的主要原因。本文探讨了文化背景知识与阅读理解的关系，阐述了培养学生文化背景知识的重要性。通过对文化背景知识的讨论以及在英语阅读课堂上的实践活动,分析了文化背景知识对阅读能力的影响 ,探索了加深学生文化背景的理解的有效途径—通过文化背景的解码提高阅读能力,通过有趣的课堂活动丰富学生的文化背景知识,选取真实阅读材料加深学生的文化背景知识。学生还可以通过对比中西文化的差异和文学作品的熏陶来积累文化背景知识。

关键词：文化；背景知识；阅读能力

1 Introduction
In college English teaching activities, the teachers should develop the students’ skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating, etc. Among them, reading ability plays an important role. Reading is a crucial way for students to get information and knowledge. At present, instant information can be transmitted around the world by Internet, and reading ability determines the level of personal access to knowledge and information. How to rapidly improve the students’ reading ability in the limited classroom time? This is a tough task every college English teacher is always faced with. The author continuously observes the teaching activities and tries best to collect the learning difficulties of the students to find solutions to the problem. One of the important factors that affect the students’ understanding of the article is the disturbance of the cultural background knowledge, which is particularly a barrier when the students read the passages related to foreign politics, history, culture, customs, etc.