[摘 要]

本文从历史角度出发，寻找美国个人主义和中国集体主义的产生根源，发展及变化。由于不同的历史原因所形成的不同的价值观反映在两国文化的各个方面。如在日常生活中的不同，婚姻家庭观的差异，教育模式的不同等。这些不同给外语教学带来一定的障碍，因而在外语教学中要采用一些有用的方法，遵循一些原则和掌握一定的策略。

[关键词]个人主义；集体主义；文化教学

Abstract:

People in different countries have different values. These values are decided by their background and culture. America and China have great differences between each other. Therefore, individualism is the dominant idea in America, while Chinese idea is collectivism. They are formed in the process of each country, and they are embodied in every aspect of the society. Meanwhile culture background is very important in learning foreign language. So teachers should teach the language under the culture background. This paper will talk about some methods, principles and Strategies of culture teaching to help students improve their English ability.

Key words: American individualism; Chinese collectivism; culture teaching

1. Introduction
    Individualism is a calm and considerable feeling which disposes each citizen to isolate himself from the mess of his fellows and withdraw into the circle of family and friend, but it is not equal to selfish.[1]253It means independence, deciding or doing something by oneself; collectivism is to put others' benefit first, think of yourself at last. These two different ideas have their own background. Western culture takes the object as the dominant factor, based on nature, so they neglect people. Most of the Americans are busy with work, and they have the high pace every day, so they do not know each other very well and they rarely meet each other. Therefore, it formed their individual character. However, China is an agricultural culture nation. The farmer lives near their lands and most land link together, so the people always reside in a region and take care of each other, talking about anything. They take human being as center.[2]17Chinese culture is still deeply rooted in our souls, our minds and our bloods. This is why Chinese regard collectivism most important. English is a very important part of western culture. We can tell that our aim is to achieve international communication well in English teaching of our country. But differences of different culture make international communication difficult. Individualism is the dominant idea in America, and Chinese idea is collectivism. It is the key that we should know the differences of western and our country about social culture, so that we can learn English and international communication very well.