【正文】 ural significance related to certain social background。s title, office, or occupation, such as “黃局長(zhǎng)，林經(jīng)理，馬校長(zhǎng)”. But English native speakers seldom address others like this. The most frequently used titles are Mr. (for adult males), Mrs. (for married women), Miss (for unmarried women), Ms (for women whose marital status are unknown or is not indicated). There are some less frequently used titles such as president, prime minister, governor, mayor, doctor, judge, lawyer, and professor (Wang Zhenya, 1999: 139). So we39。s more, Thank you is used more widely in Englishspeaking countries than in China between members of the family, even for minor favors like borrowing a pencil, asking directions, passing an apple, etc. Let’s look at this dialogue:Han Mei: Good evening, Lucy and Lily.Twins: Thanks for asking us.Han Mei: Would you like a mooncake?Lucy: Yes, thank you.Han Mei: Would you like another one?Lucy: May I? Yes, Thanks.Han Mei: How about another one?Lucy: Oh no. Thank you. From the example above, we can know how often Englishspeaking people say thanks. On the contrary, in China, such polite expressions are often omitted, especially among close friends and family members. Many Chinese often regard the frequent use of thank you by Englishspeaking people unnecessary and even tiresome. .Privacy and taboos Some words or expressions are to be avoided because of the tradition or social custom. And the topics talked about must be carefully chosen to suit the speakers and the settings. This may not be easy to do even in one’s mother tongue，and therefore in a foreign language it can be even more difficult. It is important to consider cultural factors in senior school English conversations. In student’s book, there is a dialogue between Meimei and Mrs. Green:Meimei: Hello! What39。 in Chinese indicates happy events, joyous occasions and delightful things. In China, red always indicates some satisfied things or events, especially in the wedding. However, in western countries, people always avoid wearing red clothes when they take part in a wedding. As red in Englishspeaking countries has the connotation of devil, it is not a suitable color for a wedding, which is pletely different from that in China. So it is more suitable and sensible not to dress in red when attending a wedding party in western countries (Yang Hongyan, 2005). In the concept of English nations, red has a closed relationship with blood, terror, fight and is frequently connected with anger and crimes. And the word red will remind them of something terrible. Such as red hands, red battle, which can not be literately interpreted as “紅手”(hongshou) and “紅色戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)”(hongsezhanzheng) in China, but they mean hands that are full of blood, and a furious battle. Take white for another example, white in Chinese is connected with sorrow, misfortune and death. Folks taking part in a funeral dress in white, with white flower on the breast to mourn for the dead. What is different in English is that white indicates nobility, justice and purity. In an American wedding, the bride purposely dresses in white, symbolizing purity and perpetual loyalty and love between husband and wife. In English, there are phrases like white man, white lie, white war which respectively mean a just man, a lie without evil intention and a war during which no man bleeds. In English study, Chinese students may be extremely confused about some sentences like 39。 (He was born in a noble and wealthy family) (Zhang Yongxian,1998: 61). Students know the meaning of each word, but they have much difficulty in putting the whole sentence into Chinese, for the familiar words blue and purple here indicate more than their literal meaning. At the moment, teachers are expected to explain cultural factors hidden behind the words, otherwise, students will make mistakes when they municate with foreigners. The above cultural knowledge reflected in languages should be introduced to senior school students, for many misunderstandings between people of different cultures are caused by the shortage of cultural knowledge. Thus English teachers should make great efforts to cultivate students’ cultural awareness.4. Some methods of cultivating culture awareness Enhancing cultural background knowledge teaching In SEFC teaching practice, teachers focus usually on municative petence, while making cultural knowledge less important. Although cultural knowledge does not affect munication directly, background information plays an important role in improving students’ language ability. In our English teaching materials, no matter it is intensive reading or extensive reading, what are selected in English textbooks are mainly from American/British magazine, literature and newspaper articles on aspects of American/British culture. English and Chinese belong to two different cultures. These two languages reflect their own culture. Cultural differences bring many difficulties to students when they are reading. Some students have a good mand of words and syntax, but they cannot understand the real meaning of the text for the shortage of related background information. In NSEFC books, there is usually a reading text in each unit, including geography, customs, religion, system, history, and eating habits of Englishspeaking countries. In the process of teaching, teachers should try to discover cultural background in order to improve students39。 great interest in classroom interaction. It does not only help the students understand cultural differences, experience foreign culture, but also provides opportunities for oral munication. It is very popular with English beginner (Huang Manmei, 2004). Different talking topic has different social meaning in different culture. In senior school English teaching material, there are dialogues in each unit and many talking topics are involved. Teachers should make full use of these topics to cultivate students