【正文】 Department of Foreign Languages, Hunan First Normal University 1 Chapter One An Introduction Globalization of the world economy to promote cooperation among countries, national interests of all ethnic groups mouth frequent exchanges, crosscultural munication Became a prominent feature of this era. Language and culture go hand in hand, inseparable. English as a higher utilization rate of the international language in different countries, different cultural environment plays a very important role, has been widely used. Therefore, people of all countries in the use of munication in English, the crosscultural awareness is particularly important. The Importance of Cultivating Intercultural Awareness and Competence of Junior Middle School Students At the dawn of the twentyfirst century, the Canadian writer Marshall Mcluhan39。 Learning objectives and requirements section also pointed out that students should have some sense of crosscultural munication , to take on the exotic of respect and tolerance 。s munication. Especially the differences between the Oriental culture and Western culture will make the munication between different cultures even harder. Some of these typical differences of EasternWestern cultures will be examined in the following aspects. Highcontext vs. Lowcontext Human munication is dependent on the context in which it occurs. Highcontext and lowcontext is another dimension of cultural pattern. Some persons choose to focus more on the verbal code than on the nonverbal elements, whereas others will actively monitor the nonverbal elements of the context. Edward Hall describes the former as lowcontext and the latter as highcontext. In highcontext cultures, (including China, Japan, North and South Korea, Vietnam, and many Arab and African cultures) many of the meanings being exchanged during the encounter do not have to be municated through words. One reason that meanings often do not have to be stated verbally in highcontext cultures is that people are very Homogeneous. They have similar experiences, information works, and the like. Information is provided through gestures and even silence. Space is also used to municate in hiy}hcontext cultures. Members of highcontext societies tend to have less physical space between them when municating than do those in lowcontext societies. They tend to be aware of their surroundings and can express On the Cultivation of Intercultural Awareness in English Teaching at Junior Middle Schools 8 and interpret feelings without stating them. Highcontext cultures are more reliant on and turned in to nonverbal munication. In a lowContext cultures, (including Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom) the verbal code is the primary source of information and very little is embedded in the context or the participants. The Asian mode of munication (high contact) is often vague, indirect, and implicit, whereas western munication (low context) tends to be direct and explicit. The low context cultures like those of the United States favor direct approaches. Using an indirect approach, even in a negative message, can be seen as dishonest or manipulative. The written word is seen as more important than oral statements, so contracts are binding but promises may be broken. Business munication practices in the United States reflect these lowcontext preferences for logic and definite style. Attitude and World View World views deal with culture39。s brains when people understand the world and change it, and a kind of ability when people manage to pare, analyze, synthesize and recognize reality. Any normal person is provided with this ability, but it is very hard to answer whether this process is the same or not(賈玉新， 1997:391). Not all the processes and manners are equal to one another when different people from different nations use their brains to pare, analyze and synthesize the reality. Different nations create different languages, and develop various thought processes and patterns. 1)Inductive vs. deductive Inductive patterns places the minor points of the arguments first and then derives the main points as a conclusion from those arguments. The structure could be sketched out as:Because A, and because B, and because C, therefore D. This patterns contrast with the deductive pattern, in which a topic is introduced at the beginning of a discourse and then the minor or supporting arguments are presented afterwards. There appears to be a western preference for a deductive pattern in introduction of topics and an Asian preference for an inductive pattern. The thought patterns of the Chinese are characterized with intuition, specification and circularity. (Lin Yutang, 2020:108). When speaking or writing, the Chinese tend to firstly disperse their thoughts, and then gather them, and finally put them to the starting point. Thus, the structures of speech and discourse, are assumed in the form of circle, and Department of Foreign Languages, Hunan First Normal University 13 gathering, and the conclusions, results, or climaxing are put at the end. Up to recent years, careful researches concerning the relationships of thought patterns to discourse structure, have been done by many scholars. One of them is Robert B. Kaplan. He, using the following figures, presented the different thought patterns between some cultures(1998: 207222). Figure 1:Western thought pattern and Eastern thought pattern As sharply contrasted with the Chinese thought that is circular and climaxing, the features of the Western thought is lineal and anticlimaxing. The Westerners tend to begin with the topic to concentrate the listener39。 positive and neg