【正文】 y various forms gathered together by situations as well as sharing the same surroundings such as a home or a particular apartment. Usually situation edies are in On the Effectiveness of American Situation Comedy in Cultivating Crosscultural Communicative Competence 3 length half an hour, where the plot is designed to cover totaling twentytwo minutes in duration and additional eight minutes for another mercial use. Furthermore, in sits the story is either employing plotted applause or taping in advance of a studio audience, which is noted by verbal arguments and quickly settled conflicts. William Asher has been known as a great person who invents the situation edy, in addition who has guided dozens of the major sits in America. In various periods, American situation edies show discriminating characters from 1950s to now in the middle of their developing process. In the nieen fifties family edies and workplace edies were two genres of initial sits. More fantastic ponents were added into live action situation edies by sits inventor till the middle of the 1960s. What’s more, before nieen sixties American sits were not filmed in front of the live audiences but postproduced a prerecorded laughter. Situation edies get down to addressing a large amount of controversial issues in the initial 1970s as well as mostly go back to the threecamera system in front of live audience. As for American sits in the 1980s, plentiful American situation edies like Growing Pains returned to family。 generally it can be divided into 2 kinds namely verbal munication and nonverbal munication (賈玉新， 1997:12). Booming science and technology and advanced munication and transportation both greatly shorten the distance between those people having respectively different social and cultural characteristics, but their estrangement on the psychological is not easily removed. People from different areas have trouble in municating because of cultural diversity, which usually result in cultural misreading and cultural conflict. Effective munication strategies should be chosen according to various targets to lessen or even avoid munication failure. On the Effectiveness of American Situation Comedy in Cultivating Crosscultural Communicative Competence 5 Chapter Three Language and Culture Language With the progress of the society, it is beyond doubt that language is born at the very moment。 (2) the special system for the signs, symbols, regulations and so on for transmitting and sending related information。 (4) a set of all vocal sounds and their binations or unions of these sounds where sense is applied and used to express and municate feelings and experience (Hall, 1959). In accordance with these various methods of language research, there are several diverse and typical definitions of language. One of them is that language can be looked as a structure or a system of these signs and different meanings can be produced by these bined signs, besides, different binations can produce different and unique meanings (Saussure, 1916). Chomsky (1959) holds a opinion that language is a system of sentences, with each finite length as well as constructed from a finite elements’ set that focuses on language’s characteristics in pure structure. And practical effects of language are also attached great importance into municative surroundings. Bloomfield (1935) considers language as the interaction between stimulus and reaction. The formula, S→ r… s→ R, summaries his opinion that means one people can have reaction (R) while another people do the stimulus (S). It is put forward by sociologists that language is considered as social behavior with its particular social function, being one way to municate and identify social anizations or groups. Although there are many definitions of language, we can find their mon traits in On the Effectiveness of American Situation Comedy in Cultivating Crosscultural Communicative Competence 6 accordance with these definitions, namely language is a full set of arbitrary signs or symbols with the view of verbal and nonverbal munication with many others. Culture Culture is a various, allinclusive and ubiquitous social phenomenon and we can find it almost anytime as well as anywhere (Xue Jiao， 2020). Our ways of adapting and learning mores, customs and language and habits can be greatly influenced by various cultures. In addition, our thinking way, acting way and municating way all can be shaped by culture too. Since culture is so allpervasive that we should show great attention to its powerful influence. The number of definitions for culture is up to hundreds, and to be more accurate there are more than one hundred and sixtyfour definitions of culture found in the anthropology literature in the year of 1952. After that various definitions have arisen. Defining culture is difficult for culture is so multidimensional and allpervasive. These definitions of culture that contain or refer to the relations between culture and munication are only stated in the thesis. Almost all human activities contain various forms of culture and culture is defined as a prehensive system in terms of acquired behavior models that are typical characteristics of members of society as well as that aren’t the oute of human geic inheritance. When it es to the definition, it means that culture isn’t opposed instinctively and predetermined by gene. We share our faiths and beliefs, habits and customs, in addition to our respective life values in the system of culture that can always be learnt through successive generations。 and culture is definitely not inborn but actually learned. Members in a certain culture will pay much attention to their behavioral models and patterns of thinking when they are accustomed and internalized. However, not in physical categories but in mental