Reading teaching is an important content of language teaching and the traditional English reading teaching in middle school emphasizes reading skills. However it ignores the introduction of the cultural background of language. The lack or shortage of cultural background knowledge is the main reason to influence their comprehensive ability. The misunderstanding occurs when people communicate in different language and culture environment due to cultural difference. That students can not understand or accept the target language culture will seriously affect the effectiveness of communication. For a long time, English teaching in middle school of China has been given priority to the pure language form training, less involved in cultural content because of the influence of the exam-oriented education. Reading teaching has a pivotal position in the process of English teaching in junior middle school. How to improve the reading ability of middle school students is a common topic for all the English teaching workers. The teacher should also guide the students to master basic knowledge in English and to understand the cultural background knowledge of western countries, especially the Anglo-American countries. The students’ cultural quality and ability to cross-cultural communication can be improved when they know the differences between Chinese and western culture from Hammer.J (1991).
II. The Importance of Introducing Cultural Background Knowledge to Reading Comprehension
Modern reading teaching theory and the practice prove that cultural background knowledge can not only promote students understanding of reading materials but also can cultivate and improve the students’ reading ability. And the students’ knowledge can be expanded too. Only in this way, the better goal of English reading teaching can be achieved. The every step of reading comprehension has a closed relationship with the cultural background knowledge of the readers. Studies have confirmed that the problems appeared in the process of reading comprehension seem to be the language problems. However, it is actually a question of cultural background knowledge.
Reading is the main way to get knowledge for every student in the modern society. So it is very significant among students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities. Reading comprehension is the essential skill which needs to be grasped by  students in the process of English learning in middle school. The New English Course Standards for students in middle school emphasizes on developing students’ reading capacity. What’s more, reading comprehension needs the largest parts and grasps the most scores in all the important examination (Byram 207). 浅谈文化背景知识在中学英语阅读教学中的应用(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_23429.html