Nowadays many college students lack the competence of cross-cultural communication.They can not communicate with each other appropriately.In response to the problem,this paper analyses its cause and puts forward two countermeasures:fostering students'cultural-awareness and positive attitude towards cross-cultural communication;creating an authentic or semi-authentic language environment.A teacher should combine them together and put them into practice in order to improve students'competence of cross-cultural communication.
Language serves as the tool of communication between people.In any language persons,things and activities that are ta boos should not be talked about or should be mentioned in a roundabout way.it is not only a linguistic phenomenon but also a social phenomenon.The origin of taboo is deeply rooted in the social and cultural background.Today in the increasingly frequent cross-cultural communication,if you do not understand the language taboos,it will hinder the smooth communication.This pa per will talk about American taboos from two aspects.It is designed to help English learners understand American culture and im prove competence of cross-cultural communication.