Abstract:The major cause of affecting Chinese students' listening comprehension is the lack of cultural background knowledge and the differences of thinking modes. This paper discusses the relationship among cultural background knowledge, thinking modes and listening comprehension, and then points out the great importance of developing students' background knowledge and English thinking modes and the ways to improve it.

Key words: cultural background; thinking modes; English listening

Language is the carrier of culture. It contains cultural information and reflects the thinking characteristic of a nationality. Culture restricts the language, because culture is deeply influenced by the language. So language and culture are inseparable. That is why culture plays an important role in foreign language study. Cultural background knowledge of English and American countries are greatly reflected in English reading and listening comprehension (张爱琳，2003), no wonder many people feel that it is difficult to learn English, especially in listening. Cultural background, thinking modes and English listening is like a triangle. To improve English listening ability, we must clear the obstacles which are made by cultural knowledge and thinking modes. We should learn more culture about English and American countries and develop our awareness of studying foreign culture, so that we can make quicker reactions to the foreign culture. If we want to find the cultural background and the way of English thinking behind the language, we must grasp the logical thinking mode of English and American people.