福建省光泽第一中学2017高中英语教师论文 A Study on Culture Teaching in Senior English Class
Abstract: New English Curriculum Standard points out that “culture awareness” is one of the basic objectives in English teaching, and teaching culture is as important as teaching knowledge and skills. However, there are many problems in instructing culture in current English teaching. In this paper, the author analyzes the current situation of culture in senior English teaching by studying the requirements in the New English Curriculum Standard, examining the culture elements in New Senior English for China and making a survey on culture learning and teaching. Then the author sums up several appropriate principles and strategies of culture teaching which can be applied to senior English class to improve students’ culture awareness and language knowledge.
Key Words: language and culture； culture teaching；
culture teaching strategies
.
摘要：《高中英语课程标准》明确指出，文化意识目标是五项基本目标之一，在教学中培养学生的文化意识与培养学生的语言知识和语言技能同等重要，在教学中实践文化教学势在必行，但是目前的英语文化教学还存在诸多问题。笔者通过解读新课程标准对文化意识目标的要求，分析高中英语教材中的文化因素，以及实践分析问卷调查，总结了目前高中英语文化教学的现状及主要存在的问题，总结概括了一些切实可行的文化教学原则和策略以更好的培养学生的文化意识和语言能力。
关键字：语言与文化;
文化教学;
文化教学策略
CONTENTS
Introduction……………………………………………………………..1
1. Language and Culture……………………………………………......2
1.1 Definitions of Culture……………………………………………....2
1.2 The Relationship between Language and Culture………….…..…..4
1.3 The importance of Culture Instruction in Senior English……..……5
2. Present Situation of Culture Instruction in Senior English…..............7
2.1 Prescription of Culture Instruction in the New Curriculum Standard………………………………………………………….......8
2.2 Cultural Elements in NSEFC…………………………………..…..10
2.3 A Survey on Culture Learning and Teaching in Senior English Class………………………………………………………………..12
2.3.1 Design of the Questionnaire……………………………...............12
2.3.2 Analysis of the Results…………………….……………..............13
3. Culture Instruction in Senior English Class……………………........15
3.1 Principles of Culture Instruction…………………………………...15
3.2 Strategies of Culture Teaching……………………………………..17
3.2.1 Culture Aside……………………………………………….........18
3.2.2 Culture Capsules and Culture Clusters………………………......18
3.2.3 Contrasts…………………………………………………............19
3.2.4 Mini-Dramas and Video Films…………………………..............20
3.2.5 Newspapers, Magazines and Literature…………………............21
Conclusion…………………………………………………………......23
Bibliography……………………………………………………….......25
AppendixⅠ……………………………………………………….........26
AppendixⅡ…………………………………………………….............27
AppendixⅢ……….................................................................................28
AppendixⅣ…………………………………………………………….29
Introduction
With China’s entering into WTO and successful bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, English has become one of the most important subjects in middle schools. Globalization has increased the contact of people from different countries in the fields of economic co-operation, academic exchanges, travel etc. Cooperation between China and foreign countries in various fields has become a common part of social practice. English as a tool of communication has been playing an important role in carrying out international exchange and cooperation. In this condition, people have come to realize that the lack of knowledge about foreign cultures may bring about many pragmatic problems when communicating with foreigners. In 2003, the authorities of the Ministry of Education of China carried out the New English Curriculum Standard to meet the requirements of the society. In the New English Curriculum Standard, “cultural awareness” is one of the five basic objectives in English teaching. Therefore, culture teaching has become one of the most popular subjects in senior English teaching research.
In west countries, the research on culture teaching began in 1960s. Many western linguists made researches on the subjects, such as Nostrand, Brooks, Stern, Hinkel, etc. They made significant achievements in their researches. For example, Hinkel edited a book on culture teaching named Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning. This book seeks to reexamine the relationship between culture, language teaching, and learning by showing how cultural factors influence many different aspects of second language learning and use (Hinkel, 2001). However, in China, it is in the mid 1980s that many scholars began to conduct researches over the impact of culture teaching on foreign language learning. Hu (胡文仲,1992) claims that culture knowledge and culture teaching should be more emphasized in foreign language class and Chinese students should be cultivated with culture sensitivity and communicative competence. Hu and Gao (胡文仲&高一虹, 1997) wrote Foreign Language Teaching and Culture in which the authors introduce and analyze every aspects of culture teaching in foreign language teaching systematically. Chen (陈申,2000) wrote Culture Teaching in Foreign Language Teaching in which the author examines Chinese attitudes towards foreign culture and analyze the relationships between language, language teaching and culture. Therefore, culture teaching is an essential part of foreign language teaching.
Thus, today in Chinese high schools, learners and teachers no longer view foreign language learning as exercising on pure linguistic forms because such focus cannot meet the demands of social development. Hence, culture teaching is to be integrated with language teaching in senior English class as a way to improve learner’s communicative competence. However, in reality, the situation and results of culture teaching in Chinese senior high English class are far from satisfaction due to the lack of attention and systematic teaching strategies. In this paper, the author mainly deals with the current situation of culture teaching and obstacles in senior English class and tires to explore the principles and strategies which can be used in senior English class at present.
1. Language and Culture
In the past thirty to forty years, many linguists have devoted themselves to the study of language and culture, and put forward their own opinions from different perspectives. Culture is such a complicated thing that no one can simply draw a conclusion of the issue, especially when it comes to its relationship with language. But it is no doubt that the relationship between language and culture is inseparable.
1.1 Definitions of Culture
The definition of culture differs in different field of subjects. Roughly calculated, there are more than 250 definitions according to Qi (戚雨村,1994:13). The author lists some authority definitions of culture as follows:
The first profound scientific concept of culture was put forward in print by Sir Edward Burnet Tylor in 1871 (cited in 陈申, 1999) who believed culture is “That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Tylor’s definition is wide enough that includes almost everything men have made.
Porter and Samovar’s definition has been widely cited in many research papers and books. They (2000:8) say:
Culture is the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religions, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.
According to them, cultures therefore include everything from rites of passage to concepts of the soul.
As for the broad definitions of culture, it is impossible for a curriculum to cover “everything” about foreign culture in any foreign language program. So the English as a Foreign Language teachers have to look at various theoretical concepts closely and consider their validity in the context of language pedagogy.
In recent years, socio-linguists and EFL teachers have expanded the notion of culture in language education from “culture with a big C” to “culture with a small c”.
“Culture with a big C” focuses on “the sum total of a people’s achievement and contributions to civilization: art, music, literature, architecture, technology, scientific discoveries and philosophy”. “Culture with a small c” includes “the behavior patterns of the life style of people: when and what they eat, how they make a living, the way they organize their society, the attitudes they express towards friends and members of their families, how they act in different situations, which expressions they use to show approval and disapproval, the traditions they must observe, and so on” (Allen&Valette, 1977: 325,cited in 鲍志坤,1997).
Nowadays, it is highly suggested that language education should put emphasis on “small c”. And the author supports this view and hold that language teachers in senior high school should teach “small c” rather than “big C”.
1.2 The Relationship between Language and Culture
In the simplest sense, a language is a set of symbols, with rules for combining the symbols, that a language community uses and understand (Samovar & Porter, 2004:69). It is through language that we reach out and make contact with our surrounding realities. And it is through language that we share with others our experiences of that reality (ibid.:72). However, language’s importance in communication is based on the same realities in society which means the same culture. Thus, language and culture is inseparable. Language is a part of culture, a carrier of culture, and a reflection of culture.
One of the most important theories concerning the relationship between language and culture is Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:
Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously build up on the language habits of the group (Sapir, 1929: 162, cited in Hall 2005).
From this theory, it is easily to conclude that language is a unique form of culture. Every different culture nourishes a distinguished language with a different system of symbols. Culture is the basis and one of the most important attributes of language. The formulation and development of a language is dependent on the culture. With the human society develops from time to time, culture changes at the same time. While cultural factors as science, technology, economy and living patterns change, new words, new phrases, new styles will join in the system of language. And then the language will change.
On the other hand, language reflects culture in various ways and is indispensable to culture acquisition, transmission and development. Firstly, language is a keystone in culture for culture is maintained through language. People use language to receive, store, manipulate and generate symbols. Secondly, many cherished heritages have been handed on from generation to generation by means of oral or print communication. Thirdly, language organizes and expresses a whole range of cultural information and interpretations of concepts and ways of human life. And the cultural information and concepts are specific form which have acquired from the development of the specific community of language users. Thus, it is the language which records the ancestors’ knowledge and experience that assure human beings’ civilization today.
Generally speaking, it is undeniable that language and culture are interrelated and affected mutually. And the intimate relationship between language and culture leads to a inevitable connection between language learning and culture learning. Consequently, teaching language must be integrated with teaching culture.
1.3 The Importance of Culture Instruction in Senior English in China
English has become one of the most important subjects in middle school as well as in colleges and universities. Most students in china begin to learn English in primary school, and some of them start in kindergarten. Nevertheless, most of them can not communicate naturally and fluently with foreigners after years of study. In most cases, they may write perfect sentences with fabulous words while they come across dozens of misunderstandings in communicating with native speakers. The major problem lies in the different culture backgrounds. That means we hold different views towards moral ethics, thinking patterns, concepts of value and so on. The author will make a comparison between Chinese culture and English culture from the following four aspects.
First, our values and moral ethics are different from those of western countries. Westerners always are proud for themselves when they do something successfully and they tend to accept others’ compliments. However, it is polite for Chinese to be modest. For example, when a foreigner teacher tell you that your English is very good, you probably say: “No, no, my English is very poor.” And it turns out that foreigners do not like our modest way to ‘accept’ their compliments. What’s more, western people prefer being special to being average while Chinese always try to be normal. Freedom, personality and independence are being treasured in western countries. In China, we emphasize collectivism which means we should act unanimously to make sure the behalf of the whole group or organization. In another word, they highlight individualism and we insist collectivism.
Second, westerners have different views on social relationships. On the case of social classes, westerners have a stronger faith on egalitarianism. In the west, no matter he is poor or rich, he gets the same rights as others; he believes in himself; and he respects himself as others respect him. As the proverb says: “If working hard, even a cowboy can be a president”, they do their best to be successful. On the other hand, family construction is simpler in America than in China. American family is composed of parents and their kids, while Chinese family comprises all the generations from the oldest great grandparents to the youngest grandchildren. This may explain that children in western are maturer and more independent than children in China.
Third, social amenities are one of the major problems which cause mistakes in communication between Chinese and foreigners. There are many examples of this kind of cultural differences in everyday conversations. When Chinese meet for the first time, there is no special expression for the occasion, but when most English-speaking people meet for the first time, they often say something like “I’m pleased to meet you”. And when they apart, they are expected to remark “It’s nice meeting you” or “It’s nice to have met you or something similar” (邓炎昌& 刘润清，1989: 29). Another obvious difference lies on the way people reply to compliments: Americans tend to accept the compliments while Chinese generally murmur some reply about not being worthy of the praise (ibid.:33).
Fourth, a Chinese character can be equivalent to an English word for their dictionary meanings, but their connotations may be different. For students of a foreign language, it is essential that they know not only the denotation of words, but also the connotations. Serious blunders may be committed because of ignorance of a connotation. When talking about the Chinese countryside, English-speaking people in China have occasionally asked: “Why do you call rural people peasants? I thought their status had changed and that they are now respected.” To many Chinese, the question itself might be puzzling. Why not call them peasants? Why should the term imply lack of respect? In fact, the English word peasant does not have exactly the same meaning as the Chinese 农民. The word peasant means a usually uneducated person of low social status, but the Chinese term农民 does not have such derogatory coloration (邓炎昌& 刘润清，1989: 21).
The differences between English and Chinese are far more than what the author have discussed ahead, and that is why we have to spend so many years to study English. Learning a language is not only memorizing vocabularies and understanding the grammar, because the ultimate goal is to use the language. It is the same with English. We learn English, so we should understand westerners’ expressions and behaviors and communicate with them. However, the truth is, most average students in high school who have spent 8-10 years learning English only can understand a little about foreigners when talk with them and barely can express themselves clearly. All the key point is the English culture which blooms the language. And it is crucial to teach English culture in senior middle school.
2. Present Situation of Culture Instruction in Senior English
As the New English Curriculum Standard carried out, the culture teaching and learning has been paid more and more attention. And most teachers have recognized the importance of culture teaching and instructed culture in English teaching. Yet, there are some limitations and problems in culture teaching, in this chapter, the author will investigate the current situation and problems of culture teaching in senior high school by illustrating the prescription of culture instruction in the New Curriculum Standard, examining the culture contents in New Senior English for China and making a survey on culture teaching and learning in senior middle school.
2.1 Prescription of Culture Instruction in the New Curriculum Standard
Since 1980s, the foreign language teachers have noticed the intimate relationship between language and culture, so more and more professors and university teachers began to add the content of culture to foreign language teaching. Culture teaching in our country has been expending and great educational achievements have been made. As for the senior middle school, the New Curriculum Standard for Senior English has contained the culture goals. The following is the prescription of culture instruction in the New Curriculum Standard for Senior English (2003).
The New Curriculum Standard is schemed in levels with the whole basic education of English divided into nine grades. Each grade has its respective goal in culture instruction. The general prescriptions of the culture goals for each grade are as follows:
General Prescription of the Culture Goals for Each Grade
At each grade, the students will:
Grade One: Show an interest in the foreign culture in the learning of English.
Grade Two: Be ready to learn about foreign cultures and customs.
Grade Three: Be aware of the fact that there is culture diversity in language communication.
Grade Four: Be able to notice the differences between native culture and foreign culture in the learning and everyday communication.
Grade Five: Further the understanding of culture diversity.
Grade Six: Be able to note the culture content and background.
Grade Seven: Understand the culture diversity in communication and gradually form a cross-cultural awareness.
Grade Eight: Understand the cultural content and background knowledge in communication; take a respective and tolerant attitude towards foreign cultures.
Grade Nine: Have a relatively strong global awareness.
The new Curriculum Standard also has a detailed description of culture awareness.
“Language has rich cultural content. In foreign language teaching, culture refers to the history and geography, customs, traditions, life styles, arts and literature, behaviors, and values of the nations of the target languages. Learning and knowing about the culture of English-speaking countries will better the understanding and command of English, help to better the understanding and perception of one’s own culture, and help cultivate global awareness. In the teaching of English, teachers should gradually broaden the content and scope of culture knowledge according to the age and ability of cognition.” (English Curriculum Standard for Senior Middle School, 2003)
The new Curriculum Standard also prescribes the goals of communication for each grade. Let’s take a look at the prescriptions of Grade Eight which correspond to Senior 3:
Grade Eight:
1) Understand the common idioms and vulgarism and their cultural connotations.
2) Understand the common allusions and legends.
3) Appreciate the experiences, achievements and contributions of major writers, artists and scientists in English-speaking countries.
4) Get acquainted with the political and economical facts of major English-speaking countries.
5) Get acquainted with the dominant mass media of English-speaking countries.
6) Understand the differences and similarities of life styles in china and in major English-speaking countries.
7) Understand the differences and similarities of people’s behaviors and manners in china and in English-countries.
8) Get acquainted with the major religious traditions of English-speaking countries.
9) Cultivate a global awareness by learning English and understand different cultures in the world.
10) Better understand Chinese culture by making comparisons between native and foreign cultures.
After a close study of the culture goals in the new curriculum, we find that the Ministry of Education puts special emphasis on culture awareness and the importance of integrating culture instruction in language teaching, which can be seen from the notion and objectives in the curriculum and the textbooks which go with them.
2.2 Cultural Elements in NSEFC
According to the new curriculum standard, culture teaching is of great significance in English teaching in middle school at present. And the new texts for senior school are designed to contain the culture which is required in the new curriculum standard. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the new textbooks to get a general idea of what cultural elements is contained in the textbooks. The textbooks to be used now are New Senior English for China, which are written jointly by both the People’ Education Press and Longman, and published by the People’s Education Press in 2004. There are 11 volumes of textbooks and each term covers two volumes except the last term which only finishes one. All the textbooks follow the same structure, which are made up of five units mainly including seven sections: Warming Up, Pre-reading, Reading, Comprehending, Learning about Language, Using Language and Summing Up. Each textbook also has extra exercises, that is, the Workbook for each unit at the last part of the textbook which is made up of listening, talking, using words and expressions, using structures, listening tasks, reading tasks, writing tasks, and project. The design of the text aims to achieve the objectives of language skills, language knowledge, feelings and attitudes, learning strategies and culture awareness. And there are abundant culture elements in the new textbooks since culture teaching has been highlighted in the new curriculum standard. In order to deliver a better teaching of culture, it is essential to figure out what are the culture elements in the new textbooks.
According to Chinese linguist Zhang Zhanyi’s theory (1990), culture can be classified into “culture as knowledge” which refers to the verbal and nonverbal cultural factors that indirectly interfere with the proper transmission of message in the interaction process and “culture in communication” which refers to the verbal and nonverbal cultural factors that directly interfere with the proper transmission of message when people of different cultural backgrounds are interacting with each others. Thus, the “culture as knowledge” and “culture in communication” combine to form a whole system in culture teaching; either aspect plays a rather essential role in the formation of students’ cultural awareness. And it is necessary to find out what the kinds of culture are contained in the New Senior English for China respectively.
On one hand, most of cultural content is “culture as knowledge” in NSEFC. According to Grade 7-8 of the cultural demands in the new curriculum standard, there are following main topics of “culture as knowledge” in demand. They are famous people, the circumstances of politics and economy, mass media, art, history, national geography, life style and social activity in English countries, global culture, religion and belief culture, and comparison between Chinese and English culture. Examining the whole series of the new textbook, the author find that many units concern about famous people, art, life style and geography while little is mentioned about the politics, economy, mass media, and the comparison between Chinese and Western culture. For example, B1Unit5, B4Unit1, B5Unit1, etc. are about famous people; B1Unit3, B3Unit1&2, B4Unit3, etc. are about life style and social activities; B2Unit1, B6Unit1, B8Unit4&5, etc. are about art and history; B3Unit5, B5Unit2, B6Unit5, etc, are about national geography; only one unit relates to the comparison between Chinese and Western culture and no unit covers the politics, economy and mass media in English countries. In my viewpoint, it is unbalanced to make such arrangement of “culture as knowledge” in the new textbooks.
On the other hand, “culture in communication” is as important as “culture as knowledge” and it shares the same statue as “culture as knowledge” in the new textbooks. According to Zhang Zhanyi’s theory (1990), “culture in communication” refers to the verbal and nonverbal cultural factors that directly interfere with the proper transmission of message when people of different cultural backgrounds are interacting with each other. In that sense, “culture in communication” may include a wide range of information, for example, daily expressions, idioms, formulaic languages, body language that convey cultural information and facilitate communicate, and communicative rules as well as social customs that have great significance to successful communication. New Senior English for China is rich in daily expressions, such as: make appointment, ordering food, express thanks, and so on. And this series of textbooks provide a lot of idioms and formulaic languages which are quite helpful to the development of students’ cultural awareness. In most cases, this kind of information is presented in the part of “Using language” which also provides some practices. However, little information about social customs or communicative rules is mentioned in the textbooks. And the necessary knowledge about communicative rules and social customs are indispensable for students to avoid communicative failures and other potential problems, such as cognitive barriers, culture shock, stereotyping, and ethnocentrism.
Generally speaking, this series of textbooks are good enough to meet the demands of culture teaching in new curriculum standard while it is not perfect that several aspects need improving such as the balance of culture contents and quantity of some culture contents. Anyway, all the adjustments should be carried out to better the outcome of culture learning and teaching. So it is necessary to make a survey of the present situation and problems of culture learning and teaching.
2.3 A survey on Culture Learning and Teaching
Since the new curriculum standard has emphasized the importance of culture teaching, are both teachers and students aware of it? Do they attach great importance to it in their teaching and learning practice? And how? This survey aims at knowing the current statue of culture teaching and the main problems in culture teaching at senior middle schools.
2.3.1 Design of the Questionnaires
Two questionnaires are designed for teachers and students respectively. Students’ questionnaire is written in Chinese so that students could express themselves successfully. Each questionnaire comprises ten objective questions.
The questionnaire for teachers mainly covers the following five questions:
1). How is the culture instruction being regarded in current English teaching?
2). How do teachers carry out culture instruction in their teaching?
3). What are the main obstacles in current culture teaching?
4). Do teachers possess the knowledge about culture instruction?
5). How do teachers’ think about improving culture instruction in English class?
The questionnaire for students mainly covers the following five questions:
1). How do students think about foreign culture and culture learning?
2). How much they can learn from the textbook and English class?
3). What are their means to gain cultural information?
4). How is their cultural awareness?
5). What are their ideas for culture teaching?
2.3.2 Analysis of the Results
Originally, 60 copies of the questionnaire are distributed among teachers from five different schools in Wenzhou. As for students, the copies of the questionnaire are distributed to students from 4 schools in Wenzhou. Of the total 180 copies, 166 are valid. The results of the survey are shown in table 1 and table 2 in AppendixⅢ and AppendixⅣ. The following analysis is based on the statistics in table1 and table 2.
In order to analyze the results more logically and clearly, the author reorganize the questions of the two questionnaires and divide them to three parts: the questions that concern the current statue of culture teaching and learning, the questions that concern the current methods and strategies in culture instruction and the questions concern the obstacles in current culture teaching and learning. In the following paragraphs, the author will analyze the three aspects of current culture teaching and learning.
Firstly, the first three questions in teachers’ questionnaire and the first two questions in students’ questionnaire can be divided into the part of the current statue of culture teaching and learning. According to the results, the importance have been recognized, for all the teachers in the survey choose “Yes” in question 1 and only 2.4% of the students think it is unimportant. However, it seems most teachers are not positive about the situation of current culture teaching. As the results show, only 7. 4% of teachers think culture teaching is given enough attention in current English teaching and the same percentage of teachers think the currently available courses are sufficient for the students to acquire the foreign culture. In general, the statue of culture instruction has risen greatly since the new curriculum standard was carried out.
Secondly, questions 4, 5, 8 and 9 in teachers’ questionnaire and questions 5, 7 and 10 in students’ questionnaire belong to the questions that concern the current methods and strategies in culture teaching and learning. Although most teachers are aware of the importance of culture instruction, they have not realized it in their class. Based on the statistics above, we can not be optimistic about the current condition of using methods to instruct culture in teaching practice. More teachers agree that the better way to instruct culture to the students is incorporating with the textbook, but only 3.7% of teachers satisfy with the textbooks in use on providing culture elements. Obviously, most teachers have not formed their own understanding of culture teaching and their own style of teaching culture. As the result, the effect can not be satisfactory. Fortunately, most teachers consider the related cultural elements when preparing lessons and compare the differences between Chinese and English sometimes. And it is glad to find out that 96.3% of teachers instruct culture through in-class learning, after-class reading or assign culture learning tasks. As for students, we can know from the survey that most of them do not satisfy with what they have learnt in class and expect to learn more about culture. The most popular ways for them to learn more are movies and TV programs, the second one is English magazines and newspapers. However, 36.1% of them do not learn more through any way. Teachers may get inspiration from students’ way of learning after class, and induce some cuts of TV programs or induce some interesting articles from English newspapers to the class. Anyway, teachers’ understanding and practice in inducing culture in class is immature. Therefore, there is large room for improvement.
Lastly, questions 6, 7 and 10 in teachers’ questionnaire and questions 3,4,6,8 and 9 in students’ questionnaire concern the problems in current culture learning and teaching. From the results of students’ questionnaire, we can draw the following problems: 1) Based on the results of questions 3 and 4, culture information in class is not enough for students to learn; 2) From the result of question 6, students are not quite content about the culture elements in the textbooks; 3) The results of questions 8 and 9 show that most students are not good at communicating with foreigners. Considering the statistics of teachers’ questionnaire, it is a serious problem that teachers are not familiar with the current culture teaching theories and strategies and they have not received enough training on culture teaching. In addition, according to the result of question 4, it seems that too heavy workload for teachers, not enough qualified teachers, not suitable textbook and not required in the assessment system are all the biggest obstacles in the culture instruction. After all, nothing is perfect in the first place, so we have to improve it. In my opinion, the problem of strategy is on the top of the list which should be come over first.
3. Culture Instruction in Senior English Class
New Senior English for China provides rich information for culture teaching in high school and teachers recognize the great importance of culture instruction, at the same time, there are still some problems in it, therefore, the question of how to deal with the cultural content in these textbooks and how to use other sources and means as supplements to the textbook to enrich students’ cultural knowledge and help them to develop cultural awareness is of great importance. This chapter mainly focuses on the principles and strategies of culture instruction in senior English class.
3.1 Principles of Culture Instruction
First, culture teaching should serve to improve learners’ intercultural communication ability. The main purpose of learning English is to communicate with foreigners. But misunderstandings are often unavoidable in conversations because of different culture backgrounds; therefore, English learners should know a certain amount of English culture and use it appropriately according to the need of communication. When teachers instruct culture in the class, they should aim to improve students’ ability to use their culture knowledge in communication with foreigners.
Second, culture instruction should be divided into several phases. Culture teaching should be carried out in the condition of students’ age and cognitive competence and slowly deep into complex culture knowledge. In the beginning of foreign language teaching, teachers need to make students have a basic and general understanding of English culture and the differences between Chinese and English culture. And the culture knowledge in this phase should relate to students’ daily activity and cultivate their interests to learn English. In a higher grade, teachers should lead students to a larger scope of English culture to broaden their view of culture and enhance their sensibility and criticism on the differences and similarities between Chinese and English culture. Then, it can improve their intercultural communicative competence.
Third, culture teaching can combine with other subjects. On one hand, teachers can induce the knowledge from other subjects such as history, geography and politics. In this way, English teaching can be more open and flexible which can help enrich the content of culture teaching in English class. On the other hand, culture instruction can be conducted by modern educational technology. Teachers can provide audio, visual and tactual channel for different style learners to acquire culture content. Things as practicalities, movies, videos, tapes, CD, TV, internet, interview, magazines, newspapers, literary, anecdotes, iconograph, photos, and songs can be changed into culture teaching materials (徐世猛&李洁,2005:90).
Fourth, culture teaching should be systematic. Culture is comprehensive, so a jumbled culture teaching can not be successful. A logical system is demand in better culture construction. Only in this way can students understand clearly the whole culture structure and the soul of English culture and enhance their intercultural communicative competence cognitively and emotionally. So teachers should make a general schedule of culture teaching which maybe bring into effect in different grades with pertinence and emphases.
Fifth, culture teaching should be pragmatic. The language contents should be closely related to daily communication and ability improvement. The principle requires the lead-in cultural contents should be closely related to the language contents students have learned and the relevant range of daily communication. Meanwhile, the career students are going to take up in the future should be considered. In this way, cultural education and the practical language communication can be closely connected to arouse students’ interest, not to feel the relationship between language and culture too abstract and empty.
Sixth, culture teaching should be suitable. It mainly refers to the appropriateness of teaching contents and teaching methods. What belongs to the mainstream culture should be explained in details. Synchronic cultural are the key points. Timely introduction of some historical contents are helpful for students to understand the entire process of some cultural tradition and customs. The appropriateness of teaching methods means handle the relationship between the teacher’s instruction and the students’ self- study. The teacher should be the organizer and guide of students’ extra-curriculum culture learning and encourage students to do plenty of extra reading and practice and increase the knowledge of culture.
3.2 Strategies of Culture Teaching
As Stern (1999) points out, there are three different situations in culture teaching. The first is culture teaching in foreign language courses in which the students in physically and often psychologically far removed from the reality of life in the target speech community. The second situation is the one in which students may be physically far away from the target language environment but psychologically it is much more real to them because they are preparing to visit the country for a holiday or for working there. The third situation to consider is that of students, immigrants, or personnel already in the target language milieu.
The situation of culture teaching in high school English class in China is like the first one. Since Chinese students are physically and psychologically far removed from the target culture, the aim of culture teaching in China is to try to shorten the psychological distance. As we know, culture teaching is in vital to develop students’ socio-cultural competence and to avoid failure in intercultural communication, but how to teach culture and how to cultivate cultural awareness remains a question. Therefore, effective teaching strategies are very essential. The strategies briefly described below can be effectively used in culture teaching in high school English teaching.
3.2.1 Culture Aside
Culture asides are items of cultural information offered by the teacher as they present themselves in the course of language work. They are important because they help create a cultural context for language items and help learners to create a network of mental associations similar to those, which the items evoke in native speakers (Stern,1999:224).
Culture aside is one of the most widely used techniques in culture teaching. Because it is convenient to conduct in middle school English classes and at the same time it can provide the information directly. Though culture aside can be connected with language teaching closely, it is hard to cause emotional empathy of students. So teachers have to pay much attention to the skills of their teaching. They must add the right information at the right place in the right time.
For example, when teaching the subjunctive mood used to show politeness in English, the teacher can at the same time talk about the Politeness Principle in Western cultures. In this way, cultural knowledge is closely linked with language study on the one hand; the students can obtain much useful information about cultural differences between English and Chinese on the other hand.
3.2.2 Culture Capsules and Culture Clusters
Culture capsules and culture clusters are a group of the most influential and the best-established devices for the culture teaching. According to Taylor and Sorenson (1961,cited in Stern 1999), Culture capsules refer to a few lines of words of introduction or explanation to the specific parts of cultural differences between the native language and the target one. A culture capsule consists of a paragraph or an explanation of one minimal difference between a foreigner and a target custom, along with several illustrative photos or relevant realities. Topics for culture capsules range from specific tangible conversations, customs or nonverbal behaviors of daily life to deeply hidden abstract thought patterns or values. The treatment of a capsule was not to take up more than ten minutes of a lesson period.
Culture capsule can be done in different ways. Usually it is done by the teacher who may give a brief presentation about a certain topic, and then encourage the whole class to have a discussion about it or make comparisons between the differences of Chinese and Western cultures. And the other way to do it is to ask students to prepare for certain topics outside class beforehand, and make presentation during class time in five to ten minutes, then the teacher can give some supplement and evaluation on their performance.
Take Unit 1 “Festivals around the World” in Book 3 of NSEFC for example, the teacher can give students an introduce of the most important festivals in Western countries by showing them some pictures, the introduction can include the origins, times of the festivals, and the ways of celebrating, and so on. After the presentation, students can have a discussion on their favorite Western festivals and give their reasons. Also, students can be encouraged to make comparisons between the Chinese festivals and Western festivals.
The concept of culture cluster has been developed by Meada and Morain, is an elaboration of culture capsules. Culture clusters are combinations of conceptually related culture capsules or they are a major set of activities broken up into its constituent parts. Two or more capsules that belong together can form a cluster(Stern, 1999:225). For instance, to teach about “education” in the United States, some related topics could be introduced such as primary education, secondary school education and higher education. Culture capsules and culture clusters are good strategies for giving students some intellectual knowledge about the cultural aspects being explained.
3.2.3 Contrasts
The great differences between Chinese culture and Western culture may cause difficulties to students in the understanding of the target culture. Cultural contrast which involves systematic examination of the contrastive qualities of the target culture and Chinese culture can help students to overcome this problem and to get a better understanding of both Chinese culture and the target culture.
Unit2 in Book 6 of NSEFC gives an introduction to English poems, which contain plenty of cultural information. The teacher can help students to make a comparison between English poems and Chinese poems to see their different forms of writing, different contents, and different cultural information conveyed in them, which is very helpful to students to get a deep insight into the English and Chinese cultures.
NSEFC do not have much cultural information about comparison between Chinese culture and Western culture, therefore, contrast can be widely used in the culture teaching of this series of textbooks. Teachers can help students to do cultural contrasts if necessary to get students to have a better understanding of the differences between Chinese culture and Western culture.
3.2.4 Mini-Dramas and Video Films
Mini-drama was developed by social scientists for cross-cultural education and was then applied to foreign language classroom. It consists of a series of everyday life illustrating culturally significant behavior. Mini-drama is designed not only to present a problem situation but also to involve students emotionally by identifying them with one or another character in the drama (Stern, 1999:227). After each act, the teacher asks students what the actions and words of the characters in the drama mean and leads them to make judgments about the character in the play. At the end of the mini-drama, some figure explains what is really happening and why the target culture member has really not done wrong. After the person’s speech, students are asked to reinterpret what they have seen in view of the information that the knowing figure has provided. Mini-dramas promote knowledge learning and cultural understanding, in addition to creating the emotional impact.
Video films’ viewing is a popular way of cultivating culture awareness. As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. This strategy is of significance especially in China because most students here have only a limited idea of what a native English speaker means. Moreover, popular cultures in Western countries have great impacts on Chinese young adults nowadays. Popular films with positive culture connotation will attract students and cultivate students’ cultural awareness naturally. For example, the Reading of Unit 4 in Book 8 is the script of the movie My Fair Lady. After studying this unit, students may become very interested in this story, then the teacher can provide them with a chance to watch the movie together. By watching the movie, students can get a vivid picture of the story and the social customs and background of that period. Because they have just learned the lines in the text, they would not feel too difficult to catch what the hero and heroin say, which is very helpful to their listening.
3.2.5 Newspapers, Magazines and Literature
Teaching culture by using newspapers, magazines and literature is another considerable strategy. Those publications are capable of fulfilling such social roles as informing, advising, helping, and entertaining. Although they are not a fixed part of the senior high school syllabus, they are the very authentic materials that can expand students’ international awareness and measure the status of students’ real reading ability. The advantage of using the newspaper and magazines in foreign language classes lies in its function of reflecting the foreign people in their own cultural setting and of providing insights into various, contemporary interests of the foreign people. Many aspects of culture, which are not usually found in textbooks, are present in popular publications. Students exposed to such relevant, authentic, and varied cultural materials will be able to obtain an understanding of the foreign culture from the insiders’ perspective. The role of the teacher is the co-learner with the students. The teacher selects materials that are likely to arouse learners’ interest and to provoke thinking and discussion. After giving enough time for the learners to read, think and discuss over the topics, the teacher is supposed to sum up.
Literature is greatly valuable in enhancing intercultural communication, and most of the literary works pay much attention to describe the society in which the stories take place. In the description, a great deal of cultural aspects are involved, such as politics, economics, education, religion, and so on. So literature reading can deepen learners’ understanding towards foreign countries and their cultures. However, literary material should be appropriate and selective for senior middle students. Literature that is appropriate for senior middle students must be relative simple in the structure and style, be free from abstruse vocabulary and contain valuable cultural content. For example, in learning the first unit Friendship in Book 1 of NSEFC which gives an introduction of the little girl Anne and her Diary, students can be encouraged to read the world famous Anne’s Diary, which is about the Jewish girl’s true experience in World War Ⅱ. By reading it, students can get a good understanding of the historical and social background in that period. And because it is the writing of a little girl, students would not feel very difficult to understand it.
In general, the cultural teaching elements required by senior high English syllabus, the culture teaching materials and the culture teaching strategies presented above have been widely recognized and used by language teachers both at home and abroad. What senior high teachers in China should notice is that some of the strategies can well function in EFL environment while others have to be carefully treated to adapt to the Chinese school environment.
Conclusion
An increasing number of linguists and foreign language teachers realize that a good command of English vocabulary and grammar does not necessarily lead to a good mastery of English. To learn a foreign language well, learners should also become familiar with the cultural differences that may affect proper understanding in that language, because people with different cultural background have different customs, behaviors, thought patterns and views on value, faith and belief. Because of the differences, misunderstanding may occur, that is to say, when people with different cultural background communicate, they will come across the cultural barriers, and the sense of imbalance in feeling and psychology. Culture learning helps eliminate communication barriers, prevent students from communication conflicts, develop their field vision and promote their cultural communication. Therefore, it is the responsibility of English teachers to recognize the importance of culture teaching and bring culture into English class.
This paper aims to investigate the present situation of culture instruction in Senior English under the context of New Curriculum Standard and explore the strategies of culture instruction in Senior English class. First, based on the goals of cultural awareness provided in the New Curriculum Standard, the author examines New Senior English for China and also makes some comments. Second, the author makes a survey to investigate the current situation of culture instruction in Senior English and also analyzes the results. From the survey, the author finds that some English teachers in Senior Schools have realized the importance of culture instruction, but they are not quite qualified to teach culture because they do not know much about culture teaching strategies and seldom practice culture instruction in class. At last, the author suggests six principles and five strategies in last chapter. Culture teaching should be phased, systematic, pragmatic, suitable, combined with other subjects and serve to improve learners’ intercultural communication. Culture instruction strategies such as culture interspersion, culture aside, culture capsules, culture clusters, culture assimilators, mini-dramas, video films, newspapers, magazines and literature can be applied in Senior English teaching. In general, this paper deals with the relationship between language and culture, problems and strategies of
culture teaching in Senior English and culture goal in New Curriculum Standard.
However, there are limitations in this paper. Firstly, although the NSEFC is the most widely used English books in China, it might be better to examine more series of other textbooks which are also in use in order to draw a more convincing and better generalization. Secondly, as to the teaching strategies proposed in the paper, their effectiveness has not been demonstrated with students in senior middle school, they need to be tested in English class to see how they can develop students’ cultural awareness.
To sum up, by making a survey of the current conditions of culture teaching in senior school, this paper is intended to give suggestions on the strategies of culture teaching in senior English class. Yet, more research is necessary to better the arguments of culture teaching both in theory and practice. It is still a big problem of how to find appropriate approaches for cultivating Chinese senior middle school students’ cultural awareness and how to systematically combine the cultivation of the students’ cultural awareness with the teaching and learning of the target languages. There is still a long way to go.
Bibliography
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AppendixⅠ
高中英语文化教学调查问卷（教师部分）
1. Is culture teaching important?
A. Yes.
B. No
2. Do you think culture teaching is paid enough attention in current English teaching?
A. Enough attention.
B. Some attention.
C. Little attention.
D. Not a single.
3. Do you think the current courses are sufficient for the students to acquire the foreign culture?
A. Sufficient
B. So-so.
C. Insufficient.
4. Which do you think is the better way to instruct culture to the students？
A. Incorporating with the textbook.
B. Giving separate culture instruction course.
5. How do you evaluate the textbook in use on providing culture elements?
A. Quite satisfactory.
B. So-so.
C. Not satisfactory.
6. Are you familiar with the current popular culture teaching theories and strategies?
A. Very much.
B. Just some.
C. Little.
D. Not a single.
7. Have you received any training projects on culture teaching?
A. Yes, a lot.
B. Yes, but not many.
C. No.
8. Do you often consider the related cultural elements when preparing lessons?
A. Often.
B. Sometimes.
C. Little.
D. Never.
9. What kind of culture exposure you offered for your students?
A. In-class learning.
B. After-class reading.
C. Assign culture learning tasks.
D. None of the kind.
10. What do you think is the biggest obstacle in the culture instruction?
A. Too heavy workload for teachers.
B. Not enough qualified teachers.
C. Not suitable textbook.
D. Not required in the assessment system.
E. Others:
AppendixⅡ
高中英语文化教学调查问卷（学生部分）
1、你对外国文化感兴趣吗？
A.很有兴趣
B.一般
C.一点兴趣
D.没兴趣
2、你认为学习外国文化在英语学习中重要吗？
A.重要
B.一般
C.不重要
3、在英语课堂上，你能学到多少外国文化？
A.很多
B. 一些
C. 一点点
D. 几乎没有
4、你认为目前从课堂上学到的外国文化知识足够吗？
A. 是的，足够了
B.不够，我想多学点
5、在课堂上，你的老师会比较中西方文化的不同吗？
A.经常
B.有时候
C. 偶尔
D.从不
6、你认为课本上所包含的文化知识足够满足你目前的需求吗？
A.足够了
B.还行
C. 不够
D.远远不够
7、课外你通常通过什么途径学习英语？
A.英文杂志和报纸
B.电影和电视节目
C.因特网
D.没有
E.其它：
8、你与外国人交谈过吗？（有的话请回答下一题，没有的话不用做下一题。）
A.有
B.没有
9、与外国人交谈时，你感觉怎样？
A.能自然流畅地交谈
B.基本能沟通
C. 稍微能沟通
D.完全不能沟通
10、如果学校开设专门的课程教授外国文化，你乐意参加吗？
A.有兴趣，会参加
B.随便去听听
C.没意思，不想参加
AppendixⅢ
Table 1: Results of the questionnaire for teachers
Questions A B C D
1. Is culture teaching important?
A. Yes.
B. No 100% 0
2. Do you think culture teaching is paid enough attention in current English teaching?
A. Enough attention.
B. Some attention.
C. Little attention.
D. Not a single. 7.4% 74.1% 18.5%
3. Do you think the current courses are sufficient for the students to acquire the foreign culture?
A. Sufficient
B. So-so.
C. Insufficient.
7.4% 74.1% 18.5%
4. Which do you think is the better way to instruct culture to the students？
A. Incorporating with the textbook.
B. Giving separate culture instruction course. 59% 41%
5. How do you evaluate the textbook in use on providing culture elements?
A. Quite satisfactory.
B. So-so.
C. Not satisfactory.
3.7% 66.7% 29.6%
6. Are you familiar with the current popular culture teaching theories and strategies?
A. Very much.
B. Just some.
C. Little.
D. Not a single. 3.7% 44.4% 48.2% 3.7%
7. Have you received any training projects on culture teaching?
A. Yes, a lot.
B. Yes, but not many.
C. No. 0 59% 41%
8. Do you often consider the related cultural elements when preparing lessons?
A. Often.
B. Sometimes.
C. Little.
D. Never. 33.3% 55.6% 11.1%
9. What kind of culture exposure you offered for your students?
A. In-class learning.
B. After-class reading.
C. Assign culture learning tasks.
D. None of the kind. 66.7% 18.5% 11.1% 3.7%
10. What do you think is the biggest obstacle in the culture instruction?
A. Too heavy workload for teachers.
B. Not enough qualified teachers.
C. Not suitable textbook.
D. Not required in the assessment system. 33.4% 22.2% 22.2% 22.2%
AppendixⅣ
Table 2: Results of the questionnaire for students
Questions A B C D E
1、你对外国文化感兴趣吗？
A.很有兴趣
B.一般
C.一点兴趣
D.没兴趣
26.5% 51.8% 15.7% 6%
2、你认为学习外国文化在英语学习中重要吗？
A.重要
B.一般
C.不重要 56.6% 41% 2.4%
3、在英语课堂上，你能学到多少外国文化？
A.很多
B. 一些
C. 一点点
D. 几乎没有
0 76% 8.3% 15.7%
4、你认为目前从课堂上学到的外国文化知识足够吗？
A. 是的，足够了
B.不够，我想多学点 8.4% 91.6%
5、在课堂上，你的老师会比较中西方文化的不同吗？
A.经常
B.有时候
C. 偶尔
D.从不 8.4% 25.3% 66.3%
6、你认为课本上所包含的文化知识足够满足你目前的需求吗？
A.足够了
B.还行
C. 不够
D.远远不够 49.4% 35% 15.6%
7、课外你通常通过什么途径学习英语？
A.英文杂志和报纸
B.电影和电视节目
C.因特网
D.没有
E.其它： 16.9% 36.1% 2.4% 36.1% 8.5%
8、你与外国人交谈过吗？（有的话请回答下一题，没有的话不用做下一题。）
A.有
B.没有
49% 51%
9、与外国人交谈时，你感觉怎样？
A.能自然流畅地交谈
B.基本能沟通
C. 稍微能沟通
D.完全不能沟通 0 0 100% 0
10、如果学校开设专门的课程教授外国文化，你乐意参加吗？
A.有兴趣，会参加
B.随便去听听
C.没意思，不想参加
49.4% 42.2% 8.4%