Cultural Awareness and Language Teaching.doc

文化意识与语言教学Cultural Awareness and Language TeachingAbstract: This paper mainly discusses the relationship between cultural awareness and language teaching in college English teaching. It explains the definition of culture first, then briefly analyzes the interrelationships between culture and language, cultural awareness and cross-cultural awareness, culture teaching and language teaching, and finally states the relationship between cultural awareness and language teaching. It analyzes a survey of 98 English majors in Huai Hai Institute of Technology, focusing on students attitudes towards cultural learning, and the causes that may have hindered the acquisition of cultural awareness of those students participating in the survey. The findings of this survey has shown that being lack of sufficient cultural input may be one of the main reasons why most participants have not obtained conscious cultural awareness in the process of language learning, and that most students hope to have a more communicative and interactive classroom learning environment to learn culture. Several suggestions are also provided for future application of cultural awareness in language teaching. Keywords: cultural awareness; language teaching; questionnaire摘 要：本文重点阐述高校英语教学中，文化意识与语言教学的关系。论文先从定义方面阐述“文化”的内涵，并简要分析文化与语言、文化意识与跨文化意识、文化教学与语言教学的关系，进而阐明文化意识与语言教学两者之间的关系。本文通过对淮海工学院98名英语专业学生的访谈及问卷调查,考察了学生对语言学习中文化学习的认知情况,以及影响被调查者形成文化意识的原因。调查结果表明,文化输入的不足成为受调查者在过去的语言学习中未能形成有意识地文化认知的主要原因之一；此外，学生们也希望现有的课堂学习环境更加开放和互动。本文还就语言教学过程中的文化认知意识的培养提出了一些可行性建议。 关键词：文化意识 语言教学 问卷调查Contents1 Introduction 12 Culture Review 12.1 The Definition of Culture 12.2 The Relationship between Culture and Language 12.3 Cultural and Cross-cultural Awareness 22.4 Culture Teaching and Language Teaching 23 The Study of a Survey 23.1 The Analysis of Interviews 33.2 The Analysis of a Questionnaire 33.2.1 Data Analysis on the Questionnaire (1) 43.2.2 Data Analysis on the Questionnaire (2) 53.2.3 Data Analysis on Cultural Curriculum 64 The Possible Ways to Develop Cultural Awareness 74.1 The Necessary Cross-cultural Awareness Skills to Acquire 84.2 Instructional Strategies 85 Conclusion 9Appendix 11Bibliography 121IntroductionWith the development of the communications between people from different cultural backgrounds, more and more scholars or laymen have realized the importance of cross-cultural communication. How to cultivate English language learners cultural awareness and cross-cultural communicating competence has being warmly discussed in Chinas foreign language teaching world. Changes have been seen in the newest edition of syllabus for both English major and non-English major, for the first time, stating clearly the close relationship between culture and language, and the importance to cultivate language learners cultural awareness. Unavoidably these changes would have great influence on the traditional way of language teaching. For English majors who are on the advance position of cross-cultural communication, they are supposed to experience the new teaching methods and prepare themselves to be a cross-cultural communicator in the future. Though abundant essays on cultural and/or cross-cultural communication have been published, many of them focus on introducing western theory, and less of them have directed to learner-centered topics such as what chinas foreign language learners current learning situation is, or if they have not done well with it, what the possible causes that influence their cultural learning are. This paper may have a try on the above mentioned topic.2Culture Review2.1The Definition of CultureThe word “culture” originates from German word kulture, which means bringing soil under cultivation, and later is associated with the fostering of peoples body and spirit, especially the cultivation of art, moral ability and talent. English anthropologist Tylor explains “culture” in his book Primitive Culture, “Culture is inevasible and complicated, including knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, custom, ability, and habit learned in society” (Tylor. 1981: 35). Later, American anthropologist Bais points out that each society has unique culture that is different from other society. At present, people generally understand the concept according to “capitalized letter Culture” and “small letter culture” (Byram. 1994). The former includes art, literature, politic and so on, while the latter includes behavioral patterns and lifestyles of common people. Once a person is born in a culture, he would possibly die into the culture since he is living there. But for the first time, historically, the 20th century regards identity as something people create for themselves, and people have, in fact, a choice of culture to live in. Young people in 21th century are not only aware of this, but also are frequent users of the opportunity to choose between different cultures.2.2The Relationship between Culture and LanguageLanguage ability is a kind of special skill gained during the human being evolution. Of course it also needs language environment. Social linguistics Goodenough, W.H. believes that language is a kind of social cultural phenomenon, and the relevant researches should be done from the perspective of the relationship between culture and language in his book. He argues that language in a society is one aspect of the societys culture, and the particularity of language shows that it is a main tool of learning culture during the process of learning and using. Without knowing its culture, a foreign language can not be comprehended and used correctly (Goodenough, W.H. 1981).2.3Cultural and Cross-cultural AwarenessCultural awareness in language learning is the ability to be aware of cultural relativity following reading, writing, listening and speaking. As Claire kramsch points out Iflanguage is seen as social practice, culture becomes the very core of language teaching, cultural awareness must then be viewed as enabling language proficiency (Claire kramsch. 1993: 23).Language itself is defined by culture. Language competent cannot be achieved without a good understanding of culture that shapes it, especially in foreign language learning. It is not only therefore essential to have cultural awareness, but also have cross-cultural awareness, such as the understanding of the relationship between target culture and native culture.2.4Culture Teaching and Language TeachingThe interrelationship between culture teaching and language teaching has been explored in depth by Michael Byram. The basis of Byrams position is that it views language as a cultural phenomenon, embodying the values and meanings particular to a specific society, referring to the traditions and artifacts of that society and signaling its peoples sense of themselvestheir cultural identity: “to teach foreign culture is to introduce learners to new competences and to allow them to reflect upon their own culture and cultural competence (Michael Byram. 1989: 143).” It is assumed by others that language could somehow stand alone and be taught as a value-free symbolic system. But the social nature of language works oppositely when separating it from its original culture, especially when appearing in overseas contexts, where the learners contact with the culture is largely confined to the foreign language classroom.Traditional foreign language teaching does not pay much attention to cultural factor. It focuses mainly on the vocabulary and structure of the language. But plenty of facts prove that language is not only a symbol, a system, which put forward by pure linguistic theory scholar, but also a social practice. Therefore successful foreign language teaching must help the student master the knowledge of culture rules, in addition to use them in particular situation. Every nation has its unique culture pattern and language is the carrier of culture. For instance, Asians emphasize the importance of orderly society whereas Americans emphasize the importance of personal freedom and individual rights. For effective and appropriate communication, learners must be familiar with the differences in the foreign culture which they are learning and take according language behaviors.3The Study of a SurveySurvey date: 25/04/2006Survey instrument: interview and questionnaire.Subjects: English majors of Huai Hai Institute of Technology, including freshmen, juniors, and seniors. 30 students are interviewed, 98 students (30 interviewed students and another 68 English majors) participate in questionnaire. All the 98 copies of questionnaire are valid.The objective of this survey is to investigate:1) Students attitudes towards cultural learning 2) Current situation of students information input.3.1The Analysis of InterviewsThirty English majors are interviewed and are invited to answer only one question: what is a competent language learner like in your eyes? The responses tend to fall into three categories: Twenty five interviewees think that he or she is good at English listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities, especially at speaking and listening; Ten of them think he or she is familiar with foreign culture and is a successful cross-cultural communicator. Five of them think a good command of native language is necessary.In order to describe more directly, the results of interviews are put into a table (Table.1).Table1. Results of the Interview Positive attitudes Percentage Language proficiency learning(reading, writing, speaking and listening)83.33 (25/30)Accumulation of culture33.33 (10/30)Mother tongue proficiency16.67 ( 5/30)These students responses reveal the following information: Firstly, these students still see the four basic skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) as their main study objective. Secondly, cultural competence has already been realized by language learners, but this group is small compared to the whole. Thirdly, the importance of mother tongue competence has only been seen by a few interviewees.According to this interview, most interviewees have realized the importance of language proficiency in language learning, but the point is why only one third of the interviewees have realized the importance and necessity of cultural and communicative competence since which are discussed so warmly in present language teaching world? Do they hold a negative view on it or do they just have not yet obtained the awareness consciously?3.2The Analysis of a QuestionnaireThe English learning questionnaire consists of nine closed-ended questions (see Appendix), For instance, “you have the interest and passion in English and language learning”, and the answers falls into four types: 1. Strongly Agree (SA)2. Agree (A)3. Disagree (D)4. Strongly Disagree (SD) According to the research content, the analysis of questionnaire is divided into two parts. The first five are put in Table 2 and the rest four questions are put in Table 4.3.2.1Data Analysis on the Questionnaire (1) This part of analysis involves data analysis on questions 1-5 in the questionnaire and a comparison between the responds of the interviews and the questionnaire.3.2.1.1Data Analysis on the Questionnaire (1)Table2. Results of Questions 1-5 in Questionnaire SAADSD1) The cultivation of English skills(reading, writing, speaking and listening) is the foundation of the language learning60.2931.652.046.022) Reading English novels everyday is necessary17.3569.3913.260.003) It is important to acquire a good knowledge of native language in foreign learning44.9053.062.040.004) The accumulation of language and culture of Chinese and English are of equal importance50.0048.981.020.005) It is necessary to read materials regularly about politics, economy, culture, and so on39.8060.200.000.00 Questions 1-5 (see appendix) indicate a clear picture of students attitudes towards language proficiency learning, native language learning, and accumulation on culture, literature, and politics and so on. On the importance of the cultivation of reading, speaking, listening and writing in language learning, 91.94% (60.29% SA+31.65% A) of English majors agree and of which 64.29% strongly agree. On daily English novels reading, a total of 86.74% (17.35% SA+69.39% A) consider it necessary. On the necessity a good command of native language, 97.96% (44.90% SA+53.06% A) of English majors agree. On the relation of native language learning and foreign language learning, 98.98% (50.0% SA+48.98% A) believe that these two are of equal importance. Finally, on a regularly reading of politics, economy, and culture, all (39.80% SA+60.20% A) the students hold a supportive attitude.3.2.1.2Comparison between the Interviews and the QuestionnaireWith regards to the similarities of the contents examined, it seems necessary to have a comparison between the responds of the interviews and the questionnaire.Table3. Comparison between the Interviews and the QuestionnairePositive attitudes (SA+A)Interview(open-ended)Questionnaire(close-ended)Foreign Language proficiency learning(reading, writing, speaking and listening)83.88 91.94Accumulation of culture33.3398.98Mother tongue proficiency16.6797.96From the table above, the comparison is very clear that, towards the same research content, interviewees responds vary when they are faced with different types of questions. The gap is especially seen on the accumulation of culture and native language proficiency. Compared with open-ended question in the interview, interviewees tend to hold a more supportive view on closed-ended questions in the questionnaire. In other word, most English major learners subjectively admit the importance of the accumulation of culture and native language proficiency, but the point is, not all of them have already obtained the awareness. However, two questions have been proposed from the comparison: Why English majors have not obtained the cultural awareness which should be tied up with language learning? Is that because they subjectively lack learning motivation or objectively, they lack timely and efficiently teachers cultural guidance?3.2.2Data Analysis on t