JUNE, 2009
摘 要
近年来，随着我国改革开放的发展和我国与国际间的经济、科技、文化交流日益频繁，人们越来越重视外国文化问题。同时，我们也逐渐认识到了了解外国文化在对外交往中的重要性。在教育领域中，外语教学也渐渐重视对学生交际能力的培养。然而，对许多老师而言，文化教学还是一个较新的概念，从跨文化角度对英语教学进行研究探讨在目前还是个新领域。我们必须认识到交际能力的培养是外语教学的主要目标，培养学生跨文化交际的技能是中学外语教学要达到的一个目标。文化教学在中学英语教学中的重要性不可忽视，英语学习者不了解英语国家的文化，就无法获得交际能力。因此在中学英语口语教学中应该目标明确地，循序渐进地，方法得当地导入文化教学，使英语学习者在学习语言和知识的同时受到文化的熏陶，在跨文化交际中游刃有余。
关键词： 跨文化交际；文化教学；中学英语口语教学
ABSTRACT
Since last century, because of reforming and opening policy, many people, especially young people go abroad to get a better job or get further education and so on. Besides, many foreigners are curious about our country. Consequently, people come to realize that if we know little about cross-cultural communication, there will be many conflicts. Some experts suggest that today’s English teaching should emphasize intercultural communication. Learners ought to know not only grammar or words, but should learn cultural knowledge. If not, they will meet many difficulties while they communicate with foreigners. Therefore, it is important to introduce this kind of knowledge while teaching. We can’t neglect the importance of culture teaching in middle school foreign language teaching, English teachers should integrate culture into ELF teaching gradually and appropriately. Thus the students may have a better understanding of the target language, and they may communicate freely and effectively in cross-culture communication.
Keywords：Cross-cultural communication; Cultural teaching; middle school ELF oral teaching
Contents
1. Introduction 2
2. the concept of intercultural communication 3
2.1 Literature review 3
2.2 Definition of intercultural communication 4
3.A survey based on classroom observations 7
3.1 The analysis of interviews 7
3.2 The analysis of a questionnaire 7
3.2.1 Data analysis on the questionnaire (1) 9
3.2.2 Data analysis on the questionnaire (2) 10
3.2.3 Data analysis on culture curriculum 12
4. Ways of improving cross-cultural communication competence in middle school oral teaching 15
4.1 The necessity of develop cross-cultural communication competence 17
4.2 Some strategies for improving cross-cultural communication competence in the ELF oral learning in chinese middle school 17
4.2.1 Some strategies to learners 17
4.2.2 Some strategies to teachers 19
5. Conclusion 25
Acknowledgements 26
References 27
AppendixⅠ 28
1． Introduction
Language is just like a mirror that reflects its national culture. Sociologists and anthropologists believe that culture comprises all products of human activity, including fields of literature, art, music, architecture, and scientific as well as aspects of customs, life-style, code of conduct, worldly wisdom and social organization, etc. Languages are generally accepted words and rules drawn from speech. Language is the carrier of culture and culture is the content of language20.
Worldwide interest in intercultural communication grows out of two assumptions. First, we live in an age when changes in technology, travel, economy, and political systems, immigration patterns, especially the emergence of Internet, have created a world in which we increasingly interact with people from different cultures. And whether we like it or not, these interactions will continue to grow in both frequently and intensely. Second, people now know that the influence of culture affects communication in a subtle way. Our culture perceptions and experiences help determine how the world looks and how we interact in the world.
However, as we look back to see the situation in China’s high schools. We see that, for several decades, language teachers have not been able to pay attention to the role of culture knowledge in language oral teaching. Nowadays, in the ELF oral teaching, especially in middle school, teachers pay much attention to vocabulary.
As Chinese culture is not the same as that of English-speaking countries, the rules for using Chinese are, in some respects, different from those using English. There is especially good evidence that Chinese students may transfer their mother tongue references of language used to their English performance and fail to communicate effectively[1]24. Misunderstanding caused by cross-cultural communication should break down and much attention should be paid to them in English language t
eaching.
So in middle school ELF oral teaching, teachers must not only improve students’ language level, but also pay attention to cultivating students’ abilities of intercultural communication.
2. The concept of intercultural communication
2.1 Literature review
More and more common practice of intercultural communication promotes the emergence of the concept of intercultural communicative competence. It is a challenging issue for language study and language teaching.
In 1965, Chomsky put forward the concept of linguistic competence and linguistic performance. Later, it was challenged by Campbell and Wales (1970) and Hymes (1972). Hymes (1972) argues that the appropriateness of language is the core of communicative competence, and he sees communicative competence as part of cultural competence. Canale and Swain (1980) put forward a more complex framework, and Canale (1983) summarized communicative competence in the way that it includes four component parts --- grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic. Canale’s conclusion in fact suggests that all aspects of language using are determined by culture. The continuous theoretical research of communicative competence has paved the way for the development of language teaching in which cultural factors are considered more and more important.
In 1975, the first textbook on intercultural communication “An Introduction to Intercultural Communication” (Conden & Yousef ) was published, and many other books followed it. The research on intercultural communication has developed quickly, and has exerted incredible influence on language and cultural teaching.
Traditional language teaching divides language techniques into listening, speaking, reading and writing. Deman (1987) applied the theories of intercultural communication to language and cultural teaching, and viewed cultural teaching as the fifth dimension of language teaching. Seelye published a book named “Teaching Culture: Strategies for Foreign Language Education” in 1984. Gumperz (1982) conducted investigations on the “discourse strategy” of the communicators who had a non-English cultural background and who spoke English as the second language. He revealed that those communicators’ assumptions of the world that had been formed in their native cultural context would exert great influence on intercultural communication. This, in turn, has stimulated a trend in language teaching that sees culture as discourse (Widdowson, 1984; Mclarthy, 1991; Kramsch, 1993; Candlin,1994; Hanks,1996). So since 1990, process-centered and task-oriented teaching mode has been widely adopted in the west.
Besides, American applied linguist G. Robinson (1985) put forward an important concept that through language and cultural teaching learners would gain “Cultural Versatility”. That is to say, through learning culture, learners would change internally. This viewpoint is quite significant.
Prof. Michael Bryam’s research is also strikingly notable. He holds that foreign language education includes four parts: language learning, language understanding, cultural understanding, and cultural experience.
2.2 Definition of intercultural communication
“Intercultural Communication” can hence be defined as the interpersonal interaction between members of different groups, which differ form each other in respect of the knowledge shared by their members and in respect of their linguistic forms of symbolic behavior. In this Concepts of intercultural and Combines the Concepts of intercultural and communication, It also describes the problems and pitfalls of misunderstanding and the skills and competence required for successfully understanding member of other culture.
Thanks to Edward T. Hall who is regarded as the founder of intercultural communication, a new brink knowledge, intercultural communication, has been becoming more and more widespread in the whole world ever since the publication of his great work The Silence Language. Intercultural communication is a symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual processing tool with which people from different cultures create shared meaning[2]115. Intercultural communication occurs whenever a message produced in one culture must be processed in another culture. It can best be understood as cultural variance in the perception of social objects and events. The barriers to communication caused by this perceptual variance can best be lowered by a knowledge and understanding of cultural factors that are subject to variance, coupled with an honest and sincere desire to communicate successfully across cultural boundaries.
Intercultural communication refers to communication between persons who have d
ifferent cultural beliefs, values, or ways of behaving.
2.2.1 Cultural and cross-cultural communication
Cultural awareness in language learning is the ability to be aware of cultural relativity following reading, writing, listening and speaking. As Claire kramsch points out…[12]
If…language is seen as social practice, culture becomes the very core of language teaching, cultural awareness must then be viewed as enabling language proficiency…
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 communication awareness, such as the understanding of the relationship between target culture and native culture.
2.2.2 Culture teaching and ELF oral teaching in middle school
The interrelationship between culture teaching and language teaching has been explored in depth by Michael Byram. The basis of Byram’s 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 people’s sense of themselves—their 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[2].” 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 in middle school must be familiar with the differences in the foreign culture which they are learning and take according language behaviors.
3. A survey based on classroom observations
Survey date: 25/02/2009
Survey instrument: interview and questionnaire.
Subjects: students of Ning Bo Chai Qiao middle school. 30 students are interviewed, 98 students (30 interviewed students and another 68 students) participate in questionnaire. All the 98 copies of questionnaire are valid.
The objective of this survey is to investigate:
1) Students’ attitudes towards cross-cultural communication in the ELF oral learning
2) Current situation of students’ information input.
3.1 The analysis of interviews
Thirty English learners 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:
(1) Twenty five interviewees think that he or she is good at English listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities, especially at speaking and listening;
(2) Ten of them think he or she is familiar with foreign culture and is a successful cross-cultural communicator.
(3) 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 culture 33.33％ (10/30)
Mother tongue proficiency 16.67％ ( 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, cross-cultural communication 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 cross-cultural communicative competence since which are discussed so warmly in present language teachin
g world? Do they hold a negative view on it or do they just have not yet obtained the awareness consciously?
3.2 The analysis of a questionnaire
The 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.
3.2.1 Data 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.
3.2.1.1 Data analysis on the questionnaire (1)
Table2. Results of Questions 1-5 in Questionnaire
SA A D SD
1) The cultivation of English skills(reading, writing, speaking and listening) is the foundation of the language learning 60.29％ 31.65％ 2.04％ 6.02％
2) Reading English novels everyday is necessary 17.35％ 69.39％ 13.26％ 0.00％
3) It is important to acquire a good knowledge of native language in the ELF oral learning 44.90％ 53.06％ 2.04％ 0.00％
4) The accumulation of language and cross-cultural communication competence are of equal importance 50.00％ 48.98％ 1.02％ 0.00％
5) It is necessary to read materials regularly about politics, economy, culture, and so on 39.80％ 60.20％ 0.00％ 0.00％
Questions 1-5 (see appendix) indicate a clear picture of students’ attitudes towards language proficiency learning, native language learning, and accumulation on cross-cultural communication competence, 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 learners 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.
3.2.1.2 Comparison between the interviews and the questionnaire
With 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 Questionnaire
Positive attitudes (SA+A) Interview
(open-ended) Questionnaire
(close-ended)
Foreign Language proficiency learning(reading, writing, speaking and listening) 83.88％ 91.94％
Accumulation of intercultural communication competence 33.33％ 98.98％
Mother tongue proficiency 16.67％ 97.96％
From 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 cross-cultural communication competence 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 learners subjectively admit the importance of the accumulation of cross-cultural communication competence 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: (1) Why English learners have not obtained the cross-cultural awareness which should be tied up with the ELF oral learning? (2) Is that because they subjectively lack learning motivation or objectively, they lack timely and efficiently teachers’ cultural guidance?
3.2.2 Data analysis on the questionnaire (2)
This part of questionnaire (table4 in next page) mainly focuses on students’ attitudes towards learning motivation as well as classroom learning. Before the analysis is taken, a brief introduction on motivation can help to have a better understanding on the analysis.
1) Integrative motivation
Motivation has been identified as the learners’ orientation with regards to the goal of learning foreign language69. This form of motivation is known as integrative motivation.
.2) Instrumental Motivation
In contrast to integrative motivation is the form of motivation which is known as in
strumental motivation. This is generally characterized by the desire to obtain something practical from the study of foreign language[9]125. With instrumental motivation, the purpose of study is more practical, such as meeting the requirements for college graduation, applying for a job and achieving higher social status.
Table4. Results of Questions 6-9 in Questionnaire
SA A D SD
6) Your have the interest and passion in the ELF oral learning 14.29％ 61.22％ 21.43％ 3.06％
7) You would prefer to get an English-related job after the graduation 21.43％ 66.33％ 11.22％ 1.02％
8) The present classroom teaching can cultivate your learning abilities and improve your cross-cultural skills 2.04％ 7.14％ 71.43％ 19.39％
9) You hope to have English class in various forms such as discussion, presentation, debate, performance and so on. 25.51％ 63.27％ 9.18％ 2.04％
As is shown in the table (results of questions 6 and 7), 75.51% (14.29%SA+61.22%A) of English learners have the interest and passion in language learning, and 87.76% (21.43%SA+66.33%A) of them would like to get an English related job in the future. According to the introduction of motivation, the answers to those two questions (questions 6 and 7) can be taken as the representation of integrative and instrumental motivation respectively. Therefore, a conclusion can be made that, most students subjectively want to make a living by using their language competence.
In order to check the condition of students’ cultural information input, questions 8 and 9 are designed and analyzed. 89.82% (71.43%D+19.39SD) of English learners do not think that the present classroom teaching can cultivate their learning abilities and improve their cross-cultural communication competence, whereas a total of 88.78% (25.51%SA+63.27%A) hope to have English class in various forms such as discussion, presentation, debate, performance and so on. It can be found that most English majors are not satisfied with the current classroom teaching. They hope to enjoy a more interactive and communicative teaching style. The traditional text-based grammatical and linguistic teaching could not meet the needs of the cultivation of communicative competence to some extent. What’s more important is that students are supposed to have a consciously as well as unconsciously cultural awareness promote by language teachers.
3.2.3 Data analysis on culture curriculum
It is shown from the result of question 8 in the table above (table 4) that present foreign language teaching has not provided a satisfactory fruit on cultural awareness cultivation. A question should be taken into consideration, that is, how can cross-culture awareness be expressed in the foreign language curriculum, with the purpose to cultivate language learners’ cultural awareness and communication insight into the target civilization? For a long time, this has been attempted by introducing the geographical environment and historical or political development of the foreign culture, its institutions and customs, its literary achievements, and even everyday life of its people. Take English learners in Ning Bo Chai Qiao middle school as an example, their cultural input has largely come from courses such as Extensive Reading, Communication between Cultures, American Literature, and An Outline Introduction to Britain and America, and so on. Following is a basic analysis on the four courses.
Table5. Courses Information
Course Duration Teacherˊs background
Extensive Reading first 4 terms Chinese
Communication between cultures the 7th term New Zealander
American literature the 7th term Chinese
An Outline Introduction to Britain and America the 7th term Canadian
Extensive Reading was taught by a Chinese teacher during the first four terms, and the teaching contents mainly focus on western culture, economy, politic, education and so on. After two years study, it helps students build up a general view on western civilization. Communication between Cultures is taught by a English-speaking teacher from New Zealand, the teaching content seems “boring and meaningless” said the majority of students, the teacher read the chapters from the book to the class instead of giving practical cross-cultural communication analysis. So for most students, they did not learn as much as they expected from this course. American literature was taught by a Chinese teacher, and the teaching contents include background information introduction and literacy reading. An Outline Introduction to Britain and America was taught by a Canadian teacher who has a good experience on both British and American cultures. In this course, students are introduced to a comparison of the British and American culture.
From what have been introduced above, it can be seen that although there are four courses and an 28-month course duration, most of what students have taken is an education of “cultural background knowledge” on Chinese or English rather t
han practical cross-cultural communication stimulation such as comparisons or contradictions between the target and native culture. To some extent, it revels why most English students have not got a conscious awareness in cultural or cross-cultural communication competence.
Through comparisons between the interview and the questionnaire, it can be seen that students hold positive attitudes on develop the competence of intercultural communication, but for some reasons, not so many have already obtained conscious cross-cultural awareness. Through further analysis of curriculum on cultural teaching, it reveals that present cultural teaching in ELF oral teaching shows the weakness in practical, sufficient and conscious cultural input to help build up language learner’s cross-cultural awareness. Moreover, the current teaching is also expected to be more communicative and interactive. Thus, following on are the possible ways to promote the competence of intercultural communication,
4.1 The necessity of develop cross-cultural communication competence
Firstly, it is vital for language teachers to help language learners develop their cross-cultural communication competence. If the final purpose of intercultural communication competence cultivation is to help students to acquire cross-cultural communication competence, then what cross-cultural communication competence is? According to Kramsch’s opinion, cross-cultural awareness is not really a skill, but a collection of skills and attitudes known as a competence[12].
Secondly, it is necessary to make clear what cross-cultural awareness skills students are supposed to acquire. It has been suggested that cross-cultural awareness consists of having four different perspectives on communication with a different culture. Cross-cultural competent students should be able to:
----look at their own culture from the point of view of their own culture (for example, having a good understanding and awareness of their own culture)
----Be aware of how their culture is seen from outside, by other countries or cultures
----understand or see the target culture from its own perspective (for example, understanding and being aware of what other people think of their own culture)
----Be aware of how they see the target culture
4.1.1 The request of the development of Internationalization
Lin Dajin in the “cross-cultural communication study, ” pointed out that culture can be defined as “ the integrated feature that a nation is distinct from another nation. ” Cultural differences are the barriers of cross-cultural communication. The modernization process accelerated the circulation of spiritual and material products, and brought all nationalities into a common “global village”, cross-cultural communication became an integral part of national life. If people do not understand the cultural convention in the USA or Britain, and use the way of China to treat foreigners, then it will create a lot of jokes, and even hurt each other's feelings, self-esteem and cause misunderstanding. Thus, to overcome the cultural differences caused by communication barriers has become a common problem faced by the entire world.
4.1.2 It is imperative to understand the cultural background knowledge
Understanding cultural knowledge is the key to language learning. “One can not really learn the language, and teach language well unless one knows the patterns and norms of culture and cultural background[14]224. ” Without a specific cultural background, language is non-existent. If we don’t know the culture of target language, we would find it is difficult to understand the meaning of certain words. For example, “Thanksgiving”, “Sandwich” has been brought about in a specific social and historical circumstance, it is not enough merely to know the meaning of the surface of these words. Another example is: “You are, indeed, a lucky dog”, the literal translation is “you are a lucky dog. ” This is a satiric sentence in China, because, in Chinese views, “dog” is an expression when people used to refer generally to dislike someone. While in English, it can mean, “You are a lucky man. ” In Western society, “dog” is a family member, and they are harmonious coexisting with people “Dog” here refers to people instead of satirizing others, but a very intimate expression.
4.1.3 Cultural knowledge teaching is the objective of language teaching
The main objective of language teaching is to train and develop students’ interpersonal skills. And cultural knowledge teaching can increase the ability of cross-cultural communication, which is the important content to achieve goals of language teaching. For example, in American society, praise and compliments language that flatter mainly a personal appearance, new things, personal property, and individuals in a ce
rtain area are commonly used as the introduction to a conversation. This is different from Chinese. Thus, different nations have different cultural environments, different living habits and different languages behavior expressions. And as a language learner, if not ideologically “physically entering their social linguistic environment” will be difficult to achieve the goal of language learning，not to say that language teaching objectives will be accomplished.
4.2 Some strategies for improving cross-cultural communication competence in the ELF oral learning in Chinese middle school
After the survey research and data analysis, now we have a clear idea of the common reasons that triggered the weakness of the cross-cultural communication in middle school ELF oral teaching. However, we do not have a clarity solution about this situations. Therefore, some strategies were listed here to help learners with their language learning.
4.2.1 Some strategies to learners
4.2.1.1Raising culture awareness
Culture awareness is the term we have used to describe sensitivity to the impact of culturally---induced behavior on language use and communication. It including two qualities: one is awareness of one’s own culture, the other is awareness of the culture[7]15.
Unfortunately, in China, cross-cultural communication errors can be found from time to time. In the ELF oral learning, culture factor needs to be taken seriously. To cultivate students’ intercultural communication we need first to arouse their cultural awareness. Because of different cultural background, life experience, profession, sex, education, even age, character, people may have different modes of interaction. People learn to think, feel, behave and strive for what their culture considers proper. These means there might not be the same as what is intended by the speaker. If we are aware of this, we can avoid ethnocentricity, and can have better communication with people all over the world.
Speakers of a foreign language often have the experience of making careless mistakes which may cause get angry, may be embarrassing and may arouse hostility from native speaker. Often such mistakes occur even though the application of the linguistic rules of grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation is correct. These mistakes are culture errors but occur because of not knowing or choosing the appropriate style, and manner to use for effective communication.
4.2.1.2 The development of sensitiveness to culture differences
There are four stages in the development of the sensitiveness to culture differences. The first, one can make out the obvious, superficial culture characteristics. In other word, he will find them interesting and exotic. The second, one can judge the delicate meaningful cultural characteristics that are quite different from his own. Usually he will feel them incredible or hard to accept .The third, one can accept the cultural characteristics after rational analysis. The fourth, one can be in the other peoples’ shoes and appreciate the cultural characteristics. In other words, the first three stage can be understood, and the fourth empathy.
4.2.1.3 The development of empathy
In order to communication effectively, you need a deep degree of empathy, that is to be able to understand the other person’s affective and cognitive states. Empathy differs from sympathy in that it does not include pity or approval. And focuses on the feelings of others, not our own[12]114. Empathy involves relativism and flexibility, which knowledge alone cannot consist. Teachers can create good classroom environment where students tolerate and appreciate different norms by bringing up students’ empathy. In China, we always emphasize collectivism instead of individualism. But in English class, we advocate differences, to encourage students to understand each other.
To facilitate empathy, we can take these measures:
(1) Subjects like history, anthropology, and sociology should be introduced into
the curriculum. Through these subjects, the students can not only acquaint themselves with the examples of foreign culture, but also master some concepts and principles concerning with culture.
(2) The students should be encouraged to read broadly in Chinese middle
school, both fiction non-fiction, literal or philosophical. Including proverbs, broad reading can be a student better understand and communicate with other cultures. Only through broad reading can he know the taboos, values, beliefs and religion of another culture, only through broad reading can be truly come to realize why privacy is so important and that individualism is so cherished.
(3) The students should he sent abroad for further study if possible. Thus they
can live with the natives for some time, no chance is better than the close contact. They can enjoy the new culture. By enhancing ICC, the intercultural communication of the learners can be carried out tactfully, acco
rding to different context.
4.2.2 Some strategies to teachers
Language teachers are supposed to exert instructional strategies to help language learners promote their cross-cultural communication competence, that is, provide language learners with some useful ideals for presenting culture from its own perspective, for example, understanding and being aware of what people in target culture think of their own culture.Chinese teachers should take advantage of foreign teachers. Foreign teachers are rich in knowledge, idiomatic English, strong teaching culture context, full of wit and humor, longing to understand much more about Chinese culture. This attitude can have a great influence on students, and increased their desire of learning English well and knowing about the culture of English-speaking countries. Teachers can make full use of such rare chances and consult foreign teachers that they are according to the calendar, then all of the teachers and students can try their best to create all kinds of conditions to speak them imitatively —Action speak louder than words. Just as what we mentioned above, we have been aware of the importance of learning some cultural knowledge about the target language. It seems impossible and unnecessary for us to have a systematic study of target culture, which covers almost everything, in one’s whole lifetime. The difficulty shows that culture is ubiquitous, multidimensional and complex. A good solution to this problem might be to learn selectively those cultural factors that have great influence on intercultural communication, and that are closely related to the language. So on culture teaching we should follow these principles :( 1) interrelated. that is culture teaching must be interrelated with the content of the text. (2) Appropriate, that is culture teaching must be subjected to language teaching. (3) Practical, that is culture teaching must try to be “useful” for students in their communication. (4) Scientific, that is culture knowledge must be taught correctly, completely and objectively. (5) Flexible, that is culture teaching must be flexible according to the change of the world.
We must obey these five principles if we want to cultivate students’ abilities of cross-cultural communication. What we should teach in ELF classes is simply a foreign way of life related to the target language and teachers should avoid bringing their own cultural prejudice into class. The world is changing, so are the traditions and customs. The constant changes require us to improve our skills of intercultural communication by doing two things: understanding the cultural differences, especially the differences in the deep structure of different cultures, and becoming flexible in intercultural communication. There is a great tendency that one culture adopts the elements from another that are compatible with its own values and beliefs or that can be changed without causing major disruption.
4.2.2.1 Make full use of developing the interest of the competence of intercultural communication in the ELF oral learning in Chinese middle school
Intercultural communication is a big issue, which is not easy for both teachers and students to understand and realize. For successful cultural teaching, we suggest doing the following:
(1) Teach culture differences. Teachers should directly address the similarities and peculiarities between the source culture and the target culture. This can be done through the comparison of the two cultures.
(2) Provide opportunities for students to use the language in situational conversations. While introducing the students play a real-life role and practice their everyday language use according to the varied situation.
(3) Induce students to read literal works, which are vivid and abundant material to understand the character, the psychological state, culture characteristics, convention, and social relationships. Reading newspaper is also the direct path.
(4) Be aware of your students development level, when selecting themes or concepts to present. At first, learning activities should be clear and specific in lower levels, gradually, becoming more complex than the level of the student increases. There are a variety of children’s fiction which presents concepts like similarities, differences and prejudice which can be used at lower levels. At upper levels fiction and biographies can be used to present the more complicated ideas. Try to connect the unfamiliar with the familiar, the known with the unknown.
(5) Use plenty of ways in both general learning tasks and in language learning tasks.
(6) Use varied methods to check the understanding level of the students.
(7) Be enthusiastic. As a teacher you need to be aware of the value of learning a second language in terms of its contribution to developing cultural aware and a range of other cognitive and vocational benefits. Your attitude will influence the attitudes of the child
ren in the class and their parents.
Beside, Chinese teachers should take advantage of foreign teachers. Foreign teachers are rich in knowledge, idiomatic English, strong teaching culture context, full of wit and humor, longing to understand much more about Chinese culture. This attitude can have a great influence on students, and increased their desire of learning English well and knowing about the culture of English-speaking countries. Teachers can make full use of such rare chances and consult foreign teachers that they are according to the calendar, then all of the teachers and students can try their best to create all kinds of conditions to speak them imitatively —Action speak louder than words.
For example, we once tried to spend Christmas and Hallowmas with all foreign teachers together in our school .The students were very interested and active in the activities， and such experiences can have impressed them strongly and forever.
Teachers should encourage students to communicate with foreign teachers and some other foreigners in and out of school. Students and foreign teachers can have classes, play games and take part in many kinds of activities together. Communicating with foreigners can provide students with the real cultural context in which English is used actually and stimulate students to learn English well including knowing about foreign culture.
As the success of many activities depends on good organization and on the students knowing exactly what they are to do. A teacher is thus mainly an organizer, whose work is different from administrator of a school system. But the teacher, like any other organizer, works primarily with people, and his task and responsibility are to create situations in which people can do their best and achieve their best.
Since teachers are key roles during culture teaching, they must play a positive role in helping the students to develop intercultural communicative competence and increase the students’ chances to succeeding in both language learning. It is not an expendable skill tacked on to the teaching of speaking, listening, writing and reading. It is always in some background. Lack of intercultural competence will limit the students’ ability to make sense of the world around them, and lead to failure in using English for communication across-culture.
4.2.2.2 Make full use of pictures, films, TV, computers and other audio-visual aids to make the teaching lively and interesting. Explore to the full the opportunities for students with the target culture information.
(1) Plays in and out of class
It is proved that plays in and out of class are probably the most efficient ways of language teaching.
The role of plays and dramas manifests itself when learners perform by themselves. Mini-dramas acted by students expose them to a “process of self-confrontation” with the target cultural communicates. The learners can act out mini-dramas written by them, which show misinterpretation of something that happens in the target cultural context. The cause of the problem is usually clarified in the final scene. Cultural similarities and differences will be analyzed by way of follow-up discussion.
In the listening book of Senior English book3 unit24, the material involves “finding a job”, English teachers can extract one or two advertisements from the magazine for students. Teachers can ask the students to divide into two groups, one group act as recruiters, and the other group act as applicants. By looking at the advertisements, appointing to interview, using some simple props, students can exchange views on working conditions, wages and other issues. Thus, students can understand the practical knowledge of Foreign Service work; the actors also can improve their abilities of practical language.
A short play can be broken down into sections. As learners learn (not memorize) one section, they move on to the next. By combining the sections, they have learned the play. The use of this technique enables different groups of learners to work on several short plays at the same time and leads to the creation of several shirt plays simultaneously.
Drama is a useful tool in cultural learning. A full semester’s work can be built around a drama project, or it can fill five or ten minutes at the beginning or end of a lesson. It encourages the learners to view the linguistic and cultural knowledge as a tool for communication rather than as an academic subject. It can bring life and vitality to the classroom.
(2) Classroom presentation
At the beginning of each lesson, teachers can hold a “cultural corner” sessions, with 5-10 minutes. Teachers or students can introduce one aspect of Western culture, such as famous events of foreign country in history, a prominent figure in the world, or some literary works. To accumulate the cultural knowledge for a long time, students’ cultural knowledge will naturally
become broad and rich.
(3) Photo display
Use maps, photographs, and illustrations of the text to introduce relative cultural elements vividly. For instance, when we teach the States of Liberty which appears in the lesson 10 of junior English book3, at first we can display a wall chart of the Statue of Liberty in the United States in front of the classroom, then ask the students to identify it and then observe the Statue of Liberty carefully in the facial expressions, posture language, the hold-high arm and torch. And then teachers can introduce the following cultural background briefly: Batuoerdi, a French sculptor, builds U.S. Statue of Liberty. He takes his mother's face and his wife's body as models to manufacture it. The Goddess of Liberty not only has swallowed vicissitudes face, but also perseverance. The torch in her hand is a symbol of freedom shining all over the world. Then teachers can guide the students to make analysis of the understanding of American national spirit through the Statue of Liberty. Teachers also can allow the students to list their deepest impression in other countries or ethnic representation construction.
(4) Song appreciation
The important function of the songs is to express one’s wishes. Many lyrics and melody of songs are also full of rich cultural content. Students generally are interested in songs. If time is enough in the class, teachers can choose one or two representative English songs for students to appreciate or learn to sing. It is an effective method in the teaching of English cultural knowledge to analyze the content of the lyrics and music rhythm feelings. And then the students can accept the cultural baptism. For example, a song has a lyric like “Love is blue.”(Blue love). Then what representation is “blue” in English? It often expressed "frustration and anxiety". Teachers cited examples to analyze, and then asked students to appreciate this song, try to see if there are any new experiences.
(5) Foreign festivals on the campus
This activity is of great interest to young students. The celebration could take place in a class, a grade or the whole school with the help of the branch of the Youth League. All kinds of activities can be held in festivals, such as performance of foreign songs, dancing and dramas, holding costume parties, watching foreign films, attending lectures given by foreign experts and enjoying foreign food. By celebrating foreign festivals, learners will immerse in the target cultural context. Teachers are to give introduction on the origin and the conventional activities of the festival. A comparison of the similarities and differences between the foreign festivals and Chinese festivals can develop the learners’ cultural awareness.
(6) Using authentic materials
Obviously, the best way to learn foreign cultural background knowledge is to go to that country to stay there for a period of time. But we know that it is almost impossible to have such an opportunity, especially for our students. Therefore, it is practically necessary for the teachers to use authentic materials to teach culture.
Mass media, such as, film, novels and especially newspapers and magazines, is also considered as an insightful means for teaching culture, for they reflect people’s way of life in terms of variety contemporaneity and authenticity. Students in an ELF setting will spontaneously ask questions about puzzling aspects of society and life as reflected in the film or magazine. This material is by no means easy to interpret because there is so much central inference and it requires deep familiarity with and comprehensive exegeses of the culture in question. Therefore “all such material should be selected with an eye to the subculture diversity of the target community”.
5. Conclusion
Today, international cultural exchange is going on directly and indirectly, with its new scope, content, form and method unheard of before. To confine oneself to one’s own culture is to go against the times. Now, in our country, the open policy towards the rest of the world has become a fundamental policy. This policy has brought about much broader prospects for international cultural exchange. Therefore, overcoming cultural barriers has become more and more important. Only by surmounting the barriers can we get a high degree of cultural exchange, make use of good things from other cultures and build up our cultural and material wealth. This exchange will contribute to understanding and friendship among nations as well as development in science and culture.
In the practical teaching, the culture teaching should be presented as many detailed as possible in the teaching syllabus. The teaching materials should not be located only in the source culture and should be a constructive attempt to be explicit about intercultural behavior and communication, especially, in view of the limited language available at this
level. Besides, in the classroom ELF oral teaching, teachers are expected to use a variety of teaching methods that are suitable to students’ level. In intercultural communication settings, Chinese learners in culture instruction should keep an open mind: we should try to avoid the prejudiced culture stereotypes over the other cultures and our own. Especially, we should put higher focus on the learning of our own Chinese culture. Another key point is becoming awareness of our own culture bottom lines. We must learn what our own culture line is ― the values where we are can negotiate, but we cannot compromise. We can allow others to be different, and respect their differences as they respect ours.
Though the culture teaching is a very complicated and difficult part to deal with, the educators and teachers involved in language education should make great efforts to carry out this part thoroughly. This determines much whether the effective cross-cultural communication can be preceded smoothly between China and the world.
Acknowledgements
My initial thanks go to my supervisor Meng Dong, who patiently supervised my dissertation and was at times very willing to offer me illuminating advice or suggestions. Without her help, I could not have finished this dissertation.
I am also indebted to other teachers and my classmates who have not only offered me their warm encouragements but also shared with me their ideas and books. They are Han Xiaoya, Shen Yin and many others.
And I also appreciate Li Neng, who offer me great help during the time I was in the practice in Ning Bo Chai Qiao middle school. Without her help, I could not finish my survey in this paper.
The remaining weakness and possible errors of the dissertation are entirely my own.
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AppendixⅠ
*Questionnaire:
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
1) The cultivation of English skills(reading, writing, speaking and listening) is the foundation of the language learning
2) Reading English novels everyday is necessary
3) It is important to acquire a good knowledge of native language in foreign language learning
4) The accumulation of language and cross-cultural competence are of equal importance
5) It is necessary to read materials regularly about politics, economy, culture, and so on
6) You have the interest and passion in the ELF oral learning
7) You would prefer to get an English-related job after graduation
8) The present classroom teaching can cultivate your learning ability and improve your cross-cultural skills
9) You hope to have English class in various forms such as discussion, presentation, debate, performance and so on.
诚 信 承 诺
我谨在此承诺：本人所写的毕业论文《论中学英语口语教学中跨文化交际能力的培养》均系本人独立完成，没有抄袭行为，凡涉及其他作者的观点和材料，均作了注释，若有不实，后果由本人承担。
承诺人（签名）：
年 月 日
