The Inputting Mode Of Cultural Studies In College EFL Classrooms

THE INPUTTING MODE OF CULTURAL STUDIES IN COLLEGE EFL CLASSROOMSAbstract: Foreign language learning is comprised of several components, including grammatical competence, communicative competence, language proficiency, as well as a change in attitudes towards one's own or another culture. Today, learning a foreign language is likely to mean learning a great deal about the foreign civilization and culture. As an English learner -of Chinese, one will involve in two cultures. One is English and American culture that is based on the Western culture, the other is Chinese culture that is based on the Eastern culture. There are some differences between the two cultures, which influence English learners of Chinese during their process of studying English. As a result, the author of this thesis considers cultural studies as an important part in the EFL classrooms, especially in college English classrooms.The goal of foreign language teaching is to train students' ability to master one language as a communicative tool. So combine cultural studies with English teaching is an effective way to improve learners' English proficiency. Based on precedent research done in the field of linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropology and pragmatics with the analysis of some cultural errors in some college EFL students' homework, this thesis explores: 1) the relationship between culture and language; 2) cultural differences and language teaching; 3) the relationship between cultural studies and language teaching. The author finds out some errors made by Chinese college students when they use English. These errors are caused of lacking cultural studies in their learning. After having analyzed these errors, the author puts forward the inputting mode and discusses how to input cultural knowledge into college EFL classrooms by using authentic materials and raising students' cultural awareness.This mode differs from the traditional language teaching based on teacher-center and grammar-center. According to the situations of Chinese college EFL students, the process of inputting is divided into two stages. At the first stage, the main purpose is to train learners' cultural awareness and to increase their cultural susceptibility by inputting cultural differences in everyday life. At the second stage, the purpose is to study differentthinking modes, different concepts of values and different social customs between Western and Eastern, thus improving students' English proficiency. The main purpose of the mode is to input cultural knowledge in different layers, and a cultural cognition system can be set up correspondingly. In this way, the students' quality and the ability of communicating with the external world are to be improved.