On Culture Teaching And Learning In College EFL Context Under Schema Theory

Culture teaching has been advocated in the last few decades. In 1967, Lado addressed the significance of contrasting cultures in assisting students' progress of language learning. In China, the concept of cultural introduction in foreign language teaching and learning emerged in 1980s. Researches like Intercultural Communication and English Learning edited by Hu Wenzhong (1988) and Language and Culture written by Deng Yanchang and Liu Runqing (1989) provided many highly valued remarks both theoretically and practically.However, the result of culture teaching in college EFL instruction is not so satisfactory. Teachers have tended to introduce cultural facts as background knowledge sporadically, and students' culture competence is rather lower than their language competence. To tackle the problem, the thesis puts forward the idea that culture teaching should be carried out by constructing culture schemata. Chapter One is a literature review of schema theory from five aspects: main definitions, categories, characteristics, functions and limitations of schema. Chapter Two exemplifies that the ill-developed culture schemata may impede effective intercultural communication. In Chapter Three, the author postulates a culture teaching and learning model—culture schema constructing model in college EFL context. Chapter Four is a detailed description of how the researcher puts the model into her teaching practice.According to this model, students are not passive information receivers but active explorers of cultural knowledge. With peers' cooperation and the teacher's guidance, the learner is responsible for establishing appropriate culture schemata, which can be activated and function well in intercultural communication.The model presented in the thesis just provides a tentative suggestion to achieve a more effective result in culture teaching and learning. It needs to be further tested and modified in future EFL instruction.