A Survey Of Integrating Chinese Culture Into Senior High School English Teaching In The Background Of The New English Curriculum Standards

In recent years,cultivation of English key competencies for students in senior high school has been a big hit in education.Cultural awareness is one of the curriculum goals in senior high school,which implies the understanding of Chinese and foreign cultures and recognition of excellent cultures.The English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2020)clearly classifies content requirements of cultural knowledge that students are able to tell China’ s stories well in English and teachers should guide students to learn Chinese and foreign cultural knowledge in various ways,developing cross-cultural communication strategies and ability,firming cultural self-confidence,and promoting the socialist culture with Chinese characteristics.Obviously,Chinese culture is a part of English teaching,and it is of great significance to integrate Chinese culture into English teaching.Based on transfer theory and intercultural communicative competence theory,the study is conducted on questionnaire survey and interview with five teachers and seven students among150 students in Grade Two and 20 English teachers in Nanning ASEAN senior high school and aims to answer the following three questions:(1)What attitudes do teachers and students hold towards Chinese culture integration into English teaching in senior high school?(2)What are the characteristics of integrating Chinese culture in senior high school English teaching?(3)What are the factors resulting in integrating Chinese culture in senior high school English teaching?The results of questionnaire and interview for teachers and students show that:(1)Teachers and students hold positive attitudes towards integrating Chinese culture into English teaching in senior high school and they wake up to the importance of Chinese culture teaching in English teaching.(2)The contents and methods of integrating Chinese culture are monotonous and limited.(3)The main factors that result in integrating Chinese culture into English teaching are:students lack cultural knowledge about Chinese culture and they fail to express Chinese culture fluently and appropriately in English.Also,teachers fail to interpret the requirements of culture teaching promoted by the English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2020).Based on the major findings above,the author proposes the following pedagogical suggestions.Firstly,teachers should cultivate cultural awareness and make full use of the positive transfer of mother tongue culture in English teaching as well as improve Chinese cultural quality.Secondly,teachers should optimize the content and methods of integrating Chinese culture and adopt various ways to Chinese culture teaching.Thirdly,teachers should interpret the idea of culture teaching deeply promoted by the English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2020)and improve English language skills as well as develop cross-cultural communicative competence.