An Investigation Into English Majors' Expressiveness Of Chinese Culture In English

Since the 1950s, the trend of research in foreign language learning has been shifted from the exploration of developing sole linguistic skills of students to the cultivation of their cross-cultural communicative competence. Nowadays, culture has been regarded as an inseparable part of foreign language teaching and learning and it is necessary for students to obtain such a competence by the culture teaching. Research on the ways to motivate students to appropriate language use and effective cross-cultural communication constitutes an important inquiry in current foreign language teaching.Teaching a foreign language by using its culture as a vehicle for presenting the language does help to cultivate students' cross-cultural communicative competence. However, foreign language teaching and learning should not simply provide students opportunities to learn and know about target culture, it should also fulfill the task of transmitting their own home culture, which is one of objectives for foreign language education. Expressiveness of home culture in English, as a requisite of transmitting one's home culture, forms an essential part of cross-cultural communicative competence. A lack of such a competence may, to some extent, lead to breakdown of cross-cultural communication.The aim of the present study is to undertake a comprehensive and thorough scrutiny into English majors' expressiveness of Chinese culture in English and to provide some insightful suggestions for the current culture teaching of both Chinese and Western cultures in foreign language education. This investigation consists of two parts: quantitative study and qualitative study through which the following information is expected to obtain: first, the overall picture of the English majors' expressiveness of Chinese culture in English;Second, perceptions of teachers and students on expressiveness of Chinese culture in English and the culture teaching of EFL in China. The quantitative study is based on a test of English majors' ability to present Chinese culture in English and questionnaires for both teachers and students' perceptions on expressiveness of Chinese culture in English and the culture teaching in EFL in China.Several findings come to light after the data collection and analysis. Above all, the students are unqualified in expressiveness of Chinese culture in English and their trouble in this ability is ascribed to three points: first, English majors are not well equipped with English versions of vocabularies and expressions of Chinese culture, which results from the fact that students are not exposed to enough dose of Chinese culture in English. Second, students don't have abundant and profound knowledge of Chinese culture, which impedes their accurate and free explanation of Chinese culture. Third, students' slight acquaintance with the meanings and cultural background of some English vocabularies and expressions exerts great influence on their expressiveness of Chinese culture in English. Inappropriate use of some English vocabularies and expressions in explaining Chinese culture to foreigners may puzzle or mislead the foreigners. The study also shows that teachers and students have a positive attitude toward expressiveness of Chinese culture in English and transmission of Chinese culture. They hold a strong belief that it is necessary to transmit Chinese culture to foreigners in cross-cultural communication and to develop the students' ability to present Chinese culture in English in EFL teaching and learning.In relation to expressiveness of Chinese culture in English, the culture teaching in EFL in China, including textbooks, curriculum development, testing, teaching syllabus and cultural information sources are investigated and analyzed respectively. From the investigation, it is found that the current culture teaching of EFL in Chinese colleges and universities lays its stress much more on Western culture rather than on Chinese culture and theinteraction between Western culture and Chinese culture. It neglects the...