Cultural Differences And Acculturation In TEFL

The main purpose of this thesis is to introduce to the English learners of China the cultural differences between China and the English-speaking countries, and the differences of the verbal and nonverbal communication rules between Chinese and English speakers. It also discusses culture education under the current situation of TEFL in Chinese colleges.Chapter 1 introduces the problems posed and the importance of "communicative competence". It also explains briefly the definition of intercultural communication. Intercultural communication refers to communication between or among interlocutors of different cultural background.Chapter 2 deals with the relationship of language and culture. There are two ideas that stand for two different philosophical points of views as to the dimension of language and culture. Some of American linguists and anthropologists hold that language and culture belong to the same scope, but the notion of culture is broader than that of language, language is just one element of it, or a part of it. Marxism states that culture principally refers to ideological form of society and the system, structure appropriate to that society. Culture has the characteristics of class in class society. Therefore, it is one components of upper structure of society. Language, which is different from culture, is a tool, a weapon with which people communicate, exchange ideas, and understand each other. So it doesn't belong to upper structure, and has no class characteristics, it belongs to the whole civilian. Although language and culture are the things that belong to different dimension, they still share some common features: 1. Language and culture are both socialphenomena. 2. Language and culture is a kind of historical phenomenon. 3. Continuity is another feature of language and culture. 4. Language and culture share the feature of diffusion.Chapter 3 is a major part, which introduces cross-cultural differences and different communication rules between Chinese and English speakers, including verbal communication, nonverbal communication and social etiquettes. They are 1.address forms 2.greetings 3.compliments 4.apologies 5 .partings 6.conversation topics, in verbal communication, and 7.gestures 8.facial expressions 9.face gestures l0.eye contacts 11.space 12.touching behavior 13.silence, etc in non-verbal communication. The purpose is not to cover all the sociocultural rules, but rather to guide the English learners to a better understanding of the target culture, so that they can achieve communicative competence, thus to facilitate English learning in classrooms.Chapter 4 is an overview of the present situation of TEFL in Chinese colleges. There is an analysis of the data of the sociocultural test designed and organized by the present author, which shows that the English learners' sociocultural knowledge is far inferior to their linguistic knowledge.Chapter 5 states the importance of culture education in TEFL: English learners cannot hope to obtain communicative competence without a good knowledge of the culture of the target language. Misunderstandings resulting from native culture interference are more dreadful than other types of comprehension failures. Therefore, in English teachers should integrate the culture of the English-speaking countries gradually and appropriately in EFL teaching. Thus the students may have a better understanding of the culture of the target language and be able to communicate freely and effectively with the native speakers in interculturalcommunication. It also introduces the reasons, functions, objective, levels, and techniques of culture education.The conclusion part points out the insufficiency of culture education in TEFL, and also makes some suggestions for the future work.