Study On Cultural Values Of Curriculum Design Of English For Non-English Majors

There is a close relationship between education, language, curriculum and culture. Education is by nature making judgment and choice about cultures. Language and culture are closely connected, so are language instruction and culture instruction. It is one fundamental objective to develop foreign language learners' cultural literacy in foreign language instruction. Integrating culture instruction into language instruction is a trend in the development of language instruction, and a call of times upon language instruction.The status quo of cultural values in curriculum design of English for non-English majors is not satisfactory. Curriculum syllabus emphasizes linguistic knowledge and skills, lacking in provisions and descriptions about students' overall cultural literacy. It passively expresses and conveys mainstream (elite) cultures in Britain and America. The evaluation stresses assessment of students' basic English linguistic knowledge and skills, the cultural values of materials having not been part of tests.To further enrich the cultural values in curriculum design of English for non-English majors in China, we must first of all overcome cultural instrumentalism in perception. In practice, the cultural values of English curriculum for non-English majors can be improved in curriculum objectives, curriculum contents and curriculum evaluation. Taking the chance of school-based curriculum development, curriculum developers can select curriculum contents with "cultural analysis" and multicultural theories as ground rules. Foreign language teachers should aim at developing learners' comprehensive cultural literacy in the course of instruction. Furthermore, contents and forms of CET-4 and CET-6 should be reformed, adding points about culture and cultural literacy into the test, to enrich cultural values of curriculum evaluation of English for non-English majors.