Developing Students' Intercultural Awareness:From The Perspective Of Action Research

This case study is based on my ten-week research carried out at Yunnan Experimental School(An Affiliated High School of Beijing University) during the second term of the 2003-2004 school year, during which I was studying for the degree of master of English education. Meanwhile I learnt some new theories about English education and teaching, action Research, for example. It provided me with an opportunity to apply what I had learned in theory to my teaching practice. As Wardhaugh says "Good teaching practice is based on good theoretical understanding. There is indeed nothing so practical as good theory."(Wardhaugh,1969:116) This thesis on one hand aims at emphasizing the importance of helping students become autonomous learners in the classroom practice of English learning and teaching as a foreign language, and on the other attempts to analyze the indivisible relationship between language and culture.Detailed discussions are made in such fields as how to help students develop their intercultural awareness, how to help them formulate a whole set of hypothesis concerning various learning activities, and how to help them establish their intercultural communication competence. In a word, it is not only an exact action research report of how I helped my students learn English in an effective and enjoyable way, but also a partial reflection of my own teaching work and personal experience of growth as an English teacher.