A Study Of Cultural Ecology And Foreign Language Teaching

English as an international language has caused a great effect on the otherforeign cultures from different perspectives with the help of media and advancedtechnology. The promising business of foreign language teaching (FLT) contributesgreatly to the spread of English. The global foreign language teaching is almostmonopolized by English as the main media of the foreign language teaching. Yet theconnections between the English language and the political, economic, and militarypower are not adequately noticed. On the other hand, teachers of FLT usually focus onthe target culture, ignoring other foreign cultures and the learners' own culture. Thisone-side flow of the target culture misleads the foreign language learners who wouldconsider English superior to other cultures. This condition accelerates the spread ofEnglish and linguistic/cultural imperialism.The global spread of English makes other languages appear inferior, and finallyresults in the extinction of some minor languages. "Perhaps 80% of the world's 6,000or so living languages will die out within the next century."[1] Language is therepository of the history of a people. Once lost, it can never be recaptured, which issimilar to the conservation of species and the environment. Scholars and experts suchas Phillipson, Kangas, Crystal etc. show great concerns about the spread of English,so they advocate promoting the development of different languages and cultures,expecting people to keep a balance between cultural/linguistic diversity andbiodiversity.Ecology is a term of biology, meaning all living things exist in harmony withnature. This idea is similar to the conservation of species and environment. Linguisticand cultural diversity is regarded as necessary and important as biodiversity. Culturaldiversity might enhance biodiversity or vice versa. People have realized theimportance of keeping the balance of their ecological environment. The endangeredspecies are being saved, yet not so many people are sensitive to the extinction oflinguistic/ cultural diversity. Cultural ecology is a quite new field of research inlinguistics, only dating back to the 1960s and the 1970s. Experts give ecology alinguistic meaning and call for special protection to get the parallels betweenbiodiversity and cultural/ linguistic diversity. So teachers of foreign language teaching(FLT) should not only teach students the target culture, but also other foreign culturesand the language learners' native culture. As a result, the foreign language learnersmay develop their ability to treat different cultures ecologically in the cross-culturalcommunication.This paper, which focuses on how to keep cultural ecology in FLT, especially inculture teaching class, serves this end. It is made up of four chapters besidesintroduction and conclusion.The Introduction deals with the current foreign language teaching condition inChina, which gives undue attention to the target culture and neglects to some extentother cultures. This condition is very harmful for the healthy cultural input.Chapter One reviews the historical development of cultural ecology in FLT,trying to find out some workable parameters for our present and future work.Chapter Two talks about the theoretical bases of cultural ecology. Language,culture and foreign language teaching are closely connected. As a result, the globalFLT market contributes to linguistic imperialism and cultural imperialism, which islikely to endanger the national languages of other countries in the long run. Therefore,cultural ecology is presented hoping to balance the teaching of target culture, otherforeign cultures and the learners' native cultures in FLT.Chapter Three elaborates an investigation of cultural ecology in a Chineseeducational context. The author has conducted an empirical study among 802 studentsin Weifang, intending to discover the influence on Chinese language and culturebrought by English diffusion. Based on the results of the investigation, this partexposes that English has really hurt the cultural ecology of China. A large number ofEnglish learners have been westernized to some extent in their daily life and languageperformance, yet they are unaware of English invasion. On the contrary, they regard itfashionable. This research serves as an example, implying that the same condition istaking place in other foreign countries. Sample students provide some suggestions onteaching culture ecologically in FLT.Chapter Four discusses the methods on how to teach culture ecologically inforeign language teaching. According to the results of the investigation, the authormakes suggestions on the principles, techniques, content and even assessment ofcultural teaching in FLT. The foreign language learners have to keep a proper input ofthe target culture, other foreign cultures and the learners' native culture. In this way,people may develop correct attitudes towards different cultures and maintain theprosperity of the world culture.The Conclusion summarizes the research about how to keep cultural ecology inforeign language teaching. This part also includes the limitations of the current study.