On The Integration Of Home Culture With Target Culture In The Culture Teaching Of EFL For Non-English Majors

Learning foreign language means coming into contact with a kind of new culture. The interrelated relationship between language and culture makes culture teaching an important part in foreign language education. In China, since the open-door policy, cultural teaching has been receiving more and more attention. It has been commonly accepted that culture teaching should be laid emphasis on in the process of English teaching. Correspondingly, a large number of scholars have made systematic researches in the objectives, principles, content and methods of culture teaching, which contributes a lot to the development of culture teaching.However, most researches relate to the introduction of target culture, but ignore the introduction of English learners'native culture. Culture teaching can't be simply considered as the teaching of target culture. Cross-cultural communication is kind of two-way activity, requiring the mutual exchange between two cultures. The loss of learners'native culture in communication will inevitably lead to the unbalanced development of communication, which is certain to do great harm to the spreading of Chinese culture. This feature of cross-cultural communication determines that native culture education should be included in the culture teaching of EFL (English as a foreign language).In China, most of the culture teaching in colleges and universities is one-sided. When conducting culture teaching, English teachers only pay attention to the introduction of target culture, but ignore the introduction of home culture. This kind of one-sided culture teaching leads to students'poor mastery of Chinese culture, misleads their attitudes towards different cultures; what's more, it causes"the aphasia of Chinese culture". In a word, to a certain extent, it impedes the realization of the ultimate goal of EFL, that is, the cultivation of students'cross-cultural communicative competence. Therefore, efforts must be made to improve culture teaching, thus promoting the improvement of students'communicative competence.In view of this situation, adopting the method of questionnaire and test, the author makes an investigation into the current situation of culture teaching in EFL for non-English majors. The investigation is made in three universities of Shandong Province. Through analyses, it is found that the phenomenon of"lack of home culture"does exist in the culture teaching of EFL. Based on the results and analyses, this thesis explores reasons leading to this phenomenon, elaborates the necessity of home culture education in EFL, and puts forward some feasible suggestions on how to achieve the integration of home culture with target culture.The whole thesis falls into six parts including introduction and conclusion. Introduction briefly introduces the academic background and current situation of culture teaching for non-English majors. Chapter one is a brief literature review of culture teaching both at home and abroad. It is discovered that researches relating to culture teaching has made great achievements, but most of them are target culture-oriented, leaving home culture ignored to a certain extent. Therefore, looking into the current situation of culture teaching for non-English majors and putting forward feasible solutions are the main aims of this thesis.Chapter two is the theoretical basis of this thesis. The definition and classification of culture as well as the definition and principles of cross-cultural communication are first clarified to pave the way for discussions in the following chapters. Then the theoretical basis of the research is elaborated from two aspects. On one hand, the interrelated relationship between language and culture determines that culture teaching must be included into foreign language education; on the other hand, culture teaching can't be simply considered as the teaching of target culture. The one-sided culture introduction is sure to lead to the loss of English learners'native cultural identity. Therefore, it is a necessity to achieve the integration of home culture with target culture in the culture teaching of EFL.Chapter three is an empirical study. Using questionnaire and test paper, an investigation into the current situation of culture teaching in EFL for non-English majors is carried out. The result of investigation shows: the phenomenon of"lack of home culture"does exist in the culture teaching of EFL for non-English majors; as a result, students'mastery of Chinese culture as well as their ability to present it in English is far from satisfaction; the reasons for such a phenomenon rest on English teachers and learners'inappropriate attitude towards the position of Chinese culture in EFL, the design of teaching syllabus, curriculum and testing system as well as the compilation of textbook.Chapter four is the implications for culture teaching. In view of the problems talked in chapter three, the author puts forward some suggestions to improve culture teaching, including suggestions on syllabus design, curriculum planning, textbook compilation, testing design, teaching objective, teaching strategy together with the improvement of English teachers'cultural accomplishment.The conclusion gives a summary of the whole thesis, points out the limitations of the thesis and recommends further study.The study of this thesis will improve the understanding of culture, cross-cultural communication as well as communicative competence in culture teaching, thus promoting the development of culture teaching. Besides, it may also contribute to the improvement of students'comprehensive ability and the realization of the ultimate goal of culture teaching.