Stereotypical Relation And Culture Teaching In College EFL Education

The necessity of and emphasis on the teaching of culture in the language curriculum have been accentuated these years. Nowadays, foreign culture is no longer ignored but has been recognized as a bridge to foreign language acquisition. However the result of culture teaching in college EFL instruction is not so satisfactory. Many teachers do not feel that they can commit enough time to the study of culture in an already overcrowded curriculum. So we need a new cultural teaching model, which can function efficiently for the whole cultural teaching.Therefore, the model of Stereotypical Relation (SR) proposed by Professor Xu Shenghuan in 1996 could be used to tackle the problem in culture teaching. The model of stereotypical relation, however, presents several new challenges for foreign language teaching: (1) is it possible that SR plays an efficient way in culture leading in EFL Teaching? (2) Faced with so intricate and complex components of culture, how to use SR in practical cultural teaching tasks? In this thesis, the author will explore solutions to the problems mentioned above.A research is carried out among 130 first year non-English majors in Changchun Normal College. With the data analysis and discussion, there are some findings: (1) SR teaching method has an efficient and positive influence on culture teaching. (2) It can improve EFL learners'cultural competence. (3) Its positive influence can affect on not only for the unskilled EFL learners but also the well-skilled ones. Thus, a conceptual framework of cultivating SRs is raised and illustrated in detail from the aspects of the goal, principle and suggestions that are proposed inside the class and outside the class. Methods of SR cultivation in the class are Conversational Practice, Lecture of Special Cultural Topics, Cultural Information Presentation Supported by Technology and Cultural Survey. Multimedia Application, Newspaper Reading, Literature Reading, Intercultural Communication are proposed to cultivate SR out of class.The research focuses on SR's positive role in culture leading in EFL in China. However, there are still some limitations in this study. It remains open to be discussed and improved.