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Teaching Culture In Senior High School's EFLT: An Investigation And Pedagogical Options

Posted on:2009-06-12Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:M QiaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360242994400Subject:Subject teaching
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In July, 2001, China's Ministry of Education published an experimental version of English Curriculum Standards, in which the teaching of"Cultural Consciousness"was officially and explicitly put forward for the first time in the history of basic foreign language education in China. However, since different teachers have different understandings with the learner domain of"Cultural Consciousness", many senior high school teachers usually limit their teaching to what is in the textbook and what will be on the tests, totally neglecting the teaching of culture. For this reason, it is necessary for us to research into the question of how the cultural instruction should be implemented in senior high schools.Therefore, this research first explored theoretically the relationship between culture and foreign language teaching, and then by means of a three-fold investigation which consists of a cultural test, a questionnaire, and a case study, it investigated into the status quo of culture teaching in Yishui No. 3 Senior High School of Linyi from three aspects: the students, the teachers, and the teaching materials. Finally, it attempted to provide senior English teachers with some pedagogical options or possible solutions by suggesting some effective strategies for the teaching of culture in English classes.One of the most important characteristics of culture teaching in senior high schools is that the cultivation of cross-cultural competence must be conducted within the framework of language teaching."Cultural consciousness"must not be viewed as the fifth skill subsequent to listening, speaking, reading, and writing; rather, it must run through the whole process of foreign language teaching. Therefore, the teaching of culture in senior high schools should be integrated into the teaching of language.Based on the above viewpoint, the strategies for teaching culture have been divided into three categories: the teaching strategies, the learning strategies, and the testing and evaluating strategies in relation to the different roles played by teachers, students, and administrators. To be more specific, there are five basic strategies for teaching culture in senior high schools. They are: (1) to cultivate a positive affect towards the target culture; (2) to teach and learn cultural knowledge in the EFL classrooms; (3) to acquire cultural consciousness through receptive skills; (4) to experience culture by exploring on the Internet; (5) to develop cross-cultural awareness and competence by doing culture through a problem-posing approach.
Keywords/Search Tags:Culture teaching / Cultural instruction, Cultural consciousness, Strategies for teaching culture, National English Curriculum Standards
PDF Full Text Request
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