Cultural Analysis Of Obstacles To Development Of English Education In China

The relationship between language and culture has been a focus of attention from a variety of disciplinary perspectives for many years. As for Chinese students, English learning is much confined by Chinese atmosphere. Many researches have been carried out to understand the cultural and language difference between Chinese and English, and the interference of the native language.This thesis seeks to reexamine Chinese traditional culture and its influence on education. With the help of Gao Yihong's theory of Tao and qi, the thesis transcends the language level of culture, and devotes itself to the study of ideological culture which can be regarded as the Tao of culture. So a thorough and penetrating analysis of the essence of Chinese culture, which includes the unity of Heaven and Man, vigorousness and tolerance, the Golden Mean, and family-orientation, is conducted. And in order to demonstrate the negative influence of the deep-rooted ideological culture on students and teachers, an illustration of the Chinese-featured mode of the world outlook, the outlook on value and methodology is given from philosophical aspects. Among the issues discussed are Chinese attitudes towards language and language learning; the deviation on the concept and goal of English education; Chinese students as English learners; an extreme view of the subject in English class; the influence of cultural despotism on English education; English teachers' attitude towards teaching reform; the unreasonable evaluation system; the fragmentation of our ELT theories and disjoint between theory and practice. These aspects together give much negative impact on English education.This thesis consists of four chapters. Beginning with the theory of "Tao " and "Qi", the first chapter gives an analysis of "Tao " and "Qi" in Chinese traditional culture. Then, the thesis brings up the essence of Chinese traditional culture. In this part, the negative effect of these four essences on the culture is also analyzed. In order to go a further step intoChinese traditional culture, the thesis extends its study into Chinese classic philosophy. This social philosophy definitely brings a great and far-reaching impact on the development of Chinese culture.Chapter Two is a survey. With students in high school and college as the subjects, the survey aims to find out the students' point of view in English learning and in what aspects Chinese ideological culture obstructs English education. The survey turns out that Chinese ideological culture hinders our English learning in many aspects.The third chapter focuses on the cultural obstacles to the development of our English education. Eight aspects are involved to illustrate the biggest impediment of our unchanging cultural mode to our English educational development. Each aspect is analyzed in depth and at length. These aspects can lead to the following tendencies, e.g. to highlight authority while to ignore personality; to emphasize experience while to make light of innovation; to underline memorization while to belittle communication; to stress test while to neglect competence.The last chapter presents some heuristic solutions to the predicament in our ELT. We should adapt our language attitude to communication. Next, our ELT should face all students and lay students a foundation for the all-round and life-long development. Then, we must insist on the diversified, pluralistic, holistic-informed and developing principles of evaluation. Fourthly, the quality of teaching materials is in need of improving. Fifthly, teachers' attitudes towards ELT should be adjusted in the new situation. Sixthly, more freedom should be given to English education. Finally, a holistic and integrated set of ELT theories is also indispensable.These suggestions are put forward to expect to attain some heuristic significance in our ELT.