Strategies To Cultivate Interculturalawareness In English Teaching In Higher Vocational Colleges

At present, English teaching in higher vocational colleges is facing many difficulties, such as insufficient attention to intercultural awareness, teachers'lack of understanding of culture, teachers'laggard teaching methods, students'weak intercultural awareness, and students'pragmatic failure in intercultural communication. In order to solve these problems, strategies to cultivate intercultural awareness are studied in this thesis. The author conducted a one-term experiment in the college where the author works to study how to infiltrate cultural knowledge into English teaching; how to cultivate students'intercultural awareness and the feasibility and effectiveness of the strategies in English teaching in higher vocational colleges.Higher vocational education has become an irreplaceable component in higher education of China. The education of higher vocational colleges in China should also make some adjustments to keep pace with the social development. Therefore, this study is of very great significance.Firstly, this thesis gives a brief account of definitions of culture and intercultural awareness. Then, contents, objectives, and models of intercultural awareness cultivation are put forward. Secondly, a culture test was conducted among non-English major students in the college where the author works, the purposes of which are to know their actual ability in intercultural communication, to seek the root causes of students'cultural errors, to explore how to organize culture teaching in class for cultivating students'intercultural awareness and improving their intercultural communication ability. The questions in test are divided into three sections. Section One aims at testing subjects'non-verbal communicative competence. Section Two aims at testing subjects'verbal communicative competence. Section Three aims at testing subjects'mastery about the general knowledge of geography, history, literature, politics, and economy and so on of the target culture. Thirdly, a questionnaire survey of English culture was also conducted among the English teachers in the college where the author teaches. The questionnaire has 12 multiple-choice questions, the main purpose of which is to understand the English teachers'attitudes to culture teaching and culture tests and their specific practices in English teaching. Fourthly, the author interviewed some students and teachers to further explore the reasons for weak intercultural awareness and their attitudes towards culture teaching. Then the author proved that the strategies proposed are feasible and effective in cultivating higher vocational college students'intercultural awareness and task-based approach is a suitable teaching model to introduce the culture knowledge into English teaching through a one-term experimental research on teaching model of intercultural awareness cultivation.The experimental research on teaching model of intercultural awareness cultivation was conducted in the college where the author works, to explore its feasibility and effectiveness in the context of English teaching in higher vocational colleges. Two classes the writer taught were selected as the experimental class and the control class. The experimental class adopted task-based approach and carried out the strategies to cultivate students'intercultural awareness, while the control class adopted the traditional teaching model.In the thesis, three research questions are raised:1. What are the effective strategies to cultivate intercultural awareness?2. Whether the strategies put forward by the author are feasible and effective to cultivate intercultural awareness?3. What kind of teaching approach will effectively implement the strategies and inspire the students'interest in English learning and teaching?The experimental instruments involved in this research include two tests, interviews and observations. With these instruments, the following findings were obtained from the statistical analysis by SPSS 13.0 and Microsoft Excel 2003: 1) several effective strategies proposed by the author; 2) the strategies put forward by the author are effective to cultivate the students'intercultural awareness; 3) culture teaching through task-based approach has a more significant and positive influence on students'intercultural awareness and interest in English learning and teaching. Therefore, it can be concluded that implementing strategies through task-based approach is a feasible and effective teaching model in English teaching in higher vocational colleges. This research offers some implications to some educational institutions, higher vocational colleges and English teachers. However, some difficulties and limitations of culture teaching through task-based approach were also found in the experiment. It remains to be improved by other English teachers.