A Survey Of The Present Situation Of Native Culture In English Language Teaching

Since the 1980s, the importance of integrating culture into English language teaching has been widely acknowledged in English teaching circle. However, lots of people take it for granted that the culture in EFLT refers to English culture only and they think it natural that Chinese learners know Chinese traditional culture well as the latter is the mother tongue. Only when the term of"aphasia of Chinese culture"was put forward in 2000 did the teaching circle realize the urgency and the importance of inputting Chinese culture into EFLT. After that, cultivating students'intercultural communication awareness was also listed as one of the main objectives of EFLT in 2003. A decade has passed, how about the situation of Chinese culture in EFLT today? Are there some changes in teachers'and students'attitude towards Chinese culture in English language teaching and learning? Are there some corresponding improvements in curriculum standard and textbooks?With the questions in mind, the author has made a survey in Xinxiang No.2 middle school. Besides, an analysis of English Curriculum Standard and New Senior English for China (NSEFC) has also been made to find out the requirements towards Chinese culture in EFLT and the quality and quantity of teaching materials available. The main conclusions are as following:Firstly, the requirements for Chinese culture are not clear in English Curriculum Standard, therefore it's hard to manipulate in practice.Secondly, the configuration of NSEFC in Chinese culture need to be further improved.Thirdly, some teachers are poor in teaching Chinese culture in English, and most of them take evasive attitude.Finally, students seriously lack of sensitivity to Chinese culture and consciousness to express Chinese culture in English. Lots of them show little interest in expressing Chinese culture in English although they acknowledge that they are weak in this kind of expressing.Based on the problems above, the author gives some advice. For example, the government and the media should guide people to establish such a kind of awareness, i.e. to employ English to express national culture, so as to affect the young from the society point. For the education department, they should improve the English Curriculum Standard, textbooks and assessment system as soon as possible. As teachers, they should direct students to notice and collect English words, idioms, expressions and backgrounds about Chinese culture on purpose, so as to cultivate students'sensitivity and consciousness on this aspect. Meanwhile, the channel of materials should be broadened and students themselves should become more initiative.However, the survey is made only in Xinxiang No.2 middle school and due to the limitation in research materials and in the author's knowledge in this field, so some aspects of the thesis need further discussion and exploration.