A Study Of Chinese Cultural Aphasia In College English Teaching Material

Culture is both reflected by and carried through language. The ultimate aim of foreignlanguage education is to achieve intercultural communication. Accordingly, English teachingshould combine linguistic competence with communicative competence. However,interacting with others in foreign language involves more than mastering the accuratelinguistic knowledge but acquiring relevant cultural background information. Therefore, it isdefinitely necessary for cultivating intercultural communicative awareness to improve cultureteaching in college English education.In practice, one-sidedness does exist in enhancing cultural contents involved in ourcountry’s college English teaching. That is to say, we have to face a serious consequence ofoverexpansion of cultural information originated from western countries as well as ignoranceof knowledge of our own native culture. Because of the inadequacy in knowledge of Chineseculture, many college students fail to accomplish intercultural communication which takes apremise of a good comprehension of one’s native culture so as to explore the possibilities ofcomparison with other cultures. According to Professor Cong Cong, this is called“ChineseCultural Aphasia”. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is our college English teachingmaterial which is a knowledge carrier of teaching activity. In China, reading materialsinvolved in college English teaching material are usually originated from English-speakingcountries, so that amount of western cultural background knowledge can be led in Englishclassroom teaching to benefit students’acquisition of simon-pure English and understandingof western culture. However, the absence of Chinese culture in college English teachingresults in students’incompetence in expressing Chinese culture in English and therebyhinders the development of intercultural communicative competence.Consequently, this paper is intended to explore the negative impact on college students’intercultural communicative competence caused by the inadequacy of Chinese culturalcontents involved in college English teaching material and the teachers’ignorance of Chineseculture in teaching activities, via analyzing Chinese cultural components in college Englishteaching material and students’ability of expressing Chinese culture in English after finishingtwo years college English course. The author firstly chooses the intensive reading teaching material of New College English (Second Edition) as subject to summarize the culturalcontents involved in it on the basis of Byram’s criteria for textbook evaluation. The resultsuggests that although almost every aspect of culture is included in this set of textbooks,Chinese cultural contents are in very low proportion. Hence, in order to integrate Chineseculture in college English teaching, teaching material should be adjusted by increase Chinesecultural information.Furthermore, the author undertakes a study on the perspective of textbook users: studentand teacher. On the one hand, a test aimed at investigating the college students’ability ofexpressing Chinese culture in English is designed for 150 non-English majors on thethird-year study in Shandong University of Technology, with a questionnaire followed. Theresult of the test presents that the Chinese cultural aphasia does exist in college students,namely lacking the ability of expressing Chinese culture in English. And the analysis ofquestionnaire demonstrates that students think it would be helpful to improving theirintercultural communicative competence if to increase the Chinese cultural components incollege English textbooks. On the other hand, an interview is made for 20 college Englishteachers. The author finds that most teachers have positive attitudes towards Chinese culture’sinput in their teaching activities; however, just because of the refinement of culturalcomponents in textbooks and of sorts, it is very difficult for them to keep balance onintroducing both target culture and native culture.All in all, because of the Chinese cultural aphasia in today’s college English teachingmaterial which brings the failure of intercultural communication, it is imperative to reformthe compiling of college English teaching material.