On Leading In Culture Instruction In TCFL Based On Moral Commonality

After many years of development, great achievement has been made concerning the theoretical research on culture instruction in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. Although there is still controversy over some specific terms being adopted and emphasis or focus on culture instruction, we all agree on its necessity in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, principles that should be observed and the importance of developing cross-cultural ability in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.Upon the entry of the new century, along with the rapid increase of China’s international status, the blossom of the Confucius Institute and the acceleration of globalization, not only the numbers of foreign learners of Chinese have greatly proliferated but their cultural background is also more diversified than ever before. Therefore, it becomes imminent to explore culture teaching in practice, especially to strengthen the study of culture teaching strategies and specific input forms. The current purpose of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language should be a cultural diffusion on the basis of the multicultural coexistence and respect for cultural diversity rather than an instrumental one. In the past the contrast research on the foreign learners’mother tongue culture and Chinese culture mainly focused on the differences and ignored the similarities. In other words, it put too much emphasis on the uniqueness and nationality of both cultures, which to some extent would lead to cultural resistance of the learners, learning inefficiency, and would even affect China’s international image. By combining theoretical research with teaching practice, this paper is an academic attempt to explore new methods to import culture instruction based on moral commonality of different cultures.Adopting the method of historical documentation, this paper tries to find the law of development of the research on culture instruction in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language by reading, analyzing, classifying and summing up the existing research papers. Thus, we can establish a close relationship between moral ethics and culture from a theoretical perspective, recognize the importance of moral commonality in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language at this stage, and confirm the feasibility of leading in culture instruction based on moral commonality of different cultures. Then, through the comparative approach, this paper explores the possible Chinese sources of Benjamin Franklin’s moral ethics between the moral ethics by Benjamin Franklin and Chinese Confucius, both of whom are regarded as representative figures of their culture. By comparison, the moral commonality can be found to help the foreign learners to dispel their cultural anxiety, to speed up their cultural adaptation and to help develop their consciousness as "world citizens". Only in this way, will the fundamental goal of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language finally be achieved. At the end of the article through case analysis, a complete cultural introductory lesson plan is designed and the feedback of the class is given to display some corresponding teaching strategies and suggestions concerning the culture instruction based on moral commonality.