An Empirical Study On The Application Of Constructivist Theory On Culture Teaching Strategies In English Teaching In Higher Vocational College

Culture teaching has been introduced into the foreign language teaching classroom as more and more teachers and scholars have realized that cultural competence should be the ultimate goal for foreign language teaching. Basic Requirements of English Teaching for Higher Vocational Education demand that more attention should be paid to the development of students’intercultural communication competence (ICC). However, culture teaching is still in a subordinate position in higher vocational college, and the status quo of the application of this approach is far from being satisfactory.Based on sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and intercultural communication, this study is developed with constructivism theory as the main framework. This study attempts to emphasize the invisible relationship between language teaching and culture instruction, and to investigate the feasibility and the effectiveness of the constructivism-based culture teaching mode put forward by the researcher. The teaching mode consists of five major steps: ① create positive affect; ② set up authentic situation; ③ collect and correct information; ④ group presentation; ⑤ evaluate and have feedback. The specific questions to be addressed are as follows:(1) Is constructivism-based culture teaching mode efficient in improving students’ trans-cultural knowledge level in higher vocational colleges? (2) Will constructivism-based culture teaching mode contribute to increasing the higher vocational students’motivation for culture learning in higher vocational colleges?Two parallel classes are chosen as research subjects in this research. The constructivism-based culture teaching mode put forward by the researcher is employed in the Experimental Class and no special teaching strategy is used in the Control Class. With quantitative and qualitative approaches, test, questionnaire and classroom observation have been conducted respectively among students in two parallel classes so as to know whether the application of the constructivism-based culture teaching mode could improve the students’ trans-cultural knowledge level and students’ motivation for culture learning.This experiment is carried out for almost 14 weeks, and the results are as follows: firstly, the application of the constructivism-based culture teaching mode contributes to the improvement of trans-cultural knowledge level of the students from the EC while no obvious progress has been made by the students from the CC; secondly, the application of the constructivism-based culture teaching mode has slightly influence on learners’ culture learning motivation.Based on culture teaching theories at home and abroad and the researches conducted, the present research has explored how to effectively apply the constructivism-based culture teaching mode in higher vocational English classes, which enriches the research of culture teaching in English classes domestically, and proves the possibility and effectiveness of applying constructivist theory to culture teaching in English classes, and it serves as an efficient drive to have culture teaching in higher vocational colleges.