Perception,Practice And Reflection Of Intercultural Teaching Objectives:An Empirical Study On English Majors Of A University In Zhejiang Province

Intercultural teaching objectives for English major was rementioned by the ELT Board and published in official documents. Intercultural communicative competence for English major is again put into an important position with the aims of international talents and humanity education. To define intercultural communicative competence in intercultural teaching, domestic and foreign scholars have proposed many frameworks, which are the basis for intercultural teaching objectives setting. Among them, the framework constructed by Michael Byram studies the intercultural communicative competence for foreign language education with two united and different parts: intercultural competence and communicative competence. This framework is particularly adaptable for foreign language education.In order to find out the intercultural teaching practice for English major at present, an investigation was conducted in School of Foreign Languages and Literature of a provincial normal university in Hangzhou city. Self-evaluation scale and questionnaire were distributed to students to find out their perception of intercultural teaching objectives, including their intercultural communicative competence, international talents training, humanity education, and opinions of intercultural teaching in their school. An interview was held with a front-line professor to talk about the teaching idea. The investigation finds that students have a clear perception of the intercultural communicative competence. They gave higher evaluation to the complementary and indirect dimensions but relatively lower in straight and direct dimension. Their perception of related aspects was influenced profoundly by the school’s academic atmosphere and the unbalanced the curriculum design system to certain extent. They have high perception of the objectives of international talents training and humanity education of foreign language education but similar perception to the training mode with what they believe about intercultural teaching. From teacher’s perspective, training intercultural communicative competence in school should put focus on critical cultural awareness and students’ needs for future professional development. Findings showed that school should try to make adjustment to the curriculum design to balance intercultural teaching and try to provide various practical opportunities with enough guidance for students. A team of professional teachers should also be formed for the continuous development for both teachers and students for intercultural teaching. Also the effects of testing system call for reformation in related assessment fields to deeper level.