A Survey Of Cultural Input In English Teaching In Junior Middle Schools

With the development of economic globalization, more and more importance has been attached to English which acts as a tool of communication in this process. As a result, nowadays, particular attention is being paid to English teaching. As we all know it is hard for students who have received only linguistic training to communicate with people from English-speaking countries. Related cultural knowledge shall also be offered in order to enhance students’ cultural awareness and cross-culture communication capabilities. Meanwhile, due to the close association between culture and language, it should be recognized that only by strengthening culture input, can students grasp a foreign language. Unfortunately, the reality is that only linguistic training is highlighted in middle schools in China. Cultural input is largely neglected. That is to say, English teachers focus only on linguistic drill but neglect cultural input, which inevitably leads to the compromise in English teaching quality. This is the very reason why the study conducts a survey over the status quo of cultural input in English teaching among middle schools with an aim to get a clear picture of existing problems and their causes as well. It is expected that suggestions may be offered for improving English teaching in middle schools.300 middle school students and 30 English teachers are randomly chosen as samples from No. 7 Middle School, Yuhong Middle school and No. 11 Middle School of Huairen in Shuozhou, Shanxi province. Questionnaires are administered and interviews conducted. Results show that cultural information is adored by most students and teachers who have also recognized culture input in English teaching. However, problems do exist in actual English teaching practice. For instance, teachers do not think highly of cultural input and teachers’ cultural knowledge is limited. Only restricted amount of time has been spent on cultural input in English class. What’s more, teaching materials regarding culture are not available. The study indicates that causes for those problems may involve low culture and lack of culture input awareness of English teachers in middle schools, as well as their less satisfactory culture knowledge structure and culture education capabilities. Of course, current examination-oriented education and evaluation system as well as restriction in textbooks and less teaching condition also contribute to the current situation of English teaching in middle schools in China.At the end of the study, based on related literature and the analysis of status quo of English teaching in middle schools, some suggestions are put forward. It is concluded that only by making efforts from multi-aspects can culture input be effectively implemented, which may help students to learn English better and allow more and more talents with sound cross-culture communication capabilities to be cultivated to meet the needs of China.