An Ethnographic Study Of Initiating,Implementing And Institutionalizing An Innovative Content-based English Course In Primary Classrooms In China

The transmission and promotion of traditional Chinese culture has been mentioned over and over again by policymakers and social media these days.Under the guidance of key competences and the influence of globalization,integrating Chinese culture into English language teaching certainly has its value.This ethnographic study was conducted by the author and an experienced primary school teacher through a one-yearand-half optional course“?????”(Teaching Chinese Culture in English).Data including reflections,depth-interviews,focus group interviews,classroom observation and field notes were collected and analyzed.Perceptions and practice of the initiator,practitioners and evaluators were compared to find out possible factors influencing the process of innovation.Results show that 1)most challenges of this innovation come from the balance between language objective and culture objective,restrictions in teachers'culture attainment as well as limited resources;2)curriculum innovation is not a top-down process but rather a process in which stakeholders influencing each other;3)novice teacher differs from veteran teacher in cultural teaching.Novice teacher leans towards cultural content while veteran linguistic knowledge.As for teaching methods,novice teacher is constrained by teaching experience and thus focuses on passing content while veteran on interaction.