An Empirical Study On College English Teachers'Cross-Cultural Literacy In Classroom Teaching

Teachers' literacy is related not only to the construction of high-quality teacher teams,but also to the cultivation of high-talented students.With the constant development of college English teaching reform,the cultivation of comprehensive talents with high cross-cultural literacy has become an important goal of foreign language teaching,which calls for higher requirements for teachers' professional abilities.As the main force of teaching,college English teachers' cross-cultural literacy has a direct impact on the cultivation of their students' cross-cultural literacy.Many studies have pointed out that teachers should take the lead in cultivating their own cross-cultural literacy so as to better carry out cross-cultural teaching as well as improve the quality and effectiveness of cross-cultural education.Therefore,it is necessary to explore college English teachers' cross-cultural literacy to meet the great opportunities and challenges faced by foreign language disciplines.In the context of classroom teaching,this study is intended to investigate the overall level of college English teachers' cross-cultural literacy,teachers' teaching practice about cross-cultural literacy and influential factors of cross-cultural literacy from language literacy,intercultural knowledge literacy and intercultural communication competence.Based on the research purpose,the following research questions are accordingly put forward:(1)What is the current situation of college English teachers' cross-cultural literacy and whether does their cross-cultural literacy vary in demographic variables?(2)How do teachers cultivate and improve students' cross-cultural literacy in classroom teaching?(3)What are other factors that may influence teachers' cross-cultural literacy?In order to investigate college English teachers' cross-cultural literacy in a comprehensive university,this study adopts a mixed methodology combining questionnaire,interview and classroom observation.Among which,questionnaire belongs to quantitative research method,while interview and classroom observation belong to qualitative research methods.The questionnaire is designed to describe the overall level of teachers' cross-cultural literacy in the target university and the impact of some demographic factors on their cross-cultural literacy.Three teachers from different teaching modules are selected for classroom observation and a semi-structured interview to make an inquiry about factors that may affect the development of teachers' cross-cultural literacy apart from demographic variables and to explore how teachers cultivate and improve cross-cultural literacy in classroom teaching.The results of questionnaire data analysis show that the overall level of teachers' cross-cultural literacy in the target school is relatively high(M =.38068).To be specific,among the three dimensions,teachers' language literacy and intercultural communicative competence are at a higher level,while their intercultural knowledge literacy stays at a medium level.Questionnaire data analysis also reveals that there is a significant correlation between overseas experience and teachers' cross-cultural literacy.But no statistically significant differences are found in teachers' cross-cultural literacy in terms of gender,age,years of teaching,professional title,educational background and teaching module.In addition,the results of interview and classroom observation show that the three teachers agree that the cultivation and development of language literacy,intercultural knowledge literacy and intercultural communication ability are complementary.In daily teaching practice,it is observed that three teachers design classroom activities to cultivate and improve students' cross-cultural literacy from three aspects,including language teaching,culture teaching and communication teaching,while each teacher has his or her emphasis.Besides the demographic variables,the qualitative data analysis also reveals that some other factors may affect teachers' cross-cultural literacy.These influential factors are divided into internal factors and external factors.The internal factors include teachers' motivation to pursue self-improvement,teachers' reflection on their own abilities and teaching practice,teachers' self-efficacy and professional development;the external factors contain social development,school atmosphere and opportunities,colleagues' cooperation and students' needs and feedback.These factors will have a certain impact on teachers' thinking and behavior,which drive them to lay stress on improving their own cross-cultural literacy and promoting their professional development.