A Study On The Cultivation Of Students' Cultural Awareness In High School English Reading Teaching

The 2017 edition of English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools(Ministry of Education,2018)lists cultural awareness as one of the key competencies of the English subject,emphasizing culture as a crucial part of language teaching.However,cultural teaching has not been given due concern in the current reading instructions.Teachers still tend to attribute students' poor performances in reading to their deficiency in language knowledge,while neglecting the important role culture plays in reading comprehension,which is not conducive to the development of students' comprehensive use of language and the cultivation of students' cultural awareness.Against such backdrop,the present research puts forward a cultural awareness cultivation approach of English reading teaching,under the guidance of intercultural communication theory and cultural schema theory and examine its actual effects,trying to answer three questions: 1)How does cultural awareness cultivation approach in reading teaching influence students' performance on different reading tasks? 2)How does cultural awareness cultivation approach in reading teaching influence students' cultural awareness? 3)How does cultural awareness cultivation approach in reading teaching influence students' attitudes towards culture learning and reading lessons?The research was carried out over a two-month period among 91 Grade 11 students,who were from two parallel classes of a four-star senior high school in Nanjing.During the instructional intervention,the experimental class received the cultural awareness approach in English reading teaching,while the control class received the traditional approach.Effects on students' reading performances and cultural awareness were measured through pre-test and post-test.Changes in students' attitudes and perceptions regarding the cultural awareness cultivation approach were assessed quantitatively and qualitatively by questionnaires and reflective journals.The findings demonstrated that: 1)Cultural awareness cultivation approach in reading teaching can effectively enhance students' reading competence.Students obtained significant improvement in the tasks of inferring from context,understanding the author's intention and comprehending main ideas.2)Cultural awareness cultivation approach in reading teaching can effectively enhance students' overall cultural awareness.In terms of specific components,significant improvement was detected in the aspects of cultural knowledge and cultural understanding but not found in intercultural skills.3)Cultural awareness cultivation approach in reading teaching can positively influence students' attitudes,including an increased interest in learning cultural knowledge,an increased willingness for intercultural communication and a deeper understanding of cultural differences.As for the evaluation of the instructions,the majority of students enjoyed the culturally enriched reading lessons,while a few expressed a feeling of cognitive overload.The results of this study verify the effectiveness of the cultural awareness approach in English reading teaching.Teachers can adopt this approach in class to build cultural atmosphere and enrich the content of reading teaching.In the meantime,special efforts should be made to strike a balance between language teaching and cultural teaching.It is necessary for teachers to dissolve language obstacles for students and select an appropriate amount of cultural information so as not to distract students' attention from comprehending reading materials in the textbook.