A Practical Study On Senior High School English Teachers’ ELF Awareness In China

With the development of globalization,English has admittedly become ELF(English as a Lingua Franca).Non-native English speakers far outnumber the native English speakers,which significantly challenges the hegemony of native speakerism.Senior high school English teachers in China should follow the trend of times,acquire ELF awareness and integrate it into teaching practice.Besides the accuracy and appropriateness in language form,students’ communicative competence and cultural awareness should be highlighted.The study,based on the relevant research findings both at home and abroad,has conducted a survey among 26 English teachers in a senior high middle school by using the following three methods:questionnaire,interview and classroom observation.Meanwhile,12 classes as well as 4 teachers were randomly selected as the objects of classroom observation and interview,trying to answer the following questions:1.What is the present situation of senior high school English teachers’ ELF awareness in China?2.What are the existing problems in terms of ELF awareness?3.What are the possible reasons for the present situation of ELF awareness?The results of this research are as follows:(1)Senior high middle school English teachers in China have ELF awareness to some extent.Firstly,in terms of lingual attitude,teachers accept different English variants and attach importance to cultivating students’ communicative ability,with most teachers thinking cultural teaching is important,caring about the cultural phenomena in the textbook and approving of spreading and promoting Chinese culture.In addition,ELF awareness is reflected in the teaching practice,a good illustration of which is the partial realization of teaching aim in terms of cultural awareness.(2)The main problems are as follows.The problems with cultural teaching are obvious,among which the integration of Chinese culture into daily teaching,in particular,is far from enough.The problems are specifically reflected in the following ways.For example,teachers do not devote enough time to cultural teaching;the activities organized are not various enough;teachers have difficulty expressing Chinese culture in English.(3)The main reasons accounting for the present situation can be stated as follows.Teachers themselves lack cultural competence;the arrangement of cultural content in the textbook is a limiting factor;teachers mainly focus on the literal understanding of the reading material,acquiring and combing the superficial information.Teachers organize activities mainly in the form of questions and answers.However,teachers deal with the cultural information in a comparatively rough way.In view of the results mentioned above,the author puts forward some specific suggestions in the aspects of transforming lingual attitude,stressing cultural teaching and reflecting on teaching practice,aiming to raise the senior high school English teachers’ ELF awareness.The thesis studies the current situation of senior high English teachers’ ELF awareness,analyzes the reasons and proposes feasible suggestions for raising the ELF awareness,which may provide useful enlightenment for English teaching in senior high school.