Extensive Reading was taught by a Chinese teacher during the first four terms, and the teaching contents mainly focus on western culture, economy, politic, education and so on. After two years study, it helps students build up a general view on western civilization. Communication between Cultures is taught by a English-speaking teacher from New Zealand, the teaching content seems “boring and meaningless” said the majority of students, the teacher read the chapters from the book to the class instead of giving practical cross-cultural communication analysis. So for most students, they did not learn as much as they expected from this course. American literature was taught by a Chinese teacher, and the teaching contents include background information introduction and literacy reading. An Outline Introduction to Britain and America was taught by a Canadian teacher who has a good experience on both British and American cultures. In this course, students are introduced to a comparison of the British and American culture.
From what have been introduced above, it can be seen that although there are four courses and an 28-month course duration, most of what students have taken is an education of “cultural background knowledge” on Chinese or English rather than practical cross-cultural communication stimulation such as comparisons or contradictions between the target and native culture. To some extent, it revels why most English students have not got a conscious awareness in cultural or cross-cultural communication competence.
4 The Possible Ways to Develop Cultural Awareness
Through comparisons between the interview and the questionnaire, it can be seen that students hold positive attitudes on cultural awareness, but for some reasons, not so many have already obtained conscious cultural awareness. Through further analysis of curriculum on cultural teaching, it reveals that present cultural teaching in language teaching shows the weakness in practical, sufficient and conscious cultural input to help build up language learner’s cultural awareness. Moreover, the current teaching is also expected to be more communicative and interactive. Thus, following on are the possible ways to promote the cultural awareness.
4.1 The Necessary Cross-cultural Awareness Skills to Acquire
Firstly, it is vital for language teachers to help language learners build up cultural awareness and develop their cross-cultural communication competence. If the final purpose of cultural awareness cultivation is to help students to acquire cross-cultural communication competence, then what cross-cultural communication competence is? According to Kramsch’s opinion, cross-cultural awareness is not really a skill, but a collection of skills and attitudes known as a competence.
Secondly, it is necessary to make clear what cross-cultural awareness skills students are supposed to acquire. It has been suggested that cross-cultural awareness consists of having four different perspectives on communication with a different culture. Cross-cultural competent students should be able to:
----look at their own cult毕业论文http://www.751com.cn/ure from the point of view of their own culture (for example, having a good understanding and awareness of their own culture)
----Be aware of how their culture is seen from outside, by other countries or cultures
----understand or see the target culture from its own perspective (for example, understanding and being aware of what other people think of their own culture)
----Be aware of how they see the target culture
4.2 Instructional Strategies
Language teachers are supposed to exert instructional strategies to help language learners promote their cultural awareness, that is, provide language learners with some useful ideals for presenting culture from its own perspective, for example, understanding and being aware of what people in target culture think of their own culture.
1) Authentic Materials
Using authentic sources from the native speech community may help language learners to engage in authentic cultural experiences. Sources include news broadcasts, and other printed materials. Teachers can adapt these authentic materials to suit the age and language proficiency level of the students. For example, even language beginners can watch and listen to video clips taken from a television show in the target language. The teacher might supply students with a detailed translation or give them an outline to complete before they listen to a dialogue or watch a video. After the class has viewed the relevant segments, the teacher can engage the students in discussion of the cultural norms represented in the segment and what these norms might say about the values of the culture. The topics of discussion might include nonverbal behaviors (for instance, the different physical distance between speakers, gestures, eye contact, societal roles, and how people in different social roles related to each other). Students might describe the behaviors they observe and discuss which of them are similar to their native culture and which are not, and determine strategies for effective communication in target language.
2) Proverbs
Proverbs is essential not only in language teaching but also in culture teaching. Discussion of common proverbs in the target language could focus on how the proverbs are different from or similar to the proverbs in the students’ native language (Ciccarelli. 1996). Using proverbs as a way to explore cultural awareness also provides a way to analyze the stereotype and misperceptions of target culture, as well as a way for students to explore the values that are often represented in the proverbs of their native culture.
3) Role Play
In role plays, students can act out a miscommunication that is based on cultural differences. For example, after learning about ways of addressing different groups of people in the target culture, such as people of the same age and older people, students could role play a situation in which an inappropriate greeting is used. Other students observe the role play and try to identify the reason for the miscommunication. They then role play the same situation using a culturally appropriate form of the address.
4) Bicultural Students or Teachers as Cultural Resources
Exchange students, foreign teachers, or native teachers who have a bicultural living experience can be invited to the classroom as expert sources. They can share authentic insight into the home and cultural life of native speakers of the language.
5) Literature
Literary texts are often filled with cultural information and can evoke memorable response for readers. Texts that are carefully selected for a given group of students and with specific goals in mind can be helpful in allowing students to acquire insight into a culture.
6) Film
Film and television segments offer students an opportunity to witness behaviors that are not obvious in texts. Film is often one of the more comprehensive ways to convey the look, feel, and rhythm of a culture. Film also connects students with language and cultural issues simultaneously (Stephens. 2001), such as describing conversational timing or turn-taking in conversation. At least one study shows that students achieved significant gains in overall cultural knowledge after watching video from the target culture in the classroom (Herron., Cole., Corrine. & Dubreil. 1999)
5 Conclusion
This research investigated mainly English majors’ understanding on language competence and their attitudes towards the learning of language skills, the accumulation of culture and current classroom teaching of which students’ cultural awareness are especially analyzed. It may be safe to say that most English major learners have a high identification on language competence learning, but less of them have an active conscious awareness about the relationship between cultural awareness and language learning.
Through deeper analysis, results have shown that being lack of sufficient cultural input may be one of the main reasons that most participants have not obtained conscious cultural awareness in the process of language learning. On the analysis of college culture teaching