Infiltration of Chinese Culture Education in English Teaching

【Abstract】Cross-cultural education plays an important part in English teaching. Most teachers focus on the teaching of western culture in English classroom and ignore the education of native culture. In fact， bending Chinese culture in English teaching is helpful for students to have an intercultural awareness and master the target language. This paper discusses the importance and feasibility of Chinese culture in English teaching， and put forward three ways to reinforce the Chinese culture education in English teaching.

【Key words】Chinese culture; English teaching; cross-culture; language use

【作者簡介】张晶，宜兴高等职业技术学校。

1. Introduction

Culture plays a crucial role in language teaching and learning. The use of language transmits the different cultures; culture learning is helpful for learners to master a foreign language. At present the importance and necessity of cultural education have been widely recognized and applied to the English teaching. However， when we open the English texts concerned with culture， most of which refer to the British or American culture， Chinese culture is seldom introduced into the English teaching materials. As a matter of fact， Cross-cultural education is mutual and the cultures of native language and target language are both necessary for learners to learn. For the English learners in China， English is a tool for us to communicate with foreigners and show native culture to them， so the teaching of Chinese culture should be a part of English course.

2. The current situation of English teaching in the school

English language education in China has been paid much attention by the government and it has been an essential part of basic curriculums of every school——from the primary school to the college. For example， in my vocational school， professional skill training should be focused on and put on the first place， but English is also taken as a major subject for students. What’s more， the students of five-year junior college must continue the English learning not the Chinese at the forth year. Under such circumstance， it seems that the English learning is much more important than Chinese learning. Actually the students in the vocational school have poor groundwork and little interest in English， with a result that there is no improvement in both English and Chinese. The one reason of failure in English teaching in vocational school is “students’ enthusiasm for learning can be kindled through the use of foreign language， particularly through reading extensively， bringing learning into their individual life.”（Zhang Zhengdong 443）. Because of lacking the opportunities to bring English into their individual life， students lose the interest in learning English and find it useless to spend much time on it.

3. The importance of Chinese culture in English teaching

Cross-cultural education now has been a key to foreign language teaching and learning. The objectives of cross-cultural education is to arouse learners’ interest in learning target language; foster students’ positive cross-cultural states of minds; have learners acquaint with different cultures and respect them; master the target language effectively and fairly in cross-communication and so on. Nevertheless， the English education in China emphasizes more on the British and American culture， for Chinese culture， we can find little from the teaching materials， which leads to the consequence that students are incapable of transmitting native culture to the foreigners. Meanwhile， due to the ignorance of learning native culture， students’ competence of language use gets lower and lower. To be honest， it is a dangerous signal. So the writer thinks that it is necessary to add Chinese culture to the English teaching. Although the target culture is indispensable in foreign language teaching， we also need to attach importance to the native culture.

4. The ways to reinforce Chinese culture in English classroom

Firstly， the teachers should enhance the awareness of native culture. In English classroom， teachers spend all the time in teaching words， expressions， sentences and grammar in order to have all the students pass the examinations. For them， the instruction of culture is not important; sometimes they even think it’s a waste of time. Another situation is that teachers will explain some cultural knowledge to the students when the reading materials involve it， but they will seldom go deep into it. For example， when coming across an article about manners， the teachers introduce the western manners such as the table manners， the greetings， etc. to students， but the content is confined to this article; no more information will be presented for saving the time. So the teachers should change their way of teaching and realize the significance of cultural education. As a guide of English classroom， teachers need to take the initiative to know the cultures of target language and have a comprehensive understanding of local culture to make their lessons full of cultural charm. Most important of all， teachers should know well and full appreciate the splendid culture of our motherland so that we can combine native culture with foreign language teaching.  Through continually absorbing the different cultures coming from foreign countries， making a contrast with native culture， teachers can increase their English proficiency and interpersonal skills.

Secondly， the students should pay attention to the cultural learning and native culture participation in English teaching is a good try. Limited by the educational policies and school objectives， students just take English learning as a way to help them to get a high score， not a tool to communicate with people of target language or to have an insight into foreign countries. Naturally they have no desire to know the western culture and show little interest in it. In order to change such situation， native culture participation in English teaching will make a great difference. Take a teaching experience of the writer as an example. There are two reading materials in unit 8 of English Textbook One for the students in the technical secondary school. One is Christmas tree and the other is Chongyang Festival. I notice the students’ different response to the two reading materials. The students all listened carefully when I gave the lesson， but they were more active and had a hot discussion in learning Chongyang Festival. Comparing the two reading materials， the latter is more difficult to comprehend than the former. The latter involves some entire vacancy vocabularies，such as the Warring States Period， yin/yang dichotomy and so on; most sentences are long and compound ones. To my surprise， students had no difficulty in comprehending it and showed great interest in its content， especially in the history， food of the festival. They even recited a poem concerned with the festival of Wang Wei. From this lesson， I realized that native culture has a strong attraction for students， and it can arouse students’ passion and interest in learning English.

The last but not the least， the education system should take Chinese culture in English language teaching seriously and create a rich environment for teachers and students. On the one hand， in-service teacher education almost focuses on the methods of teaching， only to help teachers obtain some new theories in teaching pedagogy， less related to the native culture for the present. The result is that no cultural communications take place in the English classroom and the students’ intercultural communicative competence cannot be improved for the teachers themselves lack the education of this field. Therefore， it is necessary and practicable to cultivate the intercultural awareness of teachers and strengthen their learning and understanding of Chinese culture through a series of further education. On the other hand， students should realize the significance of culture which the language loads. For western culture， we try to accept and understand with inclusive mentality; for local culture， the learners have the obligation to go to the thorough understanding for the ultimate purpose of promoting Chinese culture to the foreigners. Measures should be taken by schools to encourage students to learn native culture. School-based teaching material would be a new try. The school of the writer is developing a set of English texts relevant to Yixing tourism and local culture. For the students who major in tourism， knowing little about Yixing culture or being incapable of introducing Yixing to the foreigners would be a big failure of school education. It is an urge to explore a set of teaching materials that not only meet the students’ practical situation but also arouse the interests of students. Taken the two factors into consideration， the teachers of this textbook choose the most classic culture and attractions of Yixing as the starting point， including the bamboo parks， the caves， the tea and tea culture， the Zisha teapot and the masters who make the teapot， the local snacks， the local drama and some legends full of mythology in Yixing. Although the completion of this textbook still needs to take a long time， the affirmation and support coming from the school proves it a new attempt to combine English teaching with local culture. Besides， the widespread use of multimedia provided by the school and the internet are good ways for students to learn different cultures.

5. Conclusion

All in all， our globe becomes smaller and smaller as a result of the development of modern technology， especially the fast advance of information technology. We have entered the “Information Age”. In the new times， people of different countries are all facing the impact of culture， which can be eased only when we have profoundly developed the cross-cultural communicative competence. One way to achieve it is to cultivate students to learn the culture of target language at the basis of our own culture， so that the students become not only the absorber of foreign culture but also the successor and disseminator of local cultural values.

References：

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[4]Guan Shijie. intercultural communication[M]. Beijing： Peking University Press，2009.