A Study Of Cultural Experience In Primary And Secondary School English Learning

Since the 1980s,Chinese scholars have widely discussed the importance of cultural learning in English curriculum.The integration of language and culture has become an eternal principle in English curriculum learning theories,however,nearly 40 years have passed,cultural learning is still marginalized in the English curriculum.The position of language as the center of learning is still indestructible,and culture is still regarded as an adjunct or ornament to language learning in the teaching practice,which runs counter to the phenomenology’s call for language to go home and return to culture as its spirit.For many teachers and students,English learning is to learn the language of the texts in the textbook.Learning new words,sentence patterns and grammar in the texts and understanding the main idea and the discourse structure of texts are the major tasks or even the whole contents of English learning.Even when studying texts that introduce Western traditional festivals,places of interest,celebrity anecdotes in particular,learners only need to understand the relevant cultural"forms",namely,the surface information of the culture,such as name,location,time,events.While the"spirits" of the culture,the information at the deeper level,such as the historical origin of a certain opinion,the corelation of certain concepts and behaviors are left untouched,without learners’deep thinking and exploration.In addition,English textbooks are insufficient in terms of the breadth and depth of cultural contents.The small number of "texts" selected in each unit or module of the textbook can only provide weak,one-sided and even subjective cultural knowledge and the designs of the cultural learning activities are language skills oriented.The central position of langauge and skills learning will inevitably lead to the lack and superficiality of students’ cultural experience.Students in the primary and secondary schools(PPS)should go beyond the current English textbooks,care more about the cultural connotation contained in English language,actively carry out the deep learning of cultural themes of English discourses,and widely participate in various cultural practices.Only through this way can English curriculum truly improve students’ intercultural communicative competence(ICC),enhance students’ cultural accomplishment and nourish their spiritual growth.The concept of "cultural experience(CE)" was first proposed by the British scholar Byram,and later theorized and systematized by the American scholar Moran.With culture as the learning content and experience as the learning process,CE can provide targeted solutions to the problems of superficiality of cultural contents and acting show of the cultural learning process in the English learning of PSS.However,Moran’s cultural experience theory also has some limitations.His idea of learning about "another way of life" narrows the scope of cultural contents,and his experiential process of "participation,description,interpretation,reaction" focuses merely on cognition and skills development and downplays the signifcance of affection and values.His model of CE can’t meet the needs and objectives of English education in China under the background of globalization,neither should we copy his whole idea and apply it to the English teaching practice in the PSS.The elementary English education in China needs to implement the fundamental task of moral cultivation,develop the priamary and secondary school students’ key competencies of English,and help them establish a sense of human community with a shared future and the multicultural awareness.It not only cultivates students’ Chinese feelings,strengthens their cultural confidence,but also expands their international visions and develops their ICC.The practical challenges and the call of the times of English education in China determine that the contents of English Cultural Experience(ECE)need to be expanded from "another culture" to "multiple cultures",and the experiential contents need to be expanded from "cognitive experience" to "multi-dimensional experiences".Therefore,based on previous studies,the paper takes "culture" and "experience" as the entry points and constructs a theoretical framework for the English cultural experiential learning(ECEL)in the PSS in the new era,in view of the problems and current situation in Chinese English curriculum.The framework covers a "trinity and four-dimensional" cultural contents,namely,Chinese culture,English cultures,cultures of other countries in the world,and cultural products,cultural behaviors,people in the culture and the spirits of culture,which are divided according to the division of countries and cultural elements respectively,and the four-dimensional experiential contents of cognition,affection,behavior and spirits.The framework has the learning process of ECE divided into four stages from the perspective of learners’interaction with culture,namely "the understanding of cultural context,comprehension of keycultures,cultural self-consciousness and cultural adaptation,identity and cultural innovation" and takes "participation and interaction,reception and discovery,reflection and critique,generation and construction" as the learning methods of ECE,which can provide theoretical and practical references for English cultural learning in the PSS.First of all,the paper focuses on why to carry out the research of ECE.The development of globalization,the comparison of foreign langauge teaching cases at home and abroad,and the problems existing in the English curriculum of the PSS reveal that English educators must have researches on ECE.English education under the backgr ound of globalization needs to implement the people-oriented educational philosophy,realize the diversion of learning content from language to culture and focus on the cultivation of learners’ ICC,thinking ability and problem-solving ability.Compared with the English education abroad,Chinese English education needs to combine the language teaching with the domestic culture,foreign culture and the students’ living world,and value the importance of cultivating students’ abilities of doing things by means of language.Problems in the English curriculum in the PSS,such as the lack of the humanistic curriculum value,the lack of cultivation of cultural awareness and the inadequacy of cultural learning methods also need to be settled urgently.Thus,it is necessary to construct a new learning model from the perspective of humanisim,culture and experience in English education.Secondly,the paper constructs the theoretical framework of ECE and answers the questions like What is ECE?What are the educational values of ECE?What is the learning process of ECE?What are the learning methods of ECE?The specific contents are as follows:1.Defining ECE.By analyzing the definition,structure,characteristics and significance of"culture" and the definition,types,contents and significance of "experience",this paper constructs the definition of ECE and its objectives and contents.ECE is a process in which learners interact with the cultural products,practices,perspectives and people in the Chinese culture,English cultures and cultures of other countires through "body" and "heart" and acquire cognitive,affectional,behaviorial and spiritual experiences.It aims to help students develop ICC,improve their cultural accomplishments and obtain their meanings of life and is of great significance to the growth and development of learners.2.Discussing the educational values of ECE.Based on the premise that language is a part of culture,ECE advocates the practice of language learning through culture and cultural learning based on language.It pays attention to the experiencial learning of Chinese culture and cultures of other countries in the world,which is conducive to promoting the multi-dimensional integration of language and culture,and promoting the coordinated development of multicultural education.And ECE advocates learning beyond the symbolic representation of knowledge,making knowledge learning return to the real life of students,and learning through rich and varied learning contents and immersive experiences,which are beneficial to the promotionf of in-depth English learning and improvement of the key competencies of the primary and secondary school students.3.Deconstructing the learning process of ECE.From the perspective of the interaction between learners and cultures,this paper divides the learning process of ECE into four stages:the understanding of the cultural context,the comprehension of core cultures,cultural self-consciousness and cultural adaptation,identity and cultural innovation.The understanding of the cultural context is the first step and a necessary condition of ECEL and can ensure that learners have enough cultural background knowledge to learn and understand new information and problems.The comprehension of core cultures is the second stage of ECEL during which learners conduct a systematic learning of products,practices,perspectives and people of cultures on the basis of understanding the cultural context.Cultural self-consciousness and cultural adaptation are the inevitable results of the development of the first two stages.Learners should not only be confident and introspective about Chinese culture,appreciate and criticize Western culture,but also adapt to different cultural environments by adjusting their cross-cultural behaviors.Identity and cultural innovation are the ideal outcome or ultimate goal of ECEL.Learners can recognize their multi-identities and take actions to participate in the innovation of Chinese culture.4.Sorting out the learnig methods of ECE.The paper discusses four groups of methods,namely,participation and interaction,reception and discovery,reflection and critique,and generation and construction.Participation and interaction are the most direct and important methods of ECEL,which pay attention to the students’ subjectivity and the democratic classroom,enable learners to understand the cultural contexts and learn cultural knowledge through "doing".Reception and discovery focus on helping learners obtain meaningful learning from the dimension of knowledge and emotion and learn to accept cultural facts and discover cultural opinions.They emphasize the multimodality and relevance of learning.Reflection and critique are the core methods of ECEL,which can help learners discover the essence of matters,explore the truth of matters,and form cultural self-consciousness and cultural adaptation.They emphasize the rules of avoiding cultural relativism and resisting universal values in cultural learning.Learners can reflect on and criticize not only the ideas,beliefs and behaviors of different cultures,but also the process,behaviors and methods of thier own ECEL.Generation and construction are the ultimate methods of ECEL,which display the essential attributes of ECE.They focus on the creation of learners’ cultural opinions and behaviors from non-existence to existence and from the old to the new,emphasize the openness and timeliness of learning,and determine the realization of identity and cultural innovation.Thridly,centring on the question of how to apply theories of ECE to the English learning of PSS,the paper provides practical references for ECEL in the PSS.The specific contents include:1.Finding the gap between the English cultural teaching in the PSS and the theoretical framework of ECE.The paper analyzes the current problems of the cultural teaching in the PSS on the basis of the literature study,the analysis of English textbooks,interviews,questionnaires and class observations.The literature study shows that researchers pay wide attention to the input of "Chinese culture"and "cultural knowledge",scant attention to the study of cultural affection,cultural thinking,cultural beliefs and little attention to the study of methods of ECE from the respect of students’ internal world.The analysis of three English textbooks for the PSS published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and People’s Education Press finds that the cultural content distribution of these textbooks is not balanced,the genres of the discourses are monotonous,the experiential contents center on the cognitive experience of learners,rather than the affectional,behaviorial and spiritual experiences,and the learning activities designed in the textbooks are basically the skill-oriented language learning activities and the superficial cultural learning activities.The interviews reveal that the teachers have roughly the same ideas on the theories,contents and methods,and influencing factors of the cultural teaching.Teachers have great autonomy when choosing cultural teaching contents and methods.The tradition of putting language as the center of the college entrance examination,the insufficient English classes,the differences of teachers’ cultural consciousness,the differences of students’ linguistic and cultural foundations are the main factors hindering the cultural teaching.The questionnaire shows that English culture teaching in the PSS is basically consistent with the theoretical framework of ECE in terms of learning contents,learning methods and learning effects,but it lacks the cultural contents such as cultural systems,cultural art forms,modes of thinking and aesthetic tastes,the guidance of affectional experience for controversial and sensitive cultural contents,the real online or offline communication with foreign friends and participation in practical activities based on real problems,and the guidance of values of relationships between man and nature,man and the world,man and self,namely the life goals and ideals.The class observations show that learners lack rich cultural experience,the depth and breadth of cultural contents are not enough,and the experiential contents are mostly cognitive,lacking affective,behaviorial and spiritual experiences.2.Analyzing the strategies of ECEL in the PSS based on cases.On the basis of the theoretical framework of ECEL and the problems existing in the cultural teaching of PSS,this paper puts forward seven strategies with cases provided respectively so as to help learners enrich the contents of cultural learning,obtain multidimensional experiences and realize the objectives of ECE.Metacognitive strategy about culture and cultural affective strategy are supporting strategies which can help learners establish the goals of cultural learning and maintain appropriate mentality of cultural learning.Cultural contextual strategy,deep-reading strategy,culturally responsive strategy,dialogical strategy and praxis strategy are the basic strategies for carrying out ECEL,which can help learners enter the cultural contexts,accumulate cultural knowledge,establish the connection between the cultural knowledge and their own cultural background and social life experiences,and help learners to understand the cultural differences,alleviate cultural conflicts,develop their critical thinking and problem-solving abilities,promote learners to develop a sense of social responsibility and a sense of mission,and carry out actions of social responsibility.The strategies of ECEL in the PSS need to widely apply the learning methods of ECE and are conducive to the occurrence of the learning process of ECE.