Culture Acquisition And Language Acquisition: Intercultural Perspectives Of Foreign Language Teaching (FLT)

Two basic theoretical problems which need to be approached in current research of culture teaching in foreign language teaching (FLT) are: What is the process of second culture acquisition (SCA) in the acquirer? What is the dynamic relationship between second culture acquisition and second language acquisition? This thesis attempts to explore these two problems with the background theories from cultural anthropology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, sociology and intercultural communication studies.In spite of the fact that second language acquisition is already a familiar topic in research field, second culture acquisition has so far remained a totally new topic, which has been rarely tapped, esp. in China. This thesis tries to give an objective and comprehensive description of second culture acquisition, which includes the acquisition model of second culture acquisition, the result of second culture acquisition-interculture, and the "critical period" hypothesis for second culture acquisition.To apply such theories of second culture acquisition to foreign language teaching in China, the author constructs an intercultural theory of FLT, which proposes that the basic goal of FLT should be the cultivation of intercultural competence aiming to make foreign language students productively bicultural. In foreign language teaching practice, the author advocates the "integration model" of language-and-culture teaching.Empirical studies are done to prove that foreign language students who possess high second language competence do not necessarily possess high second culture competence, so special consideration should be given to culture teaching in FLT and the current practice of culture teaching in China's FLT must be reformed.