An Investigation Into Cultural Empathy Obtained By Chinese College English Majors

This thesis aims to explore the application of cultural empathy in foreign languageteaching and learning. Through an investigation into cultural empathy obtained by theundergraduates from the English department at Northeast Normal University, the authorfurther proposes that cultural empathy is an effective means to improve the interculturalcommunicative competence of Chinese college English majors.The thesis comprises five chapters. Chapter one briefly reviews what has been done in thefield of intercultural communication. The development, definition and barriers of interculturalcommunication are introduced respectively. Chapter two provides the theoretical basis forexploring cultural empathy in foreign language teaching. These theoretical underpinnings areillustrated by means of a general survey of empathy (including the origin, definition andfeatures of the concept), an explanation of the relationship between language and culture, andthe effectiveness of cultural empathy in intercultural communication. Chapter three is aninvestigation into cultural empathy obtained by Chinese college English majors. Theinvestigation is composed of a socio-cultural test and two multiple-choice questions.Participants involved in the study were forty five undergraduates from grade 2005, 2004 and2003 of the English department at Northeast Normal University. Data were then collected andanalyzed. Based on the results of the investigation, the author concludes that the ability todisplay cultural empathy and intercultural communicative competence of English majors arenot as prominent as supposed and still have great potentials for further improvement. And inchapter four the author offers several tentative suggestions for cultivating cultural empathyamong college English majors, which include utilizing literature and films, offeringculture-oriented courses, reconsidering the role of foreign teachers and encouraging extensivereading. Chapter five concludes the thesis. The significance and limitations of the study aswell as suggestions for further research are all provided in this section.In conclusion, by incorporating the element of cultural empathy into foreign languageteaching, the author tries to demonstrate that cultural empathy is not only effective in crossingcultural barriers, but also applicable in improving the intercultural communicativecompetence of college English majors. It deserves more attention from scholars and educatorsin the field of foreign language teaching.