A Study Of 'Culture Of Learning' In Chinese Tertiary EFL Classrooms

As China has more and more contacts with the Western countries, English teaching and learning becomes more and more important in China. Accordingly, innovations have been made. In ELT, several Western teaching models have been transferred into Chinese classrooms, with communicative language teaching (CLT) being the major representative. However, problems still exist in the CLT classrooms. While many scholars have focused their researches on language learning beliefs and learning strategies, very little attention has been paid to Chinese socio-cultural and educational realities in the process of transplanting the Western teaching models into Chinese EFL classrooms. In fact little account has been taken into'culture of learning', one of the most crucial factors that influence language teaching and learning.The present study aims to explore the impact of'culture of learning'on Chinese EFL classrooms especially those at the tertiary level. Firstly, a critical review is made of previous researches on both language learning beliefs and'culture of learning'. Secondly, the thesis discusses the'culture of learning'in Chinese ELT by generally comparing Chinese'culture of learning'with Western'culture of learning'and then addresses the impact of Western'culture of learning'on Chinese EFL classrooms. Thirdly, it attempts to explore the impact of Chinese'culture of learning'on its tertiary EFL classrooms on the basis of a survey of Chinese teachers of English and students from Harbin Institute of Technology. It has been found that Chinese EFL classrooms are to a large extent influenced by its own'culture of learning'. These influences can be summarized mainly from three aspects: Chinese teachers and students'beliefs about English language learning,...