An Investigation Into College Students' Vocabulary Expressiveness Of Chinese Culture In English

It has still been a very important question that what should be taught in foreign language teaching (FLT). The assumable answer to this question rests on how we understand the aim of second language learning and teaching. In the last century, the teaching target of foreign languages has been extended from language skills to communicative competence, and then to intercultural communication. In the past 20 years, the language researchers of English and English teachers in China have gradually realized the importance of culture teaching in English teaching. However, most of these researches and discussions focused on the acquisition and cognition of target languages with very little attention to native culture—Chinese culture, which seems to be dispensable in their English learning.This thesis aims at reflecting Chinese college students'ability of expressing Chinese culture in English and revealing the phenomenon of"aphasia of Chinese culture"by investigation, which also reflects their cultural attitudes and studying demands. Starting with the description of different concepts of culture, this thesis first gives an expatiation on the relationship between language and culture and then reviews the researches on culture teaching in FLT both abroad and in China. Having learned and comprehended the different ways of cultural classifications created by both domestic and foreign scholars, the author presents her own point of view. According to the theory of cultural classification, typical words and expressions about Chinese culture were selected to guarantee the diversity and integration of this word selection. Some of the words were chosen from the selection to form a vocabulary test paper, which was applied to estimate the college students'ability of expressing Chinese culture in English.The results of this investigation show that the subjects are less capable to express Chinese culture in English words or expressions effectively. Although they have strong desires to learn the expressions of Chinese culture in English, they will inevitably find difficulties to express Chinese culture in English freely and fluently due to the lack of chances of accessing to those words and expressions regarding culture. This thesis discusses current status of input and output of Chinese culture in FLT by looking at several aspects including vocabulary request for college students, textbooks, English writing practice and culture teaching syllabus. The author tries to find and analyze the causes of the"Aphasia of Chinese Culture", and hopes the findings will be helpful for the future researchers.