An Investigation Of Cultural Obstruction In Chinese High School Students' English Learning

This study was undertaken to investigate the cultural factors which affect Chinese high school students'English learning for the purpose of improving our teaching and learning. Two research designs were employed in this study. One was quantitative design, which includes an experiment, and the other was qualitative design, consisting of an open-ended questionnaire. The research questions to be addressed in the study are as follows:1. Do cultural factors, including Chinese and English cultural factors, affect Chinese high school students in their English learning?2. What Chinese and English cultural factors obstruct Chinese high school students in their English learning?3. In what way do such cultural factors affect or obstruct Chinese high school students in their English learning?The theoretical framework for the thesis is the three-level classification of culture summarized by Gao Yihong (2001, 9). According to Gao, culture consists of three levels: the physical culture, the conventional or interpersonal culture, and the psychological culture. This study is mainly concerned with the second and the third level.Altogether 90 Senior One students participated in the experiment with a view to finding out whether cultural factors have an effect on English learning and then 30 high school teachers were invited to respond to the questionnaire about what cultural factors obstruct Chinese high school students in their English learning.The study yielded the following major findings:First, cultural factors do affect Chinese high school students'English learning, including not only English cultural factors but also Chinese cultural factors. The assumption that Chinese students know their culture well and that Chinese cultural factors will not interfere with their English learning has been proved to be one-sided.Second, some traditional Chinese cultural beliefs or value orientations, such as'to be a scholar is to be at the top of society while all other careers are inferior'(万般皆 下品,惟有读书高), are deeply rooted in people's minds and have caused Chinese students to have misunderstandings about the competitions in school. As a result, high school students usually take their examination results too seriously and are liable to feel anxious or lose self-confidence. Such cultural effects can be found almost on the learning of all subjects in high schools, especially English, which is believed to be one of the most difficult subjects.Third, traditional Chinese culture favors collectivism as against the individualism advocated in English-speaking countries. Such a value orientation subconsciously causes administrative departments concerned to over-emphasize the sameness or uniformity, especially in terms of instruction materials or pedagogical methods, and overlook the individual differences and necessary variations. Besides, the family planning policy also, to a certain degree, affects Chinese high school students in their development of independent self-concept.Fourth, cultural factors of English-speaking countries that hinder Chinese students in their English learning mainly involve the interpersonal or conventional culture, and psychological culture. The former refers to some new concepts encoded in new words and expressions, or some old words and expressions which have carried new meanings; such new concepts or meanings sometimes puzzle Chinese high school students, who find no equivalences in Chinese culture. The latter refers to some beliefs or value orientations, which subconsciously help to determine the native speakers'syntactical and textual choices; such choices would often hinder Chinese high school students'understanding unless they have a knowledge of the cultural value orientations underlying the choices.This study also has strong pedagogical implications for English learners, English educators, textbook compilers, and educational administrations.The limitations of the study are as follows: one was that the sample of the experiment was not large enough. If the sample had been larger, some of the results would have been more convincing. Another was that the researcher's limited access to the literature about the previous studies of cultural obstruction in this area.