Study On Five - Stage Model Of Experiential Culture Learning For American Students In China

Experiential Learning, which refers to the process where learners learn new knowledge, skills and attitudes through their perception, experience and feeling by participating in practical activities, can encourage students to learn on their own initiative and in their own manners under teacher’s instructions. Recently arisen studies on the application of experiential learning in Chinese learning, but as an important part of Chinese learning, Chinese culture learning has not been closely related with experiential learning. Based on the relevant theories of experiential learning, by using the methods of questionnaires, classroom observation, personal interview and case analysis, the study conducted a survey of 53 American students studying in China to learn about the function of such experiential culture learning on them and analyze the content, process and outcomes of such learning. Besides, the paper comes up with the Five Stage Model of experiential culture learning and analyzes its adaptability. What’s more, the paper also discusses the factors that influence students’ experiential culture learning, and came up with several advice accordingly.The paper consists of five chapters. Chapter one serves as a general introduction to this study, including the background and significance of study, literature reviews. Chapter two focuses on the framework of the study and the design of questionnaire, also sheds light on the Five Stage Model of experiential culture learning. The first two chapters serve as theoretical background of the whole study. Chapter three discusses the function of experiential culture learning, especially of different activities appear in the Five Stage Model of experiential culture learning. Chapter four comes up with the Five Stage Model of experiential culture learning based on previous study and analysis, discusses its applicability and problems, figures out the factors that influence the experiential culture learning of American students studying in China as well as introduces specific suggestion to culture teaching. It is also a comprehensive part includes the statistical analysis and results of the survey on the content, progress and outcomes of experiential culture learning. Also, it summarizes the factors that may affect students’experiential culture learning. Chapter five concludes the paper and its innovative points as well as shortcomings.The study comes up with two major conclusions:Firstly, the Five Stage Model of experiential culture learning is suitable for Chinese culture learning but its five stages are selective or of different significance when applying; Secondly, the experiential culture learning of American students studying in China are associated with learning content and learning activities, learners’characters as well as teacher’s competency. Accordingly, teachers should appropriately choose teaching content, diversify their teaching method, pay attention to students’feedback and shift their role between different stages to build a better environment for their experiential culture learning.The study is innovative in combining experiential learning and Chinese culture learning and in the Five Stage Model of experiential culture learning. It offers reference to the experiential culture teaching.