| Globalization is an umbrella term which includes not only the economic, but also the politics and culture globalization. There is no doubt that the culture globalization plays an important role in enriching the cultures of countries all over the world. However, it cannot be ignored that culture globalization is also a potential threat to the local cultures. English—the international language has been a foreign or second language which must be studied in the schools. With the popularization of the English, the English culture also becomes the pet of English learners especially those young language learners. It has been pointed out that the English culture, to some extent, has influenced the cultural identity of people of that country. Some scholars in China point out that the over-emphasis of the English and its culture has weaken the national pride and confidence that many students feel confused and cannot find a balance between the Chinese and English culture.In1980s, a new subject—Intercultural Communication was introduced to China. Since then, scholars and foreign language teachers in China began the discussion of the relationship between language and culture. All of them admit that the language acquisition should be accompanied by the acquisition of culture. Hu and Gao (1997) argued that the macroscopic purpose of English teaching is to cultivate students’ social-cultural competence. In recent years, almost all the teachers realize the importance of culture acquisition and try to integrate the culture teaching into English teaching so as to improve the students’language competence and Intercultural Communication Competence in the end. However, most of the culture knowledge taught in EFL classes is western culture, which makes students ignore the source culture knowledge. In reality, it is a common phenomenon that when a student is asked to talk about something related to Chinese culture, he will find it is too difficult for him to express some culture related phenomena clearly and easily. It is what Chinese scholar Cong Cong called "aphasia of Chinese culture".Accompanied by the globalization, the brand-new term "global citizen" has replaced the traditional term "citizen" which is limited to the national geographical boundaries. Although the research on "global citizen" is still rare in China, the term has been the focus of many scholars abroad for quite a long time. It is a common view that "global citizen" never means to cultivate all the people in the world into the same style. By contrary, it aims at making those who come from different cultures communicate with each other freely although they are still marked with different local cultures. It indicates that during the process of being a global citizen, the national culture should be remained and developed instead of being discarded. Therefore, the emphasis of national cultural identity has found its realistic root in the process of being a qualified global citizen.In the current global age, everyone in every corner of the world may have the chance to contact foreign cultures, not to mention those English majors who are the pioneers in the field of intercultural communication. Therefore, it is of great significance to conduct the present study which concerns about the English majors’ national cultural identity and global citizenship. It has been mentioned before that the western scholars have done a lot of significant work in this field that it built the theoretical foundation for the present study. In2008, Byram argued that the traditional foreign language education should be transformed to the intercultural citizen education step by step. Rapport (2009) also demonstrated the term "global citizen" which has been ignored by many people in detail. Schattle (2005) pointed out that global citizen education is a multi-course that language education is only a part of the project. All the work done by these scholars has smoothed the theoretical way for the present study.So, the purpose of this thesis can be concluded as follows. Firstly, the writer aims to demonstrate the current situation of English majors’cultural identity through a questionnaire of cultural knowledge and attitudes. The questionnaire mainly includes the questions of both source and target culture knowledge. And, some questions that aim at collecting participants’cultural attitudes will also be contained. Also, the writer will adopt research interviews to collect English majors’understanding of global citizenship. Secondly, the writer will attempt to give some suggestions on how to promote English Majors’Global Citizenship and help them build an appropriate Cultural Identity in the global age.Based on the main purpose of the present study, the writer is going to explore the answers for the following research questions through the empirical study.1. What knowledge and attitudes do the English majors hold toward cultural identity? Do they have any confusion toward cultural identity?2. How do English majors understand the term Global citizenship? Do they have the awareness of being a qualified global citizen?3. What approaches should be applied in EFL classes to promote English majors building appropriate cultural identity so as to make them better adapt to the globalization and become qualified global citizens?... |
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