A Research On The Current Situation Of Chinese Culture In High School English Teaching

Culture is an indispensable part of language learning. The cross-cultural communication also requires the understanding of different cultures. During a cross-cultural communication, the two parties should not only represent their own cultural identity, but also be able to express themselves in communicative language. Thus, student should learn not only English but also Chinese culture. In The English Curriculum Standard for High School Students, issued by the Ministry of Education in 2013, it has been explicitly pointed out that the teacher should not only make a distinction between Chinese culture and culture of English-speaking countries, but also deepen students’ understanding towards their own culture.In recent years, many scholars have carried out researches in this regard. But researches on high school English teaching are rather limited. The objects of the study are 70 students from Ansai High School, as well as their teaching materials. And the major research tools are a questionnaire and a test. SPSS17.0 was used to conduct data processing, so as to study the status quo of Chinese culture in high school English teaching. The results of the research can provide some advice to high school English teachers and textbook editors.The main findings of this study are as follows:High school students do not pay much attention to Chinese culture in English learning. The mean value is 3.65. And the mean value of students’ response to Chinese culture teaching is 3.5. High school students are not capable of expressing Chinese culture in English. Then a test is conducted. The average score is only 31.1(the aggregate score is 80). In comparison, students get better scores in true or false questions, with the relative value stands at 0.593; followed by English to Chinese translation, with the relative value stands at 0.36; followed by Chinese to English translation, with the relative value stand at 0.355; the worst part is reading, the relative value is 0.327.According to analysis of textbooks, Chinese culture in writing accounts for the highest proportion, which is 71 percent; while culture corner accounts for the lowest, which is 21 percent. Chinese culture has been mentioned 10 times in volume 3, which is the highest among other volumes. Contrarily, it has only been mentioned twice in volume 1, which is the lowest. In workbooks, Chinese culture accounts for 28 percent in grammar, which is the highest; while it only accounts for 6 percent in listening, which is the lowest. Chinese culture has been mentioned 14 times in volume 3, only once in volume 1. In terms of teaching content, material culture accounts for 64 percent, institutional culture accounts for 24 percent and ideology accounts for 12 percent.Through this study, the following suggestions can be given:First, teachers should stimulate students’ interest, and arouse their intercultural communication awareness, so as to improve their communicative competence.Second, the students’ expectation should be taken into consideration. Teachers should use various methods to strengthen students’ abilities in expressing Chinese culture in English.Third, in Senior English for China, the training session of Chinese culture should be more balanced. More focus should be paid on listening and culture corner.