A Survey Study Of Chinese Culture Absence In Senior High School English Teaching

With the development of English teaching in recent years,though our students always absorb the knowledge of English culture,they neglect the significance of native culture in foreign language learning.Therefore,the situation that students express Chinese culture via English is not optimistic.Since Cong(2000)proposed the definition of “Chinese culture aphasia”,many researchers have conducted studies concerning Chinese culture aphasia.Through reviewing the literature,many studies focus on English teaching process and the college students including English majors and non-English majors are always chosen subjects,while middle schools students and the related case study are less focused.This study is based on Input Hypothesis,Affective Filter Hypothesis(Krashen,1981)and 1+1>2 model of foreign language learning(Gao,1997)and is carried out in the Fifth Middle School of Northern Heavy Industry from the following three perspectives: textbooks,teachers(teaching)and students(learning).Textbooks PEP's NSEFC compulsory volumes 1-5 are analyzed and 15 English teachers and 110 students in grade three joined in this study.Meanwhile these students also did translations of Chinese culture loading vocabulary.The purpose is to investigate whether there is an absence of Chinese culture in textbooks students and teachers used and there in students' vocabulary and what the probable reasons are.Research methods used in this paper are textbooks' analysis,questionnaires and interviews.Through the textbooks' analysis,it can be seen that there is no absence of Chinese culture in the textbooks.Though Chinese culture has been integrated in the textbooks,the content of Chinese culture still needs our improvement.The percentage of Chinese culture content is in an appropriate range but the number of Chinese culture vocabulary needs to be increased.English teachers cannot make full use of the content of Chinese culture in textbooks.Besides,the accuracy rate of translations of Chinese culture loading vocabulary is low,which is also noteworthy.Then,according to questionnaires and interviews,the majority of teachers realize the significance of Chinese culture in English learning.However,teachers cannot teach much Chinese culture content in English teaching due to the pressure of exam-oriented environment,limited lesson time and inadequate understanding of necessity of teaching Chinese culture in their curricular.Besides,students can realize the significance of Chinese culture after English learning for many years.However they lack the awareness of English expression of Chinese culture.Some teachers even hold the opinion that Chinese culture is suitable for advanced English learners rather than high school students who do not have a good English foundation.Finally,some suggestions for teachers and students are put forward.English teachers should be made use of Chinese culture in textbooks.They should not only add Chinese culture in English teaching but also make their teaching more attractive and diversified.As for students who are the main body in teaching activities,they should play their subjective initiative to develop their sensitivity to express Chinese culture in English.They should pay attention to the expression of Chinese culture in life.