A Study On The Cultivation Of Cross-cultural Awareness In English Reading Teaching In Senior High Schools

According to the standard of English Language Curriculum for Senior High School,in order to make students meet the requirement of comprehensive ability for language application,English teaching should pay attention to students’ accumulation of language knowledge,as well as the cultivation of their cross-cultural awareness,so as to enhance students’ cross-cultural communicative ability.Experts and scholars have made researches on the theory of cultural awareness but less on the application in teaching process.In order to improve the application efficiency of these theoretical researches in reading teaching,this study investigates the current situation of cultivating cross-cultural awareness in reading teaching in Senior High school based on the schema theory.The main research questions are as follows: What’s the current situation of cultivating students’ cross-cultural awareness in reading teaching? What factors influence senior high school students’ cross-cultural awareness? What are the teachers’ and students’ attitude towards cultural instruction in reading teaching?Questionnaires and interviews are used in the study and the collected data have been effectively analyzed.First of all,the questionnaires include the questionnaire for students and the questionnaire for teachers which investigate the matter from different aspects.The content of the former involves the students’ current level of interest in Western culture,their attitudes and viewpoints of cultural instruction while the latter investigates the teachers’ views,attitudes and purpose of the cultural instruction.220 students from Grade 2 and 20 teachers in Yantai No.1 senior high school were investigate by the questionnaire.192 valid questionnaires for students and 19 valid questionnaires for teachers were collected.Moreover,5 English teachers are interviewed about the importance of cultivating the students’ cross-cultural awareness,the difficulties to overcome and related suggestions.In addition,the students’ cross-cultural awareness were tested and the collected data work as the supplementary of the questionnaire.The results are as follows: As a major way to gain cultural knowledge,the cultural instruction in reading classes today is not enough for most students whose cross-cultural awareness needs to be improved.Moreover,a great number of the students are interested in foreign culture and many teachers and students attach great importance to cross-cultural awareness.However,the cultural instruction is often neglected in actual teaching because of limited class time,utilitarianism and traditional ideas in language teaching.In particular,the popularity of deep-level cultures including the thought patterns and social values is relatively low and the teaching content and methods need to be improved and diversified.Quite a number of students are interested in foreign cultures and hope to learn more about different cultures to improve their cross-cultural awareness and competence.Most teachers are aware of the importance of cultural instruction and hope to pay more attention to the cultivation of students’ cross-cultural awareness and competence.Therefore,it is necessary for the English teachers to change their utilitarianism and to instill cultural instruction in language classes in order to achieve the ultimate goal of English teaching.In the process of reading teaching,besides the explanation of grammar and vocabulary,teachers need to guide their students to gain more insights into the cultural differences especially the different ways of thinking and acting.This is an essential way to cultivate students’ cultural awareness and to develop their cross-cultural communicative competence.