An Investigation On The Cross-cultural Awareness In Senior High School English Teaching Based On English Core Competence

There are many challenges in the senior high school English teaching.The essential challenges are the cultivations of cross-cultural awareness and core-competence.Cultivating students’ core English competence is not only important for students’ English learning and lifelong development,but it is also a vital standard for English education.Therefore,the author will investigate the cross-cultural awareness of high school students.This thesis employs empirical research to deal with the following questions:(1)What is the current situation of cross-cultural awareness of English teaching of high schools?(2)From the perspective of teachers,what are the main factors influencing students’cross-cultural awareness?How do the teachers improve students’ cross-cultural awareness and cultivate their core competence?Based on the humanistic theory and multicultural education theory,this investigation adopts the quantitative and qualitative research methods.The subjects are 305 students and 10 teachers from 3 senior high schools in Taizhou,Jiangsu Province.The quantitative research includes a test and a questionnaire.The purpose of the questionnaire is to investigate the current situation of students’ cross-cultural awareness.The test paper is designed to investigate the level of students’ cross-cultural knowledge and skills.Qualitative research is an interview with teachers.The purpose is to find out what challenges teachers face in the process of cultivating students’ cross-cultural awareness,what factors affect students’ cross-cultural awareness and what suggestions they have.The research findings show that the cross-cultural awareness of senior high school English teaching is generally weak at present.Under the condition of traditional education,teachers could not teach English with cross-cultural knowledge.Therefore students are weak in learning about cultural knowledge and cultural communication strategies.Meanwhile,the cross-cultural knowledge listed in educational policies and textbook compilation requirements is not applicable.The main factors affecting the cultivation of cross-cultural awareness of senior high school English are listed as follow:motivation of teachers and students,traditional examination-oriented education and imperfection of the cultural evaluation system.On this basis,this paper puts forward some suggestions:firstly,teachers ought to hold a correct cultural view and constantly improve the professional quality.Besides,they should take full advantage of Internet and provide a real context for students.Last,the cultural evaluation mechanism and textbooks also require reforming.The study still has some limitations.First,the research is conducted in a limited time.Second,the sample is relatively small and cannot represent the true level of cross-cultural awareness of all senior students.Third,the test is not the only way to measure students’cross-cultural awareness.Fourth,the relevant recommendations proposed needs to be tested in further.