An Action Research On Cultivating Cultural Awareness In Middle School English Reading Class By Experiential Teaching

Since the new curriculum standards and the new college entrance examination reform model have been introduced,the society in the new era requires English language learners to improve their core literacy,one of the main aspects is cultural awareness.The cultural information and connotations contained in the text have been neglected in middle school English reading class all the time.English cultural learning needs experience and cultural awareness needs to be enhanced by experience.Experiential teaching helps students to better understand the cultural knowledge of the text by creating certain specific scenes or atmospheres to guide students’ emotional experience.This research takes Kolb’s "experience learning circle" and humanistic theory as the theoretical basis and applies experiential teaching to the actual English reading class.Questionnaire,interview and teaching observation were adopted to explore,1.In what aspects can the experiential teaching help cultivate students’ cultural awareness ? 2.How can experiential teaching be better used to cultivate students’ cultural awareness?During the process of research,55 students from Class 7 of Grade 7of Hualin Middle School in Guiyang City are selected as the subjects of action research,with a spiral form of "plan-action-observation-reflection".This action research consists of two rounds,which lasts for three months.After the course,the results of relevant data of questionnaire,interview and teaching observation are analyzed through SPSS.Through the collection and analysis of data,it is concluded that experiential teaching can effectively enhance students’ interest in reading and improve students’ participation in reading class activities,and help students better understand and experience the culture,establish a positive cultural attitude and cultural character and help improve the ability of cultural competence,and ultimately achieve the purpose of cultivating cultural awareness.The "4E" model of experiential teaching has integrated the main points of experience into the teaching process,including “Engagement,Enjoyment,Enhancement and Environment”.However,when applying experiential teaching,it is necessary to pay attention to the fluidity of the class,the active thinking of students and the dynamic changes in class,and to avoid disconnection between theory and practice.The researcher hopes that this study can provide a case reference for researchers and teachers who further explore experiential teaching,and help to further develop cultural awareness in middle school English reading teaching in the future.