A Research On Junior High School Students’ Ability To Express Chinese Culture In English

In recent years,Chinese government has vigorously advocated “telling the Chinese story and spreading the Chinese voice”,and encouraged Chinese youngsters to learn to tell Chinese story well in English,and provided important spiritual guidance to students and teachers in all fields of educational scenarios.The English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022 Edition)(hereinafter referred to as “the New Standards”)emphasizes that English teaching should integrate the themes of advanced socialist culture and excellent Chinese traditional culture into the curriculum and enhance the ideology of the curriculum.The junior high school period is significant for the formation of students’ life views and values,and the infiltration of Chinese culture in junior high school English teaching is an inevitable requirement for teaching.Throughout English teaching at all levels,teachers always focus on language knowledge,while neglecting students’ ability to express Chinese culture in English,which results in the phenomenon of “Chinese cultural aphasia”(Cong,2000).However,most previous researches have focused on investigating the current situation of college students’ ability to express Chinese culture in English,a few on measures to improve college students’ ability,but few on how to improve the ability to express Chinese culture in English of middle school students,especially for junior high school students.The new standards also require teachers to pay attention to the changes in teaching methods in the context of educational information,and encourage teachers to use online teaching platforms in a rational and innovative way.Language MOOCs are“web-based online courses for second languages with unrestricted access and potentially unlimited participation”(Barcena & Martin-Monge,2014).They provide all types of language learning skills as well as foreign language cultures(Sallem et al.,2020).Since MOOCs are known for their advantages in allowing unlimited participation and flexible learning time and space(Downes,2008),they do not fit into classroom teaching of junior high school students.Based on the lack of existing researches on junior high school students’ ability to express Chinese culture in English and the characteristics of language MOOCs,this study proposes that junior high school students’ ability to express Chinese culture in English can be improved through project-based learning of an English MOOC introducing Chinese culture during students’ vacation time.Drawing on intercultural communication theory and relevant cultural studies,this study developed an analytical framework of the ability to express Chinese culture in English,comprising three parts: the knowledge of Chinese culture,the oral ability to express Chinese culture in English,as well as the awareness of Chinese culture.Our participants are 106 students from a junior high school in Wuxi City of Jiangsu Province.Our three research questions include:(1)Is PBL-based MOOC learning effective in broadening Chinese junior high school students’ knowledge of Chinese culture?(2)Is this learning method beneficial to enhance Chinese students’ oral English ability to express Chinese culture?(3)Is this method helpful to improve Chinese students’ awareness of Chinese culture?(4)If the answers are yes,what have contributed to their improvement to express Chinese story in English?This study adopts questionnaires,tests and interviews to collect the data.The results of the study show that junior high school students’ overall ability to express Chinese culture in English has improved.Chinese students’ knowledge of Chinese culture has improved significantly after the PBL-based MOOC learning especially for multiple choice and English-Chinese translation.Although students’ oral ability to express Chinese culture has not improved significantly,they are more willing to express Chinese culture in English.The eight-week PBL-based MOOC learning has helped them to improve their cultural awareness and they are more willing to express Chinese culture in English.This study reveals Chinese junior high school students’ current understanding of and attitude towards Chinese culture,which paves a way for developing effective strategies to improve their ability to express Chinese culture in English.This study also provides new ways for English teachers to develop projects using existing teaching resources and materials,explore project implementation,guide students to conduct inquiry-based learning,and improve the ability of junior high school students to express Chinese culture in English in the context of the introduction of the new curriculum standard.It also provides new ideas for front-line English teachers in primary and secondary schools to practice the concept of new curriculum standards and promote the implementation of new curriculum standards.