An Investigation On Teachers’ Beliefs And Practice Of Cultivating Students’ Cultural Awareness In Senior High School English Reading Teaching

The 2017 Edition English Curriculum Standards for General Senior High School(MOE,2017)incorporates cultural awareness into core competence of the English language subject,redefines the connotation of cultural awareness,and puts forward higher requirements for English teaching.Teachers’ beliefs and practice are directly related to the implementation of the English Curriculum Standards.Reading is important for students to acquire English knowledge and develop core competence of the English language subject.Thus,it is critical to emphasize teachers’ beliefs of cultivating students’ cultural awareness in senior high school English reading teaching and promote the implementation of teachers’ beliefs into practice.Based on theory of planned behavior,schema theory and framework of implementing cultural awareness in senior high school English teaching proposed by Lu Ziwen and Chen Xiaoyun(2019),this study employs questionnaire,classroom observation,and interview to investigate teachers’ beliefs and practice of cultivating students’ cultural awareness in senior high school English reading teaching.The following research questions are to be answered:(1)What are teachers’ beliefs of cultivating students’ cultural awareness in senior high school English reading teaching?(2)What is the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practice of cultivating students’ cultural awareness in reading teaching?(3)If there is inconsistency between teachers’ beliefs and practice of cultivating students’ cultural awareness in reading teaching,what are the main influencing factors?Through data collection and analysis,the study draws the following conclusions.(1)Teachers hold positive beliefs of cultivating students’ cultural awareness in senior high school English reading teaching.Teachers’ beliefs vary in different stages of reading teaching: beliefs in pre-reading and while-reading stage are stronger than beliefs in post-reading stage.In terms of teaching content,teachers focus more on cultivating students’ cultural awareness in the dimensions of cultural dissemination and value internalization,while the beliefs in the dimension of cultural understanding are relatively weak.Besides,teachers’ beliefs of cultivating students’ cultural awareness are not related to gender,but significantly correlate with their teaching experience and professional title: teachers with more years of teaching experience have stronger beliefs and teachers with professional title believe firmer than unrated teachers.(2)There are some overlaps between teachers’ beliefs and practice of cultivating students’ cultural awareness,but teachers cannot completely implement beliefs into practice,which means the divergences still exist.(3)The main factors that lead to the inconsistency between teachers’ beliefs and practice include 1)teacher factors: insufficient cultural knowledge reserve,inflexible application of teaching materials;2)teaching environment factors: limited English class hours,neglect of teacher training in cultural awareness by school,exam-oriented education and the social environment of“knowledge over quality”.Based on the above research findings,this study proposes relevant recommendation for teachers,schools and education authorities,with a view to promoting the implementation of teachers’ beliefs of cultivating students’ cultural awareness into practice.