An Action Research On Improving Undergraduates’ Ability To Express Chinese Culture In English By English News Learning

With the improvement of China’s comprehensive national strength,communicating the excellent Chinese culture to other countries has become increasingly important.Chinese university students play a significant role in promoting Chinese culture to the outside world.However,the survey studies on Chinese undergraduates’ ability to express Chinese culture in English showed that undergraduates’ ability to express Chinese culture in English was generally poor,and the opportunities to learn English expressions about Chinese culture were mostly limited to English textbooks.Based on the above problems,some scholars proposed that English news about Chinese culture was beneficial material for undergraduates to learn English expressions about Chinese culture because of its authentic English expressions and comprehensive descriptions of Chinese culture.Previous studies on Chinese undergraduates’ ability to express Chinese culture in English were mostly survey studies,with fewer empirical studies on how to improve undergraduates’ ability to express Chinese culture in English in English classes.Therefore,this research intends to find effective methods to gradually improve undergraduates’ ability to express Chinese culture in English through practical activities involving learning English news about Chinese culture in the English class.Given the complexity and variety of problems that exist in the process of learning English expressions of Chinese culture among university students,it is not always possible to solve them all at once.Therefore,this research adopts an action research method to address the problems in the process of improving students’ ability to express Chinese culture in English step by step.105 non-English majors from two English classes of 2020 at Shandong Normal University participated in the research.This research includes three rounds aiming to answer the three research questions:1)What are the effects of studying English news about Chinese culture on undergraduates’ translation of Chinese cultural expressions?2)What are the effects of studying English news videos about Chinese culture on undergraduates’ pronunciation and intonation when expressing Chinese culture?3)What are the effects of studying English news about Chinese culture on undergraduates’ sharing Chinese culture in English?The data was collected by testing,interviews,reflective journals and classroom observations.Through data analysis,the major findings are presented as follows:1)Learning English news about Chinese culture could effectively improve undergraduates’ ability to translate Chinese cultural expressions in English.Students accumulated a lot of English expressions about Chinese culture,so they could translate Chinese cultural expressions with authentic English vocabulary,and their translation performance improved.2)Learning English news videos about Chinese culture could effectively correct undergraduates’ pronunciation and intonation when they express Chinese culture.Students’ pronunciation became more standard,and their expressions were more fluent.3)Learning English news about Chinese culture could help undergraduates share Chinese culture more effectively in English.Students were able to express Chinese culture with correct English expressions and explore the reasons for social issues.Presenters were able to discuss social hot issues with classmates and share their views with each other.Students acquired more knowledge about Chinese culture from the sharing of different groups.Based on the findings,the author put forward implications,pointed out the limitations of the present research,and offered suggestions for further study.