Cultivate Deeper Cross-Cultural Context into Foreign Language Teaching

Abstract

Nowadays, the Internet is not only a new invention of information technology but also an advanced tool to learn foreign language in our globalized world. Learning foreign language has been widespread globally and being part of our modern life. Furthermore, language learning should focus more on cultural part besides of language itself. This paper reviews several notions of language and culture, then move to intercultural competence in foreign language classroom. Besides, there is a big difference between the traditional and modern foreign language teaching now. As Hinkel mentioned that second language learners should be familiar with fundamental learning second cultural concepts and constructs, otherwise, they cannot make the best of their educational, professional and vocational opportunities. Being a foreign language teacher in the modern world, we should be aware of “the learning of culture is an integral part of language learning and education because culture crucially influences the values of the community, everyday interaction, the norms of speaking and behaving, and the sociocultural expectations of an individual’s roles”. (Hinkel 2014) However, under the explosion of information, language learning is not only to learn the grammar, vocabulary and four skills- listening, speaking, reading and writing, therefore, this paper will provide further discussions about cultural awareness, intercultural teaching and suggestions for cultivating deeper cross-cultural teaching in foreign language classroom.