Sino-English Culture Difference and Teaching in Foreign Language Education

The purpose of learning a foreign language is to learn to communicate in the target language.For foreign language educators, to develop the learner's intercultural communication competence is to know how to teach foreign culture.Culture teaching in foreign language education is a problem countered by language teachers throughout all universities and colleges in the world.Language is one of the most important carriers of culture and reflects the latter.Without language, culture would not be possible.The basic goal of learning a foreign language is to acquire the communicative competence, while the development and improvement of such competence is to some extent dependent of efficient and scientific teaching approach.Byram has defined the notion of cultural studies in foreign language education and put forward a model for teaching foreign language and culture.Shen Chen has put forward a proposal for developing Chinese foreign language learning learners culture creativity as an attempt to search for away through the difficulties.His cultural creativity refers to a kind of ability that only can be gotten by knowledge acquiring in foreign culture, existed in language and more than language itself, in the process of using such knowledge inter-cultural communication with others and creating new way of thinking for a new way of action.The students can get a further understanding of the target culture which will without doubt promote their understanding and command of competent communication in the target language.

Chinese and foreign language teachers are influenced by their background culture and teaching philosophy. The study found that Chinese and foreign teachers have advantages in teaching concepts and strategies. As a result, the teaching process in the English classroom is also different. At present, there are still some challenges in English classroom teaching, such as single teaching methods and low student participation. This paper analyzes the characteristics and differences between Chinese and foreign teachers in English classroom teaching and aims to explore the strategies for the effectiveness of English classroom teaching. This paper puts forward some suggestions that are of great significance for promoting the reform and innovation of English classroom teaching, improving the quality of teaching and students' learning outcomes. The study finds that Chinese and foreign teachers have advantages in teaching philosophy and teaching strategies, and the combination of the advantages of both can provide new ideas and methods for English teaching in China.

This article takes the plurilingual repertoires of foreign language teachers – and thus the teachers’ linguistic diversity – as a starting point for exploratory research into the potential of visual methods in teacher education for changing mind-sets. Describing and reflecting on the ubiquitous manifestation of a monolingual habitus in foreign language (teacher) education, we consider ways to offer linguistically responsive foreign language teacher education aiming at challenging that ethos. Reporting on a project based on the production of drawings, we present and compare the linguistic biographies of future French and Spanish teachers, using multimodal analysis. The analysis seeks to uncover whether target language (French and Spanish) and migrant background influence the visual representation of the plurilingual repertoire and of the process of becoming plurilingual. As no significant differences are observed, demonstrating the pervasiveness of the monolingual mind-set in foreign language learning and teacher education, I propose some ways forward in response to the identified language learning ideologies.

SAVCHUK Borys – PhD hab. (History), Professor of Pedagogy & Education Management of Bogdan Stuparyk Department, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, 57 Shevchenko Str., Ivano-Frankivsk, 76018, Ukraine E-mail address: boris_savchuk@ukr.net ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2256-0845 ResearcherID: https://publons.com/researcher/2903385/boris-savchuk/ HARAPKO Liubov – Postgraduate student of English Philology and Teaching Methods of Foreign Languages Department, Mukachevo State University; lecturer of English, Pedagogical College, Mukachevo State University, 59 Komenskyi Str., Mukachevo, 89600, Ukraine E-mail address: lubaharapko@ukr.net ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6401-301X ResearcherID: https://publons.com/researcher/3471381/lyuba-harapko/ To cite this article: Savchuk, B., & Harapko, L. (2020). The phenomenon of foreign language education in the modern scientific discourse. Human Studies. Series of Pedagogy , 10/42, 11‒24. doi: https://doi.org/10.24919/2413-2039.10/42.198796 Article history Received: December 15, 2019 Received in revised form: January 11, 2019 Accepted: March 11, 2020 Available online: April 28, 2020 Journal homepage: http://lssp.dspu.edu.ua/ p-ISSN 2313-2094 e-ISSN 2413-2039 © 2020 The Authors. Human studies. Series of Pedagogy published by Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University & Open Journal Systems. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ ). The article analyzes the modern scientific discourse on understanding the phenomenon of foreign language education. An interpretation of concepts and terms defining the modern terminology of foreign language learning, such as “bilingualism”, “multilingualism”, “multicultural education”, “bilingual education”, “mother tongue”, “foreign language”, “second language”, “Foreign language”, etc. is generalized. It has been found that the authorship of the term “foreign language education” belongs to E. Passov, who introduced it into scientific circulation in the second half of the 1990s in the context of actualizing the personality-oriented education paradigm. The linguist argued that this term should replace the notion of “learning a foreign language”, because modern people must learn not only the language of a particular people and country, but also their culture. It is shown that the term “foreign language culture” is to some extent artificially internalized into the theory and practice of the Ukrainian pedagogical science, since its correspondence in the formulation of “foreign language education” has not been found in the English language literature. Instead, it includes the term “language education” to refer to the theory and practice of acquisition of a second or foreign language. The contribution of Ukrainian and foreign teachers and linguists to the development of the theoretical and methodological aspects of foreign language culture has been determined. The main interpretations of this phenomenon in the pedagogical literature have been presented. It is shown that the term “foreign language education” has become widely used in the Ukrainian pedagogical science, in particular it is actively used in the works on its development in Ukraine and foreign countries. The definition of the foreign language education as a specifically organized pedagogical process of teaching, upbringing and development of the student’s personality on the basis of the content and means of the discipline “foreign language” has been suggested. Based on the analysis of pedagogical and linguistic literature, the essential characteristics of the phenomenon of “foreign language education” in the aspects of its integrity, axiological orientation, instrumentality, effectiveness and efficiency have been demonstrated. The following basic structural components of the foreign language education have been distinguished and characterized: epistemological (knowledge of the country’s culture and languages); educational (language knowledge and skills as a means of communication); developmental (the psychological and mental characteristics of native speakers and the cultural values of a particular country); educational (the pedagogical content of a foreign-language culture, concerning its moral, ethical, aesthetic and other aspects). Acknowledgments. We express our sincere thanks to the staff of Pedagogy & Education Management of Bohdan Stuparyk Department of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University. Funding. The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Study on professional development of foreign language teacher in cross-cultural communication teaching

The progress of science and technology and the development of information technology have accelerated the speed of information dissemination and cultural transformation. In the context of multiculturalism, if we want to cultivate talents who can communicate across cultures, domestic English teaching needs further reforms. The unified implementation of English teaching in China has lasted for decades, and the research on teaching theory has gradually formed a stable framework. But from an overall point of view, instillation teaching under test-oriented education is not conducive to improving students' English practice level. In order to solve this problem, this article analyzes the cultural teaching content in college English teaching from a cross-cultural perspective, and emphasizes the importance of cultural infiltration in English teaching. At the same time, it analyzes the problems in teaching practice from multiple aspects of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation, and puts forward suggestions for the construction of a cross-cultural communication ability training system. Experiments show that in the classes taught by ordinary English teachers, the average proportion of classroom culture teaching is only 14.995%; under the same conditions, the average proportion of classroom culture teaching in the classes taught by foreign teachers reaches 33.865%. Combined with the higher average scores of students in foreign teachers' classes, it can be known that cultural teaching can play a certain role in improving the level of comprehensive English teaching.

College English teaching in China has long focused on importing cultures of English countries while neglecting to enhance students’ English competence in home culture. The present research aims to investigate Chinese non-English major undergraduates’ competence in translating Chinese cultural items into English and the significant predictors of such competence. With a test and a questionnaire as research instruments, this study was conducted to assess 82 undergraduates’ ability to translate three different levels of Chinese culture-specific items into English and explored the factors which might have affected the students’ home culture translation ability. The results show that the participants did well in translating the surface layer cultural items, but their performance in sub-surface and deep layer culture translation tasks was far from being satisfactory. It was also found that students had positive attitudes towards Chinese culture and were willing to learn to express Chinese culture in English, but their English learning motivation in general was not strong enough, and they were not given much input on Chinese culture in their English class. Students’ Chinese cultural knowledge and their awareness of the importance of learning Chinese culture in English were found to be the two significant factors that can predict their performance in the translation tasks. These findings have implications for the teaching of culture and cross-cultural communications in EFL classes.

Intercultural communication is a kind of interactive behavior. For a long time, college English teaching in China puts one-sided emphasis on the transmission of English culture, but ignores the teaching of Chinese native culture, leading to the learners’ lack of Chinese traditional culture. What’s worse, college students are unable to express and spread Chinese culture in English, which causes the phenomenon of “Chinese culture aphasia”. This paper attempts to study the current situation and causes of “Chinese culture aphasia” in order to elaborate the countermeasures for the lack of Chinese native culture in college English teaching. Keywords—college english teaching; intercultural communication; lack of Chinese culture

Although culture learning is closely connected to language learning and definitely essential to developing students' communicative competence for cross-cultural communication in the global society, the importance of culture learning to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learning is often ignored by MOE (Ministry of Education) and English teachers in Taiwan. Thus this paper draws upon domestic and international literature to explore the factors that hamper culture learning in a foreign language classroom and the ways that can integrate culture learning into Taiwan's foreign language education. While finding that the stereotypes about culture among the public as well as the limited knowledge of both the target culture and the approaches to culture teaching among educators and English teachers in Taiwan are the main factors that make culture learning separate from language learning in a foreign language classroom, the researcher concludes that with the trend toward globalization and internationalization English teachers in Taiwan need to understand more about the nature of culture learning and shatter the illusion that linguistic knowledge is the most important element in cross-cultural communication. In order to integrate culture learning into Taiwan’s foreign language education, the researcher also concludes that English learning materials and teaching approaches as well as the goals of Taiwan's foreign language education should be adjusted appropriately. 136-Abstract Although culture learning is closely connected to language learning and definitely essential to developing students' communicative competence for cross-cultural communication in the global society, the importance of culture learning to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learning is often ignored by MOE (Ministry of Education) and English teachers in Taiwan. Thus this paper draws upon domestic and international literature to explore the factors that hamper culture learning in a foreign language classroom and the ways that can integrate culture learning into Taiwan's foreign language education. While finding that the stereotypes about culture among the public as well as the limited knowledge of both the target culture and the approaches to culture teaching among educators and English teachers in Taiwan are the main factors that make culture learning separate from language learning in a foreign language classroom, the researcher concludes that with the trend toward globalization and internationalization English teachers in Taiwan need to understand more about the nature of culture learning and shatter the illusion that linguistic knowledge is the most important element in cross-cultural communication. In order to integrate culture learning into Taiwan's foreign language education, the researcher also concludes that English learning materials and teaching approaches as well as the goals of Taiwan's foreign language education should be adjusted appropriately.

An Interview with Paula Garrett-Rucks, Georgia State University

To test the hypothesis that foreign language and music instruction in early life are associated with lower incidence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and slower rate of cognitive decline in old age. At enrollment in a longitudinal cohort study, 964 older persons without cognitive impairment estimated years of foreign language and music instruction by age 18. Annually thereafter they completed clinical evaluations that included cognitive testing and clinical classification of MCI. There were 264 persons with no foreign language instruction, 576 with 1-4 years, and 124 with > 4 years; 346 persons with no music instruction, 360 with 1-4 years, and 258 with > 4 years. During a mean of 5.8 years of observation, 396 participants (41.1%) developed MCI. In a proportional hazards model adjusted for age, sex, and education, higher levels (> 4 years) of foreign language (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.687, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.482, 0.961]) and music (HR = 0.708, 95% CI [0.539, 0.930]) instruction by the age of 18 were each associated with reduced risk of MCI. The association persisted after adjustment for other early life indicators of an enriched cognitive environment, and it was stronger for nonamnestic than amnestic MCI. Both foreign language and music instruction were associated with higher initial level of cognitive function, but neither instruction measure was associated with cognitive decline. Higher levels of foreign language and music instruction during childhood and adolescence are associated in old age with lower risk of developing MCI but not with rate of cognitive decline.

From the 1990s to the 2010s, China saw tremendous growth in private companies offering English programmes featuring foreign teachers. Education companies branded their foreign teachers as White depending on how their customers valued having a White teacher as part of dynamic international education plans. This paper examines dramatic changes in China’s educational infrastructure which have made it possible for Filipino teachers to be recategorised as similarly valuable foreign teachers, but primarily in cases found within marginalised Chinese cities. I identify new questions about the value of Whiteness as a ‘racial capital’ in China’s lower-tier cities. I argue that racial boundaries between foreign teachers are reflective of different value systems for racial capitals found between China’s first-tier and lower-tier cities. Social geographies that divide cities in China are shown here to be intersecting with racial hierarchies of international English teachers. This research is based on data collected through participant observation at a large Beijing private education company between 2018 and 2020 and follow-up interviews conducted between 2020 and 2022 in online tutoring centres. This paper contributes to critical race studies by showing how racial capitals are changing beyond dominant Western notions of what constitutes Whiteness.

The linguistic landscape of Sri Lanka underwent dramatic transformations owing to the influence of Indic languages and the colonization which resulted in increased language contact and hybridization of local languages. Advancements in digital and commercialization of language learning increased the demand for second and foreign language education. Whether language planning and education have undergone changes in par with the transformations in the linguistic landscape is questionable. Approaches and methodologies of second and foreign language learning in Sri Lanka remain entrenched in hegemonic practices of post-colonial language education. Taking on a convergent parallel design, the present study explored the potentials of incorporating translanguaging into second and foreign language education in Sri Lanka. Teachers of English as a second language and three other foreign languages were selected as the key informants of the study. Recognizing language as a transformative entity from a sociolinguistic stance, the study employed dynamic systems theory to evaluate the significant transformations of the linguistic landscape in Sri Lanka juxtaposed with developments in language studies. The findings have revealed that although the teachers have identified the need for shifting towards inclusive language education that recognizes the significance of learners’ native language repertoire, the language education system is still entrenched in the conservative approaches. Teaching learning material and ideologies attached to second and foreign languages education have become ‘leg irons’ that constrain adaptation into the new language environment. National scale linguistic landscape surveys, transformations in methodologies, localized learning material and long-term language policy and planning initiatives are key requirements for ensuring inclusive, equitable and decolonized language education.

This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of English teachers regarding the adverse effects of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in China, as well as their proposals for improving EFL instruction in the country. By exploring the views of experienced English teachers, this study provides valuable insights into how English as a Foreign Language pedagogy can be improved in China and other countries. The main research question is about the adverse effects of teaching English as a Foreign Language in Chinese higher education and the ways to improve its instruction. A thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews was conducted on a sample of 20 English teachers who possessed substantial experience teaching in Chinese higher education institutions. The participants’ teaching experience ranged from 3-20 years (SD = 5.3). The analysis involved the establishment of concordant codes and sub-codes, with the aid of two researchers and an external expert, to ensure the reliability and validity of the results. The findings showed that the teachers attributed English as a Foreign Language learners’ English deficiencies to the English teaching curriculum, self-directed learning, and the education system. Finally, the teachers suggested that self-directed learning skills and self-regulation were crucial for effectively applying language in authentic contexts. These findings have implications beyond China and are expected to enhance English pedagogy in other English as a Foreign Language countries. Thus, this research may contribute to improving the effectiveness of English teaching in China and other countries by providing a deeper understanding of the challenges and potential solutions associated with English as a Foreign Language instruction.

ABSTRACTCulture teaching in a foreign language (FL) classroom involves linguistic and cultural knowledge about the target culture as well as pedagogical skills of integrating these into classroom practice. In general, more attention should be paid to culture teaching methods in FL teacher education in order to move from the traditional, teacher-centred approach towards a new dynamic and learner-centred practice. The main focus of this study is on Finnish pre-service FL teachers’ reflections and initial experiences in culture teaching during their one-year teacher education programme at a Finnish university. In 2012–2015, the data was collected through three questionnaires (N = 65) and interviews (N = 10) during consecutive one-year teacher education programmes. In the qualitative and quantitative analysis, we focused on trainees’ reflections on cultural content, methods, and initial culture teaching experiences. The main stumbling blocks in culture teaching emerging from this study were: the integration of culture into the lessons, the use of the target language, and the use of personal cultural experiences in a pedagogically meaningful way. Based on the results of our study, we suggest that more reflection and work on culture teaching is required to meet the needs of teacher trainees. The results indicate that some development in Finnish pre-service FL teachers’ perception on culture could be observed, e.g. they wanted to promote interaction and share their personal cultural experiences with their students. Furthermore, recommendations for teacher educators regarding how to teach culture teaching, and how trainees could learn to integrate it into lessons are given.