An Investigation on Comprehensive Situation of English Majors’ Native Culture in Xuchang University 许昌学院英语专业学生母语文化理解现状调查研究.doc

an investigation on comprehensive situation of english majors native culture in xuchang university许昌学院英语专业学生母语文化理解现状调查研究acknowledgmentsi avail myself of this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to those who contributed to the present thesis. without their constant help and encouragement, the completion of this thesis would never be possible. first and foremost, i would like to convey my heart-felt appreciation to my supervisor, wen junchao, who has given me so many valuable and helpful instructions about thesis writing. his patience and understanding have been essential for me during the writing of this thesis.i wish to thank all the students who participated in the survey. for they have provided me with very important and original data. many thanks should be also given to my classmates and roommates. they have always given me a hand whenever i needed help. thirdly, im blessed with my friends. without their support, i would not survive the agony through the whole creation.last but far from the least, i want to thank all my family members for their unwavering support in a variety of ways. without their unconditional love and care, i would not accomplish this thesis smoothly. 摘要本文以许昌学院英语专业二、三年级学生为研究对象，对其进行了一次问卷调查，发现其母语文化理解存在着很大的问题,从而对其原因进行分析和提出解决措施。首先，应该加强英语专业学生的文化自觉意识。其次，拓宽英语学习者的学习内容。最后要重视母语文化的正迁移作用。只有这样才能从根本上提高英语专业学生的母语文化理解水平。关键词：英语专业；母语文化理解；文化自觉意识abstractthis thesis aims to investigate english majors understanding of native culture. the subjects are 57 english majors (ems) including sophomore and junior from xuchang university. the result shows that english majors cannot understand native culture correctly. there are a lot of reasons why english majors make mistakes. according to those reasons, the writer comes up with three suggestions. first of all, english majors should strengthen their cultural self-consciousness. second, english majors ought to broaden their learning contents. third, english majors must pay attention to the positive transfer function of native culture. only in this way can english majors improve their understanding of native culture. key words: english major; native cultures comprehension; cultural self-consciousnesstable of contentsacknowledgmentsi摘要iiabstractiiitable of contentsivintroduction1chapter one basic knowledge of native culture21.1 definition of culture21.2 necessity and importance of learning native culture2chapter two research design and analysis of the research results42.1 research subjects, research method and design42.2 analysis of the research results52.2.1 data analysis on sophomore group52.2.2 data analysis on junior group62.2.3 a contrastive analysis between two groups7chapter three discussion on the existing problems83.1 tentative reasons for students understanding errors83.1.1 lack of cultural self-consciousness93.1.2 the single learning contents93.1.3 ignoring the positive transfer function of native culture103.2 tentative suggestions for a better improvement103.2.1 strengthening the cultural self- consciousness103.2.2 broadening students learning contents113.2.3 paying attention to the positive transfer function of native culture11conclusion12works cited14appendix i15appendix ii1818许昌学院本科生毕业论文introductionsince the reform and opening, english education has made satisfactory progress in china. the ability of english learners has got a great improvement; especially the aspect of the deaf and dumb english is broken. above all, foreign language world has acknowledged that language teaching must be combined with culture teaching, so teachers and students pay more attention to western culture learning and ignore the learning of native culture. however, culture through the vehicle of language, influences peoples beliefs, attitudes and values (at-twaijiri, 137). teaching syllabus for english majors requires that students must know the basic chinese culture and be familiar with chinese traditional culture (quoted in lin, 2011: 167). it can be seen that learners must know their native culture when they learn another language. only in this way, learners can be successful in cross-cultural communication. for cross-cultural communication includes two aspects: 1) english learners learn foreign culture and make full use of their excellent parts. 2) english learners make effort to carry forward chinese fine culture. developed countries new literature, conceptions, thoughts and theory are translated into chinese very quickly. learners are addicted to learning western culture but relatively pay little attention to the learning of native culture. perhaps many english majors have a good knowledge of native culture but they do not know how to express it in english. so much excellent chinese culture, literature and philosophy havent been translated into english. scholars name it as “chinese culture aphasia” (quoted in zhu, 85). english majors should know that they are not only the learners of english knowledge but also are the inheritors of chinese culture. this thesis can be divided into three parts. part one is an introduction. part two consists of three chapters. chapter one explains the basic knowledge of native culture. chapter two includes research design and analysis of the research results. chapter three is discussion on the existing problems. the last part is a conclusion. by those parts, the writer wants to find a way to help english majors improve their ability of native culture. chapter one basic knowledge of native culturethis chapter reviews the basic concept of culture. then, the necessity and significance of learning native culture are also presented.1.1 definition of culturerose (2001) thinks culture is, “a way of life; a set of social practices; a system of beliefs; a shared history or set of experiences. a culture may be synonymous with a country, or a region, or a nationality or it may cross several countries or regions” (quoted in qin and tian, 244). hofstede(1980) defined culture as “the collective programming of the mind” (at-twaijri, 137). culture in this paper points chinese culture which is formed and has developed in a long-term process of history and retains in chinese nation and has a stable form. chinese culture is broad and profound. by the time, it can be divided into traditional culture and popular culture. the education of chinese culture talked by educational world refers to chinese traditional culture. chinese culture is a great contribution that chinese nation makes to human beings. unique language, numerous volumes of literature, advanced science and technology, brilliant literature and philosophy of religion filled with wisdom and complete moral theory constitute the basic contents of chinese culture (quoted in lin, 2011: 151).1.2 necessity and importance of learning native culturesecond language and foreign culture learning is based on the learning of first language and native culture. traditional grammar-translation method asserts that students should start from the known knowledge and then learn the new knowledge. cognitive teaching method thinks students have grasped native culture and it can be used commonly in education. the essence of language is creative. almost each sentence has innovation and mans knowledge is a systemic overall. learners original knowledge is the new knowledges parameters. (cao, 67) so it is impossible for english majors to learn english without native culture in theory and practice. the study of new knowledge must be based on the original knowledge. only in this way, can students solidly master new knowledge. hu wenzhong and gao yihong investigated the national 26 best foreign language learners in 1991 and found that first language, native culture and second language, foreign culture are to promote each other (quoted in lin, 2011: 150). above example shows that native culture contributes to their foreign language level and communication. jiang yihua thinks, “chinese culture has developed on the natural environment, economic structure, value orientation, psychological quality, religious values, text select and the common life of many nations. it is chinese peoples material wealth and spiritual source” (quoted in lin, 2011: 151). foreign language education has the tradition to value chinese culture. at the same time, culture has a very important effect on peoples beliefs, attitudes and values. more and more foreign language school has realized that foreign language teachings final aim is not just to make students grasp a kind of foreign language skills and the important point is to make students have the ability of intercultural communication. so as to get the aim, learners must grasp their first language and native culture and many universities have opened the courses about chinese culture. in the 1920s, the original chung-ang university (now nanjing university) is required to open chinese literature history and history of chinese culture. the english department of southwest university still opens chinese literary history and introduction to philosophy. if china wants to become a global superpower and has a great influence on the world, most excellent chinese culture must be carried forward. this is also one of the main purposes of intercultural communication. english majors take the responsibility of inheriting outstanding chinese culture through the vehicle of english. the aim of developing english talents is to make learners talk directly with foreigners or service for society indirectly in english. when english majors are learning the second language, they should find the balance: learning to live in two worlds (carol e. westby and rosario roman, 68). it means english learners should keep the balance of first language and second language. if learners want have a correct understanding of foreign cultures, they must firstly understand native culture correctly. comparing the native culture with foreign culture consciously, they can find the two countries similar and different culture and translate properly english into chinese. correct understanding native culture is the guarantee of strengthening cross-cultural differences consciousness and improvement of the understanding of the cultural differences. thus, english majors must pay attention to the input and output of native culture.chapter two research design and analysis of the research resultsthis chapter presents the research design of the present study including the subjects, research method and questionnaire. and analysis of the research results consists of data analysis on sophomore group, data analysis on junior group and a contrastive analysis between two groups.2.1 research subjects, research method and designthe subjects of this study consist of two groups, one is 26 sophomores, and the other is 31 juniors. the reason for choosing ems at these two levels instead of ems at lower and higher proficiency level as subjects is that the freshmen who had just entered university have a good knowledge of native culture and that the seniors are very busy in writing their thesis and finding jobs. the sophomores and juniors have received the related trainings about second language in given college classes. at the same time, some of them are ignorant of native culture learning. therefore, it is necessary to make an investigation to them. there are no remarkable differences between sophomores and juniors. in this study, quantitative and qualitative research methods are adopted. firstly, some questions related to native culture are named in the questionnaire. secondly, the questionnaire is conducted and the data is collected and analyzed. the researcher designed a questionnaire for the ems from xuchang university based on the relevant knowledge about foreign culture and native culture. it is designed to reveal how well the subjects understand the native culture. this questionnaire consisted of 31 items concerning attitudes, tastes and realizations of the students in relation to the native culture (see appendix i). for those items, the subjects only can make one choice. 2.2 analysis of the research results2.2.1 data analysis on sophomore groupaccording to the result of the questionnaire (see appendix ii section i), the subjects attitude to the native culture is very clearly. 100% of sophomores absolutely agree that native culture teaching is very important. 35% of sophomores categorically agree that the target language culture teaching is more important than native culture, which means that many students do not realize the importance of native culture teaching. 85% of sophomores think that the learning of chinese culture can help students understand the target language culture. 15% of students are objective to this. it means most of students know native culture can promote their comprehension of target language culture. 12% of subjects prefer western culture than native culture. 88% of subjects still do not think so. 81% of students think the contents of target language culture should be much more than native culture in english teaching material. it proves that students still cannot deal with the relationship of target language and native language. however, 93% of students think teachers should explain some relevant background knowledge of chinese culture. 66% of students think they often talk about chinese culture instead of western culture in the communication with foreigners. 96% of students reflect that they want to talk about chinese culture but do not know how to express it in english. 100% of subjects approve that english majors should pay attention to cultivating their abilities to express chinese culture in english. 8% of subjects are not sure whether they disgust some chinese habits. it means most of students still have an interest in chinese traditional habits. 93% of subjects feel they should improve their chinese level when more and more people are learning chinese. although their english level has improved, 39% of sophomores still find their chinese are weaker than before. 76% of students consider university should continue to open chinese course as our professional required courses. 84% of sophomores deem if your chinese is very good, it also benefits your employment. it states english learners ignore the input of native culture. according to the results, most sophomores are aware of the importance of native culture. nevertheless, subjects do not look out the learning of native culture.2.2.2 data analysis on junior groupfrom the appendix ii section ii we can see that it shows the total results of the questionnairethe percentage of each item. 97% of juniors categorically consent the teaching of native culture is very important. 3% of juniors disagree the native culture is very important. 3% of juniors categorically agree that target language culture teaching is more important than native culture and 42% of subjects agree with this view. this means almost half of students lose the balance of foreign culture and native culture in language learning. 77% of juniors think that the study of chinese culture helps students understand the target language culture. 23% of students are objective to this. 10% of subjects prefer western culture than native culture. 74% of students take it for granted that the contents of target language culture should be much more than the contents of native culture in english teaching materials. it proves that students still cannot correctly deal with the target language and the native language. 87% of students think the teacher should explain some relevant background knowledge of chinese culture. 51% of students often talk about chinese culture with foreigners in the conversation. 93% of students reflect that they want to talk about chinese culture but do not know how to express. 100% of subjects approve that english majors should pay attention to cultivating their ability to express chinese culture in english. english majors do not have a good output of native culture.19% of subjects are not sure whether they disgust some of chinese habits or not and 3% of subjects disgust chinese traditional habits. 97% of subjects feel they should improve their chinese level when more and more people are learning chinese. 58% of juniors find their chinese are becoming weaker than before though their english level has improved and 19% of subjects do not sure. 78% of students consider university should continue to open chinese course as our professional required courses. 97% of juniors deem if your chinese is very good, it does well to your employment. it states english learns ignore the input of native culture. according to the results, juniors know the significance of learning native culture and are eager to learn it. but they still cannot find the way to improve their abilities of chinese culture. 2.2.3 a contrastive analysis between two groupsaccording to the statistics of results, the researcher has got a contrastive analysis between the two groups. now lets compare the result of subjects questionnaire at two different proficiency levels to see what extent they are consistent with each other. firstly, the questionnaire shows that all sophomores think that native culture is very important while the rate of juniors group drops to 97% which may indicates when learners are learning english; they are unconsciously ignorant of the importance of native culture. 35% of sophomores think target language culture teaching is more significant than native culture teaching. however, 45% of juniors have the same idea with those 35% of sophomores. it is very clearly that more and more english majors have a wrong idea along with the growth of the time to learn english. 85% of sophomores and 77% of juniors deem learning native cult