Face Culture in Chinese EFL Classroom

战阳

【Abstract】In China， people regard their “ Face”， which is called “Mianzi” in Chinese， as their self- image in society. This culture factor derived from Confucianism， which is deeply rooted in peoples mind for a long time. The face-maintenance is very important in Chinese people in the aspect of business， interpersonal relationship as well as in education. Moreover， it is particular important in English learning classroom， because the face concern places a big obstacle in learning quality. Teachers in EFL classroom in Asian country should observe this phenomenon and take measures to resolve this obstacle as much as possible.

【Key words】face culture； ELF classroom； Confucianism

Introduction

Several historical， economic and cultural factors have had significant impact on EFL （English as Foreign Language） in China. One significant one being is its mater of Face culture. This factor has had critical impact on classroom participation in EFL classroom. Chinese students pay too much attention to Face culture so that they are not willing to engage into the classroom activities under the pressure of the losing face. In order to improve the class participation， from the experience of teaching， some effective methods will be introduced in this essay.

I. Face concept in Chinese society

The Face concept means that people in China treat their face as public image and also as a reciprocal usage of maintaining a good relationship. By not making mistakes in public， people intend to save their Face， which also means protecting public image in social life.

Chinese people care about their face and they protect it all the time for the reason that face represents public-image. This cultural factor is deeply rooted in peoples mind and they even are not aware about it. And this phenomenon has already saturated into every part of Chinese peoples life.

1. The origin of the Face concept

Although the Face concept is very common in some other countries， in China this cultural factor is more obvious and people may not aware about this. According to Xiaoying （2011）， the Face concept is derived from its elemental role in human sociality in general. And at the same time， its high salience is showed in China. The Chinese saying that a person needs face like a tree needs bark indicates the importance of face to participate in Chinese society. （Peter， C. & James， S.， 2003） As we all known， trees cannot live without bark. In ancient China， losing Face had a detrimental effect for a person and his relatives， even as severe as life issues.

Thus， avoiding contentious conversations in public is a very common phenomenon in China. Face is the responsibility and/ or deference which a person can claim for himself from others by virtrue of relative position he occupies in his social network and the degree to which he is judged to have functioned adequately in that position as well as acceptably in his general conduct （Ho， 1976）. Through their social relation， individuals seek the approval and respect of others and typically desire to achieve a position of approbation in the social group （Xiaoying， 2011）.

2. The Face concept is derived from the Confucianism.

Chinese people have believed the Confucianism for a long time in history. The Face concept is derived from it through time. The face concept mainly came from the “De” and “Ren”， which are the core idea of Confucianism. According to the Confucianism， “De” and “ Ren” are the two most significant criterion to judge a persons reputation. People in ancient China believed that to claim “De” and “Ren” is to receive a good reputation. “De” and “Ren” are the original concept of the Face culture. It is noted by Cheng （1986） that according to Confucianism， a perfect ideal human being， reached through self cultivation， can only be accomplished by a very important aspect —De （moral integrity）. It is into De that the concepts of Face are attached. “Confucianism， with its theory and practice， no doubt， is the unequivocal ideological background and foundation of the concept of face and face-work in Chinese language.” The ideal virtue of Confucian society is humanity （ren）， which can only be obtained through the proper cultivation of relationships with others. In fact， “ones ability to achieve a harmonious relationships with others is the greatest spiritual accomplishment of ones life” （Chang & Holt， 1994）. Thus， Face culture mainly focuses on two concepts. One is a persons moral integrity， which is supported by not making mistakes in public； the other is a persons relationships with people， which are built up by protecting others face and respect others achievements in public.

Affected by Confucianism， Chinese people regard the Face as a reciprocal usage in dealing with relationships. By giving Face to someone is also the way to benefit him to some extent. In return， it is also a way to protect from losing face in public. Thus， they can maintain an impeded relationship. Making others lose face is regarded as disrespectful especially in public. Terms such as mianzi （face）， guanxi （interdependent relations）， renqing （reciprocal favour or benefit） and Huibao （interdependent obligation）， for example， are readily seen to be indicative of characteristically indigenous Chinese social-cultural phenomena， in the sense that they uniquely derive from the Chinese historical experience （Buckely， 2006）.

II. Face culture in EFL Classroom

Due to the aspects discussed above， the face concept affects the classrooom participation in EFL teaching in the aspect of public image protection and relationship maintianence.

1. Face culture brings negative effects

The face concept brings the students a anxiety in speaking English in EFL classroom. The anxiety comes from public image preserve. Due to the anxiety， the students are less likely engaged in classroom discussion. To avoid this happens， teachers， as the organizer in the class， should be aware of the certain situation.

Students are anxious when they speak English in EFL class. They are afraid of showing their weakness， such as making mistakes or laughed at by others， which may hurt their public image. Under this pressure， students try to protect Face and ignore the importance of engaging into the learning activities. One of the reasons that contribute to a high level of apprehension or anxiety is face threatening acts， which is the denial of ones self image， attributes， accomplishments and autonomy （McCroskey & Richmond， 1975）. Losing face once in the classroom may lead to long-term disengagement into the active learning. Because once the self image is denied， Chinese students will use a long time the rebuild by not trying to make mistakes in class.

2. Statistics

Due to lack of classroom participation， students in China study English in a quiet way. For example， they know the spelling of a word but they cannot pronounce it. Moreover， the indynamic classroom atmosphere leads to low oral proficiency. The table below show the average score to each subject in IELTS test. The table is from www.ielts.org. It is very obvious that the listening and speaking score of Chinese students are lower to many of other countries.

Conclusion

In contemporary society， as the development of globalization a growing tendency of how to communication effectively between different culture and languages has becoming a matter of fact. Even though a great number of communication strategies used to reduce the culture shock， obstacles， seldom do the educations notice the culture could place huge influence in classroom teaching especially in the international based environment.

Chinese Face culture has a long history since the Confucius time. People regard Face as self-image in social life and the relationship between others. Face is also a measurement of how well a persons moral quality it. Face culture has also been saturating into the EFL learning classroom. Both students and teachers have this Face concern， which leads to the ineffective classroom participation， because students want to protect a good public image and also maintain a respect relationship with the instructors and peers. Students are not willing to speak in target language. Thus， they are learning English in a very quiet way with seldom critical thinking. The concern of Face is the crux to the low proficiency in listening and speaking score in the IELTS test. To change this situation， ELF classroom should design classroom norms and also build respectful classroom atmosphere.

References：

[1]Buckley，P.（2006）‘Cultural Awareness in Knowledge Transfer to China – the Role of Guanxi and Mianzi，Journal of World Business 41：275–88.

[2]Chang，C.& Holt，R.（1994）.A Chinese Perspective on facework：Cross cultural and interpersonal issues（pp.95-132）.NY State University Press.

[3]Cheng，C.（1986）.“The concept of face and its Confucius roots” in Journal of Chinese Philosophy.13，pp：329-348.

[4]Ho，D.（1976）.On the concept of face.American Journal of Sociology，81，867-884.

[5]Xiaoying，Q.（2011）.Face：A Chinese concept in a global sociology.Journal of Sociology 47（3）.

[6]McCrokey，C.，& Richmond，P.（1975）.Self-credibility as an index of self-esteem.Paper presented at Speech Communication Association Conference，Houston，Texas.

[7]Peter，C.&James，S.（2003）.Chinese Business Face：Communication Behaviors and Teaching Approach.Utah State University，Logan.