Cultural Identity Construction in EFL classroom

Chen Linlin

摘 要：In the Guidelines on College English Teaching， the course system is clearly elucidated： three courses should be included in college English teaching， namely， General English， ESP and Cross-cultural Communication. To meet this requirement， the course of Chinese Culture in English is added into our school curriculum. In the teaching of this course， various problems arose. This research tries to explore a possible way to solve these problems through the discussion of cultural identity construction in the EFL classroom.

關键词：Cultural Identity； EFL classroom； China English

Introduction

In EFL teaching classroom， teachers are often confused by their cultural identity. It is important for them to be clear about whether they are “teachers of language” or “teachers of culture”（Duff & Uchida， 1997）， especially when two cultures meet in teaching an English course of Chinese culture. This confusion may prevent teachers from landing a right rational for producing teaching plan and fully understanding their teaching objective. This research tries to explore a possible way to solve teachers confusion and deal with the problems they met in teaching an English course of Chinese Culture.

In a time when English is considered as a Lingua Franca， it is crucial that EFL teachers should fully understand how to position themselves in foreign language teaching. Students are also required to have a sense of cultural identity when they are developing their cross-cultural communication competence in a global context.

1. Language and culture

In UNESCO Guidelines on Intercultural Education， it is clearly stated that “Language in one of the most universal and diverse forms of expression of human culture... It is at the heart of issues of identity， memory and transmission of knowledge”（United Nations Educational， Scientific and Cultural Organization 2006：13）. So， in the socialization process， everyone has the need and right to express in language “who they are” and “how should they behave” in a certain way rather than others. Whether through written or spoken language， verbal or nonverbal， we use language to acquire the customs or customary behaviour in our community， inherit the legacy from our ancestors and build collective memory of our history. Thus， when language is concerned， culture is just like a shadow projected by it.

2. Cross-cultural communication competence and cultural identity construction

Samovar said， “A persons mother tongue has deep significance because it is the seed of identity that blossoms as children grow. Language helps individuals construct an identity that ties them to their in-group and at the same time sets them apart from other possible reference groups”（Samovar， Porter， McDaniel & Roy， 2017）. For foreign language learners， when they are learning a language， they are also learning their culture. There is an “other” working behind all the materials they use. So， students should always bear in their mind that English is only an instrument in language learning. It opens our mind to the world but it also shapes our mind as time goes by.

3. How should teachers represent themselves in EFL classroom

A systemic learning of Chinese culture in English is necessary to realize true cross-cultural communication. While teaching Chinese culture in English， teachers in our school obviously have no sense of cultural identity as some of them refuse to teach this material with great confusion： some terms are poorly translated and some sentences carry a too heavy influence of Chinese grammar. Teachers also lack enough knowledge of Chinese culture because they were students in college， Chinese culture was not so much emphasized as English language and culture.

All the faculty member cannot reach an agreement on what to teach with this material without a focus： teach vocabulary？ grammar？ or Chinese-English translation which is a included in CET 4 and 6？ Some articles in the book we use are excerpts from famous writers or translators like Lin Yutang who has a rather established position in U.S with his introduction of Chinese culture in his English writings. But he is scarcely read by Chinese readers as they consider Lins English writings not so fluent， mixed with authentic American English（actually Lin acquired it from missionary school） and China English beacause Lin was extremely interested in Chinese ancient culture， especially some canonic masters， like Confucius， Mencius， Chuang-tzu and other philosophers or thinkers who have laid the foundation for Chinese thinking and philosophy for 2000 years. For some teachers， they dont even have the idea of Chinglish， Chinese English and China English， which are closely related to cultural identity construction（ He Yuhong， 2013； Chu Changsheng， 2009） .

In general， teachers are not clear about the teaching objectives of this course. To solve this problem， building teachers concept of cultural identity is quite essential. In a global context， we are supposed to establish dialogue between different cultures. We “import” foreign culture to have a better understanding of the world， but we also “export” Chinese culture to the enrich peoples knowledge about China. And， under the background of Chinese Culture Diffusion， Chinese students are also required not to forget their own culture which has somewhat neglected in the 30～40 years of “learning from the west”. It is the responsibility of foreign language teachers to cultivate students sense of cultural and ethnic identity in their learning process which will lay a solid foundation for building our cultural confidence in the future.

4. Conclusion

The article describes the confusion teachers in Yangtze University met when they were teaching an English course of Chinese Culture and explores a possible solution for this problem： constructing English teachers and students sense of cultural identity. Students motivation in English learning can be dramatically enhanced if they truly understand the general objective in English learning.

References：

1. Duff， P.A.， & Uchida， Y. （1997）. The negotiation of teachers sociocultural identities and practices in postsecondary EFL classrooms. TESL Quarterly， 31.

2. Samovar， L.A. ，Porter， E.R.， McDaniel E.R. ， Roy， C.S. Communication between Cultures， 8th ed. Beijing： Peking University Press， 2017， pp.239～240.