The Significanceof Emphasizing Culture Awareness

The Significanceof Emphasizing Culture Awareness in the New StandardsforEnglish in China

^{- - · - - —}     An EducationalPsychologicalPerspective

JingChen  ShaanxiInstituteofEducation

Abstract The New  Standards for English issued in 2001 defined English learning as to develop

“comprehensive competence in lan guage using” which consistsoflanguage competence language knowledge

afective aspects learning strategy and culturalawareness M eanwhile aseducationalpsychologists DeCorte et

aladvocatefourtheoriesinteachingandlearningprocess whichincludeatheoryofexpertise namely,(1)A wel-organized nda lexiblyf accesible domain specifc nowledgek base (2) Heuristic methods (3)

Meta—knowledge (4)Self-regulatory skils (5)Beliefs Notcoincidently,theNew Standardsisin linewiththe heoryt of educationalpsychology This gives the way to the author to argue from the view of educational

psychology,by analyzing culture awareness asbeing functionalin meta-cognition na d self-regulation aspectsin expertise development the importance of emphasizing culture awareness in English language teaching nda

The New Standards orfEnglish in China issued in 2001 puts English learning in Basic education into 5 categories namely,language competence language knowledge afective aspects learning strategy and cultural awareness (htp  www being org cn ncs eng eng htm) These aspects folow partly the state of-art of foreign lan guageteaching from theview ofeducationalpsychology,which emphasizeson the theoryofexpertise

etc (De

Corte Verschafel&Op’tEynde 2000)

The essay willfocus on one of the five aspects in the New Standards mentioned above _{namely cultural}

awareness to lucidize the function ithason the foreign language learning in generalan d on Chinese learners’

Englishlearning inparticular

ThepurposeistoarguetherationalityofculturalawarenessasoneofitsemphasisoftheNew Standards

1-Observation

Itisoften observed thata young Chinese-American child could speak fluently and in a dif cult-free way _In

comparison Chinese learners of English who has large vocabulary could notcommunicate unctionallyf _{W hy?}

Non EnglishmajorChinesestudentscouldoutperform theirEnglish majorcounterpartinTOFELtest butcannot

carry outthe daily communication with aEnglish speaker efectively _{W hy?W hat1would like to argue here is}

TheSignifcanceofEmphasizingCultureAwarenessin theNew StandardsforEnglish in China

^{- -- ---}     An EducationalPsychologicalPerspective

that culturalawarenesscontributeslargely

W hatare defined as culturalissue~?Culture isthe totality of socially transmitted behaviorpaterns arts  beliefs institutions and alotherproductsofhuman work and thought Itisthe tastesin artand mannersthatare favored by a social group  It is all the knowledge and values shared by a society fhttp    WWW thefreedictionary corn culture) In orderto understand alanguage itisnecessary to nowk the society in which the language is employed The reasons are self-evident Language is a socialphenomenon with social

consequences Sapir(1949)highlightsthatculturalrealityisdeeplyembeddedwithinthegrammarofagiven language theso·caled“Rule”(Alexander,htp  www alyamamah edu sa papers alexandeLpdf) Thatistosay,

culture isexpressed elaborated by the meansoflangu age The‘Rule’thatalanguage follows isconsistentwith

orisdecidedbytheform oflifeshared within aculture

Foreign language learnersand users mighthavea common experience thatthey sometimesprobably read a

sentence which contains so simple daily wordsthatthey are so acquainted with howevm  they don’tknow the meaning ofthe sentence The reason may notbe exclusive however itis because they don’tunderstand the culturethatsuch asimplesentencebearsin mostofthecases A recentexampleisveryrepresentative

A Belgiangirlsaidto a Chinese

“Pleasecrossyourfingerfol’me, willhaveanexam J

TheBelgiangotno understanding,shesupposedthattheChinesedidn1reallyhean Sosherepeated it

Againnounderstandingwasshown Thethirdtimesherepeated⋯               ifeExperience)

Thisisnotofthestrangenessornew vocabulary ordificultgrammarthatblockstheunderstanding butthe

culturaldiferencedoes In Chinese Culture notsimilarexpression isgiven in hesameoccasion Generaly,only beforevery importantexamsthatthe parentsorteachersoroccasionally friendswillexpresstheirgood wishesby saying“wish you greatsuccesses’ratherthan“good luck” W hat’s more even forprayers Chinese gesture is diferent The mostcommon way is to putthe palms together in frontof nose fingers up withoutcrossing  Knowing these itiseasierto understandwhy“crossyouringers”isfdificultorfaChinesetounderstand

Similarly,ChineselearnersofEnglishcould also puzzlethenati,~0English speakerby unauthenticexpression

which often duesto thelack ofculturalnk owledge “Heisplaying axein frontofLuban”which appearedoncein astudent’swritingcould be explanatory Albeititisgrammatically perfect itfunctionaly makesno sense Itisa well—nk ownproverbin Chinacontext since Luban isthefamouscarpenterin ancientChina Howeveritisnotthe casein English England whereModern English originates isgeographicallymarinetype which explainswhy its culturerelatesmoreorlessto thesea Withoutnk owingthis Chineselearnerscould neverimagine“heistrying to

teach ishftoswim’expressesexactly thesameideaasthe“Luban”expression

Langu age serves notonly as a lingu istic resource butalso as a culturalresource a reserve in which the

developmentofaparticularmilieu becomesadesired and essentialcomponentin socialandculturalmobility The learnersofEnglish thus are notonly proceduraly engaged in learning a foreign ora second languagebutare simultaneously involved in acomplex process ofdevelopment acquisition proficiency and appropriation ofthe

culture Onemusttakehet culturalissuesasessential otherwise thelanguage onelearnswilalwaysbediferent

from thelanguageofthenative speakers

2 Rationalein EducationalPsychology

The heoryt of expertise refers to acquiring a disposition toward skilled learning thinking and problem

TheSigniflcanceofEmphasizing CultureAwarenessin theNew StandardsforEnglish in China

solyingastheultimategoalsofleaminginacontentdomain(DeCorte) It“analysesanddescribescompetencein acOntentdomain andthus contributestona swering thequestion‘Whatarethegoaloflearning and instruction

(DeCorte 2001 281) Itexplains“Whathastobelearned?”(DeCorte 2000 253)

According to De Corte generalanswer to“W hathas to be learned?’acquiring the intended disposition

requiresthemasteryofivefcategoriesofaptitude namely,(1)A wel—organizedandlexiblyfaccessibledomain sDecifcknowledgebase (2)Heuristicmethods (3)Meta-knowledge (4)Self-regulatory skils (5)Beliefs·

A well—organized and lexiblyf accessible domain specificknowledge basemeansthatstudentsoften possess

knowledge and skils they can notaccess nor use when necessary to solve a task or a problem·Acquiring a disposition toward skilled learning thinking and problem solving should help to overcome this well-nk own Dhenomenon ofinertnk owledge Therefore theintegrated mastery oftheivefcategoriesofaptitudesshouldresult in thedevelopmentofsensitivity foroccasionswhen itisappropriateto usethem and an lnclinationtodo so-

“Heuristicmethods”refersto thesystematicsearch strategiesin task analysisandtransformation· “Meta—knowledge” consists of meta—cognitive nk owledge and meta—volitional nk owledge Specifically

meta cognitive nk owledge is the nk owledge aboutone’s own cognitive functioning which in detailrefers to nk owing the strengths and weakn esses limitsofone’s cognitive capacitieson the one hand and kn owledge of strategies orfapproaching tasks on the other While meta-volitionalnk owledge is the nk owledge aboutone’s motivationandemotionsthatcan beused to deliberately improvevolitionalefi ciency

Cognitiveself-regulation refersto theskillsorfmonitoring and regulating one’sown cognitiveactivitiesna d processes It is a executive controlstructure thatorganizes na d guides learning and thinking processes This includes (1)Planningasolution (2)Monitoringanongoingsolution (3)Evaluatingndadebuggingasolution (4)

Reflecting ona solutionprocess

Epistemological“beliefs”havebeenfoundtoafectthedegreetowhichindividuals (1)Activelyengagein learning (2)Persistindifculttasks (3)comprehendwritenmaterial (4)Approachandcopewithlearningtasks

in complex and i11-structured domains

3 CulturalAwareness’PositiveEffecton Learner’sAttitudeand Motivation

Motivation is positively related to learners’classroom participation so as to reduce the dropout rate  According to Long atitudes and motivation is‘'potentially manipulable by teachers and materials designers”

(1996 515) that“high-interestmaterialsandage gender,andculture—appropriatemethodologymaybeexpected toafectatitudespositivelyandincreasestudentdesiretolearn”(Long 1996 515)

Study(Gardner,1988 citedinLong 1996)showsthatculturalbeliefafectsatitudesndamotivationby beingcapableofprovidingcountlessvery interestingstuf 0’Maly&Chamot(1996)arguebyciting(Parisnda Winograd)that‘strategieshavebeenlinkedtomotivationandparticularlytoasenseofself-eficacyleadingto positiveexpectationsoflearningsuccesses”(1996 528) Theyfurtherrgueahattoneofthediferencesbetween theefective and non—efective foreign language learnersison metacognitiveunderstanding oftask demands

(planning monitoringandevaluating) whichlateronleadstotheselectionandapplicationofmoreappropriate strategies(elaboration grouping inferencing summarizing questioning cooperationandself-talketc ) Tosome extent themetacognitveunderstanding(monitoringandevaluation)ofthetaskisbasedontheculturalawareness

AsSchnotz arguesthat‘‘deficits in metacognitive processing regulation often resultfrom the insufficientcriteria readersposessfortheevaluationoftheirowncomprehension” (1996 563)Withoutaculturalawareness one

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