Construction of Cultural Character of English Courses

Yang Changjun

Haikou College of Economics, Haikou, Hainan, 571127, China

Keywords: English Courses, Cultural Character, Construction, Instrumentality, Practicality.

Abstract: Course teaching actually plays an important role in daily teaching of school. Both the value and overall goal

of daily education are an important direction for the reform of current school course. English course is an

important object of teaching practice to adapt to the current frequent exchange between China and the

world, and the teaching of English course should focus on cultural character. However, past English course

teaching tends to emphasize its instrumentality and grammatical structures. Therefore, to train more

excellent overall talents, good cultural characters of English courses should be exerted for its construction

1 INTRODUCTION

Concerned about the changes in socio-economic

conditions, many countries have conducted course

innovation according to their own situations. They

explore and consider the goals, ideas and specific

methods of daily teaching. In this process, thinking

paradigms of course teaching have gradually

appeared. According to the actual development of

China's English course, although English course

construction in China has made some progress, it has

not achieved great breakthrough in theory and

practice. The fundamental reason is that in long time

of development and practice, English course in

China has narrow scope of study, especially without

innovation on English cultural characters. This leads

to the sluggish development of English teaching in

China. Therefore, the cultural character of English

course should be explored in depth for the rapid

development of China's English Teaching.

2 CULTURE AND THE

CULTURAL CHARACTER OF

ENGLISH COURSE

Culture is actually a complex phenomenon and

important achievement of human social

development. It is an important phenomenon

concerned by related academic researchers. Although

culture does not have the physical form, but its

influence is very profound. With certain regularity,

culture is the accumulation of a variety of related

ideas and beliefs in human society, and an important

means for the transformation of human society. It

expressed human’s emotions and desire with an

active function on human and society. Although the

culture between the East and West has some

differences, these differences will not affect people’s

cultural concerns.

2.1 Basic Characters of English Course

Teaching

English courses are actually the major one among

foreign language courses. English courses should

combine knowledge with practice of English

language. Besides, it is also important to feel English

culture concretely. Since the basic education stage,

English courses have two characters. On the one

hand, English course teaching has the character of

instrumentality; on the other hand, it also has the

cultural character. Based on specific analysis, the

teaching of English courses has several aspects of

characters.

Firstly, English Course has character of

fundamentality. English course teaching is especially

important for personnel training, which is the need of

diversified exchange in the entire society. It helps

develop student's character and sharpen their

individual will. In the 21st century, all countries have

entered the era of interdependence and blending, and

the whole planet has become a platform for mutual

connection. In 21st century, communication between

different countries is inseparable from English, so

fundamentality and instrumentality role of English is

very important. Only by mastering the language, can

the information be analyzed and processed based on

platform of mutual connection. In addition, English

194

Changjun Y.

Construction of Cultural Character of English Courses.

DOI: 10.5220/0006022001940197

In Proceedings of the Information Science and Management Engineer ing III (ISME 2015), pages 194-197

ISBN: 978-989-758-163-2

course also has the character of exchange, which is

the common character of all languages. However,

English courses in China have been emphasizing on

grammar analysis. Thus, students may have mastered

the English knowledge, but they are not able to

directly use the grammar for English exchange. So

for the teaching of English, traditional thinking

should be gradually abandoned. Traditional course

should be reformed, paying attention to the

importance of teaching communication skills in

English courses. The essence of language is cultural

characteristic, so communication should focus on the

excavation of culture essence to protect the practical

application of English, avoiding communication

barriers caused by English knowledge learning.

2.2 Theoretical Basis for the Cultural

Character of English Teaching

For courses with different content, cultures have

different expressive forces. From the perspective of

semiotics, cultural character of courses is an invisible

cultural symbol system. For native language

speakers, the cultural character of their mother

tongue has long-term influence on society, so they

are utilizing characters of their language daily but

unconsciously. Communication of language is a

conscious behavior. But as a foreign language,

English’s own culture characters cannot be easily

mastered by subjective perception. Foreign learners

do not have the main context, so they should

initiatively create the environment of speaking

English.

English Teaching requires theoretical support for

the development of cultural character. Course itself

is a learning process, so along with in-depth practice

and theoretical research of courses, English course

teaching should further form better inheritance. In

fact, English course is the regeneration of English

culture, so cultural analysis should be adopted to

make the course more attractive in the teaching

process. According to cultural reproduction and the

law of development, English course teaching should

be further explored to highlight the subjectivity of

culture in teaching process, manifesting both

knowledge of culture and cultural characters. Then in

the process of English teaching, some rigid and

inflexible situation can be avoided. Only by

combining teaching with daily life, can the cultural

character of English teaching be manifested.

In the past, English teaching in China showed the

state of instrumentality, which led to homogeneity

among English courses. A lot of efforts have been

made in written examination. Although such English

teaching cannot completely hide cultural characters

of language, it fails to contain more English culture.

Therefore, cultural regeneration should be used for

cultural characters of English teaching to avoid the

pure instrumentality of English Course.

3 CONSTRUCTION OF

CULTURAL

CHARACTERISTICS OF

ENGLISH COURSE

For any course with specific subjects in the field of

school education, it inevitably forms specific

characters because of their own disciplinary culture.

This is mainly determined by the core values of

course teaching. Therefore, course teaching in school

should exert the influence of culture, and these

aspects all have close link with cultures. English

teaching has its cultural characters, with certain

inherent characteristics. In order to really exert the

character of English courses, some characteristics

need to be focused and analyzed in the process of

constructing cultural characters, avoiding direct rote

of traditional language and culture theory.

3.1 Construction of Independent

Cultural Characters of English

Teaching

From a cultural point of view, if teaching of English

courses is only regarded as an instrument, then

English courses will gradually lose its vitality and

lead to some teaching deformities. For example,

traditional English course utilized examination as an

important baton, and all courses aim at training

abilities of knowledge and examination. Relevant

knowledge of English language courses is spread

through method of feeding, which cannot really exert

its cultural characters. Instead of relying on

examination-oriented education, English cultural

knowledge should be a language culture with

independent character. It is not a mechanical copy,

imitation or affiliate product of any culture.

Therefore, the independence of cultural character

should be regarded as subjective initiative

phenomenon in the process of teaching English

courses. The independence of English courses is

particularly important during the process of English

course development. English courses should be the

processing rather than substitution of English

language and cultural materials. The value of English

cultural character is reflected on its own subjective

initiative of human beings, emphasizing that

language learner is an independent theme, which is

also an important core of contemporary education

Construction of Cultural Character of English Courses

195

Construction of Cultural Character of English Courses

195

development. If the independent characters of

English course culture are not considered, it is very

difficult to reconstruct English courses, especially

for regression of English course cultural character.

3.2 Construction of Cultural Character

of English Teaching

In the past long period, English courses have been

used as an important instrument. Therefore, in order

to return to English courses based on cultural

characters, we need to take into account the

constructing characteristic of cultural character.

Once English is regarded as a pure instrument, the

development of English is just a static process. The

excavation of deep meaning of English courses

should not be static, but return to a dynamic state.

Both dynamic characteristic and the interaction

between students and teachers are important

foundation for construction of cultural character.

Besides, individual experience can be utilized to

explore relevant courses and knowledge in depth,

thus gradually forming a process of emancipation

and generation. Thus, the English culture courses

should not always follow the syllabus, but develop

according to English culture. In particular, relevant

course content should be adjusted based on

acceptance ability and level of learners. Cultural

construction character of English course determines

that rather than being an instrument, courses should

have some uncertainty, which can be accomplished

by English teachers. In construction of cultural

characters, teachers also need to truly regard students

as the center to construct a better English course,

thereby enriching the entire English language

courses and fully mobilizing the initiative of

students.

3.3 Construction of Practicality

Character in English Course

In the process of teaching, English courses should

also have character of practicality. English teaching

is to promote the communication of people, and

practice is the process of exerting personal initiative.

English courses should start from people’s practice.

Only that individuals show their initiative, can they

better participate in expression with language.

English cultural character should be implemented in

communication and expression practice of language.

English course teaching aims at enhancing students'

practical ability to communicate in English.

Common social practice mainly focuses on

transforming objective things. However, practicality

of English courses is to construct students’

ideological and cultivate students' comprehensive

literacy in language course teaching. Moreover, the

cultural characters of English course are mainly

reflected in the integration process of personal

humanities and language skills. Among these

characters, practicality indicates a kind of initiative

which helps students to actively learn and utilize

English in practice. Then students can really express

themselves in platform of English courses and

liberate their thinking ability for construction of their

English language structure. If English course only

focuses on imparting theoretical knowledge, then it

will lose its significance in teaching of English. Such

teaching method cannot really allow students to

actively participate in learning and show the

practicality character of English course teaching.

Therefore, practicality of English course is one of the

most important characters of teaching. Only if

English course is well conducted around this

character, can it promote the upgrading of students’

comprehensive literacy.

5 CONCLUSIONS

With the development of economic globalization, all

countries in the world gradually become closer in

economic, political and cultural cooperation, so it is

important to further examine the value of English

teaching. The purpose is to allow students to not only

use simple English verbal and translate written

English materials into Chinese, but also achieve

sustainable development with current diversified

values and cultures. These above factors will bring

important opportunities to the cultural character of

English course, but they also put forward new

development requirements on English teaching in

China. Therefore, the cultural character of English

courses teaching should be fully exerted. Under the

concept of “balance between education and

learning”, the initiative of both educators and

learners can improve China's English course,

eventually training more talents for socialism

construction and the great revival of the Chinese

nation.

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Construction of Cultural Character of English Courses

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