作者:校园英语杂志社 字数:2950 点击:

作者:李由由
  【Abstract】This paper aims to better understand the situation that how well the intercultural communicative competence in ELT is taught by Chinese teachers in different types of schools in Chinese mainland educational system. Nowadays, both students and teachers are aware language and culture should coexist in English learning class which means it is not only the word and grammar students are supposed to learn but also the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) which consists of the combination of language and culture skills. In order to see how much ICC is trained in China recently, this research is based on an interview with three English teachers in different types of school by asking them 4 detailed questions related to the research question. It is hoped this study will promote the development of ICC trainings among Chinese English learners.
  【Keywords】Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC); ELT in China. Teachers’ understanding of significance of ICC
  【作者簡介】李由由(1986.09-),女,河北廊坊人,中央财经大学,,教师,海外硕士生,研究方向:跨文化交际, 托福听口教师。
  All the teachers agree that culture teaching is very important, Quinn states: ‘I believe it is very important to teach culture in language teaching. Language is the tool to communicate therefore it would be meaningless without the culture foundation.’. Carol mentions: ‘Yes, definitely. I teach culture knowledge in class is not only because it is part of the textbook, but also I would like to increase their intercultural communicative competence’. Apple claims: ‘Culture issues are very important for my students in the IELTS and TOEFL readings. For example, if they do not understand Industrial Revolution, it is difficult for them to understand whether the author support or oppose it then to target the correct answer.’ Apart from this, there is one noticeable point by Quinn which indicates the fact that understanding of our own culture is as important as the knowledge of target culture in ICC. Quinn mentions: ‘It is better for us to learn our own culture first. If not, how can we communicate cross cultures without knowing our own cultures?. I also think Chinese culture is much longer than others so when we are having intercultural communication, it is the Chinese culture that our counterparts are more interested’. According to Valdes (1986, cited in Corbett, 2003); Byram, Gribkova and Starkey (2002) and Liddicoat (2009), our own culture plays an important role in ICC as well because we would realize the culture difference easier, whether our behaviors will be accepted in a culture-related context and better find appropriate topics to discuss after we are conscious of our own social behaviors, virtues or customs.